The City of London is known as the Square Mile, because it measures 1.12 square miles or 2.9 square kilometres. Before going on further, I must apologize that this photo and the album title is a little misleading.
Let me explain why. Firstly, what I refer to London in this album refers to the capital city as a whole. The Square Mile only refers to the ceremonial county of the City of London. Sounds confusing eh? Secondly, the Big Ben (as seen in the album cover) is not in the City of London but is in the City of Westminster.
Even more confused? Never mind then. Let's see if going around the Capital City of London will clear that up a little.
My Mum with her Little Ben and the Big Ben behind her.
"Big Ben" is actually the nickname of the clock and the tower and not it's actual name. It is known as the "Elizabeth Tower" after it was renamed from "Clock Tower" in 2012 to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee.
Guess 1 Ben isn't enough in this family ;)
The "Big Ben" Elizabeth Tower is one of the most iconic symbols of the United Kingdom. As such, it is often portrayed in films as the symbolic representation of both London as well as UK as a whole. The 4-faced chiming clock seen on the tower is largest in the world.
In filmmaking context, the Elizabeth Tower is often used as the "establishing shot" to indicate the location of London. The other landmark that often comes hand in hand with it is the London Eye.
Palace of Westminster (check), Elizabeth Tower (check), Westminster Bridge (check), red double-decker bus (check)
This is perhaps the best way to depict London. Only thing missing is a black London cab, although there is a white one just behind the bus.
Just to clear things up again, this is in the City of Westminster, located West of the City of London. The reason why there's confusion is because today's "London" no longer refers to just the "City of London" itself but to the Administrative Region of "Greater London".
People are generally more familiar with the Western façade of the Westminster Abbey because of the Great West Door and the 2 towers. But I'm not one for familiarity so I've chosen the Eastern façade for our photo instead.
There have been 16 Royal Weddings held here. The most recent one being Prince William and Catherine Middleton's (now the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge) in 2011.
Still in the City of Westminster, this is the National Gallery located in Trafalgar Square. Was here for the first time back in March and had the opportunity to go inside to explore the art works.
Apparently, they weren't as interested as I was in visiting the 4th most visited art gallery in the world (after the Louvre in Paris, the British Museum also in London and the Met in New York). And I thought I was coming here for the second time...
Now we're in the City of London. Already got the key shots of St. Paul's the last time I was here, so I wanted something different. This was taken along Peter's Hill towards the Millennium Bridge.
The City of London consists of other major landmarks including the Monument to commemorate the Great Fire of London, the Bank of England and 30 St Mary Axe (better known as the Gherkin), all of which are not featured in this album.
That's the Tower Bridge you see in the distance along with the HMS Belfast (which houses the Imperial War Museum).
No, that is NOT the London Bridge because this photo was taken while on the London Bridge itself. There's no confusion here alright. People often mistake the Tower Bridge as the London Bridge when it's 2 completely different bridges.
Never knew this? Well, now you do! (Even though you're supposed to know this if you've seen London Town from March earlier).
Here it is "closer-up". The Tower Bridge. It links the London Boroughs of Tower Hamlets and Southwark. Tower Hamlets is where the Tower of London is and Southwark is where you'll find Tate Modern and the Shard.
The beautiful glow of the evening sun!
The Royal Standard, seen at the top of one of the smaller towers in the Tower of London.
Still fascinated by Boris Johnson's office it seems. Also located in Southwark, this is City Hall, the headquarters of the Greater London Authority (GLA) which was established in 2000.
According to Fosters and Partners, the architecture firm behind its building and construction, City Hall's peculiar shape was meant to improve energy efficiency. This is widely disputed because it's almost entirely made of glass and measurements recorded seemed to prove otherwise.
The Tower of London belongs to the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and is just outside the City of London. I suppose you could say that Tower Hill is the distinguishing line.
The red poppies commemorating the 100th year since the 1st World War were already beginning to fill up the place.
The Tower of London has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1988.
A solitary Queen's Guard marching at the Buckingham Palace. Also located in the City of Westminster, it is the London residence of the monarchs of the UK.
The Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace at the centre of Queen's Gardens. It is dedicated to Queen Victoria. A similar memorial, that I would visit 2 days later, is one of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's husband, is found in Kensington Gardens.
With the Buckingham Palace in the background, and a friend who just happened to walk by.
It's a little bit like the Istana, if you put it into Singapore context. It takes £15 million to maintain the palace on a yearly basis. That is really quite extraordinary! I suppose you could buy an Ángel Di Maria if you don't maintain it for 4 years...
That was it for the day tour so it was time to settle home for some home-cooked Singapore food. Was great to have my buddy around to savour the good stuff!
After returning from Manchester and arriving at King's Cross Station. Everybody comes to Platform 9 and 3/4 to see if they can cross into the magical world. But I know I'm no Wizard, so I just couldn't be bothered to try.
My little sister doesn't seem very interested to try either. Proud to be a Muggle then! ;)
Into the final full day in London and I found myself in South Kensington... Here's the Queen's Tower, located in the campus of the Imperial College of London. If you take all 325 steps up to the top, you'll get the beautiful view of West London from all sides.
The Legendary Royal Albert Hall! One of the UK's most treasured buildings for performing arts. Performing here is a dream come true for any artist and more so if they're form the UK.
My favourite recent performance here is most definitely the one from Adele in 2011, where her live rendition of "Set Fire to the Rain" won her a 9th Grammy in 2013. She's already into double figures after winning her 10th for Skyfall earlier this year!
The Albert Memorial, first mentioned earlier together with The Victoria Memorial. Found in Kensington Gardens, this memorial was commissioned by Queen Victoria in memory of her husband, Prince Albert.
It might not be very clear, but the words on the canopy above Prince Albert's statue says "Queen Victoria and Her People". The full legend, if you put all 4 sides together says "Queen Victoria And Her People • To The Memory Of Albert Prince Consort • As A Tribute Of Their Gratitude • For A Life Devoted to the Public Good."
It's funny how I choose a lake as the final photo for London (and chronologically for the entire trip). I figure you don't always have to go out spectacularly. But maybe I'll leave that to the last 2 albums in Manchester and Greater Manchester.
This is it then... Chronologically, the final photo of this part of my story album, this is the Serpentine. Found in Hyde Park, this curving lake (which only has one bend) is the divide between Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens.
Then, it was time to head to Heathrow on an A380 homebound to celebrate National Day before going outbound again!
