I love the graceful street lamp. Does everything in England end with the flourish of a crown on top? Both the lamp and the steeple(?) yonder have them as finials. And is there a Lesser Smith Street?
Westminster has its own sets of street furniture, Speedway. By the river it is all covered in dolphins and sphinxes (see past posts) and the nearer to the palace you get the more crowns appear. There is no Lesser Smith Street but just around the corner is the somewhat cuter "Little Smith Street" and also (wonderfully) Great Peter Street. The steeple in the background is Victoria Tower, part of the Palace of Westminster. You go in through the door at the bottom of the tower to do the tour of the Houses of Parliament (which is actually a lot more fun than it sounds).
And I do so like the way you've composed the picture, with the massive simplicity defined by the black lines, accented by the bit of laciness of Victoria Tower. And a bit of gold, too! A treat!
It was easy to compose, Speedway: I just stood at the junction of Victoria Street and Great Smith Street waiting for the lights to change so I could walk across and the photo just presented itself to me. All I had to do was zoom in to get some foreshortening.
I really like the way you framed this shot. Victoria Tower is so striking, so elegant. And then there's the curious Great Smith Street sign. Are there public libraries in London that aren't free? Are "public baths" what we colonists would call "public restrooms"? [You're always so patient with my questions :-)]
Thank you, Ms.M. The sign is a nicely archaic touch that is long out of date. Church House (a big eighteenth century place now used as a conference centre) is still there, as is the library (which is of course, free), but the public baths (swimming pool) are long gone. In olden dayes, the rich would have subscription libraries that we poor folk were not allowed to use, so the reformist governments in the nineteenth century set up free public libraries for us. This was the time when the British Museum, the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum and the British Library were set up as free public institutions (which they remain today) for the education and betterment of the lower classes (and for the lovely Herr Marx to sit and write in). These days of course, governments are much more right wing and ours is currently closing down libraries as they don't make a profit. Hey, and sadly, ho.
Why thank you, Petrea. It says "Westminster" to me, but then I'm a snob; we SW1 folk sneer at the parkless, money-grubbing cold skyscraper slums of the City.
8 comments:
I love the graceful street lamp. Does everything in England end with the flourish of a crown on top? Both the lamp and the steeple(?) yonder have them as finials. And is there a Lesser Smith Street?
Westminster has its own sets of street furniture, Speedway. By the river it is all covered in dolphins and sphinxes (see past posts) and the nearer to the palace you get the more crowns appear.
There is no Lesser Smith Street but just around the corner is the somewhat cuter "Little Smith Street" and also (wonderfully) Great Peter Street.
The steeple in the background is Victoria Tower, part of the Palace of Westminster. You go in through the door at the bottom of the tower to do the tour of the Houses of Parliament (which is actually a lot more fun than it sounds).
And I do so like the way you've composed the picture, with the massive simplicity defined by the black lines, accented by the bit of laciness of Victoria Tower. And a bit of gold, too! A treat!
It was easy to compose, Speedway: I just stood at the junction of Victoria Street and Great Smith Street waiting for the lights to change so I could walk across and the photo just presented itself to me. All I had to do was zoom in to get some foreshortening.
I really like the way you framed this shot. Victoria Tower is so striking, so elegant. And then there's the curious Great Smith Street sign. Are there public libraries in London that aren't free?
Are "public baths" what we colonists would call "public restrooms"? [You're always so patient with my questions :-)]
Thank you, Ms.M.
The sign is a nicely archaic touch that is long out of date. Church House (a big eighteenth century place now used as a conference centre) is still there, as is the library (which is of course, free), but the public baths (swimming pool) are long gone.
In olden dayes, the rich would have subscription libraries that we poor folk were not allowed to use, so the reformist governments in the nineteenth century set up free public libraries for us. This was the time when the British Museum, the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum and the British Library were set up as free public institutions (which they remain today) for the education and betterment of the lower classes (and for the lovely Herr Marx to sit and write in). These days of course, governments are much more right wing and ours is currently closing down libraries as they don't make a profit.
Hey, and sadly, ho.
I love this. It really says "London" to me. And I agree with the others, the framing is especially beautiful.
Why thank you, Petrea.
It says "Westminster" to me, but then I'm a snob; we SW1 folk sneer at the parkless, money-grubbing cold skyscraper slums of the City.
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