Monday, 17 May 2010
Driving in London: Baker Street Station - Oxford St~ Marble Arch - Knightsbridge
knightsbridge luxury mansion
Berkshire
Berkshire is a ceremonial county in the South East of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1958, and letters patent issued confirming this in 1974.
Berkshire borders the counties of Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Surrey, Wiltshire and Hampshire, and is usually regarded as one of the home counties. Under boundary changes in 1995, it also acquired a boundary with Greater London.
Historically the county town was Abingdon, but in 1867 the town of Reading – by then much larger – superseded Abingdon in this role. In 1974 local government reorganisation moved Abingdon and several other north-west Berkshire towns into Oxfordshire. A later reorganisation, in 1998, abolished Berkshire County Council, although retaining Berkshire as a ceremonial county. The highest tier of local government in Berkshire are now the unitary authorities of Bracknell Forest, Reading, Slough, West Berkshire, Windsor and Maidenhead and Wokingham.
Sunday, 9 May 2010
Pont Street
Tuesday, 20 April 2010
Hyde Park Corner
Hyde Park Corner is a place in London, at the south-east corner of Hyde Park. It is a major intersection where Park Lane, Knightsbridge, Piccadilly, Grosvenor Place and Constitution Hill converge. The closest tube station is Hyde Park Corner.
In the centre of the roundabout stands Constitution Arch (or Wellington Arch), designed by Decimus Burton as a memorial to the Duke of Wellington and originally providing a grand entrance to London. It was built as a northern gate to the grounds of Buckingham Palace. Originally the arch was topped with an equestrian statue of the Duke by Matthew Cotes Wyatt, but it was replaced with the current work, The Angel of Peace descending on the Quadriga of Victory (1912) by Adrian Jones. Other monuments at Hyde Park Corner include Jones's Monument to the Cavalry of the Empire (off the west side of Park Lane), Alexander Munro's Boy and Dolphin statue (in a rose garden parallel to Rotten Row, going west from Hyde Park Corner), the Wellington Monument (off the west side of Park Lane) and a statue of Byron (on a traffic island opposite the Wellington Monument).