London in Motion

Embankment

noreply@blogger.com (Adam) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 12:18:00 +0000

EMBANKMENT

The Victoria Embankment was constructed after a centuries old problem had been avoided to the point where it could be ignored no longer. The river Thames, as it passed through London, had always been used as an open sewer. As the population of London grew, the problem escalated and during the exceptionally hot summer of 1858, the smell became so overpowering that it permeated to the four compass points of London and duly became known as, ‘The Great Stink.’ Sheets soaked in chlorine and lime were hung on the Houses Of Parliament windows whilst inside the politicians of the day were forced to debate a solution, which resulted, in part, with the construction of The Victoria Embankment.

The idea of an embankment was not a new one, it was touted after the Great Fire Of London in 1666, but the plans were not adopted. At low water, even as late as the Victorian period, large muddy reaches were exposed and were considered a ‘hotbed of pestilence and fever.’ The new embankment narrowed the river, with thirty acres of land being reclaimed from the low tide flats. Coupled with dredging, the flow of the water increased in speed, making for a cleaner river. The river had to be dammed during construction, which was no mean feat, to allow the positioning of 650,000 cubic feet of granite, 80,000 cubic yards of brickwork and 140,000 cubic yards of concrete.

The project clearly allowed for no half measures and many vast and expensive riverside properties were destroyed when building began in 1865. Sir Joseph Bazalgette masterminded the engineering feat and it won much applause when it was completed five years later. However, the most important factor was the incorporation of Sir Joseph Bazalgette’s many miles of sewers with Gothic vaulting more reminiscent of the undercroft of a cathedral. Above the sewers the track for the District Line Underground (Tube) trains were positioned and at surface level a new highway was laid, easing traffic congestion from Strand and Fleet Street.

Behind the busy lanes of traffic on the embankment are The Victoria Embankment Gardens, which were opened in 1872. The government wanted the valuable land for development, but Sir Joseph Bazalgette insisted it be laid out for public enjoyment. To this day free concerts take place there, not far from the fine statues of Robert Burns and William Tyndale, who was the first to write an English bible translated from the Greek. In the gardens is ‘The Water Gate’ by Inigo Jones, the only relic of York House, which was destroyed to build the embankment. The Victoria Embankment is lined with fine London Plane trees, which were planted at intervals of twenty feet. Some were vandalised and rewards of twenty pounds, a huge sum for the day, were offered for information leading to convictions of any person caught damaging them. Nowadays, the trees reach high above the splendid original lampposts, all with stylized dolphins at their bases.

Several ships of importance are permanently moored on the riverside and have become fixtures of the landscape. H.M.S. President was built in 1918 and designed to look like a merchant vessel, the intention being to draw German U boats, which would then be attacked using hidden weapons. At one time all land based officers of the Royal navy were enlisted to H.M.S President, as all those serving in the Royal Navy had to be ascribed a ship. In the early twenty-first century, the vessel is hired out for private parties and functions.

A short way upstream from H.M.S. President is H.Q.S. Wellington, built in 1935 and purchased by The Honourable Company Of Master Mariners in 1947 and it is the city’s only floating livery hall. During the Second World War, she was on ‘ocean convoy escort duty’ in the north Atlantic. King Edward the Eighth was the first master of the company and his portrait hangs on board, the only picture of him to have been painted whilst he was king.

Further upstream along the embankment are moored several ships turned into bars and restaurants. The Queen Mary is the only London pub to have spent forty years crossing the Clyde, where it served as a ferry. If you find yourself swaying after only your drink, it probably means you are aboard the Hispaniola by Hungerford Bridge, which vies for business with the neighbouring PS Tattershall Castle, an old coal burning paddle steamer that once carried passengers across the Humber river, that is now also a pub and restaurant.

Old Scotland Yard, The Ministry Of Defence, Charing Cross Railway Station, The Savoy Hotel, Somerset House and The Middle and Inner Temple all overlook the Victoria Embankment and amidst them is ShellMex House. This distinctive early thirties Art Deco construction is distinctive for having the largest clock face in London, visible high up behind the oldest monument in London, Cleopatra’s Needle.

Cleopatra’s Needle was given to the British in 1819 by an Albanian who ruled Egypt on behalf of the Turks. A prominent freemason paid the £10,000 it cost to transport the needle to London the year before it was erected. The sea voyage was difficult, it was towed across the sea in a huge iron cylinder. It was cut loose during a violent storm and was found floating aimlessly like the Marie Celeste, by chance, by another English ship. Six sailors died during transportation to London and it was finally positioned on the Victoria Embankment in 1878.

The obelisk is erroneously named, as Cleopatra never saw it. A staggering 3,500 years old, it came all the way from Heliopolis at Memphis in Egypt. The sphinxes positioned at its base should be pointing outwards not inwards as they are supposed to be guarding it, not admiring it. Stone was blasted away from the plinths and the bronze paws of a sphinx were punctured when a shell narrowly missed the needle during The First World War. Beneath the needle is a Victorian time capsule, which includes a Victorian railway timetable and photographs of those considered to be the most beautiful twelve ladies of the time. The needle has suffered more weathering on the windswept embankment than in the previous three thousand years. There are suggestions it should be moved to the protected atmosphere of British Museum, which would allow the hidden time capsule an untimely opening.

The Victoria Embankment may be accessed by Westminster, Embankment and Temple London Underground (Tube) stations. River cruises offer terrific views of the embankment and can be taken from the Westminster Pier by Westminster Bridge on the Victoria Embankment.

Where to view Embankment and video clips of London

London in motion has some of the best London Stock Footage and London Library Footage with moving clips of many of the above mentioned places to see, are available to browse through by simply visiting the ‘Embankment’ category of this website. New additions of London video clips are being frequently uploaded and further categories will be appearing over the coming months.

Achilles

noreply@blogger.com (Adam) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 12:17:00 +0000

ACHILLES

The statue of Achilles, correctly known as The Wellington Monument, is positioned just inside the south-easterly corner of London’s Hyde Park, alongside Park Lane. Not so much a lane any longer, it is more like a motorway with eight lanes of traffic roaring past Achilles at speed. Occasionally, a driver will take a moment to glance across at the monument, standing eighteen feet high atop a pediment of granite blocks. Achilles is positioned a stone’s throw from Apsley House, the home of The Duke of Wellington which nowadays houses the Wellington Museum, (see earlier blog: HYDE PARK CORNER.)

Richard Westmacott won the commission for The Wellington Monument, with the project funded by donations from the women of England. Erected in 1822, the inscription on the pediment reads: “To Arthur, Duke of Wellington, and his brave companions in arms, this statue of Achilles cast from cannons won at the victories of Salamanca, Vittoria, Toulouse and Waterloo is inscribed by their countrymen. Placed on this spot on the XVIII day of June MDCXXII by command of His Majesty George IIII.” Achilles is depicted with a cloak draped over his arm and bearing a shield. When the statue was unveiled, the size and shape of the shield was criticised for being historically inaccurate, however, defenders of the sculptor insisted the shield was allegorical in purpose. Achilles is depicted suitably muscular and heroic in stature and certainly in Greek mythology Achilles was the most handsome of the heroes assembled against Troy.

Achilles was invulnerable except for his heel. In an attempt to make him immortal his mother, Thetis, dipped his infant body into the sacred river Styx of The Underworld. Whilst doing so, she held him by his heel and Achilles was thereby never fully submerged, leaving his heel vulnerable. By extraordinary bad luck, during the Trojan War, Paris shot an arrow that directly pierced his heel, resulting in his death. The only weakness in the bronze statue of Achilles is not the heel but his fig leaf, which was twice removed by pranksters, in 1870 and 1961. Achilles was the very first statue of a naked man in London and the fig leaf was added as an after thought, on account of the public reaction. It was reported that, “The bronze colossus…excited at first something like wonder, then an ignorant or canting clamour, because it was undraped.”

Situated to the immediate south of Achilles are The Queen Elizabeth Gates, at the entrance to the South Carriage Drive into Hyde Park. The one hundred and twenty feet wide gates were raised through public subscription and presented to Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother on the occasion of her ninetieth birthday in 1990. Made from aluminium and steel, they are adorned at the centre with a rather stylized version of her coat of arms. To the east of Achilles is the statue of Lord Byron, in pensive mood together with his dog ‘Bo’sun.’ He sits on a pink marble slab that was a gift from the Greek government, in memory of Byron who fought for the Greeks during their War Of Independence.

The statue of Byron is somewhat stranded in a traffic island in the centre of Park Lane, one of the capital’s busiest highways. The four lanes to the west were introduced in 1983, taking out a large ribbon of parkland in the process. The southerly part of Park Lane is lined with grand houses and hotels, first built up in the 1920’s and 1930’s. The grandest is The Dorchester, where Elizabeth Taylor spent nights during several of her honeymoons. The hotel is owned by The Sultan of Brunei, who spent £130 million restoring its beautiful Art Deco interior. The Dorchester ballroom was used by General Eisenhower during The Second World War, its soundproofing conveniently doubled up as bomb proofing. The nearby Park Lane Hilton Hotel was built in 1963 and at the time of construction, it was the tallest of London’s hotels. From the Windows restaurant on the twenty-eighth floor of the hotel, there are fine panoramic views to the four compass points. Diners are even able to look into the gardens of nearby Buckingham Palace and of course, back down below to Westmacott’s statue of Achilles.

Achilles

Park Lane

London W1K 1BE

London Underground (Tube) Hyde Park Corner

Where to view Achilles and video clips of London

London in motion has some of the best London Stock Footage and London Library Footage with moving clips of many of the above mentioned places to see, are available to browse through by simply visiting the ‘Achilles’ category of this website. New additions of London video clips are being frequently uploaded and further categories will be appearing over the coming months.

County Hall

noreply@blogger.com (Adam) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 12:24:00 +0000

COUNTY HALL

The County Hall is situated on the South Bank in London besides Westminster Bridge and looks across to The Palace Of Westminster across the river Thames. It was the headquarters of the London County Council (L.C.C.) from 1912 and its successor, The Greater London Council (G.L.C.) from 1965 until it was disbanded in 1986. With an impressive façade of Portland Stone, the hall was built in the ‘Edwardian Baroque’ style and stands out from its mostly modernist neighbours, in an area that was heavily bombed during The Second World War.

The construction of County Hall was a particularly costly building project. A ‘Cross and Blackwell’ factory stood on the intended site and being only a dozen years into a 999 lease, a whopping £100,000 had to be paid to the makers of the world famous ‘Branston Pickle’ relish, to persuade them to vacate the site. In addition, £10,000 was spent on reclaiming land from the river, to bring the embankment in line with the neighbouring St Thomas’s Hospital. During the process, a third century Roman Thames riverboat was discovered and it is now on display in The Museum of London.

Plans for an even vaster edifice were scaled down in size after intensive debate between government and the chief architect W.E. Riley. King George V laid the foundation stone in 1912 and formally opened the building in 1922. However, at the official opening, the building was far from complete, with work having been halted during the First World War and construction duly continued over the following decades. ‘The North Block’ of County Hall was commissioned in the 1950's. Extraordinarily, the project was delayed after all ten firms tendered the identical sum of 50,238 pounds, 19 shillings and three pence, leading to a mass referral to the Monopolies Commission!

Expansion continued as late as 1974, with the ‘The Island Block’ annex. It was a truly perfect example of rotten ‘Brutalist’ architecture. Attached to the back of County Hall by a walkway, the bulk of the building was itself stranded within a busy roundabout. Within a meagre twelve years, it was empty and abandoned. The Island Block remained a wretched blot on the landscape until it was pulled down in 2006. On its destruction, the unrepentant architect, John Bancroft, declared, “I am absolutely devastated – I consider that it was a distinguished building.” The general public disagreed, in a nationwide poll it was voted the eleventh most ugly building in Britain.

The Labour Party had controlled the London County Council from 1934 and the political opposition complained that elections were one-sided because the L.C.C. only covered the mostly Labour voting inner London districts. After much debate and procedure, the metropolitan boundaries were extended at all four compass points. Thirty-two boroughs were formed including the more genteel suburban areas, swallowing up chunks of the surrounding counties. The first Greater London Council elections were held in 1964. Some argued that the G.L.C. was ‘created to be a Conservative poodle that turned into a mighty monster of the left.’ During its last five years, the G.L.C. was led by Ken Livingstone, commonly known as ‘Red Ken.’ In 1982 Ken Livingstone was voted runner up to the Pope in a BBC Radio 4’s Today programme’s ‘Man Of The Year.’ At the same time a national newspaper described him as ‘the most odious man in Britain.’ The Left’s strength at the G.L.C. contrasted with the power of the Conservative Party in Westminster. Margaret Thatcher finally disbanded the G.L.C. in 1986. In retrospect, historians generally agree that the vision of the G.L.C. was utopian and its achievement modest.

By 1993 County Hall had been sold to the Shirayama Shokusan Corporation, a private Japanese company, for sixty million pounds. Mr Makoto Okamoto is the family-run corporation's European head and an article published in The Independent Newspaper on 28 September 2005 reported that he had allegedly refused to allow war veterans into the County Hall building to pay respects at a war memorial listing more than a thousand L.C.C. staff who died in the two world wars. The resulting uproar forced the Japanese ambassador to intervene. The Independent likewise reported that in 1998, Mr Okamoto allegedly was accused of making sexist and racist comments at Lisa-Jane Statton, the manager of the London Aquarium, which currently rents the lower ground floors of County Hall. She told an employment tribunal that he called British women ‘bloody fat pigs’ with ‘legs like tree-trunks’, but withdrew the case after she was paid an estimated £100,000 to settle. Mr Okamoto’s wife is herself English. The Saatchi Gallery left County Hall after only three years, likewise after disputes with Mr Okamoto, who allegedly kicked a Gavin Turk sculpture. Another sculpture mysteriously had its nose removed and was spat on, when the gallery was closed to the public and very people had access to the space.

County Hall is now home to the aforementioned London Aquarium, the London Film Museum and two hotels, The Marriot and The Premier Inn. There are several restaurants and a number of one and two bedroomed apartments. Dali Universe moved out in 2010. County Hall is also a popular location for marriage ceremonies. The entire fourth and fifth floors have been left entirely empty since the G.L.C. was disbanded in 1986.

County Hall, Belvedere Road, London Se1 7PB. Waterloo and Westminster London Underground (Tube) stations.

London Underground Railway (Tube): Bond Street and Marble Arch

Where to view County Hall and video clips of London

London in motion has some of the best London Stock Footage and London Library Footage with moving clips of many of the above mentioned places to see, are available to browse through by simply visiting the ‘County Hall’ category of this website. New additions of London video clips are being frequently uploaded and further categories will be appearing over the coming months.

Selfridges

noreply@blogger.com (Adam) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 18:05:00 +0000

SELFRIDGES

It was announced on February 11^th 2010 that the forty year old fashion designer Alexander McQueen has been found dead at his London address. One of the creations from his last year alive was passed by hundreds of thousands of ordinary shoppers during the last months of 2009, in London’s Selfridges department store. In collaboration with the two hundredth anniversary celebrations of the first performance of Cinderella at The Theatre Royal and as the centrepiece of Selfridges 2009 winter collection, Alexander McQueen made a one-off £16,000 ‘pantomime dame’ dress. It was a truly exquisite creation and typical of Selfridges to display such a jaw dropping crowd puller.

Every day in central London, people can be seen clutching distinctive yellow and black carrier bags, each betraying a visit to Selfridges, famous across the four compass points of the world. It is the second largest shop in the United Kingdom, after Harrods, (see earlier blog.) Selfridges has remained fashionable since it first opened up in 1909 and this is in no small part to its founder, the extraordinary H. Gordon Selfridge who, leading by example, totally transformed the experience of shopping in this country.

Gordon Selfridge was an American who learned his trade in Chicago. On his first visit to London, he was astonished to find on more than one occasion, that he was asked to leave stores for simply browsing, rather than making an obligatory rapid purchase. His encounter with frosty shopkeepers standing behind imposing counters, protecting the shelves from shoppers, inspired him to leave America and open the store that still bears his name to this day.

The store cost £400,000 to build and is positioned on the northwest side of what was to become London’s premier shopping thoroughfare, Oxford Street. It was a massive sum to pay at the time, partly because it was one of the first buildings in London to have a steel frame construction. Gordon Selfridge called it a ‘trade palace’ and the expression was hardly an exaggeration. He wanted the exterior of the building to be indicative of the quality of goods on sale within. The store is fronted by load bearing ionic columns, with a 1928 Art Deco clock, known as ‘The Queen Of Time’ riding her ‘Ship Of Commerce.’ The ground was not levelled before construction and the entire building slopes eleven feet from one end to the other, a feature that may be noticed by careful observation.

Back in Chicago, Selfridge had been the first to promote Christmas with the expression, “only x number of shopping days left until Christmas.” Never one short of a catchphrase, he also coined, “less servility and more service,” and this motto was drummed into his staff, who were made to have three months of training before the grand opening. Such was the anticipation, that on the first day of business people queued around the block (unlike most of London this area is laid out in grid pattern and does have blocks) and a million people passed through its doors during the first week.

Marketed as the equivalent of Macy’s in the USA, its popularity was instant. Selfridge was the first to put expensive popular items, such as perfumes, near to the entrance. He tried to make shopping fun rather than a chore, merchandise was displayed so that customers could touch and examine it, leading to profitable impulse purchases.

Bristling with ingenuity, he exhibited Bleriot’s airplane in Selfridges one day after its pioneer flight across the channel, attracting people 150,000 people into the store who would never otherwise cross its threshold. He staged the first public show of television in 1925 and installed a seismograph, which in 1932 recorded a well-documented earthquake in Belgium.

The roof of the building is nowadays covered in air conditioning units, but in Gordon Selfridge’s time, a garden with trees and a lily pond covered the roof. At times, ‘mini golf’ was played up there and a seasonal ice rink provided further excitement. Selfridge even threw election night parties for English society on the roof, which was also where in 1930, he exhibited the work of sculptors from ‘The London Group’ whose members were the most pre-eminent artists of the day.

Like many, Gordon Selfridge made a fortune during the First World War. In 1919, he planned to build a huge mansion on the south coast of England, with grand intentions for it to be taller than St Paul’s Cathedral, a plan that was never realised. Ultimately too extravagant, Gordon Selfridge lived the life of Croesus and he died a pauper. He became a British subject in 1937, three years before he was forced to relinquish control of the store, shortly after the start of the Second World War. It was during the war that the lowest of the three floors beneath ground level was used by U.S. personnel. At a depth of sixty metres, it was safe enough for both Churchill and Eisenhower to hold meetings there.

In his last years, Selfridge was reduced to travelling through London by bus, sometimes making the trip up to Oxford Street to gaze across at his greatest achievement. He died almost penniless in 1947, but was held alive in the memories of loyal staff of longstanding service. Indeed, many of the staff served out their entire career there, which was unusual for retailing, where a high turnover of workforce was common, even during the earlier part of the twentieth century. There was much to be proud of, from its history of bold window displays, to its marvellous food hall.

The Selfridges food hall is one of four major food halls in central London, Fortnum and Mason, Harrods and Harvey Nichols incorporate the other three. Selfridges food hall has the best reputation amongst internationals, with Middle Eastern cuisine comfortably stacked around the corner from the famous kosher department. If you cannot afford the oyster bar, then fill up with free samples, Selfridges has a longstanding generous tasting policy. Although now surpassed in cost if not by flavour, in the first decade of the twenty-first century, Selfridges Food Hall sold the world’s most expensive sandwich, at £85. Consisting of Wagyu beef, brie de Meaux, foie gras and black truffle mayonnaise, the sandwich was reportedly most often requested from and dispatched to, a number of luxury hotel rooms on the nearby Park Lane.

The store is open from ninety-thirty in the mornings until eight, nine on Thursdays and Sunday opening is midday until six. Finally, to answer the question that every child asks when first encountering the famous name, yes, they do sell fridges…

Selfridges

400 Oxford Street

London

W1A 2LR

London Underground Railway (Tube): Bond Street and Marble Arch

Where to view Selfridges and video clips of London

London in motion has some of the best London Stock Footage and London Library Footage with moving clips of many of the above mentioned places to see, are available to browse through by simply visiting the ‘Selfridges’ category of this website. New additions of London video clips are being frequently uploaded and further categories will be appearing over the coming months.

Piccadilly Circus

noreply@blogger.com (Adam) — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 19:17:00 +0000

PICCADILLY CIRCUS

The West End is the location of many theatres, restaurants, bars and clubs and a popular place to meet at the start of the evening is at Piccadilly Circus. In fact, it is very rare to not see people waiting for friends and loved ones, standing near the famous and much admired Statue Of Eros (see earlier blog entitled EROS.)

Piccadilly Circus is sometimes described as being the Times Square of London, its many illuminated advertising signs being a comparable feature. The very first illuminated sign was put up in 1909, advertising Schweppes, which was then a mineral water supplier. By the second decade of the twenty-first century, the signs had long since abandoned neon and were mostly state-of-the-art LED video displays, costing millions of pounds per year to rent each space. One computer animated sign posted personal messages with a special rate for marriage proposals. After a romantic kiss at The Statue Of Eros, loved ones would be encouraged to look up to the sign, to see the personal message scrolling across. The service was discontinued in 2007.

Piccadilly Circus was built in 1819 and it is named a circus from the Latin word for ‘circle’ or ‘ring.’ Although no longer truly circular, it is the hub of six streets, including both Regent Street and Piccadilly. It has over a million pedestrian visitors each week and a further two million people pass through it by bus. Six hundred thousand people use Piccadilly Circus underground station on a weekly basis. Besides being filled with pedestrians and swirling traffic, Piccadilly Circus is closely surrounded by many famous locations.

Situated on the south side of Piccadilly since 1925 is Lillywhite’s, a multi-floored sports store. Nowadays it draws in tourists by selling replica Premiership football sports kits cheaply, but still specializes in outfitting for minority sports. Beneath Lillywhite’s is the Criterion Theatre, one of only two subterranean theatres in London and decorated with extravagant gilding by Verity in 1884. Nearby, on ground level is The Criterion, the restaurant where Sherlock Holmes first met Doctor Watson in its splendid Long Bar. The Criterion was a favourite of the French artist Toulouse-Lautrec who, when visiting London, ate porterhouse steaks there whilst gazing across to The London Pavilion.

A published statistic states that of the twenty-six million visitors to London each year, the majority pass through Piccadilly Circus and one in twenty-five of those go inside the London Pavilion. The north side pavement (sidewalk) on Coventry Street, outside the London Pavilion, has the highest density of pedestrian traffic in the United Kingdom. The London Pavilion was originally a music hall, nowadays it is part of The Trocadero Centre. The Trocadero Centre has been a London landmark for two and a half centuries, its fortunes almost changing on a decade-by-decade basis. In the late 1990’s, a forty-five million pound investment programme transformed the venue into a ‘high-tech’ indoor entertainment complex.

The entrance to The Café De Paris is on Coventry Street, which leads off Piccadilly Circus to the east. It opened in the roaring twenties, much of its early success rose from the patronage of King Edward VIII, who often visited when he was Prince Of Wales. The Aga Khan, the Mountbatten’s and Cole Porter were also regulars and its subterranean location allowed it to remain open at the outbreak of The Second World War. However, tragically, in March 1941, two fifty-kilogram explosive devises came through the roof during an air raid, landing straight onto the dance floor. Eighty people were killed including the young bride of Group Captain John Darwen RAF DSO DFC. Aged just twenty and married only weeks earlier, she died in his arms on the dance floor. John Darwen went on to become a heroic and much documented pilot, until a little over two years later he was killed in action, shot down by stray flak over Italy in 1942. The Café De Paris remains a popular venue to this day.

Not far from the entrance of The Café De Paris, is a street level statue called The Horses of Helios and the four beasts, Pyrios, Eos, Aethon and Phleyon, rear up above foaming fountain water. Directly above them, high up on the building’s top are three golden naked figures. They represent Faith, Hope and Charity, known as The Three Graces and they can be seen frozen mid-leap, heading downwards into the crowds beneath.

Not only is Piccadilly Circus at the meeting point of six thoroughfares, it has Mayfair, Soho, St James’s and China Town all quickly accessible to the four compass points, with the remainder of central London stretching beyond. Indeed, at one time, Piccadilly Circus was said to be the hub of the British Empire itself. It is hardly surprising then, that a flagship retail store bordering Piccadilly Circus has recently contracted to pay 1.95 million pounds a year to rent its premises.

Many descend on Piccadilly Circus simply to soak up the atmosphere and the saying goes, that if you wait in Piccadilly Circus long enough, you will meet someone you know. Be prepared, it may well be quicker than you think! Piccadilly Circus, Piccadilly, London W1J 7BX.

Where to view Piccadilly Circus and video clips of London

London in motion has some of the best London Stock Footage and London Library Footage with moving clips of many of the above mentioned places to see, are available to browse through by simply visiting the ‘Piccadilly Circus’ category of this website. New additions of London video clips are being frequently uploaded and further categories will be appearing over the coming months.

Embassies

noreply@blogger.com (Adam) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 19:26:00 +0000

EMBASSIES

To be posted as ambassador to London is considered to be a top job, the reward after many years of service for a career diplomat. For countries that offer ambassadorial roles as favours, political or otherwise, three years in London is likewise a coveted position. New ambassadors are accredited to The Court of St James. St James’s Palace technically remains the senior palace of the British monarchy, although the sovereign has not lived there since King William the Fourth. Nevertheless, The Marshal of the Diplomatic Corp is permanently based at St James’s Palace and it from where all ambassadors and high commissioners are received at court.

There are one hundred and seventy-two foreign missions in London, mostly located in St James’s, Mayfair, Belgravia, South Kensington, Knightsbridge, Holland Park and Kensington Palace Gardens and its surroundings. One hundred and twenty-eight of these are embassies and there are forty-six high commissions from the Commonwealth countries and many missions have consular sections in separate locations to the chancery sections of their embassies. It means that in some streets and squares in the above areas, many of the buildings have large flags from the four compass points of the globe, waving from poles above the grand entrances.

The Diplomatic Protection corps seldom have a dull moment, as embassies are frequently the target of demonstrations. The Israeli Embassy, in particular, is well accustomed to such occurrences. The French Embassy saw protests by British Muslims after the banning of headscarves in French schools in 2004. The Royal Danish Embassy was targeted in 2006 after a Danish cartoonist produced material deemed offensive by some British Muslims. There has been a continuous peaceful protest outside the Chinese Embassy for many years by practitioners of the ‘Falun Gong’ spiritual movement.

It is usually rare for those inside the embassies to take much notice of such protests on an outward level, but that was not the case at the Libyan Embassy in 1984, when Yvonne Fletcher was shot and killed in St James’s Square whilest on duty during a protest. The exact series of events has never fully been explained, however, it is allegedly thought machine gun fire was directed at her from the second floor of Libyan Embassy. Her death resulted in the longest police siege in London’s history, lasting nine days, resulting in a souring of diplomatic relations between the two countries that lasted for many years afterwards.

In 1980 Iranian Arab Separatists took over the Iranian Embassy, at its premises overlooking Hyde Park. Inside were twenty-six hostages including police constable Trevor Lock, who later received the George Cross for his bravery. On the sixth day of the siege the kidnappers killed a hostage and threw his body outside. Margaret Thatcher, the British Prime Minister at the time, decided it was time for action and the SAS, (Special Air Service) stormed the building. In ground-breaking manner for the day, the whole episode was played out live, with a short time delay, in front of the media. To disguise the noise of the SAS approach, aircraft approaching Heathrow Airport were diverted to fly at low height directly over the embassy. As an additional precaution, British Gas were instructed to start noisy drilling nearby. Five of the six militants were killed during the release of the hostages. Suggestions that the final captor survived after one of the hostages protected him, whilst suffering from a dose of Stockholm Syndrome, was later denied.

Canada House, which faces onto Trafalgar Square, is Canada’s oldest diplomatic posting, dating to 1880. Greek revival in style, it was built by Sir Robert Smirke, the architect of The British Museum. Canada House looks across to South Africa House, where Nelson Mandela spoke to the crowds from a balcony, whilst he was president of the country in 1996. A little further to the east is Zimbabwe House. Stunning architecturally, the exterior of Zimbabwe House features Epstein sculptures, from his first major commission in London. President Mugabe was reported a few years ago to have allegedly handed over the deeds of his country's High Commission in London to Colonel Gaddafi in a last ditch effort to keep the flow of Libyan oil heading southwards to Zimbabwe.

The Czech Embassy, near to Notting Hill Gate, is seen by the local residents as being one of the ugliest buildings in the neighbourhood. An effort to counter this was made in 1999 when three sculptural pieces were mounted on the side of the building by the Czech artist David Cerny, who first came onto the international scene during The Velvet Revolution. In contrast, for an example of award winning late twentieth century design, look to the Royal Danish Embassy in Sloane Street. The building fits in perfectly against the backdrop of some of London’s most expensive and upmarket boutiques and fashion stores.

At thirty-one Portland Place is located the aforementioned Chinese Embassy. Unexpectedly to many, it was pulled down in 1980, giving the protected buildings committee a shock, but it was rebuilt with an exterior almost identical to the original 1785 Adam brothers’ building. Sometimes the elegant facades of foreign embassies have been left to rot, the French Embassy on Knightsbridge was for many years the scruffiest looking building in the neighbourhood, with the exterior paint so weathered there were scarcely any peelings left to fall off. The largest embassy in London is the American Embassy, (see the previous Grosvenor Square blog in Tom’s Guide for full details.)

It is often the case that on entering an embassy one feels almost arrived in the represented country itself. Even in the twenty-first century, when paying for a travel visa in the London embassy of one large African country, the money handed across is dropped into a cavernous wooden drawer with notes and coins loosely floating around and the receipt is hand written on a piece of lined paper torn from a notebook. At one Southeast Asian mission, a sweeper in local attire seemingly pushes dust from one side of the hall to another, as tourists stand in the middle, queuing for visas.

In 1907, the idea to build The Titanic was conjured up over a dinner at the Spanish Embassy. A great deal of what is said and done behind the four walls of London’s foreign embassies is unknown, in fact often deliberately secretive. The world of espionage has long overlapped with the more mundane aspects of diplomatic life and it would be an injustice to such an occluded environment to attempt to tackle the subject in this short text.

Diplomatic immunity is essentially legal immunity from the host country’s laws, meaning that diplomats are not susceptible to lawsuits or prosecution, although they can be expelled. It is argued by some that this leaves the privilege open to abuse. It was reported by The Independent On Sunday newspaper in 2006, that between 1999 and 2004, one hundred and twenty-two serious offences were committed by those protected by diplomatic immunity in the United Kingdom. These figures were released by the then foreign secretary Margaret Beckett. It is alleged that this included murder by a Columbian diplomat and rape and child abuse by a member of the Moroccan Embassy staff. Elsewhere, person or persons protected by diplomatic immunity from the Dominican Republic were allegedly accused of fraud and money laundering, embassy staff from France accused of assault and from Germany of assisting illegal immigration. Many embassies consider London’s traffic controlling Congestion Charge to be nothing more than a tax and the American Embassy alone allegedly owes nearly four million pounds in Congestion Charge fees and other traffic fines. Zimbabwe personnel top the league of driving without a license.

Where to view Embassies and video clips of London

London in motion has some of the best London Stock Footage and London Library Footage with moving clips of many of the above mentioned places to see, are available to browse through by simply visiting the ‘Embassies’ category of this website. New additions of London video clips are being frequently uploaded and further categories will be appearing over the coming months.

Grosvenor Square

noreply@blogger.com (Adam) — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 11:37:00 +0000

GROSVENOR SQUARE

Grosvenor Square is the largest of the three squares in the area of central London commonly known as Mayfair. Mayfair is so named because fairs were held here during the month of May, before the district was developed. Grosvenor Square has remained a fashionable place to live since it was laid out, between 1721 and 1725 by Sir Richard Grosvenor. The square covers the site of Oliver’s Mount, an earthwork thrown up by the English subjects in 1643 when Charles I was approaching London after the Battle Of Edge Hill.

The original buildings of the square have almost entirely been rebuilt over the centuries, one of the better known redevelopments being the American Embassy, built between 1958 and 1960 and still the largest embassy building in Europe. The Americans have had a presence in Grosvenor Square and its surrounding streets since its independence. At number nine Grosvenor Square is where John Adams, the second US president lived, when he was ambassador to London in 1785. In fact, the area is fondly known to many as, ‘Little America.’ Grosvenor Square was where anti Vietnam War protests by many thousands of students and workers took place in 1968, in front of the American Embassy.

The American Embassy is said to be the only American Embassy in the world where the Americans do not own the land beneath the four walls of the embassy. When the U.S.A. were first planning to expand into this building, the British Government placed great pressure on The Grosvenor Estate to sell the west side of Grosvenor Square to the Americans. There were mutterings of compulsory purchase. The Duke Of Westminster, head of the Grosvenor family, who was a good friend of the American ambassador of the day, offered to sell the freehold if the Americans returned to the Grosvenor family twelve thousand acres in East Florida which had been granted to his ancestor, the first Earl, in 1769. The land had been forfeited at the War Of Independence. The land in question today includes the site of Cape Canaveral. The Americans chose to back off and a compromise was reached whereby they pay rent one peppercorn a year to The Grosvenor Estate. It is believed that this was paid in full, some years ago, with the presentation of three solid gold peppercorns, covering the period up until the end of the nine hundred and ninety-nine year lease.

On top of the embassy, beneath the American flag, can be seen the bald eagle, its wingspan is longer than a London bus, it is made from aluminium and any American will tell you its head is pointed in the wrong direction. Today, anti terrorist devices are positioned around the building and there are many concerns about its exposed position. For this reason there are advanced plans to move the entire embassy to a five acre site in Nine Elms, Vauxhall, south London, where tightened security will be easier to achieve. The Grosvenor Square site was bought in late 2009 by Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, although the Americans are unlikely to fully move out before 2017, at the earliest.

Positioned outside the embassy is a statue of Dwight D Eisenhower, the supreme allied commander during The Second World War. This is the only statue of him in London and was unveiled by Baroness Thatcher in 1989. It was presented by the people of Kansas City. Eisenhower is depicted his hands on his waist, looking across towards his old headquarters of strategies, over at number twenty, on the other side of the square.

The American Embassy was previously located in what is now part of the Canadian High Commission, at number one, on the opposite side of the square to its present location. London is Canada’s oldest foreign mission and the High Commissioner is based here at Macdonald House, this fine building on Grosvenor Square. The Indonesians also have their London diplomatic mission in Grosvenor Square, at number thirty-eight.

The large garden within Grosvenor Square, covering six acres, was originally a key garden, solely for the use of its residents, but is now open to all. Memorials are positioned to the four compass points of the garden, on the north side stands a fine statue of Franklin D Roosevelt. The Roosevelt Memorial was put up with donations of five shillings by most Londoners. The memorial shows the figure of Roosevelt clutching his stick hidden under his cloak, his other hand is on his lapel.

Opposite Roosevelt is the memorial to the Royal Air Force American Eagle Squadron by Dame Elizabeth Frink. The squadron was made up of mostly American citizens who had volunteered to join the Royal Air Force. Also, within the garden of Grosvenor Square stands a smaller memorial garden dedicated to those who lost their lives on September the eleventh 2001.

Grosvenor Square

Mayfair

London W1

Nearest London Underground (tube)

Bond Street and Marble Arch

Where to view Grosvenor Square and video clips of London

London in motion has some of the best London Stock Footage and London Library Footage with moving clips of many of the above mentioned places to see, are available to browse through by simply visiting the ‘Grosvenor Square’ category of this website. New additions of London video clips are being frequently uploaded and further categories will be appearing over the coming months.

Harrods

noreply@blogger.com (Adam) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 13:50:00 +0000

HARRODS

Harrods is one of largest departments stores in the world and also one of the oldest. The original shop was situated in Eastcheap, in The City Of London, which was opened by a tea merchant, Charles Henry Harrod, in 1834. He moved the store in 1849, to a single room, in what was then the village of Knightsbridge, partly to capitalise on the forthcoming ‘Great Exhibition’ due to be held in the nearby Hyde Park in 1851.

The store flourished and grew until it was destroyed by fire in 1883. Extraordinarily, despite being raised to the ground, all orders were honoured within three working days. In retrospect, the fire was seen as a blessing in disguise, with a vast new building, covering four and a half acres, finally completed by 1905 and still standing to this very day. Built in the ‘High Victorian’ style, with visible Art Nouveau influences, seen from the elegant shop windows to the stylized ‘H’s for Harrods, positioned at the bases of the many pilasters.

The exterior of the store is illuminated at night by over 15,000 light bulbs and the national flags of countries from across the four compass points of the world wave on the sides of the building and from high up on the roof. Inside, nine hundred customer attendants work in three hundred departments, serving, at peak periods, up to a staggering three hundred thousand customers a day. It is said to be the only department store in the world to have an annual turnover of in excess of one billion pounds sterling.

The very first escalator in the United kingdom was installed in Harrods in 1898 and the shoppers were so afraid of its new technology, that a man with one leg was employed to travel up and down the escalator all day, simply to reassure the nervous customers. At the height of his popularity, Oscar Wilde was a regular customer and Harrods has served everybody from the modest middle classes, to the last Tsar of Russia and the British Royal Family. However, the four vast Royal Warrants displayed above the store’s entrance have all been removed, one after the death of The Queen Mother, the remaining three allegedly connected with the well documented events surrounding the death of The Princess of Wales in 1997.

Be careful what you wear into the store, a story once circulated about a girl who bought a pair of designer ripped jeans in Harrods, she later wore them back into the store and was refused entry by doormen, for being dressed too scruffily. If you do get past the entrance staff, the Egyptian Hall awaits and do visit the splendid food hall. After tiring of shopping, there are restaurants on every floor, said to number twenty-eight in total, including a highly rated oyster bar.

If you are more accustomed to shopping in a ‘pound store’, then the cost of two and half kilos of beluga caviar may came as a shock. It is no surprise then, that the store is said to take up to fifteen million pounds a day. Indeed, the Harrods boss was taking dividends of seven hundred thousand pounds a week at the height of the boom in 2007. The owner is the well known Mohammed Al Fayed, together with his publicity shy brother, who together purchased the store in 1985 for 615 million pounds. The purchase made for much controversy, as the rival bidder Tiny Rowland insisted Al Fayed had lied and cheated his way to winning the battle for the store. Tiny Rowland fought Al Fayed more or less up to his death in 1998, even accusing the Egyptian of stealing items from his Harrods safe deposit box.

Dubbed the ‘Phoney Pharaoh’ by his critics, the more he has tried to join the British establishment, the more Al Fayed has apparently been cold-shouldered. His relationship with the Harrods staff is said to be equally at odds, newspapers reported that he regularly addresses the five thousand employees over the in-store public address system and allegedly, even telling staff which way to vote in an election. Allegedly, secret recording equipment was hidden inside fire extinguishers, not so much to observe shoplifters, but in order to keep an eye on his own floor staff.

It cannot be denied that over his twenty-five years of ownership, Mohammed Al Fayed has shown dedication to the world famous store. Sometimes he has even been known to take on a hands-on role, sometimes serving customers fish in the food hall, or sweating beneath heavy boxes in the storage rooms. Al Fayed rarely misses a trick, the Harrods bank has been selling gold bars since late 2009, cashing in on the demand for gold with its surging prices.

During its long history it hasn’t always been rosy, as besides the aforementioned fire, terrorists attacked the store with a car bomb in 1983 and six people were murdered. Also, anti fur trade demonstrators, a familiar thorn in the side of the retail business as a whole, which is not always known for its ethics, have regular protests outside the store, with verbal clashes allegedly occasionally spilling over to violence. Finally, inside the store are two memorials dedicated to the memory of the lives of Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi Fayed, son of Mohammed, a reminder to a very painful and dramatic series of events for the Harrods owner.

Harrods

87-135 Brompton Road

Knightsbridge SW3 1RT

Nearest London Underground Station (tube): Knightsbridge

Where to view Harrods and video clips of London

London in motion has some of the best London Stock Footage and London Library Footage with moving clips of many of the above mentioned places to see, are available to browse through by simply visiting the ‘Harrods’ category of this website. New additions of London video clips are being frequently uploaded and further categories will be appearing over the coming months.

Snow London

noreply@blogger.com (Adam) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 21:24:00 +0000

SNOW LONDON

A snow covered London is a rare sight, so if ever the city is blanketed, it draws excited crowds straight to the parks and open areas for snowmen building, snowball fights and all manner of excitement. The playing is often with a sense of urgency, for the city dwellers know that soon enough it will melt and very often be gone for another year. The United Kingdom is, for much of the time, in the path of the warming Gulf Stream which generally flows across from the southwest Atlantic. Also, the island status means that the country is surrounded by much slower cooling sea water, making for less severe winters than almost all the other countries lying on the same latitude. Coupled with the milder winters of recent decades, the sparse snowfalls are generally met with enthusiasm rather than irritation.

The national preoccupation with the quickly changing weather patterns experienced by those living in the United Kingdom, means that wagers are regularly placed with bookmakers as to whether a white Christmas in London is likely to happen. To win the bet, a single flake of snow needs to fall during the twenty-four hours of December 25th. The meteorological office states that London had only ten white Christmases during the twentieth century, which was slightly above average, as the city has only a six per cent probability of having a white Christmas.

In times gone by, white Christmases were more common, with snow falling and lying on the ground for months on end. From the Middle Ages to the mid nineteenth century, winter temperatures in the United Kingdom were on average lower than today, with the coldest winter recorded being that of 1684, just twenty-five years after records first began being taken. The river Thames often froze in winter in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and the well-documented 'frost fairs' were held. The old London Bridge aided the freezing of the river, its many broad arches acted as a dam slowing the passage of the water. The Thames froze twenty-three times between 1620 and 1816, the year when it last froze downstream of Teddington, where the river becomes tidal. That final year of freezing, 1816, became known as the, ‘year without summer’ when London saw snow in June and July. This was a phenomenon experienced across the four compass points of the globe, which was caused by volcanic ash set high in the atmosphere, from an earlier massive explosion of a volcano in the East Indies.

The novelist Charles Dickens saw six white Christmases in the first nine years of his life, so it is hardly surprising that snow and all that comes with it, is so evocatively described in his works. Christmas cards first became fashionable in Victorian times and the snowy scenes depicted have continued through to those of the present day. Anyone wishing to recreate the joys of a typical snowy Christmas card scene, should head to Parliament Hill, Hampstead Heath or Greenwich Park for the opportunity for steep hill tobogganing and snowball rolling.

There is much pleasure to be had in watching the very young enjoying their first encounter with a London snowfall. Most Londoners hold onto memories of a particularly cold winter throughout their lives. For the old living today, it is the notoriously snowy winter of 1947, the next generation remembers well the winter of 1961. Londoners in their forties will talk of the London snows of 1981-1982 and those born later remember 1990-1991. The very youngest will hold relatively fresh memories of London blanketed in the white stuff from early winter of 2009. As I sit writing these words towards the end of that same year, through the window, here in London, I see white roofs and snowflakes falling.

Where to view video clips of Snow London and video clips of London

London in motion has some of the best London Stock Footage and London Library Footage with moving clips of many of the above mentioned places to see, are available to browse through by simply visiting the ‘Snow London’ category of this website. New additions of London video clips are being frequently uploaded and further categories will be appearing over the coming months.

Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Adam) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:28:00 +0000

CHRISTMAS

London at Christmas time is excellent for shopping, for festive attractions and many breathtaking activities for children, making the city a popular destination to visit for young and old alike. The city is adorned with lights, Christmas trees, mistletoe, nativity scenes and thousands dressed as Santa Claus many of whom can be seen out on the streets collecting for charities. There are many carol services and concerts and the peculiarly British form of popular theatre, known as pantomime.

Forty million shoppers visit the main shopping thoroughfares central London over the Christmas period and one in four are from abroad. The weakness of Sterling against the Euro currency has led to the number of visitors from Europe overtaking the number from the United States, who in previous years have accounted for half of the two billion pounds spent by foreign visitors in central London each year. Visitors are up fifteen per cent from the Middle East, likewise benefitting from the exchange rate. Oxford Street and Regent Street always have spectacular festive lights, with different themes each year. These Christmas lights are funded by the shops themselves and are famous across the four compass points of the world. The initial switching on ceremony is always a glitzy event attended by many celebrities and their fans.

Open air ice-skating beneath the stars continues through to January the twenty-fourth 2010 in the courtyard of Somerset House. It is one of London’s finest neoclassical buildings, right in the heart of central London, providing a beautiful backdrop for the skaters.

The Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park is an exciting day out with funfairs, grottos, Christmas markets, ice-skating, a German food market, Zippos Circus and a giant observation wheel offering fine views over the surroundings. Winter Wonderland continues until January the third 2010. Entry is free and tokens for the rides and the grotto can be purchased on the day of visiting. Tickets for ice-skating, the wheel and the circus must be purchased in advance. Information for this event and all the others mentioned in this article, are easily found on the Internet.

London’s New Year Day Parade starts at noon on January the First, setting off from Piccadilly and finishing around three in the afternoon on Parliament Street. This will be the twenty-fourth New Year’s Day Parade in the capital, with more than 10,000 performers from over twenty countries worldwide taking part. More than half a million people line the streets to see what is always a spectacular occasion. The event is broadcast across the globe allowing millions to see the marching bands, cheerleaders, clowns, acrobats, giant balloons, vintage vehicles and much else besides.

Church services and carol services take place at most of London’s hundreds of churches, including St Paul’s Cathedral. Also, there is a series of carol services held in Trafalgar Square, under the huge Christmas tree positioned there each year.

Children can meet Father Christmas in Santa’s Grotto at Harrods department store up until to Christmas Eve and there is also a grotto at Selfridges. Also very popular, The English National Ballet performs The Nutcracker at The London Coliseum until the twenty-fourth of January 2010. The Hackney Empire theatre performs an annual pantomime, a long standing tradition and this year Aladdin is their treat.

Where to view video clips of Christmas and video clips of London

London in motion has some of the best London Stock Footage and London Library Footage with moving clips of many of the above mentioned places to see, are available to browse through by simply visiting the ‘Christmas’ category of this website. New additions of London video clips are being frequently uploaded and further categories will be appearing over the coming months.

Nelson's Column

noreply@blogger.com (Adam) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 11:40:00 +0000

NELSON'S COLUMN

Nelson’s Column is positioned in the centre of London’s Trafalgar Square. The statue of Horatio Nelson stands on top of a Corinthian column, the base of which is surrounded by four alert lions, guarding this statue of a man widely considered to be one of the greatest sailors who ever lived. Trafalgar Square was laid out to commemorate the decisive victory over the combined fleets of the French and the Spanish at the Battle of Trafalgar off the South coast of Spain in 1805 with Nelson’s Column as the centrepiece.

The granite column itself is forty-six metres high and was designed by William Railton. It was built between 1840 and 1843, weighs 2500 metric tonnes and with a ninety-five per cent quartz content it has weathered extremely well. Nelson alone weighs sixteen tonnes. During restoration in 2006 the monument was discovered to be shorter than had previously been thought, it is exactly fifty metres from the base to the tip of the admiral’s hat. The restoration finally repaired Nelson’s arm, which had been damaged by lightning in 1896.

The statue was carved from sandstone by the Royal Academician E.H. Baily. Nelson is depicted three times larger than he was in real life. Nelson is shown looking towards The Admiralty buildings on Whitehall and beyond to distant Portsmouth where the Royal Navy flagship HMS Victory is docked. Nelson died aboard the vessel, which was painstakingly restored by Arthur Bugler and as a consequence it is open for the public to visit.

Facing out to the four compass points, the quartet of bas-reliefs at the base of the column were cast from the captured French cannon at The Battle Of Trafalgar. They depict the battle of Cape St Vincent, The Battle of Nice, the bombardment of Copenhagen and the death of Nelson. The four lions are by Sir Edwin Landseer and they were added after much delay in 1867.

Adolf Hitler boasted in 1940 that after he had successfully invaded England, he would transfer Nelson’s Column from Trafalgar Square to Berlin as an impressive way of underlining German victory as it represented, ‘A symbol of British naval might and world dominion.’

During his lifetime Admiral Lord Nelson lost one of his eyes and one of his arms. The statue shows the sailor as having one arm and two eyes. However, Nelson lost his eye before he lost his arm, so the sculptor should have carved the statue with either two eyes and two arms, one eye and two arms, one eye and one arm, but never as Nelson is actually shown, with two eyes and one arm.

Every year a Christmas tree is positioned to stand alongside the column in Trafalgar Square. A majestic Norwegian Spruce, around seventy feet tall, it is an annual gift from the Norwegians, to mark the support from the British people during the Second World War. For many Londoners the ceremony marks the start of Christmas. In 1996, when the fiftieth tree was presented, Queen Sonja of Norway said, ‘The star on the top is a reminder of what Britain did for us in a dark and difficult period of our history.’ The tree is traditionally one foot longer each year.

This year marks the sixty-third tree to come from the City Of Oslo and it is always decorated in traditional Norwegian style. The Trafalgar Square Christmas tree lighting up ceremony took place on Thursday 3rd December 2009. The tree will remain at Trafalgar Square until Tuesday 5th January 2010.

Carol singing takes place daily from 5pm - 9pm, starting on Monday 7th December and continuing until Sunday 20th December 2009. The carol services are free to attend.

Nelson’s Column is near to Charing Cross and Leicester Square Underground stations. Many bus routes pass through Trafalgar Square.

Where to view video clips of Nelson's Column and video clips of London

London in motion has some of the best London Stock Footage and London Library Footage with moving clips of many of the above mentioned places to see, are available to browse through by simply visiting the ‘Nelson's Column’ category of this website. New additions of London video clips are being frequently uploaded and further categories will be appearing over the coming months.

Marble Arch

noreply@blogger.com (Adam) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:34:00 +0000

MARBLE ARCH

The Marble Arch stands at the northeasterly corner of Hyde Park in central London. It is positioned at an ancient crossroads, where two Roman highways once crossed paths. Today, the arch is stranded within a huge traffic island, at the meeting point of Oxford Street, Park Lane, Bayswater Road and the Edgware Road. Being surrounded by busy lanes of fast moving vehicles, means that it is safest to gain access to the arch through the subterranean walkways, with entrances at four compass points. Once in the central reservation, the many benches, fountains and a grassed rose garden provide a popular resting point for local office workers and tourists alike, albeit with the incessant roar of the surrounding traffic.

The arch was designed by John Nash in 1828 and it is loosely based on the Arch Of Constantine in Rome. At one time Marble Arch stood outside of Buckingham Palace, as a gateway, but it was too narrow for the royal carriages to comfortably pass through. When the east front of Buckingham Palace was remodeled in 1851, the arch was brought to the present location to replace the Cumberland Gate as the north-easterly entry into Hyde Park. Only senior members of the Royal Family and 'The King's Troop', Royal Horse Artillery, can pass through the arch on ceremonial occasions. The King's Troop will cease to go through the arch when they are relocated from St John's Wood to Woolwich in 2012, some fifteen miles distant from where they carry out their ceremonial duties.

The arch has given its name to much of the surrounding residential and business locality. For those exploring the area, to the east is Oxford Street, offering a mile of shops and department stores, with many of the larger ones at the Marble Arch end. To the south, just inside Hyde Park is Speakers Corner, where many gather to rant and rave, perched on the proverbial soapbox, whilst others prefer to heckle. Park Lane, flanked with some of London's largest hotels, leads down to Hyde Park Corner. To the north is the cosmopolitan Edgware Road, with many noted Lebanese restaurants and shisha cafes. To the west is the Bayswater Road, where at number 10, can be seen the narrowest property in London. A few doors away is the Oranhaven, which was a famous refuge for Dutch soldiers during the second world war.

An important part of London's history took place very close to Marble Arch, although nowadays it is marked solely with a plaque set into a small traffic island. The plaque marks the site where the public hangings took place for seven hundred years. The first recorded hangings took place in 1196 and here they continued until 1783. The prisoners were hanged on the Tyburn Tree. Not a real tree, it was a three armed wooden construction and on each arm eight people could be hanged, twenty-foyr at any one time. On the nearby Bayswater Road is to be found the Shrine Of The Sacred Hearts And Tyburn Martyrs, where nuns pray for the souls of the victims of the Tyburn Tree to this very day.

Marble Arch is very occasionally open for the public to climb its interior, sometimes during 'Open House' weekend when many buildings not ordinarily accessible by the general public throw open their doors. Marble Arch is nearest the London Underground station of the same name. Many bus routes converge at this busy junction.

Where to view video clips of Marble Arch and video clips of London

London in motion has some of the best London Stock Footage and London Library Footage with moving clips of many of the above mentioned places to see, are available to browse through by simply visiting the ‘Marble Arch’ category of this website. New additions of London video clips are being frequently uploaded and further categories will be appearing over the coming months.

Lord Mayor's Show

noreply@blogger.com (Adam) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:54:00 +0000

THE LORD MAYOR’S SHOW

The Lord Mayor’s Show is always held on the second Saturday of November of each year. In 2009, Nick Anstee became the six hundred and eighty second Lord Mayor. The procession was hit by strong gales and driving rain, an occasional hazard for the time of year.

The Lord Mayor’s Show has been a part of London life for seven hundred and eighty-four years. It is a great day out for half a million people, with many millions more watching on television across the globe. Below is a brief history and description of the event, with details and timings given at the end. The first recorded Lord Mayor of The City Of London Henry Fitz-Ailwyn, in 1189. The seeds of The Lord Mayor’s Show were sown in 1191, during the prolonged absence of King Richard I, when a procession took place as he fought at the crusades. Over twenty years later in 1215, King John granted the people of The City Of London the right to choose their own Lord Mayor. There was an important condition attached, that every year the new Lord Mayor should swear loyalty to the crown. To this day, it is the procession from The City Of London to the City Of Westminster to swear allegiance and the return journey, that forms the centrepiece of The Lord Mayor’s Show.

The Lord Mayor’s Show has approximately 6,500 participants with around seventy colourful floats and music from over twenty bands. There are hundreds of eye-catching costumes and more troops than are on parade for the Trooping Of The Colour. Usually there is a thrilling fly past of military aircraft. The day ends with a splendid fireworks display from a barge on the Thames between Waterloo and Southwark Bridges.

The Lord Mayor’s Show has never been cancelled, with the procession marching on unscathed throughout the years of the Black Death, even during The Blitz of The Second World War and right through to the present day. With the advent of television in the twentieth century, The Lord Mayor’s Show was the first event ever to be broadcast live.

To this day Dick Whittington is, in the eyes of many, the most famous Lord Mayor of all, he held the office three times. His popularity is undiminished down the centuries, he was Lord Mayor in 1397, 1406 and 1419 and many Londoners would be hard pressed to name another Lord Mayor between then and now.

Originally, the journey was from The Mansion House to The Great Hall, inside The Palace Of Westminster where the oath of allegiance was sworn. Since 1883 the venue was changed to The Royal Courts Of Justice, still just inside the boundaries of The City Of Westminster. Over the years the occasion became more resplendent until the procession became known as ‘The Lord Mayor’s Show’.

The Lord Mayor always chooses the overall theme of the procession. The ‘great twelve livery companies’ participate in the procession by right, other livery companies participate by invitation and The Lord Mayor’s own livery company is always amongst them. The Lord Mayor usually invites pupils from his old school to participate and also any businesses he has been associated with through his earlier career. Certain army regiments attend by privilege and also have the right to march through The City Of London with fixed bayonets.

Certain streets of the route are unchanged over the centuries. If attending the spectacle, it is worth pausing to think that where you are standing, someone stood four hundred and fifty years ago, watching the novel and exotic sight of a camel on its way to parade beneath Queen Elizabeth The First.

In 1711, The Lord Mayor was knocked from his horse and broke his leg, all caused by a drunken flower girl and he gained the distinction of being last mayor to ride the route by horse. Thereafter they travelled by coach and in 1757 The State Coach was built in 1757. It is pulled by six horses, which, as a mark of respect, is two horses fewer than the eight horses that draw the monarch in The Gold Sate Coach. For most of the year it can be seen in The Museum Of London.

The term ‘float’, used when referring to carnivals and parades, derives from The Lord Mayor’s Show. The quickest route was often by boat and from 1422 until the mid nineteenth century, The Lord Mayor often travelled part of the journey in gilded barges. The decorative floats kept their name even when the occupants travelled on dry land and were transported by wheels.

The City Of London has had over eight hundred years of experience of civic government. The Lord Mayor is supported by aldermen, sheriffs, guildsmen and deputies. There are now one hundred and eight livery companies, which were established mostly between the twelfth and the sixteenth centuries. Today, The Lord Mayor is the head of The Corporation Of London, which is broadly speaking The City Of London’s local authority. Uniquely, it is a non-party political authority, whose responsibilities extend far beyond The City.

One of the main activities of The Corporation Of London is to support The City within the fields of international business and finance. The Lord Mayor’s job is crucial, travelling to the four compass points of the globe in an ambassadorial role, continually promoting the city along the way. Besides this, there is a year round daily schedule of civic and ceremonial duties. The City Of London is a vital contributor to the country’s coffers and The Lord Mayor is seen as both a symbol of stability and strength, representing and promoting its interests.

The Mansion House is the official residence of the Lord Mayor Of The City Of London. Built by George Dance The Senior in 1739, it is a Renaissance style edifice with an imposing Corinthian portico. Contained within the building is the vast Egyptian Hall, where banquets and feasts take place throughout the year, including the annual dinner at which the Chancellor Of The Exchequer makes a speech. The building contains a dungeon, with ten cells for men and one cell for women, called the ‘Birdcage’ where suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst was held. On the roof of the Mansion House flies The City Of London flag, consisting of the red cross of St George on a white background, with a dagger positioned in the top left hand corner. The Mansion House is occasionally open to the public.

The Lord Mayor’s Show usually begins with a Royal Air Force flypast at 11am, to mark the start of the Lord Mayor’s procession and the Lord Mayor begins his slow journey to The Royal Courts Of Justice. Grandstand seats can be booked for the spectacle. The return procession sets off from The Victoria Embankment to The Mansion House at around 1.10pm, arriving at 2.30pm. A fireworks display usually takes place at 5pm, but it is sometimes cancelled in extreme weather conditions. The display is lit from barges on the river Thames, situated between Waterloo and Southwark bridges.

Further details can be found at: www.lordmayorsshow.org

Where to view video clips of Lord Mayor's Show and video clips of London

London in motion has some of the best London Stock Footage and London Library Footage with moving clips of many of the above mentioned places to see, are available to browse through by simply visiting the ‘Lord Mayor's Show’ category of this website. New additions of London video clips are being frequently uploaded and further categories will be appearing over the coming months.

Big Ben

noreply@blogger.com (Adam) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:02:00 +0000

BIG BEN

One can never see Big Ben, one can only ever hear it. Big Ben is the name of the bell inside the clock tower at the northerly end of The Palace Of Westminster. The entire tower is commonly referred to as Big Ben and it is an iconic symbol of London recognizable the world over. Visitors to London often assume Big Ben to be considerably older than it is. At the other end of the Palace Of Westminster stands the immense Victoria Tower and the Houses Of Parliament and the Westminster Hall lie between the two.

The previous Palace Of Westminster burned down in 1834 and it was rebuilt in the 1840's and 1850's by Sir Charles Barry in the mock Gothic style that was fashionable in part of the Victorian era. Big Ben itself was built between 1854 and 1859 by Augustus Pugin, a masterful champion of medieval shapes, to whom Sir Charles Barry entrusted the project. When Pugin had watched the fire at the Palace Of Westminster in 1834 he uttered, “There is nothing much to regret and a great deal to rejoice in.” Little did he realise that he himself would play such a significant role in its rebuilding. Pugin was a great genius who ended up as an inmate of Bedlam lunatic asylum. Ironically, he despised beer and tobacco, both of which are copiously imbibed inside the Palace Of Westminster.

There are two schools of thought regarding the origins of the name Big Ben. The first is from Sir Benjamin Hall, who was the chief engineer of the project, who oversaw the positioning of the bell. Others suggest that it was from the workers in the foundry where the bell was cast who coined the name. They were said to be supporters of Benjamin Caunt, who was a popular prize fighter of the day, either way, the name quickly took on.

Big Ben weighs thirteen and a half Imperial tons. Big Ben is the world’s third tallest clock tower and has the world’s largest four faced chiming clock. The clock face has a diameter of seven metres. The minute hand is over two and a half metres long. The pendulum beats once every two seconds. Big Ben is still wound by hand and it takes two men thirty-two hours to wind the mechanism.

At the turn of the millennium, Big Ben started to lean, by a significant twenty-two millimetres, after new tunnelling for the Jubilee Line extension of the London Underground railway was completed. The only major breakdown suffered by Big Ben was in August of 1976, during what is recorded as the hottest summer on record in the United Kingdom, when the original speed regulator finally gave in. Again, during extremely hot weather in 2005, the rare occurrence of failing parts stopped the clock. Big Ben works fine in the cold, although on New Year’s Eve of 1962, settled snow on the hands meant that the chimes saw in the new year a full ten minutes late.

During the Second World War, the clock faces were darkened at night to prevent the possibility of guiding Blitz pilots towards The Palace Of Westminster. In the same war, the chimes of Big Ben were nightly broadcast out to the four compass points of the world at nine o’ clock. It naturally became a symbol to countless millions of people in occupied countries that there was still hope of deliverance. The clock is accurate to within a second and it is checked against Greenwich meantime on a daily basis. With such accuracy, its chimes continue to be broadcast on the World Service and other radio and television stations, usually to mark the start of news bulletins. Should you live one mile away from Big Ben, the sound of the chimes take four a half seconds to reach your ears, which is a fraction longer than hearing them on the radio news bulletin, meaning listeners have the peculiarity of hearing thirteen chimes.

Big Ben has a distinctively odd sounding twang because the bell is cracked. The first bell was badly broken when it fell during positioning. A second bell was cast and it was soon cracked when a hammer of twice the recommended weight was used to strike it. Rather than suffer the expenditure of casting a third bell, it was instead repaired and the striking position was altered, leading to its curious sound.

If looking up at Big Ben in darkness, check to see whether the signal light in the lantern towards the very top is lit. Whenever the House Of Commons is sitting at night, this distinctive light, known as The Ayrton Light, burns bright. As we see, Big Ben does far more than to simply show the time. Its worldwide familiarity is testament to Pugin’s mastery and the Palace Of Westminster’s historical importance. Splendid views of Big Ben are to be had from Westminster Bridge, Parliament Square and from The London Eye on the South Bank. Frequent Thames river tours take passengers directly past Big Ben. The nearest tube station (London Underground) is Westminster.

Where to view video clips of Big Ben and video clips of London

London in motion has some of the best London Stock Footage and London Library Footage with moving clips of many of the above mentioned places to see, are available to browse through by simply visiting the ‘Big Ben’ category of this website. New additions of London video clips are being frequently uploaded and further categories will be appearing over the coming months.

Serpentine

noreply@blogger.com (Adam) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:37:00 +0000

SERPENTINE

The Serpentine is an urban lake situated in central London's largest parkland. It marks the dividing point between Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. The surface area of the lake covers twenty-eight acres, or sixteen hectares. The name derives from its snake like shape. It is an artificial lake, landscaped in 1730 and it was one of the first manmade lakes deliberately intended to look natural. Before then, created bodies of water had been straight and angular and The Serpentine set a precedent, with its curving lines afterwards widely copied in estates across the country.

The history of The Serpentine begins with Caroline, the queen of George II, who was responsible for enclosing three hundred acres of Hyde Park to form Kensington Gardens. Enthused with the results, she inquired of the prime minister of the day how much it would cost to enclose the remainder of Hyde Park together with the neighboring Green Park and St James's Park, solely for royal use. The Prime Minister replied, "Three crowns, those of England, Scotland and Wales." The hint was taken and her landscaping was limited to the area from Kensington Palace to The Serpentine.

The Serpentine was formed from the river Westbourne, now surviving as one of London's many subterranean rivers. A small stretch of the hidden river Westbourne can be seen from one of the platforms of Sloane Square underground station, contained within a large pipe that traverses above the tracks and trains, on its journey towards the much larger river Thames. The Westbourne tributary formed eleven natural ponds in Hyde Park which were then enlarged to create The Serpentine.

The north-western half of lake is properly known as the Long Water and it is partly surrounded by the ornately laid out Italian Gardens, with the larger south-eastern area officially being The Serpentine. The divide between The Long Water and The Serpentine is at the point of the magnificent 1826 George Rennie bridge. The river still feeds four ornamental fountains in the Italian Gardens, thereby maintaining the water level of the lake, even during drought. The inflow of fresh water attracts wildfowl, arriving from the four compass points, many being winter visitors to the lake. Great Crested Grebes, Black Swans, Buzzards and Egyptian Geese have all been spotted in recent times.

Since its creation, The Serpentine has been actively used for recreational purposes, it has never been a purely ornamental feature. In Queen Caroline's lifetime it was popular for ice skating. Up until the 1850's twelve thousand people regularly swam in the lake. The lido remains open in the summer, with swimming between 10.30 a.m. and 5.30 p.m. At its deepest the lake is twelve metres. In the summer time there are over a hundred pedalos and row boats available for hire.

A longstanding tradition continues with a one hundred yards swimming competition held on Christmas Day of every year. The cold winter water is considered hazardous for those unaccustomed to it, so the competition is only open to members of The Serpentine Swimming Club. The event began in 1864 and after JM Barrie had awarded the prize to the winner in 1904, the contest was named, 'The Peter Pan Cup.' JM Barrie lived on the nearby Bayswater Road, the house is marked by a plaque and he wrote the story of Peter Pan whilst living there. On the shores of the lake stands a famous statue of Peter Pan, created by Sir George Frampton in 1912.

At only twenty-one, Harriet Westbrook, the pregnant wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley, walked the short distance from her lodgings to the park and was found drowned in The Serpentine in the winter of 1821. Curiously, her surname of Westbrook effectively means the same as Westbourne, the one being a regional variation of the other. Thirty years later in 1851, The Great Exhibition with its majestic centre piece of the Crystal Palace was held on parkland just to the south of The Serpentine.

To the south west of the lake is The Serpentine Art Gallery and a little further beyond is The Albert Memorial. The Princess Diana Memorial Fountain is also to the south. The Holocaust Memorial Gardens are located at the eastern shore of the lake, the gardens are poignantly marked by two large boulders with emotive inscriptions.

The Serpentine Bar and Kitchen is a popular restaurant bordering the lake. The Serpentine lake is situated between Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens with access by road from The Serpentine Road, London W2. Car parking is available. Underground Stations include Lancaster Gate and Bayswater to the north of the park and Hyde Park Corner and Knightsbridge to the south.

Where to view video clips of The Serpentine and video clips of London

London in motion has some of the best London Stock Footage and London Library Footage with moving clips of many of the above mentioned places to see, are available to browse through by simply visiting the ‘Serpentine’ category of this website. New additions of London video clips are being frequently uploaded and further categories will be appearing over the coming months.

Copyright: London In Motion 2009
Email: tom@londoninmotion.com

The London Eye

noreply@blogger.com (Adam) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:13:00 +0000

THE LONDON EYE

The London Eye is an observation wheel positioned on the south bank of the river Thames in central London. At the time of construction it was the largest wheel in the world. Now surpassed by The Singapore Flyer which is thirty metres higher but of a different design. The London Eye remains the worlds tallest cantilevered wheel. Its construction was a marvel of engineering, manufactured with a huge international effort involving hundreds of people.

When it was built, l remember seeing the barges, arriving from Rotterdam, slowly carrying the parts up stream. The wheel was assembled over the river, before being slowly hoisted into position in October of 1999. Weighing three hundred and thirty tonnes, it is twenty times heavier than Big Ben, which stands on the opposite bank. The spindle is the size of a church tower. The wheel travels at twenty-six centimeters per second, taking a full thirty minutes to complete a revolution. It moves slowly enough for passengers to hop on and off whilst in motion, only halting for the disabled or elderly.

Not strictly a ferris wheel, it is London's fourth tallest structure, offering views to the four compass points and up to twenty-five miles distant. It is possible to see Windsor Castle on a clear day when reaching the top, a full one hundred and thirty five metres up. There are thirty-two capsules, one for every London borough, each with a capacity of twenty-five passengers.

It is not the first wheel of size to be erected in London. In 1894 'The Great Wheel' was constructed at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre and only dismantled in 1907. The twenty minute journey turned out to be much longer for some passengers when on one occasion the wheel stuck and those aboard had to spend a whole night and half the following day in situ. The stranded people were given compensation of five pounds and five shillings, which was a sizable fee in those days. Such an occurrence is yet to befall The London Eye, which has been largely problem free, apart from early technicalities which delayed its opening by a few months. Since then, the attraction has been a terrific success, despite practitioners of the ancient Chinese tradition of Feng Shui predicting trouble, citing the wheel’s rotation in the opposite direction of the river's flow as being ‘energy blocking.’ Fortunately, the Feng Shui doom mongers had failed to take into consideration that at the location of The London Eye, the Thames is still strongly tidal, with many thousands of cubic metres per second of estuary water surging back up past the wheel, on a twice daily basis and in the same direction as the rotation.

The wheel cost twenty million pounds sterling to build and prior to opening it was expected have two million visitors a year. Extraordinarily, this was a conservative estimate, with three and half million visitors in the first year alone. From 2002 onwards the Euro currency was excepted as payment and by September of that year, the ten millionth flight had been recorded, rising to thirty million flights by 2008.

Originally, the attraction was given only a five year license by Lambeth Council. However, many pointed out that the Eiffel Tower in Paris was likewise intended as a temporary structure. Sure enough, by 2006, the popularity of The London Eye had secured a twenty-five lease. Attempts by the South Bank Centre, which owns the small patch of land beneath the wheel, to massively increase its rent from sixty four thousand pounds to two and a half million, were prevented by direct interference from City Hall and a more acceptable compromise was reached. This in part helped The London Eye to defy the 2008-2009 recession, by turning a record profit of almost five million pounds according to accounts filed in October 2009. Its finances were boosted by a surge of European visitors since the recession's drop in Sterling and The London Eye remains one of the world's top fifty tourist destinations. This is in terms of visitor numbers, coming in just behind The Statue Of Liberty and The Coliseum but ahead of the Taj Mahal and Versailles.

In late 2009 The London Eye was operated by Merlin Entertainments, having taken over from British Airways in 2005. There are a number of novelty packages on offer and it is possible to hire a whole capsule for themed occasions, including the aptly entitled 'Eye Do.' This offers private hire for civil partnership ceremonies and the capsule comes filled with flowers and champagne.

The London Eye opens at 10 am and closes at different times depending on the seasons of the year. In late 2009 the ride cost £17. Check precise opening times and prices with The London Eye. In previous years the attraction was closed during the month of January for maintenance. Contact The London Eye for the exact dates of closure.

Where to view video clips of The London Eye and video clips of London

London in motion has some of the best London Stock Footage and London Library Footage with moving clips of many of the above mentioned places to see, are available to browse through by simply visiting the ‘The London Eye’ category of this website. New additions of London video clips are being frequently uploaded and further categories will be appearing over the coming months.

Copyright: London In Motion 2009
Email: tom@londoninmotion.com

Eros

noreply@blogger.com (Adam) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:24:00 +0000

EROS

The statue commonly known as Eros stands in Piccadilly Circus, which is considered the Times Square of London. It is where six well known London streets meet and the name ‘Circus’ derives from the Latin word for circle or ring. When Eros was unveiled in 1893 it stood right in the centre of this circular junction. In the early 1980’s, Eros was moved slightly to the south and the traffic diverted to the north. This allowed pedestrian access right up to it, without first having to cross over busy lanes of traffic. It is said, should one pledge one’s love beneath Eros at midnight that their love will never fail.

Indeed, the Greeks worshipped Eros as a fertility deity and the god of sensual love, but in fact, the statue was intended by the sculptor to be Anteros, the twin brother of Eros, who was the god of selfless love. The reason being that the memorial was dedicated to the seventh Earl of Shaftsbury, a prominent nineteenth century philanthropist, who was a fine example of a human being who expressed selfless love and unconditional giving. The subtle difference between the twins was little understood at the time and the statue was widely assumed to be Eros. The authorities reckoned its, ‘brazen and impudent nakedness at the hub of empire to be too much’ and attempts were made to have the memorial known as ‘The Angel Of Christian Charity.’ Certainly, Anteros better suited the Earl of Shaftsbury, but the character of Eros was more fitting to the neighbourhood, with the seedier streets of Soho only a short walk away.

Eros is positioned up high in the centre of ‘The Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain.’ The fountain is of bronze, in contrast to Eros, which was the very first British statue to be made from aluminium. The aluminium is fragile and Eros is usually clad in protective boarding to prevent revellers climbing atop, at times of celebration in central London.

The sculptor Sir Alfred Gilbert was paid £3000 for his efforts but it cost him £7000 to make and he was well out of pocket. It is hardly surprising that he was soon afterwards bankrupted and he fled to Bruges. Gossip of the day told that he was exiled to Belgium because the statue was so despised by both the establishment and the critics alike. The statue was indeed largely disliked initially, but the rumours were untrue and only added to his misfortune. After twenty-five years he returned from Belgium to England and received an overdue knighthood only two years before he died.

Alfred Gilbert’s Eros is a universally familiar figure, much reproduced and photographs of it are in tourist albums across the four compass points of the world. A graphic illustration of Eros is used as the symbol for the London Evening Standard letterhead, the perfect icon for the capital’s newspaper. For many decades Eros has been a famous meeting point and it is said that it doesn’t matter who you are, or from where you have come, if you wait under Eros for long enough, you’ll eventually meet someone you know.

Eros

Piccadilly Circus

London W1

Where to view video clips of London

London In Motion has some of the best London Stock Footage and London Library Footage with moving clips of many of the above mentioned places to see, are available to browse through by simply visiting the ‘Eros’ category of this website. New additions of London video clips are being frequently uploaded and further categories will be appearing over the coming months.

Email: tom@londoninmotion.com

Waterloo Bridge

noreply@blogger.com (Adam) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 09:34:00 +0000

WATERLOO BRIDGE

The view from Waterloo Bridge is widely acknowledged as being the finest river view in the whole of Europe. The crossing is on a sweeping bend of the Thames and from the middle of the bridge, panoramic vistas across the four compass points together with many of central London’s most familiar landmarks rise up above the glistening water. Waterloo Bridge is one of the best spots to see the division between the two cities that made up old London. To the west of the bridge is the City Of Westminster with the Houses Of Parliament and to the east is the City Of London with St Paul's Cathedral and the tall buildings of the square mile.

Splendid sunrises from behind the docklands and glowing sunsets silhouetting the Palace Of Westminster draw tourists, photographers and romantics alike up onto the bridge and it is also a popular viewing platform for the occasional fireworks displays held on the river. There is space to accommodate thousands, as the pavements are broad and it is the longest bridge over the river Thames.

The current bridge is not the first crossing at this point, the earliest opened in 1817 as a toll bridge and during the planning stages it was intended to be known as 'Strand Bridge'. However, it was fated to open not long after the glorious victory over the Napoleonic forces at The Battle Of Waterloo. The 1817 bridge is familiar to many through artworks, as it was painted by Constable, several French Impressionists and many other artists of the day.

When London Bridge was rebuilt, the speed of the water flow of Thames increased, because the many wide arches of the old London Bridge had inadvertently acted as a dam. The faster river flow left the 1817 Waterloo Bridge unstable on its foundations. Sir Giles Gilbert Scott was commissioned to build a new bridge, which opened in 1944. Its construction coincided with the Second World War and the bridge was largely built by women, who willingly made themselves available as workforce. It is thought that this is the only bridge of it size so built in the world. It duly became known to many as ‘The Ladies Bridge’ through the latter half of the twentieth century.

The bridge was the platform for a well documented occurrence in cold war days when Georgi Markov, a Bulgarian dissident was murdered. The assassin jabbed a ricin tipped umbrella into his calf, whilst he waited at a bus stop on Waterloo Bridge. The bridge also provided the inspiration for the hugely successful Ray Davies song, 'Waterloo Sunset', about a romantic couple who walked up onto the bridge from the nearby Waterloo Underground Station.

To give an idea of the size of the Thames at this point, Waterloo Bridge covers an area of twenty acres, which is bigger than many rural English villages. The span of its arches fits proportionally against Somerset House, The Savoy Hotel, National Theatre and South Bank Centre which all surround the bridge.

A good way to enjoy the bridge is from the top deck of a bus and as you pass over, observing many of London’s greatest landmarks, think for a moment that you might well have been crossing Braine-l’Alleud Bridge. Braine-l'Alleud was the location where much of the fighting actually took place at the Battle of Waterloo. The name is such a mouthful to pronounce for a native English speaker, that the nearby Waterloo was chosen to mark the battle. It names the bridge, the station, many public houses and even a town, Waterlooville, in southern England.

Waterloo Bridge

London SE1

Northside: Temple, Embankment, Covent Garden Underground Stations

Southside: Waterloo Underground Station

Where to view video clips of London

London in motion has some of the best London Stock Footage and London Library Footage with moving clips of many of the above mentioned places to see, are available to browse through by simply visiting the ‘Waterloo Bridge’ category of this website. New additions of London video clips are being frequently uploaded and further categories will be appearing over the coming months.

Copyright: London In Motion 2009
Email: tom@londoninmotion.com

HMS Belfast

noreply@blogger.com (Adam) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 10:03:00 +0000

HMS BELFAST

HMS Belfast has permanent mooring on the river Thames, in the Pool of London, which is where many of the wharves were situated in the days when the Pool of London was the largest port in the world. The Pool of London is situated between London Bridge and Tower Bridge and the ship is berthed on the south side of the river. HMS Belfast is a decommissioned Royal Navy vessel, which now serves as a floating museum, an extension to The Imperial War Museum in Lambeth in south London. She is a ‘Southampton Class’ cruiser that was commissioned in 1938, launched on St Patrick’s Day from Belfast and finally taken out of service after the Korean War.

HMS Belfast was damaged early during the Second World War and subsequently spent much of the early war years in dry-dock in Scotland, undergoing repair. By 1943 she was back on the seas, supporting Arctic convoys and she supported the D-Day landings. The ship was the largest cruiser in the Royal Navy, with a company of eight hundred. She is now the only surviving example from the great fleets of big gun armoured warships built for the Royal Navy in the first half of the twentieth century.

The ship was only saved from the scrapyard through the hard work of a private trust set up by dedicated supporters and the vessel opened to the public on Trafalgar Day, 21^st October 1971, with special dispensation allowing the White Ensign to be flown. Inevitably, funds diminished and by 1978 The Imperial War Museum had taken control. The ship is notable for both her unusual arrangement of funnels and also the camouflage paint, which was added after she became a museum. Officially the pattern is called, ‘Admiralty Disruptive Camouflage Type 25’ which she wore between 1942 and 1944. In June 1999 HMS Belfast was taken to Portsmouth for a re-fit and a repair, towed by tugs on a rare excursion from The Pool of London.

The tour of the ship is separated into eight sectors and once on board, one can explore the seven decks, mobility is essential as there is very limited disabled access. The six-inch guns are prominent, pointed up high and directed at the London Gateway Services, eleven and a half miles away on the M1 motorway, the fullest extent of their range. Further up there are four inch guns which one can manoeuvre, often kids get inside and wind them up and down and point them to the four compass points and pretend to mount an offensive against the buildings of the banks of the Thames.

Almost the entire vessel is open to the public with many reconstructions showing the sailors at work. The officers mess, the sick bay, the engine rooms, admiral’s bridge and flag deck can all be seen. Many reconstructions show models of the officers going about their daily routines. The ship’s dentist is shown extracting a sailor’s tooth with plenty of unsettling drilling noises and elsewhere the ship’s surgeon operates on the stomach of an injured sailor. Looking carefully, one may even observe a stuffed ship’s cat eating a stuffed ship’s rat.

Parts of the ship can be hired for private functions. Opening times and prices shown below were correct in late 2009 but confirm with The Imperial War Museum before visiting.

HMS Belfast

Morgan’s Lane

Tooley Street

London SE1 2JH

Open Daily Mar-Oct 10am – 6pm

Open Daily Nov-Feb 10am – 5pm

Adults £10.70

Last entry an hour before closure, leave a full morning or an afternoon for your visit.

Where to view video clips of London

London in motion has some of the best London Stock Footage and London Library Footage with moving clips of many of the above mentioned places to see, are available to browse through by simply visiting the ‘HMS Belfast’ category of this website. New additions of London video clips are being frequently uploaded and further categories will be appearing over the coming months.

Copyright: London In Motion 2009
Email: tom@londoninmotion.com

The Trellick Tower

noreply@blogger.com (Adam) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 10:57:00 +0000

Whether departing by railway train from Paddington Station, driving above the streets on the Westway, or cycling alongside the Grand Union Canal, the Trellick Tower is one of the more prominent landmarks of north Kensington. It has been a much debated building since its construction forty years ago, often cited in heated debates over the merits of modernist architecture and initially, the building was unpopular with the public and even some architects of the era.

Opinions have changed over time and with the bridging of generations, its distinctive lines have become a fondly familiar feature of the neighbourhood. Building styles have changed and in our post-modernist period, the Trellick Tower is now seen as a reminder to a better example of sixties architecture. Drawn back in from the cold, the tower is now a fashionable place to live and the social housing waiting list is long. A far cry from its early years, when prospective tenants were allowed to decline council invitation to be housed there, due to the acute problems often associated with sink estate tower blocks.

The transformation from being a 1970’s ‘tower of terror’ was set on its wheels by controlling who entered the building. A concierge system and ‘entry intercom’ put paid to prostitutes and drug peddlers using the building's communal areas to ply their trade. Margaret Thatcher’s encouragement of home ownership led to up to one in ten apartments within the building now being in private ownership, with the largest ones selling for up to £470,000, at the peak of the last property boom.

The Trellick Tower was built between 1968 and 1972 by Hungarian born architect Erno Goldfinger. He had earlier built the similar Balfron Tower in east London and he even lived in his building for a couple of months. The experience enabled him to make many design improvements, mostly internally, with this second tower. He showed more concern for those living in such blocks than many of his contemporaries and after the completion of the Trellick Tower, Goldfinger anonymously asked a new tenant whether he could look around her apartment. Asking her what she thought of her new home, she spouted forth, in particular complaining for not having a proper broom cupboard, not knowing until much later his true identity. Unusually for the period, Goldfinger insisted that the building should have double glazed windows. The high level of finish is no doubt a major reason for the tower having in 1998 been awarded protected building status with a ‘Grade II Star’ listing.

Part of the Trellick Tower’s distinctive appearance arises from a separate lift shaft with walkways connecting to the main building. High up, a boiler house cantilevered out above the lifts, with oil-fired boilers to provide central heating for all the apartments. There were early problems with the system, which compounded by the 1973 oil crisis not long after the building opened, meant that the boiler house was almost immediately redundant. The boiler house lies empty and applications to turn it into a private penthouse apartment were apparently refused.

Two hundred and seventeen flats are spread over thirty-one floors, above which there are marvellous views to the four compass points from the building’s roof and when walking up there, it is apparent how little land surface space the building takes up, considerably raising the local population density per square foot. An urban skydiver once fell to his death from the roof when his parachute failed to open and the building has sadly seen a number of distressed souls who have deliberately jumped without ‘chutes.

Erno Goldfinger provided the name for James Bond’s villainous adversary. Ian Fleming’s book, published in 1959, irked the architect so much that he threatened legal action, eventually deciding not to sue after the publishers agreed to pay his preliminary costs, throwing in six free copies of the book. Suggestions that Fleming had been an objector to Goldfinger’s demolishment of several cottages in Hampstead to build himself a self-designed house, as being the reason for the choice of name for the villain are probably peripheral. Indeed, Fleming often used the names of his acquaintances, apparently in his day the membership list of Boodle’s, Fleming's St James’s club, read like an index of Bond characters.

Perhaps not worth a visit on its own, but after a stroll through the Portobello Road on a market day, head northwards to the Golborne Road with its popular cafes and junk shops and you’ll be nearing the Trellick Tower. Don’t bother asking where it is, simply look upwards.

The Trellick Tower
5 Golborne Road
London
W10 5PL

Where to view video clips of Trelick Tower and video clips of London

London in motion has some of the best London Stock Footage and London Library Footage with moving clips of many of the above mentioned places to see, are available to browse through by simply visiting the ‘Trellick Tower’ category of this website. New additions of London video clips are being frequently uploaded and further categories will be appearing over the coming months.

Copyright: London In Motion 2009
Email: tom@londoninmotion.com

The BT Tower

noreply@blogger.com (Adam) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:20:00 +0000

The BT Tower

Located in the heart of Fitzrovia, there are no other very tall buildings in its proximity, allowing the narrow cylindrical shape to be easily identifiable from miles afar. Curiously, until 1992, the building didn’t officially exist, not even appearing on Ordnance Survey maps, for ludicrously inspired security reasons, despite the BT Tower being a very prominent London landmark. Even taking or possessing photographs of the tower was an offense under the `Official Secrets’ Act. In the early years of the twenty-first century, the tower was given Grade II ‘listed building’ status, meaning that besides the main structure, even the obsolete antennae may never be removed as they are now officially protected.

The tower was commissioned by the General Post Office for modernising telecommunications traffic and it was duly named the Post Office Tower. Typically modernist in style, it was constructed between 1961 and 1965 and officially opened to the public by Billy Butlin and Tony Benn in May of 1966. In the lead up to privatisation of the GPO, the building was renamed the British Telecom Tower, which by 1992 had been condensed to the BT Tower.

The height of the tower varies with the weather, it can be up to 23 centimetres shorter in winter, but it is generally considered to be 620 feet high, or 189 metres and it remained the tallest building in London until the construction of the Nat-West Tower (now called Tower 42) in 1981. Travelling at 22 km/h, it is full thirty second ride to the top in the elevators. It is the only tower in the United Kingdom that may be evacuated in emergencies by elevators, special parliamentary legislation was required for this allowance.

Towards the top, a revolving restaurant offered diners panoramic views of the capital, completing the four compass points every twenty-two minutes. Unsettling creaking sounds were suspected by some to be a deliberate ploy to encourage diners to order more wine to calm nerves. The restaurant was closed in 1980 for security reasons, some years after a terrorist bomb exploded in the men’s lavatory. Besides the communications equipment and restaurant, there was a souvenir shop and office space. Currently, there is no public access to the building.

The BT Tower

60 Cleveland Street, Fitzrovia, London W1

Where to view video clips of London

London in motion has some of the best London Stock Footage and London Library Footage with moving clips of many of the above mentioned places to see, are available to browse through by simply visiting the ‘BT Tower’ category of this website. New additions of London video clips are being frequently uploaded and further categories will be appearing over the coming months.

Copyright: London In Motion 2009
Email: tom@londoninmotion.com

Hyde Park Corner

noreply@blogger.com (Adam) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 10:06:00 +0000

HYDE PARK CORNER

Have a look at the video clips of hyde park corner on londoninmotion.com

Hyde Park Corner is better known as one of the largest roundabouts in London, where several of the capital’s busiest roads meet, bringing traffic from the four compass points together in a mêlée of noise, fumes and motion. In the earlier days of the motor vehicle Hyde Park Corner was, indeed, the busiest roundabout in the world. Finding a gap to pull out into the traffic puts fear into the inexperienced driver and should one ask any cyclist who has braved its lanes of traffic, a hair-raising story usually unfolds.

It is a shame then, that of the tens of thousands of vehicles that traverse Hyde Park Corner on a daily basis, the drivers are so focused on negotiating their route through, that they are mostly blind to the many buildings, memorials and statues of interest that occupy both the centre of the roundabout and the surrounding area.

Better then, to explore Hyde Park Corner on foot and subterranean walkways link the traffic island with the surrounding roads. The walkways have tiled illustrations detailing the military campaigns of The Duke Of Wellington and on choosing the correct exit, the visitor surfaces at Apsley House, on the northerly side of the roundabout.

Long before the asphalt was laid, a house was built at the south- easterly corner of Hyde Park and was given the distinguished address of, ‘Number One, London.’ This dated to when a tollgate once stood a short way to the west and this was the first property to be encountered after passing through the toll. It is also known as Apsley House, after The Baron Apsley, who built the house in 1771. The most famous resident of Apsley House was The Duke Of Wellington and his descendents still occupy the part of the building which has not been given over to The Wellington Museum.

Apsley House was used for entertaining on a grand scale and a visit to The Wellington Museum reveals the Waterloo Room, where celebratory victory banquets were held. Elsewhere, dinner services are displayed, one presented by the Prussians another by the Portuguese. A third dinner service to be seen, was a divorce present from Napoleon to the Empress Josephine, but she rejected it and it came to be exhibited in the museum.

The Duke Of Wellington gained his nickname, ‘The Iron Duke’ through the iron bars he placed in front of the windows to protect him from angry crowds during an episode of unpopularity he suffered when he was Prime Minister. The only parts of these fortifications to remain are the gates and railings at the front and sides of the house.

In 1828 a Corinthian Portico was added to the front of the house, which faces the equestrian statue of The Duke Of Wellington, mounted on Copenhagen, his favourite horse, which was given a full military burial when it died. The Duke was in the unusual and privileged position of seeing his own statue unveiled during his lifetime. Known as The Duke Of Wellington Memorial, it was erected late, when much of the memory of the glory of the campaigns was fading.

Behind the equestrian statue of the Duke, in the very centre of the huge traffic island of Hyde Park Corner is The Wellington Arch. It was designed by Decimus Burton in 1828 and it is surmounted by the statue of Peace, descending into her quadriga, surrounded by four horses. This addition was positioned in 1912 to commemorate the reign of King Edward The Eighth and it is the largest bronze sculpture in England. Previously, there had been a statue of The Duke Of Wellington in its place, but deemed to be too ugly, it was removed to Aldershot, the home of the British Army.

Others know The Wellington Arch as The Constitution Arch, so called for the simple reason that King Charles The First took his constitutional walks in the area. The United Kingdom has no written constitution, something it shares with only a handful of countries across the globe. The arch once housed the smallest police station in London, which closed in 1975. At certain times, the arch is open to the public and one can climb to the spectators viewing platform at the top, with views over the high wall at the southerly reach of the roundabout, into the gardens of Buckingham Palace.

Off Hyde Park Corner to the east, lies the long straight avenue of Constitution Hill, which gently descends with Green Park, the smallest of central London’s grand parks, to the north and the high wall shielding the gardens of Buckingham Palace to the south. When observing the height of the wall, it is hard to believe that two young Germans successfully scaled the wall in the last years of the twentieth century and set up a tent in the Queen’s garden. They were only discovered after they had enjoyed a good night’s sleep, believing themselves to be in Hyde Park. Constitution Hill leads towards the entry gates of Buckingham Palace and whilst enjoying the stroll down, lend a thought to the number of assassination attempts made on the life of Queen Victoria, in the 1840’s, one of which took place as her carriage passed along Constitution Hill. Two of the would-be assassins were deemed lunatics. The man who made the second attempt was condemned to death by hanging from the neck until he was dead. Queen Victoria commuted the sentence and he was instead exiled to Tasmania. A few years later in 1850, Sir Robert Peel, the founder of the modern police force, was thrown from his horse and killed whilst riding on Constitution Hill after having made a call at Buckingham Palace.

It is along Constitution Hill that the horse guards approach and depart when the guard changes at Horseguards Parade, located between Whitehall and St James’s Park. The mounted troopers return along The Mall, past Buckingham Palace and onto Constitution Hill, then pass alongside the Constitution Arch, (never directly under it,) cross the busy road and pass through The Screen Gate, just to the west of Apsley House, before entering Hyde Park and heading back to the Knightsbridge Barracks. The Screen Gate was designed by Decimus Burton in 1828 and it marks the formal entrance into Hyde Park. Along the top, can be seen a reproduction of the Parthenon Frieze. The Horseguards consist of The Blues and Royals and The Life Guards and the troopers can be seen passing Hyde Park Corner at a certain point during the hour before and the hour after the guard change. They also pass by at many other important ceremonial occasions, such as the Trooping Of The Colour in June of each year.

Grosvenor Place is another road leading off Hyde Park Corner, heading southeast and linking to the Grosvenor Gardens and Victoria Railway Station beyond. To the west of this busy thoroughfare are the quieter streets of Belgravia with vast, white stuccoed houses, many housing foreign embassies and esteemed institutions.

Standing between Grosvenor Crescent and Knightsbridge on the western side of the roundabout is the Lanesborough Hotel, opened in 1992 and regarded as one of London’s smartest and certainly most expensive. In late 2009 the hotel’s ‘Royal Suite’ cost £7500 a night. It is housed in the former St George’s Hospital, now decamped to new, larger buildings in Tooting, in southwest London. It was in Lanesborough House, the former hospital, where Doctor Gray did much research for the writing of his still relevant, ‘Gray’s Academy.’

The Lanesborough Hotel looks directly across to The Royal Artillery War Memorial, just inside the roundabout. The bronze figures of First World War ‘Tommy’s’, are carefully depicted as sombre men and it is immediately apparent that this memorial does not display war as being in the slightest bit glamorous. Created by C.S.Jagger, he had fought and survived the war and he was clearly perfectly positioned to draw on his experiences to produce this emotive memorial.

Within the roundabout at the north-easterly end, The Machine Gun Corps Memorial commemorates those who fell in the Great War. It is topped by a statue of a young David, proudly naked, but facing away from the thousands of cars that roar past it on an hourly basis. Behind the traffic is the Four Seasons Hotel, currently undergoing a total renovation and due to re-open in 2010.

On the opposite side to David is another memorial, its contemporary nature betraying that it was constructed as late as 2003, dedicated to those Australians who lost their lives in both The First World War and The Second World War. It lists the names of all the towns in which those who died were born. The two hundred tonnes of granite were brought over from Western Australia and the low curves of the memorial sit comfortably at the south-westerly corner of the roundabout.

More recently still, the New Zealand War Memorial was constructed in 2007 and made up of sixteen large bronze standards, all set into the ground and pointing southwards. It is likely to provide a focus point for Anzac Day and Waitangi Day celebrations for New Zealanders living in London.

This is intended as a brief introduction to the area of Hyde Park Corner, which barely covers one grid square on a page in the AZ Street Atlas of London. Nevertheless, there is clearly enough to see and do to keep one busy for a long morning or afternoon.

Travel

Hyde Park Corner is one of the very best locations for bus services in London, with more than a dozen routes passing through. It is also directly served by an Underground (Tube) station, of the same name.

Food

The London branch of The Hard Rock Café is at the Hyde Park Corner end of Piccadilly, at 150 Old Park Lane, where they do actually serve food as well as sell T-shirts. It was the first branch of the franchise in the world opening in 1971 and traditionally, on the fourteenth of June each year, to celebrate the anniversary, food prices are returned to those from the original menu, just for the day. The rock memorabilia museum at the restaurant is worth a visit and Eric Clapton’s Lead II Fender guitar, originally donated to reserve a seat at the bar, is still to be seen.

Alternatively, on the other side of Hyde Park Corner, at 11 Knightsbridge, is Pizza on The Park, where jazz musicians frequently play live. Details are shown on the restaurant website.

Traditional English afternoon teas can be enjoyed at The Lanesborough Hotel, in the Apsley’s restaurant, between 3.30 and 6.30 pm. Select from teas often purchased at auction and enjoy scones with thick clotted cream, prices start from over thirty pounds.

Opening times for The Wellington Museum: 1st Apr-31 Oct: Wed-Sun and Bank Holidays 11:00-17:00, 1 Nov-31 Mar: Wed-Sun 11:00-16:00. Closed: Mon, Tues and 24-26 Dec, and 1 Jan. Opening times and admission prices are subject to change each year from 1 Apr.
Opening times for The Constitutional Arch / The Wellington Arch: 1^st Apr-1 Nov: Wed-Sun and Bank Holidays 10:00-5:00, 2 Nov-31 Mar Wed-Sun10:00-16:00. Closed: 24-26 Dec and 1 Jan. Opening times and admission prices are subject to change each year from 1 Apr.
Check with venues for confirmation of the above information before visiting.

Where to view video clips of Hyde Park Corner and video clips of London

London in motion has some of the best London Stock Footage and London Library Footage with moving clips of many of the above mentioned places to see, are available to browse through by simply visiting the ‘Hyde Park Corner’ category of this website. New additions of London video clips are being frequently uploaded and further categories will be appearing over the coming months.

Email: tom@londoninmotion.com