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Kew 2 – The route march!

Kew 2 – The route march!

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Monday 25th July was forecast to be a fine day. Just one fine day in a run of unsettled weather so we grasped it, so to speak, with both hands. We used our Senior Railcards to get a third off the fare to London, £15.80 each, and as that includes a Travelcard (Zones 1-6) we then get to go right across London to Kew at no extra cost. Bargain! We present our 2For1 voucher when we get to Kew Gardens and get in for £12 for the two of us. Can't be bad.

On this, our second, visit Amanda is going to give the Princess of Wales Conservatory and the nearby Rock Garden a thorough going over while I have decided to march all the way round the perimeter, with diversions of course. It's a lovely sunny day, pleasantly warm with temperatures in the low seventies.

But first we both visited the Palm House to go up on the high level walkway and this is how we got up there.

It seems that, after a while, the spiral staircase was going to go on for ever but we got there in the end. The walkway is quite narrow but feels very sturdy and there's comforting steel railings to stop one falling off.

Looking out through the glass gave us a nice view.

Then looking the other way gives us a different view.

You may notice that it is quite a long way up and it's HOT and humid up here. Phew!

This Palm is the tallest 'house plant' in the world. You may be able to see that its fronds are touching the roof and the tree can be seen only as far down as the level of the walkway so there's a lot more of it below. We eventually came back down to earth, luckily without a bump, and went to see the view from the Temple of Aeoleus that is indicated as a viewpoint on the map of Kew Gardens. It wasn't really worth it. Most of it is now obscured by trees.

We decided to go for an early lunch which would then gives us a long afternoon for our separate projects. So we went back to the Victoria Gate to the cafe there. After lunch we split up and I turned left (south) and started my route march. If you want to follow my progress you can do so on this map: http://www.kew.org/ucm/groups/public/documents/document/ppcont_008324.pdf If you right click on the link you should be able to open it in a new window so that you can refer to it whilst reading.

My first diversion was to the Temperate House and up yet more spiral stairs to the high level walkway here.

It is rather similar to the walkway in the Palm House but with different plants of course. There is a very good view of the trees from up here and there is a person on the ground in the next picture if you can spot them in the shadows.

There is an excellent aerial view of the big fish in the pond from up here and I'll bet that they didn't even suspect that they were being spied on satellite style.

Out of the Temperate House and back to the perimeter path and onward towards the Pagoda.

This pagoda is not a small structure and there appear to be ten fairly substantial storeys – quite impressive. Having reached the first corner, south-east, I turned west and a little way further on I came across the Japanese Gateway.

I remember on our last visit when we crossed the lake on the Sackler Crossing that we'd missed seeing the Lily Pond so this time I made another diversion to see it. I needn't have bothered! It may have been nice had the water been visible but the whole pond was covered in some sort of floating water weed. Oh well, back to the perimeter track and Queen Charlotte's Cottage. On the way I came across some of these:

Back to Queen Charlotte's Cottage. It's not that easy to find as it is well surrounded by trees but I managed it eventually. The date it was built doesn't seem to be known but the earliest mention of it is in the 1700s.

After this I reached the next corner, south-west, where I turned right (north) and had a glimpse of the River Thames. The river is still tidal at this point and the water level was low with mudbanks both sides so the overall view wasn't particularly picturesque.

On my way along the west side, towards the Brentford Gate, I saw this rather attractive display:

From Brentford Gate I cheated a bit. On our last visit we saw Kew Palace so I cut the corner off and headed straight for the Princess of Wales Conservatory as it was in that area I had arranged to meet Amanda.

A quick call on my mobile 'phone and we met up outside the conservatory and Amanda took me to see the Secluded Garden she had already visited.

Then we went in to the Duke's Garden which was very colourful. By this time I could hear my legs muttering to themselves so I though it was time to let the poor old things rest. We made our way back to Victoria Gate where we had a cup of tea then we went home.

Two long visits and we still haven't seen everything that there is to see.

Round the world in a day.

Round the world in a day.

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Our railway line terminates at Liverpool Street Station on the east side of London and we pass through Stratford, where the Olympic Statium is being constructed, on the way. This trip we got off at Stratford to get on the London Overground which we hadn't used before.

The London Overground is really an ordinary overground railway line, like the one we use to get to Liverpool Street Station, but is run by Transport for London and is treated as part of the London Underground system so any Underground ticket will also cover you for use of the London Overground, for the relevant zones, without any extra payment. :mrgreen:

The trains themselves are of a new design where you can walk from one end of the train to the other along the central aisle without having to pass through any doors.

We were obviously on that train but where were we going?

The weather lately has become very unsettled with a lot of cloud and some areas have also had some rain so not a good time to go out and about. However Tuesday, yesterday, was forecast to be sunny and warm to the west of London so we were headed to Kew gardens.

The total journey for us was about two and a half hours and we arrived at the gate around 11:30 AM. There was a queue of about six people so it didn't take long to get in. We had our 2for1 voucher, and we get in at the 'concessions' price being 'decayed persons' which reduced the entry charge to 11.90 for both of us.

There are plants from all over the world here so we had a lot of countries to travel through. We'd better get started then.

We were told that the Palm House was closing today at 2:00 PM so we headed there first. What they didn't tell us is that the high level walkway was closed for filming which was a pity as I was looking forward to taking some high level photographs. :cry:

This is an amazing Victorian building and is a 'must see'. I have to say I wouldn't like to be responsible for cleaning the windows. :shock:

There is a lot of vegetation in here and it's fairly popular although it doesn't feel that one is jostling for space. It's also warm!

Behind the Palm House is the Rose Garden and the little building on the left is the Waterlily House of which more later.

One thing to say about Kew Gardens is that it's not quiet. Apart from the other visitors there are these thing going over at the rate of about one a minute. :roll:

This is one of the 'smaller' ones. You can see here that they are offset a little to one side of us but later in the day they were directly overhead. You can blame it all on overseas visitors landing at Heathrow Airport. :devil:

I took that photograph whilst we were walking from the Palm House to the Temperate House which is another of the stunning Victorian structures here. It is huge!

I couldn't go back far enough to get it all in because of the trees and so there is a section chopped off at each end (that's the section nearest the camera in the top picture of the two).

Like the Palm House this place is stuffed with plants some of which are impressively tall.

There is a small pond in here containing some fish which are impressively large.

Another thing they didn't tell us when we entered was that the high level walkway in this house was also closed for maintenance but this is how we would have reached it had it been accessible. Next time then I suppose. :bawl:

From the Temperate House we went up here.

It's called the 'Xstrata Treetop Walkway' and it runs in a complete circle through the treetops. You probably need a head for heights for this and if you lean on the rail along the edge of the walkway you can feel the whole structure swaying slightly but it's certainly worth it for the local views.

I should warn you that the floor of the walkway is made from metal which is pressed in a sort of 'open weave' fashion so that if you look down vertically through your feet you can see right down to the ground.

It was now around 1:30 PM so we decided to head for the White Peaks Cafe for some lunch and to go via the Sackler Crossing across Kew's main lake then via the Bamboo Garden, the Minka House and the Rhododendron Dell. It's going to be a late lunch.

The lake is only a short walk from the Treetop Walk and we were soon there.

The edges of the bridge are constructed using bronze posts which, from a narrow viewing angle appear to a solid wall but when looked at from a right angle appear as individual posts with gaps between.

After crossing the lake we headed for the Minka House and on our way we saw these:

A group on their way to the Young Goose Convention perhaps? They are Canada Geese and when we were walking along the path we walked through a group of adults and young walking in the opposite direction and they didn't show the slightest nervousness of us humans as we passed through their group. Not surprising I suppose as they must see a lot of us.

This is the Minka House which was originally a farmhouse built around 1900 in a suburb of Okazaki City, near the southern coast of central Japan, dismantled, shipped to England and re-assembled here by Japanese carpenters as part of the Japan 2001 Festival.

Onward through the Rhodedendron Dell.

We eventually arrived at the White Peaks Cafe at around 2:00 PM. Food and drink in Kew Gardens is a little on the pricey side but, for a captive audience, it could be a lot worse. We each had a small quiche, smaller than the average saucer, with a few salad leaves and a sprinkling of sauce which cost 3.50 each. A slice of (fancy) cake, which we didn't have, would have been about the same. Drinks are reasonably priced. There seems to be little difference in prices at each of the available cafes/restaurants.

There is nothing to stop you bringing your own food and having a picnic outside in the gardens but of course you'll have to carry it round with you. There are also drinking fountains dispensing free ordinary water in a few places.

After lunch we heade off towards the Princess of Wales Conservatory and, on the way, passed by the 17th century Kew Palace. This is one of the Royal Palaces and has an extra charge if you want to visit – we didn't.

The Princess of Wales Conservatory was commissioned in 1982 to replace a group of 26 smaller buildings that were falling into disrepair. It was named after Princess Augusta, founder of Kew, and opened in 1987 by Diana, Princess of Wales. It is the most complex conservatory at Kew, containing ten computer-controlled climatic zones under one roof. Kew describe it as 'vast' – it is. I haven't seen a better place in which to get lost and thoroughly enjoy yourself whilst doing so.

As I mentioned above there are ten different climatic zones separated by double doors and these zones are also split into different levels with numerous connecting pathways and steps. When arriving at a junction it is difficult to decide which way to go because each way looks equally interesting.

This is what we saw after entering the conservatory:

Quite an attractive little corner for a short rest. There are two ways on from here, right or left, and we went left through the Temperate Ferns zone and through into the Tropical Rainforest zone which is probably the largest of the zones.

Phew! That's both from the visual and climatic points of vew. On the left you will notice a small door which is one of two entrances to the Carniverous Plants Gallery and I did notice that fewer visitors came out than went in. I wonder why that is?  :???: These are a few of those plants although there are many different types.

We did, eventually, find our way out and walked the short distance to the Davies Alpine House and Rock Garden.

From the rock garden we went to the Waterlily House.

It was now getting close to the time we should leave so we elected to get a cup of tea and then made our way back to Kew Gardens Station and thence home.

There will be lots more photographs for those who are interested when I get around to creating the pages for Kew on the main web site.
 

To Babylon and back.

To Babylon and back.

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Yesterday we went to London. This is one of the photographs I took whilst we were there and I want you to look at it carefully – not just a quick scan – carefully. Do you notice anything unusual?

Oh for goodness sake – do I have to tell you everything? The trees – look at the trees! No, no, no not that one on the left – the trees on the roof!

One of the places we visited was the Kensington Roof gardens in Kensington High Street. This building used to be the Derry and Toms department store which moved into this Art Deco style building in 1932 and the roof gardens were completed in 1938. We wandered around the various parts of the garden for about an hour, and there are one and a half acres of it, and saw very few other people.

The flamingos and ducks are real and there were even a few ducklings with their parents but then some of us had to take things to the extreme and started looking as though they were enjoying themselves.

We finally decided it was time to leave, go back down to earth and wander the streets of Kensington. We crossed High Street to the north side and strolled up Kensington Church Walk.

We emerged into Holland Street, turned up Gordon Place, along Pitt Street and into Hornton Street and we did see some striking buildings on the way.

We decided to head for Holland Park along the Duchess of Bedford's Walk, I'm sure she didn't mind, and arrived in the park near lunchtime. The last time we were here with Marie we couldn't find the cafe but we did this time and had our lunch there.

When we left Holland park we decided, on the spur of the moment, to go to the Natural History Museum in South kensington, so made our way towards Holland Park underground station but going via Holland park Mews.

A very attractive little street where all the houses seemed to have an unusual feature – all the main entrance doors were on the upper floor hence the flight of steps on each house.

The Natural History Museum is an amazing building both outside and inside before even considering the contents.

I spent quite a time wandering around the Great Hall just looking at, and photographing, the building's features whilst Amanda went off to explore elswhere.

She eventually returned and said that she'd found something which may interest me from the photographic point of view. We both went off to find her discovery which isn't that straight forward in this maze of a building but we did manage, eventually, and this is what she had found.

It's the rather dramatic entrance, up an escalator and through the planet, to a complex gallery of exhibits detailing the Earth's formation and history. Very impressive.

After losing ourselves in those galleries we made our way to our penultimate location – a gallery that I can remember visiting when I was a youngster.

One of the mammal galleries featuring a gigantic Blue Whale. You'd need a mega fish tank for one of those.

There were other mammals in this gallery including this happy chappie. I'm glad that he was well and truly stuffed because, if he wasn't, I probably would have been. He looks a bit peeved.

It was now getting near time to depart for home but on our final wanderings we found ourselves here:

Strange init! The white shape on the right, part of the new extension, is called 'The Cocoon' and houses yet more exhibits but we had just run out of time. It was back home for us but we plan to return to 'The Cocoon' another time. Watch this space.
 

Down among the tulips something stirred.

Down among the tulips something stirred.

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Monday 18th April saw us heading off to London on the train, on our first trip of the year, to meet Marie who was over here from America and who was leaving for home the next day. We had arranged to meet at Holland Park Station so that we could start our day by visiting Holland Park.

Marie was waiting for us and we duly set off on the short walk to the park. Holland Park has a number of entrances and the entrance near the underground station was called Sun Trap and looked quite imposing.

We went through the gateway and found ourselves in a wooded area and, as we progressed, we started to see Bluebells. There were also lots of Daffodils but they had just finished flowering and were looking rather sorry for themselves but the Bluebells looked rather nice.

We eventually came across the statue of Lord Holland, after whom the park is named, and the two ladies are, reading left to right, Marie and Amanda. They seem to be heading for me quite purposefully so it may be time to beat a hasty retreat.

There were a number of paths lined with Japanese Maples which looked very attractive.

We next found the Kyoto Garden which is a traditional Japanese garden created in 1991 by a team of Japanese gardeners sponsored by Kyoto Chamber of Commerce in association with the Japan Festival of London. You can see Amanda is about to dive into the pond and Marie has turned her back in disgust.

We also saw Mrs Moorhen with three mini-moorhens looking for food along the edge of the pond.

All in all a very attractive setting including a waterfall.

Someway further on there was an area of formal plant beds which were very colourful and pretty and it's quite surprising what one can find in some of these plant beds.

Yes it's a Peacock trying to disguise itself as a tulip but not quite managing it. There were other peafowl around and some of them perched quite high in the trees. Holland Park is, apparently, the only London park to have peafowl.

We decided at this point that we'd seen most of what there was to see and made a dash from West London across to the east to Greenwich via Canary Wharf in Docklands. We stopped in Docklands to have lunch at the Turkish Hazev Restaurant which is the building on the right beyond the trees. Pretty yummy food, no, make that very yummy food and to be recommended.

After lunch we got back on the Docklands Light Railway and headed to Island Gardens Station where we walked to the Greenwich Foot Tunnel and under the Thames to Greenwich and I won't even mention all the steps down and all the steps up.

It is possible to meet some very strange people down here as evidenced by the photograph (mentioning no names of course).

Once on the other side we visited the Painted hall in the Old Naval College which is already featured on the web site but I'll incude another photograph here.

Then across to the Chapel.

From here we climbed the hill up to the old observatory where we were treated to this view across the Old Naval College to Docklands beyond.

Time was running out and we had to make our way, by DLR and Underground, to Liverpool Street Station where we had a meal together. Then we caught our train home and Marie went back to her hotel to pack for her journey home tomorrow. All in all a very good day was had by all.
 

A monumental trip.

A monumental trip.

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 Tuesday 10th August saw us travelling to London to meet Jerry and Diane during their trip to London from the U.S.A. except that we met only Jerry because Diane had worn herself out with all the walking around London that they'd already done so she stayed resting back at their hotel.

The weather wasn't good. :umbrella:
 
It was raining hard when we got to our local railway station but by the time we'd reached London the rain had stopped but it was still overall cloudy. We met Jerry at Tower Hill tube station and walked to St. Catherine's Dock just this side of Tower bridge. We looked at some old Thames Barges and the three storey balconied Dickens Inn before leaving the dock and crossing Tower Bridge to Shad Thames. At the far end of Shad Thames we went to the riverside to look at the two Mississippi paddle steamers moored there before walking back into Shad Thames where we had lunch in Tea Pod.
 
We went west along the Thames Path passing the Golden Hinde replica, Hay's Galleria and the Clink prison to reach Southwark Cathedral.
 
Having looked round Southwark Cathedral we moved on to the Globe Theatre where we crossed the Millenium Bridge to St. Paul's Cathedral, turned east down Cannon Street to the Monument. By this time it had started raining again.
 
Jerry wanted to get back to the hotel, and Diane, no later than 4 o'clock so next to the Monument and the Monument Tube Station is where we parted company and Amanda and I went home.
 
It was a pleasant trip and we thoroughly enjoyed Jerry's company. We were, of course, talking all the time. :grin:
 
Jerry took some photographs along the way which he may display in due course but my camera stayed firmly in it's bag all day.
An imposter, tea for two but it’s all Greek to me.

An imposter, tea for two but it’s all Greek to me.

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Yesterday, Thursday 17th June 2010, we went back to London. The reason we chose that day was because the weather forecast given the day before was for clear skies and sun all day. They were lying, of course, but more of that later. This trip turned out to be less satisfactory than previous trips for a number of reasons.

 
The first problem turned up soon enough when we had to change from our mainline train to the Central Line on the Undergound. There was a train waiting in the platform so we got on and sat down just in time to hear an announcement from the driver to say that the train wouldn't be going anywhere because of a signal failure further along the line. Luckily at this station we also had a choice of the Jubilee Line or the DLR. We were aiming for Piccadilly Circus so we took the Jubilee Line to Green Park and then one stop on the Piccadilly Line to Piccadilly Circus. We got there in the end.
 
We emerged into bright sunshine and I took a few more photographs of Eros. Eros is actually an imposter. Did you know that it isn't actually meant to be Eros but his twin brother Anteros?
 
To answer Tracey's query about the traffic – it is still not going around 'Eros' as it once used to but passes it by on one side.
 
 
We headed off down Haymarket to Trafalgar Square where we had a brief foray into the National Gallery to get a cup of coffee and to use their toilets. Back in to Trafalgar Square for a few more photographs then along the Strand.
 
 

 We noticed by this time that there was a substantial amount of cloud building up. There were some patches of blue sky but not many. This view of the Strand shows the church of St. Mary-le-Strand in the foreground and showing beyond is the spire of St. Clement Danes.

Nearby was the entrance gateway to Somerset House which used to hold public records such as birth certificates but now, in their own words, it is "An inspiring space for art, culture and creative exchange" whatever that is but it is a pretty impressive building.

 
 
At the end of the Strand near to where it changes to Fleet Street we passed the Royal Courts of Justice
 
 
and then we stopped to look at the George Inn which is nearly three hundred years old.
 
 
A little further on was Twinings tea shop which has been here since 1706 and was where Queen Anne and Christopher Wren used to buy their tea.
 
 
This building, in Fleet Street, survived the Great Fire of London and was built in 1625. It used to be the 'Wig and Pen Club' but is now, as you can see, a Thai Restaurant.
 
 
We were now back at a location we'd visited on our last trip, the Temple, and as there was now a lot of cloud about (so much for the weather forecast) which made trying to get sunlit photographs rather long winded we decided to have lunch. Surprisingly there are two cafes in the Temple grounds and we chose the 'St. Clements Cafe and bar'. They have a rather eclectic mixture of chairs and tables with the wooden tabletops left bare but the food is good. You can, in fine weather, have your meal in the garden if there is a vacant table (it's very popular).
 
After lunch we were hoping to see the interior of the 16th century Middle Temple Hall which is the building on the left in the top photograph below with the interior, hardly changed since it was built, in the lower photograph.
 
 
 
That is a seriously impressive double-hammerbeam roof and I won't patronise you by explaining that term as there are those of us who purport to know all things Tudor who will probably be forthcoming with that information (without cheating by looking it up on the Internet).
 
Middle Temple Hall is next to Middle Temple Lane which leads down to the Embankment. This is the impressive archway at the bottom of Middle Temple Lane looking into the lane from the Embankment.
 
 
Back out in Fleet Street we saw Ye Olde Cock Tavern. Apparently the narrowest building in Fleet Street, and looks it, as well as the oldest having been founded in the reign of Henry VIII.
 
 
We had found, prior to our trip, a book called 'One Man's London' which featured walks in London and which, in one section, described the area north of Fleet Street as a maze of little alleys, lanes and squares of the sort one might expect to find in Dickensian scenes. The book was written in the 1980s and we were very interested in exploring this area. We soon found one of the alleys mentioned, Red Lion Court, which led to the Red Lion Inn except that it didn't. There was no sign of the inn and after a while we realised that although the alleys and squares were still there the buildings had been demolished and replaced with ghastly modern office buildings .:bawl:
 
That was the biggest disappointment of the whole trip. We did, however, find a few remaining locations. One of the passages is Clifford's Inn Passage which leads to the gateway of Clifford's Inn, one of the oldest Inns of Chancery (1340) which has since been demolished although the gateway remains.
 
 
There was also Gough Square and Dr. Johnson's House nearby.
 
 
 
We made our way up to Holborn and emerged by Staples Inn which I photographed on a previous trip but at that time we forgot to have a look at the courtyard behind the facade. This time, however, we did look.
 
 
In appearance it is remarkeably like the other inns of court such as Lincoln's Inn and the Temple which shouldn't really come as a surprise. After leaving Staples Inn we made our way to the British Museum.
 
 
This was my second visit. My first visit was about sixty years ago. I can see this becoming a habit if I'm not careful. Amanda has been much more recently than I have and she didn't recognise this bit.
 
 
We decided it must have been changed relatively recently. A very pleasant space.
 
We were getting quite tired by this time but we wanted to see at least something of the exhibits and although we were feeling a bit droopy we didn't feel quite as bad as this chap looked.
 
 
I was that thin when I was 18 but probably not as good looking. If some parts of the image look a little odd it's probably reflections in the glass. I really needed a polarising filter for that but don't have one for the new camera.
 
We saw the Elgin Marbles in the Parthenon Gallery including Amanda's favourite – the one with the bull on it.
 
 
 
We also managed a bit of Egyptian/Assyrian stuff.
 
 
We managed to see only some of the Greek, Egyptian and Japanese galleries but eventually decided to stop, as we were so tired, and make our way back to the train and home. I took more pictures in the museum than I've shown here although the rest will probably appear on the main web site pages eventually.
 
That's the end of the current trip. If you stand around for a while another one may come along soon.
A round, another round and around.

A round, another round and around.

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On our last trip to London we started where we had finished on the previous trip – St. Paul's Cathedral. On our previous visit we were there in the late afternoon which meant that the west end of the cathedral was nicely lit but the east end was in deep shadow but this trip it was the east end which was nicely lit by the morning sun.

 
 
On this side of the cathedral there were some nice gardens, nothing spectacular – but nice, and altough we could see the Stone Gallery round the dome there was nobody on it.
 
After we finished here we walked down Ludgate Hill (did you know that Ludgate Hill is the highest point in london?) and on into Fleet Street where we spotted these two buildings.
 
 
Known as 'Mary Queen of Scots House' they look a bit Tudory but we didn't really believe that, in view of the Great Fire of London, so we did a bit of digging – metaphorically you understand. It appears to be one building, erected by Sir John Tollemache Sinclair a scottish politician and landowner who was born in 1825 and died in 1912, so it can't be much older than 100 years. Appearences can be deceptive!
 
On the way along Ludgate Hill and Fleet Street I was trying to get a decent picture of the said streets but that turned out to be nearly impossible because of traffic getting in the way – especially buses. It then occurred to me that the best way to do that would be from the front seat on the top deck of one of those very buses. That is something I plan to try sometime but this time I did get a picture of one of the buses.
 
 
You may be able to see that there is a person in one of the seats on the top deck on the side nearest to the centre of the road and when I enlarged that section I could see that they had a camera in their hands. I'm not the only one with that idea then.
 
On our diversion to Lincoln's Inn we found this unusual sign.
 
 
So don't try and take any of the windows out without asking otherwise you could be in big trouble (no souvenirs please!).
 
Our second 'round' was the round nave of the Temple Church – a pretty amazing place.
 
 
It also had a pretty amazing Norman doorway which, having been built in the 12th century, is around 800-900 years old.
 
 
We saw this in Inner and Middle Temple –  a complex of gardens, courtyards, passageways and little lanes between Fleet Street and the Embankment. We discovered once we were home that we'd actually managed to miss half of it so we plan to go back and rectify that.
 
We emerged from the Temple onto the Embankment to our first view of the London Eye.
 
 
You can probably see that the Houses of Parliament are not very far away. Then a little further along I took this next picture of the Golden Jubilee Bridge – well half of it to be precise as it consists of two pedestrian walkways, one on each side of the railway bridge. We went up onto the bridge but didn't cross to the other side of the river. The bridge that you can't see, on the other side of the railway bridge, gives a good view of the London Eye.
 
 
Further along the Embankment we encountered Cleopatra's Needle together with the two sphinxes and two of the elephants that Marie mentioned of which only one is shown in the picture.

 
 
The sphinxes should have been installed so that they were facing outwards, guarding the needle, but someone blundered and they were installed facing the wrong way. Ooops!
 
We went from here to Westminster and eventually finished up at Trafalgar Square details of which are on the main web site in the London, Westminster pages.
 
We will, of course, be going back when we get the chance.