This is the second set of pictures from my trip to London. They are mostly bad, and mostly taken badly, and they are all of little to no interest to people without ample time to kill at the office. Click here to see part 1.
This is the tube stop where Abbey Road is located. Right outside is the Beatles Coffee Shop, where you can buy overpriced Beatles memorabilia as well as overpriced coffee. If it’s overpriced, they may have it right there. Still, anyone making the pilgrimage will likely feel the need to stop there… if just for directions.
Yet more of the Tube! As a New Yorker by birth and temperment, I find all subway systems fascinating. The Tube is easily one of the best I have ever been on – it goes everywhere, it runs quickly and well, and it’s clean and well-lighted. Sadly, it’s too expensive (four pounds to travel just a few stops?! It gets more expensive the farther you go. I can take the Long Island Railroad farther and in more comfort for less. Still, it only takes me to Long Island), and it closes at 11:30 or something.
Andre Dellamorte meets Jimmy (Jimmy’s on the left). We saw this poster everywhere we went, including on the bus ride to Shepperton Studios every day – where it was 70 feet tall. Being bad people, we found it endlessly amusing.
On Baker Street everything is Sherlock Holmes-related (except for the strangely placed Elvis and Beatles stores, which are side by side, and I hope in big competition), including the Sherlock Holmes coffee shop. That’s where we found this mural of Holmes and Moriarty fighting to death on the waterfall, which Drew McWeeny had to pose before. You can see me in the mirror, as well as the lady we were pissing off by bumping against her to get a better shot.
Moriarty at 221B Baker Street, Holmes’ address. Simon Pegg noted that if Arthur Conan Doyle were writing today and included a real address in his stories, the landlord would sue him. Next to this is the Sherlock Holmes Museum and Store, where you can buy a bewildering amount of Holmsian memorabilia. Seriously, there is an almost frightening amount of stuff, including deerstalker caps and those coats Holmes wore. Your one-stop Sherlock Holmes cosplay location!
The Sherlock Holmes Dry Cleaners (really) has this hilarious sign in the window. Speaking of hilarious…
London certainly wins in the "Best Place Names" sweepstakes.
One thing I liked about London was the number of spooky alleys, many of which contained pubs. Here’s one – Edgar Wright took us to the alley from the opening scene of Peeping Tom. I didn’t take a picture of that, as I am dense.
This came pre-vandalized with ketchup. Had I one more night in London, I certainly would have gone to see Don belting out tunes.
British pubs have great names and signs. You feel more diginified getting stinking drunk in a place named "The Marlborough Head" with that guy’s picture on it.
You see a lot of statues in London, but as I was crossing the street in front of this one, I realized I knew the fellow – Dwight D Eisenhower! Behind him is the American Embassy, where the flag was at half mast…
I couldn’t figure out why. But elsewhere in this park I found…
This deceptive statue of FDR standing up. And standing up quite heroically, I might add. And check that out – a blue sky! In London!
This memorial to the British victims of 9/11 was just down the park from those statues (they’re all in Grosvenor Square). I thought that it was the nicest 9/11 memorial I’ve seen yet.
These round blue plaques are everywhere, which is great when you’re just wandering as I was. I took this picture for my best friend, who is in nursing school, but we saw plenty more, including one on Baker Street which commemorated a house where HG Wells lived and worked. No, I didn’t take a picture of it. I was saving that for the ketchup-smeared Don Johnson.
The webmaster of the #1 His Dark Materials site. During the Inkheart set visit, he bought an Inkheart site, which made him the webmaster of the #1 Inkheart site. His favorite movie is The Shawshank Redemption, and one day he will own the #1 Tim Robbins Escaping Through Your Poop Tunnel site. One day. PS, his site is www.hisdarkmaterials.org. He was begging for links. There you go, Ryan!
From the upcoming book: Romance The Dellamorte Way.
And for our final picture, I want to leave you with this:
She’s a mallgirl mortician from Jersey. He’s a UGO writer from Vancouver. Together they found love in London. Notice the strange ball of energy rising out of where her hand lays in his lap. And now UGO will forever be pronounced: "You go!!"