VISIT TO EUROPE - UNITED KINGDOM - LONDON - HOLBORN & WEST MINISTER

CHAPPIDI ABHIRATH REDDY,
C/O COL GKS REDDY,hile on a visit

Secunderabad - 500 015.

Visit to Holburn (Camden County)

          While on a visit to London in Mar 2014, to meet my children and also to tour some of the European Countries, with London as the Base, I decided to meet Col Sanjay Chibber (Retd), an ex - colleague of mine from National Defence Academy, Kharakvasla (Pune) and an Infantarian like me, who took voluntary retirement from Indian Army, after commanding an Infantry Battalion and moved to London and settled down.

          We decided to meet in his office in Holborn, in the Camden County, adjoining central London on 31 Mar 2014. Since there are two Tube routes to Holborn from Rayners Lane, where I was staying with my daughter - The Fast Metro Line to King's Cross and back to Holborn or The slow Piccadilly Line, which goes directly from Rayners Lane to Holborn, without any changes enroute, I decided to take the slow Piccadilly Line. On the morning of 31 Mar, I took Piccadilly Line at about 1100 h and reached his office in Holborn at about 1200 h.

Holborn

Holborn (/ˈhoʊbərn/ hoh-bə(r)n)[a] is an area of central London and also the name of the area's principal street, known as High Holborn between St. Giles's High Street and Gray's Inn Road (the junction being roughly where Holborn Bar—the entrance to the City of London—once was) and then Holborn Viaduct between Holborn Circus and Newgate Street. Since boundary changes in 1994, the street runs along the boundary between the London Borough of Camden and the City of London; previously the boundary was less obvious in the area and crossed the street at Holborn Bar.

We decided to chat over a glass of English Wine and have lunch at the famous Bleeding Hearts bar at Holborn. We had a long chat about our days together at NDA and Indian Army and at the end of the day decided to celebrate our meeting after a long time by Visiting Lille in France together on 03 Apr 2014. After Lunch, we walked back to his office through the famous Holborn Bars, a heritage building, taking a few snaps enroute

Holborn Bars Building

          Located close to the Holborn Bar city boundary of the City of London it was built on the site of the former Furnival's Inn building of the Inns of Chancery. Designed in Gothic Revival style for the Prudential Assurance Society in phases between 1885 and 1901 by architects Alfred Waterhouse and his son Paul Waterhouse and modified 1930-32 by E. M. Joseph, who introduced Art Deco features. It was expanded again in 1993 by EPR Architects to a floor area of 34,931 square metres.

         The block is bounded by Holborn to the south, Brooke Street to the west, Leather Lane to the east and Beauchamp Street to the north.

        The building featured a library, restaurant, chapel, hall, rooftop promenade and a women's entrance. The complex encloses a courtyard, Waterhouse Square, named after the original architect, who also designed the Natural History Museum and Manchester Town Hall.

The building was listed Grade II* on 3 March 1972.

A view of a the left portion of Holborn Bars upto the central Tower

A view of the central Entrance to the Holborn Bars with my 

colleague Col Sanjay in the foreground

Another view of the Central entrance with self in the Foreground

A view of the rear wing of Holborn Bars from the inner courtyard

Another view of the rear wing of the Holborn Bars

Old Pearl Assurance Building

          On my way back from Col Sanjay's Office to Holborn Tube Station, I was impressed by the Old Pearl Assurance Building, just before the Holborn Station and took a few snaps. The old Pearl Assurance Building, is presently used by the Renaissance Chancery Court Hotel.

A long shot of the Old Pearl Assurance building with a 

dome on top from across the Road

A frontal view of the central entrance of the Renaissance Chancery 

Court Hotel (Former Pearl Assurance Building) 

A view of the Metro Bank Building, a heritage building located 

just across the Square in front of Holborn Tube Station

Visit to Central London

Visited Central London alongwith my elder daughter, son-in-law and Grandson on 18 May 2014, primarily to see London Aquarium. Since I had problems with my camera to take snaps of the Aquarium due to the dim lighting and reflections in the underground Aquarium, I decided to take a few snaps of the area around instead.

A view of the London Aquarium Building taken from the 

South Bank of the West Minister Bridge

A view of the London Eye from West Minister Bridge

A closer view of the Aquarium Building

A view of the South Bank Lion

A closeup of the Inscription on the South Bank Lion Pedestal

A decorative lamp post in front of the Aquarium, 

with West Minister in the Background

A view of the Old MI 5 Building located across the River from the London Eye

Another view of Old MI 5 Building

A long shot of West Minister, Big Ben and West 

Minister Abbey from the London Eye

Another view of West Minister and Big Ben from the London Eye

Some Close Views of London Eye

A close view of London Eye

An even closer view of London Eye

A full view of London Eye from across the Park in front of it

Note:- The information about the places visited has been Extracted from Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia.