Day 2 of Openhouse London weekend dawned not so bright but it wasn’t raining so I was grateful for that considering we probably had to spend about 30 minutes waiting in a line in the open outside Horseguards Parade. It was another 20 minutes before we got into the tour proper. I wasn’t too upset though as people behind us certainly had a lot longer to wait exponentially than we did. In fact a fight nearly broke out when the people in front of us, a bigger tour group of sorts, let in three of their latecoming members into the line after the person in charge of the queue had already done a head count. Pat and I were about four or five from the end so we were okay but the people behind us would have been pushed into the next group of tours which was a half hour after we could enter so they made sure to voice their opinion. The guy in charge of the queue was actually really good about ensure the three latecomers went to the end of the line but it did get very heated for a long while before it was resolved.

You probably know Horse Guards Parade best for the area just down the road from Number 10 (in fact from the parade you can actually see in to what is the back of number 10 except for all the big bushes and barbed wire fence in your way) where there are troopers from the Household Calvary mounted and on foot. It’s the horses which are the main attraction normally though the troopers on foot also get their fare share of attention for their interesting uniforms. You’ll know the area as there are millions of tourists normally milling around trying to get photos of and with the horses and guards.

Small trivia which may surprise but in 2012 it will actually host the beach volleyball competition during the Olympics.

The only time, I think, you can get a guided tour of the buildings at Horse Guards Parade is on openhouse weekend so they are normally quite a popular choice and its first come first serve so its best to get to the parade relatively early as tours are only every 20 minutes and limited numbers per tour. You are taken though the various rooms, shown a video, get to handle a beefeater hat (which are made of Canadian black bear fur ;( Actually £1m was contributed by Madonna, Stella McCartney and crew to try and make an alternative synthetic cap but this never went through as they were no good!)

We went into the Major General’s room (painted a slight green which is supposedly the most soothing to the eye.) In this room the light is never switched off. There are three stories: 1. something about leaving the light on for one of the soldiers who was out at a party and then got lost in the trees coming home and fell asleep at the bottom of one and he used the light to guide him home 2. something about the Duke burning the midnight oil and 3. something about it being left on for returning soldiers. I kind of like the thought of option number 3 but also the green side of me thinks it would be better for the environment if it was switched off!

Just at the exit/entry of the tour on the roof of an arch is painted a black and white symbol. This marked where the parish boundary of St Margaret’s, Westminster and St Martin-in-the-Fields passes from East to West exactly through the centre of the building apparently separating the posh from then not so posh …

After Horseguards Parade we headed towards City Hall. Along the way we saw the giant chess pieces in Trafalgar square but couldn’t be bothered getting too close so utilised my 12x zoom to get some pictures:

Here are some other random shots we saw along the journey (its quite a walk!)

I love city hall. Its one of the most interesting looking buildings in London and sitting across from the Tower of London it certainly makes quite a contrast. Open House allowed you go to into the building and up to the look out points though we had a lot of fun with photos from inside the building too. I’m not sure if they allow access to the public during normal business hours. Thankfully we didn’t have much of a wait. In previous years I’ve seen very long lines indeed to get into the building.

Finally, we finished off our day of viewing London buildings with a tour of Royal Albert Hall. It’s a pretty cool tour. I think they are also available normally but at just under a tenner or something. I’ve never really thought about it. I don’t know if our tour was the same one you’d get normally but I was happy with where we were taken.

Some fun facts we learnt about Royal Albert Hall:
– There are apparently more than 2,000 letter “A’s” scattered throughout;
– Rent per annum on the seats was 1 shilling on a 999 year lease
– 1,300 of 5,222 seats £100 per seat for 999 year leases
– There are 9,999 pipes in the organ in the Royal Albert Hall itself (9 miles, 42 feet with the smallest the size of a little finger)

Our first stop was the Queen’s suite and the Royal Retiring Room. It was nice but actually it wasn’t as spectactular as I imagined it to be. We were then taken to the actual performance area ourselves to gaze at the roof and the organs and watch them setting up for the next performance. We were then taken into the bowels of Royal Albert Hall. It is nearly as deep as it is tall which allows them to basically set up the performance area downstairs and then literally lift the floor up. The coolest thing is that they are planning to use the loading bay areas for funky launch parties which would be very different.

Oh yea – the queen has her own box but there are certain rules which should never be broken:
1. You must dress smartly – men must wear ties
2. There is no drinking in your seat and
3. There is to be no dancing in the box.

Can you believe it? Nelson Mandela was the first, and only, to break the rules! He came into the box without a tie and he danced!

I had a fantastic Openhouse weekend and I love learning more about London every day.