In today's post I'm treating myself to a wee bit of a celebration – on Saturday I passed the City of Westminster guiding course and I'm now a badged-up, qualified City of Westminster Guide!
Way back at the start of the course, in October last year, I walked the boundary of the City of Westminster to get a feel for the area - regular readers will know that big, long London rambles are one of my favorite things.
Here are a few of the things I saw along the way (there's 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 in the distance…
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…
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