We stayed in London on four occasions during 2015, as well as spending three weeks doing a house sit in Newbury, an hour west of Heathrow, and a long weekend visit to Tunbridge Wells.  

London

Covent Garden entertainer and his audience. Someone looking for coffee hangs around the Zimbabwe Embassy steps. The Pearly kings and queens are a charitable organisation originating in the 19th Century, mother-of-pearl buttons sewn onto their black outfits.

There is always something going on around Covent Garden.

A courful lass watches Convent Gardens dancers. Barrow Market cheese.

Shoreditch, one of London's coolest areas.

Not so cool

South bank.

The National Gallery – looking at pictures can be a tiring business

Always things going on in Trafalgar Square plus another painting from the National Gallery.

Wimbledon - watched Nadal play Dustin Brown.

Kenwood House, where Rembrandt's self-portrait hangs casually on the walls, looks over Hampstead Heath. You get a nice view of London from here.

Some views from the Skygarden and St Pauls. A junior school parking line-up (bottom right second collage). 

Newbury and Winchester

Shots from Winchester including King Arthur's Round Table, commissioned to be built by Edward 1 in 1290. In the Arthurian legend, Arthur and his knights congregated around this table.

The twin towered gatehouse of 14th Century Donnington Castle near Newbury.

The Newbury Canals and Highclere, owned by Lord Carnavon who found the Sphinx, used in the Downton Abbey series.

Fifties/Sixties festival near our house stay in Newberry

Oxford

One of the entrances to the Bodlein Library – the sign says 'Silence please.'

More pictures from Oxford plus a page from Alice in Wonderland Exhibition in the Oxford Library. The text: "The rabbit sends in a little bill"

Tunbridge Wells

Old and new Dandy

Tunbridge Wells opera house and Old Scotney Castle, built in 1378.  In 1830 a new castle was built and the old castle was ruined in order to create a "romantic folly in the garden"