e
Brand

London

Country United Kingdom
Continent Europe
City/Area City of London

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Season and Time The City of London is a working environment, so any time is good, though the wether is always unpredictable. The Lord Mayor’s Show is in November.
In My Bag I like a big range of focal lengths for this location, especially a long telephoto for picking out street details, and for the view of the Millenium Bridge (500mm)

City of London

Bank of England

Bank of England
The Bank of England, unusually without people on an early summer morning
The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom. Sometimes known as the ‘Old Lady’ of Threadneedle Street, the Bank was founded in 1694, nationalised in 1946, and gained independence in 1997. Standing at the centre of the UK’s financial system, the Bank is a world institution. It faces onto a small triangular park, with the Royal Exchange building on one side, and from here there are good views, not only of the entire building (with a wide-angle lens), but of details. In particular, the columns at street level make a good backdrop for shots of people passing by. The building, designed by Sir John Soane is a massive and imposing edifice resembling a fort and has no doors or windows at ground level apart from the main entrance. There is a Bank Museum, open Mondays to Friday, and entrance free. The simplest access is from Bank underground station on the Central line. The station exit is directly opposite the Bank.

.The City Dragons

City of London
One of the dragons guarding the entrances to the City
This part of Central London is not as big a tourist destination as the West End, Westminster or South Bank, but is a must for anyone wishing to explore and understand London. Although London grew from this area, the official City did not change in size and the borders of the City of London have barely changed in centuries (they still follow the line of the old city walls to a great degree). The walls around the city, originally built by the Romans, have now largely disappeared but various place names and streets hint at their prior existence. Locations such as Aldgate, Bishopsgate, Ludgate and Moorgate mark where the main gates were in the city walls. The City of London adopted what are usually described as griffins as supporters for its coat of arms, and it marks its boundaries with statues of a single “griffin” carrying the City coat of arms at each road leading into the City of London (and also, interestingly, at the entrances to undergrounds stations such as Bank). However, the City of London griffins are, in fact, Tudor heraldic dragons, with scaly bodies and membranous, rather than feathered, wings. See how many of these guardians you can find in one day!

Tower Bridge

Tower Bridge
Tower Bridge
Tower Bridge (built 1886–1894) is a combined bascule and suspension bridge over the River Thames, close to the Tower of London, from which it takes its name. The bridge is 800 feet (244 m) in length with two towers each 213 feet (61 m) high, built on piers. The central span of 200 feet (61 m) between the towers is split into two equal bascules or leaves, which can be raised to an angle of 86 degrees to allow river traffic to pass. The bascules, weighing over 1,000 tons each, are counterbalanced to minimise the force required and allow raising in five minutes. Tower Bridge is sometimes mistaken for London Bridge, the next bridge upstream. A popular urban legend is that in 1968, Robert McCulloch, the purchaser of the old London Bridge that was later shipped to Lake Havasu City, Arizona, believed that he was in fact buying Tower Bridge. The bridge featured in publicity for the 2012 Summer Olympics, with a set of Olympic rings suspended from the bridge for the month preceding. There are a number of favorite shooting viewpoints, including from St Catherine’s Dock just upstream on the rigth bank, Buter’s Wharf opposite on the left bank, and from HMS Belfast, moored a little downstream accessed from the left bank. You can also go inside the bridge, where you’ll have a magnificent view over London from the walkway between the two bridge towers (see links below). Nearest underground: Tower Hill (Circle line) London Bridge (Northern and Jubilee lines).

Lord Mayor’s Show

Lord Mayor's show
The Lord Mayor’s Coach. Leading the show’s procession
The Lord Mayor’s Show is one of the longest established and best known annual events in London, and dates back to before 1535. The Lord Mayor in question is that of the City of London, and quite distinct from the Mayor of London (a post which has existed only since 2000 and is the elected head of the Greater London Authority). A new Lord Mayor is appointed every year and the public parade that is made of his inauguration reflects the fact that this was once one of the most prominent offices in England. The event is a street parade which in its modern form is a fairly light-hearted combination of traditional British pageantry and elements of carnival. On the day after being sworn in, the Lord Mayor and others participate in a procession from the City of London to the Royal Courts of Justice in the City of Westminster, where the Lord Mayor swears his allegiance to the Crown.

The Great Twelve Livery Companies participate as of right; other Livery Companies participate by invitation, though the Lord Mayor’s own company is always among these. The parade, which begins at about eleven o’clock in the morning, ends at about half past two in the afternoon. Check the route beforehand, and find a side-of-the-road position  if you want a formal, head-on view. However, there are many great photo opportunities in the warm-up and congregation before the parade, so it’s a good idea to get there at least an hour early. The Lord Mayor’s Show is held on the second Saturday in November.

Millenium Bridge

Millenium-Bridge
The Millennium Bridge

The Millennium Bridge, officially known as the London Millennium Footbridge, is a steel suspension bridge for pedestrians crossing the River Thames from St. Paul’s Cathedral to the Tate Modern museum. It is located between Southwark Bridge (downstream) and Blackfriars Railway Bridge (upstream). Construction of the bridge began in 1998, with the opening on 10 June 2000. Such was the interest in the new bridge that when it opened to the public on 10 June 2000, an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 people crossed it, many more than had been anticipated. The result was that the deck began to sway. As a result, and typically, Londoners nicknamed it the ‘Wobbly Bridge’ , and the bridge was closed later that day, and closed for almost two years while modifications were made to eliminate the wobble entirely. It was reopened in 2002. The southern end of the bridge is near Globe Theatre, the Bankside Gallery and Tate Modern, the north end next to the City of London School below St Paul’s Cathedral. There is a great clear view of St Paul’s from the opposite side of the river, framed by the bridge supports, and from the northern side there’s this telephoto view shown here. .

Infos:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Bridge,_London
http://www.urban75.org/london/millennium.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Mayor’s_Show
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_Bridge
http://www.aviewoncities.com/london/towerbridge.htm
http://wikitravel.org/en/London/City_of_London
http://imvisitinglondon.com/thebankofengland.html
http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/Pages/home.aspx

 

Michael FreemanOther articles by author

In a 40 year career, internationally renowned photographer and author Michael Freeman has focused on documentary travel reportage, and has been published in all major publications worldwide, including Time-Life, GEO and a 30-year relationship with the Smithsonian magazine. He is also the world’s top author of photography books, drawing on his long experience.
In total, he has published 133 books, with 4 million copies sold, including 66 on the craft of photography, published in 27 languages. With an MA in Geography from Oxford University, Freeman went first into advertising before launching his career in editorial photography with a journey up the Amazon.

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