Tag Archives: london

Natural History Museum

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The end of the year is the time when there is an exhibit of the wildlife photographers of the year. The display is held at the Natural History Museum in South Kensington. We went to see the images and there were some truly amazing shots that had been selected. It was also a chance to have a wander around the museum while we were there. Having lived in South Ken as a student, it was a nice return to familiar territory.

With a historic building like this, things don’t change dramatically but credit is due for the improved entry route that they have created from the subway that comes in from the tube station. The ramp brings you up through a nicely landscaped area which I am pretty sure was nothing like that when I lived there. Then again, I didn’t make the most of the museums when they were on my doorstep because you figured they would always be there.

It was a lovely day when we went so the light on the gothic structures was really good. However, I became quite fixated on the internal architectural elements. There are so many details to find whether it is the large-scale stuff like the roof framing or the little details on the railings and walls. Even if the exhibits are not of interest, you could spend an age checking out the building itself. Of course, a skeleton of a whale or a dinosaur is not going to pass you by while there.

A Spey with a Burner Grafted On

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British defence projects have a bit of a reputation for trying something that will boost domestic content but that compromises overall performance. In fact, some civil aviation projects would probably fit that description. One such project was the procurement of the F-4 Phantom. To boost UK content, the J-79 engine that was used in all other variants was replaced by the Rolls Royce Spey. This engine made it into various civil and military aircraft over the years. For the Phantom, it needed an afterburner.

An example of the engine is on display at the RAF Museum in Hendon. I was first interested by the patterns of the flameholders in the afterburner so took some shots looking straight up the jet pipe. Then I moved around to the side. It is so easy to see where the original engine ends and where the added afterburner starts. It does not look like an integrated design whatsoever. It worked well enough although the redesign of the fuselage to accommodate it resulted in significantly increased drag. Top speed was reduced as was climb performance. One upside was that the Spey was a turbofan so, in the original ground attack role the Phantom had in the RAF, it actually improved low level fuel burn. It probably wasn’t so welcome once they moved across to the air defence role, though.

RAF Museum Hendon

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Early January of 1989, I had just got back to my college accommodation in London and decided to pay a visit to the RAF Museum in Hendon. I had a good time wandering around and looking the various old aircraft (and some that were not so old). There was a Lightning that was on display and they had only been withdrawn from service a couple of years before. Until recently, that was my only visit to the museum. I decided it was time for an update.

Plenty has changed in the intervening years (although some things haven’t – the Lightning exhibit seems to be exactly as it was back then judging by my old photos). The Beverley has gone from the car park, and a new building has gone up. Plenty of exhibits have changed around with some having relocated to other museums and others having been added.

The place was very busy. It is free to visit so, I suspect that makes it a popular place for families on a rainy weekend. Lots of young kids there including some that seemed young enough that they wouldn’t really be aware of what their parents were desperately trying to get them enthusiastic about. They did have a lot of learning exhibits which gave the kids things to try out.

I wasn’t there for that stuff, of course. I was just interested in the planes themselves. It was a lot of fun checking out the various hangars with their different subject areas. I wish I had noticed that the battery in my camera was not fully charged as I got to the end of the visit and was nursing whatever juice was left in it. There is always the phone to use, of course, so I wasn’t stranded but I might have been a bit miffed to carry around a body and two lenses if I couldn’t use them!

As is the way with this blog, I will be finding some specific exhibits from the museum that will get their own posts, so this is a more generic look at some of the other bits the museum has to offer. Looking at planes is not going to be everyone’s thing but, if you have even a passing interest in this sort of thing (and the fact you have got this far down in a post about the museum suggests you might have), I would recommend you spend a day in Hendon.

Impressive Gates in Bloomsbury

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London is so full of little oddities, I wonder how long you could be wandering the streets before you stop noticing things – assuming you are looking around as you walk. As you walk up the street alongside the British Museum, it looks like a constant row of buildings on each side of the street. However, that isn’t the case. Halfway up the street is this gate between two buildings. The street is Montague Street, and this gate is the entrance to Montague Street Gardens. I’ve never seen it open, so I assume it is a private garden. Now I have noticed the gates, I really want to see the gardens. I guess I will have to cope with disappointment.

Grabbing a Passing Shot of The City

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I remember talking with a photographer for National Geographic once and they pointed out that having great photos of a subject meant having gone there twenty or more times in order to be there when the right conditions occurred. This taking of the opportunity when it presents itself is true for all of us. I often walk across Waterloo Bridge in the morning and evening. It provides a view both upriver towards the Palace of Westminster and downriver towards the City. As a commuter, I am not going to embarrass myself by stopping to take photos all of the time. So uncool!

However, sometimes the lighting or the weather is making a wonderful image. There is no way that this will happen again when I happen to have time to plan to be there and bring my better camera. Maybe I should just take a photo with the phone and accept I look like a tourist. Being on the wrong side of the bridge and being in a hurry to get my train means I am not finding a way across – no easy feat in the middle of the bridge – so the foreground might mess things up. However, get the shot and worry about that another day. For one of these, the light looked great. For the other, the buildings were disappearing into the cloud, but St Paul’s was still clear. This view is something I must not get blasé about.

Flatiron Isn’t Even Trying

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We were taking a walk through South Kensington heading in the direction of Sloane Square. Our route included crossing the alignment of the District Line on the Tube. This line was built via the cut and cover method and there are some areas where they didn’t need to cover it again and it is open to the air. The road crossed in this area and the buildings along the road had been profiled to fit the space between the road and the track. The result was this building that tapered to basically nothing. I know that the Flatiron Building in New York is famous for its shape, but it is positively wide compared to this building!

Leake Street Arches

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This post is credited to an old friend of mine, Dave Babs. He has been living in Waterloo for many years, and he has shared some images of this space before. I have been in and around Waterloo for longer than I can think yet I never knew about this place until he shared this. Leake Street Arches are under the main station at Waterloo. I was walking back to the station from the Victoria area so coming from a different direction than normal. I suddenly realised that I was passing the arches so decided to divert in on my way to my train.

The quality of the graffiti was excellent as expected. There were a few people in there at the same time checking out the work, but it wasn’t too busy. It was a midweek afternoon so probably not such a surprise. Weekends are probably a different story. There was one artist that was working on a wall. I would have liked to have hung around and seen them work but there was a train waiting upstairs and this was an unplanned diversion. I will have to go back with a bit more time in hand.

Riding the Thames Clipper

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During some previous visits, I had seen the Thames Clipper/Uber ferries running up and down the river. They seemed to be pretty powerful beasts as they fought the strong currents that the Thames can produce. However, I never used them myself. I finally got around to using one recently. We had been down to Battersea and decided to take the ferry back towards the station rather than retrace our steps on the Tube.

It was a pretty good ride but had me wondering about its use in the centre of town. We didn’t go very far but we stopped multiple times en route. We were crisscrossing the river a lot so our overall progress was slow. We were not in a hurry but, even so, decided not to go where we originally planned and cut short to walk to the station. The speed with which they dock, unload, load and depart is very impressive. They have the whole thing well worked out. It is just a slow process. I imagine that a longer run would be a very efficient way to get through the city, but the price premium wasn’t worth it to me.

Wandering Through Trafalgar Square

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I had been meeting up with people for a drink in town after work one evening. Once we had gone our separate ways, I had time in hand to walk back to Waterloo for my train home. My route took me through Trafalgar Square and, in the oncoming darkness, the illumination of the National Gallery looked really nice and I couldn’t help but stop to get some images. Taking photos in London is a bit awkward because you don’t want to look like a tourist but sometimes you have to overcome the pride!