London pride

For a long time, London was somewhere we had to visit because we had family there; it wasn't somewhere I particularly enjoyed going. Somewhere in the past few years, that has changed: the main point of going to London is still to see friends and family, but now I enjoy the city for itself as well. I still wouldn't want to live there: I've done that, and paid my dues, and don't need to do it again. And I wouldn't want to be a serious tourist in London either - so many major monuments, so many miles of streets between them. But catching sight of the Tower just because the most practical route from one visit to the next takes you over Tower Bridge, that's magical. As are the details, the glimpses, the statues and quirks and "smaller" museums...

Last week we went to Dulwich, and its Picture Gallery, and to the Geffrye Museum; and just walked around and looked about us. I love the approach of Smoke magazine, its articles about bus routes and lost rivers, its clever-dick sense of humour.

There's a whole web site about public lettering in London - and a Flickr group on the same subject.

And another Flickr group, the London Book dedicated to all the details of London architecture. Wonderful stuff.