Eye on London - St. Patrick's Day

Monday March 13^th 2017
Food and Drink

London from the inside Monday 13th - Sunday 19th March 2017

This Friday we’ll be turning green, not with envy, but for St Patrick’s Day. There’s big celebrations across the capital and the world, and the best news is that this year it falls on a Friday meaning St Patrick’s Day = St Patrick’s weekend. If that wasn’t enough of an excuse to wet your whistle, it’s also London Beer Week!

ST PADDY’S CELEBRATIONS IN LONDON

Whiskey and a Jar, An Irish Craft Booze Tasting, Tuesday at The Crown and Shuttle, Shoreditch
Irish Music and Poetry on the Tube, Friday at a variety of times at Victoria, Waterloo, Tottenham Court Road and Covent Garden Tube stations
Father Ted-a-thon, Friday at The Grand, Clapham
Guinness x LBW St Patrick’s Day Party, Friday, The Pickle Factory, E2
Free Irish Walking Tours, one a day Friday to Sunday at 2pm starting from Nelson’s Column (Friday), Camden Tube - Kentish Town Rd exit (Saturday) and St Paul’s Cathedral steps (Sunday)
St Patrick’s Film Festival, Friday-Sunday, various locations
St Patrick’s Day at Camden Market, Saturday
St Patrick’s Day Parade, Sunday starting at 12pm in Piccadilly
St Patrick’s Day Festival, Sunday in Trafalgar Square
Irish Art Exhibition, until 31st March at City Hall

FIVE OF THE BEST IRISH PUBS IN LONDON

The best places in London to get a dram of whisky, a pint of the black stuff and some good craic.

1. The Toucan, Soho

2. Blythe Hill Tavern, Forest Hill

3. Tir Na Nog, Wandsworth

4. The Faltering Fullback, Finsbury Park

5. Waxy O’Connors, Leicester Square

ST PADDY’S AROUND THE WORLD

Dublin is the hive of St Patrick’s Day activity with a huge parade going through the city as well as many other events.
St Patrick is also the patron saint of Nigeria which might go some way to explaining their love of Guinness.
The river Vilnele in Lithuania and the Chicago River, USA are dyed green to celebrate the day.
The Spinx, Sydney Opera House, Burj Al Arab and Christ the Redeemer all light up green to show their support.

EYE ON… HAVERING

There are 32 capsules on The Coca-Cola London Eye, representing the 32 London boroughs, so each week we explore a different London borough.

Havering is the borough that lies the furthest east and goes down to the London Riverside and the redevelopment area of the Thames Gateway. The main town is Romford and it is also home to Hornchurch, Rainham and the end of the District line, Upminster.

In 1709, the Rector of Upminster was one of the first people to measure the speed of sound with triangulation. He watched with a telescope from the church of St Laurence in Upminster (and then from various other locations) the flash of a shotgun and used a half second pendulum to measure the time until he heard the gunshot.

For more sounds from Havering, you can see dance duo Underworld (from Romford) at Ally Pally on St Patrick’s Day.

ON THIS DAY… 17th March 1984

The 130th boat race between Oxford and Cambridge is postponed less than an hour before it was due to start after the Cambridge boat crashed into a barge in Putney and sank. The 2017 race is on Sunday 2nd April.