Open House London is upon us, and it’s time to start planning the weekend with military precision (or not — we don’t want any blue-on-blue incidents or bombed Afghan weddings…).

The highlight of last year’s event was definitely our visit to the stunning Foreign Office & India Office.
Continue reading Foreign Office & India Office – Open House London 2009

I’ve written previously about Nunhead cemetery, and it’s still somewhere I never tire of visiting to unwind (the pictures above were taken a few months ago).

It’s the only one of London’s ‘Magnificent Seven’ Victorian cemeteries that I’ve got round to visiting, so it was with great interest (and some jealousy) that I read Ian Visits’ account of his tour of the catacombs of West Norwood cemetery – accompanied by some fantastic photos.

(I highly recommend Ian Visits if you’re interested in London – it’s one of the few blogs I read regularly, plus he keeps an events calendar of easily missed lectures, talks, heritage events, organised walks and other random miscellany.)

Travelling around central London in May and June was made a little more enjoyable by keeping an eye out for over 250 decorated elephants scattered around the capital, in parks, open spaces and shopping centres, as part of Elephant Parade London. Each elephant was decorated by a different artist, and at the beginning of July they were auctioned off to raise money for endangered Indian elephants.

Sadly the elephants have now gone off to their new homes, but a few weeks ago they were all herded together in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea. I went along and got a few hundred photos, which I’ve put into a slideshow…
Continue reading Elephants on Parade