You go up the escalator, you go down the escalator. A multi-story escalator. In between, you catch some rays at Green Park. England Scotland Heritage Tour, 2014

I live with a fear of heights and motion sickness, plus a pair of 66-year-old knees. Guess where I went once I'd taken this photo, motion-sickness-acupressure-bracelets on each wrist? To the right to hold on for dear life so that this blessed escalator could take me up to street level. Our goal, to spend a few minutes in Green Park.


You see, when I got my first paying job after high school I bought a book with my first paycheck, a lovely, over-sized book filled with memorable photographs of London taken in the late 1960s. I lost that book somewhere, but I've always remembered a particular photo of Green Park. My photo is not a match for that one--it was in the trees, dappled sun and shadow. Mine, flooded with sunshine, shows you the Park Deckchairs, something I could have gotten in and out of back in the late 1960s.


There goes Juliet on the right, circling Diana of the Treetops, the combination sculpture and water fountain for people and dogs which was moved just outside the new Underground entrance in 2011. Originally installed elsewhere in Green Park in 1954 and sculpted by Estcourt James--Jim--Clack in 1951 after he won the competition to create a fountain  for the park, the gilding was added prior to the move to this location. The sculpture was commissioned by the Constance Fund, set up by Constance, widow of sculptor Sigismund C. H. Goetze. In his memory she wanted to "encourage and promote the art of sculpture in London parks."



We didn't take time to walk out into the park since I was on a tight schedule--my solicitor friend Richard Taylor had invited me to be his guest at the Quit Rents Ceremony and I needed to meet him at 2:30 p.m. in front of the Royal Courts of Justice on The Strand which is within walking distance of our destination, Covent Garden. Now for the scariest part of the ride on London's world-famous Underground--the down escalator. Once again, I held on and concentrated on realizing that I would stay upright and make it to the bottom so we could jump on a train and make our way to Covent Garden.