The spire of Kensington's parish church, St Mary Abbots, echoes the slender shape of Speke's obelisk. The first explorer to trace the Nile to its source in 1864. Lake Victoria. (Did he name it? What was it called before?).


A pastoral landscape that it just one of many Londons.

Perhaps the fuss surrounding Diana s starting to die down. Few people appear to be on a pilgrimage the house in which she lived.

We look for the toilets, marked on our map at least, behind Hawksmoor's Orangery. Paths through bushes lead nowhere.

I wonder if the birds have a reduced rate on the deckchairs. Humans need pay £2 for four hours. Reasonable I believe but few takers.

We eat our lunch on a bench. The sun is breaking through in every direction except one: directly above us. Grey clouds pregnant with rain. A few drops fall but scare over. Normal cloud cover resumes.