Now What?: London Anniversary Tour

WARNING:
Interminably long, self-indulgent and really quite dull, humourless post charting a walk through London as I tried to master taking pictures.

Seriously, I really wouldn't bother if I were you.

For our anniversary, me and the missus thought we'd have a romantic day out in London.

It started out with an exciting visit to the bathroom shop

Can we get a seat by the urinal?

Swiftly followed by a visit to Pentonville Prison.

It's a great spot for a picnic

She is training to be a London Tour Guide and so we went on one of the tours she is learning: a tour of Barnsbury starting at the prison, on Caledonian Road.

From there we walked through Barnsbury, which has the beautiful Thornhill Square

Here are a couple of houses just round the corner from the Square that I would be happy to have

We then went past a tiny and very old nature reserve. The only fragment of woodland left in Islington.

Then to Cloudesley Square with this massive church in the middle

Few other places in between, but finally ended the tour at this lovely community garden, just near Upper Street in Islington

After a light lunch at Itsu, we carried on through Islington towards Clerkenwell, via The Angel, of Monopoly fame

We passed this place, which apparently, is the most achingly trendy café in London

and also this place (note the queue) which is THE place to get breakfast. God knows why.

Now well into Clerkenwell, and here is St John’s Gate. The medieval home of knights of the order of St John, and also where St John’s Ambulance charity started

Just past St John’s Arch is this alley, formely known as “Pissing Alley” where the Victorian drunks used to…piss

Making our way down to St Pauls, we pass London’s famous Smithfield Meat Market

Here’s another view, with the hideous massive 70’s Barbican structure towering in the background

Then just past Smithfield is the church of St Barts (bit overexposed - sorry) where the last wedding in Four Weddings and a Funeral was shot

Here is the original HQ of the post office. They knew how to spend public money in those days (I did warn you this was dull. Hello? Anybody there?)

And Bow Church, housing the famous Bow Bells

which as we all know, you have to be born within the sound of, to be a real cockney. Apparently, because of all the surrounding modern buildings and increased traffic noise, hardly any cockneys are born nowadays!

Here is the end of Watling Street, the famous Roman Road that starts at (?) Hadrians Wall and ends in Londinium

Finally we arrived at St Paul's Cathedral. Glimpses of St Paul's from Peternoster Square

Now this is most interesting. Here is St Nicholas Cole Abbey Centre, with a delightful cafe, famous for being where my missus got stuck in the toilet

We crossed the road from St Paul's, and here is the Wobbly Bridge, with the Tate Modern in the distance, over the river

This walkway always smells of hot caramel, as there are always two or three vendors selling hot caramelised nuts.

Here we are on the bridge, with a great view of The Shard

And now we are in the Tate Turbine Hall

Some huge monstrosity. I believe it is a deliberate ambiguity in a mechanised ethos.

And here is a view from the Tate back across the Wobbly Bridge