side streets and secret avenues

Back in the Before Times, wonder | wander | women liked to walk for the sake of it, and we especially liked to meander.

Shoreditch Town Hall

It was especially fun to take a few turns away from the main path on the way somewhere, to avoid the main streets or investigate a curious sight that beckoned us around a new corner.

Carving at 262 Mortimer Street

It could be an evocative vignette of near-disaster (or past disaster).

Sometimes it was a big bright wall of art.

Karma Drinks mascots

Sometimes it was an arresting building that we glimpsed between regular rows of brick houses.

Cadogan Hall

Often it was an interesting tree, or several. Looking back at our pictures, I conclude that to wonder | wander | women, all trees are interesting.

Dozens of tiny galleries dot the side streets and mews of Central London. At night some of their windows stay lit to attract art lovers after hours.

Bloomsbury Design

Architecture lovers in London don't even need to visit a gallery or museum...all they have to do is look up!

So many buildings from town halls to Travelodges are hundreds of years old, a visual history book for the observant walker.

Tower at Shoreditch Town Hall

Even the newer districts have shiny buildings and intriguing modern art.

Royal Docks residential area

But usually it was the street itself that called us, a little Dickens illustration of cobbled streets and mishmashed buildings...a pocket of frozen time, reminding us why we love London so much in the first place.

We look forward to our tiny adventures resuming in safer times!