Episode 5: Joolz Guides host Julian McDonnell, Part 2 and Double Decker Buses

Julian and Anne Marie talk about how he became a YouTube sensation and (amongst other things) how he wound up on the TV show Blind Date. We also talk about two of the musicians, Lil' Lost Lou and Tom Carradine (links to their websites below), whose music frequently appears on Joolz Guides soundtrack. In our Kid's Wisdom segment 9-year-old Liam and I discuss our love of England and double decker buses.

Julian's Blind Date Clip

Joolz Guides website

Joolz Guides YouTube

Tom Carradine Vintage Pianist and Musical Director, often performs old time music for Joolz Guides videos.

Lil' Lost Lou Musician and Julian's sister, Lou is currently working on putting an EP together of music she's written for Joolz Guides. Some of the tunes are already available as downloads on all the usual iTunes / spotify etc, but do check out her website, her music is amazing.

Liam's Drawings As promised! Here are some of Liam's amazing artwork.

To Support Armchair Historians:

Patreon

Ko-fi

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:16

Thank you.

Speaker 2: 0:16

Thank you for joining us today for armchair historians. I'm your host, Ann Marie Cannon. Armchair historians is a Belgian rabbit production. Stay up to date with us through Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, wherever you listen to your podcast. That is where you'll find us. You can also find us@armchairhistorians.com

Speaker 1: 0:40

also won't you consider becoming a patron of the show in an effort to keep armchair historians commercial free? I have decided to work with Patrion. Now, if you mosey on over to www.patrion.com backslash armchair historians, that's historians with an ass. You can find out more about supporting the show and about exclusive patron content that you will have access to. You can chip in anywhere from a dollar to$15 a month or just make a onetime donation. You will be helping me to keep the lights on and if you can't make a donation, that's totally cool. I just hope you will continue to listen to our free podcast.

Speaker 3: 1:33

[inaudible]

Speaker 2: 1:33

recently spoke to YouTube celebrity Julien MacDonald. He's the host of Juul guides. That's J O O L Z guides. For more information, go to Jewel's guides.com Julian has over 140,000 followers on his YouTube channel. This is part two of that interview. If you haven't done so already, I highly suggest you go back and listen to part one.

Speaker 1: 2:02

Donna, welcome and thank you for being here.

Speaker 4: 2:06

Thank you for having me on your show and for not being a crazy person. I get a few crazy people contacting me.

Speaker 1: 2:13

Well that's when you put yourself out there like that. That is definitely a consider it. My, my dad was a cop so I'm very suspicious by nature.

Speaker 4: 2:25

Oh yeah. I mean, you know, I can't, I can't claim to be a hundred percent sane myself. So, um,

Speaker 1: 2:33

in part one of the interview we talked a lot about London and history and Julian's favorite Royal King Charles. The second in part two we touch upon several topics including two questions that I've been dying to ask him

Speaker 4: 2:49

what you said before about you don't talk about things that you're not interested in it and that's apparent. It's your enthusiasm and the humor. All that comes across in what you, I also get edits out. Anything that's, you know, even I edit out. I want to just, it to be an interesting film, you know, just something to keep your attention and to watch it now. Yeah. Anyway, I want it to be interesting and they take a lot of time to make, I mean it looks like they're just sort of rattled out, but they take ages

Speaker 1: 3:19

take. How long does it take for you to do the editing to do

Speaker 4: 3:22

the Hill? Depending on the type of video. I mean, even that one that I did this weekend, which actually had a lot of old videos in it, so I just chucked in old clips even that one. So I loved the narration by the way. The narration was, well you see that, for example, a pastiche of the old cafe newsreel footage that takes, you know, I had to get Tom Caradigm to do, uh, to do some rule. Britannia on the panel.

Speaker 1: 3:48

Robert Britannia is relaxing piano music. I had to look it up on Google for those few familiar with Jules guides. You may recognize the name Tom Caradigm. He frequently appears on the soundtrack. Tom is a pianist and musical director specializing in music from the first half of the 20th century, particularly the grand age of the British dance bands in the 1920s and 1930s I recommend you look him up. You can find him on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and at Cara Dines Cockney sing along. That's one word. Kara Dines, Cockney sing along.co. Dot. U K I'll put his information in the episode notes

Speaker 4: 4:32

and then he sent it to me and then I, I put that and I have to add some effects on to that and I have to add effect. So I have to write a script as well. But that sounds kind of, so that means researching old wartime newsreel footage to try and find the right vocabulary for these sorts of things. And then just do the voice, you know as well and add some, you know, I said yes, it's me. I was just, you just talk like that in lockdown and the queen is not home today and you just have to do that clip. It's kind of old English accent and then you can throw on some sort of radio effect from the 1940s and then, but then you have to add color to it and you have to shrink the size of it to make add some effects and, but in addition to that, I had to go down there a couple of times. I mean I have to cycle into town twice and walk through along the river. Um, so that was two days worth of filming in addition to all the other ones I had plus then about three days all day editing because I haven't got anything to do else to do at the moment. So. So that one was three days, but you know, most of it had been done already. Normally they take like about a week or so editing, it's take a long time and then you got to research them as well. I mean, I don't know all this stuff off by heart. I do have to find stuff out. Your does look like all this

Speaker 1: 5:58

stuff. You just know it's like in there in your head.

Speaker 4: 6:01

Well. Yeah, it's the same with anyone who makes a TV program. I'm sure that they don't know absolutely everything. They'll forget it. You know, I, I retained a lot of it, but you know, I'm not that brightening.

Speaker 1: 6:13

Can I ask you a couple non-related questions?

Speaker 4: 6:17

Um, okay. I may decline. I might, I might take the fifth.

Speaker 1: 6:22

That's fine. I don't think they're too, anyways, they're not too controversial questions. Okay. So do you still have a peddler's license?

Speaker 4: 6:31

A peddler certificate from, from license? It's expired actually. My pedal is certificate, um, because I no longer sell the kite.

Speaker 1: 6:40

Julian talks about having a peddler certificate in previous Jules guides episodes. And about nine years ago, Julian produced a documentary called my evil trade peddlers life, which details some of the issues faced by peddlers in England. I was just curious to see if he kept up his peddler certificate.

Speaker 4: 6:59

So now I do have a thousand of them if anyone's interested. Um, uh, but yeah, I mean, the pepper certificate, something expires after a year. You have to renew it. I had, I did have one for 15 years. But yeah, I mean it's, it's, I don't, don't really need it at the moment cause I'm doing, I'm doing the videos.

Speaker 1: 7:19

Right. I was just curious about that. And how did, how did you end up on the, on the TV show blind date and the followup to that is why didn't she pick you? You were so funny and charming. I found a link to this gem on another one of Julianne's websites, Julian mcdonnell.com I guess you could call it the British equivalent of the dating game in it. Julian is a bit younger donning a very 1990s outfit, topped off with a very interesting distressed straw hat and just, he really is as tall as he says he is. Here's a soundbite from that episode

Speaker 5: 8:07

and you were one of my fifth and divorce. Which one would you be?[inaudible][inaudible][inaudible][inaudible][inaudible] I guess I just have to be your friends. Charlie[inaudible] I've wiped you out with a little,

Speaker 1: 8:51

I'll leave a link to Julian's blind date clip in the episode.

Speaker 4: 8:56

Well, I can tell you that. Well what I ended up on it, because I was at university in Manchester and there was a, an ad if they put an ad up in the student union asking people to go for an audition. So I went to the audition because I wanted to be on TV. And why she didn't pick me was because even though I was funnier than the other two and the crowd or wanting to have to pick me, number one, I didn't show this in the clip, but one of her questions was, which of the seven doors would you be? And he said that he would be that he said, Oh, unfortunately there isn't a dwarf called Keanu because I looked like Keanu Reeves and as soon as he said he looked like Kiana Reeves, then um, then she, she had made up

Speaker 1: 9:35

not look, he didn't even look like them. That's not true.

Speaker 4: 9:38

But he didn't really know. I could see, I could see the resemblance, but I anyway, it doesn't matter. They ended up going to Cornwall. So usually you get up, you pick an envelope and you go on a fun holiday somewhere. That's on the other half of the store. They went to New York, but um, these two picked Cornwall, which is just South of England. They felt very disappointed as if it was always disappointing if you ended up with an English holiday. They wanted to go to France.

Speaker 1: 10:06

Yeah, sure. That's so funny. But, and so that was all just off the cuff. Everything you said on that was off the cuff.

Speaker 4: 10:13

Uh, well you do get the questions in advance. Like if you can write something that was 1994 though. I mean it was quite a long time ago.

Speaker 1: 10:25

Yeah. It doesn't seem like that was so long ago to me, but that's because I'm getting time just has gone by faster, but that's a whole,

Speaker 4: 10:34

yeah. Yeah. That's a 16 years ago, so 2026 years ago. 26 years ago. But yes, it sounds, sounded quite interesting what you're doing. And I'm always wanted to do a podcast of my own, actually. I just couldn't be bothered. Can't get round to it. All these films take so long to make, you know.

Speaker 1: 10:52

Yeah. And from listening to you, they're a lot more involved. It takes me probably two or three days depending. Like the last guy that I interviewed is kind of a starter, so I had to do a lot of tricky to edit that sort of thing. It was fun because you know, you listen to the raw footage and then you listened to what you have and you just smooth it all out. I like it. I like doing the editing. It's fun. I don't think I would want to do film though because it's that whole other layer, you know? You might get good,

Speaker 4: 11:23

Oh, you've got all the sounds to do. Plus you've got to do all the get all the color. I mean it's difficult. I'm not very good at it, but I mean I, you still, you got to get the color right. You have to wait until people are out of the way. I mean you have to worry about what it looks like as well and it's, it's a real new sense. You know, you about sort of continuity as well. If I shoot on two different days, I've got to make sure I'm wearing the same thing or shave the right way. It's quite new. I mean, I think you do a good job.

Speaker 1: 11:53

I think, you know, I think one of the things that I can relate to about you is, you know, I, I don't want to deal with the gatekeepers. I want to do my thing and I just want to put my art out there. I want to be entertaining. Um, and I, I like that about you and, and that really speaks to me and that's why I was so drawn into your, your videos. I don't know. That's,

Speaker 4: 12:14

well, it's nice of you to say, I mean, the truth is that, I mean, I did originally start putting them up there because I wanted to use them as a show reel to show people that I can do this and hopefully get on TV. But now what seems to be happening is that more and more people are looking at things like YouTube anyway. So, um, so there's no point. I'm in a, in an in a sense, I'm already on TV, you know, I'm on my own channel, I've got my own channel and I can say what I want. Um, I mean, I, I find sometimes, you know, it's a bit a little bit worrying because YouTube do tend to have quite a lot of power over your videos. If I want, I can just take it all down and there's nothing you can do about it. But, uh, yeah, it's, it's, it's nice having a direct connection with the audience is, it's quite weird. I mean, I'm, I'm, uh, I'm at an age where, um, most people my age aren't really into YouTube and stuff like that. Not creating content. Most of YouTube is, are much younger than me, so I think I'm more of a, um, so I've somehow managed to creep in there just under the radar. But I've also, I'm also old, old enough to have a few skills, uh, in the old school type of TV style. So I think that's why I, I'd have to say that a lot of the people who watch my stuff or have a more mature variety that's say on on YouTube that they're not your typical kind of 21 year old audience. So a lot of people like 40 age, 40 and above, and it's because they're used to watching TV in a certain way where you know, you, you just have someone speaking quite clearly and it's well edited. Whereas younger people are quite used to seeing these jump cuts, bad editing people, people saying things like, Hey, what's up guys? So, Oh now you buy from YouTube. Today I'm going to show you how to make an omelet. So thanks very much everyone for tuning in. And later on I'm going to show you how to make an omelet. Okay, coming up in five minutes and then you sit there tearing a hair. I go, well, are you ever going to get round to doing it? You know? But in fact, apparently that's, that's quite a normal thing. Young people are used to that style of, you know, it's, it's all about can you keep, keep watching me, keep watching me. And I find that all the time. A lot of videos also, they don't have necessarily enough to say to warrant the length of the video, but because you choose it, it's beneficial to you if your video is longer than 10 minutes because it means you can add more, put more ads on it. A lot of people try to stretch their video out now if you haven't got a lot to say, um, and you want a 10 minute video, then it's going to be full of just arming and Aring and ramble. Whereas I usually find that I've got too much to say. I mean it's actually quite difficult for me to, and all of my stuff is facts. It's just, it's always like over here is there over there is that, if it's, if it's not either funny or interesting or relevance, then I'll let it out. So I actually, it's quite a hard job keeping them, keeping them under, I mean this latest one was 25 minutes. I mean it was, it was tough. I had more, I had more loads, more stuff I could have put in. I should make the whole doctor. I should make a whole feature film, feature length. Duke's guide.

Speaker 1: 15:37

Yeah. I was thinking because on Facebook you put something out there about soliciting suggestions, I guess it was, and I was so many. I have to say I piped in, but you asked so I piped in. That would be a fun one to do. Bloopers.

Speaker 4: 15:58

Yeah. Oh yeah. Was that you said that? Um, yeah,

Speaker 1: 16:02

mine was more wordy and kind of rambling about, um, going back to old old footage and interviewing people through, you know, the computer now that might, yeah, I remember that one. I was thinking of doing that

Speaker 4: 16:17

cause I'm, I've got a few people I've thinking some guest appearances, you know, I could do some guests. The parents are, I mean I've got Charlie Chaplin's grandchildren. They might be up for it and you know, if they could get Charlie Chaplin's son then you know, that will be even more cool.

Speaker 1: 16:31

Are you a Charlie Chaplin fan before that? No, I thought you were. I thought you like worshiped him. We went out and got the book from the library that you were reading from. Oddly enough, oddly enough, I was more of a heroin

Speaker 4: 16:47

Lloyd fan. I liked Harold Lloyd. We used to watch him when I was growing up and when I was young, I didn't quite get Charlie Chaplin because I, I found him a bit sad and I, I never quite got the comedy or whatever. But, um, as I got older, I realized his true genius and he really was a genius. I'm absolute genius. And when you look, and when his grandson asked me if I could make a video about it, but actually he didn't ask me. He actually asked me if I could just show him around. And I said, well, I, you know, I don't really know much about it. I'll have to find out about it. But I thought it was a cool opportunity. So I said to him, okay, um, why don't you just to save yourself money? And I said, I won't charge you if you just come and be in a film about him. And he said, yeah, all right, yeah, we'll do that. So I thought, I better go off and, um, read up on him. So I got hold of his autobiography and it was the most incredible story I'd read. And I just thought he was fantastic. And then you see some of his films, some of the really iconic famous scenes and you realize just how, what a pioneer he was, um, the, you know, it was so, so now I'm a massive, I couldn't stop thinking about him for the vague as afterwards similarity

Speaker 1: 17:58

down a rabbit hole, thanks to you. And that's how, that's kind of what this idea for this podcast is. It's like, Oh, he did. That was really interesting. Oh, the grandkids. But then we started really getting into the story and it was like, not even about you and your show anymore. We went out and bought the book. We talked about them for a week and I was pissed. I'm still pissed off about how we treated them. The U S were so horrible to him and just his whole story. And, um, that's what I love. And that's, that's where I'm coming from with this is I'm trying to capture that with people that are

Speaker 4: 18:33

awesome. It wasn't only him by all accounts that they treated badly. I mean, there was quite a few, like I said in my latest video, actually, we, we've, we've got the McCarthy McCarthy witch hunts, the bank for the fact that we've got a Shakespeare's globe theater because he was going to go, I didn't know that you had to stay in England. So he went, all right, I'll stay in England. And um, and, and then he, Sam Wanamaker, we're talking about his Sam one of mine. So he was, he was on their list, I think, well this is what someone told me, bloke down the pub told me this. That's why I get my facts. Um, and he was going to head to America, be stayed in England and they said, okay, well let's build the replica of Shakespeare's globe theater. I knew that.

Speaker 1: 19:16

Build it. I didn't realize, was it on your lockdown, your London lockdown video? Cause yeah, I didn't realize that until I saw that yesterday. And it was like, Oh, that makes sense.

Speaker 4: 19:27

But you know what's interesting is you can do that. Say for example, in this led to the latest video, I walk along the river from embankment all the way to London bridge and um, I, the whole time is spent talking about things which are, they're examining them, looking at things. It's all apart from a couple of comic moments with some pastiches of newsreel footage. It's all information and history. And it's just interesting that if you went along that same route with a different tour guide with someone else, they would tell you completely different stories, different histories, different facts. And that's what I like about wandering around London is that you'll never run out of stuff to talk about because I could do the same route and make a completely different, I've been to Soho several times and so last time I went there, so the music too, I've done a music tour, so I will famous places like where the rolling stones were formed and where David Bowie recorded hunky Dory and all these places all around. So then I went back there again and I did another video about the same location, but it was how the Italians were all connected to it and the history history of Italians in Soho. And you can do so many different perspectives on

Speaker 1: 20:36

and so much material there is your mom from Italy? Yeah. Oh, okay. That's when you're close to it. That's why you speak Italian and,

Speaker 4: 20:45

Oh, that's what I was saying. Yeah. When, when you were going through the thing saying I speak Italian and French. Well, I mean I speak a bit of Italian and uh, and I learned French at school, so,

Speaker 1: 20:55

so you speak it. I know people are Jeff lift keys. I did, I did his, uh, bio, which I got directly off of his website and he was very like humble about it. Oh, well that's not exactly right. It's like,

Speaker 4: 21:09

well, I, yeah, I just, someone's phones me up and starts rabbiting in front of you. I might struggle a bit, but

Speaker 1: 21:16

yeah. Well my mom was born in Belgium and uh, unfortunately, you know, she moved to the United States. She married my dad and, uh, France, he was in, he was in the air force stationed in France. And I always say the only action he saw in the Korean war was my mother, cause he married her and then came back to the United States. They used to speak French at the dinner table when they didn't want us to know what they were talking about. So they never taught us French, which I'm bummed about to this day I don't have. And then I'm really uncomfortable. Like if you go to another country and you try to speak the language and you're, you know, that you're doing a terrible job. But I always hear my mother because my mother was such a critic and when you would try to speak French, you would like, you know, correct you so much that it would be like, uh, forget it.

Speaker 4: 22:08

I like it. I like it when people actually make the effort. English people tend not to even to try, I'm going to go abroad. It's just points and speak in English loudly points of things. If the person doesn't understand, they just say it more loudly.

Speaker 1: 22:24

Yeah, right.

Speaker 4: 22:26

I bet. So anyway. Yes. What's that now I'm going to have to go in a minute. Okay. So anything else?

Speaker 1: 22:30

Thank you for your time. Is there, no, I don't have anything else I would like to ask you. Is there anything else that you would like to say that we haven't covered?

Speaker 4: 22:40

Uh, no, not really. I mean I obviously, um, it would be nice if people who haven't seen my videos could go to Juul GYNs the YouTube channel spelled J O O L a, Z or Zed, um, jewels spent like that, the wacky way. And um, and you know, I should mention my sister as well. She writes a lot of the music for my videos, um, a little off SLU and she, she came out to Nashville and did a, an album out there as well. Um, and she's really good. I mean, just if you ask her to write a song in any style, she will just go away and do. For example, I said to her, for this one, I'd almost finished the video and I thought to myself, I'll call, I need to, I need to, I wouldn't mind a song about the river Thames. So I called her and I said, can you write a sat on to take you to write a song?

Speaker 1: 23:29

Made that up and cause I was going to ask you about that. I forgot, I didn't read that.

Speaker 4: 23:33

She might, she just writes it like instantly and then recorded it as well and send it to me. And I nearly didn't put it in for nearly, didn't have time, but she's brutally honest. She, she's going to bring out an album soon, um, of all the videos, songs from the videos and we'll be able to sell that. And she's got once about Jack the ripper. Bethnal good blind beggar, Bethnal green.

Speaker 1: 23:55

She gives she, she adds like this uh, dimension, this unusual kind of quirky dimension to your video.

Speaker 4: 24:03

She has a good ear for that sort of thing, you know, and they, they're usually in the right style. But what she should be doing is writing for TV ads or for films or something. But you know, she's weird like me. So she ends up doing that. Anyway, her name's Lee, little Los glue, L I L little loss loop. And then there's Tom. Caroline's caught me sing along, which is also good fun. And he does say online during the, during the lock down. He's doing an online cottony single every Thursday normally plays every Thursday night. And the pop here. But um,

Speaker 1: 24:34

what's his name and how do you spell it?

Speaker 4: 24:37

Yeah, some Teradyne and I think you just go to his website, which is Kara Dion's, Cockney singalong.co. Dot. UK Kara dine. Uh, how many these I carry? I think it's double our paradine.

Speaker 1: 24:51

There was, the other thing I wanted to tell you is that, so I, I'm working on the website and I pretty much have it ready to go once I started having, you know, the episodes in that each episode will have its own page. And so anything you want me to put on that page, maybe if you could, uh, let me use a picture of you would be great too. I'll put it on that page and, you know,

Speaker 4: 25:13

just contact me when you need it or whatever. Whatever you're doing. All right. All right. Back. Yeah. Okay. Well the wheels should, we should do a bit of a tying up thing for you saying goodbye to me and then we'll say goodbye for real.

Speaker 1: 25:26

Okay. Okay. Um, well thanks. Thanks for being here today. And um, I dunno, I don't usually do a kind of send off thing, so thanks. Yeah, I should like Tut Tut tally ho.

Speaker 4: 25:47

I'm so embarrassed about that stupid catchphrase people shouted at me and the fruit in the street. Now pick, pick Tanya. Oh my God, not again. It was a, it wasn't a, it was a good idea. I mean, you know, I think it's always good to have a little catch phrase. It's a butterfly

Speaker 1: 26:01

work on that. I'll come up with a sendoff. Julian, thank you for being here. Welcome.

Speaker 4: 26:06

Well, thanks very much. And, uh, I'll have to bid you farewell. Now I've got to go and see a man about a dog.

Speaker 1: 26:15

Gotcha. All right. Thanks so much. It was really great talking to,

Speaker 2: 26:21

okay.

Speaker 3: 26:33

[inaudible]

Speaker 2: 26:34

and that concludes my interview with Julien MacDonald. See the episode notes for links to Julian's website as well as the amazing that appear in his videos. Tom Caradigm and little lost. Lou. Don't go away. We still have our kid wisdom segment coming up today. We continue our conversation with nine year old Liam from Denver, Colorado.

Speaker 1: 26:57

Where was the Titanic? Where did the Titanic really from?

Speaker 6: 27:03

Um, well I don't really know the exact location. I know where it was built. It was built in frat Belfast, um, Scotland, I think it was. I left from somewhere in the UK.

Speaker 1: 27:22

You remember? Where was it? London? I looked it up in Wikipedia. It was actually South Hampton. England.

Speaker 6: 27:31

No, it wasn't London. It was somewhere else at a few different stops before it set out and on. Its longer like foliage to New York city.

Speaker 1: 27:43

So it was going to New York city or,

Speaker 6: 27:47

yes. So imagine this is where it said out from like, this is where, and this is New York city about just about like here it was very crowded

Speaker 1: 28:00

so it was close to New York city.

Speaker 6: 28:03

It was pretty close. They couldn't see it.

Speaker 1: 28:05

So my other question is we have something in common that we both like, do you know what that is? Um, we both love history. Well that's, we have more than one thing that we both like. Uh, so there's history. And then there is, remember when I went to England, both English stuff, especially double Decker buses. Well, I still have

Speaker 6: 28:38

he, um, key teaching that you got me.

Speaker 1: 28:42

Oh, cool. What is it that you like about, uh, England and double Decker buses?

Speaker 6: 28:48

I don't know. It's just some of the best stuff was made there. Steam trains, for instance, the Titanic and I don't really know why I like it too much. It just, I was born in then I liked England.

Speaker 1: 29:01

Okay. You were born. What? As born in England, like, well, I really like your bow tie. You, you, uh, you have a great sense of style. It's very a vintage aesthetic that you have going on there. So what about double Decker buses? What do you like about those?

Speaker 6: 29:24

Well, they look cool and also I think it's pretty cool that you can make a bus that has two stories. And I like the old versions because I think the old versions, um, look cool.

Speaker 1: 29:39

What do you know, what do you know about, like the reason I'm asking you about England is because I know we both love England, but the other thing is that the show that I'm going to have you on, I interview a guy named Julian McDonnell and he's from England and he does a YouTube, uh, he's a YouTube celebrity and he does a show called Jules guides and he takes people around London in the video. You should, you should see if you could watch it with your mom and dad. So I want to have kind of a conversation at the end where you and I talk about England. So that's why I'm asking you about England.

Speaker 6: 30:22

I actually have this three, the puzzle about, um, well with London. So I know a lot of the dates. I know a lot of the dates when like, um, famous structures. Um, the tower of London is like one of the oldest buildings still standing and it was built in the 16th century. So London, Oh no, it was in the 11th century. Tar blending. 10 78

Speaker 1: 30:55

that was a long time ago, wasn't it? Have you been taking uh, to London?

Speaker 6: 31:00

No, but I am hoping to go there. Actually. I'm going to live there when I grow up.

Speaker 1: 31:04

Yeah, I lived there. I lived there for three months in 2012 and I've been, I've actually been to the tower of London and one of the reasons you might've gotten it mixed up as far as what date it was built is because they kept adding onto it during different centuries. So there were probably parts of it that were built in the 16th century.

Speaker 6: 31:25

And I was actually thinking of, I think I was actually thinking of Westminster Abbey when I said like 15

Speaker 1: 31:32

Oh, is that when that was built?

Speaker 6: 31:34

No, it was 1517 but like it's kind of around there.

Speaker 1: 31:39

Well that is the 16th century,

Speaker 6: 31:41

I'm guessing. I heard. So you know, big Ben and like parliament, the tower only the claw is called big Ben. The tower is actually called Victoria tower.

Speaker 1: 31:52

Oh, I didn't know that. Oh, okay. Interesting. So what is the tower of London?

Speaker 6: 32:04

Um, well I think, um, back when it was first built, it was a prison actually for some

Speaker 1: 32:13

castle where people lived. Right? It was actually, I'll tell you what I know about it. It was built as a castle back in the 10 hundreds and then eventually it became also a prison, but not just a prison for anybody. It was like high class prisoners, like people that were royalty and traders and you know, people that, you know, we're high by up there. So it was like a posh prison.

Speaker 6: 32:46

Yeah. And most people think of London bridge, they think of actually tower bridge. London bridge was built much earlier. Tower bridge was built in the 19th century. London bridge was built in the 17th century. And actually if you ever visited the globe theater, that's not where originally was it burnt down in 1666 and was built in 1644

Speaker 1: 33:12

wha what happened in 1666 that caused it to burn down?

Speaker 6: 33:17

Well it was a one building and it, well it was actually built in 1599 it was a wooden building there. I think like at least part timber fires were more common cause more buildings are wooden back then.

Speaker 1: 33:30

And in 1666 there was a huge fire in London that destroyed most of London.

Speaker 6: 33:37

And this, it says great fire of London.

Speaker 1: 33:40

Yup.

Speaker 6: 33:41

That's when it burnt down. Well, fires spreading pretty quickly back then because like, um, most buildings were at least half timbered if not made of stone or door or that kind of material on a three D puzzle on building up to about 1920 1925 that's um, the buildings that I'm going to have on my puzzle, they're going to be tolerant. London, Westminster Abbey, the globe theater from 1599 to 1666. And then the st Paul's cathedral, Buckingham palace. Buckingham palace was built pretty early 17 out too.

Speaker 1: 34:31

Oh wow. Who lives at Buckingham palace?

Speaker 6: 34:34

Queen Elizabeth. The second is the current queen.

Speaker 1: 34:38

You know a lot about London press. You, you should definitely watch Juul because he takes you all through these different places in London and he knows all the history. He's a big history geek like us. He always says at the beginning of his show, you know what he says? He says, Oh, how does he go Pitt, Pitt, tally ho.

Speaker 6: 35:04

I think that's what like, um, most like Americans, like, um, British people talk like that's like the American kind of like, yeah, I don't think they say that.

Speaker 1: 35:16

Well now he, he was just creating a character for this show and that's not really what he's like, but it's what his character on the show is like. All right. So that was all the, pretty much all the questions I have. I have one more and that is, is there anything else that we didn't talk about that you wanted to talk about today?

Speaker 6: 35:38

Um,

Speaker 2: 35:38

no, I think we covered everything. So, yeah, I guess that was great. You did a great job. Thank you so much for doing this. You stay safe. Yeah, you too. All right, buddy. Talk to you soon. So there you have it. That was Leon, nine years old from Denver, Colorado. Join us next time for a brand new episode of armchair historian. Stay up to date with our latest news on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And why don't you please consider becoming a patron through Patriot.

Speaker 5: 36:28

[inaudible].