Let's go shopping

[mossie]

In the context of London, that can only mean one thing, a visit to London's High Street.



It can get extremely busy, as here, and contains the usual mix of ancient and modern buildings, it is always good to look above the shop fronts to see what gem may be lurking there



For me to get there I took a ride on one of London's shorter bus routes, the 8, which starts from the little bus station attached to Liverpool Street station, and ends at St Giles,just off Tottenham Court Road.



I had sightseeing company on this journey, which is quite normal and a lazy way to get a view.



Oxford Street begins at St Giles Circus, where Tottenham Ct Rd crosses, and home to a Tube Station, which is being remodelled to take in the new supertube, Crossrail. And home to the much reviled Centrepoint, which was one of London's biggest skyscrapers at the time it was built.



The station has already been prettified



But doesn't bear comparison with this old building next door. Which is in danger of falling into the hole dug to create the new station



A bit over a mile of shops and more shops, with the odd bank and Tube station thrown in. If a chain store doesn't have a shop along here, it doesn't rank very high. I hadn't been for very many years and was rather shocked to see that some whole shops were now selling cheap tourist knick-knacks as well as the odd stalls. I suppose it is a popular place for families so the kids can have a souvenir of their day out, it is also a tourist magnet, many just don't seem to think their visit to England is not complete without a visit.



I note a 'bureau de change' in the back of that one, if you want to be ripped off they are the places to seek out. As everywhere, one sees down and outs sleeping on the side of the path and beggars, but this Big Issue seller had an excellent assistant



Going for a desperately needed cup of tea

[mossie]

Wandering at random, here is a typical chain store, found on many British high streets, but at least an effort has been made to cheer it up.



Just for a change right next door is Disney



Just in a side street is this good old fashioned pub facade



But I had my lunch in a different pub



climbing this ornate staircase



To the Palladium room, which had some old playbills. Gracie Fields was a very popular singer in her day, the playbill is dated 1935. I think I have told you elsewhere that I have requested one of her wartime songs to be played at my cremation. "Wish me Luck as you Wave me Goodbye"



The actual theatre is a few steps away



Back on the Street, how about having multiple photos posted up in a very busy place



This very strange mix of styles caught my eye a short distance up a side street



But there are some very nice looking brick buildings



And it is nice to see the original Oxford Circus Tube station is still there



Is she on to the bank to increase the overdraft?



Here is ancient sandwiched between modern, but I guess the new is just covering up some old



But here is a real gem, once someones posh town house no doubt



and two more



But here is a nice oldie, waiting to see what super modernism will be unleashed next door



The Post Office Tower lurks up a side street, the restaurant on top can revolve, although I am not sure it is used now



But there is an attractive glass construction down the street



Another rest

[kerouac2]

I'm one of those people who always feel compelled to go to Oxford Street when I am in London. This last trip in June for the meet-up was an unusual exception since I was there for such a short time. Since it did not appear in Bixaorellana's London diary, perhaps she never found her way to that part of town.

I have observed all sorts of modifications over the years, but as far as I'm concerned it has always had a number of tawdry souvenir shops along with the grand department stores and the chain stores of the moment. I probably should not admit that Primark is now one of my obligatory visits. (But we have Primark in France now, too, albeit not inside the Paris city limits.)

The Tottenham Court Road construction mess fascinates me every time, and I will be thrilled to see how it all looks when it is completed. I know that big projects take forever, because at Les Halles we are now in our 8th year of reconstruction, but believe it or not, it will finally be completed next year.

[htmb]

Nice pictures, Mossie. Full of great detail in each and every one!

[bixaorellana]

Glad to see this thread popped up to the top, Mossie. I had been waiting for the 2nd installment after your tea break, then failed to see that it had been posted.

Part of the way you were following in the hot, weary footsteps of Cheery & Bixa. We were in that area in early July. (so now you know, kerouac2 ) The heat and the crowds, wow the crowds, ultimately dissuaded me from attending the Pride Parade a few days later, although I'm not usually such a wimp.

Love your lead-off, with the noble head and the street name in stone. As usual with you, all of the pictures are wonderful.

Do you know what the building with the very steep steeple might be, or once was?

I'm eager to meet with you again, Mossie, but every time I see what great pubs and bars you find, that eagerness intensifies.

[patricklondon]

I was going to remark on the contrast of styles in the architecture round the steepled church. That is All Souls, Langham Place, and its unusual circular shape and needle-like steeple are Nash's marker of a focal point for his entire Regent St design. At that point the road turns sharply to run up to Regent's Park. Next to it, on the left is the 1930s Broadcasting House (BBC HQ), reminiscent of a ship in Moderne style, the shape somewhat dictated, I assume, by the street layout and by the need to maintain the gap to All Souls. The modern glass curve behind the church is the massive extension to Broadcasting House when they sold off the TV Centre at White City and brought together all the news and a lot of the programme production functions into the one site.

You mention the massive Crossrail developments at Tottenham Court Road (and they're just as big at Bond St). It is indeed a gargantuan project, and there have been a couple of jaw-dropping TV series about the work and people involved (including the efforts they've been to to to make sure they're not going to collapse surrounding buildings). I've been lucky enough to see inside some of the workings on Open Days, at Bond Street and Canary Wharf, and the size of the thing is unbelievable; but I suppose within months we shall be taking it all for granted.

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[mossie]

I must start with a big apology. I got my bus routes in a total twist. I mixed up the 8 with the 23. The 23, which I had used to go to Jermyn Street etc., starts from Liverpool Street and continues on to Westbourne Park, well out west. The 8, on the other hand, goes right out to Hainault, in darkest Essex.

Any way, the 23 ploughs its way along Oxford St before turning down Regent St on its longwinded way back to Liverpool St. It was one of these that I gratefully climbed on to once my legs had given out. Here it is nearly down to Piccadilly



and the poor driver is soon struggling round the tourist hot spot of Piccadilly, where Eros takes centre stage



How is this for Streamline Moderne?



But soon we come to Nelson gazing out to the South for the first glimpse of the French



This time the sun nicely lit Charing Cross



"Let's all go down the Strand, and have a banana", as the song has it



I suppose this is one way of breaking up the severity of concrete



But here is the good old fashioned Waldorf Hotel, in the Aldwych



Here is the side of St Clement Dane church, showing the crudely repaired damage caused by a nearby bomb in the Blitz.



Now we are in Fleet Street. Although all the newspapers have now legged it to Wapping the reminders are still occasionally to be seen



Now the bus caught up with another with a wonderful advert on the back, from which I have cropped a part. "I'll have your guts for garters"



Just one more. Mr Punch.



Teatime