More Randomness

As the title suggest these images will come from various locations from a few different outings, First up is St. Mary at Hill. The street is named after the church situated here, which was founded in the 12th Century.

Parallel to St. Mary at Hill heading towards Monument is Lovat Lane.

Parallel to Lovat Lane and connected by Botalph Alley is Botalph Lane.

Moving on and back towards the area between Lombard Street and Threadneedle Street, the picture below is of George Yard.  I don't know what the things are in the middle of the benches and flower beds but they are quite interesting.

From here you can walk through St. Michaels Alley and onto Cornhill. Almost opposite here is Newmans Court.

Moving on again to Bishopsgate and the following is an image of St. Helen's Place. Previously I worked on St. Mary Axe  (opposite the Gherkin) and would enter work via St. Helen's place. Since I started this project it  has been under lots of scaffolding and given its close proximity to where I work now, I decided to wait till a later date to photograph it. Currently my company's office at Tower 42 is being refit, and we have temporarily moved to a floor higher up the building. The views are great, and the picture below shows the Gherkin and St.Helen's place in the foreground. The picture was taken from the window very close to my desk.

Off again, and a few last images from around Smithfields market taken one morning before work. The first is of West Poultry Avenue, which is blocked off to traffic with large blocks of concrete and does not present too many photographic opportunities.

One one side of the market is West Smithfield, which loops round in circle at one end, like a letter p or d. Nearby many executions occurred in days gone by, including Wat Tyler, who led the peasants revolt, and William Wallace, commemorated by the plaque on the wall below. Curiously on the white bit on the top right corner of the Scottish flag states "Peace One Day" as if there was some ongoing conflict.

Just off of the West Smithfield loop is Cloth Fair, where in medieval times merchants met to buy and sell cloth during the Bartholomew Fair. The street is notable for the church of St. Bartholomew the Great, which was founded in the 12th Century and survived the great fire, along with the two oldest residential buildings in London.

There are several side alleys running off of Cloth Fair, one of which is Rising Sun Court.