Checkerboard City

Bob and I met at London Bridge station and slowly made our way to the Tate Britain, walking across the Vauxhall Bridge on our way. The sun was absolutely ablaze in the late-afternoon sky and looking west from the bridge, the old Battersea Power Station was beautifully silhouetted. I had no idea if a photo would turn out, as the LCD display on the camera was completely obscured, but the photo turned out to be a nice representation of what we saw:

After spending some time at the Tate's Hogarth exhibition, we wandered toward Victoria Station, through an area of London where we'd not yet been--very quiet, very strangely removed from the rush and crowds near the station. This building almost blinded us with its checkerboard pattern, even more so, considering that there were two such buildings on either side of the street with exactly the same motif. Very odd. In many ways, London is itself a checkerboard city, with neighbourhoods changing within the space of blocks, even single buildings: turn left and you may find what you expect; turn right and something entirely different may greet you. In that way, it's a great city to explore, because you never really know what you're going to find!