The Bit the Germans Missed

Wapping.

what a wonderful part of London, eerily quiet, tucked away and cut off from the world yet a 20 minute walk from my door. An old docks area, with wonderful brick warehouses, coverted into designer flats in the 80's that somehow the Germans managed to miss in the war, piling their bombs down further north in Stepney, Whitechapel, Mile End and Bethnal Green - it does seem odd that this lot is still standing largely untouched. You can just picture it thronging with 19th century coming and goings.

Going a bit further back in time, here was the site of execution dock, where pirates were hanged, and left there until 3 tides washed over them....arrrrrrrrrrrrr. Captain Kidd was amongst them, now he has a jolly nice pub to commemorate him, where one can have a nice lunch overlooking the river.

Hidden steps lead down to bits of beach with old bricks sucked like lollies by the tides in a variety of hues and vibrant green algae climbs the timber joists supporting the buildings above.

Grand Designs - Modern

To complement my previous post, here is a small selection of London's modern architecture - principally Lloyds, designed by the chap that did the Pompidou centre - hence the inside out look, and the Gherkin, which I cant quite make my mind up on. Its an odd shaped beastie but at the same time I do think all those curved windows are quite a feat. The great court at the British museum is always stunning. I think we can rival the louvre's pyramid with that. And the millenium bridge, i'm a fan of too, esp being pedestrian only.

Pomp and circumstance

So this post might reveal a little about how slack I am at blogging, as it rather obviously dates the photos to a very well known day. The Royal Wedding. Whatever your Monarchist or Republican tendencies it was inescapable and well We do do it well, don't we? put on a show, roll out the royals (sometimes in minivans if you've slipped down the rankings with all the new additions). We watched on the telly, then popped on the tube and soaked up the aftermath atmosphere with the Westminster wedding chimes still ringing.