A Trip to London
“When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.”
Samuel Johnson
Our first stop was the Lime Tree Hotel, a boutique property in Belgravia recommended by a friend. We snagged a room with our own garden patio on the ground floor of this historic Georgian townhouse with no lift (that’s “elevator” in American). The weather – sunny and in the 70s in August – was conducive to eating all our meals al fresco.
For our first excursion, we joined a group for a 4-hour guided bike trip around London. We often cycle when we travel as it is a human-powered mode of exploration that allows for contemplation while moving our bodies – a kind of kinetic meditation. The day we picked for our ride was a bank holiday, a perfect choice for streets devoid of cars.
The new king staged this little ceremony in our honour. We were touched – he really shouldn’t have.
Many of you know I spent the majority of my career at Wimberly Allison Tong & Goo, the international design firm, as their Worldwide Director of Marketing.
During this trip back to my alma mater’s European headquarters, I gave a lunchtime talk to the staff of WATG about how that office came to be. As it happens, I played an integral part in the decision to open this office way back in 1990. I was tasked to evaluate 50 different locations, hire its first employee, and took many trips there to ensure its success.
I guess things worked out OK. Today, their London office employs 150 and is the firm's largest of their seven global locations.
For the next few days, Jana visited museums while I joined a workshop led by the travel photography and Photoshop specialist Scott Kelby. The group shot at dawn and dusk, and we practiced our photo editing during the day.
On the morning of Day One, my big-boy Olympus camera fell off its tripod and died, so all these photos were taken on the 21st Century’s most popular back-up camera: the Apple iPhone.
As usual, I looked for ways to showcase iconic structures: cantilevered tubework above the Thames from the London Eye; a little one-foot-diameter puddle mirroring the Royal Albert Hall; Big Ben framed by bus and lion; the Tower Bridge in perfect bi-lateral symmetry.
London is a never-ending field day for lovers of architecture old and new. The city is always growing and changing, and every time I’ve been there I’ve always been floored by the inspiration.
Meanwhile, everyday life in London, whether in a tube station or a marketplace, is a subject for a curious photographer and only requires a moment to snap a perfectly framed portrait of The City.
Finally, we got a behind-the-scenes tour (from the neo-classical gentleman featured here) of Crossness Pumping Station, a sewage treatment plant dating back to 1856 with spectacular ornamental ironwork.
We found it featured in a book called “Secret London” and had to visit. We weren’t disappointed. The achitecture was stunning both in structure and design.
Closing this travelogue with a ho-hum snap of the daily cleaning of the steps of St. Paul's Cathedral. Like I said, it’s hard to take a bad picture in London Town.
Thanks for coming along for the ride.
