Waterloo Place

In Regent's Park

After spending the morning exploring Regent's Park and the surrounding area, I hopped on another bike. I wanted to ride south, but first I couldn't resist taking the road that circles the park. There were a lot of other cyclists doing the same thing -- it must be a Sunday morning kind of ride. The road is wide and not too busy, and the scenery is beautiful -- lots of fantastic old buildings and greenery.

 

Heading south, I passed still more lovely old buildings and statues:

and spotted the BBC broadcasting house

right across from All Souls Church.

Having used the BBC Learning English website extensively in my ESL classes, I was somewhat curious to see Broadcasting House, so I decided to dock the bike and check it out. Easier said than done. I wandered around looking for a docking station, asking several people along the way, but without success. I walked further and further...

and finally saw this friendly police officer and asked him for help. He didn't know right off, but he went in one direction while I went in another, and then he tracked me down to say that he had found a one. As can be seen from this photo, I was not the only person he helped that day!

I was kind of frustrated, as I wasted a lot of time looking, ended up about 3 kilometers from the place I wanted to go, and had to pay for the extra time I used the bike. Oh well, I guess it's all part of being a stranger in a big city!

A couple of days later, I discovered that there is a docking station behind this hotel, which is right across from All Souls Church. The docking station is just off the main street and hidden by parked cars, so if you don't know it's there, you can't see it.

The happy ending to my frustrating search for a docking station was that I ended up at Waterloo Place just as the London Marathon was ending. There was lots of excitement, and there were more statues and classy old buildings.

London Marathon 2015

Waterloo Place after the Marathon

John Franklin

There are so many statues in this square -- the equestrian statues are George IV and Edward VII.

Florence Nightingale and a few other Crimean War heroes are here, too.

And there's John Franklin, the explorer whose ships got lost in the Canadian Arctic. I read a book about his expedition, so I had to take a photo of his statue.

Florence Nightingale and the Crimea War Memorial

The Duke of York Column