Weaving In And Out Of Whitehall

[poliphilo]

Central London has very few wide open spaces and Horse Guards Parade is one of them. It used to be Henry VIII's tilt yard; he staged tournaments there. For much of the later 20th century it served as a car park for politicians and senior civil servants- but that has been put a stop to as the abomination that it was. To the left is the imperial pomp of the Admiralty Extension- an Elgarian march in brick and stone but without the underlying melancholia and the sort of thing Kipling must have had in mind when he spoke of England seeming to be all "putty, brass and paint"- with the squat form of the 1940s Citadel crouching at the near corner- as a reminder of what warfare is really all about.

To the right are the backs of the buildings on Downing Street- where police in black uniforms linger discretely- and you have to look closely to see they are holding black weapons to their black chests- all very English and understated. Ailz noted that one of them was also holding his lunch in a black lunch-box. Straight ahead is the Horse Guards Building- 18th century- from a design by William Kent- who died before work on it began. It's pretty and Palladian and belongs to an age when soldiers wore toy-town uniforms and most of what they actually did- which wasn't so pretty- was done off-shore.



You go under the arch and out into Whitehall- which is full of people- some in movement and some forming knots in front of things they've heard about- guardsmen in their finery for instance or the entry to Downing Street- so dark on a sunny November morning it was like a cleft in a cliff- and you had to squint to make out detail in the gloom. We dodged down King Charles Street- which is lined on both sides with government offices- massive and mid-Victorian- and the people were no longer there- because this is not a place they know about- and the street sweeper had it almost all to himself. The buildings on the left belong to Philip Hammond and those on the right to Boris Johnson. Temporarily of course. Was that their voices we could hear, echoing around the inaccessible, inner courts? Probably not. At the far end there's a glimpse into St James's Park which is like the vision of a more excellent way.

Comments

[sorenr]

I have fond memories of Horse guards Parade, if only tangential. When I first introduced my English byfriend to someone from my family it was to my aunt and my grandmother - and my grandmother's English vocabulary included little more than "good morning" and "thank you"... And, surprisingly, "Horse Guards Parade". (My grandfather had the language skills in that marriage - but people skills can often make up for a lack of words and my English ex still remember the little old lady fondly - though of course now she's 16 years older and even smaller.)

[poliphilo]

I've passed Horse Guards Parade many times but this was the first time I'd stopped and looked. I'd never thought of it as an attraction or worth going out of one's way to see- but found that it is- which goes to show how much one takes things on one's doorstep for granted.