London (Pt 2)

Our second week (almost) in London has been very busy, but only after late starts! We've gone to quite a few shows so tend to wake up a bit late (well I do). Here are some pics.....

The Canal Museum was really interesting. In the mid 1880's (just prior to rail) they decided to facilitate transporting goods from the Thames docks (to the right of the map) to the established canal system throughout England (to the left of the map). The result was the Regents Canal (parallel to but above the Thames on the map). The old towpaths (for horses to drag the barges) are now busy pedestrian and bike paths and many people live on canal boats 'temporarily' moored. We went on a 'Cream Tea Cruise' on a converted canal boat for a short distance along part of the canal and through a 875m tunnel (hand cut under the city), as well as a lock (which we got to operate and was great fun and interesting).....

We followed another architectural history walk through Islington. So interesting to read about the emergence of London from open fields and how the designs evolved and differ..... 

One of our shows was to see Joe Jackson at Alexandra Palace ('Ally Pally') in north London. The show was fantastic. The building is massive (from 1873) and housed the original BBC television studios from 1930's to 1970's. During WW1 over 14,000 foreigners were interned there. It's set in a large historic park quite high, so there's good views across London toward the City and Canary Wharf....

We went back to Walthamstow where we lived in the late 1980's. We spent some time in a huge wetland area nearby then revisited our old haunts - and house...

Our friend Beth coincided with us for a week so we went to a few shows together. This was the Comedy Club which is very close by. Good fun and yes, funny.....

Over in Notting Hill they decided some years ago that it was OK to paint buildings bright colours. There's nothing historic about it, but creates some fetching streetscapes. The market was great and the walk around the area very interesting.....

Notting Hill - this is where The Pink Floyd and The Rolling Stones used to practice. The Clash played some of their first gigs here.....

Nice streetscapes in Notting Hill - the houses are surprisingly high. Whilst originally intended for the upper classes, it never really worked and after a while many houses were converted to flats. Those with large private communal gardens out the back were most successful and are pretty stupendous.... 

We've done a bit of cycling - London is fantastic for cycling with many dedicated lanes and otherwise pretty slow traffic or quiet streets. This is St James Palace at the eastern end of Pall Mall in St. James - not far from our place.....

There are a LOT of people in London in popular locations. This is Chinatown up the street, on Saturday night....

The V&A Museum never disappoints. It's so eclectic. I'd never been to the cafe and wow - it's an amazing space (series of rooms). The jewellery section is only small but we spent ages there as the descriptions and scope is so interesting. The photo shows the upper level of the jewellery section - the cabinet on the left contains an amazing collection of 1920's Vanity Cases (where ladies could have makeup, cigarettes and a notebook in one case - how handy!). Each is an Art Deco design treat. The collection is from Freddy Mercury (lent by his sister to the V&A). The tapestry room contains 1400's tapestries - so huge - very interesting....

Cycling back along Constitution Hill next to Buckingham Palace, then down The Mall - both closed on a Sunday to vehicles....

We went to another show at Ally Pally with Beth - City view and facade in the daytime....

Cycling is a bargain in London - for £3 you can hire bikes for 24hrs, but only for less than 30 minutes at a time. So you can get most places. But for longer trips you need to dock and wait 5 minutes. We did that to go from our place around Trafalgar Square, down Northumberland Avenue, west along the Embankment (on a bikeway) right through the City, to the east end; then up the Regents Canal (on the towpath) past Hackney to the start of an architectural heritage walk along the canal. Great fun, very interesting and highly aesthetic....

After the walk we biked again down into the City to visit the Bank of England museum, which was surprisingly interesting. You can lift a gold 'good delivery bar' (in a secure box), which weighs 13kg - it's freakin' heavy for its size - worth about $1.7m AUD at the moment. They claim to have 400,000 of them in the basement! Which google tells me is about 680 Billion!. The Bank of England is on the left. The Royal Exchange centre. Note the lack of vehicle traffic at 5.30pm on a weekday.....

The Monument - we past it on the way over to the (Tower) Bridge Theatre to see Guys and Dolls. It was erected in 1671 as a memorial for the Great Fire of London in 1666. Its height is exactly the distance to the bakery in Pudding Lane where the fire started. You can climb up - it's dwarfed now by city buildings....

Nice afternoon along the southern bank of the Thames....

We had lunch today in the Crypt Cafe around the corner, under St Martin's in the Field church. What a great spot - really good tucker - never been there before - fantastic apple crumble.....