I very rarely take photos of tube stations when I’m down in London as usually I’m too busy heading away from them or the exits are too crowded for me to want to wade through to get a good photo. That being said sometimes I do manage it and this is the first in an occasional series, amalgamating several trips to London.
There are more than 400 public artworks in the City of Westminster, and this post explores just a small fraction of those which I photographed on my last visit to London. The first is the Monument to the Women of World War II which effectively displays the different jobs women undertook during the war, represented by the different uniforms they would have worn. Designed by John W Mills and unveiled by the Queen in 2005, the writing on the side is the same font as that used on war-time ration books.
Whenever I travel anywhere I always take photos of buildings and statues that catch my eye without necessarily realising what their significance is at the time. This was the case with the Supreme Court building, where I started taking photos of the beautiful friezes around the outside before realising quite where I was.
As the name suggests this particular branch of Lloyd’s Bank is on Fleet Street, opposite the Royal Courts of Justice. It caught my eye as I was taking photos of the courts because of the sumptuously designed entrance way, so I took a detour to explore the building further.
The Punch Tavern is a Grade II listed pub on Fleet Street that caught my eye as I was passing because of the impressive sign outside.
Not far from St Paul’s Cathedral is Christchurch Greyfriars Church Garden. It is the impressive ruins of one of Christopher Wren’s churches that was heavily damaged in the Blitz on 29 December 1940.
St Paul’s Church in Covent Garden, not to be confused with the Cathedral, was designed by Inigo Jones in 1651 and is also known as The Actor’s Church because of its history with the theatre community. Completed in 1633 it was the first new church to be built since the Reformation.
St Martin-in-the-Fields stands at the north east corner of Trafalgar Square and as such is a building I’ve passed by plenty of times but never had the time to pop in until this last visit when I deliberately added it to my places to see. There’s been a church on the site since at least 1222 but the current building dates from 1722-1726.
St Bride’s is one of the oldest churches in London, dating back over 2,000 years. The current building was designed by Christopher Wren in 1627. It’s probably most famous for its spire, said to have inspired a baker to make what is now the traditional tiered wedding cake.
Dr Johnson’s House is the 300 year old townhouse where Samuel Johnson lived and worked compiling his dictionary. Built by Richard Gough, a wool merchant, his is the only house to have survived from that time, including being damaged during the Blitz. It is nestled away down side streets off Fleet Street and it was a little tricky to find, though this could equally have been down to me paying more attention to photographing the area as it was to a surprising lack of signage.
