Skip to main content

My London Hood: Walking from SouthBank Centre to Trafalgar Square



I arrived at Waterloo in the rain and took a picture of the Royal Festival Hall at the South Bank Centre. Actually, I'm still not sure if these two are separate entities in the same block. I've been here for a few concerts, which are normally reasonably priced compared to the O2 in Greenwich. Normally a good place to check for events once in a while. I didn't go down to the harbour level where they have a skateboarding area - or an area high jacked years ago by skateboarders.





This the bust of Nelson Mandela outside the entrance, or should I say one of the entrances of the hall.


After going inside, I then decided to walk over the footbridge to Charring Cross and to Trafalgar Square. I was pointless saving that for another blog post.


So in the rain,  I walked over the footbridge taking pictures. As you can see the weather is pretty grim  with dark clouds in the air. Not a big deal since I was wearing my new purple rain coat. It's about a five minutes walk though Waterloo bridge is much longer, I think it's to do with the way the Thames River flows, it's not a straight river per se.


I arrived at Charring Cross, the purple building above is Charring Cross station, and crossed over to Trafalgar Square.

This is Charing Cross Station courtyard. I'm going to give up the day job to be a travel writer, so that profession is safe. Anyway in less than a minute I was at Trafalgar Square.  Below is a picture of the the majestic looking National Portrait Gallery. It looks like a palace doesn't it? Hmmm, all these building are making me think of historical novels, yet another safe from me in the meanwhile. As you can see it's pretty wet.
National Gallery
 If it wasn't late and raining and I wasn't tired, I probably would have gone to Pall Mall. 

Then I took pictures of the lions guarding Nelson's Column.  All the pigeons have gone! The falcon got them. I think they were considered vermin by Ken Livingstone, the first mayor of London. He got them with the falcons. So it's a pigeon-free area now. When I was a kid, you could actually buy seeds to feed them.
 

Below is a picture of the Crypt which has a great restaurant in the basement....crypt and serves the most delicious food for a reasonable price.

 It also has services, and free concerts at times. In terms of seeing all the sites, London is pretty compact, most things are about five to ten minutes away from each other. You could probably do all the major sites in a day or two.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Daily Writing Journal: Mo Money Challenge - week 8 which means £8 in the tin!

£8 in coins So I'm on my second week on saving and still not sure. I'm not feeling the pinch per se, but it's hard thinking how am I going to maintain this. So I managed to get a few coins out and gather some change, but at some point I'll really need to organise this. I've put in four fifty pence pieces with come up to two pounds sterling and the rest in pound coins.  Remember the money tin from last week. Well it all went inside that.... How am I feeling? Slightly bored but I still have a long way to go..... Saving money is boring, spending is more interesting.

My London Hood - The Tate Modern

Modern Gallery make you think of the world as it is today. I just wandered around the exhibitions in the Tate modern and  seemed focused on oppression of humanity - focusing on the poverty, wars, sexuality, violence, conflict, the underdog and gritty. This was a picture that captured my imagination because it looked so modern. This is a painting by German artist Christian Schad  called Agosta, the Pigeon-Chested Man, and Rasha, the Black Dove 1929 is a large portrait-orientated oil painting of two funfair performers.  https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/schad-agosta-the-pigeon-chested-man-and-rasha-the-black-dove-l02264  So in typically America-speak when I saw my people, I had to stop and take a picture, therefore homegirl, Rasha, the black dove is headlining my blog. In those days, I guess the only work she could get was as side-freak show but she is very beautiful, modernly so. It also made me think of what happened to all the black people or people of colour during Nazi Germ

Review of January 2018 - lost weight, socialised with others, completed my beta-read, doing my courses.

Hello everyone, Just checking in about my goals and life in general. It's all good. What went well. I took in packed lunches for at least four days a week. This was just hummus, sprouts, grated carrot sandwich. So very vegan.  I also cooked dinner a few times a night rather than eating junk food or takeaway. So a lot healthier. I finally have a social life of sorts. In my last job - it was work, home and see family on weekends. I was so drained and tired so this new job has made such a difference, that I can go out and meet people.  So I go out with some drinking mates once a week. It's a nice evening out of the house and away from social media or the internet. It's mostly small talk but its nice. I'm doing my photoshop course. That is coming along nicely, that picture is from one of my practice sessions. I'm doing a couple of writing courses which are intense. What hasn't gone well. I need to focus on having more routines, and breaking tasks