Good lights

Hair

Churchill

George Canning

The Supreme Court

The Supreme Court was built by Scottish architect James S Gibson (1864 – 1951) with Skipwith and Gordon, and sculptures by Henry Fehr, the building is situated opposite the Houses of Parliament and flanked by the Treasury and Westminster Abbey.  Gibson demonstrated a modern approach to his design by “keeping it quite distinct in scale and style so as to preserve its own individuality.”

Construction took place from 1906 to 1913, as one of a number of significant buildings constructed in the area at the early 1900’s, including the Government Offices in Great George St (now HM Treasury), the Methodist Central Hall, the Head Quarters of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, and the Institute of Civil Engineers.

The boldly massed building has a Portland stone exterior (load bearing with an internal steel frame) and a slate roof. Described as neo-Gothic with Flemish – Burgundian references it is influenced by Henry Wilson and Giles Scott in the concentration of carved ornamental stone balanced by a bare wall plane.

The building has three storeys, a basement and dormered attic storey with a steep hipped roof which is nine bays wide.   The entrance is a segmental arched deep set portal with great segmental arched window above, framed by canted bay turrets (English Heritage listing description).   A tower, with large arched windows and lofty stone chimney stacks, rises above the building to the same height as the nearby parish church of St Margaret. The exterior is decorated with fine stone carvings and parapets and dormers that mirror Barry and Pugin’s Palace of Westminster.

Being of relatively modern construction, the building is in good condition, and the majority of its historic fabric, decoration and fixed furniture survive.   Taken from https://www.supremecourt.uk/visiting/the-building.html

The Supreme Court

The Library

The Supreme Court Emblem

Emblematic curtains

Panel

Brougham

In Commemoration of the First Authorisation by the British Parliament

Model of HMS Victory

Sheep - craftwork made by young offenders

Dream

Necklace made of paper

Café area - old and new

Edward VII presides in the café

War Memorial

We went on to Methodist Central Hall past the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre which was being renovated

Methodist Central Hall

Westminster School

Good use of artificial flowers

The Great Hall

Ceiling

Altar Embroidery

The Organ

Chair patterns

Wonderful staircase

The Chapel

Queen Anne

No sitting...

The Two Chairmen (carrying a sedan chair) is thought to be one of the oldest pubs  in Westminster

3 of us had a satisfactory lunch, but the service was slow

Handsome terrace

We preferred the white paintwork

Falcon House

FALCON HOUSE bought for £50 million by a Middle Eastern royal family as a shell — with no interior walls, stairs or original architectural features, it is now being turned into 33,863sq ft of living space plus a double height basement complex including a swimming pool and underground car park. The house could easily contain 279 standard one-bedroom flats.

Noel de Keyser, a director of Savills, said the chateau-style building would make a perfect house. “It is detached, it is strangely not listed, it is set within gardens, and it will have some very impressive rooms,” he said.

The company declined to comment about the project to restore the building, which was originally built between 1908 and 1910 as headquarters of the Anglo American Oil Company by the same architect who built the Adelphi Theatre, Ernest Runtz.

But de Keyser pointed out that super wealthy families travel with large entourages of domestic staff, assistants and security operatives. “London is a fashionable place to have a home - it is seen as a very safe haven in turbulent times,” he said.

The project is the latest in a string of cavernous super-homes being created in central London to satisfy the demands of the world’s richest men and women. The Qatari royal family is currently putting the finishing touches to a £117.4 million house in Park Lane, while 27,000sq ft Heath Hall in the Bishops Avenue, Hampstead, is on the market for offers in excess of £100 million.

On Sunday 18 June 1944 the Chapel was destroyed by a flying bomb which killed 121 people, yet left the Altar candles burning, a symbol of hope for the future.

The Guards' Chapel is the only remaining Military Chapel in London.

Colours from old campaigns

Welsh Guards glass panel by Laurence Whistler

Shamrock on the collar, blue on the bearskin, but three buttons...

Soldier of the Boer War and a mortar not from the nineteenth century

We watched the band rehearsing;  they are wheeling in the lower picture

We looked at some marvellous tin soldiers in the shop, exquisitely painted, but too expensive for us.

Victoria Memorial

Guards' Bookshop

Office of the High Commission of the Kingdom of Swaziland

You have to believe it...