Recently in St. James's Category

Polonium-210 - the murder of Alexander Litvinenko

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The sensational murder of Alexander Litvinenko, a naturalised British citizen and former Russian KGB agent turned Russian dissident opponent of President Vladimir Putin at the end of 2006, by means of the extraordinary use of a massive dose of the radioactive isotope 210Polonium is inevitably of interest to CyberPunk tourists with a penchant for high technology and the macabre. Exotic high tech poisons have

Lots of aeroplanes and several locations were contaminated with trace amounts of 210Polonium, which is a very active emitter of alpha particles, which are usually blocked by the human skin, but which is lethal if inhaled or ingested. It is so active an isotope, with a half life of 138 days, that it tend to spall or sublime, if left exposed to the atmosphere i.e. atoms of 210Polonium are knocked away from the surface by the vigour of the alpha particle flux from the bulk of the solid or liquid containing the isotope, thereby leaving minute traces at the sites where the victim and the poisoner(s) visited.

Most of these locations in central London are in Mayfair except for 1 Cavendish Place and UCL Hospital.

There are other locations which were contaminated with traces of 210Polonium, in North London e.g. Litvineko's home in Osier Avenue 140 Osier Crescent in Haringey, Arsenal football stadium, Heathrow Airport etc., outside of Central London, either by contact with Alexander Litvinenko or with his alleged murderer Alexei Lugovoi.

N.B. all of these locations have been declared safe - remember the half life of 210Polonium is138 days.

Also involved in this high tech spook saga, were:

  • Metropolitan Police Counter-terrorism Command, New Scotland Yard, Broadway
  • Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Whitehall
  • Embassy of the Russian Federation, 6 - 7 Kensington Palace Gardens

Blue Plaque: Ada, Countess of Lovelace

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Ada, Countess of Lovelace

(1815-1852)
12 St James's Square.

The first "computer programmer" of Charles Babbage's Difference and Analytical Engines.

See this BBC article and this University of Warwick article

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GPS grid coordinates:
Latitude: (WGS84) N51:30:28 ( 51.507743 )
Longitude: (WGS84) W0:08:11 ( -0.136415 )

The brown brick building on the corner, at 10 St.James Square, is the Royal Institute of International Affairs a famous diplomacy, security and intelligence think tank, known as Chatham House, famous for the Chatham House Rule:

"When a meeting, or part thereof, is held under the Chatham House Rule, participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed."

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Polonium-210: Itsu sushi restaurant, 167 Piccadilly

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Itsu sushi restaurant, 167 Piccadilly, London W1J 9EG, nearly opposite Old Bond Street.

Itsu featured in the early media speculation as the place where Litvinenko met Mario Scaramella, an Italian academic / spook with whom he had been working The restaurant is now so popular with tourists, that it is expanding into the adjacent mobile phone shop premises.

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GPS grid coordinates:
Latitude: (WGS84) N51:30:28 ( 51.507806 )
Longitude: (WGS84) W0:08:23 ( -0.139784 )


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Zero history blog

Zero History blog - http://ZeroHistory.net

- documenting and analysing William Gibson's current novel in progress, with some London / UK locations already.

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Spook Country blog - htpp://SpookCountry.co.uk

This documents and analyses William Gibson's novel Spook Country which has some London locations, and from which this London CyberPunk Tourist Guide was spawned.

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