weberwest Loc: Ferndale WA

After our visit to New York over Christmas 2015, which I recently presented under the title "Winter & Christmas in New York", we moved on to London, where our daughter lives with her family and spent a couple of weeks with them, celebrating New Year's Eve and the changeover to 2016 with them. I will first present a few images of London, taken in the Westminster area where our daughter lives. These images do not concentrate on the common tourist spots, but rather on areas where the local residents spend their time. They will include a few shots of Christmas decorations and we will then move on to the firework on New Year's as the old year 2015 wanes and the new year 2016 takes its first tentative steps under a cacophony of sounds and lights. This presentation of the fireworks will be with a rather unusual twist and I will be interested to hear what you think about it.

Now in this first post, we have a look at a few "secluded" spots in busy Westminster, home to our daughter's family as well as to Buckingham Palace, the Westminster Abbey, Victoria Train Station and many other well known sights - which I will totally ignore - instead I will present some other, more mundane but also real little gems. The slightly abridged information below is taken from Wikipedia.

VICTORIA TOWER GARDENS is a public park along the north bank of the River Thames in London. It is adjacent to the Victoria Tower, the south-western corner of the Palace of Westminster. The park, which extends southwards from the Palace to Lambeth Bridge, sandwiched between Millbank and the river, also forms part of the Thames Embankment. Victoria Tower Gardens is a Grade II listed park created in 1864–1870, following the embankment of the Thames. It is in a Conservation Area and partly within the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Westminster.

VINCENT SQUARE is a grass-covered square in Westminster, London, England, covering 13 acres, lined with mature trees including London Planes. In among a network of backstreets, it chiefly provides playing fields for Westminster School, who own it absolutely; otherwise, it functions as a green lung and a view for the homes, hotel and other organizations adjoining. Nine of its adjoining buildings have been given strict statutory architectural recognition and protection.
The square can look back on quite a chequered history: It was appropriated in the 18th century on land originally known as Tothill Fields, by William Vincent, a former Dean of Westminster and headmaster of Westminster School who simply paid a man with a horse and plough to enclose the square with a mound and ditch. Previous uses include a death camp and cemetery for 1,200 Scotch prisoners starved to death after the Battle of Worcester in 1651, a large burial pit for victims of the Great Plague of London in 1665/6, a jail named Tothill Fields Bridewell, and a well-known bear-baiting den recorded in the reign of Queen Anne.

WESTMINSTER CATHEDRAL (not to be confused with Westminster Abbey) is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales. It is the largest Catholic Church in the UK and the seat of the Archbishop of Westminster. It is the 50th largest church in the world in terms of interior area (5,017m²), seating up to 3000 people.
The site on which the cathedral stands in the City of Westminster was purchased by the Diocese of Westminster in 1885, and construction was completed in 1903. Designed by John Francis Bentley in neo-Byzantine style, and accordingly made almost entirely of brick, without steel reinforcements. It was called "a masterpiece in striped brick and stone" showing that "the good craftsman has no need of steel or concrete".

Thanks for visiting, I recommend viewing the downloads and look forward to your comments and questions.

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1 - Introductory Title to my album with firework displays over the London Eye

(Download)

2 - Victoria Tower Gardens with the Buxton Memorial Fountain in the front (in the shade) and the Victoria Tower with the southern wall of the House of Lords at rear, at the far right is the river Thames

(Download)

3 - Upper part of the Victoria Tower seen from the Victoria Tower Gardens

(Download)

4 - River Thames at Victoria Tower Gardens, at rear the Westminster Bridge and the London Eye

(Download)

5 - Vincent Square lawn and at left the building of the Royal Horticultural Society

(Download)

6 - Statue of Priapus, the Greek fertility god by Alexander Stoddart on Vincent Square

(Download)

7 - Residential area of Westminster with the top of the tower of Westminster Cathedral

(Download)

8 - Westminster Cathedral on Victoria Street, mother church of the Catholic Church in England and Wales

(Download)

9 - The Albert pub on Victoria Street, built in 1862, decked out for Christmas

(Download)

10 - Simple Christmas decoration at Cathedral Walk, the glass-covered pedestrianized walk among new modern office towers facing Westminster Cathedral

(Download)

Umnak Loc: Mount Vernon, Wa.

Great start to the "New Years" series. Here we go on a another interesting series, Joe! Thanks for taking us along, again!

Rob

weberwest Loc: Ferndale WA

Thanks Rob - just a brief series with mainly the fireworks after a bit of a warm-up in the city. Enjoy your day - Joe

NMGal Loc: NE NM

Starting off with a bang, Joe.

weberwest Loc: Ferndale WA

Thank you Barbara - and I am going to end this very brief series with pictures of their "Big Bang" fireworks! Have a great day - Joe

UTMike Loc: South Jordan, UT

More Yuletide adventure, Joe! Lead on. Happy New Year!

joecichjr Loc: Chicago S. Suburbs, Illinois, USA

Merry Christmas! Thank you for your superb photographic tour... Beautiful colors and awesome sky!

weberwest Loc: Ferndale WA

Thank you Mike - after every Christmas there follow the New Year's festivities - so I did the logical, just in a different country. In 2015, we actually used NY as a mid-way break, because it was the turn of the "other in-laws" at our daughter's family that year for Christmas, so we enjoyed the time at our friends in New York and then enjoyed New Year's with our daughter. It does get complicated when children live on different continents ... Joe

weberwest Loc: Ferndale WA

Thank you Joe, happy that you enjoy the images in this new set - I can't take credit for the blue sky - London for once was generous with us! Merry Christmas to you too and all the best in 2021! Joe

jdub82 Loc: Northern California

Great series!

weberwest Loc: Ferndale WA

Thank you jdub, happy to hear that you like these images - have a great day - Joe

jederick Loc: Northern Utah

London is a location rich with photo opportunities and you did a nice job of catching the personality of these sites. Nice opening series, Joe!!

weberwest Loc: Ferndale WA

Thank you Jim - London sure is an interesting town for photography, since our daughter lives there, we spend a good amount of time there - my problem is that I don't go so much as a photographer but as a grand dad, and many of my pictures are of the little ones. The pictures of London are also all over the landscape, little bit here, little bit there, this year and that, so one of these years I have to make a major effort to get these all together into one album instead of snippets all over - alas the same is also true for my native Switzerland and my adopted Paris, so there plenty of catch-up work to do - and I don't feel like tackling that job as I am still returning there for more pictures. London will be a bit different now as our daughter has just this summer moved out from central Westminster into the countryside, so the quantity of my "London" photography probably has reached its zenith.

kpmac Loc: Ragley, La

Beautiful exposures, Joe. And all are really nicely composed.

weberwest Loc: Ferndale WA

Thank you Ken, I always appreciate seeing your comments! Joe