London's timeless charm

To the Gherkin - 30 St Mary Axe. Not St Mary Street, not Road, not Avenue, but Axe. New home to the London office of Bank Gospodarki Krajowej - Poland's state development bank, opened in London to support the expansion of Polish businesses into the UK market. Below: the view from the 41st floor (to the south at least, unblocked by neighbouring towers) is magnificent. Tower Bridge and the Tower of London clearly visible in the shot.

Left: the Masons' Arms pub, Maddox Street, Mayfair - three hundred years old. This year marks the tercentenary of this London thoroughfare. The facade alludes to Tudor times, already history in 1720. London has many such gems, though they are rarer in the West End than they are in the City

Below: also dating back to 1720, the Jerusalem Tavern on Britton St in Clerkenwell. The pub's interior is somewhat newer (1990s).

Last week marked the 157th anniversary of the opening of the world's first underground railway, from Paddington to Farringdon, not too far from the Jerusalem Tavern. The railway's opening was nearer in time to the completion of Maddox St and the Jerusalem Tavern than to the present day. London abides. Below: the platforms at Paddington (District and Circle lines), looking much like they would have done more than a century and half ago.

Right: facade on Regent St, looking up above the ground floor. The street is packed from end to end with the flagship stores of the world's most famous clothing brands.

To the west of Regent St - the posh boutiques, art galleries, emporia and showrooms of Mayfair, all the way past Bond Street to Park Lane. To the east - the more accessible shops of Oxford Street and Soho. But since the 19th century, Regent St has been the centre of fashion.

Back to Ealing; three layers (below). In the foreground, a taste of the southern Mediterranean. I used to buy cardamom-flavoured Arabic coffee here before we moved to Poland. Above the bright lights and fragrant displays of foodstuffs, the windows and roofs of 1930s suburbia. Above them in the distance, across the valley of the river Brent, a distant drizzle-soaked ridge - or is it a bank of cloud?

This time last year:
Familiarity, music and memory
[by coincidence, this post also mentions cardamom-flavoured coffee]

This time three years ago:
On taxation and (national) defamation

This time seven years ago:
Where's Britain going to be in Europe?

This time nine years ago:
Jeziorki under water

This time ten years ago:
In a nutshell - the best science book I've ever read

This time 11 years ago:
Flashback to communist times

This time 12 years ago:
Pre-dawn Ursynów