Arriving in London, Paddington Bear waves hat to friends (date unknown)
Emperor Trajan makes a point in Latin at the nearly 2000-year-old Roman Wall
Middle section of Buckingham Palace on a beautiful day
Tower of London, begun 1078
Pump and pub in Soho commemorate how in the 1800s Dr John Snow suggested that the original water pump here contributed to a cholera epidemic (handle was removed until epidemic ended)
Sad Eyes, London Clowns Gallery, 2 Cumberland Close, near Dalston Junction station
River Westbourne flows in metal culvert over Sloan Square station
River Thames, retired light cruiser, London Bridge, City Hall, and Shard Building as seen through roof-level glass enclosure of Sky Garden at 20 Fenchurch Street (Tower Bridge on left just out of view)
Tower Bridge much more often closed than open. Large boats request passage 24 hours in advance
Entrance to High Street Kensington Underground station
Little Ben clock, Victoria Street (erected 1892)
The Big Easy (nickname for New Orleans) American styled restaurant at Canary Wharf
Protected 19th century music hall at Graces Alley, Cable Street (opened 1859)
Big Ben near the Westminster Bridge
Vauxhall Bridge has eight large bronze statues (easily seen from passing boats)
One Vauxhall statue holds St Paul's; another seems to watch water drain from a pipe
Mid-Georgian shop 1756, at 58 Artillery Lane (originally 3 Raven Row)
Hilltop view of Thames and Canary Wharf from Royal Greenwich Observatory (now a museum)
World famous sign
Albert Bridge with now-unused tollbooths connects Chelsea in north with Battersea in south; tourists may not march lockstep :)
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The Archer atop East Finchley station
Side trip to Bletchley Park, north of London, where military codes were broken during WW2
Specially designed early-1940s Packard for Bletchley code-breakers to drive
Back on Cromwell Road, artwork commemorating East European victims of communism
Grand Union Canal and Paddington Underground station side by side
Afternoon sun at posh Cambridge Gate Mews on Outer Circle near Regents Park
District Line heading east
Sky Garden is a three-storey glass dome with a great view, at 20 Fenchurch Street
The shop with the odd clock at 430 Kings Road, Chelsea
Clapham Junction, a very busy station with 17 platforms; which section was built first?
Sloan Square with its Venus Fountain under the trees
Christmas on Stratton Street, opened 1927; five stars
Two-hours from London, each way, to Botany Bay beach
Opened 1868 by the Metropolitan District Railway, now serves District, Circle and Piccadilly lines
The Underground no longer stops at Strand Station; its location shows at right of heritage map
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Fountain in Regents Park on a stormy day
Partial view of central London looking south from Parliament Hill at Hampstead Heath
Photographer risks life to get photo of bus and BT Tower :)
Ealing Broadway Tube station safety bumpers
Someone's watching
A second home
Thameslink train at station where platforms span Blackfriars Train Bridge, over Thames River
Lillie Bridge Depot maintenance shed in Fulham (bordering on Earls Court); photo shows removal preparations for above-ground redevelopment
Lots Road Power House near Chelsea Harbour used for nearly a century
Trendy pub in rounded building on curved street
Fairy Tale Bridge
Partial view of central London looking north from Forest Hill
Fortress Bank of England
Where District, Circle, and Hammersmith & City Underground lines call (note vintage lettering at top)
Partial view of Limehouse Basin, linking Regents Canal with River Thames
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Regents Canal narrowboat
Creative BnB accommodation at Elephant & Castle railway station? :)
One of London's trendy versions of a 1950s American diner (or as the movie American Graffiti asked, Where were you in '62?)
Indoor elephant at Waterloo station
Hotel with period furnishings in business since 1764 at Cowcross Street, Clerkenwell, Islington
Busy Earl's Court station, District Line platforms
Fake wall is said to be five feet thick
Long ago accommodations; but where?
More recent, in Illchester Gardens, Bayswater
Penywern Road in Earls Court
Fifty-seat Finsborough Theatre in West Brompton built in 1868
At the London Bridge City Pier
Remnant of grand staircase of the Sydenham Hill Crystal Palace replica that burned down in 1936 having replaced the Crystal Palace of 1851 at Hyde Park
Crystal Palace grounds Sydenham Hill (photographer's shadow, lower left)
Front door to house on a street somewhere in London (response to long-ago false prank)
Museum site for postal-railroad that once carried bulk mail beneath the streets
Famous British film actor of 1920s-1930s, bulky pants, tight shirt
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Showbiz on the street
What a difference a century or two make (anonymous web image on right)
The old and new at a riverside warehouse on Narrow Street
Westminster Cathedral roof; photo taken after ride in lift (elevator)
Commerce on the Thames
Waiting in the rain for noontime lunch date at St Paul's Church, Covent Garden?
The Church Bell Foundry was the oldest manufacturing company in Great Britain. It is now a Grade II listed building. It’s patents were sold to the bell-hanging company Whites of Appleton in Oxfordshire. The Recast Big Ben and original Liberty Bell were made here; sadly it’s no longer open :(
Last surviving ancient gate to The City
Who has seen Molly Moggs of the Rose?
Dr Johnson's house (protected property, 17 Gough Square); and the writer's favorite cat, Hodge
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Larry the Cat giving speech and taking pictures at 10 Downing Street (both images by J. Ng @Number10cat)
Cannon 36-pounder at St Katharine Docks
West End theatre, in Charing Cross Road, Westminster
Believe it or not ----> London tall-man | Los Angeles tall-man (differing styles)
Old Stairs down to River Thames in Wapping, where you can find centuries old pottery fragments; but watch your footing if the steps are wet (as I had to)
Entrance to Piccadilly Circus Underground station (has linear clock in ticket hall that shows the time in all parts of the world); public subway sign here refers to a nearby roadway underpass
Dinner for three at Hampton Court Palace?
Riverside tavern with unusual device; meeting place for pirates
Outside Baker Street Underground station at left; pub by the Thames on right
In Earls Court
Staple Inn (Grade I protected building) is a Tudor building on the south side of High Holborn
Museum on Cromwell Road
A shilling first minted during reign of Henry VII; it was worth twelve pence before decimalization of British currency, circulating afterwards with new value until 1990 (tracing paper was used here to soften kitchen window daylight coming from the left; the background was a colourful piece of junk mail)
Pre-decimalization copper halfpenny used from 1860 until withdrawn from circulation
View several blocks from 20 Fenchurch Street in The City (called Walkie-Talkie Building)
Lower two of four floors on Craven Street; only Franklin house in world still standing
Outside The Old Bailey
St George Wharf Tower, largest residential skyscraper; floor-plan uses Catherine Wheel
High wheel (penny-farthing) bicycle near the British Museum
Working cinema built in 1910 on Portobello Road in Notting Hill with a capacity seating of 83; films can be viewed from reclining seats, sevaral couches, or a bed
On Portobello Road, RCA record player possibly sold by now
Covent Garden
Low tide at a canal branch (Was lost diamond deposited here by high tide?)
Westminster Abbey seen from above
Five-centuries long project: construction began in 1245 (Henry III) and finished in 1745 (available for tourists, daily relgious services, weddings, funerals, and coronations)
One of the best fish and chips places in London, at Lisson Grove, where Eliza Doolittle of the play Pygmalion lived "doing little" but peddling flowers at Covent Garden
Orchard Place Trinity Buoy Wharf, twelve minute walk from East India DLR train station
Little Venice, Warwick Avenue Underground station awhile back
02 Arena in background in North Greenwich; in the foreground is a tugboat built in 1924, a bit of the Thames, and the Time and Tide Bell--all next to Longplayer music project at Trinity Buoy Wharf
Is the lighthouse at Trinity Buoy Wharf broadcasting music next to the 1950s styled American diner? The diner was brought by sea from Georgetown Massachusetts. It was nearly the last diner made (No. 849) by the Worcester Lunch Car Company.
Thames River, Fishmongers' Hall, and London Bridge courtesy of Google Map screen shot
Thames River and Fishmongers' Hall taken at London Bridge by me
Baker Street station 1863, first train station built underground in the world
Dancing in the street
Old London street seen through time-travel device :)
Elephant & Castle Underground station (image courtesy of Google-map screen shot)
Was a ramp to Kingsway underground tram station at Southampton Row and Theobolds Road in Holborn (closed in 1952); present-day image courtesy of Google maps and then posterized
Half of comfort station; spend a penny?
Ghost advert 26 Lillie Road, Fulham
Bicycle and fog
Flying high on the Emirates Air Line
Bus with several destinations at the London Transport Museum
Wimbledon
Centre Court, now with retractable roof
Museum bones
In the 1930s Woolworth stores had WSG Classic scales operated by an attendant in white uniform who filled in customers' weight cards; today you're on your own, 20 pence at Marylebone Station (photographer's weight a bit over 12 st)
Marylebone Station with railway ticket readers and with Underground pads for tapping in and out
Visit just once, bet two hundred pounds at roulette (if you can afford it) on number 13, see what happens and then leave regardless of outcome
Camden Town roof art
Vertical landing?
Vintage sign for long-ago train services now provided by Underground
Buckingham Palace as seen from footbridge in St James's Park in June
Buckingham Palace as seen by a passing off-course Albatross
Queen Elizabeth birthday celebration as nine planes fly over Buckingham Palace
Photographer did buy this book with wonderful dust jacket to take home
Hatchard's bookshop on Piccadilly, oldest in London (established 1797)
Heritage Route 15, the only line in London still operating classic Routemaster buses
Great Fire of London in 1666 missed Hoop & Grapes Pub by 50 yards! So I ordered a 7up
Fulham Pottery (or bottle) kiln near Putney Bridge, here since 1672
Another soda at another pub
Hampstead Heath, courtesy of Google map screen-shot and Photoshop painting tool
Station sits on Docklands Light Railway (DLR) trestle (station name added by editing image)
Spike Milligan, comedian, actor (bench in Finchley)
Central London will be defended! :)
Massive 15-inch (barrel diameter) guns at Lambeth Road. This building also defended :)
World-famous Supermarine Spitfire plane and other items of interest
T-34 tank
British Red Cross Jeep
Store-window man found awhile back on Shaftesbury Avenue in West End
Famous director once lived here on top two floors, 153 Cromwell Road, Earls Court
A famous 1960s music group lived in building on left in Flat L
Daytrip to Blackpool in stereo; tower inspired by five-years-older Eiffel Tower
Car from long ago gets ride on flatbed, perhaps on its way for use in a period movie
Boston Manor House in Hounslow, built in 1622-3, sometimes used for period films
Deptford Creek, which connects the River Ravensbourne with the River Thames
Queen Victoria at Kensington Palace in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
Palace as seen by passing eagle
Ninety-five storey Shard Building in Southwark (pronounced "sutherk")
A bit of the Greenwich Railway Viaduct with 851 semicircular arches, built 1834 to 1836
In Earls Court
Day trip to Bath, where Romans used naturally surfacing warm water for public baths
One of the beautiful streets in Bath, which is about one hundred miles west of London
London, St Martin's Lane, theatre district
Leadenhall Market built 1881; in an earlier market here gander "Old Tom" came to be a market favorite, surviving allegedly to the ripe age of 38 (the surrounding inns set scraps aside for him)
Brentford in West London
Early morning boating
Christmas lights in London
Some pigeons ride the Tube to get to hard-for-them-to-reach stations without paying a fare
The very modern Tube station at Westminster London with 17 escalators
South Kensington Underground station
London's most famous bridge
Woolrich is one of two foot tunnels under River Thames opened 1912; it is a Grade II protected site
Proof to fire fighters you've paid your fire insurance, centuries ago
St Paul's Cathedral; by Sir Christopher Wren with first stone set in 1675
One of its magnificent side doors
Living room circa 300 AD, Museum of London
"Taxi!" station closed in 1940 (WW2) reopened 1999
Two of the 17 wall-tile artworks celebrating Alfred Hitchcock films at Leytonstone Underground station
Photographer and new friend Paddington Bear climb the 311 steps
Then it was time for lunch near the Leadenhall Building, othewrise known as the "Cheesegrater"
Enthusiastic horse and Richard I, Warrior King at Parliament
Ghost advert for tea at 2 pence (pre-decimalization value); note overhanging white metalwork with letters LTSR (partly showing backwards) for the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway that built open-air station in 1858
'Fairytale' bridge and dual locks on Regents Canal in Camden Town
Not far from above locks (towpath on left was once for horses pulling barges)
Meanwhile upstairs at the Sherlock Holmes Pub
Earl's Court station on Earls Court Road. Is it the last remaining blue police telephone box or a time machine known as TARDIS?
Busiest station in UK; some passengers make connections with buses here and some change trains here (more than 100 trains stop per hour at peak times)
One pint of ale at Seven Dials London intersection (seven streets, six smaller sundials set at the top of a central post that also serves as a larger sundial
Center post serves as a sundial of sorts
Center post of Seven Dials at Christmas
Wendy Taylor's "Timepiece," with dockyard nail and dotted hours
Somerset House—with its 55 courtyard fountains—is an arts and cultural centre in the heart of London; in winter you can skate on its ice rink.
Somerset House staircase
Urban Canary Wharf (One Canada Square at left, HSBC Tower at 8 Canada Square)
Walking closser to subject in Kew Gardens
Changes taking place in courtyard at St James Palace
Brompton Cemetery one block from photographer's hotel
Earls Court construction, triangular Empress State Building, from Boka Hotel window
Route 74 bus wends its way on West Cromwell Road for Baker Street station
View of previous viewpoint
Bridge at Shadwell Basin
Cemetery arches
Entrance to Brompton Catacombs (subterranean galleries) built under colonnaides
The Gate Clock bar at Greenwich, London near Deptford Creek and the Thames
Somewhere in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
Opened in 1902, this second foot tunnel is a convenient link for pedestrians between the Isle of Dogs and Greenwich town centre
Cutty Sark in dry dock just across from the Isle of Dogs
Cutty Sark topside
The Shard building's name comes from its broken-glass shape at top.
Art project on a Gloucester Road Tube-platform no longer used for trains
A bit of London's modern reconstruction of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre
Dreamy "yacht" at St Katherine Docks
College store on the left; museum exhibit on the right
Center front view of the London Museum of Natural History
One of the most photographed intersections in the world, this particular version taken by me 46 years after original version that appeared on the Beatles Abbey Road album; now a protected site
Paddington Underground station
One of 13 remaining cabman shelters built by a charitable organazition in 1800s to offer snacks and tea for drivers of hansom cabs and later hackney carriages (taxicabs); this one was built near Temple Place and Victoria Embankment; the idea came from the Earl of Shaftesbury (Grade II protected property)
Get your "Passports to Pimlico" ready (this image similar to exterior shot in the classic 1949 Ealing Studios movie)
Bridge silhouette and moored boats (domiciles)?
Tribute to Agatha Christie
One of London's ghost signs
Door to trendy coffee house (Troubadour, opened 1954) on Old Brompton Road
Zipcar rental at its reserved space on public street
Sidewalk denizen center city
Call to dinner? (Kew Palace, built in 1631)
River workers
On Narrow Street one of London's historic pubs
Museum of Curiosities; God's own junkyard
Sculpture on the street
Ghost sign?
Bell ringers Gog and Magog at work?
Bird with a distinct personality
A day at the river
Chelsea Harbour from above; boats can access marina at high tide
Chelsea Harbour, just off the Thames
Photographer leaves for home
Older photos
Photographer arrives by train
Authorities keep an eye on the photographer from across the pond
HMS Belfast, light cruiser built for Royal Navy (supported Normandy landings)
Bus to Liverpool Street and pedestrians cross River Thames via famous bridge
Heavy security for halls of government at 10 Downing Street
Famous clock in silhouette
Singing the blues?
Now that's a bubble!
There are crowds everywhere
Looking warily at the photographer
Are they rushing across the Thames to eat ribs :)
Security is always important! (Taken with long lens from sidewalk)
Where lawbreakers are sent--Tower of London (exterior section) :)
We'll end at a pub on Monument Street, hoping to spot poem reciters Tweedle Dum, Tweedle Dee, and Alice
"The sun was shining on the sea, Shining with all his might: He did his very best to make The billows smooth and bright — And this was odd, because it was The middle of the night. ..."
You can't spend half crowns today at The Walrus and the Carpenter. But the half crown as a gold coin dates to 1526, the first silver ones being minted in 1551. The cupro-nickel version shown here, worth 30 pre-decimalization pence or two and a half shillings, was withdrawn in 1969