Day 45 - Beatles, Baker Street and Black Swans

Excited to be heading back to my favourite city ... London! Enjoying the weekend here before Becca has to head back to Canada (sob!).

The Wallace Collection is housed in the Hertford House,
manor house of the former Marquesses of Hertford.

We were in London by noon. Phil took off for a lunch meeting with a colleague at the Wallace Collection, a national art museum that includes Titians, Rembrants ... and is, of course, free. It's one of those often-overlooked beautiful places to visit, with a lovely spot to have a lunch.

After checking into our hotel, Becca and I decided to walk the one hour it would take to meet Phil after his meeting. We started off in the part of London known as Maida Vale, with its many Edwardian mansions (most now divided into flats, but still very lovely) and Art Deco apartment buildings. A block over from the hotel is Abbey Road, famous for being the street on which stands the the Beatles' recording studio. The walls in front of the studio are covered in graffiti as are neighbouring walls (despite requests not to mark them up). A stready stream of horn-honking filled the air as tourist attempted to re-enact the famous scene of the Beatles crossing at the Abbey Road zebra crossing. [Interesting point: Almost 40 years ago, the original zebra crossing was moved several metres for traffic management reasons and now no sign of the original crossing exists. Despite this, the moved crossing was granted Grade II listed status in 2010.]

From here, we skirted around Lord's Cricket Ground, then along part of Regent's Canal heading toward The Regent's Park. The London Central Mosque sits on the western edge of the park, and as we approached, the streets began to team with men leaving the mosque from prayers . We walked Park Road then Baker Street seemingly the only women for blocks.

Further along Baker Street, we passed the Sherlock Holmes Museum at 221B Baker St, but decided to keep the inside a mystery for now.

Selfridge was reputedly the creator
of the phrase, "The customer is
always right."

Selfridges adds its flair to the Krispy
Kreme donut.

After meeting back up with Phil, we decided to walk toward the river. We passed by Selfridges. If you've watched the TV series, Mr Selfridge starring Jeremy Piven, then you know all about the store. If you haven't heard of it, it has a really fascinating history. In a nutshell, Selfridge opened his store in 1909 at what was then the far reaches of Oxford Street. He transformed the department store concept, bringing products out from behind the counter so customers could touch them, held huge marketing events and sales, and was noted for his innovative window displays and advertising.
We took a quick trip inside to see the Hallowe'en display of Krispy Kreme donuts (yes, they have a small display and make donuts on site) as part of their Food Hall.

Recognize this storefront? The Huntsman tailor shop on
Saville Row was used as the storefront for
The Kingsman.

We made our way down the back lanes behind Regent Street, and down Saville Road, home of the tailored suit.

We had to stop in at Waterstones. This is the book store where any major book signing in London takes place. Annie Liebovitz, famous for her Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone photos was scheduled to appear the next day for a signing of her photo book). Waterstones is kind enough to place a sticker on extra copies of books that have been signed in case you couldn't make it to an official signing. So, I always have a great time walking around to see if there is any I can get for Phil's collection. In this instance, there were several books signed by John Le Carre, including The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.

A black swan swims through the
sunset-lit waters in St. James's Park

We took a stroll through St James's Park, which is the park that runs between Whitehall and Buckingham Palace. We just meandered around the park as the sun was beginning to set taking in the views, before heading back to the Thames and walking along the Embankment.

Winged Victory atop the Queen Victoria memorial
in front of Buckingham Palace seems to be inciting
the clouds!

A long day of walking, so a rest back at the hotel was deserved.