Summer is drawing to an end

Some plants come into their own at the end of summer. I found these teasels in the nature reserve on Hackney Marshes (albeit a year ago). I do like teasels, for their shape and also because they were used in fabric manufacture for many years, and still are by many who spin their own yarn. If you want real London nature photography head over to London Daily Nature Photo

London Style

In the suburbs, the normal colour of the bricks of the houses build in Victorian & Edwardian London is yellow, made from clay from nearby Kent (thus keeping cost down). However, in Mayfair, the fashion turned to red brick in the late 19th Century, giving rise to some imposing buildings. This? This is Claridges

Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream

paPahpahpah pah-pah, pahpahpah pahhhh ... pah pah pah pah pahhhhh pah, pah pah pahpupah paHHH Have you got it from that? The Royal Albert Dock was playing host to Dragon Boat Racing, it looked like fun.

The Horses of Helios

The Greek legend of the horses of Helios says that each morning, Helios used to ride his chariot across the sky from the dawn in the east to dusk in the west. Each night he would rest to be ready for the next day. Once his son Phaeton had a go, lost control of the horses, crashed into the earth and set it on fire. You can find this statue at the junction of Haymarket and Picadilly.

You may have noticed, this was shot in film on my old Olympus Trip.

The Blues

Or at least, their football ground. This is where Chelsea live, in Stamford Bridget, they are known as "The Blues" because of the colour of their strip. I can think of 10 London football clubs with sizeable stadiums: Arsenal, Charlton, Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Fulham, Milwall, Orient, QPR, Spurs, West Ham - I think each of these has a capacity of over 20,000, without considering Wembley (which doesn't belong to any club). Is this some kind of record for any city? What's it like in the States?

London's Elephants - No 31 in a series

Before London Daily Photo grinds to a halt, I had to bring you this elephant. Not the best photo - I had to sneak it and I've been trying since to get a better one - it is inside the Oriental Club in Stafford Place, just of Oxford Street. The African Indian Elephant is their emblem, and they have been a quintessential London institution since 1824, so it had to join the series. (thanks tot he Secretary of the Oriental Club for the correction!)

Stratford Place is a cul-de-sac, and you would not normally turn into it; you can see a view outside of the building here. The elephant is to the right as you go in.

The elephant series is here.

In The Beginning Was The Word

I'm often ambivalent about churches' publicity, but this is at St Martin in the Fields in Trafalgar Square. They have been so closely involved supporting the homeless in London for so long, I reckon they deserve a special license. And, this is a pretty good sculpture.

Bar Italia

Bar Italia in Soho's Frith street has been the place to go for a good coffee an hour day or night long before London became the 24 hour city it is today. In fact it has been there since the time when it was one of the few places you could get an expresso in London. It's still a good place to go and watch the different people as they pass through, from the football crowds during a match, the theatre goers on their way home, the clubbers out for a good time... all the world is here.

Little and Large

As part of the Thames Festival, there was a river pageant featuring all types of boats including several small steam vessels, like this one. They are quite charming, but I'm not sure what they were - they don't look like tugboats.

Oh, and up to midnight tonight there is still time to hop over to Fresh Eyes on London and enter a competition to win a return trip to Brussels.

Shelling Out

You'll find this in the foyer in the National Theatre Royal Festival Hall, and at first glance you'll probably think this to be a sculpture. You'd be wrong. It's a fossil, all of 18 million years old, the great grandfathers of the scallops we eat today. The plaque has the gem of information that scallop shells were worn by pilgrims in the middle ages to identify tehmselves as harmless travellers. And why here, as it was found in Provence? The Shell Centre is next door, they donated it.

"We Enjoy What We Do and it Shows"

The Wacky Barber is one of those places that is unlikely to exist anywhere in the world except for London, with direct heritage back to monty Python and Panto. You'll have to look carefully at the large image (and I'll swap it for a slightly larger one later today) to see what I mean. Their website doesn't even give their address, you'll have to visit a review to find that (It's around Smithfield meat market - probably (??) the reason for the limbs). And they do change their window display, too,

Science Fiction

Remember that fantastic display in Minority Report? The BFI have created this fun exhibit inspired by that kind of science fiction I.T.-really-working for people thing. Not quite hanging in midair, but you can flip turn and shuffle the items in this display - everyone here was enjoying it.

cc London

The congestion charge was intorduced to London back in 2003. Whether or not it is a success appears to be a matter of opinion, I'm one of those who thinks it is. There is still heavy traffic in rush hour, but outside traffic flows more freely than it otherwise would. Just a bit of a shame the current mayoral incumbent feels that the large 4 x 4 drivers should pay the same as a small car.

Punch & Judy

I did say I was going to show more from the Thames Festival, so here we are. Punch and Judy touches a chord deep within any Briton - let's try these words: Policeman, Alligator, Baby, Sausages... see?

Don't Applaud, Just Throw Your Money

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Here comes a bit of fun I'll bet you didn't know about. This statue is behind the Tate Modern, in front of the Blue Fin building, and it's interactive. I can hear some of you spluttering into your coffee "How can a statue be interactive?" This one can (when it's working which is not all the time. Stand in front and strike a pose, and the statue will respond with one of its own, copying yours in its own way. The piece is called "Monument to the Unknown Artist" and it was created by Greyworld. The title of the post is a translation of the Latin inscription.

Men at Work

I thought this hoarding near Borough Market reminded me a little of Gerald Scarfe, one of my favourite contemporary artists. Then I went and reminded myself by visiting his website - his job isn't in danger yet.

Window Seat, Please

You may have gathered that my work these days is taking me to far(ish) away places, I confess that as often as I fly I am one of those who has never lost the thrill of looking out the window. This is especially the case for London, so when I took off last Monday from London City Airport heading west and then cirled east, it was a golden opportunity. Pictures aren't fantastic out of the window, but this one has a few noteworthy features: The circle at the bottom left is the new Olympic Stadium, you can see most of the Olympic site in this shot. The canals being used to transport a lot of the material are clear (running left to right) as is the curve of the Thames by Barking Creek (top right). The lower reaches of Epping Forest can be seen top left. And, if you follow a line from the bottom of the engine cowling down to the patch of green, and then move a fraction to the right, not quite at the end of the green bit ..... Ham's home!!

Salad Days

There was so much going on today at the Thames Festival, it's hard to find a single image to sum it up. But I reckon that the Salad Hats must come close. This was on the Feast On The Bridge - Southwark Bridge given over to food. There was a general theme trying to connect people with the food we eat - some cows, a few chickens and ... people were being invited to wear mobile salad headgear, anyone could pick and eat.

The festival continues on Sunday, and there's lots on for all the family, get yourself down.

Other images here and here, others may well appear here in the coming days

Art in Bow

I was riding back home last weekend when I arrived at the Bow Flyover, where you can find The Bow Arts Trust studios. Now I confess I'd never ventured into this cultural oasis previously, but the sight of an exhibition labeled as a collaboration between Chinese and Irish artists had me intrigued. I went in and made the acquaintence of Fion Gunn, the curator and some very appealing work. This piece is by Pan Yiqun and symbolised the family values and harmny of people eating together -central to Chinese culture. Fion Gunn had some of her work there, too - this is worth a careful look

Give a Gnome a Home

There's a clothing chain caled "The White Stuff" (disappointingly, they have nothing to do with skiing) who have several branches. in London. They've kicked off an Autumn event to raise money for charities local to each shop, inviting people to donate at least £5 to adopt a gnome. What's best(?) is that you get to take it home at the end of the autumn. Probably too late to adopt one yourself (all those in this shop were spoken for) but they do have other things going on. I like the way that they have left it to the local shops to choose the charity that will benefit.

Going up in the world

I've seen this gent selling his peacock feathers for many years, in Petticoat Lane of a Sunday. I've not been able to get a reasonable photo of him there.Now it appears, he has discovered Borough Market.Interestingly, he doesn't seem to have put his prices up.

Watney Market

Watney market is an odd place. IIt feels a bit like a "no go" area, but it is a rarity: a "real" market near the city. Not trendy, not much known and not much visited except by the people who live nearby. It used to be a plain fruit & veg market, but with the recent influx of immmigrants it has become a lot more colourful, like this.

(amazing, the first day after I say I may not be carrying on, Blogger plays up and doesn't publish on time)

All the East End's History in One Photo

Set in Cannon Street Road, a name lost in the mists of time. Possibly a Huguenot house (just round hte corner from Fournier Street. Raines Boys School. A garment factory. The site of Rog's Delicatessen (closed just before the Internet) - one of the last delis in London to have barrels of salt herrings and the like. Halal food and a Cash & Carry. An Internet Cafe. Flats.

This photo is just what London Daily Photo is all about. However, after four years, I have arrived at an awkward decision. Work has unexpectedly taken me abroad, and is likely to keep me there most of the time over the next few months. When I get back to London, I do not expect to have much time to take photos. So, what do I do? The options appear to be: 1) Stop. 2) Continue irregularly. I don't much like that, I hope part of the appeal of my site is that there has always been something new each day. 3) Post old photos again. I don't much like that, either. 4) Post meaningless pictures just for the sake of it. Don't like that either.

So, I have photos for the next few days - but what do you think I should do after that? What would you do? As you can see, I'm leaning towards stopping.

(oh, and sorry if you visited when there was no photo showing - not deliberate!!)

The Pubcrawler

Isn't this a fantastic idea? The Pubcrawler seen here outside Borough Market is a mobile bar. The celebrants climb aboard and pedal whilst imbibing (as in this case, a hen party), the driver stays sober and road legal. Zero emissions, with style.

Something to Celebrate

 

Saturday was the centenary of the Girl Guide movement, a fantastic organisation that provides a positive impact to the lives of millions worldwide. Here at East Ham Central Park, they got together and let these doves loose (courtesy of The White Feather Company). Thankfully, it didn't go wrong.

Through Struggle to the Stars

There's a lot of remembering going on for the 70th anniversary of the start of WWII, so I thought I'd post a picture of a very beautiful memorial to all those airmen from England and abroad that died protecting our freedom. Only this one was put up after WWI.

The inscription reads "In memory of all ranks of the Royal Navy Air Service, Royal Flying Corps, Royal Air Force and those Air Forces from every part of the British Empire who gave their lives in winning victory for their King and Country 1914-1918.I bare you on eagles wings and brought you unto myself."