St James’ Church, Piccadilly is one of the churches designed and built by Christopher Wren, the foundation stone being laid on 3 April 1676. It was paid for by the Earl of St Albans who owned the land and probably selected Wren personally for the job.
The V&A is one of my favourite London museums. When I’m in the area I always pop in, visiting the fashion collection and then wandering up to the top floors. If you hit the right time – late afternoon on a weekday – you can pretty much guarantee to come across maybe only two other people and it feels like you have the whole place to yourself.
I’ve been to the Natural History Museum lots of times before but on this trip I wanted to pay particular attention to the building’s architecture, and of course to see the whale skeleton that replaced Dippy the diplodocus.
Leadenhall Market had been on my list for a while – I’ve taken a few photos there before but midweek it tends to be packed so the weekend of Open House London was the perfect opportunity to visit. In fact one of my favourite things to do is wander around the City of London at the weekend when it’s practically deserted.
St Andrew Undershaft was one of many churches I visited during Open House London. I only spotted it as I was heading towards Leadenhall Market (to feature in a later post) thanks to the sign they’d put out on the pavement – the church is tucked away among many of the City’s skyscrapers.
There’s been a church on this site since at least 1125, but the present church dates from 1744 and is by George Dance the Elder (he also built Mansion House, the official home of the Lord Mayor of London). The interior of the church, which really took my breath away, was remodelled by John Francis Bently (who also designed Westminster Cathedral).
The memorial to Queen Victoria outside of Buckingham Palace was created by the sculptor Thomas Brock in 1901 and unveiled ten years later, though it wasn’t completed until 1924.
As I hadn’t been near Buckingham Palace for many years on my last trip I decided to walk up that way and take some photographs. I have actually been on a tour of the Palace (back before I started this blog) because there was a particular exhibition I wanted to see. It was pretty expensive but I combined it with a visit to the Royal Mews and the Queen’s Gallery which definitely made it worthwhile.
27 St Mary’s Gate is a building in the Lace Market area of Nottingham. It was built in 1849 for Louis Augustin Baillon, the Vice Consul of France, as consulate offices. By 1868 it had been turned into a lace warehouse.
I visited the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors‘ headquarters in Great George Street as part of Open House London. It’s the only surviving Victorian building on the street and was designed by Alfred Waterhouse in 1899, who also designed one of my favourite buildings in Nottingham, the Prudential building and the Natural History Museum in London (which will feature in a later post).
