A Saturday in London

A few years ago after a week of business in a London office, I stayed over the weekend to photograph a few of the city scenes.  London is a great city with much history, centuries old buildings and modern architecture.  There are wonderful museums, which take much time to completely enjoy.

I had no firm plans for what to see, but my wife and I had spent a week+ here a few years prior, so I had enough of a conception of the area to just wander about and I was familiar with the subway system.

I was there just a few days after a major riot in one area of the city.  So I knew an area to avoid, at least.  The taxi driver that brought me from the airport to my hotel was quiet talkative and condemning of the rioting.

As usual in a large city, there were lots of local people and tourist out and about on Saturday.  As I was photographing sights along the Thames, a couple of Japanese men stoped near me.  The older one had a Nikon camera, one of the newest D series professional models, and a bulbous, wide-angle prime lens.  I only had my consumer model Nikon D90.  The older man did not speak English, speaking to me in Japanese, emphasizing his camera and lens, via his motions.  The younger man, his son, translated for his dad.  I was complementary about his camera gear, asking humorously, if he wanted to trade with me, offering to include my tripod, since he did not have one with him.  Of course, he scoffed, in Japanese, at that notion.  Anyway, I guess that I did not look like a typical tourist to the older man, with my photo vest and tripod, and I think that impression led him to speak to me.  So if you want to attract attention while traveling, carry camera gear, not a just point and shoot or camera phone.

At one place along the Thames, where the river bank was very sandy, there were local artists creating sand sculptures with tip containers on prominent display. The observers showed their appreciation of the artists’ work by tossing coins at the tip containers.  It looks like very few tossed coins hit the intended target, but one artist had a good idea with a blanket or tarp under the target to make it easier to find the coins that missed the target.

I wanted to get down to the Thames bank to walk along it, but I was concerned about the local tides.  It appeared to be low tide now, but there were limited access points from the tidal wall along the bank and I did not want to get trapped by a rising tide.

At a quiet interval along the river walk, I found a young lady sitting on steps that went down to the river bank.  I stopped to ask her about the local tides.  She did not have any knowledge of the tide schedule, but she said her boyfriend probably knew, as she pointed out a young man walking along the bank.  She also told me that her boyfriend did volunteer archaeological work along the river bank and had found an old cannon and numerous minor objects.

I went down to the bank and approached the young man, explaining why I was there.  He did not know the tidal schedule, but he gave me a good reference that I could check online.  I asked what he was looking for and he pulled a few small objects from his pocket that he had picked up there.  The only one of those objects that I recall was a small button, that he said was from a sailors uniform.  He also showed me a few other items along the bank, broken china and clay tobacco pipes cemented together in the river sediment.  He said it was not uncommon to find an occasional Roman coin.

I thanked him for his information, decided to take a chance and continued walking along the bank.  More aware of the treasures that might be lying around, I scanned the bank as I walked along, not finding anything, other than broken recent China dishes, probably discarded from a local restaurant or dwelling.  As I came back this way, I looked for the clay pipes, thinking I should at least get a photo, but I could not find the pipes again.

Judging by the height of the walls along the river bank, the water level must get rather high at times.

As I walked along, the scattered clouds became more organized, threatening rain, so I abandoned the river bank and began to look for a temporary shelter as a light rain began.  It was past normal lunch time and I need sustenance, so I found a restaurant to shelter in, hoping the rain would pass, as I enjoyed a meal.

After my late lunch, I continued exploring the local area along The Thames.  Near the Tower Bridge, a young man told me of a place on the opposite side of the river where I could get a different view of the bridge.  I walked across the bridge, following his directions, as well as I could remember them, finding a narrow passageway between buildings, going through an iron fence gate, that clanged shut behind me, into a large secluded plaza along the bank behind what appeared to be upscale apartments.  I was alone there in the early evening, with only one young couple coming into the area and they did not linger long.  Maybe I spooked them away.  It was eerie being alone there in the dark and I had seen almost nobody along the streets I had taken to find this plaza.  I could not help thinking this would be a good place for a mugging, dumping a body in the Thames, and I hastened away, perhaps not spending as much time as needed to get the best photo here.

I did not like the construction cranes and other industrial features that were more visible near the bridge from this vantage point, but I managed to get a muted night shot of the bridge from a different point of view than the normal tourist would see.  I’m not happy with the exposure, which was difficult with this high contrast scene.  The long red line in the lower right of the photo is London Bridge.

As I retreated from the plaza and approached the bridge, I stopped below it to get this shot:

I like this image of a portion of the bridge, since it is from a perspective not often photographed.

I continued across the bridge to the opposite bank and began my walk back to my hotel.

Stay safe and well,

Ken