Gherkin Sneaks Up on You

London, UK - elaine - Monday, January 8th, 2007 : goo

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what you might not realise about london is that the City is different from london as a whole - it's the bit that was inside the roman wall, well, still is, though the wall is a bit crumbled away now, being as it is 2000 years old.
in 1666 the 'great fire of london' burned down pretty much everything except st paul's. this gave london the opportunity to impose a grid plan instead of the tiny wriggly streets that had grown up since the middle ages. but no, people didn't want it, they wanted their own old plots back, and to rebuild and get on with their lives. it is now the financial district, and unlike any sensible area with high buildings, it is still on the old street plan. hence you get the squished in weirdness demonstrated here, from the lloyds building -

also, an insane amount of antiquey old churches exist in the city, as well they might as those who work there may have plenty to pray about. so you get a lot of this kind of juxtaposition -

the church is called st andrews undershaft, for what reason i know not.

oddly, on a personal note, i have been spending a fair bit of time in the city in a way in which i have hardly been doing at home. this is because lurve takes me to the country and so nothing to photograph for you there. fields, mainly. but i come back to town mainly to go to hospital appointments, usually at barts, which is in the City. i enjoy wandering around there, for coincidental reasons it's been a while, so i feel a bit of a tourist.

anyway, you may have noticed my lack of posts lately. partly this has been because of lack of city to post noise thereof. i have been writing a bit in my livejournal, feel free to have a look if you can be bothered. it's mainly writing, i warn you.

elaine4queen.livejournal.com

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colavitos ghost: in front of shaft is more like it!!!

Peter: huh. i didnt know that, jack. interesting.

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