Millennium Bridge in a New Light

Bob and I met at London Bridge and walked through the truncated Friday version of Borough Market--although many of the stalls only open on Saturday, the fact that the market wasn't crushingly crowded (as it is on every Saturday that we've been there) meant that we could actually stop and look at things without getting swallowed up by the throngs. Bob even said that we should always visit the market on Friday afternoons (that is, until he noticed that his favourite sandwich shop doesn't appear to open on Fridays). Apparently we missed Gerard Depardieu at one of the stalls,

or perhaps he has a wine under his name and we missed a tasting of his wine? The sign was a bit vague. In any case, it was coffee we were after, but rather than our usual Monmouth stop, we walked across Millennium Bridge and had coffee at a shop directly across from St Paul's Cathedral. Why did we shun our favourite coffee spot in favour of one on the other side of the river? Well, we had vouchers for free coffees with a £1 minimum purchase--we'd been to Apostrophe before and knew they had good coffee, so we figured the vouchers were worth using. Since the vouchers just offered "coffee," we were pleased that the offer ended up including lattés, and for the price of a sweet treat, we lingered over two treats, two lattés, and the view:

By the time we started heading back toward Millennium Bridge, it was getting crowded. A lot of people were milling about, perhaps for the same reason we were there: Maritime Rites, a one-off Thames sound piece, with music coming from a stage in front of Tate Modern, a barge in the Thames, and Millennium Bridge, with the bells of St Paul's chiming in for good measure.
Musicians started filing onto the bridge,

and the conductor prepared for the crowds by standing on a table.
The bridge soon became really really crowded
with musicians,
audience members, and many others who found their usual commute a bit more difficult today. While we stood on the bridge, sound came at us from all sides, and we could just make out the conductor holding his ground over the crowds.
Cue cards signalled key moments when various groups of musicians joined in on the piece,


and when musicians played all around us, I felt like we had snuck onto an orchestra stage.


Millennium Bridge looked very strange with that many people on it;
it was much less crowded in front of the Tate stage, but the music was no less interesting.
We were curious to hear the bells of St Paul's, which would only sound toward the end of the piece, but there was another nearby show that we were also interested in, so we left Maritime Rites and headed for the National Portrait Gallery, where Basquiat Strings were playing a free show. The gallery was packed and there didn't seem to be any place to sit or stand when we arrived. Bob stayed at the back and I made my way to the front in search of a bit of floor space--and found some right beside the drummer (hence the oddly angled photos).
Basquiat Strings put on an infectious show and the crowd roared with appreciation after each piece. (As an added bonus, after one of the pieces the frontman informed the audience that the piece they just finished was supposed to be their last of the night, but since he had forgotten to tell us that, this next one would be their last.) Tonight was one of those London nights when we remember why the city is so great--creativity, diverse modes of expression, and room to experiment all abound, and we walked around on this still-warm night, enjoying the cusp of the autumn air, feeling lucky to be in London.