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The Thekla Lark was a somewhat nondescript bird that seemed pretty common when we were traveling in the higher elevation areas that we visited during our trip to Ethiopia. For these reasons there was a tendency to not spend much time to photograph them. After a couple of days of pretty much driving past them I couldn’t handle it any more and decided to just take some time out and spend some time with the bird. Looking back at it I’m glad we invested the time, it’s actually a pretty neat bird and since we saw so many of them it would have been a shame not to have some photos to go along with the memories.
_MG_3482-web
Galerida theklae
Let it be… but let it be beneath me.
Debugged the past. Deploying the future. I ship what pays now. #forwardonly #checkmate #minimal.
EDX433. DSCF9439.HS
Estructural = MIXescene - Invest....
DSCF9439---
Selección. DGV-MOV. CINEMA.MIX TV Record.
Doble Exposición MIX-B/W. ITPTV-MOD.
Tonal-Transfer- color chrome. Blur Efect.
PHOTO -T.I.M.S. MIX-Color
Gracias por compartir.
Agradezco a todos su seguimiento atención, favoritas y amables comentarios….
Muchas gracias por vuestra visita .
Thank you very much for your visit and comments.
Molt agraït per la vostra visita, atencions i comentaris.
Très reconnaissant pour votre visite, l'attention et les commentaires.
- COPYRIGHT © PHOTO-D.G.V.
Someone created this superb rendition of a labyrinth at the beach. It has been there several days although the tide has now taken a portion of it. The time, effort and creativity to accomplish this needs to be admired. Seen at Pawley's Island, SC.
My Trip To Anthem
Hair & Ribbon NEW: S-Club - Wendy (Anthem)
Head: Genus - Baby Face W001 2.0
Skin: Genus - LIndsey 4K
Necklace: Yummy - Enchantress
Top and Skirt: Look at Me - River (Anthem)
Pose: DenDen Poses
The Erie Lackawanna invested heavily in EMD’s “45” line, starting with 34 SD45’s purchased in 1967-8. Wanting to add range to the next order for the big fuel guzzlers, the EL bought 34 faux-SDP45’s in 1969. With no steam generators installed, the SDP’s were never intended for passenger service; rather, their longer frames afforded a larger fuel tank than the straight SD45’s. Finally, the EL rounded out its EMD roster with a dozen SD45-2’s in 1972, giving it three variants of the same locomotive. Here an example of each team up to lead a westbound post-Conrail freight into Allentown yard on former CNJ/LV trackage.
Southeast Financial Center is a two-acre development in Miami, Florida, United States. It consists of a 764 feet (233 m) tall office skyscraper and its 15-story parking garage. It was previously known as the Southeast Financial Center (1984–1992), the First Union Financial Center (1992–2003), and the Wachovia Financial Center (2003-2011). In 2011, it retook its old name of Southeast Financial Center as Wachovia merged with Wells Fargo and moved to the nearby Wells Fargo Center.
When topped-off in August 1983, it was the tallest building south of New York City and east of the Mississippi River, taking away the same title from the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel, in Atlanta, Georgia. It remained the tallest building in the southeastern U.S. until 1987, when it was surpassed by One Atlantic Center in Atlanta and the tallest in Florida until October 1, 2003, when it was surpassed by the Four Seasons Hotel and Tower, also in Miami. It remains the tallest office tower in Florida and the third tallest building in Miami.
Southeast Financial Center was constructed in three years with more than 500 construction workers. Approximately 6,650 tons of structural steel, 80,000 cubic yards of concrete and 7000 cubic tons of reinforcing steel bars went into its construction. The complex sits on a series of reinforced concrete grade beams tied to 150 concrete caissons as much as ten feet in diameter and to a depth of 80 feet. A steel space-frame canopy with glass skylights covers the outdoor plaza between the tower and low-rise building.
The tower has a composite structure. The exterior columns and beams are concrete encased steel wide flanges surrounded by reinforcing bars. The composite exterior frame was formed using hydraulic steel forms, or "flying forms," jacked into place with a "kangaroo" crane, that was located in the core and manually clamped into place. Wide flange beams topped by a metal deck and concrete form the interior floor framing. The core is A braced steel frame, designed to laterally resist wind loads. The construction of one typical floor was completed every five days.
The low-rise banking hall and parking building is a concrete-framed structure. Each floor consists of nearly an acre of continuously poured concrete. When the concrete had sufficiently hardened, compressed air was used to blow the forms fiberglass forms from under the completed floor. It was then rolled out to the exterior where it was raised by crane into position for the next floor.
The building was recognized as Miami's first and only office building to be certified for the LEED Gold award in January 2010.
The center was developed by a partnership consisting of Gerald D. Hines Interests, Southeast Bank and Corporate Property Investors for $180 million. It was originally built as the headquarters for Southeast Bank, which originally occupied 50 percent of the complex's space. It remained Southeast Bank's headquarters there until it was liquidated in 1991.
The Southeast Financial Center comprises two buildings: the 55-story office tower and the 15-story parking annex. The tower has 53 stories of office space. The first floor is dedicated for retail, the second floor is the lobby and the 55th floor was home to the luxurious Miami City Club. The parking annex has 12 floors of parking space for 1,150 cars. The first floor is dedicated for retail, the second floor is a banking hall and the 15th floor has the Downtown Athletic Club. A landscaped plaza lies between the office tower and the parking annex. An enclosed walkway connects the second story of the tower with the second story of the annex. The courtyard is partially protected from the elements by a steel and glass space frame canopy spanning the plaza and attached to the tower and annex. Southeast Bank's executive offices were located on the 38th floor. Ground was broken on the complex on December 12, 1981 and the official dedication and opening for the complex was held on October 23, 1984.
The Southeast Financial Center was designed by Edward Charles Bassett of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. The Associate Architect was Spillis Candela & Partners. It has 1,145,311 ft² (106,000 m²) of office space. A typical floor has about 22,000 ft² (2,043.87 m²) of office space. Each floor has 9 ft x 9 ft (2.7 m x 2.7 m) floor to ceiling windows. (All of the building's windows are tinted except for the top floor, resulting in strikingly bright and clear views from there.) The total complex has over 2.2 million ft² (204,000 m²). The distinctive setbacks begin at the 43rd floor. Each typical floor plate has 9 corner offices and the top twelve floors have as many as 16. There are 43 elevators in the office tower. An emergency control station provides computerized monitoring for the entire complex, and four generators for backup power.
The Southeast Financial Center can be seen as far away as Ft. Lauderdale and halfway toward Bimini. Night space shuttle launches from Cape Canaveral 200 miles to the north were plainly visible from the higher floors. The roof of the building was featured in the Wesley Snipes motion picture Drop Zone, where an eccentric base jumper named Swoop parachutes down to the street from a suspended window cleaning trolley. The building also appeared in several episodes of the 1980s TV show Miami Vice and at the end of each episode's opening credits.
Zara founder Amancio Ortega purchased the building from J.P. Morgan Asset Management in December 2016. The purchase price was reportedly over $500 million, making it one of the largest real estate transactions in South Florida history.
Credit for the data above is given to the following websites:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southeast_Financial_Center
www.emporis.com/buildings/122292/wachovia-financial-cente...
© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.
Saying NO to building small hydropower plants on Stara planina and all Serbian rivers and streams! Water is a basic human right and no profit is to be made out of it!
The production of electrical energy from such plants is irrelevant. What is significant is the profit of investors and banks and the total annihilation of the protected species living in the rivers, destroying bio diversity and most importantly - diverting and abusing the drinking water resources of the local villages and the city!
Join the cause and a group now counting 50,000 members: www.facebook.com/groups/1925328764350247/
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Exciting startup and investor highlights from SLUSH Week 2021 in Helsinki, Finland. Cooler than ice.
One of the world's coolest startup and investor events from Helsinki in Finland. www.slush.org/
Inspiring side event with Start North 5G MÖKKI concept on 5G AI and VR education - keynote by Rikard Steiber, founder of GoodTrust
CleanTech Region Impact group with Nordic Impact Week attended with leading companies.
Join the Nordic-Baltic Impact Week to Silicon Valley and SOCAP
Photo and Video Credit: Lars Ling
All rights reserved (c) Copyright.
Here is the other side of her sign. She might be a teacher; I didn't bother to ask. Instead I rushed around to get more signs, when I should have taken a bit more time to get the backgrounds of some of these people who show up. Oh, well, maybe at the next march/expo.
Can you reverse engineer the lighting before checking the setup? Drop a comment about your guess and then check the setup.
Strobist info and setup is here.
"Keeping Investors on a Need-to-Know Basis" by GRETCHEN MORGENSON via NYT t.co/s7pXxK8XVo (via Twitter twitter.com/felipemassone/status/703242594717978624)
The Growing Importance of Institutional Investors in Transition Economies
Banks across the globe are facing increasing capital constraints, resulting in shifting an emphasis on certain activities and a reduced appetite for long-term lending to the corporate and infrastructure sectors.
As the non-banking financial sector continues to expand, this discussion focused on the growing importance of institutional investors in the development of capital markets in transition economies. Investors such as pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies and asset managers have the ability to exert a significant influence on capital flows in the EBRD’s region.
This panel also explored the challenges and opportunities faced by the institutional investment community and how these investors can mobilise funds in support of economic development.
Moderator
Ralph Atkins
Capital Markets Editor, Financial Times Ltd.
Speakers
Klemens Breuer
Member of the Managing Board, Markets, Raiffeisen Bank International AG
Gianni Franco Papa
Head of CEE Division, UniCredit
Manfred Schepers
Vice President and CFO, EBRD
Paweł Tamborski
Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of the Treasury, Poland
Danny Truell
Chief Investment Officer, The Wellcome Trust
Deborah Zurkow
CIO and Head of Infrastructure Debt, Allianz Global Investors
Agora Line ex-Lucerne assurant les navettes entre les avions et l'aérogare.
Bus : Agora Line
Mise en service : 03/2005
Aéroport : Chisinau
Opérateur : Avia Invest
Rania A. Al Mashat, Advisor, International Monetary Fund (IMF), USA speaking during the session "Investing in Peace" at the Annual Meeting 2017 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, January 18, 2017
Copyright by World Economic Forum / Jakob Polacsek
Fatima has invested earnings in small business selling groceries and clothes.
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Copyright: Erik Törner, IM Individuell Människohjälp (IM Swedish Development Partner), www.manniskohjalp.se Please respect copyright. Contact Erik Törner, IM for permissions. Email erik.torner(a)manniskohjalp.se
IM is a Swedish Civil Society Organization fighting and exposing poverty and exclusion through Development Cooperation, Fair Trade and Integration. IM makes long-term commitments together with local partners, in promoting health, education and income generation. Our efforts are aimed at empowering people and each new project starts off on a small scale.
Read more and get involved at www.manniskohjalp.se
✰ This photo was featured on The Epic Global Showcase here: ift.tt/1OAZJjw
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“House on Union Street” by The Bob Dylan 👀✨✨. As part of the Drawn Blank Series released in 2012. Very collectable and highly investable👌💰💸. Hand Signed Limited Edition Print on Paper, Framed. 👈. Open to negotiation on Price. 💻http://ift.tt/1shTJlu #bobdylan #bobdylanart #traintracks #iconic #legendary #blue #art #artist #artwork #artoftheday #artofvisuals #artistsoninstagram #instaart #art_spotlight #artcollective #art_empire #collectable #investment #investmentart #fineart #fineart_photobw #contemporaryfineart #houseonunionstreet
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Forest Fair Village a mall known by many names in its 28 year history. Forest Fair Village originally opened in 1989 as Forest Fair Mall. The malls orriginal anchors were B. Altman, Bonwit Teller, and Sakowitz. By 1990 all of the original anchors closed they proved to be too upscale for this malls location thus the beginning of the decline had begun. In 2002 Mills Corporation bought the mall. They invested 70 million dollars in updating and re-branding the mall to Cincinatti Mills. The mall changed names again in 2009 to Cincinnati Mall when the mall was sold to another group of investors. The mall was then renamed for the last time in 2013 to Forest Fair Village. Currently the only stores still open at Forest Fair Village are Kohl's, Bass Pro Shop, and Baby's r Us.
A street art stencil feating the "get out of jail free" card image from Monopoly board-game. Found pained on the sidewalk in New York City in 2007.
Swiss National Bank (BNS) building in Lausanne, canton of Vaud, Switzerland.
Shot with compact automatic (shutter priority) Minolta Hi-Matic 7SII & Rokkor 40mm f/1.7 lens at 1/125sec, f/11 on CineStill 50D 35mm film.
Covent Garden (/ˈkɒvənt/) is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as "Covent Garden". The district is divided by the main thoroughfare of Long Acre, north of which is given over to independent shops centred on Neal's Yard and Seven Dials, while the south contains the central square with its street performers and most of the elegant buildings, theatres and entertainment facilities, including the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, and the London Transport Museum.
Though mainly fields until the 16th century, the area was briefly settled when it became the heart of the Anglo-Saxon trading town of Lundenwic. After the town was abandoned, part of the area was walled off by 1200 for use as arable land and orchards by Westminster Abbey, and was referred to as "the garden of the Abbey and Convent". The land, now called "the Covent Garden", was seized by Henry VIII, and granted to the Earls of Bedford in 1552. The 4th Earl commissioned Inigo Jones to build some fine houses to attract wealthy tenants. Jones designed the Italianate arcaded square along with the church of St Paul's. The design of the square was new to London, and had a significant influence on modern town planning, acting as the prototype for the laying-out of new estates as London grew. A small open-air fruit and vegetable market had developed on the south side of the fashionable square by 1654. Gradually, both the market and the surrounding area fell into disrepute, as taverns, theatres, coffee-houses and brothels opened up; the gentry moved away, and rakes, wits and playwrights moved in. By the 18th century it had become a well-known red-light district, attracting notable prostitutes. An Act of Parliament was drawn up to control the area, and Charles Fowler's neo-classical building was erected in 1830 to cover and help organise the market. The area declined as a pleasure-ground as the market grew and further buildings were added: the Floral Hall, Charter Market, and in 1904 the Jubilee Market. By the end of the 1960s traffic congestion was causing problems, and in 1974 the market relocated to the New Covent Garden Market about three miles (5 km) south-west at Nine Elms. The central building re-opened as a shopping centre in 1980, and is now a tourist location containing cafes, pubs, small shops, and a craft market called the Apple Market, along with another market held in the Jubilee Hall.
Covent Garden, with the postcode WC2, falls within the London boroughs of Westminster and Camden, and the parliamentary constituencies of Cities of London and Westminster and Holborn and St Pancras. The area has been served by the Piccadilly line at Covent Garden tube station since 1907; the journey from Leicester Square, at 300 yards, is the shortest in London.
Early history
The route of the Strand on the southern boundary of what was to become Covent Garden was used during the Roman period as part of a route to Silchester, known as "Iter VII" on the Antonine Itinerary. Excavations in 2006 at St Martin-in-the-Fields revealed a Roman grave, suggesting the site had sacred significance. The area to the north of the Strand was long thought to have remained as unsettled fields until the 16th century, but theories by Alan Vince and Martin Biddle that there had been an Anglo-Saxon settlement to the west of the old Roman town of Londinium were borne out by excavations in 1985 and 2005. These revealed Covent Garden as the centre of a trading town called Lundenwic, developed around 600 AD, which stretched from Trafalgar Square to Aldwych. Alfred the Great gradually shifted the settlement into the old Roman town of Londinium from around 886 AD onwards, leaving no mark of the old town, and the site returned to fields.
Around 1200 the first mention of an abbey garden appears in a document mentioning a walled garden owned by the Benedictine monks of the Abbey of St. Peter, Westminster. A later document, dated between 1250 and 1283, refers to "the garden of the Abbot and Convent of Westminster". By the 13th century this had become a 40-acre (16 ha) quadrangle of mixed orchard, meadow, pasture and arable land, lying between modern-day St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane, and Floral Street and Maiden Lane. The use of the name "Covent"—an Anglo-French term for a religious community, equivalent to "monastery" or "convent" —appears in a document in 1515, when the Abbey, which had been letting out parcels of land along the north side of the Strand for inns and market gardens, granted a lease of the walled garden, referring to it as "a garden called Covent Garden". This is how it was recorded from then on.
The Bedford Estate (1552–1918)
After the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1540, Henry VIII took for himself the land belonging to Westminster Abbey, including the convent garden and seven acres to the north called Long Acre; and in 1552 his son, Edward VI, granted it to John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford. The Russell family, who in 1694 were advanced in their peerage from Earl to Duke of Bedford, held the land from 1552 to 1918.
Russell had Bedford House and garden built on part of the land, with an entrance on the Strand, the large garden stretching back along the south side of the old walled-off convent garden. Apart from this, and allowing several poor-quality tenements to be erected, the Russells did little with the land until the 4th Earl of Bedford, Francis Russell, an active and ambitious businessman, commissioned Inigo Jones in 1630 to design and build a church and three terraces of fine houses around a large square or piazza. The commission had been prompted by Charles I taking offence at the condition of the road and houses along Long Acre, which were the responsibility of Russell and Henry Carey, 2nd Earl of Monmouth. Russell and Carey complained that under the 1625 Proclamation concerning Buildings, which restricted building in and around London, they could not build new houses; the King then granted Russell, for a fee of £2,000, a licence to build as many new houses on his land as he "shall thinke fitt and convenient". The church of St Paul's was the first building, begun in July 1631 on the western side of the square. The last house was completed in 1637.
The houses initially attracted the wealthy, though when a market developed on the south side of the square around 1654, the aristocracy moved out and coffee houses, taverns, and prostitutes moved in. The Bedford Estate was expanded in 1669 to include Bloomsbury, when Lord Russell married Lady Rachel Vaughan, one of the daughters of the 4th Earl of Southampton.
By the 18th century, Covent Garden had become a well-known red-light district, attracting notable prostitutes such as Betty Careless and Jane Douglas. Descriptions of the prostitutes and where to find them were provided by Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies, the "essential guide and accessory for any serious gentleman of pleasure". In 1830 a market hall was built to provide a more permanent trading centre. In 1913, Herbrand Russell, 11th Duke of Bedford agreed to sell the Covent Garden Estate for £2 million to the MP and land speculator Harry Mallaby-Deeley, who sold his option in 1918 to the Beecham family for £250,000.
Modern changes
Charles Fowler's 1830 neo-classical building restored as a retail market.
The Covent Garden Estate was part of Beecham Estates and Pills Limited from 1924 to 1928, after which time it was managed by a successor company called Covent Garden Properties Company Limited, owned by the Beechams and other private investors. This new company sold some properties at Covent Garden, while becoming active in property investment in other parts of London. In 1962 the bulk of the remaining properties in the Covent Garden area, including the market, were sold to the newly established government-owned Covent Garden Authority for £3,925,000.
By the end of the 1960s, traffic congestion had reached such a level that the use of the square as a modern wholesale distribution market was becoming unsustainable, and significant redevelopment was planned. Following a public outcry, buildings around the square were protected in 1973, preventing redevelopment. The following year the market moved to a new site in south-west London. The square languished until its central building re-opened as a shopping centre in 1980. An action plan was drawn up by Westminster Council in 2004 in consultation with residents and businesses to improve the area while retaining its historic character. The market buildings, along with several other properties in Covent Garden, were bought by a property company in 2006.
Geography
Historically, the Bedford Estate defined the boundary of Covent Garden, with Drury Lane to the east, the Strand to the south, St. Martin's Lane to the west, and Long Acre to the north. However, over time the area has expanded northwards past Long Acre to High Holborn, and since 1971, with the creation of the Covent Garden Conservation Area which incorporated part of the area between St Martins Lane and Charring Cross Road, the Western boundary is sometimes considered to be Charring Cross Road. Shelton Street, running parallel to the north of Long Acre, marks the London borough boundary between Camden and Westminster. Long Acre is the main thoroughfare, running north-east from St Martin's Lane to Drury Lane.
The area to the south of Long Acre contains the Royal Opera House, the market and central square, and most of the elegant buildings, theatres and entertainment facilities, including the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, and the London Transport Museum; while the area to the north of Long Acre is largely given over to independent retail units centred on Neal Street, Neal's Yard and Seven Dials; though this area also contains residential buildings such as Odhams Walk, built in 1981 on the site of the Odhams print works, and is home to over 6,000 residents.
Governance
The Covent Garden estate was originally under the control of Westminster Abbey and lay in the parish of St Margaret. During a reorganisation in 1542 it was transferred to St Martin in the Fields, and then in 1645 a new parish was created, splitting governance of the estate between the parishes of St Paul Covent Garden and St Martin, both still within the Liberty of Westminster. St Paul Covent Garden was completely surrounded by the parish of St Martin in the Fields. It was grouped into the Strand District in 1855 when it came within the area of responsibility of the Metropolitan Board of Works.
In 1889 the parish became part of the County of London and in 1900 it became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Westminster. It was abolished as a civil parish in 1922. Since 1965 Covent Garden falls within the London boroughs of Westminster and Camden, and is in the Parliamentary constituencies of Cities of London and Westminster and Holborn and St Pancras. For local council elections it falls within the St James's ward for Westminster, and the Holborn and Covent Garden ward for Camden.
Economy
The area's historic association with the retail and entertainment economy continues. In 1979, Covent Garden Market reopened as a retail centre; in 2010, the largest Apple Store in the world opened in The Piazza. The central hall has shops, cafes and bars alongside the Apple Market stalls selling antiques, jewellery, clothing and gifts; there are additional casual stalls in the Jubilee Hall Market on the south side of the square. Long Acre has a range of clothes shops and boutiques, and Neal Street is noted for its large number of shoe shops. London Transport Museum and the side entrance to the Royal Opera House box office and other facilities are also located on the square. During the late 1970s and 1980s the Rock Garden music venue was popular with up and coming punk rock and New Wave artists.
The market halls and several other buildings in Covent Garden were bought by CapCo in partnership with GE Real Estate in August 2006 for £421 million, on a 150-year head lease. The buildings are let to the Covent Garden Area Trust, who pay an annual peppercorn rent of one red apple and a posy of flowers for each head lease, and the Trust protects the property from being redeveloped. In March 2007 CapCo also acquired the shops located under the Royal Opera House. The complete Covent Garden Estate owned by CapCo consists of 550,000 sq ft (51,000 m2), and has a market value of £650 million.
Landmarks
The Royal Opera House, often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", was constructed as the "Theatre Royal" in 1732 to a design by Edward Shepherd. During the first hundred years or so of its history, the theatre was primarily a playhouse, with the Letters Patent granted by Charles II giving Covent Garden and Theatre Royal, Drury Lane exclusive rights to present spoken drama in London. In 1734, the first ballet was presented; a year later Handel's first season of operas began. Many of his operas and oratorios were specifically written for Covent Garden and had their premières here. It has been the home of The Royal Opera since 1945, and the Royal Ballet since 1946.
The current building is the third theatre on the site following destructive fires in 1808 and 1857. The façade, foyer and auditorium were designed by Edward Barry, and date from 1858, but almost every other element of the present complex dates from an extensive £178 million reconstruction in the 1990s. The Royal Opera House seats 2,268 people and consists of four tiers of boxes and balconies and the amphitheatre gallery. The stage performance area is roughly 15 metres square. The main auditorium is a Grade 1 listed building. The inclusion of the adjacent old Floral Hall, previously a part of the old Covent Garden Market, created a new and extensive public gathering place. In 1779 the pavement outside the playhouse was the scene of the murder of Martha Ray, mistress of the Earl of Sandwich, by her admirer the Rev. James Hackman.
Covent Garden square
Balthazar Nebot's 1737 painting of the square before the 1830 market hall was constructed.
The central square in Covent Garden is simply called "Covent Garden", often marketed as "Covent Garden Piazza" to distinguish it from the eponymous surrounding area. Laid out in 1630, it was the first modern square in London, and was originally a flat, open space or piazza with low railings. A casual market started on the south side, and by 1830 the present market hall was built. The space is popular with street performers, who audition with the site's owners for an allocated slot. The square was originally laid out when the 4th Earl of Bedford, Francis Russell, commissioned Inigo Jones to design and build a church and three terraces of fine houses around the site of a former walled garden belonging to Westminster Abbey. Jones's design was informed by his knowledge of modern town planning in Europe, particularly Piazza d'Arme, in Leghorn, Tuscany, Piazza San Marco in Venice, Piazza Santissima Annunziata in Florence, and the Place des Vosges in Paris. The centrepiece of the project was the large square, the concept of which was new to London, and this had a significant influence on modern town planning in the city,[56] acting as the prototype for the laying-out of new estates as the metropolis grew. Isaac de Caus, the French Huguenot architect, designed the individual houses under Jones's overall design.
The church of St Paul's was the first building, and was begun in July 1631 on the western side of the square. The last house was completed in 1637. Seventeen of the houses had arcaded portico walks organised in groups of four and six either side of James Street on the north side, and three and four either side of Russell Street. These arcades, rather than the square itself, took the name Piazza; the group from James Street to Russell Street became known as the "Great Piazza" and that to the south of Russell Street as the "Little Piazza". None of Inigo Jones's houses remain, though part of the north group was reconstructed in 1877–79 as Bedford Chambers by William Cubitt to a design by Henry Clutton.
Covent Garden market
The first record of a "new market in Covent Garden" is in 1654 when market traders set up stalls against the garden wall of Bedford House. The Earl of Bedford acquired a private charter from Charles II in 1670 for a fruit and vegetable market, permitting him and his heirs to hold a market every day except Sundays and Christmas Day. The original market, consisting of wooden stalls and sheds, became disorganised and disorderly, and the 6th Earl requested an Act of Parliament in 1813 to regulate it, then commissioned Charles Fowler in 1830 to design the neo-classical market building that is the heart of Covent Garden today. The contractor was William Cubitt and Company. Further buildings were added—the Floral hall, Charter Market, and in 1904 the Jubilee Market for foreign flowers was built by Cubitt and Howard.
By the end of the 1960s, traffic congestion was causing problems for the market, which required increasingly large lorries for deliveries and distribution. Redevelopment was considered, but protests from the Covent Garden Community Association in 1973 prompted the Home Secretary, Robert Carr, to give dozens of buildings around the square listed-building status, preventing redevelopment. The following year the market relocated to its new site, New Covent Garden Market, about three miles (5 km) south-west at Nine Elms. The central building re-opened as a shopping centre in 1980, with cafes, pubs, small shops and a craft market called the Apple Market. Another market, the Jubilee Market, is held in the Jubilee Hall on the south side of the square. The market halls and several other buildings in Covent Garden have been owned by the property company Capital & Counties Properties (CapCo) since 2006.
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The current Theatre Royal on Drury Lane is the most recent of four incarnations, the Second of which opened in 1663, making it the oldest continuously used theatre in London. For much of its first two centuries, it was, along with the Royal Opera House, a patent theatre granted rights in London for the production of drama, and had a claim to be one of London's leading theatres. The first theatre, known as "Theatre Royal, Bridges Street", saw performances by Nell Gwyn and Charles Hart. After it was destroyed by fire in 1672, English dramatist and theatre manager Thomas Killigrew engaged Christopher Wren to build a larger theatre on the same spot, which opened in 1674. This building lasted nearly 120 years, under leadership including Colley Cibber, David Garrick, and Richard Brinsley Sheridan. In 1791, under Sheridan's management, the building was demolished to make way for a larger theatre which opened in 1794; but that survived only 15 years, burning down in 1809. The building that stands today opened in 1812. It has been home to actors as diverse as Shakespearean actor Edmund Kean, child actress Clara Fisher, comedian Dan Leno, the comedy troupe Monty Python (who recorded a concert album there), and musical composer and performer Ivor Novello. Since November 2008 the theatre has been owned by composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and generally stages popular musical theatre. It is a Grade I listed building.
London Transport Museum
The London Transport Museum is in a Victorian iron and glass building on the east side of the market square. It was designed as a dedicated flower market by William Rogers of William Cubitt and Company in 1871, and was first occupied by the museum in 1980. Previously the transport collection had been held at Syon Park and Clapham. The first parts of the collection were brought together at the beginning of the 20th century by the London General Omnibus Company (LGOC) when it began to preserve buses being retired from service. After the LGOC was taken over by the London Electric Railway (LER), the collection was expanded to include rail vehicles. It continued to expand after the LER became part of the London Passenger Transport Board in the 1930s and as the organisation passed through various successor bodies up to TfL, London's transport authority since 2000. The Covent Garden building has on display many examples of buses, trams, trolleybuses and rail vehicles from 19th and 20th centuries as well as artefacts and exhibits related to the operation and marketing of passenger services and the impact that the developing transport network has had on the city and its population.
St Paul's Church
St Paul's, commonly known as the Actors' Church, was designed by Inigo Jones as part of a commission by Francis Russell in 1631 to create "houses and buildings fitt for the habitacons of Gentlemen and men of ability". Work on the church began that year and was completed in 1633, at a cost of £4,000, with it becoming consecrated in 1638. In 1645 Covent Garden was made a separate parish and the church was dedicated to St Paul. It is uncertain how much of Jones's original building is left, as the church was damaged by fire in 1795 during restoration work by Thomas Hardwick; though it is believed that the columns are original—the rest is mostly Georgian or Victorian reconstruction.
Culture
The Covent Garden area has long been associated with both entertainment and shopping, and this continues. Covent Garden has 13 theatres, and over 60 pubs and bars, with most south of Long Acre, around the main shopping area of the old market. The Seven Dials area in the north of Covent Garden was home to the punk rock club The Roxy in 1977, and the area remains focused on young people with its trendy mid-market retail outlets.
Street performance
Street entertainment at Covent Garden was noted in Samuel Pepys's diary in May 1662, when he recorded the first mention of a Punch and Judy show in Britain. Impromptu performances of song and swimming were given by local celebrity William Cussans in the eighteenth century. Covent Garden is licensed for street entertainment, and performers audition for timetabled slots in a number of venues around the market, including the North Hall, West Piazza, and South Hall Courtyard. The courtyard space is dedicated to classical music only. There are street performances at Covent Garden Market every day of the year, except Christmas Day. Shows run throughout the day and are about 30 minutes in length. In March 2008, the market owner, CapCo, proposed to reduce street performances to one 30-minute show each hour.
Pubs and bars
The Covent Garden area has over 60 pubs and bars; several of them are listed buildings, with some also on CAMRA's National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors; some, such as The Harp in Chandos Place, have received consumer awards. The Harp's awards include London Pub of the Year in 2008 by the Society for the Preservation of Beers from the Wood, and National Pub of the Year by CAMRA in 2011. It was at one time owned by the Charrington Brewery, when it was known as The Welsh Harp; in 1995 the name was abbreviated to just The Harp, before Charrington sold it to Punch Taverns in 1997. It has been owned by the landlady since 2010.
The Lamb and Flag in Rose Street has a reputation as the oldest pub in the area, though records are not clear. The first mention of a pub on the site is 1772 (when it was called the Cooper's Arms – the name changing to Lamb & Flag in 1833); the 1958 brick exterior conceals what may be an early 18th-century frame of a house replacing the original one built in 1638.[94] The pub acquired a reputation for staging bare-knuckle prize fights during the early 19th century when it earned the nickname "Bucket of Blood". The alleyway beside the pub was the scene of an attack on John Dryden in 1679 by thugs hired by John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, with whom he had a long-standing conflict.
The Salisbury in St. Martin's Lane was built as part of a six-storey block around 1899 on the site of an earlier pub that had been known under several names, including the Coach & Horses and Ben Caunt's Head; it is both Grade II listed, and on CAMRA's National Inventory, due to the quality of the etched and polished glass and the carved woodwork, summed up as "good fin de siècle ensemble". The Freemasons Arms on Long Acre is linked with the founding of the Football Association in 1896; however, the meetings took place at The Freemasons Tavern on Great Queen Street, which was replaced in 1909 by the Connaught Rooms.
Other pubs that are Grade II listed are of minor interest, they are three 19th century rebuilds of 17th century/18th century houses, the Nell Gwynne Tavern in Bull Inn Court, the Nag's Head on James Street, and the White Swan on New Row; a Victorian pub built by lessees of the Marquis of Exeter, the Old Bell on the corner of Exeter Street and Wellington Street; and a late 18th or early 19th century pub the Angel and Crown on St. Martin's Lane.
Cultural connections
Covent Garden, and especially the market, have appeared in a number of works. Eliza Doolittle, the central character in George Bernard Shaw's play, Pygmalion, and the musical adaptation by Alan Jay Lerner, My Fair Lady, is a Covent Garden flower seller. Alfred Hitchcock's 1972 film Frenzy about a Covent Garden fruit vendor who becomes a serial sex killer, was set in the market where his father had been a wholesale greengrocer. The daily activity of the market was the topic of a 1957 Free Cinema documentary by Lindsay Anderson, Every Day Except Christmas, which won the Grand Prix at the Venice Festival of Shorts and Documentaries.
Transport
Covent Garden is served by the Piccadilly line at Covent Garden tube station on the corner of Long Acre and James Street. The station was opened by Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway on 11 April 1907, four months after services on the rest of the line began operating on 15 December 1906. Platform access is only by lift or stairs; until improvements to the exit gates in 2007, due to high passenger numbers (16 million annually), London Underground had to advise travellers to get off at Leicester Square and walk the short distance (the tube journey at less than 300 yards is London's shortest) to avoid the congestion. Stations just outside the area include the Charing Cross tube station and Charing Cross railway station, Leicester Square tube station, and Holborn tube station. While there is only one bus route in Covent Garden itself—the RV1, which uses Catherine Street as a terminus, just to the east of Covent Garden square—there are over 30 routes which pass close by, mostly on the Strand or Kingsway.
Responding to a question from the audience, Engler agreed that investment in infrastructure is a "win-win" when it comes to adding jobs and economic growth, while also providing sorely needed upgrades to a crumbling digital and physical national infrastructure.
Karlvind Gill, Hannah Bufton, Christie Delaney, Taria Bardawil, Valerie Todd, Sara Caplan, Kate Awdry, Johanna Mothander, Amy Calcutt, Alex Joyce,
portrait of me time ago shooted by my childhood friend Amaia. (edited by me)
they were the better times i could remember
there were no worries, no obligations, the biggest problem icould have was any nonsense from any 16 year old kid.
most of the time was invested in having fun...
EFloorTrade | Investing | Image source: www.mint.com/blog/investing/savings-cds-and-money-market-...
More than 3100 people turned out for the No Kings 2.0 Rally in Vero Beach, Florida on October 18th, 2025. One of over 2,700 demonstrations that were held, with at least one protest in every state, and several taking place in other countries in support. This widespread participation highlighted the collective sentiment against fascism and the Trump Administration. Resist!
Giornata movimentata, quella di oggi. Giornata di contestazione in tante città di tanti Paesi.
In Italia e nell' Europa del benessere in dissoluzione si risponde con politiche recessive e liberiste ai gravi problemi sociali dovuti all' inasprimento della crisi economica.
E' vero che occorrono scelte improntate al rigore nella spesa pubblica per aggiustare i conti di Stato ed enti locali devastati da decenni di sperperi e mal-governo.. Ma è altrettanto vero che i costi della bancarotta (fraudolenta) non devono ricadere su coloro che della crisi non sono i colpevoli ma semmai le vittime.. lavoratori dipendenti, autonomi non evasori, pensionati, precari, cassaintegrati etc.
Il sindacato CGIL ha portato in piazza i lavoratori addetti all'istruzione che sono particolarmente preoccupati non solo in ragione dei tagli finanziari già operati nel settore quanto per quei "non investimenti" che stanno portando al depotenziamento della scuola pubblica a vantaggio delle scuole private usate dalle famiglie piu' abbienti e benedette dal Vaticano e dai suoi sponsor.
Oggi gli edifici scolastici, in talune realtà della penisola, cadono in pezzi nell'indifferenza generale, mentre agli insegnanti vorrebbero imporre orari di lavoro peggiorativi e classi sempre piu' numerose. Il precariato è una triste realtà italiana che non sembra ancora risolta efficacemente.
Gli insegnanti di sostegno per gli alunni handicappati nella scuola pubblica sono stati ridotti senza che le forze politiche della Destra cattolica, teoricamente molto coinvolte in tali questioni, abbiano agito coerentemente.
La protesta che dilaga nelle piazze esprime il dissenso sui tagli di spesa che vanno ad incidere sugli strati piu' deboli della popolazione, quelli che, curiosamente, sono anche piu' facilmente raggiungibili dal Fisco..
Esistono modalità alternative di intervento.
Ogni tanto qualcuno, a sinistra, propone una tassazione sui grandi patrimoni allo scopo di non infierire su coloro che gia' scontano pesantemente la crisi in atto attraverso rincari di beni e servizi socio-sanitari, oneri che impoveriscono la collettività indiscriminatamente.
Per imprescindibili motivi tecnici la manovra a carico dei patrimoni dei ricchi viene rimandata a data da destinarsi.. ma i capitali seguitano a fuggire all'estero con complicate manovre di ingegneria delinquenziale, o anche, semplicemente, nel bagagliaio delle auto in transito a Chiasso..
Anche il taglio drastico delle spese militari in un Paese pacifico e ben difeso dall'Alleanza atlantica, è argomento inascoltato..
Avremo scuole al tracollo .. ma potremo vantare una flotta di 90 nuovi caccia bombardieri pronti al decollo .. Giocattoli inutili che i contribuenti pagheranno con molti miliardi di euro.