My father, reading in the garden before dinner, pint and pipe in hand (reading Dorothy Sayers's Five Red Herrings, for the record). Before that - to the Tate for the somewhat incoherent (but not uninteresting) Queer British Art show, and then for a walk that ended up coming down Fleet Street and the Strand - and there, and why I have never taken this building on board before I have no idea, is the Law Courts branch of Lloyds Bank. Built in 1883 on the site of an old tavern, this building, at 222 The Strand, was a short-lived restaurant, and then, after standing vacant, was bought by Lloyds in 1895. And now - like so many branches of Lloyds, it's going to close. It's a listed building, so surely will be preserved in many respects - but who knows what the access will be. So - it's closing in mid-August - GO AND SEE IT NOW. It's a fantasy of tile work and marble, and I only wish that I hadn't left it till late this afternoon to discover it, and could feasibly head back to take a very large number of careful photos.
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