About this blog
For many of us the journey between workplace and station is just a means to an end, and we go about it with heads down staring at smartphones, or with a thousand-yard stare, disconnected from our surroundings.
I have always been captivated by the sense of history, diverse architecture and the hustle and bustle of London. As I wend my way to and from work, through its streets and alleyways, I have always tried to look up, observe, and take note of my surroundings.
Then one day in 2012 was handed a leaflet outside Waterloo station for a company, which provided various photography tours of London. I thought this would be a great way to combine several of my interests, and so I booked onto one of their tours focusing on the City starting from Bank underground station.
The photography tour was excellent and really opened my eyes to another level of detail. The guide promised we would discover something new on the tour, and I confess that I had my doubts, having worked in and around the London for years. My doubts were quickly proved false soon after the tour started and we visited courtyards, gardens and even looked inside buildings, that I had been passing close by for years, but had no awareness of.
It taught me that there was still much to discover, and to be able to see what is not really hiding in the City, but just often simply missed by most people too busy just getting about, like I was.
With my interest duly piqued, and as I am working in the very heart of the City, I am taking the opportunity to make an extra effort to explore my surroundings. To try and seek out the tucked away, the unusual, and just those taken for granted buildings and artefacts of the City of London, and then to share my observations of them on this blog.