London in Pictures [antikvár]

London in Picturesphotographs: Kenneth ScowenFor centuries the River Thames was the main highway of London and thus it was convenient for the fortresses and palaces, the seats of government and courts of justice, the great churches and centres of commerce, the theatres and places of recreation to be established on or near its banks. Only traces of the Roman occupation remain, but the heavy hand of William the Conqueror is still evident. Since his time, nine centuries of architectural and political development have patterned a tapestry of tremendous richness and variety. Scenes from it are presented in this book. Kenneth Scowen's beautiful photographs include the familiar and the unique. They are arranged in a sequence moving from east to west and following the Thames from Greenwich to Windsor, withtext: Olwen Hedleyminor diversions north and south. It was from the east that the Roman, Danish and Norman invaders came to London. Today most visitors from overseas arrive from the west, from Heathrow Airport, near Windsor Castle. They are now warmly welcomed and it is for them that this book is produced.the photographs: Those not by Kenneth Scowen are otherwise acknowledged. (Front cover) The Queen's Guard at the gates of Buckingham Palace (British Travel Authority); (facing) Westminster Hall in the Palace of Westminster (Sydney W. Newbery) ; (above) the magnificent panorama from the Victoria Tower looking towards the City of London zvith the Houses of Parliament in the foreground and County Hall and the Shell complex on the right; (back cover) a view that inspired Turner: zointer sunset on the Thames at Chelsea.Greenwich and BlackheathGreenwich, where the noble buildings of the Royal Naval College stand parted at the river's edge to reveal the Queen's House and the heights of Greenwich Park, is immemorially royal. This part of the 'green village' belonged in the 10th century to Alfred the Great's youngest daughter. Princess Elstrudis, countess of Flanders. Beneath the lawns of the Royal Naval College he the foundations of a 15th-century royal palace called 'Pleasaunce' or 'Placentia', which became a favourite of the Tudor sovereigns. Henry VIII and Elizabeth I were born there. It was at Greenwich, as Elizabeth was walking home from the park, that Sir Walter Raleigh traditionally laid his cloak before her so that she could cross the muddy road dryshod. On or near the site of this incident James I's queen, Anne of Denmark, elected to build the lovely Queen's House designed by Inigo Jones. It was completed by Charles I for his consort, Henrietta Maria, and is today the central show-placeof the National Maritime Museum, opened in 1937. The old palace of Placentia decayed during the Commonwealth and in 1694 Mary II founded in its place the Royal Naval Hospital, now the Royal Naval College. It is one of Sir Christopher Wren's greatest achievements. King WiUiam Block contains the grand Painted Hall. On the hill of Greenwich Royal Park stand the original buildings of the Royal Observatory, founded by Charles II and now removed to Hurstmonceux Castle in Sussex, and beyond it the grassy stretches and elegant houses of Blackheath. The moated medieval palace of Eltham, where the great hall of Edward IV survives, lies to the south-east.the photographs: The Cutty Sark at Greenwich; late 18th-century houses at Blackheath; the Sovereign's Gates at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich; Morden College, a Wren masterpiece at Blackheath; (facing) Charlton House, a magnificent Jacobean mansion at GreenvAch.