Barnes Wetland Centre

A little dive into the archive this week and a bit of a mixed bag. We start off at Postman’s Park. Here a whole array of plaques can be found to the people who saved others. The park can be found close to the Museum of London (though that’s on the move), near London Wall, but it is easily missed. I’d probably walked past it many times without knowing it was there.

Next is Guildhall. It sits on a square within the City Mile, the very centre of London. Do look at this great website with video explaining the square. There are lots of background/historical facts here where you can learn more than my flash visit gives!. The art gallery is wonderful and holds a number of Pre-Raphaelite paintings. This gallery has the wow factor!

Below the gallery are the remains of a Roman Amphitheatre and a must to visit.

Not far away is Barbican. Some call this a concrete jungle. The architecture is known as Brutalism. It’s something you either love or hate! I rather like it. In Barbican, it is softened with gardens and water, and many of the apartments have window boxes. On Sundays you can visit the conservatory, which is normally only open to residents (I’ve not yet been inside). Here you are also close to Roman remains. Part of the old city walls run through here. Once when I was visiting with my brother, we met a man who lived on the estate. He had keys to places the general public aren’t allowed to walk through, and he gave us a short tour! It’s definitely worth reading the articles on the estate of Barbican and Brutalism highlighted here with links.

20180703_113545 — Taken from one of the many walkways in Barbican

Now to a place that looks like it isn’t in London, but is! The Barnes Wetland Centre is an oasis of calm. Here you can come and look at wildlife, especially birds. It changes throughout the year depending on the season as birds migrate. There are wonderful walks, hides to get up close to the wildfowl, and for the kids there is pond dipping. On site is a cafe/restaurant and indoor displays. Check out their website. Their webpage photo is stunning.

I’m ending this post in Brixton. This is a colourful and vibrant part of London with wonderful markets that reflect the Caribbean community. It has two stations (Northern Line Tube and mainline network rail).

Electric Avenue was one of the first streets in London to be illuminated with electric light, hence its name. It was the place for shopping. Later, in the early 1980’s riots broke out after years of hostility between the community and the police. The song by The Special (Ghost Town) was a background to these events, but the song I remember most is the one written by Eddy Grant (Electric Avenue). I was a bit of an Eddy Grant fan back then (Reggae in general), so his song is the one I identify with.

20190516_125903 — One of several statutes on at Brixton station

I hope you’ve enjoyed this quick diverse tour of parts of London. The links will give you far more information, so do enjoy reading in more depth about these fascinating places.

This will be an occasional series of places I have visited that particularly stand out for me. They also fill in when I haven’t anything else to post (shush!). We start off at Barnes Wetland Centre in south west London. I’ve been here twice and still love it. I admit I can only recognise a handful of birds, but that doesn’t stop me enjoying it. There are otters and fish, frogs and all sorts of other creatures. For the kids there is pond dipping. Around the site there are hides with guides to birds where you can sit and look over the lakes. There is a cafe with outside seating and it is just a nice place to spend a day. I find it amazing that this is London!

P1020235 — Sir Peter Scott who set up the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust

For my next trip, we head into London itself to visit Charles Dickens Museum. This is a beautiful house and has a great cafe, also with outdoor seating in an enclosed garden (sadly the day I was there the weather wasn’t good enough to sit outside). The rooms in the house are interesting and beautifully decorated. Charles Dickens is a fascinating man. On the one hand, he stood up for the poor, bringing them to light through his stories, as well as campaigning with some of the well-known campaigners of his time to make things better for the poor. On the other hand, he was cruel to his wife, disowned her and tried to turn his children against her. A very complex character.

Charles Dicken's House — Charles Dickens Museum, 48-49 Doughty Street, WC1

Lastly, this week we visit Limehouse and a glimpse of one walk I took early one year when there was ice on the river and ducks were sliding around on it! I stayed in a retreat house, The Royal Foundation of St Katherine on a B&B basis to explore parts of Limehouse Cut and Regent’s Canal. Before the days when I had Google Maps and carrying just a poor physical map, I did get myself lost at one point. Thank goodness for walkers much better prepared than me!

If you are interested in walking in this area, here is a walk, part of which I walked, but I headed in a different direction. This walk is closer to mine. If you look at the map, you can see that I headed towards Three Mills Island and the Olympic Park along Limehouse Cut. I then headed towards Victoria Park and the Regent’s Canal, before heading back. A good circular walk for around six miles.

2017-01-21 11.02.42 — West Ham Football Club, Olympic Park

2017-01-21 10.36.27 — Three Mills Island

And that wraps things up for this week. I hope you’ve enjoyed this whistle-stop journey through parts of London you may not know.

Tag: Barnes Wetland Centre

A quick whizz around parts of London

Whistle-stop tours of some of my favourite places in London