London a global, multicultural city with history stretching back 2000 years. A grand, ugly, beautiful, eccentric, lively, chaotic, magnificent city. A city which for most of its history has been at the centre of things, it was the birthplace of many things too and some would even argue that it was London that gave birth to the modern World. Indeed, so much has been written about London that I feel that theres nothing new that I could add, so the best thing to do is to go to the photos.



1. The Palace of Westminster or simply the Houses of Parliament. An icon of London and what better place to start than here? Constructed by architect Sir Charles Barry with Augustus W. N. Pugin an authority on Gothic architecture as his assistant. The construction lasted over thirty years, but in the end it was worth it. What we have now is perhaps the most iconic building in the World.







2. Queen Annes Gate a rather grand street consisting mainly of Georgian terraces and situated to the north of the ugly and noisy Victoria Street. It is interesting to note that just a few hundred metres to the south was located a notorious slum called Devils Acre which was destroyed in 1850-1875. In London the very poor lived next to the very rich. It is still the case in some parts.








3. The Admiralty or one of its buildings called Old Admiralty Building a grand piece dating from the late 19th century. I had the pleasure of visiting it during the Open House weekend, the interiors are breathtaking.....







4. Three Colts Lane in Bethnal Green, a massive Allen & Hanburys warehouse with other industrial buildings. Im not sure what it is used for these days, but it provides nice contrast to the building seen above.








5. Trinity Court on Grays Inn Road, a lovely 8 storey Art-Deco apartment building, just a stones throw away from the elegant and intellectual Bloomsbury.







6. Bedford Square in Bloomsbury. It was built between 1775 and 1783 as un upper class district, however it was mainly settled by intellectuals of all sorts and not the 'leisure' classes as its developers hoped.







7. Quaker Street in a rather quiet part of otherwise lively Spitalfields.








8. Scrutton Street in Shoreditch. This part of London is well known for its 'alternative' culture and has loads of great examples of street art, unfortunately some people see this as 'vandalism'.







9. Greencoat Place a lovely street of modest 19th century houses. Westminster Cathedral (not Abbey) is just around the corner.








10. Piccadilly Circus, no thread of London is complete without it! As all of you already know Piccadilly Circus is famous for its Statue of Eros (1892-1893) and Illuminated signs, first of which appeared in 1910. The place is always full of people.





11. Chiltern Street in Marylebone which itself was started to be developed in the Georgian era, however buildings you see in the photo are Victorian.







12. Beck Street in London Fields, Hackney, a World apart from the street above.....







13. Wicklow Street in Kings Cross. Charles Dickens lived not too far away from here.








14. Strand Steps, a scary looking passageway on the edge of the West End. London is still full of such places, for better or for worse.....







15. Strand Lane, this is where the steps lead to, Strand Lane has barely changed since the 19th century. The house above the passageway is an old Watchouse built in what was then churchyard of St Clement Danes to prevent the corpses from being stolen by body snatchers/resurrectionists.








16. 34 Haymarket, Piccadilly. This is the oldest shopfront in London dating to about 17th century.







17. Cecil Court in Westminster and close to the Trafalgar Square. A well preserved Victorian street full of book and antique shops. In March 1961 Elsie Batten, a 59 year old assistant in an antique shop was stabbed to death here. Her murderer, Edwin Bush, was identified and caught within days following the circulation of identikit pictures — the first case to be solved using identikit in the UK.







18. Serle Street next to Lincolns Inn Fields, Holborn. London is often used as a location for movies, this awesome vintage Taxi, make of which I dont know, was being used for one.








19. Columbia Road in Shoreditch. One of many well preserved Victorian working class streets in East London, it becomes the site of Flower Market every Sunday.







20. Old Marylebone Road and its grand Victorian mansion blocks.






21. Charles Square, Hoxton. It together with Hoxton Square are among the oldest squares in London, laid out in the late 17th century. Note the late 60s brick buildings either side of the grand Georgian townhouse.....dont you just like modernism?








22. Royal College of Organists, or used to be until 1991 when The College moved to Birmingham. This wonderfully eccentric building next to The Royal Albert Hall was designed by H. H. Cole and built in late 19th century.







23. Pitfield Street, Shoreditch.








24. Kensington Court Place with its grand late Victorian mansion blocks. I love this sort of housing.







25. Shard London Bridge Tower, designed by Renzo Piano and standing at 310m it will be a magnificent new addition to London skyline.




26. The Jerusalem Tavern, Britton Street, Clerkenwell. The Tavern has occupied several sites in the area since the 14th century. Although the current building dates from 1720 the current shopfront wasnt added until 1810 and the place didnt open as a pub until the 1990s.







27. Chinatown, one of my favourite areas of London. Its also the largest Chinatown in Europe.








28. Chinatown again.







29. Princelet Street, Spitalfields. The houses mainly date from the 1720s and were built for French Huguenot silk-weavers.








30. Old Jewry. A 'hidden' court just off Old Jewry in The City Of London.






31. Cable Street. This mural painted in 1980s on the side of St. Georges Town Hall commemorates The Battle of Cable Street (1936) when a local people, mainly Jews and Irish, stopped fascist march.







32. Paddington Basin. A modern and still under construction area consisting mainly of office buildings and hotels and full of over zealous photographer-harassing security.








33. Rudolf Steiner House on Park Road not too far from Baker Street. A fantastic example of Art-Nouveau. This building wouldnt look out of place in Paris.







34. Walkers Court in Soho. Comments are not needed for this one.








35. Folgate Street in Spitalfields, East London.




36. Leadenhall Market in the City of London. The market dates back to the 14th century, however the present structure was built in 1881, the architect was Sir Horace Jones who also designed Billingsgate and Smithfield Markets.








37. Leadenhall Market again.







38. London Paddington Station, much of the current building dates from 1854, and was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The site was first served by Underground trains in 1863, and was the original western terminus of the Metropolitan Railway, the world's first underground railway.








39. New Oxford Street. A pretty standard 19th century building with original shopfront. They dont do them like that anymore. Sadly.







40. Bedford Way, Bloomsbury, one of the best preserved Georgian streets in London.






41. Her Majestys Theatre on Haymarket not far from the Piccadilly Circus. It was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was built in 1897. Next to it is the grotesque New Zealand House. How could anyone think that sticking a huge and bland building in the middle of the West End would be an improvement is beyond me, especially given the fact that the building it replaced was just as grand and magnificent as Her Majestys Theatre.







42. Walkers Court in Soho seen earlier.








43. Lothbury in The City of London. A beautiful door of some grand late Victorian office building. It is amazing how much attention architects put into their buildings back in the day.







44. West Smithfield just nort of The City of London, a cool collection of rather eccentric Victorian buildings.








45. Trafalgar Square, no thread about London is complete without it. Designed by Sir Charles Barry and completed in 1845 it is one of the most famous squares in the World. At its centre is the Nelsons Column to one of the greatest heroes of Britain - Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronté, KB and an Admiral too! The Column was built between 1840 and 1843 to a design by William Railton.




46. Goodge Street, the historically bohemian area was once home to many writers and also German community, indeed the nearby Charlotte Street was popularly called Charlottenstrasse. Today its full of Italian restaurants and this photo was taken from one.








47. Staple Inn on Holborn, built in Georgian era but the timber building facing Holborn itself dates from 1585. Note the ancient drinking fountain on the wall in the background - another rare survivor.







48. Flaxman Terrace and an interesting Arts and Crafts house.








49. Warwick Avenue in Little Venice in Maida Vale a rather posh area full of grand stuccoed houses which cost a fortune.







50. Chinatown once again. It was Chinese New Year yesterday.




51. Middle Temple Lane in Temple is one of four Inns of Court (the professional associations to one of which every barrister in England and Wales must belong). In the Middle ages the area was the headquarters of the Knights Templar. Note 16-17th century overhanging houses in the background.








52. Ironmonger Lane in the City of London, the footprint of buildings on this street have not changed since the Middle Ages, although most of the buildings date from 19th century.







53. Tottenham Court Road and aforementioned Goodge Street in the evening.








54. Pinchin Street in Whitechapel, East London. On 10th September 1889 just down the road from the building seen here was found a female torso. In the investigation that followed people made connections to the murders of Jack The Ripper from a year before.







55. Flower And Dean Walk in Spitalfields, East London. This arch is all that remains from late Victorian apartment blocks for the poor, the street itself was extremely notorious in 1883 being described as - "perhaps the foulest and most dangerous street in the whole metropolis".




56. Telegraph Street in the City of London, one of those places where time seems to have stopped.







57. Hanson Street in Fitzrovia, these were built in the 19th century.








58. Shaftesbury Avenue and a Chinese shop on the edge of the Chinatown. I seem to have helluva lot of photos from the China Town.







59. Harley Street north of the Oxford Street. The street has become, and still is, famous for its many doctors in the Victorian era. Cavendish Place where Doctor Watson 'moved' to is just a stones throw away.








60. Brick Lane in the East End, a place famed for its curry restaurants and 'alternative' culture.