The concept behind cybertours is quite simple: a guide book text written to be used in conjunction with Google imagery. You use the Google co-ordinates I supply to drop into a London street and then the guide supplies detailed information about the area as you move your browser through it.
Think of it as reading from a guide book as you walk through an art gallery, being directed from one interesting scene to another with all the information at your finger tips that you need to appreciate the finer details.
The great advantage is that you can be a tourist in London for a dollar without even leaving home. No rush, no fuss, and you'll get to visit parts of the city which are quite off the normal tourist tracks. But never think they're not interesting. Every major street in London has some fascinating stories to tell and now you can see and read them together online
The best way to show you what I'm talking about is to pick a block of text at random and let you make your own judgement:-
"As you come out onto the Circus, the first street you'll see on the left is a quiet, shady little lane with a row of trees down one side and a NatWest bank on the corner. The lane is called Hatton Garden and there are more precious stones, diamonds and jewellery bought and sold down here each day than Aladdin ever dreamed of stashing away in his cave. This area has been the centre of the London diamond trade since medieval times. But who was Hatton and what has his garden to do with anything?
Actually, it wasn't his garden, not to begin with, and this was another case of a Queen's favourite, in this instance the Queen being Elizabeth the First. The favourite was Christopher Hatton, best described as a professional courtier. A very wily and clever one: he was in almost daily contact with Elizabeth for over twenty years and remained one of her most favoured and trusted advisors. If you can imagine the sort of man who could make Margaret Thatcher purr with pleasure whenever he entered her office, and do it for two decades, it gives some sense of Hatton's ability to deal with the female of the species -- even the most bad tempered and unpredictable ones.
His first mark of Royal favour was when he was made Captain of the Queen's bodyguard in 1572. He was 32 then to Elizabeth's 39: a handsome, accomplished, witty fellow noted for his excellent dancing, and there were some scurrilous rumours about exactly how closely he guarded the body put in his charge.
Whatever their truth, to think of Hatton as a Royal toy boy would be completely wrong. He would never have become a member of the Privy Council and made the Lord Chancellor without much better reasons than that, appointments he handled with quiet good judgement and a remarkable degree of religious tolerance. But his greatest service to the crown was as Elizabeth's spokesman in the often unruly House of Commons. His eloquent speeches deeply impressed MP's and his loyalty to the Queen absolute.
Hatton must also have been a man's man. He was a close friend of Francis Drake, so much so that during the first circumnavigation of the world by an English sailor Drake renamed his ship the "Golden Hind", after the insignia on the Hatton coat of arms. Christopher had invested in Drake's enterprise and must have been delighted when the weather beaten ship decorated with his family's badge limped into Plymouth harbour, the world left in its wake and carrying a fortune in looted Spanish gold.
Even before that stroke of good fortune Hatton had received a most valuable gift from his gracious sovereign. Though, Elizabeth being Elizabeth, it wasn't a gift of her own property but one forcibly donated by one of her subjects. In this case the said unfortunate subject was Bishop Cox, prelate of the Diocese of Ely and proud occupier of Ely Palace."
DOWNLOAD CYBERTOURS: WALKING HIGH HOLBORN. LONDON (CYBERTOURS: WALKING LONDON 2) - ALAN BURNHAM
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