Cranes everywhere in London, renovation and new construction projects abound. Both large transportation projects (transit stations being redone) and huge building projects (like the new 55 story office building pictured below for Shard which will be the tallest building in the London).

It appears the 2012 Olympics helps spur lots of this work. On the quite entertaining Big Bus Tour ride, the commentator explained how London will be the first city to host the modern era Olympics three times. In 1900, when all the judges were British and England seemed to win an inordinate amount of medals. Then in 1944 the Olympics were slated for London, but cancelled due to WWII.

The 1948 Olympics were held in London instead, even though England was virtually bankrupt and the much of the city had be leveled by bombs. They called it the “Austerity Olympics” because of those facts. Instead of an Olympic Village, the athletes stayed with local families, being asked to bring their own bedding and towels. England ran out of food to feed the athletes part way through the Games. France and USA sent rations to tide them over. Perhaps with the current financial crisis we should be thinking about that kind of efficiency and cooperation.

I think if Winston Churchill were alive, he’d be leading us in that direction. Speaking of Churchill, we learned that he adamantly opposed the idea of having a statue of himself in any of the London parks. He repeated stated that he didn’t want a bunch of pigeons crapping on his head for eternity…or words to that affect. Turns out there is only one statue of Churchill, and the builders put an electric current running through the head to shock any pigeons that may have defecating ideas. Oh those British.

Speaking of British leaders, check out the suit of armor made especially for King Henry 8th. Pay particular attention to the area where the legs meet the torso.

Perhaps that explains all the wives.

Finally, the story of Frank Beck, an electrician in the subway in the 1930s, touched me. He didn’t think the subway maps of the day were particularly clear and developed his own graphic.

His map, which resembles a wiring diagram, became the standard method to map subways all over the world. The transit authority gave him 5 pounds.