Going up West

[mossie]

When I lived in Stepney going anywhere west of Gardiners Corner, where Commercial Road and Whitechapel High St meet, meant going to Londons West End, where the rich people were. Yesterday I did just that and headed for Jermyn Street, which runs parallel to Piccadilly. My reason for going there was a tenuous link to my working life, the second job I had while working in the asphalt industry was as Assistant London Area manager in a firm called Roads Reconstruction, which was a large West Country quarrying outfit. When I applied for the post I was most surprised to be called for interview at an office in Jermyn St. , when I expected a scruffy office in the suburbs. That is where the directors had elevated themselves to be close to the fleshpots of the West End where prestigious clients could be entertained. After working for a very closely controlled company, where expenses were only paid out on exceptional and authorised business it was an eye opener. But that is where the money was and still is, look at this car I spotted near by.



It stood just around the corner from this shop, which I expect some of the lady viewers might wish to visit



I had been struck by the various arcades in the area, and believe that they had been inspired by the Passages in Paris. However the shops in them were considerably upmarket, consider Old Bond Street Arcade here



In the Piccadilly Arcade spotted this waistcoat. At work I used to wear a waistcoat in the winter, but had I worn this one my men would never have let me hear the last of it.



This arcade, which joins Jermyn St to Piccadilly still has many high class men's tailoring shops, which Jermyn St was once well known for



But my eye was caught by this display in a jewellers, particularly the winged O at bottom right. This was the old RAF observers flying badge, observers were reclassified as navigators at the beginning of WWII, and were required to change that badge for the 'N' badge. Many did not like it and carried on using the old 'Flying Arsehole' as some people unkindly called it.



My wanderings led me to perhaps the best known of these arcades, the Burlington Arcade, which runs beside Burlington House, home of the Royal Academy



At the other end is a Laduree shop which Paris addicts are no doubt familiar with. Someone is licking the window to use the French expression



Another twee French item was this



and yet another French invader



But we can bang our own drums in this Catherine Kidson shop



here is the entrance to the courtyard of Burlington House, where there is a Matisse exhibition. I was too mean to visit I'm afraid



Time to call a halt this evening, I'll inflict some more on you tomorrow.

[kerouac2]

Interesting to see this area. With a little luck the foreign invaders will be gone in two years.

[mossie]

During my bus trips I was able to sit in a front seat upstairs for part of the journey so here is a mixture of odd pictures. Note that they are generally snatched on the move so some have been cropped to remove bits of bus and very often to straighten them.

These griffins mark the boundaries of the City of London



Here a young Queen Victoria stands in front of the west entrance to St Pauls Cathedral. see how people use the steps much as they do at Sacre Coeur in Paris, although the view is not comparable, one is just looking down the gentle slope of Ludgate Hill



Here is Ludgate Circus at the bottom of the hill, where it runs into Fleet Street. Fleet incidentally refers to a tributary of the Thames which runs near here, but now covered over



These shots are in a random order because here is St Pauls again, one gets a good view from the bus



and it goes right past the Law Courts



For a while we followed this lorry, with a good rural address. One of his notices said "I'm not lost, I'm exploring" and The Stig is an anonymous racing driver from a TV show, not the one from the dump.



Passing Charing Cross railway station, it takes its name from the cross erected in the station forecourt by Edward 1st in the late 13th century. It is well explained here in another bit pinched off the web

The first queen of Edward I would perhaps have been completely forgotten had it not been for her husband’s dramatic memorials to her that were erected following her death in 1290.

These were the beautiful ‘Eleanor Crosses’ …the most famous one giving Charing Cross in London its name.

Eleanor of Castile was only ten when she left her mother country Spain and arrived in England in 1254 to marry Edward (also known as Longshanks).

As she was so very young at the time of their marriage, Edward went off for a few years, indulging in his favourite pastimes of war, tournaments and more war. He must have stopped fighting occasionally as they produced sixteen children before she became queen, her first child being born when she was 20 years old !!



The bus drags slowly through the traffic lights round the south side of Trafalgar Square



and we get a glimpse of Admiralty Arch



Thinking of the Admiralty I spotted this pub, who was to know that our navy had been reduced so much that all the admirals can drink in here together, no wonder it leans a bit.



The Square is always a popular place as we are near tourist central



But that is really here



Where there are these types of attraction, all trying to earn a few bob



The famous Regent Street joins here



The area is very busy



But minutes earlier I had nearly been run down by a flock of sheep rushing out of an up market book shop



Here is another view of Laduree just to set the tone



I must give it, and you all, a rest now

[bixaorellana]

Another fun tour, Mossie! I absolutely love the shots from up on the bus, especially as you got such nice wide pictures of Admiralty Arch and of Trafalgar Square. Fascinating history item about the Eleanor crosses. Do you know how many still exist, and if they are as elaborate as the Charing Cross one?

That picture with the griffin is dynamite!

[questa]

As I rolled from young Victoria to Ludgate Circus I gasped...literally. How do you get that 3D effect, Mossie? It is wonderful, the distant buildings are crisp and my eyes were drawn straight into the picture. The other places I have read about since childhood so it was good to see them. Is Banbury Cross (kids nursery song) one of the Eleanor places?

[lagatta]

Magnificent London pictures. So many buildings have copied St. Pauls. The last set of London photos I've seen here are of Brixton Market; it really is a world in a city.

Car photo: "Pimp my Mercedes"... And such lovely livery on the lorry. Funny, when I saw the thread title, I thought West Country, not the Wild West End.

[mossie]

Questa, Charing Cross has no connection with Banbury, Banbury is rumoured to be in honour of Lady Godiva, but that could be urban myth. The Eleanor crosses were erected at places where Eleanors body rested for the night on its journey from Lincoln, where it had been embalmed, up to the final burial at Westminster Abbey.

The 3D effect is luck, my camera has a zoom, the short end of which is 25mm, and I normally use that for these hastily snatched shots. There is no composure, just press the tit and hope you are pointing the thing in the right direction, much like shooting in cowboy films

[kerouac2]

My conscience is nagging me to do that "places where I worked in Paris" thread that I said that I wanted to do.

[lagatta]

Well, since you aren't working any more, why can't you? Are there post-retirement policies of reserve?

[mossie]

Now back to my West End excursion. There are a lot of very fine buildings, but the ground floors are given over to selling some sort of overpriced tat, as here.



a detail from over the main doorway, just to confirm the location



A nice perspective down Piccadilly



But now it is back to the bus to start for home, and another architect has let the side down, I won't even try to put it straight



Now a real oddity, the Grand Trunk was a railway company which had a railway in Canada which went bust, like many. The head office was here, in central London.



here an architect has had a better stab at modernity, but still counts as one of my monstrosities



Sorry, I don't remember which building this is. Looks like a war memorial on a church which just caught my eye as the bus lumbered by. Incidentally if you follow me by using the public bus to get about that it can take quite a long time



But then it is train home and 'bye, bye' city

[mossie]

Didn't notice Kerouac's posting which happened as I was slogging through my last one.

Come along K. Pull your socks up, you have had a far more venturesome time than I.

[kerouac2]

No, but I have discovered that something that I have always heard retired people saying (including my parents) is true: we are completely busy all the time. Often with futile pursuits but also quite a few things that need to be done and which never got done in the past. Just today, I bought a new level (since I can't find the one that I know that I have) to make sure that the kitchen renovators in October don't leave the room at a slant. I bought paint appropriate for metal to finally paint the armoured door. I looked at door knobs at the store to see how they are put together. My recent painters somehow disassembled my bathroom door knob so that it can come off in your hand if you are not careful. I decided that I didn't need to buy anything but that I can use thin nails to keep the knob where it belongs. Also I went shopping and found 8 magnificent duck drumsticks on "late sell by date" sale for just 2 euros, so I started stewing them immediately. I'll get to that work report sooner or later...

[mossie]

A good way to wind up people who are still working, especially if they still have some time to go and are moaning about it, is to say what I have often heard retired people say. "I don't know how I found the time to go to work"