London Bridge Is Falling Down by Christopher Fowler

Author:Christopher Fowler [Fowler, Christopher]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery
ISBN: 9781473591721
Google: si0JEAAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 55923072
Publisher: Transworld
Published: 2021-07-22T00:00:00+00:00

27

Guarded by Dragons

Rita Rondola had tied her hair above her head in a gravity-defying ball and added another pair of gigantic hoop earrings. She motored along Piccadilly, across into Knightsbridge, past Harrods and the Victoria & Albert Museum, up Exhibition Road and on to the forecourt of the neo-Palladian Institute of Historic London Studies in Bayswater.

‘I’m going for the breakfast,’ she warned, tucking her encyclopaedia under her arm as she waited for her passengers to alight. ‘I am on “Amyotrophia: progressive wasting of muscle tissue”. I want to see what happens, is very exciting. Call me when you are done.’

If Bryant seemed incapable of manoeuvring an umbrella, a walking stick and his leather satchel out of a taxi, he had even more fun with the institute’s glass revolving door.

Elizabeth Montague was waiting for them in the reception area. Tall and assured, she reminded Bryant of a seventies tie-dye militant. Her copper necklace, purple glasses and crimson bandana brought a splash of joy into the antiseptic atrium. She shone.

‘I thought it would be full of books,’ Bryant said, looking around in disappointment.

‘I’m afraid not, Mr Bryant. We store everything online. The board don’t like having verminous old volumes lying around the place. Books aren’t clean.’

Elizabeth led the way to the spartan glass box designated as her office. ‘I feel like a museum piece in here. Those tubular things are actually chairs. Please feel free to balance on them.’

‘Kirkpatrick says you were chucked out of your university,’ Bryant said. ‘What did you do?’

If Elizabeth was surprised at his directness she managed to hide it. ‘I went against the accepted orthodoxy about London in the Dark Ages. I presented a case suggesting that London did not suffer an atavistic collapse without the Romans but remained a thriving town using many modern inventions which were lost in the four centuries that followed.’

‘Heresy.’ Bryant left the sculpted steel chair to his partner and opted for something with a cushion. ‘I can’t imagine that went down well.’

‘Not when so many of my fellow academics were writing papers on the opposite hypothesis,’ said Elizabeth. ‘You said you need to know about London Bridge. I’m not sure I can be of much help. You probably have the key facts.’

‘Don’t worry about what I know,’ Bryant assured her. ‘Hit me.’

She set out some drawings before them. ‘This first bridge was probably built in 43 CE but may have been temporary. There were several more before the permanent one was constructed with a central drawbridge. London would not have been created without the crossing, so London Bridge was, and still is, guarded by dragons. Ethelred the Unready tried to stop the Danish invasion of London by getting the King of Norway’s men to tear the bridge down, so its collapse actually became associated with saving the city.’

‘Hence the song?’ said Bryant.

‘Exactly. The Norse war chant “London Bridge is broken down, Gold is won and bright renown” became the basis for the nursery rhyme. “London Bridge Is Falling Down”.’

‘Every Londoner must know that tune,’ said May.

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