A Bit of a Mystery

The wonderful thing about digital cameras is that you can take an unlimited amount of pictures while on vacation and then sort, delete, enhance, and organize them all when you get home. The horrible thing about digital cameras is that you feel COMPELLED to sort, delete, enhance, and organize them all when you get home...or at least I do. In truth I rather enjoy it all.

This morning, as I was reliving a walk down the Strand towards Trafalgar Square (while sorting, deleting, enhancing, and organizing) I came upon one of those photos that leave you wondering exactly why you took it in the first place. This is the photo...

My first thought was that I had been amused by the Coke ad on the bus. I only know one person named Laura and I only see her six or seven times a year, so that didn't seem likely. Then I remembered - it was that narrow row of windows running down between the two buildings. Surely it must be part of one of them, but it had clearly been built long after one of them and long before the other.

I went to Google Maps and zero'd in to see if there was an entrance at ground level that would give me a clue - perhaps a walkway through to the Thames Embankment. There is a portal, but it is covered from top to bottom with metal grills, locked gates, and signs reading "Fire Exit" and "! Keep Clear". Behind the grills it is black and foreboding - I can't imagine it being any easier to get out of than to get in.

But there are books and things visible in the windows - there must be either tables or desks against them. Then I notice the railings at the top, you can get up onto the roof! Why would that be possible? Looking for any clue, I went back to Google Maps and magnified as far as I could. I found what looks to be a human figure standing behind that railing, not a real person, but a cut-out like you find in theater lobbies or maybe an Antony Gormley figure. Whatever was there when Google drove down the Strand, it's not there any more.

So now that I know why I took the picture, I find myself left with more questions than when I started. One of these days, when I have nothing better to do, I may spend an hour or two on the internet seeing what I can find...I'll let you know.