In today's post I'm treating myself to a wee bit of a celebration – twice over.
It was on this day 10 years that The Daily Constitutional launched with its first post. Way back then it was simply called The London Walks Blog, and my first post was on the Jack The Ripper tour. In 2008 Jack the Ripper was one of only three London Walks tours that I was leading at the time.
10 years on and I'm out and about leading tours all over London.
My other cause for celebration is that I've just started the Westminster Tour Guiding course at the University of Westminster. It is immense fun and very illuminating.
To celebrate both events, I took one of my Big Walks (regular readers will know that my days off are often dedicated to big London rambles such this one from East Finchley to Richmond and this Christmassy one from Cornhill to Camden Town).
The route I followed today was the boundary of the City of Westminster and here are a few of the things I saw along the way (there an animated map at the end of the post) …
The starting point was Embankment tube…
… past the oldest public structure in London…
Love this detail on the Embankment benches…
The City took a long time to get out of bed…
Reflecting on Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex…
Who am I to judge? The Royal Courts of Justice…
I've been passing this spot for nearly 30 years and I STLL can't resist a snap…
Over Lincoln's Inn Fields to Covent Garden. Keep an eye out for the Demi Virgin, emblem of the wealthy Mercers' Company. Spot her once, you'll start to see her everywhere…
A good spot…
Bob Dylan played here in '62…
Regent's Park…
A Halloweeny gatepost in NW8…
We so associate Gothic revival with the grand scale - so it's always fun to seeneo-Gothic flourishes in a domestic context - and no more so than on Kilburn Lane, where the Artizans, Labourers and General Dwellings Company built an estate in the 1870s…
I'm loving this Cockney tough guy - in the huff with the fancy-schmancy swans in the background and puffing his chest out at your correspondent…
Along the Grand Union Canal, under the Westway and down through Kensington Gardens…
… where a knot of second-string camera crews are gathering to cover the announcement of another royal baby. This despite the fact that the happy couple, the Duke & Duchess of Sussex, are in Sydney…
Through the Westminster patch of Albertopolis and into Chelsea where I always love this view of Battersea Power Station…
Back round to the Embankment for the Tate Britain and some high contrast with the neighbours…
… at Millbank Tower…
Almost full circle…
And here's the route animated…
The Monday Photoblog will return next week. In the meantime, if you'd like to share a London photo with us, please do! Perhaps you joined Karen or Adam on a tour and snapped a a great shot. Drop us a line.
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