Unfortunately, it works better with stories. A couple arguing in a restaurant is more likely to be arguing over who was supposed to pick up milk than over whether it's safe to time travel in the machine they designed.
Sad, isn't it? It's quite crushing for people with imagination.
I find this hardest to take when I am contentedly enveloped in a historical location. That small indent in the floor? I want that to be where a centaur stomped his hoof. The crumbling walls showing an ancient niche in the stone? That should be where the fairies perched.
The picture above is a good example of this. Surely ladies in sweeping gowns descended those curved stairs to join a governing assembly in a magical world. Young boys must have tried to jump up and touch the centre of the arch in that higher door. Hopefully young women once leaned over the railing at the top, watching young warriors arrive at an ancient gathering that was about to choose the next leader. Or perhaps an elderly woman tucked a comfortable chair under the stairs, far enough away from the noise of a family reunion but close enough to enjoy the sight of her children and their children and their children's children.
According to the photo, though, it's just the entrance to an abandoned London dungeon. Still a great source for stories (the 'abandoned' part is always intriguing), but a simpler, sadder, more prosaic explanation. Occam's Razor strikes again.
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