Democratic government, and other bits of London

As T---- starts to put together his Cabinet of Horrors, it's a good day to post a symbolic reminder of a country that at least has something resembling a democratic government, whatever its problems.

The Houses of Parliament are looking very clean and glittering.  This was on my way back from an expedition to the wonderful Garden Museum, in an old church next to Southwark Cathedral,

with an installation, The Vitrine, by Rebecca Louise Law, on the way in,

and an absolutely fascinating exhibition on The Lost Gardens of London.  Here's just one ... well, there are market gardens in the foreground - it's a Big Dust Heap.  All those of you who have read Our Mutual Friend ...this was on the corner of Gray's Inn Road and Euston Road - i.e. pretty much at King's Cross.

And as a bonus, a statue honoring Mary Seacole, outside St Thomas's: Seacole was from Kingston, Jamaica, and among many other things was a formidable nurse during the Crimean War.