Iconic London

This morning I took the train and the tube into the heart of the city.  I spent about six hours photographing some of the sights that people most associate with London.

I got off the tube at the Charing Cross Station, and I was only steps away from Trafalgar Square, perhaps the most important square in the city.  It is named to commemorate the Battle of Trafalgar in which Admiral Horatio Nelson defeated the fleets of France and Spain during the Napoleonic War.  The square is dominated by a 200 foot high column topped with a statue of Admiral Nelson.

On one side of the square stands the National Gallery of Art, London's foremost art museum. (I intend to visit the museum as a "rainy-day" activity.

 

On one corner of the square is the eighteenth century Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields.  It is well known for its afternoon and evening concerts.  (Classical music buffs may be familiar with the ensemble, the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields.)

 

One of the streets leading off of Trafalgar Square is Whitehall.  It is named after Whitehall Palace (one of many built by Henry VIII) which used to stand there.  Today it is lined with government buildings.

By sheer good fortune, I happened to be passing the Horse Guards, the quarters of the Household Cavalry of the Queen, at 11:00.  At that hour there is a changing of the guard.  Although it is not as famous as the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, this ceremony is much easier to see close-up and to photograph.

Whitehall ends at the Houses of Parliament and that most famous of London icons, Big Ben.  Actually, Big Ben is the nickname for the largest bell in the clock tower.  The tower itself is officially the Elizabeth Tower.

 
Across the Thames River from Big Ben is one of the city's newer landmarks, the London Eye. It was constructed in 1999, and is 443 feet high.  It is the most visited paid attraction in the United Kingdom. Technically it is not considered a Ferris Wheel.

On my previous trip to England, I had not gone up in the Eye, but I decided to do so this time.  The price of a ticket is quite steep...  20 pounds or about 34 dollars.  However, I was pleasantly surprised that I only waited in line for about twenty minutes... I was expecting at least an hour.  The view of London is quite spectacular.

 

I crossed back over the Thames.  Just beyond the Houses of Parliament is another iconic landmark, Westminster Abbey.  This Gothic church (it is not London's cathedral) was begun in 1245, and is the traditional location for the coronation of England's monarchs.  I visited the Abbey on my previous visit, and was rather disappointed.  It was so crowded that one could not really appreciate the church.  I literally had to squeeze my way through the crowd to enter some of the chapels. So I chose not to pay the hefty 18 pound (30 dollars) admission fee to enter this time.

Instead, for a bit of tranquility I walked through St. James Park.  The large pond in the park is home to a wide array of waterfowl, including swans.  I have read that all swans in the United Kingdom are the property of the Queen.

At the far end of St. James Park is Buckingham Palace.  Since the Queen had not invited me in for tea, I didn't go inside.

As I headed back along the Mall, the street running along St. James Park, I spotted another one of London's iconic images... a sentry guard in a tall bearskin hat.  He was not at Buckingham Palace, but at the entrance to Clarence House, which was once the residence of the Queen Mother.

 

I continued along the Mall to Admiralty Arch...

 I passed through the Arch, and I was back where I had started... Trafalgar Square.