Walthamstow. Thurs-Fri 27-28th Jan. All day.

No walking the rest of the week. Worked from home, didn't stop for lunch, didn't leave house. Just wrote about Star Wars.

Temple Church. Wed 26th Jan. 1.12pm.

Walking with Ben, an education. Temple Church magically open, an organ recital about to start (at 1.15pm!). Gargoyles caught my eye. Then we bought tea from taxi rank caff and looked at over-sized drain covers that are thought to be entrances to the secret network of underground tunnels that crisscross central London.

Also first time I ever heard of the existence of an underground tramway that used to run between Kingsway by Holborn and Waterloo Bridge. But here it is:

Apple Store, Covent Garden. Tues 25th Jan. 10.15pm.

After drinks with the publishers. Apple Store, closed for the night, but all lights and screens on, wasting electricity.


Same view at 9.30 am the next morning.

Broad Court, WC2. Monday 24th Jan. Lunchtime.

I often walk past this lovely little hotel in a pedestrianized street lined with Victorian gas lamps and imagine that if I were in London on business I would stay here. I like the look of it. It's named after the writer Henry Fielding and is opposite the Royal Opera House. I wonder what it's like inside.

I just Googled it, as you do. It's actually pretty spartan inside, and costs about £160 a night. But apparently it was one of Graham Greene's favourite hotels, which endears me to it further.

And Henry Fielding really did live in Broad Court, with his brother.

Walthamstow. Fri 21st Jan. 11.25pm

Working from home, so only a quick walk to stretch my legs, picking Edie up from nursery. These stencils have started appearing all over Walthamstow, probably not by Banksy though. I agree with the sentiment but I do wonder when I'll see the first one with a large turd right in the middle of it.

Carting Lane and Lincoln's Inn. Thurs 20th Jan, 1.15pm

My walk today took me from Carting Lane – which runs right between my building (on left in pic) and the Savoy (on right), in which there's an original gas lamp (which used to be run on sewer gas, provided by the methane mainly from Savoy guests), which is lit all day every day, and certainly was today – up to Lincoln's Inn Fields and then into Lincoln's Inn itself, which is another one of those secret worlds, peaceful and beautiful.

Park by Temple Underground. Wed 19th Jan, 1.30pm

Just a little robin in a hedge today in the little park by Temple tube -- where I bought an overpriced tuna baguette at a cafe and 3 reasonably priced apples at a fruit stall outside. Sat on bench and this robin sat in his hedge the whole time, warbling a bit every now and then, quietly, to him/herself.

10th Floor, Penguin HQ. Tues 18th Jan, 12.45pm

No walk today, except to the 10th floor, for a lunchtime "lecture" by BBC arts editor Will Gompertz (who is writing a book for Penguin), except it wasn't a lecture as such but a redo of something he'd done at Edinburgh Fringe a while back, which was he pretended to be a supply teacher with the audience as kids, and he did a history of modern art, which was really just an overview of the different art movements from Impressionism through Expressionism, Fauvism, Pointillism, Cubism, Abstract Expressionism, Dada, Surrealism, Suprematism, and so on.

At one point he got us all to draw a penis on a piece of paper in one of the art styles. I chose surrealism (in the style of Magritte).

The performance was funny and good, and I liked the way that it was both him redoing the earlier show, but also telling us how the audience reacted to it previously, which made the whole thing a bit post-modern. He gave us a quiz at the end to test our knowledge.

Grand Buildings, Trafalgar Square. Monday 17th Jan, 1.30pm

Short walk today, through Trafalgar Square and into the National Gallery, to view the Bridget Riley exhibition (I would've taken a photo but I was halted by a guard).

This relief sculpture of endangered animals frames an archway on this building at one corner of Trafalgar Square. The sculptor, Barry Baldwin, carved it in situ from Portland 'Fancy Beach' limestone over a three year period. It's amazing how many sculptures of wildlife there are around central London -- from lions in Trafalgar Square to giant fish and camels along the Embankment.

St James Park and Horse Guards Parade. Friday 14th Jan, 1.40pm

Managed to get out today, lots to see.


Lovely ironwork in Whitehall.

Through Horse Guards Parade and into St James Park. Slight rain. But still, pelicans! Who needs to pay exorbitant prices to go to London Zoo when you can see real, live pelicans in St James Park. Astounding. Apparently, they were first introduced to the park in 1664 as a gift from the Russian Ambassador.


St James Park is really quite a wacked out place. Check out this little cottage complete with "cottage garden". Right beside the lake and the pelicans and the fifty breeds of duck. It was built in 1841 for the duck keeper. And it includes a club room for the Ornithological Society of London. I love it.

Horse Guards Parade is all imposing Classical architecture, but at one end is this pecular dark monstrosity. It looked so black and secretive. Sinister almost. I got really obsessed with it. Turns out it's The Citadel, built in 1940 or so, and intended to keep Churchill and co safe in the event of a German invasion. It has foundations nine metres deep and a concrete roof six metres thick.


They've tried to hide it a bit with ivy but it just makes it look weirder, which I love.


This dude marched right through Horse Guards Parade with me following behind him. He did that short marching on the spot thing that indicates he's about to stop and stand still, so I pulled up right alongside him, with my iphone camera ready. For a beat he was looking away from me, didn't know I was there, then he turned round, and CLICK - got you! After that of course he chased me down the street and whipped my ass with his big shiny tourist sword. He didn't really but he looks like he'd like to doesn't he.

Finally, the bargain of the day – if you can't work out the conversion to dollars or whatever.

Embankment. Thurs 13th Jan, 1.50pm

An even shorter walk today, still on the course. Walked and ate a cheese, pickle and tomato baguette. Still, learning a lot about doing presentations. Thought I'd snap some of the local wildlife on the Embankment.

Trafalgar Square. Wednesday 12th Jan, 1.30pm

On a course today, so short walk only, once around Trafalgar Square, first time I'd seen the ship in a bottle.

Bankside. Tues 11th Jan, 1.35pm.

This is Hopton's Almshouses, established in the 18th century, now reduced to a weird kind of Alice In Wonderland optical illusion by the wall of office buildings behind. It's where the White Rabbit lives.


"How long was your walk today, Simon?"
"Oh, about 30 joggers"

Courtauld Gallery. Monday 10th Jan, 1.20pm

Not so much a walk today as a slow shuffle round a very crowded Cezanne exhibition at the Courtauld. Admission is free on Mondays until 2pm, which may explain the deluge of people, or else it's just a very popular exhibition, which looks at Cezanne's sequence of paintings of peasant card players. Interesting to see the original of a print that my grandparents had on their wall (in a small cloakroom). My mind made a connection to my grandfather, who perhaps might be said to (only vaguely) resemble one of the card players, and to his love of playing cards.

A second photo today: a dizzying view from the top floor of the Courthauld.

Parkland Walk. Sunday 9th Jan, 3.15pm

Walked from Finsbury Park to beyond Crouch Hill along abandoned railway line known as Parkland Walk, with Katie, Linus and Edie. Bright sunshine, though quite cold. At the start of the walk, I asked the way of a woman, who told me to look out for the sculpture at the disused station. We reached the disused station and met her again as she came back the other way -- she asked if we had seen the sculpture. We hadn't, but as it was just before the station we went back to find it. I really didn't know what to expect – something formal and "proper", probably – a decaying bust of a late 19th century railway bigwig – but certainly not this weird, gothic thing emerging from old arches. I thought it was Pan or Bacchus or someone like that.  But, having now Googled it, it's apparently a 'spriggan' – a legendary creature from Cornish faery lore. They are trouble-makers and thieves. The sculpture was made in 1993 by London sculptor called Marilyn Collins.

Hide and Seek in Russell Square. Saturday 8th Jan, 2pm

Peepo Edie!

Now that's a grand building. The British Museum, just set alight by a sudden burst of bright winter sun.

Whitehall Gardens. Friday 7th Jan, 1.20pm

I realise this is the second tree photograph I've included, but I do love the way this one has been propped up with so many crutches. I wonder how old it is. The way it's so lop-sided way makes me think it's enjoying inconveniencing the park keepers tending it in its old age. Bloody-minded old bugger. Maybe it's fitting, considering it's proximity to statues of so many tough old British military men dotted throughout this thin wedge of park and around the nearby Ministery of Defence.

Rain! Thursday 6th Jan

Working from home today. Rain all day. Walked Linus to school, but the rain was best appreciated from behind a window in a warm house. Photo taken through the bedroom skylight.

Middle Temple, Wed 5th Jan, 1.30pm

Walked along Embankment and through Middle Temple today. Weather cold but fresh. I intended to go inside the Temple Church, but it was shut. People photographing the exterior. Middle Temple is place with an air of secrecy about it, like a small world within a world. I wasn't even sure at first whether I could walk through. Asked a man in a little guard box. He had a terrible speech defect. I liked the typography on this sign, the phrasing ("dead slow"), and the way it wraps around the rounded corner.

Embankment Gardens, 1.45pm, Tues 4th Jan

This tree surgeon is using a rope pulley to raise a chainsaw up to himself at the top of this tree. Unlike how it looks, it wasn't taken at dusk. It was actually a bright, fairly sunny day.

 Postscript (a few days later): this is how this tree ended up, a stump and a pile of sawdust.

New Year's resolutions (and mission statement!)

I admit it, I've never really made new year's resolutions before. This year, however, I seem to have an endless list of them, including: get more sleep, work less, watch at least one film each week (otherwise why be a member of LOVEFILM?), eat dinner with kids more often, etc etc.

However, the main one is: get some exercise!!

I've thought about joining a gym (and still might), but right now I'm going to try walking to and from the tube every day and going for a brisk lunchtime walk.

Likelihood is I'll fail at all my resolutions. But I had my first lunchtime walk today -- over Waterloo Bridge, past the South Bank Centre, and back across Hungerford Bridge -- and on the way noticed some tree surgeons pruning a very tall tree. Made a stop to take a photo and thought: there's an idea, I could aim to photograph something along the way each day, to give me an added incentive to keep on strollin'.

Then I thought further that I could turn my daily walking into a blog. It would give me further incentive to continue with my good intentions.

We'll see. Sky-high tree surgeon pic to come.