I was up this morning at 3am, about my normal time on some days at home, so have been catching up on sorting photos, answering emails and writing this post. The other thing I have had to do is convert all photos before using them in WordPress.  There is an issue with adding iPhone photos to WordPress as it turns them sideways (had the same problem in 2015 so you would have thought it would have been fixed by now!) which means that all photos have to be put into a photo editing program to have the metadata stripped out – such a pain but at least it fixes the problem. 

We spent yesterday wandering Kensington Church Road and also Kensington High Street as well as the wonderful lanes and alleys around us.  In one laneway, we came across St Mary Abbots. This beautiful church was built about 1872 but there have been churches on the site since 1262! In the photos below, look at the one on the right.  You can just make out 2 figures on the side of a window on the building next to the church.  I have zoomed in on them so you can see the detail and have found that they were placed there and were originally statues done much earlier (circa late 1700s/early 1800s of a boy and girl. [The statues placed on the front of the charity school, were preserved and erected on the north elevation of the school in Church Court (now known as St. Mary Abbots School) facing the churchyard.]

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After strolling along Kensington High Street, we then headed up Kensington Church Street, hoping to spend money in antique shops but almost all were closed for the long weekend (and for the Carnival too) as the street can get busy with the overflow from around Notting Hill. Still window shopping was probably the best thing to do anyway given the prices of some of the items in the windows.

We took some photos of the wonderful Churchill Arms, a pub which has been around since 1750.  Churchill’s grandparents are said to have frequented the pub and it is crammed full of Churchill memorabilia but has the audacity to be known, not for its British pub food fare – but for its Thai cuisine – t’int right, t’int fair, t’int proper (apologies to Jud from Poldark)! Apparently the pub spends £25,000 a year on decorations. The Churchill Arms, by late August, is bedecked with 100 flower pots, 48 window boxes and 42 hanging baskets – all real but that means someone has to water them! As one person noted, this is Kensington after all so what else would you expect.

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Today is the Royal Day Out so I imagine we will take lots of photos of palatial rooms.  Should be fascinating!