Old father time

History is my big passion: digging underneath the today to understand what came before. The top image here is taken from Greenwich Observatory (hence the silly pun!) looking over The Royal Naval College and Queen Anne's house, across The Thames to the city itself.

Whilst in London at the end of September 2008, I took a guided tour - usually I give these a wide berth. However, this one was with an actress who took us around two city blocks either side of St Paul's weaving Dickens and Shakespeare into the very bricks of the pavement. Under her tutelage and great sense of fun, the past came to life.

Entries and exits

Amazing how fascinated photographers are with windows and doors the ways in which they are "treated" in differing countries and in differing ages. Being from a country relatively new to European culture, I am drawn toward old windows and old doors. For me it is often the enter/leave conundrum rather than the physical fact of the door. I guess it is also that this is the way air and light comes into buildings: both of these in their literal and allegorical meanings.

Top: The alter window for St Martin's in the Field, Trafalgar Square. Centre left: One of the windows in the Painted Hall of the Greenwich Hospital of the Od Royal Naval College, Greenwich. Centre right: Westminster School, fronting onto Dean's Yard - Southern quadrant Bottom: Westminster School, fronting onto Dean's Yard - close to the exit from Dean's Yard

Adventurous architecture

Top left: Royal Naval College, Greenwich Top right: Looking past Lloyds of London to 30 St Mary Axe aka The Gherkin Bottom left: Old Covent Garden markets, 1500s - 1974 Bottom right: London Stock Exchange, Paternoster Square, near St Paul's

Europe October 2008 - The Thames

Top: Sunrise from the Millenium Bridge Centre: Barging around the esses near Richmond Park Bottom: Rowing past Greenwich