Category: London

Juxtaposed in London

Juxtaposition. That’s what Patti wants from us for this week’s Lens-Artists Challenge. The unexpected frame-pairing.

I thought immediately of London, of a shot I took a while ago now showing the Gherkin, begun in 2001. Nearby, in the foreground, is one of London’s oldest still-standing buildings, the Tower of London, begun almost 1000 years before, in 1078. One, a glass and steel landmark in London’s present-day financial district: the other a foresquare stone monument to royal power, to Norman dominance, and to conquest. One is peopled by office workers – financiers. The other, once upon a time, by royals, nobility, and political prisoners. It’s my featured photo.

Let’s continue down the Thames on the waterbus service, the Thames Clipper. It’s easy to spot new development – apartment complexes for more moneyed citizens, with rusting old ships and barges tied up in the shallows.

We’ll leave our Thames Clipper at Greenwich, and walk up towards the Royal Observatory. Let’s join the crowd leaning over a balustrade to look at the city beyond. They echo and complement the skyscrapers they’re looking at.

Nearby, in Woolwich, an unlikely garden. A cracked and battered wall serving as an impromptu flower pot.

My last London shot is a slightly incongruous juxtaposition. Mudchute Farm, a community city farm and charity is on the densely-populated Isle of Dogs, surrounded by city life in all its forms – tower blocks, offices, social housing, businesses old and new. How mis-matched it feels to wander among farm animals browsing in their fields with the nearby back-drop of the high-rise development at Canary Wharf.

Thanks, Patti for an interesting challenge. I thought I couldn’t come up with anything. But I (sort of) got there in the end.

Alexis Soyer: My Latest Pin-Up

Last week, a blog post by Steve of A London Miscellany took my eye. It’s about a 19th Century French celebrity chef working in London who became struck by the plight of the city’s poor. Do read this post about a remarkable man: a talented cook and inventor with a practical social conscience.

I heartly recommend Steve’s weekly blog posts. He always has interesting and curious tales to tell about London’s past

Ham Yard, an apt setting

The image of Alexis Soyer shown as the featured photo is a picture painted by his wife, and currently in the Reform Club, London.

A Ghost Sign is a Shadow of its Former Self

I love a ghost sign. Advertising from way-back-when that simply took the form of the product’s name painted on the wall of a house or shop. Faded now, they’re a reminder of simpler times, and are merely a shadow of their former selves.

Non-Brits may not know that Courage is a British beer. This sign I spotted yesterday near Borough Market was sited near where the brewery began in 1787, founded by one – John Courage.

For Becky’s November Shadows.

A Bench by the Thames

On Thursday I walked the Thames Path from Woolwich via the Thames Barrier and the Millennium Dome to Cutty Sark in Greenwich. A story for another day. Today I’ll just show a view across the Thames, as enjoyed by two picnickers on a bench in the gentle shadow of the buildings near the Dome, especially selected for Jude’s Bench Challenge, and Becky’s NovemberShadows.

Ready to Defend: Ready to Attack

Woolwich, which these days comes over as Greenwich’s poor relation, was a critically important military base in the 18th and 19th centuries, serving as the centre for the British government’s armaments manufacturing and the headquarters for the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers. It housed the Royal Arsenal. It had barracks. It had a military academy. It was a garrison town. No wonder then that it feared being attacked. There were cannons at the ready, as it often felt under the shadow of war. Above, you can see one still poised for a prompt response, on the banks of the Thames.

And below, here is your intrepid reporter, camera at the ready, to record any possible action.

For Becky’s NovemberShadows.