We decided to walk to All Souls Church, Langham Place for their 11.30 AM service. It was a long walk and took us a full hour and a half. It is an impressive classical building and unlike other churches of its era. The architect, John Nash (1752 - 1835), was responsible for the design of a large part of the area during the reign of George IV. He designed Buckingham Palace, the Royal Mews and Marble Arch and many other classical and gothic buildings. Nash was also the director of the Regent's Canal and he set up the company to link West London to the River Thames via the canals.
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| All Souls Langham Place |
The walk from our accommodation along Regent's Canal and
through Regent's Park is lovely but by the time we got to All Souls we
were more than ready to sit down. The pipe organ thundered out and the
music was breath-taking with fabulous acoustics. The sermon was given by Hugh Palmer about our influence as Christians in the workplace. All Souls seems to be a fairly conservative and multinational congregation but Luke was far too active for us to attempt a conversation with anyone.
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| All Souls from a different perspective |
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| Orchestra lower right - magnificent |
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| Bust of John Nash |
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| Always good to have a plaque and some history |
Right across the road from All Souls is the BBC. We
couldn't help but have a sneaky peek! There were screens, a dalek and a
tardis and we could see the news readers reading the news!! Tim is keen
to go back there for a tour which is right up his alley!
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| The BBC |
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| City among many cities on the pavement outside the BBC |
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| A Dalek! |
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| The Tardis |
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| Liberty Clock |
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| Carnaby Street - not as colourful as i remember it 25 years ago |
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| Love the old pubs.. |
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| Meanwhile back in Hamleys... |
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| Mesmerised... |
By the time we had finished at the BBC we were ravenous and
finally found a Marks and Spencer store to buy some lunch and then a
picnic spot on a park bench in an alleyway near Carnaby Street. Then,
to appease the kids we headed back to Hamleys, the toy store for some
entertainment and fun. The young man spruiking the magic sets was an
accomplished magician and the staff were clearly enjoying themselves playing with all of their toys. Annika was the lucky recipient of a "magic balloon" fish, which didn't last too long but was amazing.
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| Annika with a large sticky magic balloony thingo! |
Tim walked/ran home slightly ahead of Annika and I,
followed by Luke and Karl. Luke insisted on "having the exercise"
despite his total day of walking being at least 16 kms and he still kept
bouncing! Annika and I enjoyed the lovely gardens to the side of the
main path and saw plenty of squirrels and pigeons.
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| Regent's Park |
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| All so lovely and colour coordinated |
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| Regent's Canal community |
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| Lots of lovely barges! |
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| Annika on the canal path |
We decided to walk
down Hamiliton Terrace which runs parallel to the main road we usually
walk along. The houses were substantial and similar to
those we would find in South Yarra or Toorak areas of Melbourne...and
the cars...Bentleys, Mercedes, BMW's...get the idea! It is such a
contrast between Kilburn High Road with its homeless people and motley
blend of folk and the streets less than a kilometre away which indicate considerable wealth. St John's Wood, it turns out, is London's 5th most expensive place to live and famous people such as Richard Branson and Paul Mc Cartney have lived or live there.
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| St Mark's Hamilton Terrace |
As most of the supermarkets close by 5 PM on Sundays, we had just missed Aldi but Tesco Express was still open so we could join the long queue there and buy some supplies for dinner. We were all so tired from our long day of walking and activity.
Wow, lots of walking!! It's really the best way to see everything though :)
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