Within hours of landing, I had sat at the organ upon which George Frideric Handel played the London premiere of "Messiah, " stood in the poky little room where Charles Dickens wrote "Oliver Twist, " and accepted my award upon the very spot that the residence of Lord Peter Wimsey had once stood, at 110A Piccadilly.

WSJ: Alan Bradley on Writing About an England He'd Never Seen | Traveler's Tale

The Internet is poky by design--and there are hard chairs in the computer room to discourage work.

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