My Day In London
Today I brought our camera with me to get some pictures of the area of London where I work. I was hoping for better weather - the forecast wasn't for rain today - but it rained anyway.
Here's the Ipswich station as the 5:53 to London pulls in. It's Friday; on any other weekday there are more people and they're dressed even nicer. The train has about ten cars.
The seats fill pretty quickly. On my way in, there are four stops, and it seems all the seats are taken by the third stop. People also stand between trains. At this time of year, it's dark when I go to work, and it's dark when I come home. The only daylight I see is when I go out for lunch. Sometimes I feel like a vampire.
The inside of Liverpool Street Station. All trains from the east of England (East Anglia) end up here. Again, this is Friday; it's usually busier than this. I like the big reader board. Those characters aren't digital; they're little two-piece (top and bottom) signboards, and it's neat to watch them flip when a column changes.
(And this starts the pictures I took over lunch.) This is taken from Exchange Square looking over the top of Liverpool Street Station. Two of London's signature buildings, Swiss Reinsurance ("the Gherkin") and Tower 42, are in the skyline behind.
When I walk to my office from the station, I have two routes. One is through Exchange Square, pictured here.
But usually I take this other, more diagonal route through two plazas. Here's the first of the two, taken at night. There's a ring of shops around the ice rink also.
This is the second one. The glass bit on the right is the entrance to an underground restaurant. Notice those gridlines?
At night they're lit up. There must be a bunch of LEDs under each segment because they can change colour and intensity very slowly. Sometimes the lights chase around in patterns, but usually they just fade from one colour to another.
And at the corner connecting the two plazas is this. Perhaps London's tiniest office tower. I wonder what the story behind this is. Who said, "Hmmm, we should put a little something here ... why not a real building? But not too big of course."
Seeing all these swanky buildings, you might think my office is quite posh also, but it's not.
In fact, it won't even exist in a few months. It's slated for demolition in March. There's a lot of construction happening in London, and with the real estate as high as it is, even moderately old (but not too old) buildings like this are candidates for quick replacement. I don't think I've ever worked somewhere where we knew our building's demise was imminent. I heard our new location might be just across the street.
This is Finsbury Park, which is just behind our building. I hear there's music played there in the summer. This is also bordering Moorgate Road, the nearest Underground station.
And that's my work area. I've done a bit of strolling toward Old Street, toward the Bank of England, and I can walk to the far side of London Bridge in half an hour from my building, but I've got lots more exploring to do.
Here's the Ipswich station as the 5:53 to London pulls in. It's Friday; on any other weekday there are more people and they're dressed even nicer. The train has about ten cars.
The seats fill pretty quickly. On my way in, there are four stops, and it seems all the seats are taken by the third stop. People also stand between trains. At this time of year, it's dark when I go to work, and it's dark when I come home. The only daylight I see is when I go out for lunch. Sometimes I feel like a vampire.
The inside of Liverpool Street Station. All trains from the east of England (East Anglia) end up here. Again, this is Friday; it's usually busier than this. I like the big reader board. Those characters aren't digital; they're little two-piece (top and bottom) signboards, and it's neat to watch them flip when a column changes.
(And this starts the pictures I took over lunch.) This is taken from Exchange Square looking over the top of Liverpool Street Station. Two of London's signature buildings, Swiss Reinsurance ("the Gherkin") and Tower 42, are in the skyline behind.
When I walk to my office from the station, I have two routes. One is through Exchange Square, pictured here.
But usually I take this other, more diagonal route through two plazas. Here's the first of the two, taken at night. There's a ring of shops around the ice rink also.
This is the second one. The glass bit on the right is the entrance to an underground restaurant. Notice those gridlines?
At night they're lit up. There must be a bunch of LEDs under each segment because they can change colour and intensity very slowly. Sometimes the lights chase around in patterns, but usually they just fade from one colour to another.
And at the corner connecting the two plazas is this. Perhaps London's tiniest office tower. I wonder what the story behind this is. Who said, "Hmmm, we should put a little something here ... why not a real building? But not too big of course."
Seeing all these swanky buildings, you might think my office is quite posh also, but it's not.
In fact, it won't even exist in a few months. It's slated for demolition in March. There's a lot of construction happening in London, and with the real estate as high as it is, even moderately old (but not too old) buildings like this are candidates for quick replacement. I don't think I've ever worked somewhere where we knew our building's demise was imminent. I heard our new location might be just across the street.
This is Finsbury Park, which is just behind our building. I hear there's music played there in the summer. This is also bordering Moorgate Road, the nearest Underground station.
And that's my work area. I've done a bit of strolling toward Old Street, toward the Bank of England, and I can walk to the far side of London Bridge in half an hour from my building, but I've got lots more exploring to do.
posted by Michael Nelson at 12:15 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home