Despite having visited Kensington Palace in the past I’ve never really spent much time in Kensington Gardens so I decided to rectify that on my last visit to London when the weather was surprisingly warm. Of course, my main reason for visiting was to photograph the Albert Memorial but I also wanted to see some of the other sculptures such as that of Peter Pan and to see if I could spot any of the famous Kensington parakeets, which as you can see below was a success.
Despite visiting Kensington Palace and the gardens before I’d somehow never managed to make it over to the Albert Memorial so I decided to rectify that on my most recent visit to London. Directly opposite the Royal Albert Hall it was erected in memory of Prince Albert, husband to Queen Victoria, who died in 1861 aged just 42; Victoria would spend the rest of her long life in mourning.
Horse Guards Parade is the ceremonial parade ground by St James’s Park in London. Horse Guards is the building itself which dates from the 18th century, replacing an earlier building. It was built as a barracks and stables for the Household Cavalry and though still a military barracks it is also the site of the Household Cavalry Museum.
Weekday Cross used to be the site of Nottingham’s market place and the civic centre of medieval Nottingham. It’s unclear when the actual cross was erected though it’s first mentioned in around 1549 and was pulled down in 1804. The current cross was erected in 1993.
Since the 1780s Leamington Spa was one of the places where the wealthy would “take the waters” for their health. In 1814 the Royal Pump Rooms and Baths was officially opened becoming the largest and most prestigious of all the spas in Leamington.
A friend and I picked Leamington Spa in Warwickshire as a good day trip location roughly half-way between where we each live. Our first stop was to wander around Jephson Gardens. Around five minutes from the train station the gardens, which are named for Dr Henry Jephson who promoted the town as a spa destination, were created in 1831 and have been a popular attraction ever since.
Another February, another Light Night. This is always a good event to go to every year and as ever the city centre was packed with people from all ages. For this year as well the event was spread over both the Friday and the Saturday night, though I only made it out on the Friday. There’s never enough time to see everything so we did a loop from Trinity Square to listen to some of the choirs, round through Market Square to the very impressive art works projected onto the Council House, over to St Mary’s Church in the Lace Market and then up to Nottingham Contemporary art gallery. A few of my favourite light displays are below.
Leamington Spa Railway Station was opened by the Great Western Railway in 1852 but this Art Deco designed station replaced it in 1939 and the station was Grade II listed in 2003.
I’d never really spent a lot of time at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery so I decided to rectify that one day last year. The BMAG first opened in 1885 and is a large Grade II* listed building that was a little hard to appreciate on my visit as construction work was going on all around it (the below photo was taken some years previously).
With a little time to kill before I caught a train home from visiting Ely Cathedral I decided to head to Ely Museum at the Old Goal as it seemed small enough that it wouldn’t take long to see everything. Admission was a reasonable £4.50 and I found the museum very interesting.
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