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Saturday, December 31, 2005

Not merely an ordinary church

This isn't a church you will laissez passer, but it is quite extraordinary. Here it is on the map, a private road and cul-de-sac in the heart of London. First, it stands in a piece of London that was actually office of Cambridge until around 50 years ago - Ely Place. It is the oldest Catholic Church building in London, dating from around 1200. I take been in that location for midnight mass on Christmas eve (non this year) and y'all tin can almost hear the monks shuffling on the flagstones, a recommended experience. 2d, it was 1 of the final places in London where you could seek sanctuary - any the cause or crime, you could avert capture past entering this church building. I will try to follow up with a photo from the interior some time.

posted by Ham at 00:06 -- Comments here: 2

Friday, December 30, 2005

Chips, anyone?

Today, here is an information broacast. Many people, Londonders and people who visit London, are always on the lookout for the best fish & chips shop. Here is my nomination, The Fryer's Delight in Theobalds Road (nigh Proctor Street). I have been going there for over xx years, and while the area around has inverse grapheme entirely, it is still there. You can e'er tell a good chippie by the number of London cab drivers in it ... this i is packed.

posted past Ham at 06:55 -- Comments here: five

Th, December 29, 2005

Wouldn't you like to meet him?

This photo is of the statue of Fenner Brockway, in Cherry-red Lion Foursquare. Have you lot ever seen a statue of someone continuing pigeon-toed? I have rarely seen a more than realistic statue, and of a bloke that you lot would almost certainly want as your ain grandfather.

The story backside the man is exceptional. He started off as a conscientious objector in the carnage that was called the Commencement Globe State of war - at a time when it was not at all easy to be one. He was 1 of the founding fathers of the Labour movement in the Uk, but he was always also much his own human being to serve long in a government.

What shows the mark of the man was that he abandoned pacificism for WWII, beleiving that fascism needed to be stopped at all costs. He died in 1988, just before his 100th birthday. Here is the Wikipedia article on him.

For me, he is always one of the nearly live of the London statues.

posted by Ham at 00:06 -- Comments here: iii

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

A london kiss

The sales are on only there is ever time for a moment of amore.

posted past Ham at 06:55 -- Comments here: 2

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

The little brother

This clock is outside Victoria Station and is called.... Little Ben! It was renovated about 25 years ago, with the assistance of Elf Aquitaine as an gesture of Franco-British friendship. Confusingly, it is set one hour in accelerate of GMT the whole twelvemonth round, and then for half-dozen months of the year.. it is the same time as in France, and for 6, the same time as England. It has the insctription on it

"My hands yous may retard or may advance

my heart beats true for England as for France."

Another view is on My Other Stuff

posted past Ham at 06:58 -- Comments here: ii

Monday, Dec 26, 2005

London Trivia

I do like a skillful bit of trivia, and I volition share them with you from time to time on these pages.

Everyone knows that nosotros British driver on the left side of the road (This originated from carrieage days, when information technology left your correct/sword arm free), and that Europeans drive on the correct (considering Napoleon decided that everyone had to) Then the question is, which public route in the UK do we drive on the right? Answer is, here, on the enterance to the Savoy because of the way they have to turn at the lesser.

The Savoy is in The Strand, which you might guess from the proper noun was in one case the banking company of the River Thames - now it is most 100m away.

posted by Ham at 12:xi -- Comments here: 2

Dominicus, Dec 25, 2005

My Hubby & I wish all subjects....

.... a Happy Christmas!

Buckingham Palace by nighttime, complete with Christmas tree.

posted by Ham at 06:51 -- Comments here: 2

Saturday, December 24, 2005

Ballad Singing in Victoria Station

For Christmas Eve, hither is a photo of some of the more heartwarming and less commercial aspects of the flavor. In that location people are enjoying themselves singing carols in Victoria Station, and making money fo their clemency Nightingale's Children Projection at the same time.

Merry Christmas to yous all.

posted by Ham at 17:58 -- Comments here: 0

Friday, Dec 23, 2005

Limelight and the London Wheel

Coincidently (if you watch Paris Daily Photo, last night I was out photgraphing the London Heart. Information technology is such a well photographed thing that I was looking for some way of showing it to yous that was more, well, London. So here it is, through the copse of St James Park, in the lime light of the many gaslights that still light the area. (They may well be the subject of another day). At that place is a more experimental shot on My Other Stuff

I'm off skiing at present, so posts may be a little iregular (today's is early, tomorrow may be tardily) only I'll endeavour to go along the dose a mean solar day going throughout.

posted past Ham at 00:06 -- Comments here: 1

Thursday, December 22, 2005

Arteillery Row Bakery

These lovely cameo are all that remains from a bakery that was built presently afterwards the first war. You can't see it, but inside, the floors used to slope to assistance the movement of flour. There used to be pictures of it existence built hanging within, simply they as well have gone. Charlie told me all near it, you can meet him on My Other Stuff.

posted by Ham at 00:07 -- Comments here: 0

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Encounter the Onetime Lady

Today, I'd similar to invite you to meet the erstwhile lady. The Banking company of England is oftentimes knows every bit "The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street". Here is the story of how that came about, it's a great story and well worth the click.

All the same, if yous look up, at the junction with Princes St you'll run into this rather elegant lady, non old at all. Wherever you walk in the City of London, retrieve to expect upwards.

There's a view of the Threadneedle Street front of the Bank on "My Other Stuff".

posted by Ham at 00:08 -- Comments here: 0

Tuesday, Dec 20, 2005

Lloyds of London

I should think most people take seen the Lloyds Building - this is the ane past Richard Rogers, in a similar style to the Pompidou Center in Paris; all the services are outside which allows for an open and flexible space inside. What most don't realise is that the front end facade of the erstwhile edifice was left - you walk through a newspaper sparse facade of the 18th Century into a building of the 21st. Because they are so dissimilar styles, fifty-fifty close upward you wouldn't take realised that this magnificent portico led on to the modern building ... now yous will!

I particularly similar the Athenian Oath on Richard Rogers website ..."We exit this metropolis not less merely greater, meliorate and more beautiful than it was left to us"

posted by Ham at 00:06 -- Comments here: two

Monday, December 19, 2005

My seasonal offer

What would a funeral parlour in Lambs Conduit Street (Central London) put in their window? Why, a nativity scene. It's obvious actually

posted by Ham at 00:05 -- Comments here: two

Dominicus, December 18, 2005

Wedding march

Going through Liverpool Street Station todayI came across a hymeneals coach, waiting for the happy couple, so I idea I would share it with y'all.

posted past Ham at 00:25 -- Comments hither: 0

Saturday, December 17, 2005

Been on the tube/metro/subway lately?

And then y'all take this chap to thank. James Henry Greathead (the original bighead!) was the chief engineeer of the Metropolis and South London Railway and inventor of the travelling shield. This was the device that permitted the deep underground tunnels to exist dug. Hither is a Wikipedia article on them - yous will see that virtually tunnels built today are nonetheless loosely based on his design. When? Well, the first line opened in 1890. I'm not sure I'd enjoy a steam train running deep underground, merely that's what they did.

He lives these days near Depository financial institution, at the height of Cornhill.

posted by Ham at 00:07 -- Comments hither: 3

Fri, Dec sixteen, 2005

After the bombs dropped

You are looking at the strangest bomb harm repair task I've e'er seen.

Very trivial of London carries any reminder of WW2, there are the occasional empty lot here and at that place, mostly concreted over and used for parking. Hither, in the Mile End Road is one of the oddest remmanents. The East Terminate was specially heavily bombed, peradventure that's why they just walled up each side, and put that funny bit in the eye.

I don't know what information technology was earlier the war, simply from the advent I would have said some sort of department store.

posted past Ham at 00:13 -- Comments here: 1

Th, December 15, 2005

Push button buttons! Plough Handles!

Today, I came across the automata exhibition at the Oxo Gallery on the South Depository financial institution, and I nowadays it here for your enjoyment. They are all exquisitely made and amusing. To appreciate it yous need to see them move which is why I haven't published shots of them, you tin see animations here or hither, only just await a the faces. I've posted some more photos on My Other Stuff. If you get the chance do, exercise go. Oh yes, it is free entrance as well.

posted by Ham at 00:eleven -- Comments hither: iii

Wed, December 14, 2005

Pomp & Circumstance

Here's a shot. It's a couple of years former, it's scanned and not that brilliant quality merely the story makes information technology worth posting. It is of the Lord Mayor of london'southward carriage in the almanac parade in November.

The story goes that this new wagon was built in the 18th Century - you tin can see how ornate it is - and the horses harnessed up. It weighed then much that the sleek horses that had been selected to pull it were straining to do so. The Lord Mayor that year owned the Whitbread Brewery, based in the City of London. "No problem" he said "we'll use our shire horses to pull it." As they were used to lugging loads of beer around on their wagons, information technology was not a problem. Ever since, the motorcoach has been kept at Whitbread'due south headquarters, and pulled around by the brewery'due south shire horses each twelvemonth.

Now, I don't know where - or if - fact and fiction dissever in this story. And practice you lot know? I don't intendance.

The Lord Mayor's parade is a wonderful pageant each yr using that wonderful combination of pomp and amateurism that we British do and then well. Hither is quite a overnice folio of pictures. (Better than this one which I took by sticking a photographic camera in the air and pressing the shutter!)

posted by Ham at 00:11 -- Comments here: 0

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

A London resident

For a lilliputian variety, here is a London resident. He lives here on a little triangle of grass in Tidal Basin Route simply by the Royal Victoria Dock, about half a mile from Canary Wharf. Many people don't realise that there are quite a few nature reserves in Docklands, although this isn't one. At that place is another shot of Dobbin and his friend, and one of the Dock on My Other Stuff.

posted by Ham at 00:05 -- Comments here: 2

Monday, Dec 12, 2005

The finger in the dyke...

Todays shot is of the ane affair that keps London going, the Thames Barrier.

The Thames is a tidal river, and the effect of the tide is magnified every bit the river progressively narrows going inland, past the fourth dimension the river gets to London in that location can be up to nearly xxx' of difference between highest and lowest tides. Walking forth one of the Thames pathways with the river level at pavement height is a disconcerting experience.

In order to forbid London flooding, the Thames Barrier was built. When information technology was conceived in 1966 it was expected to be raised once every six years. It was opened in 1984, and at present it operates 6 times a yr. Climate modify is existent, and it is here.

posted by Ham at 00:13 -- Comments here: 4

Sunday, Dec 11, 2005

Cants of Colchester - Alarm!

I read about Cants roses or Cants of Colchester here, whose opinion equally a gardner I trust, so bear that in mind if you are thinking of ownership plants there.

posted past Ham at 09:14 -- Comments hither: 6

A trivial known bridge

Today, a view of one of the least known Primal London bridges - the Hungerford foot bridge. This is a bridge connecting Charing Cantankerous with the South Bank. The staircases are favorite haunts for buskers - every at present and then you'll get a good one. Although information technology hasn't been as much in the news every bit its wobbly cousin downstream, it has been longer in the making and is - I recollect - but as interesting. I would have liked to captur it amend in the photos, and I shall carry on trying, considering it is .... syncopated. The bits don't happen when yous look them to. I've posted a side view of the bridge on my "My Other Stuff" blog.

posted past Ham at 00:27 -- Comments hither: 3

Saturday, Dec 10, 2005

Goodbye to an old friend

If you await very carefully at the photo, y'all volition not see a Routemaster coach, nobody will anymore. Today the last of the Routemaster buses were taken out of service.

They were the archetype double decker London motorcoach, with a conductor to take the fares and a platform at the rear that you lot could spring on or off when the bus was moving. Well, OK, that is why they take finally been laid to rest, but information technology is a deplorable moment. In the time to come, yous will only be able to see them on a site like this.

I call back the journeys I had on them as a kid - over an hour each way to schoolhouse - and the dreams I dreamt. It was on these buses I first thought that I would like to take photographs (OK, if you desire to be technical it was photographs of naked women), information technology was on these buses I dreamt the dreams of my life to come up - and at present they are gone. It is peculiarly poignant this night, when we accept a freezing fog in London, that I tin can remember the thick London fogs which are no more, where the conductor walked in front end of the bus considering you could run across no more than half dozen feet.

The skill learned over many years of how to drib nochalently off the bus at speed no has no relevance in our modern world. Requisat In Pace, one-time friend.

posted by Ham at 00:sixteen -- Comments here: 2

Friday, December 09, 2005

Not too far....

Today, for a modify, a current view of a bit of London 100 metres from my house. That's all

posted past Ham at 00:22 -- Comments here: 3

Thursday, December 08, 2005

Talking of odd entrances....

This is the entrance to the Crown Court Church of Scotland. Now, information technology's not a crown, it'southward non a court, but it is a church. And yeah, the archway really is through the side of the Fortune Theatre.

This church is right in the eye of Theatreland, only 50 yards from Drury Lane, and has been there for hundreds of years. I love the thought of the Elizabethan clerics able to slide out to the local bawdy houses (because that was what in that location was around there) when the feeling took them, as no doubt it did. I call up that information technology must have got its proper noun becaue information technology is also around the corner from the Bow Street Court, which is what gave its name to the Bow Street Runners, who turned into "Peelers" and and then the Metropolitan Police.

I recall that the Bow Street Runners may well accept been the inspiration for the City Watch in Terry Pratchett'due south books. A raggle-taggle agglomeration of people who concluded upwardly keeping the law because, well, that was what y'all did.

posted by Ham at 00:14 -- Comments here: 1

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Waterloo Station

This is ane of the almost curious frontages in London. This entrance to Waterloo Station is rather grand and built to commemerate the train workers who died in the First World State of war (So a sort of connexion to what I have posted on My Other Stuff). Only, it looks out onto nothing. Where it should expect out onto York Road it only faces a blank wall, supporting a railway track above Mepham Street. Strange.

I dear this station, information technology is the Eurostar terminal. And so when I travel to piece of work by tube (relatively infrequently) information technology's the hardest thing non to take the wrong turning and go to Paris instead. England has a wondeful heritage of the railway, only all too many have been modernised, improved and commercialised beyond recognition; for me this archway still promises romance.

posted by Ham at 00:09 -- Comments here: 0

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

A most British Establishment

This is Trumper's of Jermyn Street, i of my favourite London Streets. It'south history dates back to the 17th Century, when St James Foursquare and the surrounding streets were built on what had been fields. Just backside the bustle of Picadilly, it is a haven of all that is best. In this street y'all will find Fortnum & Mason, Paxton & Whitfield for your cheese, Lobbs or Trickers for your shoes, in fact all the shops that the Queen needs when she has to pop out for a bundle of ciggys or some such.

Trumpers (also, Taylors further downwards the street) is a gentleman's shop. Y'all can have a shave there, buy a razor, cufflinks and quite possibly "something for the weekend". Accept a little look in the window.

Nosotros are, after all, a nation of shopkeepers...

posted by Ham at 00:09 -- Comments here: 3

Lord's day, December 04, 2005

Something fishy

was in Petticoat Lane today, supposedly London's oldest market. I say supposedly, becaue I think some of the commercial food markets are older. This site shows well-nigh of the markets open up to the public.

Tubby Isaacs dates back to 1919, and so has been in the same place for as long equally only near anyone who is alive. Sepia seemed appropriate. Oh yep, 1 last matter .... jellied ells aren't most equally nasty every bit they look!

posted by Ham at 23:54 -- Comments hither: 2

The roof in a higher place our caput....

In this instance, that of the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. The reason for this post is to tell you that you must must must get to come across "The Producers" on stage if yous can, it is one of the funniest and best produced musicals I take seen. I was there today: information technology combines the flavour of a Buzby Berkley with the sense of humor of Mel Brooks and the timing of Tommy Cooper. Before I went I wondered if information technology was going to come up to the quality of the film; I needn't have worried. On a parallel path, it matches and exceeds the picture in almost every mode. There is some very clever use of stagecraft and trip the light fantastic toe, and the story is subtly adapted to ameliorate suit the medium. Fred Applegate made the Max Bialystock role his own, and although Cistron Wilder was looking over John Sinclair's shoulder some of the time that was no bad thing. Plenty at that place for the fathers, too....

If you have the risk, go.

posted by Ham at 00:04 -- Comments hither: 1

Saturday, Dec 03, 2005

The Millennium Dome

Today, I requite y'all what would happen if you pulled upwards the Eiffel Tower and jammed it upside-downwards through a pudding basin - The Millenium Dome. Surely everyone in the globe heard somehting about the shennanigans surrounding the building the dome? Here is some more info and and arial photo of it. Ultimatly, I'm pleased that it was congenital, even though nobidy seems to be able to detect a existent employ for it at the moment. 1 of the funniest stories has to be the failed Diamond Robbery in November 2000. Never mind the reporting, but think Keysone Cops.

The Dome will ultimately be remembered for more, only right at present here in the UK it is nonetheless considered a White Elephant designed by committee.

posted by Ham at 06:39 -- Comments here: 2

Friday, December 02, 2005

Liberté, égalité, fraternité!

WHAT IS PARIS DOING IN A LONDON PHOTO BLOG????
Well, today is the 200th Ceremony of the Battle of Austerlitz and so, hither is an extra photo for the twenty-four hour period, tipping my hat to our friends in France. It works well as a screen background, as well. Relish

posted by Ham at 09:54 -- Comments here: 4

The Monument

Today I present you lot with a photograph of the monument to the Burn down of London in 1666. It is built so that the height of the building (202 feet) is the exact distance abroad from where the fire started in Pudding lane. It is sandwiched in between office blocks now, situated but near London Bridge, just if you climb to the meridian viewing platform, you are rewarded by 1 of the best views of the city available. What's more, you don't even take to come to London to see it ... just click hither.

posted past Ham at 00:16 -- Comments here: 0

Thursday, Dec 01, 2005

Guys Hospital

Guys, or more than properly Guys & St Thomas Infirmary is the oldest hospital still effectually in some way. Described every bit ancient in 1215, it is hard to imagine the distillation of hurting, hope, grief and transcendance that has seeped into the footing. This shot is of the afterwards part, congenital around 1700. If yous look hard enough, you can almost run across those former sawbones.....

posted by Ham at 00:15 -- Comments here: 3

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