Sunday, November 9, 2014

London! Where does one start?

This is the building that melted the Jaguar on the street. To address the problem a mesh has been installed over the facade.
I recently spent four days in London and found that I could not stop taking photos....of old buildings and new buildings and old and new buildings together.  I must say, I much prefer the old buildings, although some of the new ones are definitely quite impressive, if not beautiful.
This is the 1.5B pound Shard. It's almost entirely empty. At the top are 10 residential suites that are on the market for between 30 and 50 million pounds. They are not expected to sell to Brits.

So here is a photo gallery, which I can hopefully look back on years from now when I can no longer walk for 7 hours in a day, and London looks very different.
As we discuss ways to increase density in Vancouver without resorting to highrise towers, I can't help but think there's a place for terraced housing like the hundreds of thousands of units found throughout the city. Here is just a taste of some of the Georgian terraced housing I saw.

I was also impressed with the efforts to green the city, from the new buses, to literally adding greenery to existing buildings. I was also surprised by the number of bicycles in the city, as evidenced outside Waterloo train station.
I liked this piece of sculpture outside the Channel 4 TV station.
It's as popular as the day it was first opened.
I can't wait to see how successful this program is....then we can institute it in Vancouver

When I first saw this building along South Bank I had no idea what it was.
This is what it will be....an addition to the Tate Modern.
This is an impressive temporary art installation at the Tower of London, related to Remembrance Day. The ceramic poppies cost 25 pounds each with the funds going to charity.
Since I stayed at a Melia hotel in Madrid and met the company senior officer, I decided to stay at the London Melia....the White House. Apparently it was once an apartment building and I was told Marilyn Monroe and others stayed here when in London...apparently it was a place to meet.
Canadian dollars at work at Trafalgar Square

Hopefully someone can tell me about this particular piece of sculpture I saw on a building during a tour of the city.
The latest design for the London double-decker
I was disappointed to learn that many of the really charming, historic London pubs are now owned by the same outfit, with exactly the same menu. Pity
I came upon this clever idea at Marks & Spencers cafe. Place the device on the table after ordering food and the waiter finds you!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi we have just returned from a 3 day visit to London and funnily enough we say the same, the new and old buildings are beautiful. There was one building I can find th photo of but cant find what its for (je je) yes we lie in Spain and the old architecture is very similar to Valencia. So we were used to them but its terribly sad that they dont do what we do, very early i the morning some one goes round with a small wagon ad they put a shoot of water on the pavement and roads. But then was very impressed that there were people working away taking th rubbish away so maybe they do put a shoot of water early in the morning an he was the person picking up the pieces as it were. However, we forgot it was Trumps visit and the first taxi we saw (we stayed at the Hub) declined to take us to our destination and this happened twice. For me personally, it was taking me back to when I was little when my Mum took me to London, I would be about 11. So I remembered a lot of the old buildings, but was staggered by the number of cranes on the sky line. We just loved it.