How Was The London Flat, You Ask?

I'm so glad you asked!

The flat was fabulous. It was as big as the entire first floor of our house. I thought it was every bit as lovely as the pictures. The rest of the family thought it was even better than the pictures.

Yes, if you stand on the balcony and look upriver, that is indeed the view.

Yes, if you stand on the balcony and look straight down (at high tide) you see water and ducks and swans under your feet.

Bermondsey (where the flat is) has a rich history--while walking to the Mayflower pub, we came across the remains of Edward III's moated manor house. Just sitting there.

Bermondsey is part of the borough of Southwark, which is just south of The City of London, across the London Bridge, and was the location of the playhouses, animal baiting rings, brothels and other entertainments banned in the City proper. Shakespeare probably lived here, Chaucer's pilgrims left from the Tabard Inn which was here, Dickens lived here...as I said, very historic.

The trouble? How the hell do you pronounce "Southwark?" I tried the logical "South-wark" and the driver who brought us from the airport nearly choked with laughter. He pronounced it for me, and I kept hearing it as "Suv-vurk." Mr. Sweetie finally took pity on me and parsed it out for me: "Suth" like the first syllable of "southern", and "urk"--Suthurk.

Which raises the question of why? Why have all those extra letters in all those words if they aren't going to pron0unce them? "Suthurk" is less ridiculous than the pronounciation of "Worcestershire"--"Wooster." Applied to the works of P.G. Wodehouse, "Lord Blicester" becomes "Lord Blister."

I think it has to do with Edward I, who made a point of conquering the Welsh. He killed their soldiers, built lots and lots of castles to show them who was boss, and stole most of the letters from their alphabet, leaving them to spell things like "I am true to my country" as "PLEIDIOL WYF I'M GWLAD."