Reading for enrichment

Read the texts below and use the information in the conversations of your own.

The City of London

Lord Mayor of London

The Mansion House, the official residence of the Lord Mayor, is in the City. Since the time of Richard Whittington, who was the Mayor of London in 1397, 1398, 1406, and in 1419, the election of a new Lord Mayor of London has been celebrated by a pageant, known as the Lord Mayor’s Show. This is held every year on November 9. On this day the new Lord Mayor rides through the streets of London in his splendid coach, drawn by six horses.

The procession starts in the City and goes past St. Paul’s Cathedral as far as the boundary of the City of Westminster. It crosses the boundary and stops at the Law Courts, where the Lord Mayor is presented to the Lord Chief Justice. The Mayor makes a solemn promise to carry out his duties faithfully, and the Lord Chief Justice hands the Mayor his sword of office. Then the procession continues to Westminster, and returns to the Mansion House, which is the Lord Mayor’s official residence.

Fleet Street

Fleet Street has been the meeting place for newspaper men since the 18^th century, when writers met to talk in its coffee-houses. And up to now Fleet Street is the Street of news.

Fleet Street is now the centre of journalists and newspaper men. Offices of most English daily and evening papers are situated in this street.

Fleet Street is the centre of Britain’s national newspapers. The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Express have their offices here, and The Times, The Guardian and many others are nearby.

Publishing houses of many big foreign newspapers are also there. Fleet Street is busy day and night. It is packed with vans, cars, motorcycles, newsboys every day between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. when the latest news is ready to go out all over the world.

St. Paul’s Cathedral

Everybody coming to London for the first time wants to see St. Paul’s Cathedral. This is the third cathedral with this name that London has had. The two others were burnt down, the first in 1086 and the second in 1666.

Christopher Wren was an architect who had already built many buildings. Now, in 1675, he started on his greatest work. For thirty-five years the building of St. Paul’s Cathedral went on, and Wren was an old man before it was finished.

From far away you can see the huge dome with a golden ball and a cross on the top. The inside of the cathedral is very beautiful. After looking around, you can climb 263 steps to the Whispering Gallery, above the library, which runs round the dome. It is called this because if someone whispers close to the wall on one side, a person with an ear close to the wall on the other side can hear what is said. Then, if you climb another 118 steps, you will be able to stand outside the dome and look over London.

But not only you can climb up, you can also go down underneath the cathedral, into the crypt. Here are buried many great men, including Christopher Wren himself, Nelson and others.