ROYAL WEDDING NONSENSE

What's wrong with this picture? (The correct answer is: "Everything")

The plight of millions has been trumped again. This time by a pair of filthy-rich kids getting married.

A Royal Wedding. Media hoopla. Incredible cost to the public purse.

Are we so spiritually impoverished that we somehow need to be "a part" of this? I really don't believe so.

We don't need royal families. Personally, I'm quite convinced we don't need presidents since they do virtually nothing good and plenty that is bad. Many thousands of people die around the globe every day due to poverty related problems and the media feeds us stories about the stratospheric cost of a wedding dress. This is insanity.

Rich people wasting money is not news that we need. I say, abolish all royal families. Throw out all figureheads. Don't worship plastic prophets. These people are not our friends. They don't have our best interests at heart.

I believe most people no longer buy into all this garbage. But if you turned on your TV or looked at a news story on the Internet or in a newspaper this past week, you'd be led to think otherwise. This is the Idiot Culture at work and it's a drug we can't afford, don't need, must kick.

If you need to celebrate something, celebrate your life, your potential, your kids. Celebrate YOUR royal family. Celebrate the opportunity to make this a better world.

Let's focus on what's real and important and not let the mass media spoon-feed us distractions as the climate goes to hell and children starve.

We are better than that.

Take care,
Adrian
FOOTNOTE: In reading the comments threads about the royal wedding on various news sites, it seems the main theme of the "pro" comments is "Boo to the cynics. Thank goodness for a positive news story." This is so very sad. The fact is there are many positive things that the media could report that would be more meaningful to the masses. This isn't a choice between positive and negative. It's a choice between meaningful and absurd, and absurd won again.

IF YOU FOUND THIS BLOG POST INTERESTING you might like to look at THE IDIOT CULTURE.

One’s first wedding

The soon to be new Duke and Duchess of somewhere

Verily I have refrained with all my R(r)epublican fibre from commenting on the “Great Event.” But the demand for information on the Royal Wedding has been insatiable, particularly from my Blogistas across the pond who previously rejected the tea and taxes of Farmer George and his rapacious redcoats. Ever since I revealed my chance meeting with Wills and Kate (at Marylebone Station of all places!) and then, in a moment of untypical hubris precipitated by The Royal Magic, revealed that One was invited to the Great Event I have been deluged with requests for snippets of Royal Fairy dust to share with my impoverished readers. It is with no great pride I must report to you that, by popular acclamation, I have been made into that strangest of creatures, A Royal Expert!


Metal detectors and barriers on the streets leading to the Abbey.

So as the wedding of Price William and Kate Middleton approaches London’s streets and corners are being gradually doused in red, white and blue. In the lead up to April 29th, flags, bunting - and, increasingly, people decked out with Union Jack emblazoned t-shirts, umbrellas and picnic blankets - are colouring-in the areas around Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace with. Soon we can look forward to vox pop interviews with toothless grannies in Union Jack T-shirts camping out on pavements to get the best view telling us “it’s luverley innit, it’s something we’ll remember for the rest of our loives, or seven days, whichever is longer!”


The Pearly King of Wandsworth displaying his Cockney charm to a motorist in front of the Abbey

Rather than Canute like resistance to the Royal Curiosity I decided to give in to the flowing tide and sate my Blogistas with details of the Great Event which, let’s face it many of them are paying for. So dejected, hunched of shoulders and shuffling of foot, I took myself the whole five minutes from my office to Westminster Abbey to record the burgeoning preparations for the 29th April in London. You soon realise this is theatre performed by the world’s press but with an edge. Part of the edge is security and the first thing you notice is metal detectors and car bomb proof barriers set up in a ring of steel around the Abbey. Indeed in the days before the wedding even residents of the area have to remove their cars to facilitate the cordon sanitaire which surrounds the event as the Great and Good and dubious rulers from dictatorships around the world make their way to the Abbey.


Horse drawn tourists soaking up The Royal Magic


The flag of Saint Edward the Confessor flying over Westminster Abbey. He founded the Abbey and his shrine and tomb are at the centre of the Abbey in their own chapel. He was one of the last Anglo-Saxon kings of England and is usually regarded as the last king of the House of Wessex, ruling from 1042 to 1066. Once Patron Saint of England (before St. George) he is the Patron Saint of the Royal Family. This is the flag which is flown except when the Queen is in the Abbey when the Royal Standard is flown. The Abbey is a "Royal Peculiar", under the personal control of The Crown and the clergy are appointed by The Queen, not by the Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the Church of England.

Two people who won’t be making their way there are former LABOUR Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. This appears particularly ungracious as Tony Blair probably single handedly saved the monarchy after their insensitivity after the death of Princess “The People’s Princess” Diana outraged the world. What we are seeing being played out in London in the run up to this wedding is not really the “Royal Magic” but the “D Factor.” The D Factor is that this is William, the son of Diana, Prince of Wales, who is getting married in the same church where her brother Charles’s Spencer thundered in his polemical eulogy on September 6 1997;

“Diana was the very essence of compassion, of duty, of style, of beauty. All over the world she was a symbol of selfless humanity, a standard-bearer for the rights of the truly downtrodden, a very British girl who transcended nationality. Someone with a natural nobility who was classless and who proved in the last year that she needed no royal title to continue to generate her particular brand of magic.”

Earl Spencer’s words seem slight on their own but in the context of the Life and Death of 36 year old Diana Spencer they were explosive. Knowing what had transpired in Diana's life - the betrayal shortly after her marriage by the man she loved, her divorce, the removal of her title and the apparent coldness of the royal family towards her - you begin to see the real meaning behind the words. Spencer stressed that his sister was essentially a British girl, a definition surely aimed at the German background of the royals. She no longer needed, he said, a royal title (earlier removed) to generate her particular brand of magic.





The Royal Family sat stunned and humiliated at this searing condemnation but worse was to come as the funeral service inside the Abbey was interrupted by the sheer crescendo of applause coming through the thick stone walls of the Abbey. The people had spoken and were with Earl Spencer. Tony Blair saved their bacon and the lead head courtiers and flunkeys surrounding the Royal Family don’t even invite him but have room for the Ambassador of Zimbabwe and the Ruler of Bahrain, fresh from throttling pro-democracy protesters?




A reporter in front of the Abbey bringing the joyful news to the world

It is that brand of Diana’s magic being perpetuated today and is the reason that the streets of London are choked with visitors and TV crews from around the world. This does not come cheap; want a photographer to stand on scaffolding on the roof of Methodist Central Hall overlooking the Abbey, that will be £900 for the day. Want a temporary studio in front of Buckingham Palace, that will £60,000 and the lead heads of the Palace will turn off the floodlighting on the facade at 12.30 just as the breakfast bulletins start in New York.




Buck House and the press centre in front of it from which the world will receive detailed analysis of the spontaneous balcony kiss

I saw myself in Westminster light standards and manhole covers being checked and locked days before he was due and whole roads were closed off. At Westminster Abbey Police snipers were on neighbouring rooftops and a search team with 4 sniffer dogs searched the Abbey beforehand. Hidden automatic TV cameras are in the stonework on either side of the Abbey’s Great West Door through which the couple will emerge and the stone dais in front of them is in fact scaffolding for more cameras. Meanwhile the Abbey resembles a giant wiring loom as it is cabled up for the event.


A tasteful selection of priceless memorabilia

Early risers in London were given a sneak preview of the pomp and grandeur to expect on Friday as up to a thousand members of the military carried out a pre-dawn royal wedding dress rehearsal. The full-scale walk through in preparation for the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton saw British Army, Navy and RAF members lining the route the couple will take to and from Westminster Abbey. Participants wore full military dress, but marching bands refrained from playing their instruments as the whole exercise was complete before 6.30am.


The pre-dawn royal wedding dress rehearsal

The eyes of the world will be on Prince William and Kate Middleton when they begin their journeys to and from Westminster Abbey. So nothing is being left to chance with the dry run in which timings were tested to the second and all armed forces taking part got the chance to practise their role in their service uniforms.


Remote control cameras being set up in alcoves by The Great West Door of the Abbey

The coverage of Kate Middleton’s family, who seem hardworking and decent, has been patronising and nauseous imbued with class snobbery - it is not as if they are from Wolverhampton! I already feel sorry for the girl as when she goes into a shop every item is plastered over the pages the next day as it seems the Press think her function in life is to be a clothes horse. But who is Kate Middleton who went to a £29,000 a year private school and a prestige University where (like Prince William) she studied “History of Art.” What is this onerous subject for it must have been so difficult as to cure them of their illness as neither of them has shown the slightest artistic inclinations since?




The front and back of Ye Olde Stone camera stand in front of The Great West Door of Westminster Abbey, from which Mr. Prince and Consort will emerge

But who is Kate Middleton for we have no idea of her views on anything for we have never heard her speak or give the slightest pretence at an interview. Like William’s great grandfather George VI in “The King’s Speech” she surely has a voice but we have not heard it?








Westminster Abbey - At £16 entrance charge God and Mammon live in harmony?

And just what is silent Kate getting herself into by joining “The Firm.” In these days of diversity and inclusion we should remind ourselves of a certain institutional prejudice on the part of the British state. The Statute Law of England, in the Act of the Williamite Succession, describes the Pope as “An Anti-Christ and Object of Perdition” – In this of course it is repeating the words of the same King Guy Fawkes attempted to blow up along with his parliament, James VI of Scotland and I of England in his preamble to the official bible of the Church of England, the “King James” Bible. His mummy, Mary Queen of Scots, would have been very cross with him if she had not been beheaded by his predecessor, Elizabeth I. James I of England (James VI of Scotland) will be at the wedding as he is buried in Westminster Abbey between the bodies of two of his male “suitors.” This somewhat inaccurate tract translated from the Greek and Hebrew is 400 years old this year and is hailed as a masterpiece of English literature responsible for the spread of the English Language around the world. Be that as may be did the words of simple fishermen of Galilee require poetic embellishment?




Press and photo stands in front of Westminster Abbey

More seriously, the same act prohibits both the Sovereign or their Consort from being Catholic or the heir to the throne and their Consort. It goes further and says that neither the Sovereign’s First and Second Lords of the Treasury (namely the Prime Minister and The Chancellor of the Exchequer) nor The Lord Chancellor (The head of the English legal system and successor in office of Sir Thomas More) can be Catholics thus institutionalising sectarianism at the very centre of the British state and legitimising the somewhat snide anti-Catholicism still fashionable in some quarters. They of course can be any other religion or indeed none but they cannot be Catholics. It remains to be seen if Queen Catherine will stay with The Firm, which doesn’t have a good recruiting record, and if the lead heads surrounding the Monarchy will get with the agenda of the modern world. You will need to look elsewhere for updates on these issues.


Royal Wedding Route

Let’s take a look at the route that Kate Middleton will take on her way to Westminster Abbey to her wedding on April 29, 2011 and the schedule for the “big day.”

10:30am – The Princess-to-be and Prince William will leave travel separately to the service. Kate will go by car starting from either Buckingham Palace or Clarence House and head along the Mall, cross the Horse Guards Parade and head towards Parliament Square.

11:00am - The ceremony will start at Westminster Abbey which can hold up to 2,200 guests.

12:00pm – At noon the couple will return along the same route via horse-drawn carriage.

12:30pm – The couple, after being wed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, will go to Buckingham Palace after the ceremony by carriage along a route which will include sights like Parliament Square, Whitehall, Horse Guards Parade and the Mall. Once inside the Queen will throw a reception, a fancy one as you can imagine, for the couple and 700 of their friends and family.

1:30pm - Kate and Will are expected to make an appearance on a balcony at Buckingham Palace to kiss for the cameras.

6:00pm – After the “official reception” the couple will enjoy a private dinner with the Prince of Wales… dancing of course will follow.

For now my dear Blogistas whatever side you are on do your best to get through this coming Friday.

Here, for you, are the amazing details of One’s chance meeting with Wills and Kate @ Marylebone Station

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2011/02/wills-and-kate-marylebone.html

And, even more unbelievable, the details of One’s invitation!

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2011/03/one-is-invited.html


And, this is truly unbelievable, exclusive advance shots of the ceremony!

One’s first wedding

The soon to be new Duke and Duchess of somewhere

Verily I have refrained with all my R(r)epublican fibre from commenting on the “Great Event.” But the demand for information on the Royal Wedding has been insatiable, particularly from my Blogistas across the pond who previously rejected the tea and taxes of Farmer George and his rapacious redcoats. Ever since I revealed my chance meeting with Wills and Kate (at Marylebone Station of all places!) and then, in a moment of untypical hubris precipitated by The Royal Magic, revealed that One was invited to the Great Event I have been deluged with requests for snippets of Royal Fairy dust to share with my impoverished readers. It is with no great pride I must report to you that, by popular acclamation, I have been made into that strangest of creatures, A Royal Expert!


Metal detectors and barriers on the streets leading to the Abbey.

So as the wedding of Price William and Kate Middleton approaches London’s streets and corners are being gradually doused in red, white and blue. In the lead up to April 29th, flags, bunting - and, increasingly, people decked out with Union Jack emblazoned t-shirts, umbrellas and picnic blankets - are colouring-in the areas around Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace with. Soon we can look forward to vox pop interviews with toothless grannies in Union Jack T-shirts camping out on pavements to get the best view telling us “it’s luverley innit, it’s something we’ll remember for the rest of our loives, or seven days, whichever is longer!”


The Pearly King of Wandsworth displaying his Cockney charm to a motorist in front of the Abbey

Rather than Canute like resistance to the Royal Curiosity I decided to give in to the flowing tide and sate my Blogistas with details of the Great Event which, let’s face it many of them are paying for. So dejected, hunched of shoulders and shuffling of foot, I took myself the whole five minutes from my office to Westminster Abbey to record the burgeoning preparations for the 29th April in London. You soon realise this is theatre performed by the world’s press but with an edge. Part of the edge is security and the first thing you notice is metal detectors and car bomb proof barriers set up in a ring of steel around the Abbey. Indeed in the days before the wedding even residents of the area have to remove their cars to facilitate the cordon sanitaire which surrounds the event as the Great and Good and dubious rulers from dictatorships around the world make their way to the Abbey.


Horse drawn tourists soaking up The Royal Magic


The flag of Saint Edward the Confessor flying over Westminster Abbey. He founded the Abbey and his shrine and tomb are at the centre of the Abbey in their own chapel. He was one of the last Anglo-Saxon kings of England and is usually regarded as the last king of the House of Wessex, ruling from 1042 to 1066. Once Patron Saint of England (before St. George) he is the Patron Saint of the Royal Family. This is the flag which is flown except when the Queen is in the Abbey when the Royal Standard is flown. The Abbey is a "Royal Peculiar", under the personal control of The Crown and the clergy are appointed by The Queen, not by the Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the Church of England.

Two people who won’t be making their way there are former LABOUR Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. This appears particularly ungracious as Tony Blair probably single handedly saved the monarchy after their insensitivity after the death of Princess “The People’s Princess” Diana outraged the world. What we are seeing being played out in London in the run up to this wedding is not really the “Royal Magic” but the “D Factor.” The D Factor is that this is William, the son of Diana, Prince of Wales, who is getting married in the same church where her brother Charles’s Spencer thundered in his polemical eulogy on September 6 1997;

“Diana was the very essence of compassion, of duty, of style, of beauty. All over the world she was a symbol of selfless humanity, a standard-bearer for the rights of the truly downtrodden, a very British girl who transcended nationality. Someone with a natural nobility who was classless and who proved in the last year that she needed no royal title to continue to generate her particular brand of magic.”

Earl Spencer’s words seem slight on their own but in the context of the Life and Death of 36 year old Diana Spencer they were explosive. Knowing what had transpired in Diana's life - the betrayal shortly after her marriage by the man she loved, her divorce, the removal of her title and the apparent coldness of the royal family towards her - you begin to see the real meaning behind the words. Spencer stressed that his sister was essentially a British girl, a definition surely aimed at the German background of the royals. She no longer needed, he said, a royal title (earlier removed) to generate her particular brand of magic.





The Royal Family sat stunned and humiliated at this searing condemnation but worse was to come as the funeral service inside the Abbey was interrupted by the sheer crescendo of applause coming through the thick stone walls of the Abbey. The people had spoken and were with Earl Spencer. Tony Blair saved their bacon and the lead head courtiers and flunkeys surrounding the Royal Family don’t even invite him but have room for the Ambassador of Zimbabwe and the Ruler of Bahrain, fresh from throttling pro-democracy protesters?




A reporter in front of the Abbey bringing the joyful news to the world

It is that brand of Diana’s magic being perpetuated today and is the reason that the streets of London are choked with visitors and TV crews from around the world. This does not come cheap; want a photographer to stand on scaffolding on the roof of Methodist Central Hall overlooking the Abbey, that will be £900 for the day. Want a temporary studio in front of Buckingham Palace, that will £60,000 and the lead heads of the Palace will turn off the floodlighting on the facade at 12.30 just as the breakfast bulletins start in New York.




Buck House and the press centre in front of it from which the world will receive detailed analysis of the spontaneous balcony kiss

I saw myself in Westminster light standards and manhole covers being checked and locked days before he was due and whole roads were closed off. At Westminster Abbey Police snipers were on neighbouring rooftops and a search team with 4 sniffer dogs searched the Abbey beforehand. Hidden automatic TV cameras are in the stonework on either side of the Abbey’s Great West Door through which the couple will emerge and the stone dais in front of them is in fact scaffolding for more cameras. Meanwhile the Abbey resembles a giant wiring loom as it is cabled up for the event.


A tasteful selection of priceless memorabilia

Early risers in London were given a sneak preview of the pomp and grandeur to expect on Friday as up to a thousand members of the military carried out a pre-dawn royal wedding dress rehearsal. The full-scale walk through in preparation for the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton saw British Army, Navy and RAF members lining the route the couple will take to and from Westminster Abbey. Participants wore full military dress, but marching bands refrained from playing their instruments as the whole exercise was complete before 6.30am.


The pre-dawn royal wedding dress rehearsal

The eyes of the world will be on Prince William and Kate Middleton when they begin their journeys to and from Westminster Abbey. So nothing is being left to chance with the dry run in which timings were tested to the second and all armed forces taking part got the chance to practise their role in their service uniforms.


Remote control cameras being set up in alcoves by The Great West Door of the Abbey

The coverage of Kate Middleton’s family, who seem hardworking and decent, has been patronising and nauseous imbued with class snobbery - it is not as if they are from Wolverhampton! I already feel sorry for the girl as when she goes into a shop every item is plastered over the pages the next day as it seems the Press think her function in life is to be a clothes horse. But who is Kate Middleton who went to a £29,000 a year private school and a prestige University where (like Prince William) she studied “History of Art.” What is this onerous subject for it must have been so difficult as to cure them of their illness as neither of them has shown the slightest artistic inclinations since?




The front and back of Ye Olde Stone camera stand in front of The Great West Door of Westminster Abbey, from which Mr. Prince and Consort will emerge

But who is Kate Middleton for we have no idea of her views on anything for we have never heard her speak or give the slightest pretence at an interview. Like William’s great grandfather George VI in “The King’s Speech” she surely has a voice but we have not heard it?








Westminster Abbey - At £16 entrance charge God and Mammon live in harmony?

And just what is silent Kate getting herself into by joining “The Firm.” In these days of diversity and inclusion we should remind ourselves of a certain institutional prejudice on the part of the British state. The Statute Law of England, in the Act of the Williamite Succession, describes the Pope as “An Anti-Christ and Object of Perdition” – In this of course it is repeating the words of the same King Guy Fawkes attempted to blow up along with his parliament, James VI of Scotland and I of England in his preamble to the official bible of the Church of England, the “King James” Bible. His mummy, Mary Queen of Scots, would have been very cross with him if she had not been beheaded by his predecessor, Elizabeth I. James I of England (James VI of Scotland) will be at the wedding as he is buried in Westminster Abbey between the bodies of two of his male “suitors.” This somewhat inaccurate tract translated from the Greek and Hebrew is 400 years old this year and is hailed as a masterpiece of English literature responsible for the spread of the English Language around the world. Be that as may be did the words of simple fishermen of Galilee require poetic embellishment?




Press and photo stands in front of Westminster Abbey

More seriously, the same act prohibits both the Sovereign or their Consort from being Catholic or the heir to the throne and their Consort. It goes further and says that neither the Sovereign’s First and Second Lords of the Treasury (namely the Prime Minister and The Chancellor of the Exchequer) nor The Lord Chancellor (The head of the English legal system and successor in office of Sir Thomas More) can be Catholics thus institutionalising sectarianism at the very centre of the British state and legitimising the somewhat snide anti-Catholicism still fashionable in some quarters. They of course can be any other religion or indeed none but they cannot be Catholics. It remains to be seen if Queen Catherine will stay with The Firm, which doesn’t have a good recruiting record, and if the lead heads surrounding the Monarchy will get with the agenda of the modern world. You will need to look elsewhere for updates on these issues.


Royal Wedding Route

Let’s take a look at the route that Kate Middleton will take on her way to Westminster Abbey to her wedding on April 29, 2011 and the schedule for the “big day.”

10:30am – The Princess-to-be and Prince William will leave travel separately to the service. Kate will go by car starting from either Buckingham Palace or Clarence House and head along the Mall, cross the Horse Guards Parade and head towards Parliament Square.

11:00am - The ceremony will start at Westminster Abbey which can hold up to 2,200 guests.

12:00pm – At noon the couple will return along the same route via horse-drawn carriage.

12:30pm – The couple, after being wed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, will go to Buckingham Palace after the ceremony by carriage along a route which will include sights like Parliament Square, Whitehall, Horse Guards Parade and the Mall. Once inside the Queen will throw a reception, a fancy one as you can imagine, for the couple and 700 of their friends and family.

1:30pm - Kate and Will are expected to make an appearance on a balcony at Buckingham Palace to kiss for the cameras.

6:00pm – After the “official reception” the couple will enjoy a private dinner with the Prince of Wales… dancing of course will follow.

For now my dear Blogistas whatever side you are on do your best to get through this coming Friday.

Here, for you, are the amazing details of One’s chance meeting with Wills and Kate @ Marylebone Station

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2011/02/wills-and-kate-marylebone.html

And, even more unbelievable, the details of One’s invitation!

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2011/03/one-is-invited.html


And, this is truly unbelievable, exclusive advance shots of the ceremony!

London in Spring

Springtime seems to announce itself suddenly in London as the city casts off its winter coat and suddenly everything appears to be happening en plein air! So concerts, events, music, street theatre all come out of hiding and onto the streets and parks. One sure sign of spring is the great street celebration known as the London Marathon which 36,500 runners took part in on Sunday. The London Marathon is one of the biggest running events in the world, and is one of the five top world marathons that make up the World Marathon Majors competition which has a $1 million prize purse. It has been held each spring in London since 1981.



The other great sign of spring are the wonderful floral displays in London’s Parks, no more so than in my personal favourite St. James Park with its vistas of Buckingham Palace and Horseguards Parade over the entrancing lake bustling with wildfowl and a community of Pelicans, introduced by a Russian Ambassador in 1664.


London Eye from St James's Park

So after work the weather is just too dreamy to head straight home and it is time to get out again and walk to Green Park Station through the wonderful enclave of Queen Anne’s Gate, St. James Park, up the Mall to Buckingham Palace to view preparations for “The Wedding” and then along Queens Walk at the side of Green Park passing by some of the (few) remaining great houses of the aristocracy including Spencer House, the former townhouse of Lady Diana’s family.



Old Queen Street and adjacent Queen Anne’s Gate are set in the Birdcage Walk Conservation Area and contain some of London’s most striking William and Mary, Queen Anne and Georgian architecture.




Birdcage Walk


Queens Walk - Green Park





The Royal Parks which stretch from Kensington Palace to the Palace of Westminster owe their existence to the Restoration of the Monarchy after Cromwell’s Republic In 1660. At this time, England had a new King, Charles II. He wanted to be able to walk all the way from Hyde Park to St James's without leaving royal soil. With its royal, political and literary associations, St James's Park is at the very heart of London and covers 23 hectares (58 acres). With a lake harbouring ducks, geese and pelicans, St James's is also home to the Mall, the setting for many ceremonial parades and events of national celebration.





http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/04/st-jamess-park-london.html

The Green Park covers 40 acres and is an important link between St James's Park and Hyde Park in forming a chain of open spaces that contribute so much to life in the capital. Although situated so close to St James's Park, The Green Park is quite different in character. It is more peaceful with mature trees and grassland and is surrounded by Constitution Hill, Piccadilly and the Broad Walk.





In 2010, British and Chinese artists have created designs based on a 'seed theme'. Their deckchairs will be on display in the Royal Parks and the Shanghai Botanical Garden during the summer. The adventure also incorporates an educational programme in London and Shanghai - helping school children, plus a group of older people, explore the natural world and its portrayal through art. Their designs will also be reproduced as deckchairs in the Parks.









Since 2006, an eclectic mix of 70 visionary artists, cartoonists, fashion and interior designers, thespians, celebrity chefs, singers and taxidermists, children from nine schools and members of the Household Cavalry have helped to make Deckchair Dreams a reality. Together they have designed 81 original deckchairs that celebrate the trees, wildlife, and other rare and wonderful things of London's eight Royal Parks. They bring joy to the Parks and allow visitors to relax on works of art.
This is one of the great Joys of London; Art is always around whether it is in the wonderful collections in the National or Tate Galleries or in street displays like Cow Parade or the Elephants last year.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/05/elephants-of-old-london-town.html

In front of Buckingham Palace preparations are afoot the wedding on the 29th April of Prince William and Kate Middleton including the building of a Press Centre facing the Palace which will carry broadcasts of the “Great Event.” One is constrained from commenting further for One is Invited!





http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2011/03/one-is-invited.html










Time then to head back along the great ceremonial avenue The Mall in front of Buckingham Palace where over 600,000 people are expected to congregate next Friday. Outside Buckingham Palace is the Queen Victoria Memorial, which celebrates the days of the British Empire. The memorial includes not only the marble statue of Victoria and the glittering figures of Victory, Courage and Constancy, but also the ornamental gates given by the Dominions. These are the Australia Gate, South Africa Gate and Canada Gate. On the North side of the Mall are some of the great aristocratic houses still extant in London, Marlborough House, Lancaster House, The Palace of St. James and last but not least Clarence House.


Lancaster House

Clarence House is the official residence of The Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall, Prince William and Prince Harry. Designed by prolific architect John Nash, it was the home of The Queen and The Queen Mother between 1953 and 2001 and is attached to St. James’s Palace. By the side of Green Park is Queen’s Walk, laid out in 1730 for George III’s wife, Caroline of Brunswick-Stretlitz who gave her name to the Bird of paradise flower, in Latin Stretlitzia.


Clarence House

Along here some of the aristocratic houses survive most notably the glorious edifice of Spencer House restored by Lord Rothschild who is also the guiding force behind Waddesdon Manor.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/11/waddesdon-manor-buckinghamshire.html

From its conception, Spencer House was recognised as one of the most ambitious aristocratic town houses ever built in London and is, today, the city's only great eighteenth-century private palace to survive intact. Spencer House was built in 1756-66 for John, first Earl Spencer, an ancestor of Diana, Princess of Wales (1961-97). Situated in the heart of St James's, Spencer House is a short distance from St James's Palace, Buckingham Palace and the Palace of Westminster, and has a splendid terrace and garden with magnificent views of The Green Park.


Spencer House


John Spencer initially employed the Palladian architect John Vardy, a pupil of William Kent. Vardy was responsible for the external elevations of Spencer House and the design of the ground floor rooms including some of the furniture. James 'Athenian' Stuart, then newly returned from Greece, superseded Vardy as Lord Spencer's architect in 1758. As a result, the House became the first example in London of the application of accurate Greek detail to interior decoration, making it one of the pioneer examples of neo-classical architecture.

At the top of Queen’s Walk you come to Green Park Tube Station which is currently in the throes of redevelopment to provide disabled access before the 2012 Olympics. As part of London Underground's upgrade works to improve the accessibility and operation of Green Park tube station, a number of improvements are being made to The Green Park including:



Improved views both into and out from the Park. Improved appearance of the area around the Ritz Corner on Piccadilly. An opportunity to enhance the horticultural and ecological value of the area, with improved landscaping. A new entrance to the station, direct from the Park, including improved access for people with restricted or reduced mobility.



Coming out onto Piccadilly by Green Park station it is hard to believe this traffic clogged artery was once one of London’s most fashionable streets lined by more huge houses of the aristocracy. Foremost amongst these on the North side of Piccadilly was the house depicted in the movie about Georgiana Spencer, Duchess of Devonshire depicted in the movie “Duchess” starring Keira Knightly. Devonshire House in Piccadilly was the London residence of the Dukes of Devonshire in the 18th and 19th centuries. It was built for William Cavendish, 3rd Duke of Devonshire in the Palladian style, to designs by William Kent. Completed circa 1740, empty after World War I, it was demolished in 1924.

Before the early 20th century, many of Britain's peers maintained large London houses which carried their name, As a ducal house (only in mainland Europe were such houses referred to as palaces) Devonshire House was one of the largest and grandest, ranking alongside Burlington House, Montague House, Lansdowne House, Londonderry House, Northumberland House and Norfolk House. All of these, like most of the great London free-standing houses are now long demolished, apart from Lansdowne House, which is substantially altered by a road in front of it.


The former gates of Devonshire House incorporated into Green Park




Devonshire House - Past and present

Today, the site is occupied by offices, known as Devonshire House which incorporates the Northern entrance to Green Park Tube.

As we head towards London 2012 the Olympic Games in London next year these Royal Parks will play an important role in London’s hosting of the event. The Royal Parks will host some of the key venues for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and planning permission has now been secured for each venue:

Greenwich Park - Olympic and Paralympic Equestrian Events; and elements of the Modern Pentathlon;
Horse Guards Parade Ground - Beach Volleyball;
Hyde Park - Triathlon and Marathon Swimming.

In addition to this a number of events will incorporate roads in the Royal Parks - including:

The Mall in St James's Park - will host the start/finish of Road Cycling; the Olympic and Paralympic Marathon and Race Walk;

Bushy Park - will be used for part of the Road Race Cycling route. The outbound route will enter the park at the north and then head south down Chestnut Avenue, and around the Diana Fountain. The course will not pass through Bushy Park on the return leg. The men's Time Trial cycling race will be held on 1 August 2012 and it will take in Chestnut Avenue and the Diana Fountain in Bushy Park along the route;



Richmond Park - will be used for part of the Road Race Cycling route. The outbound course for the road race will enter Richmond Park through Roehampton Gate, and then head west to leave the park through Richmond Gate. The return route will enter the park at Kingston Gate, and then head north to Richmond Gate where it will then head east to leave the park at Roehampton Gate.

The Royal Parks is also working with the Greater London Authority over plans for Hyde Park to host a Festival Live Site during the Olympic Games, providing Games coverage as well as cultural programmes.