London in winter.
This week, I have been in London for work - and the camera came too! I caught a particularly elegant corner of central London in a hard cold morning light and then again in the evening when the sky remained (unusually) clear and bright. If you would like to see, please click on the link.
When I arrived in the morning, the air was so cold that it seemed quite natural to find myself in the company of a polar explorer! Meet Captain Scott (of the Antarctic):
Opposite Scott rides King Edward VII:
This is how the king and his horse look in context:
On the next corner, stands a statue of a man with a sword. I felt some poignancy to think that, in his own day, this General was a great achiever and honoured, but now spends his time watching the people walk by in the street who do now know even his name, let alone what he achieved:
I was struck by the way that the crooked branches seem to throw a cage of protection over this lonely guardian of the square, his sword ready to act in an hour of need! The branches show with greater emphasis in a black and white version of the same photo:
This square (Woburn Place) is at the top of the Duke of York's steps, as is the column with the figure of the Duke of York himself:
Marching up the steps always amuses me because of the silly children's rhyme which is traditional in England:
The grand old Duke of York
he had ten thousand men.
He marched them up to the top of the hill
and he marched them down again.
And when they were up, they were up.
And when they were down, they were down.
And when they were only halfway up,
they were neither up nor down.
The rhyme is vaguely rude in that the Duke was criticized for his lack of brisk action when leading military campaigns; the story goes that there was a lot of pointless marching around but not much opportunity to fight.
The building that you can see on the right in the photo is typical of the style of architecture in this area (Pall Mall). Here is a better view - and it is where I am heading for work anyway:
I am heading for the Royal Society of London, which is a body of scientists (granted a royal charter in 1660) acting as a scientific adviser to Parliament, among other things. This window on one of the staircases shows the Society's coat of arms and motto (roughly translates as "words mean nothing" or "take nobody's word for it" i.e. test a theory until you have a satisfactory objective proof):
That window dates from 1960, the Society's 300th anniversary, but here is an older staircase:
and the wooden panel listing the Society's presidents at the top:
Work there done, I emerged into the open air and was happy to find the sunshine still bright but less harsh than in the morning. Here is the Duke's column with Edward VII in front; you can see the stonework in the column more clearly in the softer evening light:
From the top of the Duke of York's steps, I found a nice view of the London Eye (a huge metal wheel with viewing pods attached at intervals - a great tourist attraction but one which I have not yet tried):
The bobbles that you can see on the tree on the right of the photo are typical fruits of the plane tree. The plane will withstand a high level of pollution so it is very suitable for the city; it is also a beautiful genus (platanus).
I spent quite a bit of time trying to photograph this lady and her lion decently:
The bronze metal is hard to catch in such a bright light so I waited until the atmosphere was more dusky. Here she is from another viewpoint and with a bit of background colour removed:
With the sun going down, I took a quick shot of Regent Street before the light went:
One of the most elegant buildings here is the Athenaeum (a club founded in 1824 as a sort of knowledge exchange):
Here is a close up of Athena (Greek goddess of wisdom, courage, justice, intellectual accomplishments and all else good in a civilized person!):
By this time (I'd wasted a LOT of time waiting so that I didn't get traffic in my shots! London isn't that empty on a weekday), there was a rather dramatic sky behind King Edward:
Well, those sights were all rather grand and lofty but I brought myself down to earth with a short walk up Regent Street to the Japan Centre, where my stomach reminded me AT ONCE that I was hungry and where I bought some interesting seaweed and different tofu and a chunk of daikon (mooli), among other things! I looked into the mitsukoshi store next door and was amused to find these cute (English) kitsune:
Now they look as though they might have kept Captain Scott warm AND done some of the walking for him :=)
Hope you have enjoyed seeing a bit of my week and a bit of London.