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| Posh shop in Piccadilly: buy your champagne and caviar here. |
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| A rather classy hotel in Piccadilly. |
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| Drinking fountain, statue of Diana and shadow of the photographer in Green Park. Diana was the Roman goddess of the hunt, the moon and childbirth. She is associated with woodland and wild animals, and had the power to talk to and control wild creatures. |
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| Maple leaves on the Canada Memorial, Green Park. |
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| The Victoria Memorial opposite Buckingham Palace. |
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| View of Westminster Abbey from the seclusion of Dean's Yard. This peaceful quadrangle is home to Westminster School. |
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| Statue of Nelson Mandela in Parliament Square. Many tributes, candles and bouquets of flowers have been placed on and around the plinth. Note the iconic black cab and bright red London bus! |
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| The London Eye from Westminster Bridge.
Earth has not anything to show more fair:
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by A sight so touching in its majesty: This City now doth, like a garment, wear
The beauty of the morning: silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie Open unto the fields, and to the sky; All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill; Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep; And all that mighty heart is lying still!
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH Upon Westminster Bridge
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7 comments:
These photos are a lovely gallery of textures, Robert. The view of Westminster Abbey is just wonderful especially.
And Wordsworth, ohh, you can feel his blissful peace and tenderness as if describing fields and meadows, surprising for a view of the city, isn't it?
Love the Dean's Uard photo.
The Ritz - rather class? What do you have to be to be really classy in London hotels these days then?
A most unusual poem for Wordsworth, Ruth. A lovely poem — but how would he have written about the prospect today?
Don't really know, Pat! I'm so out of touch, not having lived there since the 70s, and then as an impoverished student.
I've been so disappointed with so many hotels in my life ( I used to have them paid for in my job). Nowadays, through cost as well as choice, most of the time I'd rather stay in a recommended B&B (with my wife) or a simple, dormitory-style French or Spanish gîte or albergue (without my wife, she wouldn't like it!)
A nice post, Robert, and special for me because, when I am in London, I usually stay at a hotel in Westminster (close to the Lambeth Bridge and the Tate) and usually find myself making the Westminster-Piccadilly roundtrip at least once daily. Nice photos, and so good to see another memorial to Mandela.
Wonderful to see the floral tributes to Nelson Mandela. I was living in London in the 1980s when, shamefully, the large bust of Mandela had to be raised out of reach of those who were repeatedly vandalising it.
Sometimes, things really do change for the better.
Cheers,
Gail.
There were all sorts of people milling around that Mandela statue, George and Gail, and paying tribute, which I found quite moving.
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