What’s more iconic: London buses or London cabs?

Another day, another opportunity to feel lost, confused, and wonder if my runny nose is more than the typical cold.

Also, did you know that the ‘Hong Kong flu’ (as it was called) killed over 1 million people in 1968? I am learning about new pandemics everyday. Not that I want to think of pandemics every waking moment, I take walks to take my mind off them. Although the silence is a constant reminder.

But after Boris’ speech yesterday, the population seems to be a little confused by it. So we can do this, but not this? Some can go back to work and we can do more hobbies, but can’t see family? Many are still demanding clarity, and I am just sticking to walking down the empty streets. It seems like the best thing still.

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I wonder how full this bus station usually is. I think it’s cool to see where the buses reside when they aren’t taking commuters and tourists around London. Like a celebrity going home after an evening on the red carpet. It is pretty much the same thing right? I am sure these red buses have celebrity status in London and around the world. A bit like these taxis too, I found a bunch of them escaping the limelight down a side street.

Buses are free in the city right now I should add, however I am not sure how long that will last.

If you had to get around London, would it be a red bus or black cab? I don’t know which is more iconic, but I would like to know which you think is.

🙂

 

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Due to the Coronavirus outbreak I am somewhat limited as to what I can do in London, but I aim to post as much as I can during this time. I promise to have some great posts coming your way once this is all over as I continue to explore London.

Stay home, stay safe and happy blogging!

Sam

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Happy VE Day!

Okay, this was yesterday. But I was working and when I got home celebrated with a couple drinks with the flatmate.

And when I have a couple, any motivation I had to do anything plummets.

So today I went for a walk to blow away the cobwebs, down towards St Paul’s Cathedral and through the quiet streets.

I found this pub on my walk today, just a quick shot from my gander. I will post more when my head isn’t hurting so much.

And I wanted to use this post to show my appreciation for not just the NHS and care/key workers, but also to everyone that had to fight in WW2 and contributed to the freedoms we have today. It would have been a horrible time to live through, and it really wasn’t that long ago. I feel incredibly grateful to not have had to endure that kind of suffering.

The Red Arrows did a flyby down the Thames and over Buckingham Palace, however I couldn’t see it at work sadly. On the live broadcast it flies over the city, past the skyscrapers I have posted about recently. You can see below which ones and where I am currently working/living.

Not that the picture is the most clear! Here is the video to go along with it. St Paul’s Cathedral can be seen just after this too.

 

How is everyone’s weekend? I hope you have great weather and do what you can to keep healthy and happy.

Have a great Saturday and I will speak to you all soon.

 

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Due to the Coronavirus outbreak I am somewhat limited as to what I can do in London, but I aim to post as much as I can during this time. I promise to have some great posts coming your way once this is all over as I continue to explore London.

Stay home, stay safe and happy blogging!

Sam

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Imagine waking up to a new world…

Just imagine, you have been asleep for the past two months. You awaken from the deep sleep. You put on your shoes and open the front door, the sound of traffic hitting your ears is for whatever reason not heard. You look down the street, everything just seems a little odd.

The neighbour that you stop to chat with on route to the shops, he crosses the road the moment he sees you. Anyone you pass tends to keep a few feet away, looking concerned. They wear gloves and masks. Further down the road, the train station often too crowded is now worryingly empty. Commuters look up to the timetable with less urgency and more confusion.

Lost.

You check the board to see the date. It must be a Sunday right?!

‘Monday’ you learn.

An announcement over the speakers thanks the population for staying home and saving lives. Advising to travel only if absolutely necessary. To do what you can to stop the ‘spread of infection’.

Infection??

Shops are shut. Adverts thank care workers for their hard work on bus stops and electric billboards. It’s apparent something major has happened. But is it all of London? The UK? The world??

You hear radio coming from a nearby house, broadcasting the words of world leaders. It is clearly further than my neighbourhood.

Only some people take to the streets. The odd police car goes by, looking as if they are keeping an eye out for groups or people that shouldn’t be out. Some people look like they are out for exercise. Some to keep everything tidy. Some because they don’t know what else to do.

Imagine if this is the world we woke up to without any prior knowledge.

If you had no signal, no family in the area, no wifi…

How would you react?

 

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Due to the Coronavirus outbreak I am somewhat limited as to what I can do in London, but I aim to post as much as I can during this time. I promise to have some great posts coming your way once this is all over as I continue to explore London.

Stay home, stay safe and happy blogging!

Sam

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Using Insta? Click here for my Instagram!

Every street has a story

I arrive at Bank Station, named after it’s close proximity to the Bank of England. A statue of a man on a horse towers above me.

22 Bishopsgate now towers above it.

This man is the Duke of Wellington, the statue erected for his input in helping to start the rebuild of London Bridge back in the day.

Below is another memorial I found on my walk. This one seemed like it was telling a story so I had to do a little research…

I found this sculpture outside of Liverpool Street Station. It’s a memorial for 10,000 orphaned Jewish children that escaped persecution in Nazi Germany, arriving at this station between 1938-39. Again, the site is surrounded by tall, glass towers that are a world away from the surrounding architecture of the day. A world away from where the kids called home. The only remaining buildings are the ones that contributed to history the most and were given a lifeline, allowing us to share the same roof as the evacuees of the 1930’s.

But every generation has a story to tell, and the lockdown is one of ours, shared by every generation alive today. Not that it can be compared to the events I mentioned earlier, but certainly unique. Tragic, too. But what more can we do but simply experience it and ride this wave as best we can? Not much.

But every ‘closed’ sign is a photo opportunity, every long wait in a supermarket is a story we will share when this is itself a part of history. Some of these signs turning me away have never looked more inviting.

 

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Due to the Coronavirus outbreak I am somewhat limited as to what I can do in London, but I aim to post as much as I can during this time. I promise to have some great posts coming your way once this is all over as I continue to explore London.

Stay home, stay safe and happy blogging!

Sam

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Have a blog you want to share? Introduce yourself here!

Using Insta? Click here for my Instagram!

London Bridge is closing down…

Some shots that I recently posted to my Instagram, from my recent walk down to London Bridge. I will be blogging what I discovered during lockdown on my daily walks, and I can’t wait to share some things in the next few days!

I will try to keep my blog and Instagram in sync- so one doesn’t spoil it for the other.

Despite the cones blocking off London Bridge, this isn’t due to the lockdown. London Bridge was due to be closed between March and October this year, although recent events may close it off for a little longer if things don’t stick to schedule.

A couple heads popping up over London Bridge, looking down the Thames to Tower Bridge. The bridge wasn’t as busy as it could have been, which is the reason why I decided to continue my daily exercise over the river.

The paths here are very wide, meaning I could use the space to cross it safely without worrying too much.

Not that everyone was worrying, some people were clearly unfazed…

I crossed the bridge and spent some time at Borough Market, as it is an open area that can be walked through and was as you can imagine, very quiet. Everything closed and it made for a pretty interesting walk. So I will come back to it by the time I have got to those images on Insta. But in the meantime I am uploading plenty more shots, three a day around Central London.

See you all soon for the next ones!

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Due to the Coronavirus outbreak I am somewhat limited as to what I can do in London, but I aim to post as much as I can during this time. I promise to have some great posts coming your way once this is all over as I continue to explore London.

Stay home, stay safe and happy blogging!

Sam

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Connect with me!

Have a blog you want to share? Introduce yourself here!

Using Insta? Click here for my Instagram!

This green line leads to something…

As soon as you walk through the exit barriers of the currently desolate Old Street Underground Station, you will notice these lines on the ground leading outside.

A nice thank you message to the NHS, these are all over London right now.

The station has 8 different exits with it being directly under a roundabout, so to help commuters know which route to take these exits are colour coded. I am not sure if the lines simply help commuters find the right exit, or if they also lead to something specific outside. The green line definitely leads to something in particular, so on my daily walk I decided to follow it…

The below shot almost gave the game away… so I decided to blur the answer on the ground 😉

Traffic seems to be getting busier, although it is still much quieter than the norm.

Getting there…

It leads to Moorfields Eye Hospital, only a few minutes up City Road. I heard that the hospital may be treating patients for the virus, but this could be incorrect. It is certainly deferring non-urgent patients though, stating so on their website.

The green line runs right to the front door of the A&E!

The building is a beautiful one, with a more modern extension in the shots above at the accident and emergency entrance. I noticed the clock was in the shape of an eye, which is a pretty cool addition.

Another beautiful day! I have to say London has been gifting us with some beautiful blue skies in the past couple weeks, I hope this continues. It is a concern over here that us Brits won’t be able to resist the opportunity to get a little tan and get complacent with the social distancing, but so far people seem to be resisting temptation. Myself included. I just take shots on my daily walks, or to and from the shop. But I did take a longer walk down towards the highrises yesterday which was EMPTY. Hardly a soul. With it being a bunch of offices the weekend is the perfect time to go on the best of days, now even more so. I felt much better walking down there compared to the parks actually, and I will show you this soon.

I am being sensible, and taking photos when I have to leave for groceries or exercise. And only on an iPhone right now or a small GoPro, as my Nikon would be taking the p*** a little bit.

I hope you have some blog worthy areas on your daily walks when you get the chance to leave the house, and thank you to the NHS and to the health services around the world keeping you healthy in your country.

See you all again soon!!

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Due to the Coronavirus outbreak I am somewhat limited as to what I can do in London, but I aim to post as much as I can during this time. I promise to have some great posts coming your way once this is all over as I continue to explore London.

Stay home, stay safe and happy blogging!

Sam

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Connect with me!

Have a blog you want to share? Introduce yourself here!

I am also on Insta at onechancetoseetheworld, please give me a follow there and thank you so much for your support.

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Empty coffee shops

Coffee shops are giving me a shipwreck vibe right now. That strange eeriness of a thing that was once full of life and now silent. Nothing more than an empty shell, everything inside abandoned in a hurry.

I have bought coffee in here twice since moving to Old Street, it is smack bang in the middle of what is only a five minute walk to work. But it always looked busy and the staff in there were genuine and really friendly. It is a shame to see it currently closed. The leaves sprouting from the tree outside are the only signs of hope, with the concrete seats designed to look like pillows as empty as the streets around it.

One thing I did notice is the unique shape of the building, I am usually walking underneath it so it hasn’t caught my eye before. Crossing the road to get a full shot I could see the zig-zag/ crooked pattern of the whole building. The apartments look nice. If you can’t have a garden right now a balcony will certainly do.

I have neither, but a walk to and from work makes up for that a little.

 

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Due to the Coronavirus outbreak I am somewhat limited as to what I can do in London, but I aim to post as much as I can during this time. I promise to have some great posts coming your way once this is all over as I continue to explore London.

Stay home, stay safe and happy blogging!

Sam

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Connect with me!

Have a blog you want to share? Introduce yourself here!

Also, I would love to grow on Instagram, please give me a follow over there as I will have plenty of London shots coming your way. Any help would be amazing as photography is fast becoming a passion of mine. Click here for onechancetoseetheworld on Insta and thank you so much for your support. It means the world to me.

Thank you for your help!

Just a quick thank you to everyone that has been reading my blog posts recently. I love engaging with you all everyday and seeing how you have been doing, especially during this lockdown.

Also thank you to those that have followed me on Instagram, I can’t be taking too many photos whilst this pandemic spreads but I will do once we are able to explore again. It will be worth the click, I swear. I have also changed my profile photo over there to the one above, as I really like it and it seems many of you do too. It is a little brighter than the previous one as I am no longer in Edinburgh I felt I needed a change!

Regarding this post, I am still responding to some comments and will get in touch with some of you to see if a joint post will be possible. I have a couple of posts in progress and I am very excited to share them with you from fellow bloggers around the world. And as I said I hope to do more of this moving forward.

Please accept my apologies that some of my responses are a couple days late, but on work days it is very difficult unless I do this at work. I am literally out all day. Tomorrow is my last day of four though so I have four days off to catch up, get some new and exciting blog posts our there and maybe some more photos if I can find another scenic walk.

But thank you again for all your support on my blog, I really appreciate the love and spend so much of my free time here because of this. You have really helped me keep going all these years.

Stay safe, and I will speak to you all soon 🙂

 

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Due to the Coronavirus outbreak I am somewhat limited as to what I can do in London, but I aim to post as much as I can during this time. I promise to have some great posts coming your way once this is all over as I continue to explore London.

Stay home, stay safe and happy blogging!

Sam

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Connect with me!

Have a blog you want to share? Introduce yourself here!

Also, I would love to grow on Instagram, please give me a follow over there as I will have plenty of London shots coming your way. Any help would be amazing as photography is fast becoming a passion of mine. Click here for onechancetoseetheworld on Insta and thank you so much for your support. It means the world to me.

You don’t like gruesome pub names, huh?!

I just wanted to take a moment to reflect on my Normality is Temporary post published a couple days back… my featured photo showing a group of tourists outside of the Hung, Drawn and Quartered pub near the Tower of London. It seems a couple of you weren’t the biggest fans of the gruesome pub name.

Cough, cough Pat and Darnell 😉

And I don’t blame you, it’s pretty rough. However this was the only reason I took the above photo as the name just stood out. And it had me thinking of all the other funny pub names I have encountered so far, and the ones I am still yet to see for myself.

(Trigger warning for those not prepared for a little naughtiness)

My favorites so far after doing a little research (mainly courtesy of secretldn and Londonist):

Dirty Dicks

The Famous Cock

Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese

The Hole in the Wall

Fanny on the Hill (apparently no longer open sadly…)

Filthy Fanny’s (This one is just a 15 minute walk from me!)

The Job Centre

John the Unicorn

Pratts and Payne

The Pyrotechnists Arms

The Defectors Weld

…

And I have to remind those in the States that fanny means something a little different here, but still makes for a very humourous pub name either side of the pond and elsewhere.

Which of these tickles your fancy?

I said ‘fancy’… 😉

 

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Connect with me!

Have a blog you want to share? Introduce yourself here!

Also, I would love to grow on Instagram, please give me a follow over there as I will have plenty of London shots coming your way. Any help would be amazing as photography is fast becoming a passion of mine. Click here for onechancetoseetheworld on Insta and thank you so much for your support. It means the world to me.

 

Are you a key worker?

How many of you in the WordPress community are currently key workers? This isn’t strictly limited to health and emergency workers, I’m talking anyone that cannot work from home. Nurses and doctors, police officers, bus drivers, delivery drivers, bin collectors, security guards, taxi drivers… there is a big list of jobs that qualify.

I ask because I am thinking of doing some posts inspired by those that have to travel to work right now. Learning about life in lockdown for someone that still has to roam the quieter streets and occupy buildings other than their home. On my travels in recent years I have been able to meet people in so many different industries, and I loved sitting down and sharing experiences. There is something fascinating about having a conversation with someone that has a completely different daily routine to yourself. Two worlds colliding and a quick glimpse of another way of life. In fact, I have been speaking to a couple of people that have agreed to share their stories and I am looking forward to posting them, hopefully this week.

It is something different for my blog, I can only ramble on about my life for so long before the same daily walks become all I talk about! I am going to try and find ways to share stories from readers of my blog (both key workers and those of you working/blogging from home) as so many of you have fascinating stories from around the world. And I will of course continue to share my experiences in London throughout this lockdown.

I wonder what the percentage is, I assume the majority of you are working from home? It is also interesting to consider whether the number of blog posts from key workers is higher with the opportunity to blog outside the home, or if working from home (or simply staying home if unemployed/retired/not able to work) is forcing bloggers to keep being creative and putting out blog posts regularly?

Let me know, and I will see you in the comments!

Sam

 

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Due to the Coronavirus outbreak I am somewhat limited as to what I can do in London, but I aim to post as much as I can during this time. I promise to have some great posts coming your way once this is all over as I continue to explore London.

Stay home, stay safe and happy blogging!

Sam

---

 

Connect with me!

Have a blog you want to share? Introduce yourself here!

Also, I would love to grow on Instagram, please give me a follow over there as I will have plenty of London shots coming your way. Any help would be amazing as photography is fast becoming a passion of mine. Click here for onechancetoseetheworld on Insta and thank you so much for your support. It means the world to me.