Resting in peace

Let’s get away from the here and now, shall we? I’m so glad I have so many pictures from last year that I haven’t posted yet, as the days at the moment are so same-y and uneventful. On a balmy late September Sunday, my friend D and I walked over to Highgate Cemetery to go exploring. It’s so odd to think back just a few months back during the pandemic, when compared to now everything felt so relaxed, even though we still had to socially distance. One perk due to Covid was that you were allowed to walk around on the west side of the cemetery on your own, which you otherwise only can visit on a guided tour. D, who seems to have been to most of the interesting places in London retold me the facts she could remember from having walked the tour years ago.

The west side is more hilly and wild, and is the oldest part, opened in 1839. It’s also the most prestigious part to be buried in. If you want to read more about the cemetery’s interesting history, click here.

We walked around with a map, and decided on a route. I’m posting the order of what we saw on the way.

It was so interesting to see the difference in styles of the grave stones. I found Lucian Freud’s very understated and elegant.

The Egyptian Style was very popular in the 1800’s, and walking up Egyptian Avenue felt like something straight out of Indiana Jones or Tombraider. Not surprisingly lots of films have been shot here.

Loved the font and the colours on this tomb.

And how apt are these words for EXACTLY RIGHT NOW?! It’s a bastardised stanza from Lord Tennyson’s In Memoriam A.H.H. 54. I’m not even sure I read what it said when I took the picture, I just liked the font and the placing of the text. Kind of nicer to see the words now, and take them in properly.

This circular vault area is called the Circle of Lebanon, as when the cemetery was built, there was an old Lebanese cedar tree in situ already, and they decided to keep and build around it.

Sadly it was deemed unsafe to keep in place as it had completely rotted inside, so it came down in 2019, and a new one was planted in its place, which you can see in the middle of this picture. Not quite the same, but give it time.

The catacombs section was closed which was a shame. It would have been very interesting to have seen inside.

Different styles of headstones. Patrick Caulfield’s DEAD one has to be the best one ever. Straight to the point, no messing about.

Crossing the road and entering the east side, the atmosphere changed significantly. Less wild and more tightly packed.

And much flatter with wider avenues. Felt a bit like a car park compared to the west side.

No cemetery is complete without a cat, right? Looking at these pictures I’m transported back to what was such a chill and interesting afternoon, and I can feel the summer heat from that day all over again. It’s actually still open, even in lockdown, and it would be cool to see what the atmosphere there is like in the middle of winter. Let’s see if I can can get my lazy arse over there before spring.

Snow Sunday

Snow is so rare here in London that when it happens it’s a big deal. Guessing that our local park would be rammed with people yesterday, we stayed in our garden and had an epically long snowball fight instead. I’d like to think that Oomoo will show this picture to his future kids one day, and say that their grandma/farmor always took snowball fights really seriously 😂

In the City

Went for an epic five hour bike ride on New Year’s Eve with my friend H to the City of London, to look at the buildings there, recommended by my friend D who’d walked around there a lot in lockdown 2. On the way we cycled past these residential towers on City Road which made me laugh. They looked what I imagine people in the 1920’s thought all buildings would look like in the year 2000. Luckily they don’t, as these are pretty horrible.

Most people think the same of the Barbican, built on a former WW2 bomb site between 1963 and 1982, but I love it. We stopped here to eat our packed lunches in the freezing cold; we and the seagulls were the only ones there. Staying in one of the flats here (I’m counting on Airbnb still being around for this) for a weekend is on my bucket list, and I’m looking forward to the day when that can happen.

I’d love to know why the water there is this colour. I’m sure there’s a really simple explanation.

After lunch we headed down to Wood Street where this tree, which is possibly one of the oldest plane trees in London can be found. The general consensus is that it was planted around 1760! It’s quite something standing under it. I must make sure I go back there in the spring/summer to see the full canopy.

Hello St Paul’s! If you ever find yourself in London in the future, when lockdowns and social distancing is a distant memory, I can really recommend going there and going full metal tourist. It’s one of my favourite touristy experiences I’ve had here. I’ll never forget the Whispering Gallery (it works!), and climbing up all the narrow stairs to the top circular outside balcony and taking in the view of London. It would never have occurred to me to go there if it hadn’t been for my cousin coming to visit years and years ago, and wanting to check it out. Tack M-Fe!

The architecture in the City is a real hodge podge of old buildings and boring as hell new glass box offices. This building really stood out though. We guessed that it was built in the 60’s, but we were a decade off. 30 Cannon St was built between 1974 and 1977, and has received listed status, so it can’t ever be pulled down in the future.

Speaking about pulling down a building; here’s Temple Bar, now placed at Paternoster Square. It was built between 1669 and 1672 by Christoper Wren (who also re-built St Paul’s Cathedral after the Great Fire in 1666, and built most of the grand buildings and churches in London still here today), and was originally at the junction of The Strand and Fleet Street. It had to be taken down in the 1878 as it was creating a bottle neck for traffic (horse driven - obvs). It was carefully dismantled by hand, to eventually be rebuilt in the grounds of a well to do couple’s country manor in Hertfordshire, who would have parties in the room inside the arch in the 1880’s. It eventually made its way back to the City in 2004.

Just around the corner towards St Paul’s is Chapter House, also built by Christopher Wren in 1712. Seriously crushing on this building. I seem to have something for houses with brown window frames… It looks pretty amazing on the inside too from what I can see online.

Around the corner from Paternoster Square in the other direction we stopped to have a look at these air vents by Thomas Heatherwick built in 2002. Pretty cool.

H really liked this building which looks like it was built in the 1960’s. It’s now a not very cool hotel .

We also stopped at Postman’s Park, to have a look at the memorial plaques there.

The artist George Frederic Watts wanted to commemorate people who had lost their lives trying to save others and put up four plaques in 1900. There are 54 up now with lots of space for more names to be added and the last one was put up in 2007. It was absolutely heartbreaking to read them.

Older London and newer London. Such a crazy and eccentric mix.

It’s everywhere I tell you.

I have a vague memory of sticking my head into St Bartholomew the Great to have a nosey a very long time ago, but seeing it up close again makes me want to go back and have a proper look inside when it re-opens.

This tower is all that remains of St Albans, which after having burnt down the in the Great Fire was rebuilt by our busy man Chrisopher Wren in 1682. It later got bombed in WW2, and it’s now a rather fancy traffic island.

This is the gatehouse leading into St Bartholomew the Great seen from the back. Pretty amazing, nay?

Slowly making our way home we cycled through Charterhouse Square past this Art Deco block. Looks amazing from the outside, but from what I’ve seen interiors-wise it looks bleurgh.

Cycling back, under the Barbican in the Beech Street tunnel. It’s hard to ride a bike and take pictures at the same time, but it won’t stop me from trying.

And finally, cycling above Regent’s Canal for a little bit in Islington, looking at the back of some Georgian terraced houses - and canalboats. I reeeeeeeeally want to go for a bike ride along Regent’s Canal one day, but it’ll have to wait as it gets way too busy at the moment. Don’t much fancy catching Covid or swerving into the canal… Am going out for another ride tomorrow with H, and I’ll suggest we head back here to look at the houses, and I’ll make sure to bring my camera.

Buddy in da house

No need for fancy cat toys for this guy. What he likes to play with is very random (a piece of rope or the inside of a roll of tape for example), but his newest favourite is ribbons. Specifically chasing ribbons. My mother-in-law always wraps her presents with them or string, and whilst opening one of her xmas gifts Buddy pounced on one. As a result, almost daily, one of his humans will run through the house trailing said ribbon behind them with him chasing madly after it. I wanted to capture it and catch him mid-run, but as soon as he saw me with the camera he stopped. 🙄

DJ Buddy?! I so wish I’d not taken this and instead gone over to see which record he was selecting. I’m pretty sure it was a funk album, seeing as almost the whole collection is funk.

Classic cat behaviour going on here. When we got Buddy nearly five years ago he behaved more like a dog (which Maine Coons tend to do); he’d play fetch, follow me around from room to room in the house, and never jump up on your lap or lie on your newspaper as you were reading it, as most cats do, and our old cat Little Mo used to (awwww Little Mo!!!). Instead he’d lay by your feet and we’d forever trip on him, as it’s not usually a place where a cat goes and we never got used to him lying there. That’s changed now; no more fetch games, and there can be whole days where you’ve not seen him as he has gone and curled up somewhere, and now he lays on laps/chests happily. Luckily he doesn’t lie on newspapers as he’s a big fella.

When I saw this clock in the morning of New Year’s Day it said Jan 1 2020. I gasped in mock horror and exclaimed “Nooooooooooo! We’re stuck!”. Ha. Ha. The year count is not automated so it has to be changed by hand, and Buddy was very curious to see his taunter/nemesis up close. You see, twice a day the day flips from AM to PM and vice versa, and when it does it makes a loud cranking sound which Buddy is fascinated by. He somehow knows when it’s about to happen and will sit and watch and wait a couple of minutes before it happens, but almost every time he gets bored and walks away just before it changes, and therefor misses the flip. I can’t remember now if he’s ever managed to see it. It’ll be a day to celebrate when he does, as it’s been a five year long project for him.