If you ever find yourself walking down St Martin's Le-Grand, in the City of London, and you end up walking by the new HSBC building going up on the intersection with Newgate Street, then you're passing somewhere with a story, quite literally, 'out of this world'.
The new build going up was the site of the Central Telegraph Office (CTO), part of a much bigger General Post Office presence in this quarter of the City. Demolished in 1967 it was once the largest telegraph office in the world, witnessing many advancements in communications technology. For instance, it was from its roof in 1896 that Guglielmo Marconi sent the world's first wireless transmission.
It was where, on 27 October 1926, that staff working here received a very unusual request: to send a telegram to the planet Mars.
The originator of the message was Dr Hugh Mansfield Robinson, a lawyer, and sometime Town Clerk of Shoreditch. For him, Mars had become something of an obsession.
Robinson was desperate to make contact with the Red Planet after already making telepathic contact with a six-foot tall female Martian called Oomaruru. He believed that others existed alongside her and intended to prove it.
The message he wanted to send was apparently written in Martian and said, quite simply, "opesti nipitia secomba". Nobody, to this day, knows exactly what it meant.
Well, a job's a job and for 18 pence per word, the telegraphist eventually saw to it that the message was sent off into space via their new station in Rugby. It was sent on a wavelength suggested by Robinson, and they were to monitor other frequencies to hear the response.
Sadly, despite Mars being much nearer to Earth than normal, the Post Office had to report back that no response had been received from Mars.
There was some ridicule for Robinson following this abortive attempt, and some disapproving comments from his wife. Undeterred, he tried again a few years later, but still with no response from Mars. However, he had created a little bit of history in being the originator of the world's first interplanetary telegram.
This is proof that in the City of London some people have always reached for the stars.