I havent posted a thread on London on here for quite a while, so to make up for this Im creating the one youre reading now. It will be pretty big and it will be updated every now and then, and in the following posts I will attempt to showcase the many different faces of London ; the beautiful, the ugly, the grand and the eccentric.
London a global, multicultural city with history stretching back 2000 years. A grand, ugly, beautiful, eccentric, lively, chaotic, magnificent city. A city which for most of its history has been at the centre of things, it was the birthplace of many things too and some would even argue that it was London that gave birth to the modern World. Indeed, so much has been written about London that I feel that theres nothing new that I could add, so the best thing to do is to go to the photos.
1. The Palace of Westminster or simply the Houses of Parliament. An icon of London and what better place to start than here? Constructed by architect Sir Charles Barry with Augustus W. N. Pugin an authority on Gothic architecture as his assistant. The construction lasted over thirty years, but in the end it was worth it. What we have now is perhaps the most iconic building in the World.
2. Queen Annes Gate a rather grand street consisting mainly of Georgian terraces and situated to the north of the ugly and noisy Victoria Street. It is interesting to note that just a few hundred metres to the south was located a notorious slum called Devils Acre which was destroyed in 1850-1875. In London the very poor lived next to the very rich. It is still the case in some parts.
3. The Admiralty or one of its buildings called Old Admiralty Building a grand piece dating from the late 19th century. I had the pleasure of visiting it during the Open House weekend, the interiors are breathtaking.....
4. Three Colts Lane in Bethnal Green, a massive Allen & Hanburys warehouse with other industrial buildings. Im not sure what it is used for these days, but it provides nice contrast to the building seen above.
5. Trinity Court on Grays Inn Road, a lovely 8 storey Art-Deco apartment building, just a stones throw away from the elegant and intellectual Bloomsbury.
6. Bedford Square in Bloomsbury. It was built between 1775 and 1783 as un upper class district, however it was mainly settled by intellectuals of all sorts and not the 'leisure' classes as its developers hoped.
7. Quaker Street in a rather quiet part of otherwise lively Spitalfields.
8. Scrutton Street in Shoreditch. This part of London is well known for its 'alternative' culture and has loads of great examples of street art, unfortunately some people see this as 'vandalism'.
9. Greencoat Place a lovely street of modest 19th century houses. Westminster Cathedral (not Abbey) is just around the corner.
10. Piccadilly Circus, no thread of London is complete without it! As all of you already know Piccadilly Circus is famous for its Statue of Eros (1892-1893) and Illuminated signs, first of which appeared in 1910. The place is always full of people.