Just along from Shad Thames is Kenny Livingstone's palace, City Hall. I don't like the building from the outside, I don't like the view from the ninth floor, but I DO like the spiral staircase which takes you downstairs. I first visited City Hall on Open London Day in October; however, there were so many people there that I was unable to take in the full view (I'm not a lover of big crowds). I read in the SE1 January newsletter that there was a Beijing 2008 photo exhibition taking place in City Hall, so with nothing better to do I went along with my camera.

The exhibition was OK (lots of beard stroking - and that's the women). What WAS interesting though was the state of the offices. Good God - the Health and Safety Executive would have had a field day! Boxes piled upon boxes, folders and papers scattered haphazardly on the floor. BRILLIANT! If you ever wonder why Kenny doesn't deliver what he promises, just look at his staff offices - you'll understand...

View from the basement...

The view from the 4th floor...

View from 9th floor...

View of 4th Floor MESS!

I read in the Daily Hate Mail today that The Chop House on Shad Thames were serving grey squirrel to their customers last year. How delightful. This lead me onto another thought - my dad quoted to me last year that squirrels are just rats with good PR. So effectively, The Chop House were serving up flambed rat. Splendid!

The Chop House....

Now serving RAT!

I thought I would start Shad Thames blog on a BANG (and probably finish it on a fizzzzzzzzzz). There was a fire last night in the Wheat Wharf vacinity - possibly the most exciting thing that has happened in Shad Thames since I moved there in July 2005. I think someone tutted as I took photographs of the blaze (OK, not so much a blaze, more a plume of smoke) but I didn't care. As far as I was concerned, this moment would go down in history and therefore my future grandchildren would benefit from my experiences of the blaze (plume of smoke) e.g. ogling the firemen, and stare in wonderment at my superb photographs.

Some smoke...and some fire engines!