WGL's Friends & Places

Probably the highest view over London WGL ever experienced was from the Monument in the City, a mere 202 feet (62m) above the street. While other structures were taller (Big Ben’s tower at 315 feet and St. Paul’s dome at 365 feet) a few hundred feet of steps was the most a Victorian Londoner could expect to climb to get a view of the greatest metropolis in the world. In 1862 however, one of WGL’s friends became the highest man in human history, reaching through the clouds abo

John Lubbock (1834-1913), aristocrat, banker, politician and gentleman-scientist, was a towering figure of Victorian England who reshaped science, archaeology and even the social calendar. He was a household name by the 1870s and author of popular science books. As a young neighbour and friend to Charles Darwin he was an early and influential champion of evolutionary theory and dubbed ‘Darwin’s Apprentice’. At some point in the late 1850s or early 60s WGL first met John