12.15.24: London weather

Walking across the Westminster Bridge above the River Thames toward Big Ben, Westminster Hall and the Houses of Parliament on an overcast day.

I’ve visited many cities in my years of travel. Only twice have I let a city’s weather reputation influence my packing. I’d always throw in a rain jacket and umbrella when packing for London or Seattle.

Both cities have reputations for wet weather.

I’ve never seen rain in Seattle during my visits. But London? I’ve seen a bit of everything there, ranging from blue skies to fog to rain to snow.

This photo was taken on a cold, damp February morning a number of years ago. I was returning from a morning meeting, walking west across the Westminster Bridge above the Thames, when I noticed the entire eastbound lane was filled with a variety of red London buses. Above the buses was Big Ben extending toward a thick overcast sky.

I grabbed my camera from my bag, leaned against the rail and composed the shot, using the converging lines created by the rail, the sidewalk and the buses to lead the viewer’s eye into the image. I waited until a pedestrian stepped into the foreground area to break up the expanse of sidewalk, then clicked off a couple of shots.

This is one of those scenes that I refer to as a tourist photo because it shows an iconic site that is a symbol of a specific locale, the type of sites used by filmmakers to identify a location to movie or television viewers.

Think the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Empire State Building or Times Square in New York, the Washington Monument or Lincoln Memorial or U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C.

For London it’s the tower of Big Ben.

People typically use “Big Ben” to refer to the tower and/or the clock itself, but it’s actually the nickname for the Great Bell that chimes every quarter hour. The tower was officially called the Clock Tower until it was renamed Elizabeth Tower in 2012 to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II. The tower was completed in 1858, which makes it a somewhat recent addition to London when compared to other structures in the city.