London II: From Westminster Abbey to Buckingham Palace

I really made the most of this day...

 Big Ben, on the Elizabeth Tower and the London Eye peeking out from behind.

 Palace of Westminster/Houses of Parliament

"Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilisation. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be freed and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new dark age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science."

 Big Ben was my favorite piece of architecture in all of London, because it still had a living sense of regularity about it.

Looking towards Downing Street...

 Nelson's Column at Trafalgar Square

 Charles I in Trafalgar Square

I cut through St. James's Park towards Buckingham Palace

 Took a long-cut through the Mall and round a corner to step into the famous Lock & Co Hatters

 Along the Mall facing the Victoria Memorial at Buckingham Palace

 The clouds parted just in time to kindle all the gold on the memorial and palace gates with a burnished brilliance from the setting sun...

A walk down Constitution Hill with all the distinctive Victorian lamp posts firing up for the night.

 Captain James Cook Memorial

 Moon over the lights of Trafalgar Square.

 Moon over Big Ben. All the visions of my childhood coming true. Big Ben was always in the best stories I knew as a child.

 Across the Thames on a moonlit night, just like the John Atkinson Grimshaw paintings.

 Toad in the Hole for supper...

Moon from my bedroom window in the Camberwell neighborhood.