London

Remembering London

a group of statues in front of a building

Pounding the pavement of London all week has hardened my feet while enlightening my mind. Neighborhoods that were familiar names on a map have become recognizable puzzle pieces I can place on a grid of memories after traveling three weeks around the city in the past year.

London is a loud city. Between road traffic, ambulance and emergency vehicle sirens, road construction and building construction, helicopters above and subway trains below, ebullient drunks and angry crazies, noise is a near constant factor of the tourist experience.

London Underground

Museums and churches are quiet spaces for a respite from the city streets. There are many green spaces. Central London parks provide quiet moments when birds and squirrels are the loudest sounds, until city noise deafens the calming sounds of nature.

St. James's Park-Buckingham Palace

St. James’s Park London with view of Buckingham Palace

London has history waiting to be discovered around every corner, commemorated on building sites and through monuments in city parks.

Westminster Abbey

Inside Westminster Abbey

Unfortunately no photography is allowed in the main rooms of Westminster Abbey.

Westminster Abbey door

Old door Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey is the resting place for many of England’s Kings and Queens buried within ornate tombs visitors can walk around and observe.

Bare bones displays reveal other past lives in other places around London like the Grant Museum of Zoology, Wellcome Collection and Hunterian Museum.

Grant Museum-1

Grant Museum of Zoology – University College London

Darwin was here.

Darwin plaque

Charles Darwin 1809-1882 Naturalist lived in a house on this site 1838-1842 on what is now University College London.

Tate Museum

Tate Museum

Inside the Tate Museum

London is a city replete with fine art. Some souls inanimately breathe life with resplendent beauty through the sheer will of the artist’s craft.

Tate Museum Eve Robert Brock 1900

Eve – Robert Brock (1900) – Tate Museum of British Art

Rodin - Victoria gardens

The Burghers of Calais – Auguste Rodin (1889) – Victoria Tower Gardens

Many of the images and monuments seen in London serve as reminders of dead souls.

WWI Memorial

Royal Artillery Memorial, Hyde Park Corner – Charles Sargeant Jagger (1925)

Just as in Paris in September, I walked London in full moonlight, briefly, when the clouds parted, and felt touched by the souls and spirits of others who occupied these same spaces beneath the stars in past and present lives.

Wellington Arch

Wellington Arch – Hyde Park Corner, London beneath the full moon.

5 Comments

  • Charlotte (TYR) November 28, 2015

    This is an excellent example of why one should travel…

  • SgFm November 29, 2015

    Lovely photo essay. It’s fun to see London from your perspective.

  • Ric Garrido November 29, 2015

    Now that my wife and I are in Sweden, she made the observation that there are no war monuments. In London they are ubiquitous.

    Statues in Sweden recognize religious leaders, statesmen and scientists. Most sculptures are simply art. Sweden has remained neutral in wars since the Napoleonic Wars.

    The climate change rally today in the university city of Uppsala had very little police presence.

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