Leicester Square Statues

Celebrating a century of cinema a set of new statues were unveiled today in Leicester Square. The bronze representations of movie stars and characters are placed around the Square.

Most of them are around the main grass area in the centre, although Batman and Wonder Woman take a few more moments to find

Approaching from the south west corner the first character I came across was Bugs Bunny, straight out of his rabbit hole surrounded by carrots!

Next up is Gene Kelly hanging from a lamp-post as Don Lockwood from 'Singing in the Rain' - happily although it was raining heavily when they were unveiling them this morning the sun was out by lunchtime!

Not far up from him Mary Poppins and her umbrella were coming in to land. Given the earlier weather there were plenty of people with their own brollies trying to recreate the moment...

Taking a break on benches in the central area were Mr Bean and Paddington bear - quite a crowd of people here waiting to take selfies!

Also in this area Charlie Chaplin watching the world go by.

Just to the north of the Square bursting through a wall, Wonder Woman. I'm guessing the purple cloth spoiling the view was left from the shroud that was removed at the unveiling?!

On the roof of the Odeon on the east side of the Square, keeping an eye on proceedings, is Batman. Quite a steep view to look up, but the view from the far side of the square is interrupted by trees.

The last pair I saw, as I walked back along the south side of the Square were Laurel and Hardy - again the immediate view was a little interrupted by a tree. I suppose the trees are better now that they are leafless then they will be come Summer!

You can visit the statues in Leicester Square until 30th June.

Phone boxes

K6 Phone box

K2 Phone box

Red phone boxes can be found all over the country; and on almost every street corner in Central London. The K2 is the older model and K6 the more recent version (K stands for kiosk).

K1 was the first design; Historic England lists six  (Grade II listed) none of which are on the streets of London. The K1 dates back to 1920.

The K2 followed in 1924 as the result of a competition won by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. The K2 is easily recognisable by its equal sized panes of glass.

The K3, K4 and K5 were not widely distributed (if at all in the case of the K5) - and the next significant development is the K6. The K6 has one wide of pane with two narrower panes either side and is somewhat smaller than the K2.

All phone boxes had a crown above the 'telephone' representing the British Government; at the time phone boxes were run by the post office who were, at the time, part of the Government.


K2 phone boxes have an embossed crown which doubles as a ventilation hole. On K6 phone boxes the crown is represented in bas-relief and a ventilation hole is provided elsewhere.

In 1953 Queen Elizabeth replaced the Tudor Crown which had been used to represent the monarchy with the St Edward's Crown (the crown used at coronations) - a pair of K6 phone boxes are shown here with the St Edward's Crown on the right

D-Day Landings

Much of the planning for the D-Day Landings took pace at Norfolk House on St James's Square in London. To commemorate this and the 75th Anniversary of the landings this commemorative postbox has been installed on St James's Square - just turn left out of Charles II Street.

Seven Noses of Soho

These are what remains of an art installation (using that term loosely, more like guerrilla artwork) from the late 90s. The artist was making a comment on the recent installations of a new network of CCTV cameras, installing the noses often in full sight of the cameras.

Most of the remaining noses are in Soho although one is all the way down at Admiralty Arch and one right on the edges of Soho up near Covent Garden. Of the remaining 5 one is more a bent nail, but the other four are shown below.

There is nothing quite as much fun as taking a treasure hunt looking for things hiding in plain sight.

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One of the Seven Noses of Soho

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Another of the Seven Noses of Soho (Meard Street)

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Another one, Seven Noses of Soho (Dean Street)

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Last one today, Seven Noses of Soho (Bateman Street)

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Bonus Nose!

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St James's Market

In between Haymarket and Regent Street St James lies St James's Market. Despite the fact that the A4 (yes, both roads are numbered A4) carries buses, taxis and assorted traffic up and down all day this is a surprising oasis of calm.

Owned by The Crown Estates,whose property portfolio encompasses large parts of St James and Regent Street, there are assorted restaurants and cafes for refreshment and benches and seating to rest a moment.

One of the streets leading to the central area

St James's Market

Take a moment to enjoy the calm

Wedding belles on the bridge

The sun is out over London which signals a start to the wedding couples (or sometimes just the bridge) having their photos taken.

I've never been sure whether they are happy couples taking the ultimate tourist shots in London or participants in magazine photo shoots?!

Wedding bells

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A moment in Greenwich

Some of the joys of London are the bits that come and go.

In 2012 Cathedral Group were building a development in Greenwich and the decorated hoarding included a specially commissioned poem by Lemn Sissay called "Shipping Good".

The area also included a pop-up cafe, The Mvmt Cafe.

There were also some hoardings decorated with pieces of bicycles.

Hoarding, Greenwich style

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Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey is an amazing site from any angle. Neither an abbey nor a cathedral the abbey (formerly titled the Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster) the abbey has the status of a 'Royal Peculiar' a church directly reponsible to the sovereign.

The abbey is the traditional site of coronations and burials of English (and then British) monarchs.

Stunning by night

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Evening sunshine

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What we've been watching (November)

We watch quite a lot of movies; at the moment LOVEFiLM send us two discs every week... although I'm always considering the best way to get our movies.

So this is what we watched in October - come back to see what November has brought us.

Allegiant

The latest in the "Divergent" series, this film was done no favours by the ridiculous gaps in between releases which meant that I barely remembered the events of the previous film "Insurgent". Milking the cash cow to make trilogies (and more) doesn't always have the Harry Potter recipe for success. This film world is getting tired and predictable... not at all helped by the grim dystopian world which is easily indistinguishable from "Hunger Games". 

Backtrack

Mysterious happenings with a pycho-analyst which were so uninspiring that we switched off.

Gridlocked

A movie star is given community service doing a ride along but gets caught up in the events of a training facility being attacked by mercenaries. Dominic Purcell, Danny Glover and Saul Rubinek are the most famous names in the cast, but all the cast give good performances in what turns out to be a very watchable action movie.

Golden Years - Grand Theft OAP

To top up their failing pensions a bunch of pensioners go bank-robbing. A very typically English movie from the "Calendar Girls" type stable. Watchable enough, but nothing special.

Bone Tomahawk

I'm not a Western fan, but generally good reviews and an interesting cast got this film onto our rental list. Billed as a horror-western the plot wanders along at a reasonable pace, but the selling point is undeniably the amusing dialogue.

Concussion

Slow to start, and Will's Smith irritating Nigerian accent got this switched off  very fast.

Precious Cargo

A bunch of 'good' robbers go up against a bunch of 'bad' robbers to perform a daring heist. Fast paced enough action film which is reasonably well written and well acted.