I'll take both please

The A4 into London became a lot more interesting a few months ago when Landmark Cars opened a new classic car showroom. The stock changes quite often so you get some good spotting whilst sat in the traffic.

Ship shape

Built in the 1860s as a tea clipper, the Cutty Sark has sat alongside the Thames at Greenwich since the 1950s. Its recently had lots of restoration work carried out including this frankly hideous glass base thats been built around the dry dock. The work has been slated and named as the worst building in a few surveys. The vessel is magnificent though.

Back street muscle

Coming out of London today I diverted down through Chelsea and passed a couple of classic car showrooms hidden away down a side street. Parked in the cobble lane behind one of them was this gleaming Mach1 Mustang waiting to be displayed inside.

Old Royal Naval College

Originally built as a hospital in the 1690s, the college is now the site of Greenwich University and the location for several films as well. Belle, a period drama was being filmed while we were there. Using the backdrop of the Christopher Wren designed buildings that show similarities to St Pauls Cathedral.

London skyline

A nice sunny day in the big smoke and a rooftop to stand on means good views. This time over St Pancras and Kings Cross.

Behind the scenes at the paralympics

This was supposed to be a brilliant photo of Tower Bridge with the Paralympics symbol suspended in the middle! I was working nearby and thought I'd divert on the way back to get a snap. Turns out they hung the symbol the other way round to the five rings so i got a great shot of the frame work supporting it instead!

Trip to London

We've been meaning to go to the London Aquarium for ages and finally had some time to do so. Letting the train take the strain we ended up on the South Bank with a sleeping Lily in her buggy. Luckily the Olympic mascot displays are still around. There are several tours around areas of London with painted Wenlocks and Mandevilles lining the route. This one was Underwater Wenlock, stood opposite the Houses of Parliament and right outside the Aquarium itself.

Olympic lights

A bit of a cheat here. On the spur of the moment late on Thursday, we made are way up to Windsor. With Eton Dorney and the rowing not far away they were celebrating the achievements both past and present with a massive slide show. Projected onto the three towers of the Lower Ward of the castle it didn't start until almost 10pm. We bundled a sleepy Lily into the car and drove up to the rowing lakes for a look round before parking in the town and joining the hundreds of revellers as the show began. The images filled the tower walls and changed every few seconds for about 10 minutes before repeating. Having watched it for a while we slowly headed home, rolling into bed not long before midnight.

 

Few days late

We never managed to get Olympics tickets, despite bidding for loads in a couple of the rounds nothing came our way. I was a bit disappointed as it would have been great to get to a venue and say we had been there when the greatest sporting event came to London. I've been trying to make up for it by watching as much as I can on TV and popping by some of the sites before or after the events. Today I was in Surrey and was close enough to drive part of the route used by the various road cycling.

Long range Olympics

With the Olympics well under way now I managed to get another glimpse of the park, this time from Highgate, several miles out!

Olympic lanes

Just recently new signs have been sprouting up all over London and finally today the first of the special lanes reserved for Olympic cars was opened on the M4. Will there be traffic chaos? If today is anything to go by then no. It was even quieter than a normal school holiday monday morning. I was in to Central London in a little over an hour!

Towering above

Working in East London today and hearing that the M25 and South Circular were pretty busy I decided to do the only sane thing.....drive through the centre of London and pop out on the M4 to get home! On my route I passed all the famous landmarks including The Shard. I couldn't resist taking a tiny detour to the base to look up all 309m of it. Its properly huge!

Build it up

I didn't technically make this, but the design work is all mine as is the final construction. To pay the bills and keep me in old VWs and cameras I'm an IT engineer. We set up network links all over the country when people don't want to pay BT or Virgin big bucks for a 10meg connection. This beast is firing a mile of Central London from 19 floors up.

Artistic with a can

I'm a fan of graffiti, not the badly scrawled gibberish from some pathetic low life with nothing better to do than paint "M Khan is bent" on a wall (thats an 80s Mary Whitehouse Experience reference for those old enough to remember the comedy show!) But something with meaning, something that brightens up an otherwise dull part of a town. A couple of years ago we trekked all over Brighton checking out the art work on the walls, it was fascinating. I was taking a shortcut down an alley in Tooting when I spied this, too big to get in one photo, it stretched for probably 30 or 40 metres down the wall.

Industrial Kew

Working all week in South London, I've taken a variety of routes to and from the area. Today I came past the impressive Kew Steam Museum. Another place on my list of sites to visit when I get time it houses a huge collection of engines and the history of Londons water supply. The centre of the site is dominated by the Standpipe Tower, it houses long pipes that take up the excess water created during pumping to even the pressure out and protect the mains pipes. There is also a chance to ride on Londons only steam railway too!

I have the power

Built in the 1930s to supply electricity to parts of London, Battersea Power Station is an icon on the banks of the River Thames. Its the largest brick built building in Europe and towers above the area. Decommissioned in the mid 1980s its become very tatty, but owing to its listed status remains an important landmark on the skyline. Its been used for countless TV programs, sporting events and album covers and I see it everytime I drive along the embankment, but I rarely get up close to it. Being south of this week gave me that chance.

Towering above

Whilst on route to a job in London, I had a few minutes to spare as we couldn't start until after 5pm so I took a detour past the foot of the BT Tower. Built in the early 1960s it was the tallest building in London for almost 20 years. I've seen it from many angles but never from underneath. Its really quite a spectacular sight.

Sunny St Pauls

Todays install turned sour and we found ourselves needing a different cable to complete it. Being in Central London it was going to be tricky but thanks to a bit of smartphone use a Maplins was located. A few miles of walking around the City in the sunshine, past the Cathedral and back across the Millennium Bridge provided some exercise and some stunning views.

Me and my shadow

Another day in London on the same roof, another early start and late finish and yet more sunshine. It was quite late in the day when I took this.

My biggest fan

Pretty slim pickings on the photography front today. I left home just before 6am and rolled in at almost 9pm. It was a long and pretty crap day struggling to get a link working in central London. The plus side was the sun was shining and I was on a rooftop with a great view of the City and some air-con units.