LightCentric Photography Blog

Saturday, January 31, 2026

The Second Half of our London Adventure - Todd and Heather

Grand Union Canal - Paddington - London, England
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

TODD AND HEATHER were due in mid-morning. I thought it would be nice to meet them at the train, especially since it was only steps away from our hotel room. 😉 As usual, I was awake early and decided to explore down around the area where we had eaten a couple nights previous in what I think is referred to as the Paddington Business District. It skirts the Paddington Basin and the Grand Union Canal, mostly along its westerly side as it flows north toward "Little Venice," and eventually, Camden Town. I walked all the way up to a quite wide spot in the canal; an area called "Little Venice." It was there that we were to board our canal boat later that morning. I was surprised that it was only about a 10-15 minute walk. Once I cleared the business district (which is also the site of a significant multi-story residential living area), how quiet it got. Along the canal itself were numerous liveaboard canal boats. It appears that the city allows them to dock there for a limited period (like 2 - 3 weeks) and then they must move along.

Code-Breaker Memorial - Paddington - London, England
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

THE PREVIOUS morning, I had discovered a coffee shop just partway up the tunnel toward the other end of the station. The night we left Smith's Tavern, we realized that this tunnel was the more direct way back to our hotels. The walk from our hotel entrance in the train station to this area was less than 10 minutes and mostly all flat (one medium staircase), before emerging just south of the highway bridge, just this side of Smith's Tavern (and other establishments). Under the bridge there is a kind of cool digital monument to the WWII code breaker, Alan Turing. For those who haven't heard it, there is a story that he was killed eating a poisoned apple, and that Apple Computer's name was in tribute to him. Most accounts and officials at Apple deny that there is any connection other than coincidental.

Food and Drink establishments along the Grand Union Canal
Paddington - London, England
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

ALONG THE canal in that business district, there were a couple canal boats that had been converted into various food establishments. One specialized in breakfasts. Another was a wine and cheese establishment. Yet another seemed to serve as a floating food truck. It was easy to tell that during prime periods the place was popular. It was a fun and interesting walk with a couple fun photo ops. The "walking/standing" man statues were fun to play around with some perspective shots.

Standing/Walking Man Statues - Paddington
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

WALKING ONWARD, I soon realized from the signs and what became visible ahead, that it was really only a short distance to an area on the Grand Union Canal known as "Little Venice." There, the canal widened out into a kind of natural turning basin.

Canal Tour Boats - Little Venice - London, England
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

ON ONE side there were touring "canal boats" that you could ride back and forth between here and Camden, and even beyond by negotiating "Camden Lock" (Todd and Heather had actually purchased tickets for us to do that very excursion later that morning).

Liveaboards along the Grand Union Canal between Paddington and Little Venice
London, England
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

ON THE other side there was a nice little canal boat - turned restaurant which appeared to be a popular place for breakfast. When I walked by early that morning, it wasn't yet open. When we returned a couple hours later, it was hopping. The entire surrounding locality is a nice, quiet, and apparently reasonably affluent residential area. At the end of the wide spot there is a bridge with an accompanying footbridge that crosses the canal. The bridge is ornate and photogenic and it is easy to tell from there (other than the canal) how the area gets the "Little Venice" name.

Westbourne Terrace Road Bridge - Little Venice
London, England
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

THERE IS also one of the ubiquitous "British Pubs." Again, at that early hour, it was closed. But I do have it in my "gunsight" for a future visit. 😀 I headed back toward Paddington and the train station as it was getting closer to their arrival time.

The Bridge House Pub - Little Venice - London, England
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

I ARRIVED back at the train station landing right around the time Todd and Heather's LHR Express train was to arrive. And, shortly, I saw them walking along the platform. After months of anticipation, it was great to see them. My wife joined us on the platform and we headed up to the hotel lobby, where they checked their bags with the concierge, so we could walk up the street and grab some breakfast. Heather had booked a reservation for us around noon for one of the canal boats that goes from "Little Venice" up to the Camden Lock, and Camden, a kind of "rock & roll" famous area of London. Having just done it, I knew we could walk it easily, and after hours on an airplane, they were ready to stretch their legs.

Just under the bridge, you can see the man operating the Camden Lock
Camden - London, England
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

THE CANAL ride was interesting. One of my biggest challenges with my travel photography is trying to shoot scenery from a moving vessel (whether it be a boat or a vehicle). But I always try, and sometimes I am at least a little bit successful at getting a feel for the place. On the canal, the "scenery" along the banks changed from affluent multiple unit housing, to single homes (some of them outright estates), to a semi-industrial area, before reaching the commercial and touristy Camden. We even went through the middle of the London Zoo.

Single family homes along the Grand Union Canal near Camden - London, England
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

CAMDEN WAS a kind of cool, eclectic place. As we approached the wharf area where we disembarked our canal boat, I was struck by this pretty grandiose Chinese restaurant right on the bend of the canal.

Camden - London, England
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

WE DID some people-watching, and a little trinket shopping.

Camden Markets
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

Camden - London, England
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

Well. I am thinking there is at least one pair I could probably pull off 😆
Camden Markets - London, England
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

WE THEN found "The World's End" bar, on Heather's bucket list for this trip. There we sat and had our first couple of many beers over the next couple weeks. The bar is fairly large and the currently operating interior space is open, and bright with a large, enclosed bar in the middle of the main room. There is also an upstairs balcony overlooking the bar. During our stop here, I excused myself to find the mens room, and discovered what is undoubtedly the original bar. It was closed, but by the looks of it, there are certainly times when it is still in use. It looked much more like the early centuries, dark, clubby atmosphere that we would see many times during the next week.

The World's End Tavern - Camden - London, England
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

IT WAS a pretty easy subway ride back to Paddington from there, and after checking in and freshening up, we walked (again) down to The Victoria. We didn't have reservations, but we asked if we could be seated and they accomodated us. After a choppy start (it didn't seem like they were really prepared) we were seated in their upstairs dining area, a very charming, but small room upstairs from the bar. Things got better from there. The food was excellent. The company was - of course - fun, and we thoroughly enjoyed the meal. And then we were all ready to crash.

WE DIDN'T have a really jammed itinerary for the next couple days. They arrived on Friday, and we had car service reserved for Monday morning, so we had Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We did have a couple scheduled things. One was a visit to the Churchill War Rooms. We did that on Sunday, and Heather was feeling a bit "Under the weather," so she stayed in. Shortly after boarding our cruise ship that same "crud" (basically cold symptoms) caught up with me, too. Our Churchill tour was partly outdoors and began down along the Thames, and partly down in the basement area that housed the war rooms. All pretty fascinating, especially if you are at all a history buff. I'll cover it in a separate post soon.

THE SECOND planned event was something that kind of grew from a thought I had in 2021 into a solid plan in 2025. As we walked along Fleet Street toward St. Paul's back in 2021, I noted several quaint looking pubs, that were equally quaintly named. We walked by a few of them and it seemed like it might be fun to drop in a couple of them for "a pint." But we were on an organized walking tour at the time. Fast forward to 2025, and the 4 of us planned a full-blown "Pub Crawl." Next up: our London Pub Crawl.

Saturday, January 24, 2026

A Morning Photowalk with Rob

Blackwalls Basis - Canary Wharf, Londonn
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

I MENTIONED last post that we would be spending a couple days with our friends, Rob and Carol, from Manchester. They have a daughter now living in London, and they love to visit the city (actually cities). Rob's mom and a sister also live in Cambridge, which is about 50 miles northeast of London, and about 100 miles southeast of Manchester, so it makes sense for them to do "on-the-way" stops. They drove to Cambridge and left their car there, riding the train to London.

Canal - Canary Wharf, London
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

WE HAD been planning this trip for well over a year, and as things got closer, we kept in communication. Their Paddington hotel was literally around the corner from ours, both immediately adjacent to the Paddinton Train Station, which was very convenient for us. One of the things Rob had mentioned to me was that - like I normally am - he is an early riser and would like to "tag along" with me on one or more of my morning photowalks. I use quotation marks because it turns out that Rob (who once lived in London back in his college days), was very familiar with many parts of the city and he and Carol made splendid guides (though we did have some fun showing them one or two things we knew of that they didn't 😊).

Blackwalls Basin - Canary Wharf, London
(This is the area that would perhaps yield some nice reflections with a nice morning sun)
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

ON OUR second day, I mentioned to Rob that I wanted to find a photo-spot called "Blackwall Basin" that I had seen online and heard made for some nice reflection opportunities. Unfortunately, during most of the first part of our stay in London, sun (especially in the morning) was a scarce commodity, and I didn't get the reflections, but I do know now, where it is and how to get to the photo spot, for another trip. Rob said "I know where that is. It is at the Canary Wharf." The Canary Wharf was once a busy commerce harbor on the Thames, know for shipping - perhaps especially fish and fish processing. Over the years it fell into disrepair and was often described as "derelict" (presumably not an area you would want to frequent). In the 1980's a Canadia businessman concieved the idea of turning the area into a financial and business district. Obviously (from my visit there) pretty successful, the area is now somewhat sought after by businesses and residential dwellers alike. And, of course, it has become expensive. There are a couple "Tube" stops there and we easily found our way from Paddington. Walking around the wharf area, we could see where I wanted to stand - just not how to get there. I made a few shots and was really kind of ready to give up. But Rob is tenacious. He was sure he could find us a way there. And he did! It was a nice morning, Rob. Lets do it again soon somewhere (and by the way, you are welcome for that cup of coffee 😁).

Saturday, January 17, 2026

London: A Couple of Fun Days with Rob and Carol

WE MET up with Rob and Carol our first afternoon, in the lobby of our hotel. Our plan for the afternoon was to hit a couple of the local pubs in Paddington, and then have dinner somewhere. Earlier in the day, I had taken my first real walk down some of the side streets. In 2021, I only had one morning on my own, as we had a very full itinerary. I only walked up the main drag (Praed Street) a ways, and then discovered a nice, quiet little nook off the street (which I later learned was the Paddington Basin). On our first night in, we asked the concierge at the hotel for where we could find a pub to get some dinner. He really wasn't very helpful. He basically said there wasn't anything nearby and suggested a Mexican restaurant over behind the Paddington Station. We like Mexican food. But we were exhausted, and it was late, and we really didn't want to venture that far in the dark, on our first day in London. We ended up eating in a pub that was right in the station (which the concierge didn't even mention). We have liked the Paddington Hilton for the most part, but the concierge really wasn't very good that year. The guy behind that desk this year in 2025 was outstanding.

The Victoria Pub - Paddington - London, England
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

IT TURNS out that there are lots of pubs nearby. Some of them serve food. Some don't. Walking southeast from Praed Street, on either of the streets that flank the Hilton (Easbourne Terrace and London Street) just 3 blocks takes you to the very traditional and nice Victoria Pub, right on the edge of the high-end Hyde Park Gardens. It is at quiet intersection of residential streets and there is a bench right across from it that became my "office" on a couple mornings for a cigar and coffee. We started on Spring Street, just one street to the south of Sussex, at a cool little local brew pub called The Bear, where we sampled a couple of their micro-brews. From the Bear, we started looking for another pub on London Street: Dickens Tavern (we somehow passed it by, but ended up there for a very uninspiring dinner later in the week). Instead, we walked on down to the Victoria, where we sat outside and had a couple nice cocktails. Afterward, we walked back up Spring Street, where there are several streetside restaurants (wonder where they were in 2021 - I suppose it is possible that they were all closed up due to the pandemic). We found them a nice place to sit and "people watch," and did so on a couple occasions.

SINCE OUR stay in 2021, a very nice, modern restaurant had opened up right on the corner near our hotel: Vapiano Paddington. We decided to give them a try our first night. An Italian restaurant, they featured a very cool, electronic ordering system (becoming more and more common in cities around the world). The food was really very good. Fresh. And service was also fast. An added plus: it was two doors down from their hotel and 1/2 block from ours.

WE MET again mid-morning the next day, with a plan to go down to the City of London and walk around. We had no specific itinerary, except to go to the Borough Market, a large, indoor-outdoor market with some really great artisan foods (cheeses, breads, wine, produce, nuts and candies, etc.). That gave me some time to follow my routine of getting out with my camera, grabbing some coffee, and walking around the area. I concentrated on the area south of the Paddington Station, where we had walked the night before. I wanted to explore the Hyde Park area. It is primarily residential, and I didn't really find anything too exciting, photographically, though I did make a few images. I did discover a little park (there are tons of them in London) in an area called Sussex Gardens, with a rather unique statue setup of Paddington Bear, and some cinematographic bears photographing him. Cute.

AT ONE point earlier I had mentioned to Rob that there were two things I wanted to try while in London this trip: a Scotch Egg and Pork Pie. Todd and I had some conversation during our planning stages and I assumed we would order them at one of our meals. To my surprise (and later delight), at some point just as we left the Market, Rob walked up and handed me a bag. In it was a large scotch egg and pork pie! I wasn't really sure what to do with them, as we were staying in the hotel and would probably be eating dinner out each night. That "problem" solved itself later in the week. Rob and Carol headed home on Thursday afternoon, and Todd and Heather would not arrive until Friday morning. We didn't have plans for dinner that night and were - frankly - exhausted. My friend behind the concierge desk took care of us, heated the scotch egg and porkpie, and delivered them to our room (when I had gotten back to the hotel on this particular evening I had asked the concierge if they could refrigerate the egg and pie for me. I would figure out what to do with it later).

FOR THIS day, we found a nice restaurant for lunch right on the Thames (one that I had walked by a few times during our 2021 visit and smelled wonderful steak cooking smells): The Old Thameside Inn. Interestingly, it turns out that all these old and famous pubs and taverns in London are now owned by one or two large corporate outfits (we would again see this trend on our "pub crawl" later in the week). Two corporate owners that we seemed to encounter a few times in pubs were Nicholsons Pubs, and Greene King. The Old Thameside is a Nicholson's establishment. It was good, traditional pub food, and staying true to that theme, I had the fish and chips. And thoroughly enjoyed them. We found the Nicholsons establishments to be pretty uniformly good. The Green King establishments were yet another story.

AFTER THE nice lunch, we walked along the river for a bit and eventually over the (pedestrian only) Millenium Bridge to the St. Paul's Cathedral area. We had a nice surprise when we learned that we actually knew of "a place" that our friends did not - and had never been to. In 2021, we had done a walking tour of that area and our guide had taken us to a top-floor bar and restaurant that had a splendid view of St. Paul's dome - and the City of London. Best yet, there was an elevator up! On our tour, we just went up to look and make a couple pictures. This time, we were ready to partake in some cocktails, along with the look. As we got up to the top, as we remembered, it is indeed quite a view. But to my disappointment, the view is now "lessened" by large, 5 or 6 foot plexiglass panels, to keep viewers back from the roof's edge. For their own safety. It seems that since 2021 there have been a couple jumpers. It's the world we live in today. I wrote (ranted?) about this not long ago in Making The World a Safer Place.

THAT EVENING we located the Dickens Pub near our hotels and went in to see if we could get a burger. The front end was quaint and might have been a fun spot to have "a pint" as they say in London. The area where they served food was another story. it was back through and resembled more than anything I can think to describe: a pool hall (replete with a table). It was getting late and we were hungry, so we sat. Like many of the London pubs, ordering was done through and app. Easy enough. But that's where it fell apart. After our order was in and a wait, the waitress came back to inform us that 2 of the 4 of us had ordered entree's that they had run out of. We had to re-order. The food was - at best description - mediocre, to perhaps just not very good. Maybe a one-off, but this, we learned, was a Greene King establishment. Beer and spirits are what they are. But food is something that you can do really well. Or not so much. We were in a couple other Greene King pubs during the week. But never to have food.

THE FOLLOWING day, Rob and Carol had made us reservations at the Natural History Museum (free admission, but reservations highly recommended). We agreed to meet mid-morning for our 11:00 reservations. Rob and I had discussed him joining me for my morning photo-walk, and I was interested in finding a morning location called Blackwalls Basin. He knew where it was and how to get there, so we met first thing that morning and jumped on the Tube, to head for Canary Wharf; London's new-ish and up and coming commercial financial district, to find the basin. With Rob's able guidance, find it we did. Look for an upcoming separate post on that morning's adventure soon.

BACK IN Paddington, we met up with the ladies, and headed over to the Natural History Museum. For me, perhaps the most impressive part was the building. It is rather massive, and architecturally magnificent. We spent a few hours there, and then headed back to Paddington. That night, we had reservations at a well-regarded, nice restaurant near our hotels: Smith's Tavern. Our feet and legs were complaining, so we took the tube back to Paddington and sat at one of the streetside restaurants for a bit. Getting to Smith's would prove a challenge, but one that was well worth it. The food and atmosphere was excellent and I would readily recommend it to anyone staying in or near the Paddington area. There is another whole dimension of Paddington that we weren't aware of, on the backside of Paddington Station, along the Grand Union Canal. I will go into more detail when I blog about my morning walks later in the week. For now, this area is where the Smith's Tavern is.

PADDINGTON IS built around a major train station, and our hotel is built right on top of it. Below, there are two levels. The first (which is also street level) is the train station, with some nice little shops and the escalator to the Hilton at one end. One level down is the Tube. What we didn't know was that you could access the other side of the station from there (though it stands to reason and we probably should have known). I discovered it while doing some exploring the next morning. Part of the issue was that there was major construction going on, making it confusing. That second evening, we set out to walk to the northeast of the station only to find it barricaded. We didn't realize that all we had to do was walk down some stairs to the tunnel between ends of the station. Instead, we walked all the way around the front of the station, to the back and up a steady grade to get to the other side. Once there, we had to cross a major street and then go back down stairs to get to our destination. On my "wander" the next morning, I discovered that we had more than doubled our necessary walk, and included an uphill grade and stairway down that the tunnel right near our hotel exit completely eliminated. 😏 That information stood us in good stead later that week.

ROB AND CAROL were planning to take a train to Oxford, where his mom lives, later that afternoon. Since we still had the morning/early afternoon, we decided to go check out Harrods Department Store. It was on my bucket list to see someday. Parts of it were pretty impressive. There is a cool escalator in the middle of the store. There is a food court (that's what they call it - but it isn't really like any food court I have ever seen) in the middle of things. There are only 6 establishments in it and they are all sit-down and be served restaurants. We wanted something a little less over the top and weren't really all that interested in taking out second mortgages to afford lunch, so we walked on through. As far as the rest - hey, its a mall. Same old same old name brand stores. Just lots of them. Been there; done that. 😐 The outside is grand and imposing, though, taking up all of a large city block. I can now say I have seen it.

Harrods - London, England

AFTER A nice lunch at a sidewalk cafe, we headed back to Paddington. They had already checked out and left their luggage in our room, so they picked that up and we walked them out to the train station and bid our farewells, promising to get together somewhere in the world again. Soon. It had been a busy few days and we (and our feet) were exhausted. We looked forward to an evening staying in and doing nothing. And for our dinner, I was able to talk the concierge into heating up our Scotch Egg and Pork Pie. We shared them, with some cookies I bought at the store in the train station for our dinner. It was plenty of food (too much, really) for the two of us. But both were delicious. It actually wouldn't be our last time for either of them this week.