squirmelia | Westminster Cathedral

During my lunch break, I visited Westminster Cathedral and got a lift to the top (it costs £5 to get to the top) and stared at the BT Tower, the Gherkin, Battersea Power Station, the London Eye, Canary Wharf, and so on. Oh, chaotic, beautiful London. After that, I ate lavender chocolate and tried to look up strange chocolate flavours.

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From:

whiteshadow.livejournal.com

Great photos ... the view looks fantastic, and the Shard does not look too out of place!

PS Lavender Chocolate sounds good!

From:

swaldman.livejournal.com

Oooh, I did not know that one could go up there. I shall have to give it a shot.

London lacks good tall-building viewpoints; Monument and St. Pauls are great, but neither is really high enough... and while I'm told that the Shard does have a viewing gallery, I'm not sure that any gallery can be worth £25...

(EDIT: Also, hi :-))

Edited Date: 2012-08-13 10:16 am (UTC)

From:

squirmelia.livejournal.com

Hi! I am lucky enough that I have been up some other buildings with good views, such as the BT Tower, the Gherkin, Lloyd's of London, and other such places that are open on Open House Weekend. I want to go up the Heron Tower this year!

From:

swaldman.livejournal.com

Oooh, that's a point, I should be around for Open House this year. Must see if the catalogue is out yet.
I've tried for Lloyd's in the past but always found that there were 3-hour queues by the time that I arrived - so generally for Open House I concentrate on the quirky places rather than the iconic...

From:

squirmelia.livejournal.com

I've not received one yet, but hopefully it should arrive soon.

I went to Lloyd's last year and didn't find the queue that bad - had to wait for about 15 minutes, maybe, although I did get there before it opened.

Quirky places - ooh, any you can recommend?

From:

swaldman.livejournal.com

My two favourites were the bunker underneath a block of flats nr Neasden that was a reserve cabinet war room in WW2, and a tour that I did of the O2 arena while it was being built (building a major building with no cranes, due to the tent overhead? Tricky!)

The O2 one was obviously a one-off, but the bunker is usually open. It *might* have been called Paddock, or that might be a different one - I forget.

From:

squirmelia.livejournal.com

I love the Neasden Bunker! I have been there 3 times before on Open House weekends though, so trying to go to places I haven't been before. My guide book has arrived so I am currently colouring it in.

Last year I managed to fit in 12 places:
http://squirmelia.livejournal.com/334873.html

From:

swaldman.livejournal.com

Oh, cool. You are clearly somebody who has the hang of this far more than I ever did - I only ever managed two per day.
But, I was always doing it with somebody else, I shall blame them :-P

If you are all organised at wanting to hit lots of places, and fancy some company, let me know :-)