Tours | Categories (New, Hot) | Map
Alcohol - Ancient - Animal - Architecture - Art - Aviation - Boxing - Celebrity - Charity - Children - Church - Cinema - Comedy - Crime - Dance - Death - Disaster - Drugs - Fashion - Food - Gambling - Ghost - Grave - Health - Historical - Industry - Justice - LGBT - Literary - Look Up - Medical - Military - Motoring - Murder - Museum - Music - Nature - Naval - Paranormal - Pioneer - Poetry - Police - Politics - Pub - Public Amenities - Quirky - Religion - Retail - Ripper - River - Royalty - Science - Sculpture - Sex - Signs - Society - Sport - Subterranean - Technology - Theatre - Train - Transport - Tube - TV - Weather -
Contact Us
IN THE NEWS
TOUR OF THE MONTH
ON THIS DAY IN LONDON
29th May 1960 Born today: Adrian Paul, London England, actor (Dance to Win, Highlander)
29th May 1924 Pierre-Paul Cambon, French diplomat (Madrid/London), dies
29th May 1911 W.S. Gilbert of Gilbert & Sullivan fame, dies in his lake at Grims Dyke trying to save a girl.
Punch and Judy Birthplace
The birthplace in England of the Punch and Judy puppet show.
Location: St Pauls Portico, Westminster
Description: On the 9th May 1662 Samuel Pepys was coming back from visiting a nearby ale-house when he stopped to watch a puppet show that was performing in Covent Garden.
It was the month that King Charles II (recently restored to the throne) was getting married and hordes of entertainers from all over Europe had thronged to the city hoping to make some money.
The Italian puppet play that Pepys saw was presented by puppetmaster Pietro Gimonde - or 'Signor Bologna' as he was known to his audience - and starred one of the great comic characters of all time.
The star puppet came originally from Naples, where he was known as Pulcinella, then toured across Europe to France - where he was called Polichinelle - and finally came to captivate English audiences who settled for calling him Punchinello.
Pepys' diary entry for 9th May reporting that he had seen the show is taken by today's performers as marking Punch's 'birthday'.
Tagged in this Tour: Elizabethan & Stuart London
Children
Historical
Ranking This Month: 1060/2693
Pages Hit This Month: 111
Link to This Page: http://www.shadyoldlady.com/location/963
Credits: http://www.coventgardenlife.com/info/street_entertainers/punch_judy/punch_judy.htm
|
The birthplace in England of the Punch and Judy puppet show. |
The Shady Old Lady points out that you can drag this map using mouse. Or visit our full massive map.
St Paul's Cathedral
Wren's masterpiece and oldest classic dominant symbol of London.
2007-03-07
Colet Court: Home of Joseph», 6.2km
The Lyceum Theatre», 0.8km
Small Theatre, Big Heart», 2.6km
The First ever London Theatre», 1.1km
Finsbury Park Empire», 3.4km
Lepers, Beer, and Thespians», 1.3km
Noel Coward lived here», 2.6km
The Granville Theatre», 5.2km
The Palladium», 1.7km
Little Angel Theatre», 1.7km
mapping London's most interesting and unusual places and history
