Shakespeare and Dickens' Old City Walking Tour

On a rather cold day, I took another guided walk. This one was about places prominent to Shakespeare and Dickens in the actual City of London, from about St. Pauls to Smithfields market, which was a livestock exchange in Dickens day and was featured in Oliver Twist. (Confession: I actually hate Dickens, but it was neat seeing parts of the city he wrote about)Besides sites associated with Dickens and Shakespeare, we walked through the square where William Wallace was hung, drawn and quartered. Also passed over the square where they threw all the corpses from the Black Death!!

One of the few half-timbered buildings left in London
House designed by Christopher Wren, in Victorian times it was the office of the Solicitor General, and was featured in Dickens' Pickwick Papers
Former site of Shakespeare's Blackfriars' Theatre, his indoor theatre
Temple Bar, designed by Christopher Wren
Stationers' Hall, the guildhall for publishers in Shakespeare's time
Facade of church designed by Wren after the Great Fire
St. Barts' Church in Smithfields, film location in Four Weddings and a Funeral
Medieval alleyway
Charterhouse (hard to see because of the dark) It is one of the few standing aristocratic town mansions from Tudor times, now a retirement home
Smithfield's Market, wholesale meat market since late Victorian times, formerly the livestock exchange
Shrapnel damage from WWII bombs
A set of Victorian townhomes
Ice skating rink in front of the Tower (there are several rinks all over London for the holidays)

Old Marylebone walk

Saturday, I took a guided walk of Marylebone, very posh district, Madonna lives there. It was really interesting, but freezing!!! It gets dark here starting at four and the walk ended at 4:30, so it was pretty chilly.

Oriental House, once an aristocratic home, later turned into the gentlemans' club for the East India Company
Christmas lights at St. Christopher's Place
House where Martin van Buren lived while the U.S. ambassador
The Wallace Collection, once the townhome of the Marquesses of Hertford
Roman Catholic Church where Vivien Leigh married her first husband
House of Octavia Hill, founder of the National Trust
Marylebone Parish Church, where Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning were married
Regent's Park, only was there briefly as it was getting dark and cold. The time in the photo is a little after four.
Marylebone Parish church from Regent's Park

Jane Austen and the Queen!!

Today was remembrance day in England, everyone wearing poppies on their coats. I went on a guided Jane Austen walk from around Buckingham Palace to Covent Garden. Walking back to the tube, I noticed a crowd around Buckingham Palace. Waited a minute or so and the Queen and Prince Philip came out in their car driving to an event for Remembrance Day. Anyways, it was neat to see them on a fluke. Sadly they didn't come out well in my pictures, I was fairly close though.

Car leaving Buckingham Palace
Queen leaving the gate
House where Jane Austen stayed in London, once the home of her brother, now a shop
St. James Church, Austen attended services here and it was designed by Christopher Wren
The publishing house of John Murray, Jane's publisher, also the publisher of Lord Byron
St. Paul's in Covent Garden, designed by Inigo Jones, known as the "actors' church"
Tour guide standing in front of the court dressmakers, you can see Charles' crest at the bottom
Alleyway from the 1700s.
Burlington Arcade
Threatre Royal Haymarket, now showing Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
The back of the Royal Academy of Arts
Leicester Square
Princess Margaret's son's store, "Linley." Nice stuff, really expensive

Victoria and Albert Museum

Today I visited the Victoria and Albert museum in South Kensington. The museum specializes in decorative arts and has collections of furnishings, ceramics, textiles, etc. from throughout the world. There was so much to see I didn't see all of it. It's in an old building that circles around. I especially enjoyed seeing British interior decor from 1500 to 1900. They had several old rooms from demolished London and country homes.

The front of the museum
Museum from across the street
Detail of the front with statue of Prince Albert
An interior courtyard of the museum
A South Kensington neighborhood across from the museum
A private garden in a square for residents.