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| Trafalgar Square |
The London Blog is about exploring London. Some of the stuff I'll talk about may already be familiar to you but whether you're a visitor or someone who lives here, I'm hoping you'll discover places you didn't know about before. I've lived in London for over a quarter of a century, yet despite this I'm forever discovering hidden corners I never knew existed!
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| Strand on the Green |
Most people will be familiar with the major attractions (e.g. Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace etc.), so I won't have much to say about these. Instead the blog will be concentrating on the slightly less familiar places - for example, you may well have heard of Greenwich but how many have ever heard of Strand on the Green? For those who don't have time to venture this far out of the centre, I'll also talk about hidden corners right in the heart of London - every year, millions of visitors pass within a few hundred yards of these places without ever knowing of their existence! Large cities are never static places, so I'll also be looking at what's new in London. With the 2012 Summer Olympics fast approaching the landscape is changing rapidly so there's going to be lots of new stuff to see.
The aim of this blog is to try to pass on my own personal experience of exploring one of the major cities of the world. As a photographer, I'll be attempting to illustrate this with my own images.
The London Blog is open to comments, so please feel free to correct any inaccuracies or add additional information of your own.
During the 2012 Olympics, Westfield Stratford City will provide the main access to the Olympic Park and large screens will be displayed along the centre's walkways showing the main sporting events. 
The large number of retail stores makes Westfield Stratford city a serious alternative to the 1.5 mile long Oxford Street in London's West End. The complex contains many retail outlets including many of the big names such as John Lewis, Waitrose, and Marks and Spencer. It also has hotels and a leisure complex which includes restaurants, a cinema, and casino. Nearby will be a new purpose-built community of 5,000 homes, offices, schools, and public spaces making this a major metropolitan centre in East London. The centre is well worth a visit if only for the views it offers of the Olympic Stadium but if at all possible avoid going at the weekend as the shopping concourse can get as busy and hectic as Oxford Street at its worst!