I’d taken photos of the exterior of St Clement Danes Church on a previous visit to London but I was finally able to spare the time to go inside in September. Right by the Royal Courts of Justice it is one of London’s two “island churches”, so-called because of the layout of the road around it. (The other is St Mary le Strand which will be the focus of a later post).
As has become a yearly exercise I went out last week to take some photos of the Christmas lights around Nottingham. I was particularly impressed this year by the lights and tree in the Exchange shopping area as in the first picture below.
I’ve had the Temple Church on my to visit list for a while now and I finally got around to it on this most recent trip to London. The London headquarters of the Knights Templar, from where Temple Church took its name, it was consecrated in 1185. The Templar’s churches were always built to a circular design in remembrance of the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, which certainly makes it a striking building.
I’m not sure why I hadn’t realised you could actually go inside Wellington Arch until my most recent visit to London. It’s now an English Heritage property, built as an original entrance to Buckingham Palace but then became a victory arch celebrating the Duke of Wellington’s defeat of Napoleon. The sculpture at the top, apparently the largest bronze sculpture in Europe, represents the Angel of Peace descending on the four-horsed Chariot of War.
Apsley House is an English Heritage property at Hyde Park Corner, the former residence of the Duke of Wellington. A Grade I listed building it was originally built by Robert Adam between 1771 and 1778 for Lord Apsley, the then Lord Chancellor, hence the name. The Duke of Wellington purchased the house in 1817.
Last weekend a friend and I travelled to Blenheim Palace for the Illuminated Christmas Lights Trail. Our tickets were for 5pm so we had just over an hour to explore the Christmas Market in the daylight and have a bite to eat from some of the many food vendors before heading along the trail.
The Elite Building used to be a cinema but now houses many other businesses such as a nightclub and a variety of different shops. It was one of Nottingham’s “super-cinemas” designed by the London architectural firm of Adamson & Kinns and opened on 22 August 1921 with Mary Pickford in Pollyanna. The interior, which I’ve never seen myself and no doubt has changed considerably, included a restaurant, tea room and a ballroom, not to mention the cinema area having a concert organ and space for a full orchestra.
On my last visit to London I’d put Holland Park on my to do list, weather permitting. Thankfully the sun was out that day and it was more than warm enough for me to eat breakfast there before heading towards my main goal of Kyoto Garden.
I popped into St Philip’s Church in Kensington purely because I was passing and saw the door was open. The building dates from around 1857, being consecrated in 1858.
The Martins Bank building below, as of taking the picture a bar, was the first of two branches to open in Nottingham in 1931.
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