Views around Southwark...

Ugh...88% Humidity...

...so sticky and it's only 18 degrees (so far), 32 degrees expected by lunchtime!  It already feels like being in the hot domes at the Eden Project...

...and the storms last night were just astonishing, pretty sure they woke baby Annabelle up when they started (at about 2am), I did a zombie-like walk around the house closing all the wide-open windows and sealing all the blackout blinds as best I could to shut out the thunderous noise, gale-force winds and pretty much continuous flashes of light...

Thomas managed to sleep through the whole thing, of course...!

St Dunstan in the East Garden

Wow...a year on and I'm *still* finding amazing little gems like this, strictly speaking this is in the City, not Wapping, as it's too far West, but it marks about the half-way point if I'm walking between Thomas More Square and London Bridge...wish I had stumbled across it before!

You would never know there was a tube strike...

...on today, would you? ;)

Pudding Lane Commute

Noticed the other day that (when I decide to walk over London Bridge to get to Wapping, instead of getting shuttle bus or tube) I tend to walk up Pudding Lane - quite by accident (!)...

...which is, of course, the site of the start of the Great Fire of London (way back in 1666), just shows, you really can't take more than about 50 steps in any direction in London without hitting some bit of interesting history... ;)

Of course, I *should* have been clued into this possibility by the enormous Monument...

- complete with *huge* signs telling the terrible tale (all over the base) that I pass -

- shortly before my swerve up Pudding Lane (which, I imagine, looks rather different today than when it was the home of Thomas Faryner's (slightly too combustible) Bakery...

I turn right up the little alley you can see about half way up the lane to continue my rush...now sniffing for signs of smoke as I go... ;)

Not a cloud in the sky over London...

...absolutely beautiful... ;)

Preparation under way - London Marathon

Crowd barriers up all along the Highway in Wapping already...! ;)

Good Morning London!

Absolutely beautiful sunrise this morning, taken from the break in the middle of Tower Bridge over the Thames, looking towards Canary Wharf... ;)

London in the Fog

Quite amazing views today (trying to get into the office early, best option being to walk again - oh well) - First up - More London Place to the North East...

More London Place to the South West (you can normally see the Shard in the gap in the middle - no chance today)...!

London City Hall (and the fountains full of frolicking children - in more merciful weather)...

Approach to Tower Bridge (heading towards Dunwall Shad Thames)...





...and some of the boats in St Katherine Docks...Just need a Ripper Murder now...hehe... ;)

Update - a few of these pics made it onto The Times Facebook feed... ;)

Just behind the façade...

...is a glimpse of a much older London, if you take some time to peep between the cracks... ;)

Bankside - Then and Now

(1997, not even that long ago)!

...and now...How things have changed!

The Thames at sunrise

Knife of Dunwall in London

...and so, the other night after work (on my way back to London Bridge station as for some reason the free shuttle bus didn't happen) I basically managed to walk completely out of London and into level 1 of Knife of Dunwall from Dishonored (can't find a better image, but trust me, this *has* to have been the inspiration for the level designers)...It's called Shad Thames (if you are interested) and from the looks of things there used to be a few more bridges...!

View from the new office!

...featuring Tower Bridge, the Thames, St Katherine's Dock, the Shard (etc.)...very nice indeed! ;)

The real Diagon Alley...

...(as it turns out) isn't actually very far from my office! Just up Charing Cross road (walking up from Trafalgar Square), on the right hand side of the road, before you hit Leicester Square tube...
...is Cecil Court (origin of which dates back to the early 17th Century), which was revealed to be the real world "location" (and perhaps inspiration) for Diagon Alley (in the Harry Potter universe)-

-and you can sort of see why, peering in through the windows-




-and looking at the names of the shops-

- I can easily picture Harry and Hermione bustling up here, dodging folk shopping for dusty books or maps and ducking behind a rusty iron gate into one of the secret ways that leads into the wizarding world... ;)

Around Chinatown...