Tea has become a symbol of Englishness to people who have never visited. Foreigners who love England will always mention tea while those who do not will never do so. Tea drinking is linked in the foreigners mind with the ideals of fair play and sportsmanship. It is hard to conceive of a tea drinker ever being rude or aggressive  and Americans often seem a little disappointed that many of us drink at Starbucks. This is rather odd.

The English are a strange people. On the one hand we  just love to run other peoples countries but we do it as a hobby. We are not willing to shoot civilians or plunder nations as any ‘proper’ empire would do. This means that English colonialists were always very polite to those they conquered.  The British Empire existed before Starbucks so the empire was built on tea. All the values that we associate with tea (modesty, good manners, moderation and respect) are the public face of the British Empire.

NB The pictures are of my favorite teas of the moment. Spiced Chai, and Moroccan mint. Delicious.

This is neither a tree not a traffic light.

The houses are painted and the wooden furnature is carved to look like animals.

This is not a ship.

This is not the countryside it is the Richmond area of London.

This is not China.

Would you have guessed you were in London?

Lunar clocks.

Sundials

Moondials

Left handed clocks were the hands move backwards.

Clocks that are disguised as buildings and monuments..

Clocks powered by the rotation of the earth (I am not sure if this is the London example)

The Greenwich meridian which grandly calls itself ‘the home of time’.

Where imaginary lines are marked out by laser beams.

All time and map references converge on this point- unless you are French.

Musical clocks, heat clocks, expansion clocks, thousand-year clocks, rainwater clocks and just plain wrong clocks. Just look…

Churches with no doors, no windows, no seats and no sermons.

St Brides, the wedding cake church. The cakes are modeled on the church not the other way around.

Churches containing tents.

Churches containing human mummies.

Churches of the dead.

Churches where Horses are blessed.

Churches where aeroplanes are blessed. The RAF have their own church in London. The statues are of the second world war heads of bomber and fighter command.

A few years ago I took a part-time job, working from ten until around half past two. I thought that I would fulfil my ambition of seeing the greatest city on earth.I worked hard on this ambition. I would visit some quirky place each morning and a major gallery or museum each afternoon. I did this for nearly two years and never repeated myself.

Most of all I just walked and learned to see what is there. This is a rare skill simply seeing what is in front of ones eyes.The more I saw, the more I wanted to see. London became a drug to me. I learned the history of the city, I learned a little about art. I visited two hundred galleries!

Not all art moved me. Some left me depressed and empty yet the good art was worth the bad. Even after all this time the sheer variety of what is available makes my head spin.I learned to walk with my eyes open and follow my nose where it would go. I would ask London to show me whatever it had and the city would open out to me like a flower. One day I decided to put London to the test.  I asked for underground rivers, I asked for mystery. I asked for strange beasts. (I guess I was in a Gothic Horror mood.) It was my day off. I had a good pair of walking boots, some fruit juice and all day ahead of me.

I did not direct my feet. I followed whatever seemed interesting. Most people do not look up or down and as a result all they see is traffic and pedestrians. I looked up and noticed that London was full of gargoyles! They grinned down at me from roofs and doorways everywhere I went! Most people do not notice them and up until that point I had not done so either.

Right! I said! These are the strange beasts I asked for!The other thing that most people do not do is take the rat runs. These often look rather sinister and seem to take you to another century. I have never found a dull alleyway yet!

I was looking around myself and wondering about underground rivers and then I realised I was just off of Fleet Street and the river Fleet was running beneath my feet.

Oh well I had hoped to see an underground river but this would do. I finished the day in the knowledge that London had given me almost everything I had asked of it. I had discovered a city of sinister gothic beauty that I hardly knew existed simply because I had opened myself to it. The statues of monsters and dragons had always been there but normally I ignored them. I had even found my underground river and finished the day at the Templars Church (which was in the Di Vinci code).

Of course, I know that London is only a city but it can show you anything you wish to discover if you are open to the experience.

• Lean English using the Callan method (the fastest way for most people to become fluent).
• Discover the hidden (and free!) London that most people do not see.