2.5 million rats under County Hall

The recent Guardian article - Saatchi - 2.5 million rats under County Hall was horrific!!!!!!!!! - Does anybody else have any thoughts on this ???!!!!!!!??????

Everyone knows the stats about rats in London - 'you're never more than 4 ft away from one'(?) apparently. The river must be a prime spot for them, too. But, hey, I rarely see the things, and if they don't bother me, I don't bother them ;)

Rubbish has got to be the main reason for their huge presence, it'd be great to see that addressed in this dirty ol' town, then maybe the rats'd check out, too...

The article Barbara refers to can be read at http://quicklink.se1direct.co.uk/?id=344

There are hundreds of rats all around the tate and the south bank.
I often walk home this way and most times will see a rat. Amusingly they are always in the flowerbeds and shrubberies that are planted to prettify the place

It's not an impossible number - there are some cavernous spaces beneath County Hall, even after conversion for the Aquarium. But I suspect that Mr Saatchi said it "pour epater les bourgeois".

There's a brief reference in the linked article to the enormous space under Westminster Bridge Road that was used as a reverberation chamber for the original acoustic tests when they were working out how to build the Festival Hall in the late 1940s. But what is it now?
http://www.ioa.org.uk/publications/web_articles/Rfh/rfh-1.html

Curiously enough, this would be the location of Q's workshop that James Bond is seen entering through the real door under the South Bank lion in the recent Die Another Day, even though it leads to the supposed "Vauxhall Cross" abandoned tube station (filmed at the old Aldwych station). One for the conspiracy theorists - maybe talk of these mythical rats is just cover for something else going on down there!



Post edited (10 Apr 03 11:03)

Thanks for some great replies !!!! - From my home here, in North-West England, I can adopt a fairly philosophical approach over these rats !! - However, I don't know how relaxed I'll be in my bed at night, in the dark, in my hotel room there in County Hall, where I stay many times throughout the year, knowing what I now know!! - If only I hadn't read the damned "rats" article !!!Fortunately, I think that I will just about manage to overcome this,.... due to the much improved provision of wine suppliers in the area, in the last 8 months !! - I now have a valid excuse for having that extra glass of wine at night and the 2.5 million rats below me will become a distant memory .......?????!!!!!!!

Do they ever make their way across the road to the hospital?

... but I thought you loved them helen, judging by the large furry object in your living room!

Barbara, you are not immune in the north west of England! All cities in the WORLD have more rats than people. Just ignore them, you won't normally see them and they are unlikely to do you any harm.

re: " do they ever cross the rd to the hospital"
When I was a junior doctor on call at said hospital (St Thomas' ) the only plague we had to contend with was that of the smaller rodent variety - MICE!
I remember regulaly having to change on-call rooms at night because of small furry creatures waking me up by running round the room....