Friday, November 22, 2019

Friday Photo


Southwark London at dusk
On the left, The Shard, on the right, the George
London, November, 2019


The Shard is a comparatively recent super-tall skyscraper. Construction started in 2009, and it's the tallest building in London and the UK. For the moment, it's also the tallest building in the EU. It's 95 stories high and has a viewing platform that I should have gone up to the day I took this photo.

The George is the last surviving coaching inn in London. The present building dates to 1673, when it was rebuilt following a fire. The previous building had stood on that spot for at least 150 years prior to 1673. A short distance away is the former site of the Talbott Inn, previous the Tabard Inn, which had a similar history: built in the 14th century, burned in the fire of 1673, rebuilt and survived well into the 19th century. The Tabard was the inn from which Chaucer's pilgrims departed for Canterbury.

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