2017 England Highlights
Pictures of London (9 days) and Paris (1 day) captured with both my iPhone 6 Plus and Sony RX100M3.
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The quintessential London taxi cab!
In the United Kingdom, the name hackney carriage today refers to a taxicab licensed by the Public Carriage Office, local authority (non-metropolitan district councils, unitary authorities) or the Department of the Environment depending on region of the country. (Wikipedia)
![St Paul's Cathedral, London, is an Anglican cathedral, the seat of the Bishop of London and the mother church of the Diocese of London. It sits on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Grade 1 listed building. Its dedication to Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on this site, founded in AD 604.[1] The present church, dating from the late 17th century, was designed in the English Baroque style by Sir Christopher Wren. Its construction, completed in Wren's lifetime, was part of a major rebuilding programme in the City after the Great Fire of London.[2]
The cathedral is one of the most famous and most recognisable sights of London. Its dome, framed by the spires of Wren's City churches, dominated the skyline for 300 years.[3] At 365 feet (111 m) high, it was the tallest building in London from 1710 to 1967. The dome is among the highest in the world. (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Paul%27s_Cathedral">Wikipedia</a>)](https://photos.smugmug.com/Travel/England2017RoughCut/i-H2vRGRD/0/c9950fa3/Ti/20150704062-Ti.jpg)
![A London city walkway around the perimeter of the Fortress of the Tower of London.<br><br>
The Tower of London, officially Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle located on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the square mile of the City of London by the open space known as Tower Hill. It was founded towards the end of 1066 as part of the Norman Conquest of England. The White Tower, which gives the entire castle its name, was built by William the Conqueror in 1078 and was a resented symbol of oppression, inflicted upon London by the new ruling elite. The castle was used as a prison from 1100 (Ranulf Flambard) until 1952 (Kray twins),[3] although that was not its primary purpose. A grand palace early in its history, it served as a royal residence. As a whole, the Tower is a complex of several buildings set within two concentric rings of defensive walls and a moat. There were several phases of expansion, mainly under Kings Richard the Lionheart, Henry III, and Edward I in the 12th and 13th centuries. The general layout established by the late 13th century remains despite later activity on the site. (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_London">Wikipedia</a>)](https://photos.smugmug.com/Travel/England2017RoughCut/i-HpJ6xhW/0/ea527240/Ti/20150704100-Ti.jpg)
![A view of Westminster Palace (Parliament) and Big Ben.<br><br>
The Parliament of the United Kingdom, commonly known as the UK Parliament or British Parliament, is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories.[3] It alone possesses legislative supremacy and thereby ultimate power over all other political bodies in the UK and its territories. Its head is the Sovereign of the United Kingdom (currently Queen Elizabeth II) and its seat is the Palace of Westminster in the City of Westminster, one of the boroughs of the British capital, London. (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliament_of_the_United_Kingdom">Wikipedia</a>)](https://photos.smugmug.com/Travel/England2017RoughCut/i-8Br2VZ8/0/f7565ebd/Ti/20150704123-Ti.jpg)