London Architecture Old and New

Many London Bus Tour guides are not only knowledgeable, they can also be entertaining!

    Whenever I go to London, I always spend time riding double-decker buses, both day and night, admiring the variety of streetscapes. On previous trips, I have taken the hop-on-hop-off tours since you learn facts that you otherwise miss just walking around. On this trip, we took a 'night bus tour' leaving from just outside the Ritz Hotel. Unfortunately, since mid-June days are so long, it wasn't really dark enough to fully appreciate how many buildings are lit up at night. But it was quite magical seeing some of the city's grand sights, such as Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Westminster Cathedral as the sun was beginning to set.

Westminster Cathedral in the Byzantine Revival Style.

Not to be confused with Westminster Abbey which, like many London buildings appears to have recently been cleaned

Dating from the 17th C, Christopher Wren's St.Paul's Cathedral was the tallest building in London from 1710 to 1967

      As I look at some of the newer London buildings, it is difficult to believe that the architects are somehow related to the architects who designed the buildings of the past. But then again, when you look closely, you realize that many of the older buildings were often just as bizarre as what is being built today. That being said, I appreciate how many of the buildings built in previous centuries respected their context much more than some newer buildings.

One of the most detested new buildings in London, and rightly so.

This complex is better viewed from a Thames River cruise.

Another from my 'what were they thinking' collection of London buildings. I'm with Prince Charles when it comes to buildings like this!

   I took a special trip to see the massive and significant new Battersea Power Station development, about which I am writing a column for the Vancouver Sun. The very glassy buildings are a significant departure from London's architecture of the past. However, I can't, for the life of me, understand what they were thinking when they designed what seems like an absurd open wooden decking balcony deck detail.

After 30 years of different proposals, the Battersea Power Station is now the focus for a major new redevelopment being undertaken by a Malaysian consortium.

Here are a few more photos of what I saw riding the upper deck of London buses.

Is this an option to be selected by BC's Mobility Pricing Commission? Somehow I don't think so.

But this is an idea more Metro municipalities might adopt. It most definitely saves lives.

A cycle superhighway. Now that's something t

hat would no doubt fascinate Gordon Price