Dave
CF Legend
Hello
After reading about the opening of the Monument to the Great Fire of London after a lengthy refurbishment I asked Ben whether he wanted to visit it. Both not realising what we were getting ourselves in for both agreed to meet outside it at 2.
So I arrived around 2:30, little late due to a mixture of getting lost and also the tubes being horrendously slow (grrr to rain). So I paid my entrance fee (£2 for Students btw) and waited for Ben to pay his, while I waited I snapped a shot of the stairwell which the lady kindly let me stand directly in the middle.
I really like the photo, took a couple of go's because of low light, kinda why the top has bleached out a bit.
So we started our way up the 310ish stairs to the top, sounds like nothing at the bottom, but oh my word it took a long time, I was gasping for breath about halfway up, showed how unfit I actually was! The walk up makes you feel ever so dizzy because of the fact its a spiral staircase, after being reassured by someone walking down were near the top we made it to the top and took a breather on the viewing deck before having a proper look out at the view.
The view is really good and is a unique vantage point in my opinion as you are immersed inside the City of London and can see all the office blocks around it.
No need for some Tilt Shift edit here, everyone looks tiny anyway!
Just thought i'd do some random shots of people on the Monument to see if I could capture anything interesting, only one I got which worked was this one:
Me and Ben were chatting about random things like uni, roller coasters, why Baco sucks still.
Did I mention that the mesh on the deck was very annoying, couldn't get it out of shots! GRR. But nice little shot of the City.
So after walking around and taking in the view it was time to venture down, this was worse then going up! I was so scared of tripping and falling down the stairs, as I kept wondering if you did would you roll all the way down to the bottom.....
But after being slow for nearly the entire time and hearing the disgruntlement of the couple behind us we got to the bottom and handed our lovely certificates to say we've climbed the Monument! Nice
So after we ventured down we had a think of what to do next and thought lets visit some of the buildings in City as i've never really walked around and nor has Ben, so we went to find the Gherkin!
On the way we stopped by the Lloyd's building for a quick snap or 10.
I wonder what he's photographing.......
The building gave off lovely reflections and works really well with B&W.
See what I mean? But shame they get distorted, if only I had a shift lens...that sort it out!
Some more detail of that lovely building <3
Why not have one more, it has the Gherkin in it too, so thats a plus!
Walking on from the Lloyd's building we arrived at the Gherkin and what hit me was the fact the base is so small, I would've thought it of been much bigger...
Just some Architectual detail.
Now we ended up roaming aimlessly for a while until we stopped for a bit when I spotted a Jacobs store, which didn't have any catalogues (BOOOOO!!!), then we walked over London Bridge and into Southwark.
We came across this building which we stared at for a good while trying to think where we've seen it before, and then it clicked! Its the flat/home which Bridget Jones was in for the two films.
So then we went into some Market, Ben found out the name, I didn't as I was too busy eyeing up the gal at the butcher counter, she was fit
Some still life there for you, its rubbish really
Then onto the Southbank <3
No one has seen this picture before, its exclusive!
Moving back onto the Southbank walk we saw this rollerblader just totally fall over in spectacular fashion, Ben couldn't contain his laughter and I was just looking on with an epic fail thought floating in my head. Not much really happening between here and McDonalds by the Aquarium, where we had some random brunch.
Walking back up the Southbank to get the tube home we stopped by the skating area by the QE2 Building.
I took this picture as I took one last October for a project and was astonished at how much it changed!
Thats today
Back in October.
After this I put my camera away as I couldn't be bothered to take any photos anymore, we walked back up the Southbank and ventured over the Millennium Bridge and chatted about QI and its amazing qualities to enrich your life.
Then we got absolutley lost trying to find St Pauls underground station, took a few times to find it, then after 20 mins looking for it we eventually got on the Central Line and off we toodled, said bye to Ben at Kings Cross as I ventured back to Oakwood on ze Piccadily Line for another 30 mins.
All in all a good day me thinks! Loving my certificate of wtf-ness!
After reading about the opening of the Monument to the Great Fire of London after a lengthy refurbishment I asked Ben whether he wanted to visit it. Both not realising what we were getting ourselves in for both agreed to meet outside it at 2.
So I arrived around 2:30, little late due to a mixture of getting lost and also the tubes being horrendously slow (grrr to rain). So I paid my entrance fee (£2 for Students btw) and waited for Ben to pay his, while I waited I snapped a shot of the stairwell which the lady kindly let me stand directly in the middle.
I really like the photo, took a couple of go's because of low light, kinda why the top has bleached out a bit.
So we started our way up the 310ish stairs to the top, sounds like nothing at the bottom, but oh my word it took a long time, I was gasping for breath about halfway up, showed how unfit I actually was! The walk up makes you feel ever so dizzy because of the fact its a spiral staircase, after being reassured by someone walking down were near the top we made it to the top and took a breather on the viewing deck before having a proper look out at the view.
The view is really good and is a unique vantage point in my opinion as you are immersed inside the City of London and can see all the office blocks around it.
No need for some Tilt Shift edit here, everyone looks tiny anyway!
Just thought i'd do some random shots of people on the Monument to see if I could capture anything interesting, only one I got which worked was this one:
Me and Ben were chatting about random things like uni, roller coasters, why Baco sucks still.
Did I mention that the mesh on the deck was very annoying, couldn't get it out of shots! GRR. But nice little shot of the City.
So after walking around and taking in the view it was time to venture down, this was worse then going up! I was so scared of tripping and falling down the stairs, as I kept wondering if you did would you roll all the way down to the bottom.....
But after being slow for nearly the entire time and hearing the disgruntlement of the couple behind us we got to the bottom and handed our lovely certificates to say we've climbed the Monument! Nice
So after we ventured down we had a think of what to do next and thought lets visit some of the buildings in City as i've never really walked around and nor has Ben, so we went to find the Gherkin!
On the way we stopped by the Lloyd's building for a quick snap or 10.
I wonder what he's photographing.......
The building gave off lovely reflections and works really well with B&W.
See what I mean? But shame they get distorted, if only I had a shift lens...that sort it out!
Some more detail of that lovely building <3
Why not have one more, it has the Gherkin in it too, so thats a plus!
Walking on from the Lloyd's building we arrived at the Gherkin and what hit me was the fact the base is so small, I would've thought it of been much bigger...
Just some Architectual detail.
Now we ended up roaming aimlessly for a while until we stopped for a bit when I spotted a Jacobs store, which didn't have any catalogues (BOOOOO!!!), then we walked over London Bridge and into Southwark.
We came across this building which we stared at for a good while trying to think where we've seen it before, and then it clicked! Its the flat/home which Bridget Jones was in for the two films.
So then we went into some Market, Ben found out the name, I didn't as I was too busy eyeing up the gal at the butcher counter, she was fit
Some still life there for you, its rubbish really
Then onto the Southbank <3
No one has seen this picture before, its exclusive!
Moving back onto the Southbank walk we saw this rollerblader just totally fall over in spectacular fashion, Ben couldn't contain his laughter and I was just looking on with an epic fail thought floating in my head. Not much really happening between here and McDonalds by the Aquarium, where we had some random brunch.
Walking back up the Southbank to get the tube home we stopped by the skating area by the QE2 Building.
I took this picture as I took one last October for a project and was astonished at how much it changed!
Thats today
Back in October.
After this I put my camera away as I couldn't be bothered to take any photos anymore, we walked back up the Southbank and ventured over the Millennium Bridge and chatted about QI and its amazing qualities to enrich your life.
Then we got absolutley lost trying to find St Pauls underground station, took a few times to find it, then after 20 mins looking for it we eventually got on the Central Line and off we toodled, said bye to Ben at Kings Cross as I ventured back to Oakwood on ze Piccadily Line for another 30 mins.
All in all a good day me thinks! Loving my certificate of wtf-ness!
