Streets Ahead is the occasional column from London Walks' Pen David Tucker…
Ok New York, try to top this.
(Or, if you prefer, substitute [for New York] Beijing or Berlin or Moscow or Paris or Rome. Or for that matter, the "shining City of the Torch", the Vatican of all things athletic, the I.O.C.)
Go on, try and top this: God created the world in Lincoln's Inn. In London.
On October 23, 4004 BC.
Okay, "He" created it in the head of a prominent Stuart cleric. In Lincoln's Inn in the late 1640s. (Lincoln's Inn was where said fons et origo cleric was roosting at the time.)
And on that note, well, take a bow, Archbishop James Ussher, expert on bible chronology, who "proved" that God, er, ushered in the world on October 23, 4004. The Archbishop's starting premise was, of course, ludicrous. But experts say that if you accept his starting premise, the scholarship is impeccable.
So, yup, it's yet another feather (of sorts) in London's cap. The defence of Creationism - which something like 80 million Americans buy into - got started in London. Like just about everything else.
One slight complicating factor for the proof, though, is another "piece on the board" at Lincoln's Inn. You have to know exactly where to look to see it, but it's a complete hoot when it does finally come into your purview.
It's a 160-million-year-old turd. Fossilised. They're not sure whether it was a dinosaur's turd or a mammal's. What is beyond dispute - casting a wary eye over the thing is all the proof you'll need - is that the evacuator would have wept tears of joy for the assistance of some Ex-Lax or Preparation H.
Final thought: London practically owns that Medals Table for Important Stuff That Got Started Here. Gold Medal after Gold Medal has got London's name inscribed on it.
And top of the Medals Table, surely, is God creating the world here.
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