Apr 25th - London

 Today started off as a visit down memory lane as we took ourselves off for a trip across the river (i.e the ‘Thames’) to ‘Sarf London’ and more specifically Battersea, the suburb where I grew up.  It was interesting wandering around Clapham Junction, one of my old stomping grounds, to see how much has changed over the years, some good and some not so!  One of the positives though was an old ‘watering hole’ I used to frequent, ‘The Falcon’, and very much improved over the years 😁 🍻.  Another added attraction was a new Pie, Mash, and Eel shop which was delicious.  It’s ‘only’ been there 12 years now and I had no idea!  I really must get back more often. 

Our next stop was a bus ride to Battersea Power Station, very recently opened as an affluent residential and business centre, which, after 39 years of neglect, looks like a great success.  Not knowing much about the new place before we got there we had a bit of luck in sighting what we thought was an observation window on one of the chimneys. It turned out that we were nearly right but it’s actually an observation lift with some great views of the Thames and surrounds.  The actual power station itself is just enormous with what was the ‘Turbine Room’, but now consisting of upmarket retail therapy establishments, over 150 metres in length (incidentally, during its heyday the turbines in this hall needed 10,000 tons of coal a week to keep them running!).  The power station building itself is now looking fantastic but it’s just a bit of a shame that eventually it’s going to be surrounded and hidden by mega-expensive apartment buildings 🏢🏙️

After our trip up the chimney we went for a wander around Battersea Park just a few minutes along the Thames. This bought about more reminiscing, a favourite fishing spot, the river, Henry Moore statues, the old bowling green, the Peace Pagoda, the water fountains, more views of the Power Station, it was great, and although there’s not a lot around it was good to see some spring flowers and birdlife about as well.  

It was off to the ‘Phantom of the Opera’ this evening at the very recently name changed ‘’His’ Majesty’s Theatre’.  It’s a lovely building, and there were some great  voices in the show, but overall give me a play over a musical any day.