kimbofo

Bird on a bouy

Place: Kensington Palace Gardens, London.
Date: April 15, 2012.
Camera: Panasonic TZ3.

Snapped this today on the return leg of an 8 mile walk to Mayfair and back. I can't believe the size of his feet!

A gorilla in the garden

Place: Elgin Crescent, Notting Hill, London.
Date: March 25, 2012.
Camera: BlackBerry Curve.

I don't know about you, but a lovely posh house like this calls for a special focal point in the garden. Maybe a fountain or a pond or a beautiful ornamental tree?

Or how about a sculpture of a gorilla, then? Yes, I thought so.

Personally, I love it, but the mind boggles as to the how the owners of this house settled on this particular piece of art in this particular part of chic West London — it's just so surreal. 

My new favourite building: Staple Inn, High Holborn

Place: Staple Inn, High Holborn, London.
Date: March 19, 2012.
Camera: BlackBerry Curve.

One of the great things about London is that you could live here a lifetime and keep discovering new things about the city. I've been here 13 years and I still come across new areas, streets and buildings I've never seen before.

Recently I've been doing some freelance work in Holborn, an area I have never properly explored outside of the usual haunts, such as the Belgian Bar on Kingsway, the coffee shops on Sicilian Avenue and Bea's of Bloomsbury on Theobald's Road. Usually, if I alight at Holborn tube station it's because I'm heading elsewhere on foot — usually Bloomsbury.

So when I wandered down High Holborn — towards the Chancery end — for the first time, past the cafes and sandwich bars, Waterstone's and Little Waitrose, I thought I'd stumbled back in time when I looked up and saw this stunning black and white building. I didn't fully appreciate its width, its uneven frontage or its beauty until I was on the other side of the road and looking back towards it.

I think it is particularly special because wooden buildings are few and far between in London — if the Great Fire didn't get them in 1666, then they were surely bombed by the Germans during the Second World War. Apparently this building, which dates from 1585, did suffer bomb damage in 1944 but was restored.

 

Staple Inn, 1866. Illustration reproduced via Wikipedia under a Creative Commons License

According to Wikipedia, it was originally a wool pack, where wool was stored and weighed. But it was also attached to Gray's Inn, which is one of the four Inns of Court, where all the barristers hang out.

Since 1887 it has been used as the home of the Institute of Actuaries.

It apparently houses an inner courtyard — sadly, not open to the public — which has been referenced in the work of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Charles Dickens.

There is more about the history of the building on the Actuarial Profession's official website.

It has promptly become my new favourite building in London — and when I return next week I want to take a proper look at the street frontage up close.

Eggs in the City

All pictures taken: City of London.
Date: February 26, 2012.
Camera: Panasonic TZ3.

A couple of years ago the Elephant Parade came to London and I got a little bit obsessed about looking for these wonderful statues to photograph for my online gallery.

Now the same charity that brought us the elephants is now bringing us The Fabergé Big Egg Hunt in which 209 eggs are hidden across central London.

This afternoon we headed to the Square Mile to see what we could find and this is just some of what we discovered...

You can see more in my online Egg Hunt gallery.

Snowdrops at the Chelsea Physic Garden

Place: Chelsea Physic Garden, London.
Date: February 11, 2012.
Camera: Panasonic TZ3.

Do you know what a galanthophile is?

Apparently it's someone obsessed with snowdrops, those lovely little white flowers that pop up in late winter, of which there are nearly 100 different varieties. The botanical name for snowdrops is Galanthus — from the Greek meaning milk (gála) and flower (ánthos).

This weekend the Chelsea Physic Garden is throwing open its grounds to the public specifically to celebrate the humble snowdrop. The garden was founded in 1673 by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries so that its apprentices could study medicinal plants. It is London's oldest botanical garden.

We arrived late this afternoon and took a wander around the garden, which covers 3.8 acres, features numerous greenhouses and beds of plants labelled with their botanical names arranged in systematic order.

The sun was shining and there was still  snow on the ground from Thursday night's snowfall, but it was ice-cold and my hands quickly became frozen, even in my gloves, as I took these photographs: 

According to the leaflet that came with our entry ticket, you can distinguish the different variety of snowdrops by "subtle differences of markings, leaf shape and fullness of flower". At the risk of offending galanthophiles everywhere, I really couldn't tell one variety from another. But that didn't stop me from admiring these beautiful and delicate flowers.

Roll on spring!

The Albert Memorial in the snow

Place: Hyde Park, London.
Date: February 10, 2012.
Camera: Panasonic TZ3.

Poor Prince Albert. He must have been bloody freezing today.

Swan on the Serpentine

Place: Hyde Park, London.
Date: February 10, 2012.
Camera: Panasonic TZ3.

I disappointed this pristine-white swan this afternoon. She came swimming over to me as I stood at the side of the Serpentine in Hyde Park to take a couple of snaps. I think she thought I was there specifically to feed her. When she realised my pockets were empty and I had no bread on offer, she swam off towards an old lady and a little boy further downstream — they were probably a better prospect.

A glimpse of the Gherkin

Place: Hays Galleria, Southwark, London.
Date: January 28, 2012.
Camera: Panasonic TZ3.

Across the Thames, beyond Customs House hunkered on the north bank, further than the spire of All Hallows Church and the glass and concrete buildings near Fenchurch Street, you can see 30 St Mary Axe, a 40-storey building affectionately known as the "Gherkin".

I took this shot on a little wander around Hays Galleria and the London Bridge area yesterday. I noticed the Gerkin nicely framed between two walls — it was something about the way the interplay of light and water contrasted with the darkness of the alleyway I was standing in that caught my eye. And it helped that there were people in the frame, because their silohuettes gave some semblance of scale as well as a sense of movement.

I fired off two snaps, but it was the second, zoomed in on the figures, that worked best.

Piccadilly, 16.35

Place: Picadilly, London.
Date: January 23, 2012.
Camera: BlackBerry Curve.

Taken from my favourite seat on the bus — the front row of the top deck of the number 9 to Hammersmith.

Frosty landscape

Place: Richmond Park.
Date: January 16, 2012.
Camera: Panasonic TZ3.

Taken mid-way through a 15-mile cycle to the park and back earlier today. Beneath the winter sky the ground was covered in a light dusting of frost — even at 11am.