The Shard looms ever present around the streets of Borough, rising 309 metres, seemingly piercing the sky, especially on misty overcast mornings. But on a bright, bright, sunshiny day like today, its blue green glass gleams and shines like something out of the Wizard of Oz, a true ‘Shard of Glass’. The viewing deck of…

We’ve been staying in a loft space in a secret enclosed yard, tucked just off Borough High Street, one of the oldest streets in London, pretty much in constant use for the past 2000 years! Vine Yard is a wonderfully quiet space with trees bursting with blossom in the Spring sunshine. Blackbirds signing and squirrels…

It’s always interesting to see a familiar building from a different perspective, especially one that controversially clashes a classical masterpiece with a gleaming glass office tower, right beside each other. A risky undertaking. One New Change is the only shopping centre in the City of London, designed by French ‘starchitect’, Jean Nouvel. During its planning…

The Barbican is one of those buildings / complexes / estates even, that divide people into the LOVE IT / HATE IT camps. It’s not for everyone that’s for sure, but it certainly is for those of us (yes, I’m in the LOVE IT camp) who like strong, well thought out architecture that fits into…

Greenwich is the home of time, where eastern and western hemispheres meet, and this place doesn’t just ooze history, it sets time for the whole planet. Unbelievably (as a Londoner no less) I’ve never been here! Don’t know why, no school trips that I can remember and I guess I must have been otherwise occupied…

Best not to raise the shenanigans that are BREXIT! Hawarden Park, part of the Gladstone Estate, Flintshire, Wales. April 2019.

Another treasured medieval survivor is the gorgeously imposing but at the same time surprisingly intimate Chester Cathedral, Norman in origin but the present building dating from the 13thCentury. It has a magnificent interior, gloriously massive stained-glass windows with three modern windows replacing WW2 damage, celebrating the 900thanniversary of the cathedral’s origins. Just off the wall…

Imagine Deva (modern-day Chester), circa AD 79, some 2,000 years ago. A legendary fortress town in the far-flung province of Britannia, the newly minted member of a European Union, albeit the Roman Empire… though without the freedom of movement, the benefits of a common marketplace and the generous cultural grants and handouts. Britannia is overrun…

Buoyed by Sunday’s free and easy promenade along Avenida Paulista we thought we’d stray further afield and explore some of the other sights of São Paulo. So, mid-morning on Monday we plunged headfirst into the subway system, thinking first to the Metropolitan Cathedral and the Sé district and then a stroll through downtown and over…

Ok, so perhaps I was being a tad hard on this city at first glance. It’s still a ginormous sprawling urban jungle, but clearly a city like no other. Today it’s Sunday and São Paulo is out on the streets and letting its hair down in the tropical sunshine. It’s quite enjoyable actually! Every Sunday,…