Highgate Cemetery and Karl Marx

This picture shows the original grave where Karl Marx was buried together with other four people including his wife Jenny von Westphalen, their grandson Harry Longuet, their housekeeper Helena Demuth and one of their daughters Eleanor Marx.

This great philosopher, sociologist, economist and revolutionary socialist died on the 14th of March, 1883, only 15 months after his wife's death. Eleven people attended to his funeral, which took place on the 17th in the Highgate Cemetery. 

Michael Jackson's Statue

This glove belongs to Michael Jackson's Statue. The sculpture is 2.3 metres high and it is made of resin and plaster.

Mohamed Al Fayed, who was a friend of the artist, commissioned the figure after Michael's death with the idea of placing it in Harrods. But in 2010, Al Fayed sold the iconic department store to Qatar Holdings for £1.5bn. The Qatari family refused to install the statue in their mall, so Michael Jackson sculpture was finally placed outside Craven Cottage, the Fulham Football Club stadium, on the 3rd of April, 2011.

The acceptation of the statue was very negative but the truth is that, as time went by, it was accepted as an important part of Craven Cottage.

The Institute of Sexology

In this photograph, taken in the late 1920s, we can see a nurse next to the Marie Stopes birth control clinic. Marie Charlotte Carmichael Stopes was a British author, palaeobotanist, academic, eugenicist, campaigner for women's rights and pioneer in the field of birth control. 

This picture, property of the Wellcome Library, is part of the exhibition The Institute of Sexology. This unique exposition will be at the Wellcome Collection until the 20th of September, 2015.

'The Institute of Sexology' brings together the pioneers of the study of sex through films, photographs, sculptures, archives and sexual instruments.

Besides this picture of Marie Stopes, the show collects some works and objects from Magnus Hirschfeld, Sigmund Freud, Margaret Mead, Virginia Johnson or Richard von Krafft-Ebing, among others.

Undress your mind and explore how sex was observed and analysed, since the 19th century, from different points of view as perversion, sadomasochism or homosexuality.

Scotland says NO

4.2 million Scottish voters have decided to stay part of the United Kingdom. A 55.3% of the voters have said No, while a 44.7% of the electors wanted Scotland to become an Independent Nation. 

The poll is over and the decision was taken, but the Government have to still solve the problem. An alarming rate, almost half of the population, doesn't feel identified with the UK. 

So today it is the best day to launch this new quiz. Where is it?

Books about Town

It is great to always have a good book in your hands. Also, in summer, what can be better than enjoying the sun and the city while you delight yourself with a wonderful reading?

The wind in the willows. Kenneth Grahame

The National Literacy Trust, to celebrate London's literary heritage and encourage reading, has scattered 50 book benches all over the Capital. These masterpieces will be displayed until the 15th of September and they will be auctioned on the 7th of October at the Southbank Centre.

Each bench has been designed by a different artist and they are all dedicated to books, authors or characters. 

If you want to see all of them you should follow the four trails around The City, Greenwich, Riverside and Bloomsbury. The organization has also planned performances, book giveaways, quizzes and more events.

The Banksy Tunnel

Located under the platforms of Waterloo station, in Leake Street, is the Banksy Tunnel. An authorised graffiti area that turns the street every day in a different exposition with new projects and artwork. A great opportunity for the street artists to practise, while you can get the chance to see them in action.  

But this project could not be possible without Banksy, the Bristol artist who stirred up a new way to do art.

The Cans Festival took place in this same scenario from the 3rd to the 5th of May, 2008. Dozens of artists coming from all over the world, invited by Banksy, covered all the tunnel with innovative murals. Images of Madonna, Boris Johnson, the Queen, Britney Spears, etc, were removed after the event. But still now, this area it's a free place to create.

Paul Julius Reuter

Robert the Engine

This is the 0-6-0 saddle tank locomotive, works number 2068, named Robert. It was built in 1933 by the Avonside Engine Company, a builder of industrial locomotives established in Avon Street, Bristol, between 1864 and 1934. It was used at the Lamport Ironstone Mines Railway in Northamptonshire.

"After the railway closed in 1969, Robert worked on a number of heritage railways before being acquired by the London Docklands Development Corporation as an example of a twentieth century industrial steam locomotive and it was displayed at the site of the former Beckton Gas Works, once the largest producer of 'Town Gas' in Europe".

The London Borough of Newham bought Robert in 2000 and they moved the 80-years-old steam-locomotive in front of Stratford Station. Eight years later, it was shunted off to the East Anglian Railway Museum at Chappel and Wakes Colne, near Colchester, where it was cleaned and repainted.

Tottenham Court Road Station

This picture, taken in Tottenham Court Road Station, represents a small part of one of the 1000 square metres of mosaic designed by Sir Eduardo Paolozzi.

Abbey Road

Abbey Road, the 11th studio album released by The Beatles, was consider by the critics as the band's best work and one of the best albums of the History. 

But Abbey Road is much more than that. Located in the borough of Camden and the City of Westminster, it is one of the most famous streets in London. The Abbey Road Studios, before known as EMI Studios, has become centre of pilgrimage for the fans of the Beatles.

St Mary's Hospital

We can find this relief in the main entrance of St Mary's Hospital. The centre, situated in Paddington, was founded in 1845 but opened its doors to patients in 1851. It's famous because of two important discoveries: 

C. R. Alder Wright, while he was working at St. Mary's Hospital Medical School, was the first person to synthesize diacetylmorphine in 1874. Wright's invention became popular only after it was independently re-synthesized by Felix Hoffmann twenty four years later. That year, Bayer marketed this new medicine under the name "heroin", few days after launching the aspirin. The drug was used as a sedative for coughs and as a substitute for morphine.

Thomas Becket

Near this spot, in Cheapside, Thomas Becket was born on the 21st of December, 1118 .

Saint Bartholomew-the-Less

This palm is situated in the floor of Saint Bartholomew-the-Less. It's in the heart of London, between St Paul, Barbican and Farringdon. St Bartholomew-the-Less, which have this suffix to distinguish it from St Bartholomew the Great, is located in the Henry VIII Gate entrance to St Bartholomew Hospital.