Urban Wandering: London's Painted Ladies

One of the great things about really cold weather, is that when you get a cold but sunny day, it's fantastic. This was true of yesterday when I took my new favourite lunchtime stroll west of Paddington out towards Westbourne Park and Ladbroke Grove. The first picture is of the magnificent, painted houses on the crescent part of the Lansdowne Road. These are almost as good as the Painted Ladies in San Francisco. Interestingly it looked as though most of these had been recently painted, and some were still being worked on.

Lansdowne Road, London W10

I continued west up to Pottery Lane and Portland Road. Having recently seen a documentary called The Secret History of Our Streets (London) I was keen to see Portland Road, and witness for myself the contrast between north and south. I had walked this way a couple of weeks ago but was drawn to Pottery Lane instead so this was the first time I'd really looked at Portland Road in any detail. Walking back towards Paddington I came across this curious building, Bonham House. I assume it's residential but it has the look of an old hospital or asylum about it. I particularly like the chimney stack.

Bonham House, Ladbroke Road, London W10

Inevitably as we approach Christmas there are lights and decorations everywhere. I quite liked this display as it was tasteful as opposed to some of the garish sights around.

Christmas lights, somewhere near Bond Street, London

    

Have you checked out my vintage postcard blog or my vintage magazines blog ?

The Hollington loop

One of our favourite walks we can do from home is something we call the Hollington loop which leaves Woolton Hill and takes us up through Highclere (now famous because of Downton Abbey), through some wonderful copses and on to Hollington Lane before heading back towards Woolton Hill. It takes about an hour and a quarter depending on how sticky the mud is underfoot. My favourite part of the walk is pictured below. This is an open area somewhere between Ireland's Copse and Long Copse. I've often seen deer in this area but I think today we were a bit too noisy, making the most of a child free atmosphere to catch up on various things.

So, this was a great start to the day. Unfortunately things went a bit downhill after that with my son's football team being totally out played this afternoon, but hopefully a learning experience. Back home now though and looking forward to a nice hot bath followed by beef casserole, and maybe a glass or two of red.

Only 15 working days left until the Christmas break for me, and to be honest it can't come soon enough. Not because I particularly look forward to Christmas as such, but more because I need a decent break from work which has been manic, often pointlessly so, over the past few months. My vintage postcard advent calendar is up again this year - take a look and see what's behind each window throughout December.

Thanks to BBC radio 6, 6music, I have "discovered" a band called Public Service Broadcasting and have just downloaded as many of their tracks as I could find. Basically they take 1940's/1950's audio recordings and set them to a soundtrack ... can't recommend them enough !!