A Stroll through London

One day I decided to walk from Westminster up to Bayswater through three of London's parks, A short stroll, I thought!  It took three hours on a quite warm day.

 After leaving Westminster I walked a little way along Birdcage Walk to St James's Park Lake

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._James%27s_Park

 Where there were Pelicans as well as ducks and swans

 Past Duck Island Cottage

 To the Mall

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mall,_London

 and thence to Buckingham Palace

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckingham_Palace

 I then walked through Green Park towards Hyde Park towards the Wellington Arch on Hyde Park Corner.  The Wellington Arch is named after Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellington_Arch

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Wellesley,_1st_Duke_of_Wellington

 Apsley House, the London Townhouse of the Dukes of Wellington, is nearby.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apsley_House

 The Equestrian statue to the Duke of Wellington is between the Arch and the House.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equestrian_statue

 From there I walked int Hyde Park and along the Banks of the Serpentine, a lake in the Middle of the Park towards Bayswater

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyde_Park,_London

 Along the way I met this fearless Squirrel who appeared to be begging for food!  It was certainly not afraid of me and waited patiently for me to take a photo.

 Looking towards Bayswater Road and Lancaster Gate

 An Italian Garden at the head of the Serpentine

 As I mentioned before I worked in the British Civil Service from 1967 to 1970.  In those years I lived in a hostel for young civil servants in Leinster Gardens.

 The Hostel.  I think that it is either a Hotel or apartments now

 My local pub in those days, the Leinster Arms.  It looks a lot more salubrious today!

Queensway, not far from Leinster Gardens looking towards Bayswater Tube Station and the Barclays Bank I used to frequent.

On another day I took a river trip down the Thames from Westminster Pier to Hampton Court

We passed the famous Battersea Power Station, immortalised on the Cover of the Pink Floyd Album Animals which featured a large pink pig floating over the building.  It is now closed and is being redeveloped.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battersea_Power_Station
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHIqfArjyt8

A little further upstream we passed the London Peace Pagoda in Battersea Park

a lifeboat sped past us near Kew

The Thames at Kew.  The tide was out at this point so the water levels were very low.  When we came back upstream the tide was in and it was an exceptionally high tide!

All that is left of the historic Royal Palace in Kew Gardens, Home of King George II and King George III.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kew_Palace

Heading towards the first lock Richmond.  When we returned, the sluice gates were lifted and we were able to bypass the Lock

In the lock

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richmond_Lock_and_Footbridge

Richmond.  When we returned the terraces in front of the pubs were under water
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richmond,_London

The Royal Star and Garter Home in Richmond
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Star_and_Garter_Home,_Richmond

Approaching the famous Eel Pie Island.  There was a pub here which was renowned as a venue for the emerging Rhythm and Blues Groups and artists of the Mid 1960s, such as The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds and Pink Floyd
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eel_Pie_Island

Scullers on the river

One of the many surviving boats that participated in the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940

In Teddington Lock.  Teddington is the furthest limit of tidal activity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teddington_Lock

Swans on the river at Teddington
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_Upping

A Thames barge at Teddington
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thames_sailing_barge

Hampton Court Palace, Home of Cardinal Wolsey and the Tudor Monarchs.  It is still a Royal Palace.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hampton_Court_Palace

Rowers and a tourist ferry on the Thames at Hampton Court

The ferry which I travelled on

Back at Richmond at the High tide

Motorists trying to get to their flooded cars

two views of Syon Park between Kew and Richmond, the London Home of the Dukes of Northumberland.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syon_House

A Week In London

 Last week I  was in London mainly to  undertake family research at the British National Archives in Kew and to visit the North West Kent Family History Society.  But I visited other sights in London as well!  This is the Archives building which is close to Kew Gardens

 The old Royal Naval College in Greenwich

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Royal_Naval_College

 The National Maritime Museum at Greenwich - just behind the old Naval College

http://www.rmg.co.uk/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Maritime_Museum

Both these buildings are built on the site of King Henry VIII's Royal Palace

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Placentia

The Cutty Sark at Greenwich - Now a museum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutty_Sark

Some Schooners moored off the Old Naval College, Greenwich near the Cutty Sark, at the end of the Tall Ships race from Falmouth to Greenwich this August/September

The Dar Mlodziezy, a Polish Sail Training Ship that I looked around in Falmouth, moored in the Thames near Greenwich

A Schooner coming up river under motor power with the Millennium Stadium built for the 2012 London Olympic Games in the background.

The rest of the fleet tied up near the Millenium Stadium

Deptford is an old port town situated next to Greenwich, historically part of the County Of Kent.
It was home to Sir Francis Drake and it is where he started his seagoing career and he was knighted on the decks of his ship, the Golden Hind on his return from his circumnavigation of the world in 1581.  It was heavily bombed in the 2nd World War and there are not many buildings that survive from before that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deptford
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deptford

I have traced my Lillie ancestors to one Adam Lillie, a Baker who was resident in Deptford by 1808.  The Deptford he knew has largely disappeared, but the Parish Church that served his family through the 19th and early 20th century survives

Two views of the Church of St Paul's in Deptford, completed in 1730

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Paul%27s,_Deptford

Adam Lillie was married twice.  His first marriage was to Anne Pearce, a widow, in 1793 in the church of St Giles, Clerkenwell, pictured above.  The church was completed in 1792.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_James%27s_Church,_Clerkenwell

Adam married for a second time to Elizabeth Matthews in St Giles Church, Camberwell in 1808.  The picture of the current church is not the one he was married in.  That church was destroyed by fire in 1841.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Giles%27_Church,_Camberwell

A squirrel feeding in a tree in the churchyard at St Giles

 Tower Bridge near the Tower Of London
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_Bridge

 Tower bridge and the walls of the Tower Of London

 The field of ceramic poppies surrounding the Tower of London commemorating the many people who died on the battlefields of the Great War on this hundredth anniversary of the start of the war.
http://www.britishlegion.org.uk/remembrance/ww1-centenary/poppies-in-the-moat

 The White Tower - the Norman Keep
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_London
http://www.hrp.org.uk/TowerOfLondon/

HMS Belfast, a Cruiser built in 1938, and now museum moored in the Thames close to Tower Bridge and the Tower Of London
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Belfast_%28C35%29
http://www.iwm.org.uk/history/8-things-you-didnt-know-about-hms-belfast-and-d-day

St Paul's Cathedral

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Paul%27s_Cathedral

Trafalgar Square
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trafalgar_Square

 Piccadilly Circus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piccadilly_Circus

 A Horse Guard in Whitehall

Looking up and down Whitehall

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitehall

The Ministry of Defence in Whitehall

In 1967, as a humble clerical assistant I worked in the Ministry Of Defence.  It was my first proper job and I entered through this door

The office I worked in was the first ground floor window from the right.  Who knows what might have happened if I had stuck with that job!

 Downing Street is just across Whitehall and the home of the British Prime Minister at Number 10.  The crowd is the closest one can get to that house these days!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downing_Street

The Palace of Westminster (and Big Ben), the home of  the British Parliament which consists of the House of Commons and the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

http://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/building/palace/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Westminster

A statue of Oliver Cromwell outside the Parliament.  He was the Lord Protector of England from the time of the deposing of King Charles I to the restoration of the Monarchy with the coronation of King Charles II
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Cromwell
http://www.olivercromwell.org/

Three Views of Westminster Abbey just near the Palace of Westminster

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westminster_Abbey

http://www.westminster-abbey.org/our-history

This update has taken me rather longer than I thought, so I will publish this part now.  Stay tuned for my Thames River cruise to Hampton Court Palace and my stroll through three parks - St James Park, Green Park and Hyde Park.