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.
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.
Soho Square was built in the 1670s when it was called King Square after Charles II, and a statue of him can still be found there. It’s possibly the earliest square in London to be built around a purposely laid out enclosed garden. It used to be a very fashionable residential area.
I travel through St Pancras a lot but don’t often have the chance to take photographs so I made sure to do so on my last trip. A beautiful example of Victorian Gothic architecture it was opened in 1868 by the Midland Railway Company. Designed by William Henry Barlow, after it opened the MRC built the Midland Grand Hotel as part of the station’s facade (I’ll talk about that in the next post).
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.
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.
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.
Tate Britain is the oldest gallery in the Tate network of galleries (Tate Modern being one of the others), dating from 1897. It houses British art from 1500 to the present day including the largest collection of works by J M W Turner, for whom the Turner Prize was named.
Liverpool Cathedral is the largest cathedral in Britain and fifth largest in the world, built between 1904 and 1978. It was designed by Giles Gilbert Scott, perhaps most famous for designing the iconic red telephone box.
