Trip to London - Chinese New Year
This year the Lunar New Year fell on Monday 23rd January when I happened to be in London for work. Naturally I headed for Chinatown in the evening and took my camera for company.
The photos in this post are of Piccadilly (including Fortnum and Mason, the London Pavilion and Criterion Theatre), Holborn (including the town hall and the Royal Fusiliers war memorial), Covent Garden, Oxford Street (including Marble Arch) and, of course, Chinatown (including cake, Year of the Dragon cake, lanterns and an inflated tael!).
First, the speckled dawn from a very early coach to London:
Work took me to Holborn and past the town hall with its fine heraldic crest:
Here is a view of the main road in Holborn which shows some of the old timbered buildings with their typical black and white colouring:
The monument is a memorial to the fallen of the Royal Fusiliers. Here's a close-up of the statue at the top:
There are quite a few old buildings in this area, such as this pub:
The signs and lanterns and clocks hanging over and outside the commercial buildings (shops, taverns etc) make for an interesting skyline:
At lunchtime, I went to Covent Garden (London's former fruit and vegetable market):
I didn't have any fruit or vegetables for my lunch, though! (well, there were some nuts in the bread)
After work, it was time to head for the West End starting with Marble Arch:
Here's a close-up edited as a postcard:
and here is Marble Arch looking more recognizably like a monument:
Walking up Oxford Street, Selfridges department store was looking very red:
Arriving at Piccadilly, I tested the camera on the statue of Eros and the sign that the transport system uses to show the location of an underground railway station (Piccadilly Circus in this case):
Also at Piccadilly Circus is one of London's 19thC theatres, the Criterion:
A short step away is the prestigious department store, Fortnum and Mason, with its 18thC facade and beautiful mechanical clock (on the hour the doors open and two models, bewigged and stockinged Mr Fortnum and Mr Mason, appear and bow to each other without dropping their salver or candlestick! The clock dates from 1964 only, I think, and weighs about 4 tons):
Last but certainly not least I reached the London district of Soho and my main destination
The area comprises a square of about nine streets, all of which were decked out with lanterns, some red:
some purple
and some yellow
The blue building that you can see in the yellow lantern photo is covered in gauze with blue strip lights underneath which make it look like a ghost when the sky is a little lighter:
Oh, and the big lantern that you can see there deserves a picture of its own:
One of the very specific Chinese decorations was an inflatable tael (a tael was really a unit of weight measurement but the gold tael, shaped roughly like a boat with raised prow and stern, came to represent wealth and good fortune i.e. is a lucky symbol):
In the year of the dragon, the dragon is also a lucky symbol, hence this cake:
which was one of many!
Of course there are many nice places to eat. This one has a Malaysian flavour:
One of my own favourites is the Kowloon Bakery and Café where I picked up some goodies to take home and share with my mum (ha ha - don't like to think of the consequences of NOT taking treats home on Chinese New Year!) Yes, some of the treats are Japanese - the lunar New Year happens in Japan too, and in London :=)
I hope that you've enjoyed these glimpses of London. You can see some more photos (particularly of Chinatown) and, of course, the same photos but in a larger size, here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11514737@N04/sets/72157629172565013/
I'm sorry that these are posted a week or so after the event. Hopefully they are still enjoyable.
The photos in this post are of Piccadilly (including Fortnum and Mason, the London Pavilion and Criterion Theatre), Holborn (including the town hall and the Royal Fusiliers war memorial), Covent Garden, Oxford Street (including Marble Arch) and, of course, Chinatown (including cake, Year of the Dragon cake, lanterns and an inflated tael!).
First, the speckled dawn from a very early coach to London:
Work took me to Holborn and past the town hall with its fine heraldic crest:
Here is a view of the main road in Holborn which shows some of the old timbered buildings with their typical black and white colouring:
The monument is a memorial to the fallen of the Royal Fusiliers. Here's a close-up of the statue at the top:
There are quite a few old buildings in this area, such as this pub:
The signs and lanterns and clocks hanging over and outside the commercial buildings (shops, taverns etc) make for an interesting skyline:
At lunchtime, I went to Covent Garden (London's former fruit and vegetable market):
I didn't have any fruit or vegetables for my lunch, though! (well, there were some nuts in the bread)
After work, it was time to head for the West End starting with Marble Arch:
Here's a close-up edited as a postcard:
and here is Marble Arch looking more recognizably like a monument:
Walking up Oxford Street, Selfridges department store was looking very red:
Arriving at Piccadilly, I tested the camera on the statue of Eros and the sign that the transport system uses to show the location of an underground railway station (Piccadilly Circus in this case):
Also at Piccadilly Circus is one of London's 19thC theatres, the Criterion:
A short step away is the prestigious department store, Fortnum and Mason, with its 18thC facade and beautiful mechanical clock (on the hour the doors open and two models, bewigged and stockinged Mr Fortnum and Mr Mason, appear and bow to each other without dropping their salver or candlestick! The clock dates from 1964 only, I think, and weighs about 4 tons):
Last but certainly not least I reached the London district of Soho and my main destination
The area comprises a square of about nine streets, all of which were decked out with lanterns, some red:
some purple
and some yellow
The blue building that you can see in the yellow lantern photo is covered in gauze with blue strip lights underneath which make it look like a ghost when the sky is a little lighter:
Oh, and the big lantern that you can see there deserves a picture of its own:
One of the very specific Chinese decorations was an inflatable tael (a tael was really a unit of weight measurement but the gold tael, shaped roughly like a boat with raised prow and stern, came to represent wealth and good fortune i.e. is a lucky symbol):
In the year of the dragon, the dragon is also a lucky symbol, hence this cake:
which was one of many!
Of course there are many nice places to eat. This one has a Malaysian flavour:
One of my own favourites is the Kowloon Bakery and Café where I picked up some goodies to take home and share with my mum (ha ha - don't like to think of the consequences of NOT taking treats home on Chinese New Year!) Yes, some of the treats are Japanese - the lunar New Year happens in Japan too, and in London :=)
I hope that you've enjoyed these glimpses of London. You can see some more photos (particularly of Chinatown) and, of course, the same photos but in a larger size, here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11514737@N04/sets/72157629172565013/
I'm sorry that these are posted a week or so after the event. Hopefully they are still enjoyable.