Got into London late Thursday night around 1am. The day was pretty long as I woke up around 630 from Galway and traveled all the way to London by days end. Took me a little doing to figure out how to make it to Lou's house from Heathrow, but I did eventually. After lugging my stuff down to Brixton I got in the house and had some tea and went to bed around 2am. Next day I didn't do too terribly much, caught up on some writing and stuff and hung out in the neighborhood.
Saturday we decided to walk around the city and eventually make our way Tate Modern. We made our way first to just north of the river by Lambeth bridge. An older industrial area, which has new buildings recently - really the norm all throughout London. Most of the older areas are getting really gentrified, comparable to the older neighborhoods of Chicago.
Vauxhall station, near Lou's place.
Not entirely sure what the building on the left is but the towers in the middle of the frame is the old power station.
Not too much further over the bridge and we made it to Westminster Abbey and Big Ben. Londons a nice walking town.
That's Big Ben and Parliament on the left.
Westminster Abbey.
We headed down to the South Bank as thats the main way to the Tate. From what I've gathered the Brits have taken on the American tradition of starting Christmas in mid-November. As they don't celebrate Thanksgiving - they move straight from Halloween to Christmas.
Found some post cards here for about 10p, good deal as the rest along the bank were about 40 or so.
Further on there was a guy dressed as Santa getting his pic taken with the kiddies.
They had a x-mas merry-go-round and all.
Underneath the roadway above the South Bank theres a skate park that kids frequent. Apparently the city is trying to take it out but they were signing petitions to leave it up. It's been around for 20+ years.
We pressed on through the masses of people huddling around every which thing, and finally made it to the Tate. Below is a photo from the third story balcony overlooking the Thames. It's rather hard getting used to the light here. The sun sets around 330pm normally and doesn't rise until around 830am. So the really good light to photograph is around 130pm till sundown, very strange to me.
St. Pauls across the river from the Tate.
Reflection of St. Pauls.
The Tate is a staple of British contemporary art from what I gather. It functions like the Art Institute or MCA in Chicago would. Though unlike the big Chicago museums most of their exhibition space is free entry, apart from the traveling shows they have on view. Currently its Paul Klee and Mira Schendel. The latter's work I was not so familiar with at all, she is a Brazilian modernist painter, this exhibition is her first retro internationally. There was no photography allowed inside of her exhibit but I've got some other photos of the collection rooms.
Third floor at the Tate.
Some Egglestons I hadn't really seen before.
Felix stack of paper.
Glenn Ligon represent.
Gerhard Richter again. Bad deal here though. They decided to tape down the ozclips instead of removing them. What kind of preparation is that, Tate?
Gerhard Richter, always like seeing this work.
Also came across this on the way home. A new building, referred to as the Shard - lots of glass, now apparently the tallest building in London.
Overall, first real day walking around was a successful. Will report back with more walks and findings very soon. Also currently in the south of the country in Hampshire visiting Adam Brooks. Will shortly post about his small town of Alderhold and neighboring Christchurch and the New Forest.