August 6, 2025 - Around London

Crossing the London Bridge


I heard that there was a really good vintage clothing market area in the East End Brickyard and thought it might be a good place to buy a wooly/tweedy vest for my hike.  The jackets I brought are too warm so a vest would be just right.  Starting on the top of a double decker bus and then on the “overground”, it took about an hour to get there and it was about 10am when Carmen and I arrived.  It turned out that the big outdoor market was only on weekends and most of the shops didn’t open until 11.  The few shops I went in didn’t have any woven vests so I just bought a light puffy vest at a charity shop raising money to end homelessness.

We had arranged to meet Rich at his office for lunch at noon so we just walked around looking at all sorts of interesting stuff in the neighborhood and then got back on the tube to London Bridge.

Rich’s office is spectacular, right on the south bank of the Thames. We had lunch at the Borough Market.

The next plan was to go visit the British Museum on my own and meet up with Carmen at her office at Birkbeck University on Pershing Square at about 4:30  Outside the British Museum was a mad house  there were crowds of people, some of whom had reserved entry times (I did not), and the staff was telling everyone that the museum was “at capacity” and would be closed for entry for at least an hour.  Considering that there were probably a couple hundred people in line, the line wouldn’t start moving for at least an hour, and the museum was going to close in 3 hours, I decided that my next visit to the British Museum would have to wait until my next visit to London.

I had a nice walk around the Bloomsbury district, Gordon Square and Russell Square.  It was fun to hang out in Carmen’s office and I spotted some of my grandmother’s books I had given her years ago (3 volumes of a biography of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell).

Back at the house, Rich made delicious barbecue chicken and a tomato risotto for dinner.



A street I passed on my morning walk in Carmen & Rich’s neighborhood. 

View from the top of the double decker bus. 


Christ Church Spitalfields


View of the Tower Bridge walking across the London Bridge 





Walking through Burough Market 


Rich’s office 



His super-sleek coffee machine will make any combination of coffee and milk you could ever want. 




Office interior 


His product 


The tube to Tottenham Court Road (British Museum)



One of many many live theaters around London 

Birkbeck College, University of London 


A famous member of the Bloomsbury Group who lived on Gordon Square 



Carmen’s office building 




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