A Few From London

I recently had a day in London. A friend was visiting me, and wanted to go to Dean Street to look at bass guitars. While he did that, I took a few photos.

 

Chelsea In Bloom

Each year, to coincide with the RHS flower show, the shops and businesses in Chelsea hold 'Chelsea In Bloom'. Described as 'London’s largest free-to-attend festival of flowers', over 145 retailers, restaurants and hotels compete to create floral designs on a theme. This year's theme was ‘Out of this World’, and was broadly interpreted with space travel, astrology and fantasy designs. My favourites were the designs that both met the brief and stayed on brand for the business. These included the cow jumping over the moon at a butchers, a saucepan rocket at a kitchenware shop and 'Little Shop of Horrors' at a florist.

Tate Britain - A Few More

A few things from Tate Britain that drew my eye. 

Tate Britain - The Forbidden Staircase

I was in London last weekend. With the prospect of yet another wet day, I headed to Tate Britain. While I do enjoy all the art on offer, what I have always loved about Tate Britain is the building itself. It has some beautiful spaces. This time I was taken by one of the staircases and spent some time taking abstract shots. Eventually I drew the attention of one of the security guards. Apparently I wasn't allowed to take photos of the stairs. It was okay to shoot all the art, but not the building. That required 'a pass'. When questioned, he was a little vague of the reason and detail for any of this. Luckily I had what I wanted, so went on my way. Although I might take a few more photos of these stairs. next time I'm in.

 

Mayfair Christmas

Last weekend, I was in London for lunch and a show. In between, there was time for a stroll around the posh bits. Starting in Berkeley Square, our walk included New Bond Street and the Burlington Arcade. The Christmas decorations were just as lovely as you would hope could be achieved with a awful lot of money.

Wimbledon Village

Any part of London that gets called a 'village' is pretty much guaranteed to have house prices starting around £1.5 million. That is certainly the case for Wimbledon Village. It's a 10 minute walk up a slight hill from the station and next to the common. Although if you want a decent view of that, you will need to add another 3 or 4 million to your house budget. It's a posh area with shops to match. I like to go there occasionally, to window shop, people watch and buy things from their fabulous delicatessens. 

I was there last Saturday, the middle Saturday of the tennis. It's fair to say that all the local businesses were running with the theme. I hadn't planned on taking any photos (just buying cheese), so I could only use my iPhone. All edits were done with Snapseed.