Captain's Log

The Shard

Today’s itinerary would include a visit to the top of The Shard and a tour around the Tower Bridge’s walkways and engine rooms. After that, my plan was a little vague. I’d head off around the Tower of London towards the Monument and then take a wander among the high towers of the City. It would be nice to find Leadenhall Market, a place I must have walked past many times, but never visited. I’d then head over the Thames, probably using the Millennium bridge, to see if I might get some reasonable photos of the City lights being switched on. I’d then return to my base at Blackfriars. 

Iron Man was joining me for the first part of this journey and would leave me after the tour of The Shard. The day was a lot brighter than the previous two as we made our way along the north side of the River Thames. The sun was failing to break through the cloud though and there was a definite chill to the air. The brisk walk over the Millennium bridge warmed us up and offered great views of the Tate Modern Gallery immediately ahead and The Shard over by London Bridge. We’d thoroughly explored the south bank between Blackfriars and Southwark, over the previous two days, and so the territory and sights were familiar. We arrived 20 minutes early for our booked ticket time for The Shard and I spent the time walking the surrounding streets taking photos of the magnificent building. At 10:00 they opened the doors to visitors and we rushed in to be first to the lift. An account of our time in the shard can be found in: London The Shard. 

The Shard turned out to be a brilliant experience. Iron Man had left earlier (he was travelling home today) and so I went in search of the river to continue my journey eastwards to Tower Bridge. 

Tower Bridge

The riverside walk along the Thames to Tower Bridge is known as the Queen’s Walk. There were tremendous views across the river to the City. It wasn’t long before I caught sight of the twin towers of Tower Bridge. Before that was the floating museum of HMS Belfast. Near the start of the war, the ship had to spent 2 years getting repaired after hitting a mine. After that she escorted Artic convoys and played her part in the destruction of the warship Scharhorst.  She also played a part in Operation Overlord supporting the Normandy landings. There was more active service in the Korean War during 1950-52. She entered the reserve in 1963 and opened to the public in 1971. I actually wanted to take a tour around her, but due to time constraints, this would have to wait for another London campaign. 

Hays Galleria was nearby. This was  a Grade II listed site and quite impressive. Old warehouses have been converted to retail, cafes, bar and restaurant outlets. A courtyard has been covered by a high steel and glass ceiling. The Hays Galleria website says that within a 5 minutes walk, there are 3 food markets, 140+ restaurant and bars and 7 theatres and galleries. That probably explained why there were hundreds of people plodding along the pavement between Hays Galleria and Tower Bridge. 

I finally got near Tower Bridge and managed to find a space in the crowds to take some photos. I tried to buy an advanced online ticket to visit the bridge, but my payment kept getting rejected for some reason. I sighed, walked across to the ticket office situated in the north tower, and joined a small queue to gain entry. An account of my visit can be found in London Tower Bridge. 

The tour of Tower Bridge turned out to be more interesting than I expected. Time was progressing when I finally departed and I realised I needed to get a wriggle on if I wanted to visit the City and reach the south bank before sundown. 

Tower Of London, St Dunstan In The East And The Monument

I dropped down from Tower Bridge to the north bank of the Thames and walked along the cobbled path of Tower Wharf. The southern outer wall of the Tower of London seemed to stretch a lot further than I remembered from the last time I was here. Admittedly that was well over 50 years ago, but I guess nothing much will have changed. I wouldn’t have minded having a mooch around the place, but at £40 a ticket, it would have to wait until I won the pools. Eventually I reached the most easterly point of the castle at Byward Tower and then headed north along the outer wall to the Lion Tower. There were even three full size model lions standing in the grounds. An information board told me that the Tower of London did indeed house exotic animals including lions. These were received as royal gifts. If somebody tried to gift me a lion, I think I’d probably tell them where to stuff it. The menagerie was demolished in the 1830s and the remaining animals transferred to London Zoo. 

I left the Tower of London and started heading west down Byward Street before turning up a side street to find the tranquil sanctuary of St Dunstan in the East. The church there was largely destroyed in the Second World War and the ruins are now a public garden. The tower and steeple was designed by Sir Christopher Wren and were still intact, but only walls remained of the rest of the church. These did make it into quite a nice, seclusive garden area though and was well worth a visit. 

I meandered further eastwards and eventually came to Pudding Lane. Everybody knows that this is where the Great Fire of London started in 1666. 62 metres away from the lane was the large column of the Monument. I know it was 62 metres away because Sir Christopher Wren (he gets everywhere!) designed the Monument to commemorate the fire and designed it to be the same height as it was distance from Pudding Lane. I actually wanted to climb to the top, but it was shut (probably because it was the weekend). The day was getting darker as evening approached and I headed northwards along Gracechurch Street into the City. 

The City

Suddenly I was surrounded by high rise towers. It was like walking at the bottom of a canyon. I wanted to check out Leadenhall Market. Back in the 1980s when I used to commute to work from Liverpool Street, I used to walk quite close to this place, but never knew it even existed. It’s one of the oldest markets in London and has a wonderful Victorian steel and glass roof, whilst the floor is cobbled. After walking amongst the modern high rises just next door, it was like stepping into another world. What an amazing place! Walking outside its entrance/exit at Leadenhall Place I was presented with the futuristic Lloyd’s of London high rise building. What a contrast! It was the same experience on the Whittington Avenue exit. The high rises have just been plonked around this small market area. I headed over to Leadenhall Street to get a better view of the Lloyd’s of London building. It had just been built when I was working down here. It is an unusual design in that all of its services are on the outside of the building, leaving it clutter free inside. Well, that's the theory. Having the services on the outside meant that they weathered more (well, we didn’t see that one coming) and Lloyds considered vacating the building in 2014 due to the cost of maintaining them. I guess the architects have retired by now and living it up on fat pensions. From my position on Leadenhall Street, I could also see another iconic tower, the Gherkin. St Andrew Undershaft was in the foreground which again provided an extreme contrast in architecture. The church’s curious name derives from the shaft of the maypole that was traditionally set up each year opposite the church. It was getting quite dark now and I didn’t want to miss sundown on the south bank. I set off for the Millennium Bridge at a pace. 

Before I left the City completely I came across a curious sculpture outside the Bloomburg offices. It seemed like the pavement had been removed and water was running over some exposed earth. I didn’t really have time to explore it further, but decided to investigate it more thoroughly when I returned to this area in a couple of day’s time. 

Long Exposure

The afternoon was getting very dark as I crossed the Millennium Bridge and I thought I might be too late to catch what is known as the blue hour when the best night time photographs can be captured. I’d only brought my compact camera to London and so I wasn’t really expecting to capture anything spectacular. I had an inspired idea of buying a pint at the Founder’s Arms and then setting up my tripod at one of its garden patio tables. A few minutes later I had my little compact setup on my tiny gorilla tripod and a full pint of Landlords in front of me. I started taking photos, gradually increasing the exposure elapsed time as the evening got darker. It got very chilly as time progressed. I’m sure people inside the pub wondered what that idiot was doing sitting outside. There was a bit of breeze which caused the camera to shake a little, which wasn’t good for long exposure shots. Occasionally I’d also get people drifting into my shot so that they appeared like ghosts on the final image. The boats were a nuisance too in that they left a trail of light as they made their way down the Thames. I even got the trail light of a plane flying over the City in one of the photos. It was a nice way to sip a pint though and also drink in that spectacular view of the City. Given I was only using my compact camera, I was fairly pleased with the final results. I supped up and started making my way back to my hotel at Blackfriars. 

I’d crammed a lot into today. A falcon's eye view of London from The Shard, a fascinating tour of Tower Bridge’s walkways and engine rooms and a walk of contrasting architecture through the City. The pint and photography session at the Founder’s Arms had been a great way to end the day