Rob, Rambling - A lot of things interest me...

Sometimes you just can’t help taking photos of it all…

I love a good wedding!

One of my favourite parts of the recent Robin Hood film was the return to London of Robin and his colleagues, bearing the crown. Not so much for its part in the film as a whole (which I thought was pretty good as historical action films go, save for some truly cringeworthy dialogue), but because I’m sad and like all of the historical visuals.

This is the best of those sweeping vistas, showing the king’s ship approaching the Tower of London, then the residence of the monarch. It dominates the foreground, showing how it really was the biggest building in London for many centuries.

In the background, you can see the old St Paul’s Cathedral (replaced by the current iteration after the first was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666), and the construction of the original London Bridge, which interestingly is absolutely historically accurate in terms of dating. Other than that, there is nothing above one storey high.

Compare that with a modern-day view from a similar position: the Tower is completely dwarfed by its surroundings, and seems very small indeed.

I got this image from a great interview with the FX team for the film, and on that article there’s another view of London, this time from the opposite side of the Tower of London. This one shows the juxtaposition of the Tower with its surroundings in stark contrast, and it’s also weird to see Bermondsey (the other side of the river) still being entirely wooded.

I forget that London was historically very compact, contained within the modern-day business district called The City of London for many, many years. Its spread to the southern bank and then outwards from the City only really gathered pace in Tudor times, before becoming the sprawling 8m people metropolis it is today.

(It really is quite sad that this is the scene which made most impression on me from the film, isn’t it?)

Still daylight when leaving the office? Wow!

Chinatown always looks amazing at this time of year. Busy too!

London Sight-lines 2009, these are the places where construction is restricted to protect the most interesting views of famous landmarks. (via headlessness)

iamdanw

I was reading DiamondGeezer earlier, and on his trip to Richmond he mentioned that there’s a certain point on top of one of the hills in Richmond Park that has a view of St Paul’s Cathedral, 10 miles away. The view from this point is apparently protected, and no buildings may be erected which could in any way block the view of St Paul’s along this sight line, by order of the mayor’s office.

This piqued my interest, and a little bit of googling took me to iamdanw’s tumblr, which links to the above gorgeous map of protected sight lines across London. Most of these are centred on St Paul’s Cathedral and the Palace of Westminster (AKA the Houses of Parliament), but others are protected too.

I find this kind of thing absolutely fascinating, I really do. I like that central London’s skyline is really low, when compared to places like New York and other American cities, and it’s these kinds of planning restrictions which have helped maintain the views. And it’s not that we’re completely anti-skyscrapers: look at Canary Wharf, and at other buildings being built, like The Shard. It’s just that London restricts them in the very middle of the city, particularly around St Paul’s.

Whilst today’s snow isn’t settling in central London, in my part of town it definitely is. Only about 3-4 inches deep, but that’s good enough for me!

As you can see, I wasn’t the first person home to my building this evening…

I’m posting this one separately because it’s probably the best photo I’ve ever taken.