London never ceases to amaze and it is always worth visiting. I have been coming for many years and I have observed it change greatly, metamorphosing from a somewhat sleazy and run-down-in-parts British city to a rather gentrified museum piece. Given a choice, I prefer the way it is now, but London is still an edgy city and there is a lot violence, so care should be taken. On this trip, at the suggestion of my architect friend who lives and works there, I checked out some of the funky architecture in the City of London on a walk starting at Liverpool Street station (I got sidetracked into a Caffe Nero on the way!)


The London underground (Tube) is much smarter than it ever used to be


In the middle of the city of London

It included the Lloyds Building (also known as the "Cheese Grater"), the Gherkin (built in 2003) and the Royal Exchange (1844). Close-up views of the "Gherkin" (the former Swiss Re Building) and the "Cheese Grater" were impressive, but made me wonder about the practical use of such architecture and how they got approved by the city planning department. The Lloyds Building was perhaps "modern" in the 1980s, but now it no longer is.


The Cheese Grater


Zany external elevators

The walk lead me past the heavily fortified Bank of England and I also encountered some lovely preserved churches. These have somehow escaped the scourge of development in recent years and appeared to be very busy with pastoral duties. The highlight was St Stephen Walbrook church, which is apparently Sir Christopher Wren's masterpiece. There was an odd pendulum, hung low over a stone dais in the middle of the church, which cast a halo over the dome above. A wander past St Paul's cathedral followed, no longer the highest building in London, but I balked at the £24 fee just to enter the church. From there I headed down the pathway in front of St Paul's which leads directly to the Thames (this is where the Cybermen of Doctor Who were filmed invading planet Earth in 1966!)


A view of the Gherkin in a curious mixture of old and new


Walking towards the Royal Exchange

This deposited me onto the wobbly Millennium Bridge but my cap blew off down into a building site at the start of the bridge (luckily not into the river Thames). I spent the next half hour trying to get hold of some workers on the building site to go down and pick the cap up from where it had landed (it was a good cap with UV protection, paid for with Coop Switzerland points!)After this I spent the rest of the day in the Tate Modern museum, an amazing museum with free entry in a converted power station on the South Bank.


View of St Paul's cathedral, designed by Sir Christopher Wren


Another marvellous church, St Stephen Walbrook, designed by Sir Christopher Wren


The Millennium Bridge across the Thames