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From my last shooting location, Vine Street, it was a short walk east along Piccadilly, then onto Leicester Square and cutting through onto Charing Cross Road which allowed for an early cup of tea in the Crypt cafe at St Martins in the Fields before staring my progressions up Strand. My first shot on the Strand was another bus reflection (becoming a bit of a habit). I particularly liked this one as you can just see the driver through a dark part of the reflection in the window. Further along the road there was a Boots chemists delivery van stuck in the traffic. I think their artwork of blue eye shadow was greatly enhanced by the rivets in the metal side of the van! At the Eastern end of the Strand just before Kings College is Somerset House, home of The Courtauld Institute of Art. They always have interesting displays in their windows which face onto the Strand. One of these windows was my final image from this location, a simple window reflection showing some beautiful fabric showing through the reflection. I really love this image! 

Luckily for me the Strand leads directly onto Fleet Street, so it was an easy move to my next shooting location. However, before Fleet Street I needed some images for my second Chance location, which will be the subject of my next post.

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Free parking means I must be half way around the Monopoly Photography London tour. When I started this project free parking seemed an unlikely proposition in London. I was told that it is possible at various supermarkets but I didn't feel that was what I was looking for. However, I found that I could park my motorbike for free at the Q Park car park near Trafalgar Square (the location of my first image this week, see map below). That's great as you have to pay to park your motorbike in the motorbike spaces on the road. So, thank you to Q Park!
I also noticed that diplomats seemed to be uninterested in paying for parking in London, hence my second image of a car with diplomatic plates in the middle of Parliament Street. The government states that outstanding parking fines by embassy staff totals over £75 million since 2013! You will be pleased to know that the US heads the list at a little over £8m followed by Japan at £5.6m and then Russia at £5.1m.
My final image is of the Police happily parked up and having a bit of lunch.  Lets face it everyone has to eat (so good luck to them?). 

The free parking images have been taken at various times during the project, so my walk to the next location, Strand, really started from last weeks location, Vine Street. This was a pleasant short walk down to Piccadilly, west to Leicester Square, then south down Charring Cross Road, past Trafalgar Square and then onto the start of the Strand which leads off towards the City to the East. See you on the Strand, next week.

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Vine Street is probably the smallest street so far on the Monopoly Photography London tour! It's basically just the loading bay for "Le Meridien Piccadilly" hotel and a little bit more. So I was going to post images of the staff on the breaks having a cigarette and a coffee, but that seemed a little mean, so I dug a bit deeper. My first image was of some shutters with a sprinter stop value sign. It's a nice graphic image and little red always helps. The Bentley car was waiting in the road with it's left indicator going. The driver looked very bored and I was pleased I was out in the open. My final image was some window art(?) near the staff entrance to the hotel.
​I hope you like this weeks offerings. . .

My next stop is free parking. Not so much of a location, more of a challenge and it seems it's quite easy for some . . .

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(Great) Marlborough Street runs parallel to Oxford Street at the heart of the West End of London. It is a street I have spent much time walking up and down between The Photographers' Gallery (in Ramillies Street), O'Neill's pub (on the corner of Carnaby Street) and Regent Street as a route up to the tube at Oxford Circus.
I took a couple of reflection images this week, the first of The Photographers' Gallery (where I have spend way too much time over the years, at exhibitions and at WideAngleLondon Meetups) and a second a reflection of the punk picture in the window of the Liberty store. Liberty is holding (with The Photographers' Gallery) an In Your Face : 40 years of punk celebration and has some very nice images from the 80's in it's windows. The other image for this week was of the shutters of the M&S loading bay. There were some great shadows and these two figures were passing more than the time of day as they passed each other at quite a pace. I could have posted lots of other images from this street as it has a lot going for it. During my visit I saw a woman throw out a lamp for the rubbish collection. Five minutes later I saw the lamp being recycled by a young guy who walked it over the road an into the local pub! I also saw a wonderful bouquet of blackberry heads in the Liberty flower shop. I think I may start posting the ones that don't make it here onto Instagram so they don't go to waste (I'll let you know if I do).

My next location is Vine Street, which is just off Swallow Street on the north side of Piccadilly. I took a gentle walk down Carnaby Street then over to Regent Street and south to the cut through (under Veeraswamy's amazing restaurant) into Swallow Street and finally into Vine Street, which is less of a road and more of a smoking area for the staff of the local hotel. More about this next week. . .

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By the time I reached Soho Square it was late morning. The sun was bright and the park benches looked inviting. There were people tending the gardens, office staff enjoying the sun and a whole host of locals getting together and having a chat.
There aren't that many places in Central London which still feel like they have a strong community but this place certainly does, so Soho Square was chosen for my second community chest location. 
My photos were easy to chose today, the bicycle bell and the stickered-up sign seemed to go together well and the water sprinkler summed up the feeling of summer very well. Hope you enjoy them. . . 

To get to my next location, (Great) Marlborough Street, I cut through the alley at the end of Carlisle Street, along Sheraton Street then north on Wardour Street and west onto Noel Street. This leads directly into Great Marlborough Street. See you there soon. . .

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