London: Soho, John Snow

John Snow Pub

“You know nothing, John Snow.”

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England: London, Battersea Power Station

The Battersea Power Station viewed from the Thames.

An iconic part of the Thames scene is the Battersea Power Station. This Art Deco-style structure dates from the 1930’s. It is the largest brick building in Europe. With its expansive cathedral-style design and 338 ft high smokestacks, Battersea Station commands the view from the Thames.

England: London, Poppies at the Tower of London

Poppies!

Between July and November of 2014, on the hundred-year anniversary of the beginning of World War I, 888,246 ceramic red poppies were installed in the moat of the Tower of London. The poppies were part of the art installation Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red. Each poppy is intended to represent one British or Colonial serviceman killed in the War. The War to End All Wars did not end all wars. Sadly it is estimated that 16 million people died as a result of the conflict.

England: London, Painted Hall and Chapel at the Old Royal Naval College Greenwich

Inside the chapel

From what we’ve seen, most visitors to Greenwich scurry up the hill to see the Royal Observatory and the prime meridian. At the observatory a line constructed in the pavement marks the position of the Greenwich Meridian, the consensus line of longitude 0°. Countless pictures have been snapped of tourists straddling the prime meridian line.

England: London, the Tower Bridge from the Water

Tower Bridge from below

Judging by the number of tourists with cameras in hand, the Tower Bridge is one of London’s most photographed landmarks. I admit that I too find this distinctive bridge over the Thames to be irresistibly photogenic. With all of the pictures taken, this is undoubtedly a bridge that needs no more photographs. Nevertheless, I’ll add a few more pictures of London’s famous bridge to Internet mix. In my defense, these pictures are taken from an unusual angle. They were snapped from the deck of our barge Wanderlust as we headed down the Thames on the way to a mooring nearby.

England: London, Dogs on the Tube

Can I get back on?

Our pooch Gigi usually travels with us. In fact our canine has visited more countries than most of our human friends, something she tries not to gloat about publicly. International air travel is easier the smaller the dog. But we didn’t choose Gigi for ease of travel. Indeed, we didn’t choose her at all. Like all good dogs, Gigi adopted her humans. And thus we find ourselves traveling with a full-grown Border Chinhuahua Terrier who weighs in around 25 kg. Gigi’s size creates certain limitations that we’ve learned to live with.

England: London, the Millennium Bridge

The Millennium Bridge

Crossing the Thames between the Blackfriars Railway and the Southwark Bridges is the Millennium Bridge. Opened in 2000, the Millennium Bridge creates a convenient walking route between St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Tate Modern Gallery. Today it is hard to imagine this stretch of the Thames without the bridge.

England: London, Architecture as Art

The Lloyd’s Building

London is in the midst of a tall building boom. Modern structures are now common and the city has become a hodge-podge of old and new. Some of the modern structures like the Shard and the Gherkin have redefined London’s skyline. Other structures make their impact up close.

London: Leadenhall Market

Inside Leadenhall Market

Occupying a covered space between the buildings in the City of London, it is easy to walk by the historic Leadenhall Market and not notice it is there. In fact, it was easy enough for us to miss it when we knew it was there. Chalk it up to a bad navigation day. With the signs pointing the direction and a map in hand, it should have been easy enough to find.

England: London, The Shard

The Shard viewed from the Thames.

An embarrassing truth: The first time that Becky and I saw The Shard, London’s new tallest building, we thought it wasn’t finished. To us it seemed like there was some significant work to do to finish up the ragged top. Perhaps, we thought sadly, in the new reality of the post-Financial Crisis days, the builders ran out of money before they were finished. In fact it seems that the subtleties of the Shard’s neo-futuristic design were lost on us. Construction of the Shard was finished the first time we saw the building. After all, though we didn’t know its name at the time, the building is called the Shard for a reason.