In the past whenever I had cause to be in London I've always wanted to get out again as fast as possible. Perhaps it was the traffic, noise, tourists getting in the way etc.

But I've looked at it in a different light. Since reading Samuel Pepys I've realised London has so much history. Not just historically but culturally and socially too. Around Soho today I looked at the buildings; the famous people who lived there, clubs, venues and other historical themes of interest. And the tourists walk on by. The site of the Tyburn gallows, marked by a plague sunk in the ground. Ignored.

Such wonders. I shall be going again..

last time I visited in 2009 I took that red open top tourist bus for the first time.

Amazing the things you never get around to seeing in a city when you live there.

I love it when I have time to savour it. I suppose that goes for most places. It makes me sad that most of my visits there limit me to emerging from the absolute mess that is King's Cross station and then rushing across the city to some meeting or other. I also narrowly escaped the tube bombing so I've never been able to face travelling that way again. But last summer I sat in the OXO Tower restaurant and was stunned at how beautiful the city looked.