…and a little further along the Thames, upstream from Blackfriars Bridge…
…and in the context of the riverbank…
Because of track engineering work, there were no trains out of Victoria down to Kent this weekend, so I made a rare visit to Cannon Street station for the revised timetable. I didn’t mind; variety is the spice of life and all that, and moreover, there was an element of nostalgia to it all, as I lived in south-east London throughout the 1980s, so train journeys to Cannon Street and Charing Cross via London Bridge were a commonplace then. So I caught the Northern Line down to London Bridge late morning and walked to Cannon Street for my train there…
(19/02/13, 14:13, ISO 80, f5.6, 1/320, AWB)
(21/02/13, 07:33, ISO 80, f3.4, 1/60, AWB)
(23/02/13, 17:19, ISO 200, f3.5, 1/30, AWB)
(23/02/13, 18:09, ISO 800, f4.5, 1/8, AWB)
Hungerford Bridge leads directly back into Charing Cross Station, on the north bank of the Thames, but before you enter the station itself, there’s a small market with a handful of stalls. The following two photos were taken in the said market, but I couldn’t decide whether I preferred the image in colour or in monochrome, hence both are included here…c’est à vous 😉
(23/02/13, 18:12, ISO 500, f3.4, 1/20, AWB)
I was up with the lark this morning, to accompany my partner to Gatwick Airport, for her midday flight to Beijing, to see in the Chinese New Year with her family. After we’d said our zai jians I caught a train up to London Bridge, and then wandered westwards, upstream towards Charing Cross, which is a pleasant ramble through some historic parts of London…and the falling snow was no deterrent at all ;). So here we go :)…
The following picture deserves a few lines of explanation; you’ll see three people at the bottom left of the photograph. One is a young Japanese (I think) tourist with a camcorder, and to her left is her companion. The third individual, the chap being filmed, was actually doing a performance of ‘Feed the Birds (Tuppence a Bag)’ from the film ‘Mary Poppins’, so I’ve provided the lyrics to the same, directly after the photograph…
‘Early each day to the steps of Saint Paul’s
The little old bird woman comes.
In her own special way to the people she calls,
“Come, buy my bags full of crumbs.
Come feed the little birds, show them you care
And you’ll be glad if you do.
Their young ones are hungry,
Their nests are so bare;
All it takes is tuppence from you.”
Feed the birds, tuppence a bag,
Tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a bag.
“Feed the birds,” that’s what she cries,
While overhead, her birds fill the skies.
All around the cathedral the saints and apostles
Look down as she sells her wares.
Although you can’t see it, you know they are smiling
Each time someone shows that he cares.
Though her words are simple and few,
Listen, listen, she’s calling to you:
“Feed the birds, tuppence a bag,
Tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a bag.”
Though her words are simple and few,
Listen, listen, she’s calling to you:
“Feed the birds, tuppence a bag,
Tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a bag.”‘
By now, the snow was coming down rather heavily, so I took refuge for a while in an Irish pub,’The Tipperary’, opposite Valentino’s, on the southern side of Fleet Street…
‘Is life a boon?
If so, it must befall
That Death, whene’er he call,
Must call too soon.’