WEATHER

Done by: Daniel Arriaga Fuentes.

London has a fairly typical temperate climate. The warmest time of year is between July and September with the highest recorded temperature of over 38°C seen in August 2003.
The rest of the year, weather can vary dramatically and change at the drop of a hat. It is not unusual to see rain in June and is advisable to carry an umbrella at all times in April.
The reputation of London is of a grey, rainy climate, but in reality has been far from it in recent years. Mainly attributed to global warming, it is more likely to see a drought in London these days, with locals regularly being banned from using garden hoses in summer months.
The winter rarely sees snow, but when it does all London slows to a halt. It can get windy and very cold, at which point is is common to see the pubs at their busiest, particularly those with open fires.
London and the South East have one of the mildest climates in UK, but the weather can be unpredictable. Londoners get used to carrying both an umbrella and sunglasses to be prepared for all eventualities!
Summer Weather
Summer can be very pleasant with temperatures averaging 18°C (64°F) and often into the low 20s. In recent years London has experienced heatwaves with temperatures well above 30°C (86°F).

The weather's been very crisp (Primrose Hill's grass was frozen) but mostly dry.. In the summertime you can't see the buildings through all the leaves!

Spring and Autumn Weather
Spring and autumn see temperatures of around 11° to 15°C (52 to 59°F). Evenings are lighter for longer with the advent of British Summer Time at the end of March (until end October).
Winter Weather
Typical temperatures for winter are between 2 and 6°C (36 to 43°F). Temperatures don't often drop below freezing and snow isn't common – although February 2007 London experienced a couple of days of snowfall and an army of snowmen popped up all over the city!

Rainfall in London
The number of rainy days (with more than 0.25mm of rainfall) is fairly consistent throughout the year, with between 11 and 15 rainy days every month. Overall rainfall is highest in November and August (64 mm and 59mm respectively) and is lowest in March and April (37mm each).

This morning, it rained. Then it was sunny. Then it rained. Then it was cloudy. Then the sun came out

http://www.londonphotos.org/archives/cat_weather.html
http://www.london33.com/weather.php
http://212.188.131.139/travel/weather

UNICORN THEATRE

Done by: Daniel Arriaga Fuentes.


Totally new theatres in Britain are rare, and good ones rarer still. As for good examples for children, two have come along at once: the Egg theatre in Bath by Haworth Tompkins, inserted into a historic building, and this all-new one by architect Keith Williams. It is more ambitious, the accomplishment of the dream of a national theatre for children, as envisaged by Unicorn's founder Caryl Jenner back in 1960. She had already been on the road since 1947, having started out back then touring productions in a second-hand Bedford civil defence truck. Later the company settled in London's Arts Theatre, only to be kicked out after several years when the place was sold. Having abandoned plans to build for themselves in the mid 1970s, the idea was revived in the National Lottery era.
So this was a matter both of re-imagining theatre from the ground up, and of seeing it through the eyes of children. Not the easiest of architectural challenges: but Williams, who won the competition for the building, has managed it. To report that it does not feel remotely kiddified is high praise: Williams has ingeniously made a place that does not play down to any particular age group. It is sophisticated in an entirely grown-up way.
The Unicorn Theatre is a modernist tower house or enchanted castle, with the copper-clad auditorium perched up in the air and a thoroughly dramatic glass-clad foyer rising dizzyingly high, backed by a stack of concrete and glass balconies looking right down Tooley Street towards London Bridge. This is a building that (courtesy of engineers Arup) quietly deploys structural gymnastics to achieve Williams' architectural effects. Using horizontal cantilevers rather than vertical columns, everything seems to hover. There are no columns to get in the way of anything, in the foyer or the auditorium.


The foyer, a grand L-shaped affair, gives you the sense of arriving somewhere glamorous. The walnut stairs and their balconies provide an intriguing interlude as you spiral up and up. And the main 340-seat Weston auditorium is as intense a space as any conventional layout can be. The elliptical seating in the stalls is overlaid by a circle level that is indeed geometrically circular. The auditorium is excellent acoustically and visually.
Some architects emerge onto the scene with claps of thunder, puffs of smoke and carefully contrived manifesto positions. Others acknowledge that architecture is a hard thing to engage with and that it takes time to develop an authoritative voice. Williams is of the latter school. Quietly, competition win by competition win, he is building up a portfolio of increasingly assured high-modern buildings, each an exercise in the art of tectonics. Williams set up in practice on his own only in 2001 and has an increasingly international workload. Like Caruso St. John, he is considerably more than just another New Modern, as the composition of the Unicorn demonstrates.
The Unicorn is the UK’s flagship theatre for young people. Unicorn theatre is located on the south bank of the Thames, close to Tower Bridge and a short walk from London Bridge station.
As well as creating their own productions, the unicorn theatre host visits by some of the UK and World’s other great theatre companies for young people. Since opening in December 2005, their international guests have come from Sweden, Denmark, Italy, The Netherlands, South Africa and Japan.
the unicorn theatre stage over 620 performances a year as well as a wide range of special events, workshops and other theatre activities. It also have an extensive Education programme, which works with visiting schools and local young people.

How to get here
By Underground:
London Bridge : Northern (Bank branch) and Jubilee Lines. Lifts available. Use the Duke Street Hill exit at London Bridge , and follow the signs to Unicorn Theatre. Distance: approximately 700 metres. Tower Hill: Circle & District and DLR (Tower Gateway). Cross the Tower bridge and follow the signs to Unicorn Theatre. Tower Hill station does not have lifts, but Tower Gateway does. Distance: approximately 1,300 metres.
By Bus:
47, RV1 (low floor, wheelchair accessible), 381. Buses to London Bridge: 17, 21, 35, 40, 43, 48, 133, 141, 149, 343, 521, 705. Buses to Tower Hill: 15, 42, 78 (low floor, wheelchair accessible).
By Car:
Tooley Street is a red route and there is no parking available at the theatre itself. the nearest car park is the NCP at the junction of Snowsfields and Kipling Street nearby (approximately 600 metres). For disabled badge holders, there are limited parking bays on Tooley Street, for up to 3 hours between 10am and 4pm, or there are four bays for disabled badge holders at the NCP Snowsfields. Patrons can be dropped off outside the theatre.
By Coach:
Groups can be dropped off outside Southwark Crown Court,on English Grounds just off Battlebridge Road. To reach the theatre from the Court, follow the signs to Unicorn Theatre. No waiting - coaches can only pick up and drop off here.
By Train:
London Bridge is the nearest railway station.


http://www.unicorntheatre.com/about_us
http://www.hughpearman.com/articles5/unicorn.html
http://www.unicorntheatre.com/visiting_us/getting_here

SIR JOHN SOANE’S MUSEUM

Done by: Daniel Arriaga Fuentes.
The History of Sir John Soane's Museum
The architect Sir John Soane's house, museum and library at No. 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields has been a public museum since the early 19th century. Soane demolished and rebuilt three houses in succession on the north side of Lincoln's Inn Fields, beginning with No. 12 between 1792 and 1794, moving on to No. 13, re-built in two phases in 1808-9 and 1812, and concluding with No. 14, rebuilt in 1823-24.
On his appointment as Professor of Architecture at the Royal Academy in 1806 Soane began to arrange the Books, casts and models in order that the students might have the benefit of easy access to them and proposed opening his house for the use of the Royal Academy students the day before and the day after each of his lectures. By 1827, when John Britton published the first description of the Museum, Soane's collection was being referred to as an 'Academy of Architecture'.
In 1833 Soane negotiated an Act of Parliament to settle and preserve the house and collection for the benefit of 'amateurs and students' in architecture, painting and sculpture. On his death in 1837 the Act came into force, vesting the Museum in a board of Trustees who were to continue to uphold Soane's own aims and objectives. A crucial part of their brief was to maintain the fabric of the Museum, keeping it 'as nearly as circumstances will admit in the state' in which it was left at the time of Soane's death in 1837 and to allow free access for students and the public to 'consult, inspect and benefit' from the collections. Since 1837, each successive Curator has sought to preserve and maintain Soane's arrangements as he wished. However, over the years changes have been made and the recent Five-Year Restoration programme sought to restore Soane's arrangements and effects where they had been lost.


Visitor Information:
Location: 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, WC2A 3BP



Sir John Soane's Museum is open free: Tuesday to Saturday, 10am - 5pm (last entry time is 4:30pm).There is a special candlelit opening on the first Tuesday evening of each month, 6pm - 9 pm (last entry for this is 8:30pm). Visitor numbers are generally high on these evenings and there is frequently a queue to enter the Museum.
Closed Sunday, Monday, Bank holidays, Christmas Eve and Good Friday.
The museum is just a short walk from Holborn Tube Station on the Central Line.


Visiting the Museum
Tickets cannot be booked in advance; it is difficult to advise the best time to visit as it is impossible to predict visitor numbers in adavnce.
Group visits
The Museum welcomes visits from groups of all kinds but, in order to allow all our visitors to enjoy the Museum as we would wish, we need to ask for your co-operation in the following ways.
Please contact us in advance to make an appointment. This can be done in writing, by telephone, fax or email. We recommend that you give us at least four weeks notice to enable us the give you the date and the time you request. It is not usually possible for groups to visit on Wednesday, all day, or Thursday mornings as those are the times set aside for groups from primary schools under the museum's programme for Children's Education.
We can accommodate up to 20 people at any one time and any groups over this size should be divided into two or more smaller groups with separate appointments of at least one and a half hours in between. Students, schoolchildren younger than 18 must be well supervised and each group must be accompanied by at least 2 adults, preferably 3.
You may ask your own guide or lecturer to address the group on arrival at the Museum in the Library-Dining Room, but we ask you not to gather in large groups elsewhere in the Museum in order that our other visitors are not inconvenienced.
Unfortunately large bags cannot be accommodated at the Museum - we cannot allow them to be taken around the Museum and space is very limited for storage. Smaller bags may be left with the warder at the Front Door.
Entrance to the Museum is free but the Museum badly needs money and we do very much appreciate donations to our Conservation Fund. In particular,the museum would be grateful for a donation of £50 from each group to cover administrative costs and to assist the Museum by contributing to its limited resources.
Queuing
Visitor numbers at the Museum are currently very high. Owing to the delicate nature of the building and the exposed collections it is important that we limit the number of people in the Museum at any one time. These restrictions sometimes lead to queues forming, particularly on Saturdays. To avoid queuing (waiting times can be up to 1 hour) please make your visit as early as possible (the Museum opens at 10am).
Parking
There are no private parking spaces available for Museum visitors. However, a number of pay-and-display bays and disabled parking bays are located in the square. Parking control extends to Saturdays.
Unfortunately we cannot accomodate prams or pushchairs in the Musuem. They can be left in the porch by the entrance if there is space, and at the owner's risk.
Disabled Access
The Museum has limited disabled access. Wheelchair uses should telephone in advance for advice.
Where to eat locally
The is no café in the Museum but there are many good places to eat close by. There are a number of cafés and restaurants on Kingsway and High Holborn (2 minutes away) and picnics can be eaten in Lincoln's Inn Fields (one of the oldest and largest garden squares in London). Museum staff can give directions and advice about where to eat locally
WCs
There are two WCs in basement of the Museum
The Collections
Sir John Soane's Museum comprises his collections and personal effects, acquired between the 1780s and his death in 1837.
* Egyptian and Classical Antiquities
* Medieval Antiquities
* Renaissance Antiquities
* 17th and 18th-Century Sculpture
* Neo-Classical Sculpture
* Casts
* Oriental Objects
* Timepieces
* Furniture
* Stained Glass
* Paintings
* Picture Frames
* Building Fabric



http://www.soane.org/history.html
http://www.soane.org/map.html
http://www.soane.org/collections.html