Dear Twilight Hunter,
London has many faces, colours, tones, personalities - and yes, sometimes the dismal, foggy, grey one is the most accurate. But when you put the great English city in the same box as the rest of Europe, London comes out as comparatively dry. This is hard to believe, especially when you're in the thick of it, but it doesn't rain a lot. It's just that the clouds which drop the rain over Wales or Dorset or Manchester like to hang out over the Thames for a while before moving on.
So even without the constant rain, you might think London amounts to bone-picking for the horizon connoisseur, who drums his thumbs while the sun rides behind impenetrable heavens. But for some reason, or many, London is one of my favourite places in the world to watch the twilight, and I would hazard a guess that an average day gives an open sky for morning, or a breaking sky for evening, or both. And, as we know, the best sunrises and sunsets are the ones with lots of different clouds, clear of the beams but part of the structure, repoussoirs of cumulus and cirrus and whatever the term is for the retreating fog, all vying for the best paint from the brushes of the sun.
And when it is just right in London, you don't just have the sky: you've got the red bricks, dirty stones, brown tenements and triumphal spires, a dramatic, struggling, chaotic yet organic 2,000 year-old hodge-podge of architectural and art history, a grand and mad but deceptively laconic river, and a people who appreciate more than most what it means when the sun finally peeks out and makes a show.
This is twilight (with some fireworks for added effect) in the urban spaces of London.
London has many faces, colours, tones, personalities - and yes, sometimes the dismal, foggy, grey one is the most accurate. But when you put the great English city in the same box as the rest of Europe, London comes out as comparatively dry. This is hard to believe, especially when you're in the thick of it, but it doesn't rain a lot. It's just that the clouds which drop the rain over Wales or Dorset or Manchester like to hang out over the Thames for a while before moving on.
So even without the constant rain, you might think London amounts to bone-picking for the horizon connoisseur, who drums his thumbs while the sun rides behind impenetrable heavens. But for some reason, or many, London is one of my favourite places in the world to watch the twilight, and I would hazard a guess that an average day gives an open sky for morning, or a breaking sky for evening, or both. And, as we know, the best sunrises and sunsets are the ones with lots of different clouds, clear of the beams but part of the structure, repoussoirs of cumulus and cirrus and whatever the term is for the retreating fog, all vying for the best paint from the brushes of the sun.
And when it is just right in London, you don't just have the sky: you've got the red bricks, dirty stones, brown tenements and triumphal spires, a dramatic, struggling, chaotic yet organic 2,000 year-old hodge-podge of architectural and art history, a grand and mad but deceptively laconic river, and a people who appreciate more than most what it means when the sun finally peeks out and makes a show.
This is twilight (with some fireworks for added effect) in the urban spaces of London.
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| Temporary exhibit at the Barbican Centre City of London |
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| Not a great shot, but I like what the flash does to the road sign Cricklewood at dusk Borough of Brent |
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| Kilburn Station at dusk Borough of Camden |
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| Behind the National Theatre Borough of Southwark |
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| Fireworks at the London Eye, New Years 2010 Westminster Bridge |
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| Fireworks at the London Eye, New Years 2010 Westminster Bridge |
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| Fireworks at the London Eye, New Years 2010 Westminster Bridge |
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| Fireworks at the London Eye, New Years 2010 Westminster Bridge |
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| Fireworks at the London Eye, New Years 2010 Westminster Bridge |
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| Fireworks at the London Eye, New Years 2010 Westminster Bridge |
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| Fireworks at the London Eye, New Years 2010 Westminster Bridge |
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| Dusk at Oxford Circus City of Westminster |
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| Somerset House City of Westminster |
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| Sunset Millennium Bridge |
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| Sunset at St. Paul's Cathedral City of London |
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| Sunset at St. Paul's Cathedral City of London |
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| Sunset at St. Paul's Cathedral City of London |
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| Sunset at St. Paul's Cathedral City of London |
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| Sunset at St. Paul's Cathedral City of London |
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| Sunset at St. Paul's Cathedral City of London |
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| Sunset in Cricklewood Borough of Barnet |
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| Sunset in Cricklewood Borough of Barnet |
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| Winter sunset at Goldsmiths College Borough of Lewisham |
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| Sunset in Greenwich Royal Borough of Greenwich |
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| Sunset in Greenwich Royal Borough of Greenwich |
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| Sunset on the Thames London Bridge |
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| Sunset on the Thames from the Temple District City of London |
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| Sunset on the Thames |
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| Sunset on the Thames |
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| Sunset on the Thames |
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| Sunset behind Millenium Bridge City of London |
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| W for Waterstone's Bookshop on the Strand City of Westminster |
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| Westbourne Grove Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea |
Yours,
QM
