London - City of London

Within London there is a small city called the City of London aka the Square Mile which is now the financial and business centre of London but it has been a city since the Romans occupied the area in the first century. This area was mostly destroyed (80%) in the Great Fire of 1666 which was rebuilt by a hired architect named Sir Christopher Wren.

St. Paul's Cathedral- Wren's greatest monument

St. Paul's Cathedral with a statue of Queen Anne facing away from the landmark. She has 4 figures sitting below her representing the American colonies, Ireland, France, England; all of the areas she was sovereign.

The original St. Paul's was consecrated in 1240 but was destroyed in during the Great Fire of London. The building of this cathedral was built between 1675-1720. Mostly it took so long to rebuild because they originally tried to rebuild from the original structure but scrapped it to rebuild a more modern cathedral. Luckily the cathedral was not damaged during WWII but it did have a lot of close calls. It was targeted during the Blitz and throughout the war there were attempts to place time-bombs within the walls.

These blue trees were near St. Paul's Cathedral and is part of a global project by an artist named Konstantin Dimopoulos. Which is meant to bring awareness to the deforestation that is happening in many parts of the world. He has been all over the world painting trees blue. When I saw them I realized how small this world is because he also came to my university and painted a portion of the trees on campus blue.

Palace of Whitehall seen in the background along the River Thames. This was the main residence for English monarchs during the 16th and 17th centuries, mainly the Tudor family. King Henry VIII married 2 of his wives in this palace, he also died in this palace. William Shakespeare's play the Tempest was performed in the palace.

 The Monument - also built my Sir Wren in memory of all that was lost in the Great Fire. This was built near where the fire started on Pudding Lane by a baker after midnight on Sunday 2 Sept and the city burned for 3 days after. There is 311 steps leading up to the top of the monument which allows a panoramic view of the city for a small price of 3 pounds, 2 pounds for students.

A view down the spiral staircase within the monument

View of Tower Bridge (mistakenly thought of as London Bridge) from the top of the Monument. London Bridge was used as a datum or pinpoint of direction for the Nazi bombers during the Blitz. They were ordered to not destroy it.