Saturday 4 February 2012

Leonardo in London Part 2: Gower St to Regent St



Welcome to my wee photoblog on Glasgow, where we feature the  joys and unjoys of walking and cycling through a fascinating, beautiful and often badly run city.

This is Part 2 of Leonardo in London.  For Part 1 see

Leonardo Part 1: Glasgow Central to the London Eye

http://glasgowalbum.blogspot.com/2012/02/leonardo-part-1-glasgow-central-to.html 


Our window hotel view

And so we bid farewell to the Academy. Today we are going to walk to Hamleys in Regent St,  then back up to this manor for the Foundling Hospital, then the 4.30 to Glasgow central at Euston

Looking up Gower St

looking down Gower St

Looking east along Store St at University of London

 We are heading down Store St  to Tottenham Court Rd

Rubbish pic of a fine antiquarian bookshop. See http://www.treadwells-london.com/

We stop for coffee in Cafe Paradiso - excellent coffee. What a civilised street this is.

Looking back; Cafe Paradiso under awning on right

Looking west

A quiet morning in Store St

Looking into Alfred Place

South Crescent with the acclaimed Imagination Gallery; describes itself as a 'teflon-coated structure'. I know people like that.





Now in Tottenham Court Rd. Great building that house of the Rising Sun

Tottenham Court Rd is a favourite muggle haunt, as is Charing Cross Rd, where we are headed. See

http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Tottenham_Court_Road

Ron: "Where are we?"
Hermione: "Tottenham Court Road. Walk, just walk, we need to find somewhere for you to change."

- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Harry. Ron and Hermione are traced by death eaters (disguised as muggles) to a cafe along here

Ah Waitrose. Before the Byres Rd branch opened, when visiting London I would bring back food from the Bloomsbury Waitrose like a brave hunter-gatherer





Fair amount of 'To Let' signs about but not as many as central Glasgow. See
http://glasgowalbum.blogspot.com/2011/12/ghostworld-glasgow-christmas-2011.html

The London Eye down there. . .

. . . and there  is the capsule we were in yesterday -  at the top behind the empty one

Now coming on to Oxford St (on right), New Oxford St (on left). We are going straight on, to Charing Cross Rd





Ambulance haring somewhere


It's very windy



Looking back







Upgrade details for the curious

Now in Charing Cross Rd



Denmark St on left; let's have a look. We had planned to go to the 12 Bar Club here last night to see the wonderful Catherine Paver,  but of course the weather stopped us. Here is Catherine's site -
http://paversongs.com/about-us.html


We hear another ambulance behind us in Charing Cross Rd




I spent the night in a doorway in Denmark St when I came to London in 1965; can't mind which one. I remember some graffiti about Goldie and the Gingerbreads. If you want to know  what the 60s were like - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsoXZMuoUp4



















Keep on Rocking guys


Back in Charing Cross Rd




Never been in that bookshop

Looking back at Tottenham Court Rd end

Great Foyles: have been at a couple of book launches here







Looking back

Another ambulance


The Mousetrap; I am four years older

Noted snuff shop








Any Amount of Books, described recently by the Times Literary Supplement as the best 2nd-hand bookshop in London - I agree, wonderful place.

The owner - Nigel  Burwood - does one of the best book sites on the web; see

http://www.bookride.com/


I buy the book ninth from the top left: Edwin, the Boy Outlaw. And a Jacqueline Wilson.

Note sign top right: NO HIPPIES ALLOWED



HMMMM

Small businesses in this area are constantly under threat from  rising rents. see
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jan/18/in-praise-of-gabys-deli



We're going to pop over and head down through Leicester Square




They have Leonardo tickets - feart to ask how much












Renovation





M&M's World on our right . The biggest 'candy store' in  the world apparently. See
http://worldchocolateguide.com/shop/mms-world/london/




Abandon all teeth ye who enter here




Looking back

Now in Shaftesbury Avenue - the Trocadero there


We are heading down to Piccadily Circus

Looking back









Ripley's Believe it or not - i think that is the tallest man but he looks like an elongated T S Eliot

We are heading over to Regent St in Part 3





END OF PART TWO


2 comments:

  1. Great lens work Edwin. A year later I find it and there's my shop Any Amount of Books and so many familiar sites. Big discount next time you come by! Nigel

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Nigel - I seem to be engaged in an exercise to map out my peregrinations in a story by Iain Sinclair! After a while everything becomes a historical document. When I took pics of the Schipka Pass in the Gallowgate I thought a dustcart was the most interesting thing in frame, but it was the old houses behind that were the real matter -


    http://glasgowalbum.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/schipka-pass-down-and-walk-through.html

    burned down in one of many of Glasgow's convenient fires removing inconvenient buildings.

    I am proud to be a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles. Some day the trifles become significant.

    In the next of the London posts


    http://browse.feedreader.com/c/A_Glasgow_Album/18731422

    we go through Regent St, where the Cafe Royal used to be. I was there after the dedication of the Oscar Wilde window at Westminster Abbey. From the post -


    I was only in the Cafe Royal once, on 14 February 1995, the day of the unveiling of the memorial to Oscar in Westminster Abbey; a minibus took us from the Abbey to here. Lilies were laid under the Abbey window by Oscar's daughter-in-law, Thelma Holland, who died a few weeks later. Bones and silence.


    Wish I had taken pics in the Cafe Royal - even 1995 is receding into antiquity.

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