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
6th December 1943 Born today: Mike Smith, London Engld, rocker/pianist (Dave Clark 5-Glad All Over)
6th December 1892 Born today: F Osbert S Sitwell, London, poet/writer (Out of the Flame)
6th December 1883 Harrods original shop burns down, forcing the build of a much larger shop.
6th December 1817 William Bligh, who suffered mutiny on HMS Bounty, passed away in Bond Street, London.
6th December 1769 Silk cutters Doyle and Valline were hanged for inciting rioting in Bethnal Green
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: 1435/2812
Pages Hit This Month: 14
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
Thesp Alastair Sim lived here», 4.5km
The Rose Theatre», 0.4km
Royalty House & Theatre», 1.4km
Sir John Gielgud lived here», 1.6km
Magician David Devant lived here», 3.9km
The Granville Theatre», 5.2km
The Palladium», 1.7km
The Royal Court Theatre», 2.8km
The Gielgud Theatre», 1.4km
Clown Joseph Grimaldi lived here», 0.9km
mapping London's most interesting and unusual places and history
