Sightseeing Tour of London
When I was getting my stuff ready for my trip to London, I thought I could do a Day in Pictures post as it's been a while since I last did one and it seemed like an opportune time. However, when I checked my last DiP post, it turned out to be of the last time I went to London... Obviously, it was such a good idea, I had it twice. While I was in London, most of my pictures seemed to be about seeing the sights and getting about so I thought I'd turn it into a Sightseeing Tour of London instead. I took a LOT of photos so it's taken me a while to get them all off my camera and whitebalanced and whatnot. But without further ado, here is my London picspam. Beware if you're looking at this on a tablet or phone, cos there's 43 pictures here. And as usual, click on any picture for a larger version.
Hello! It's me! Almost ready to set off, thought I'd better take a quick selfie first because why not.
Must remember to pick up my butties and nibblies.
I hope this will be enough to keep me going the whole day, it's going to be a very busy one!
All packed and ready to go!
My feet always hurt after walking round London in my trainers so I'm hoping my Docs will stop that.
In my car just about to drive to the train station. Bang on schedule as well, give or take a minute.
On the train! Got all my travel essentials here: HUGE cup of coffee, a notebook (well, Dodopad if you're going to be pedantic) and something to read, in this case Bryant & May and the Invisible Code on my Nexus.
I had planned to visit quite a few places in London around either side of my appointment and got a route all sorted that would enable me to take them all in. So here we go, let's jump on the Tube down to Charing Cross. Here's a handy map I made showing the Tube routes I took if you're interested. You can see how far I travelled!
This is a statue of Oscar Wilde designed by Maggi Hambling, located on Adelaide Street.
It shows Oscar sitting up in his coffin, inviting passers-by to sit and chat with him. Sitting on his coffin. Kind of grotesque, I think.
And it's not even as though it's a nice looking statue either. It looks like he's all decomposing and eaten away. Ew.
Now to the hidden Roman Bath that's on Strand Lane by the Surrey Steps.
There's some doubt as to whether it really is Roman but it's a curiosity all the same.
This is the actual location of the Bath, behind that wrought iron fence on the right there.
And this is what I was greeted with. The window was completely steamed up so I couldn't see a thing inside it at all.
The grey switch on the right there is supposed to turn a light on so you can see better but it wasn't working. How disappointing!
Okay, onwards and upwards. Or seeing as I'm now at a Tube station, onwards and downwards.
This is Temple station which I've not been to before. It's not one of the nicer stations.
From here, I'm going to Baron's Court which will take about 20 minutes.
Margravine Cemetary, just outside Baron's Court makes a handy shortcut to get to the GIC.
I have a tendency to spend ages in here taking photos of squirrels and end up running late, must not do that today!
Right, appointment over and done with, onto the second part of the Sightseeing Tour. I've gone from Baron's Court to Westminster station on the Jubilee line. The whole line has these glass safety doors which only open when the Tube stops. It all looks very highly technological, more like an airport or something. It's the only line on the Tube to have these as well as far as I'm aware (though I'm sure any Londoners will correct me on that). Random fact, this is the nearest Tube station to the Ministry of Magic. Well, it's the one they used for filming The Order of the Phoenix when Harry and Mr Weasley went to the Ministry.
I got out at London Bridge and ended up walking the wrong way initially
but I found myself underneath the Shard so thought I might as well take a photo.
Just opposite where I was standing on Tooley Street, I happened to see this... whatever it is.
Google finally tells me that it's one half of German artist Stephan Balkenhol’s wooden Couple sculptures
and there's a woman sculpture to go with it but I didn't see that.
Having finally found the right direction, I made my way to Stoney Street by Borough Market. This innocuous little florist's was used as the exterior location for the Leaky Cauldron in the Prisoner of Azkaban film. Next door but one is the Market Porter which also featured in the the Prisoner of Azkaban film as the Third Hand Book Emporium. To be honest, I think they should have used the pub as the Leaky Cauldron, it looks more like how I imagined it.
Just round the corner from Stoney Street is Park Street and right at the end there is the original location for the Globe theatre. It's all fenced off so you can't get onto it as it's a Preservation Area. The darker cobblestones that you can see there mark the actual remains of the Globe.
A little bit further on is the Millennium Bridge.
It looks like people have started using the Millennium Bridge as a UK version of the Pont de l'Archevêché in Paris
where couples fasten padlocks onto the side of the bridge and throw the key into the river to represent their undying love. Aw.
I love how these photos came out, not bad for a quick snapshot!
On the other side of the Thames is the Thames Path which runs [mostly] all the way along the side of the river
and makes for a very nice walk. There's a nice shot of the reconstructed Globe.
After quite a bit of walking, I got to London Bridge. Which is apparently neither falling down nor in the US.
Now somewhere around here is a hidden viewing terrace which is perfectly situated to take photos of Tower Bridge.
It's at St Magnus House, 3 Lower Thames Street (if you want exact directions, let me know,
this post is getting long enough as it is without adding them in here!)
Photos of Tower Bridge and the Shard taken from the hidden terrace. It really is ideally located for the best shot of the bridge. Hee, I managed to get two red London buses going across the bridge! What timing.
HMS Belfast with City Hall behind, again taken from the terrace.
And some handsome devil that I found up there and couldn't resist taking photos of. Hullo!
They're not the best photos of me cos some elderly couple was hanging around also taking photos and I felt v self-conscious taking selfies.
Another lengthy stroll and I'm now in Bull's Head Passage off Gracechurch Street.
This opticians was the original Leaky Cauldron in the Philosopher's Stone film.
It looks way better than the Stoney Street location, I don't know why they had to change it.
There were some businessmen standing next to it talking for AGES
and I didn't really want to take photos of an opticians while they were there.
I had to take this very quickly and thankfully it came out okay.
At the end of the Passage is Leadenhall Market which is gorgeous! And quite fittingly, it was used as Diagon Alley in the Philosopher's Stone film.
Okay, it's getting pretty late now and starting to go dark. I was walking down the street that's just on the right of this photo
and I saw the clock there which alerted me to the fact that it was 5pm.
I had no idea where I was until I turned the corner and found this building. It looks vaguely familiar...
it's the Royal Exchange! (Not the Bank of England as I overheard some tourists claiming.)
My last stop of the day is the Museum of London.
It was further away than I thought so I jumped on the Tube at Bank and got off at Barbican.
I had a hell of job working out where the entrance is because it's kind of located on a roundabout at a busy junction with no visible way in!
I got here just at 5.30, an hour and a half later than I'd intended and 10 minutes before they started closing :(
I only wanted to see the Radio Times exhibition because it had some Doctor Who stuff so I quickly hurried down to it.
I took a few photos of some things at the exhibition which I will just link to here:
the mock up of the Dalek Radio Times cover
one of David Tennant's many Radio Times covers
some random drawing of what looks like Four but I have no idea what it's from
the original schematics for the Daleks construction
BBC's press release for some new programme called Doctor Who
But I'll post this Dalek pic because it's a good one.
This was right next to the Radio Times exhibit. It's the Lord Mayor's coach and is over 250 years old.
It's HUGE and incredibly ornate. And it's still in use!
I dread to think how they get it out. I presume the windows behind it open up onto the street.
Well, that's the Sightseeing Tour over.
I got on the Tube at St Paul's and here I am back at Euston.
My feet are killing me - so much for the Docs - and I'm starving.
I found tea at Camden Food Co. Chicken tikka masala which was very nice actually and came heated up,
followed by a particularly fine example of a lemon and poppy seed muffin.
And mango flavoured ice tea! Which I had for the first and last time in Greece several years ago and haven't seen in the UK before.
Back on the train. Literally I suppose as I was travelling backwards which I hate.
The Pendolinos make me feel sick as it is, travelling backwards makes it worse.
I shall pass the time finishing off my book and drinking tea.
I have finally made it back to my car. It's 12½ hours since I left it. It has really been a very long day.
Back at home whoo hoo.
I just have enough energy for one last selfie before I collapse in bed.
So there you have it! I hope you enjoyed my Sightseeing Tour of London, I think it perhaps included some aspects that most regular sightseeing trips wouldn't include, namely all the geekery. But what else would you expect from me?
Hello! It's me! Almost ready to set off, thought I'd better take a quick selfie first because why not.
Must remember to pick up my butties and nibblies.
I hope this will be enough to keep me going the whole day, it's going to be a very busy one!
All packed and ready to go!
My feet always hurt after walking round London in my trainers so I'm hoping my Docs will stop that.
In my car just about to drive to the train station. Bang on schedule as well, give or take a minute.
On the train! Got all my travel essentials here: HUGE cup of coffee, a notebook (well, Dodopad if you're going to be pedantic) and something to read, in this case Bryant & May and the Invisible Code on my Nexus.
I had planned to visit quite a few places in London around either side of my appointment and got a route all sorted that would enable me to take them all in. So here we go, let's jump on the Tube down to Charing Cross. Here's a handy map I made showing the Tube routes I took if you're interested. You can see how far I travelled!
This is a statue of Oscar Wilde designed by Maggi Hambling, located on Adelaide Street.
It shows Oscar sitting up in his coffin, inviting passers-by to sit and chat with him. Sitting on his coffin. Kind of grotesque, I think.
And it's not even as though it's a nice looking statue either. It looks like he's all decomposing and eaten away. Ew.
Now to the hidden Roman Bath that's on Strand Lane by the Surrey Steps.
There's some doubt as to whether it really is Roman but it's a curiosity all the same.
This is the actual location of the Bath, behind that wrought iron fence on the right there.
And this is what I was greeted with. The window was completely steamed up so I couldn't see a thing inside it at all.
The grey switch on the right there is supposed to turn a light on so you can see better but it wasn't working. How disappointing!
Okay, onwards and upwards. Or seeing as I'm now at a Tube station, onwards and downwards.
This is Temple station which I've not been to before. It's not one of the nicer stations.
From here, I'm going to Baron's Court which will take about 20 minutes.
Margravine Cemetary, just outside Baron's Court makes a handy shortcut to get to the GIC.
I have a tendency to spend ages in here taking photos of squirrels and end up running late, must not do that today!
Right, appointment over and done with, onto the second part of the Sightseeing Tour. I've gone from Baron's Court to Westminster station on the Jubilee line. The whole line has these glass safety doors which only open when the Tube stops. It all looks very highly technological, more like an airport or something. It's the only line on the Tube to have these as well as far as I'm aware (though I'm sure any Londoners will correct me on that). Random fact, this is the nearest Tube station to the Ministry of Magic. Well, it's the one they used for filming The Order of the Phoenix when Harry and Mr Weasley went to the Ministry.
I got out at London Bridge and ended up walking the wrong way initially
but I found myself underneath the Shard so thought I might as well take a photo.
Just opposite where I was standing on Tooley Street, I happened to see this... whatever it is.
Google finally tells me that it's one half of German artist Stephan Balkenhol’s wooden Couple sculptures
and there's a woman sculpture to go with it but I didn't see that.
Having finally found the right direction, I made my way to Stoney Street by Borough Market. This innocuous little florist's was used as the exterior location for the Leaky Cauldron in the Prisoner of Azkaban film. Next door but one is the Market Porter which also featured in the the Prisoner of Azkaban film as the Third Hand Book Emporium. To be honest, I think they should have used the pub as the Leaky Cauldron, it looks more like how I imagined it.
Just round the corner from Stoney Street is Park Street and right at the end there is the original location for the Globe theatre. It's all fenced off so you can't get onto it as it's a Preservation Area. The darker cobblestones that you can see there mark the actual remains of the Globe.
A little bit further on is the Millennium Bridge.
It looks like people have started using the Millennium Bridge as a UK version of the Pont de l'Archevêché in Paris
where couples fasten padlocks onto the side of the bridge and throw the key into the river to represent their undying love. Aw.
I love how these photos came out, not bad for a quick snapshot!
On the other side of the Thames is the Thames Path which runs [mostly] all the way along the side of the river
and makes for a very nice walk. There's a nice shot of the reconstructed Globe.
After quite a bit of walking, I got to London Bridge. Which is apparently neither falling down nor in the US.
Now somewhere around here is a hidden viewing terrace which is perfectly situated to take photos of Tower Bridge.
It's at St Magnus House, 3 Lower Thames Street (if you want exact directions, let me know,
this post is getting long enough as it is without adding them in here!)
Photos of Tower Bridge and the Shard taken from the hidden terrace. It really is ideally located for the best shot of the bridge. Hee, I managed to get two red London buses going across the bridge! What timing.
HMS Belfast with City Hall behind, again taken from the terrace.
And some handsome devil that I found up there and couldn't resist taking photos of. Hullo!
They're not the best photos of me cos some elderly couple was hanging around also taking photos and I felt v self-conscious taking selfies.
Another lengthy stroll and I'm now in Bull's Head Passage off Gracechurch Street.
This opticians was the original Leaky Cauldron in the Philosopher's Stone film.
It looks way better than the Stoney Street location, I don't know why they had to change it.
There were some businessmen standing next to it talking for AGES
and I didn't really want to take photos of an opticians while they were there.
I had to take this very quickly and thankfully it came out okay.
At the end of the Passage is Leadenhall Market which is gorgeous! And quite fittingly, it was used as Diagon Alley in the Philosopher's Stone film.
Okay, it's getting pretty late now and starting to go dark. I was walking down the street that's just on the right of this photo
and I saw the clock there which alerted me to the fact that it was 5pm.
I had no idea where I was until I turned the corner and found this building. It looks vaguely familiar...
it's the Royal Exchange! (Not the Bank of England as I overheard some tourists claiming.)
My last stop of the day is the Museum of London.
It was further away than I thought so I jumped on the Tube at Bank and got off at Barbican.
I had a hell of job working out where the entrance is because it's kind of located on a roundabout at a busy junction with no visible way in!
I got here just at 5.30, an hour and a half later than I'd intended and 10 minutes before they started closing :(
I only wanted to see the Radio Times exhibition because it had some Doctor Who stuff so I quickly hurried down to it.
I took a few photos of some things at the exhibition which I will just link to here:
the mock up of the Dalek Radio Times cover
one of David Tennant's many Radio Times covers
some random drawing of what looks like Four but I have no idea what it's from
the original schematics for the Daleks construction
BBC's press release for some new programme called Doctor Who
But I'll post this Dalek pic because it's a good one.
This was right next to the Radio Times exhibit. It's the Lord Mayor's coach and is over 250 years old.
It's HUGE and incredibly ornate. And it's still in use!
I dread to think how they get it out. I presume the windows behind it open up onto the street.
Well, that's the Sightseeing Tour over.
I got on the Tube at St Paul's and here I am back at Euston.
My feet are killing me - so much for the Docs - and I'm starving.
I found tea at Camden Food Co. Chicken tikka masala which was very nice actually and came heated up,
followed by a particularly fine example of a lemon and poppy seed muffin.
And mango flavoured ice tea! Which I had for the first and last time in Greece several years ago and haven't seen in the UK before.
Back on the train. Literally I suppose as I was travelling backwards which I hate.
The Pendolinos make me feel sick as it is, travelling backwards makes it worse.
I shall pass the time finishing off my book and drinking tea.
I have finally made it back to my car. It's 12½ hours since I left it. It has really been a very long day.
Back at home whoo hoo.
I just have enough energy for one last selfie before I collapse in bed.
So there you have it! I hope you enjoyed my Sightseeing Tour of London, I think it perhaps included some aspects that most regular sightseeing trips wouldn't include, namely all the geekery. But what else would you expect from me?