London is one of the most diverse cities in the world… it was founded by the Romans in 47AD and due to this there is constantly old ruins found when building new sites
“In London, everyone is different, and that means anyone can fit in.”
Anon
What I know and love about london through my experience is that there is no specific “Londoner”, its a bit like Sydney, very multicultural, with over 300 languages spoken in this city alone, there are many types of people and over 8 million people wandering the streets of this amazing city
The highest garden is located here at the Sky Gardens and its lovely to visit… free as well
Why I love this city is because there is just so much interesting history, for example, I wandered through this alley way and just thought what it would have been like in the medieval days…
… Something like The Great Plague… it killed roughly 25 million people, which was around a third of the entire population of Europe in the 15th Century. This particularly affected London because of the narrow streets and lack of sanitation. During this time, men known as Searchers shouted out ‘Bring out your dead’ all through the summer of 1665. They carted away dead bodies and threw them in mass burial pits. Some of which Londoners are still discovering to this day!
Chelsea Stadium was interesting… sadly Roman Abramovich has put a £1bn scheme to redevelop Chelsea’s stadium on hold in response to suffering delays in the renewal of his visa to enter the United Kingdom… hmmm and this club has the largest fan base so there were many people walking in and around the stadium and doing the tour
Trafalgar Square
The name of this square commemorates the battle of Trafalgar and this whole area has been of some sort of significant landmark since the 13th c. as it used to be the area which contained the Kings Mews
Its now illegal to feed pigeons here (you get fined up to 75 pounds) and its much cleaner than it used to be – there are a lot of street performers and people begging for money around here, but there is some interesting talents around though!
Around Charterhouse Square near Barbican
Leicester Square
Named after the 2nd Earl of Leicester and was once a residential area, now a bustling really busy tourist attraction full of theatres and restaurants and right next to China Town which is another busy area
Smithfield Markets
Dates from the 10th c. as a main meat market of the time and is now the only remaining wholesale market operating from medieval times
I also used to come around this area at my lunch break and go for walks and explore
I love how everything is just jumbled together to make an interesting mosaic!
London has just started to introduce some good coffee! They are different to us in AUS as they seem to like their coffee chains including Costa, Nero and Pret
Out of all of them Pret is my favourite, mainly becuase of the coffee and I like their sandwiches and oat bars
Such a pub culture here in London! but the sad reality is that the Public Houses is in a decline, which really makes me sad as there is so much history in pubs as a meeting point and socialising with family and friends, sharing stories, its such a cultural importance to england and its a shame to hear about this decline, my thoughts are not only for the social setting and experiencing the beers but also the actual pubs themselves and the architecture
In 2001, there were 4,835 pubs in London. By 2016, this had fallen by 25 per cent to 3,615, which is still a lot in comparison to Sydney lol
The sun set pretty late as well and I enjoyed watching the colours from one of the many pubs along the Thames
For whoever has watched and likes Agatha Christies “Pirot” episodes you will recognise this little beauty of a building which is based around the corner from where I used to work in Barbican and I used to come here and sit on the steps and have my lunch – p.s im a bit of a Pirot geek and have seen ALL the episodes!
Mews in London
These little Mews are just some of the ones I explored and I love getting lost in these little alley ways in random places around London
These Mews are now expensive properties but were once home to horses and used as stables with carriage houses below and living quarters above and placed around a shared courtyard or yard, you can tell they were stables as there are many converted garages in place of the stable doorways
The Mews first came about in the 18th and 19th c. when London began to grow out west and a lot of the houses had to have stables so usually these Stables were add ons to very expensive and grand houses back in those times and are placed in the best parts of London town (and some of these houses have underground tunnels connecting them to their main residences!) hence the reason why they are so desirable and expensive today…
The interesting thing is that you walk the really busy and noisy streets and then you pass by a Mews, when you walk in… its so quiet and the hustle and bustle somehow seems to remain outside of the courtyard which is such a beautiful part of this
All Mews have their own individual identity and beauty yet have the same “stable”look and feel from the outside
In London there are around 433 original surviving Mews properties only
Little Venice
This is a cute and rather funky neighbourhood where there are many narrowboats and restaurants based around the canal
Its such a pleasant walk along the canal with many walkers, runners and bike riders sharing the path and enjoying the tranquility away from the hussle and bussle
Seems like there are also quite a few people living on the narrow boats along the canal
An interesting fact about the tube! 😀
When the London Underground was first proposed, engineers suggested filling the tunnels with water and using barges to float people from station to station, and another idea was to get an army of horses to pull the carriages around in the dark! lucky they opted for the trains instead!
Bayswaters Area is a beautiful residencial area mainly with a lot of young families and rich retired couples, it has a different feel from other parts of London with its own beauty and charm
Breakfast is served! cant go wrong with your own homemade food 🙂
The Tower of London
This castle is founded by William the Conqueror after his victory in the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and was built as a royal residence and fortress
A bit of suspicion from the olden days… Charles II’s ordered for six ravens to be placed in the Tower of London to protect it. Apparently, six ravens are still kept in the tower today and each raven has a wing clipped, they even have a spare raven handy in case one flies away…
The weather was beautiful and the tourists were a plenty as well… its easy to get lost in the history and romance of this place, so many stories
Tower Bridge
Tower Bridge is a combined bascule and suspension bridge built between 1886 and 1894
“The Walkine Talkie”@ 20 Fenchurch Street is a commercial skyscraper and one of the newer buildings in London and its where Londons highest public garden is located
Fleet Street, my favourite street in London ~ one of the beautiful buildings is the Royal Courts of Justice
Brompton Cemetery
Situated in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and opened in 1840
I love exploring the details of cemeteries, wierd I know, but they do hold a lot of history and you learn a thing or 2 here as well… I ended up talking to the caretaker for a while, his name was Peter and he taught me a few things about this place…
It actually did creep me out a bit while I was there and after I left but he was a lovely guy and knew that I was curious so told me a few stories
There are 1/4 of a million people buried in this graveyard and that includes he Chelsea Football team who get buried here. Each plot costs minimum of 30,000 POUNDS to buy
Creep factor alert…
There have lately been a few tombs and mausoleum’s that have been broken into by homeless people to see what treasures they could find and exchange for alcohol… Peter said that one of them he was asked by his boss to clean up, he said that it was a pretty big mausoleum with 6 places for the bodies so he walked in and when he did he felt a warm breeze blow by him and out the door, he got really freaked out and ran off
Every time I go to London I MUST visit my street, and you know what? It NEVER changes lol
Margravine Cemetery, this was around the corner from where I lived in London and on hot sunny days there were women in bikinis sunbathing around the tomb stones! incredible… i love the londoners lol
Now at this time it was more lush and green
The buildings are so quaint and cute and remind me of a movie set
Exploring West Kensington and Olympia
I really enjoyed my time re-visting one of my favourites and it just amazes me how I keep learning new things about this place 🙂
The Wandering Passport 