London Landscape TV (HD 720p)

No decent visit to London should be complete without enjoying a visit to at least one great football (soccer) match. London is home to many top clubs - Arsenal (as we have already seen in our journey), Chelsea, Fulham, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United are all in the Premier League and all have a huge international following with great stadiums in which to savour the atmosphere. There are plenty more clubs too - take a look at the listing at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_in_London for more information. But this is London Landscape TV so you get to visit the greatest, most famous home of football in the world - Wembley Stadium. The stadium has just been completely rebuilt into a state-of-the-art venue hosting top football cup finals and semi-finals, as well as major concerts. In this visit on Sunday 10 August 2008, Manchester United played Portsmouth in the Football Association (FA) Community Shield. This game was doubly significant as the Community Shield celebrated its 100th birthday at this match. Now unfortunately video equipment is not officially allowed into the ground - and my pro Sony camcorder would be a bit obvious - so I used my discreet compact 'cyclecam' camcorder for this episode. Alas the picture and sound quality is some way below what you would normally expect from LLTV so please accept my apologies and we'll continue our journey in high quality and high definition from next week. I hope you you get enough from this episode to enjoy the atmosphere and get a sense of the size of such a great stadium.

At the end of the last episode we had arrived at Highbury and Islington station. For this part of the journey, we head south from this station down Upper Street finally arriving at Angel station (featuring the longest escalator in the London Underground network). Between these two stations, we take in the sights along Upper Street which is essentially the heart of Islington. Churches and parks, old shops and public houses, and traffic and people. We even walk through the antiques shopping 'mall' not far from the tube station. Islington is a very pleasant part of London and well worth a visit. Follow the journey using your desired online mapping service such as Google or Live maps, search for 'Islington' and look for Upper Street noting Highbury and Islington station at its north end. I walked south on the west side of the road down to Angel station at the bottom end of Upper Street.

Summer In The City 2008 kicks off at Highbury, an ornate part of north London with terraced houses built in beautiful Italianate villa style. I'll describe road names here so you can follow the journey using an online map if you desire. We start at the junction of Highbury Park, Highbury Hill and Leigh Road, looking north towards the village then at the tall Highgate Clock and church at this junction. We then walk down Highbury Hill looking the beautiful italiante villas with their former glory of big houses complete with servants bell. The camera pans 270 degrees finally pointing down Martineau Road (say hello to the telephone engineer - someone has to work!) and then at the giant 'ARSENAL' 3D letters in front of the walk from Drayton Park Rail station to the Emirates Stadium, new home of Arsenal football (soccer) team. The stadium is a giant complex, and comes complete with cannons. The military connection (the name, and the cannons present in the team emblem) is based on Arsenal football team's original location in Woolwich where military weaponry (including cannon balls!) were made. We leave the stadium and head down Hornsey Road to Holloway Road, taking a look at the tube station which was surfaced in tiles and opened in 1906. We then walk south along Holloway Road and look at the unusually shaped London Metropolitan University's "Graduate Centre" building designed by the internationally renowned architect, Daniel Libeskind, whose portfolio includes the Jewish Museum in Berlin, and the redevelopment of the World Trade centre site in New York. Finally we take a quick glimpse of the Church of St. Magdelan and St. David before arriving at Highbury and Islington rail and tube station before we turn right next week and walk into Islington.

As I'm away on holiday at the moment and haven't filmed any really fresh film as a result, this episode will have automatically appeared on LLTV's feed by the 'future date' scheduler. Filmed at the same time as the 'Bus Ride Through The City' episode, this journey starts at Aldwych and takes a bus ride down Fleet Street to St. Paul's Cathedral. It is not as 'exciting' as the City journey but again you do get to see the people and the buildings in this very old part of London. I hope I'm having a great time on holiday and will be back to start filming 'Summer In The City 2008' soon!

All Hallows-by-the-Tower is an ancient Anglican church located in Byward Street in the City of London, overlooking the Tower of London. This episode allows you to explore the nave with its blackened walls from a WWII bomb explosion & fire, then descend to the crypts to see burial remains and an ancient Roman road. All Hallows is steeped in drama and history. It was first established in 675 by the Saxon Abbey at Barking and was for many years named after the abbey, as All Hallows Barking. The church was built on the site of a former Roman building, traces of which have been discovered in the crypt. It was expanded and rebuilt several times between the 11th century and 15th century. Its proximity to the Tower meant that it acquired royal connections, with Edward IV making it a royal chantry and the beheaded victims of Tower executions being sent for temporary burial at All Hallows. The church was badly damaged by a nearby explosion in 1649, which demolished its west tower, and only narrowly survived the Great Fire of London in 1666. It owed its survival to Admiral William Penn, father of William Penn of Pennsylvania fame, who saved it by having the surrounding buildings demolished to create firebreaks. In 1926 a Roman pavement together with many artifacts was discovered many feet below the church. Restored in the late 19th century, All Hallows was gutted by The Blitz in World War II and required extensive reconstruction, only being rededicated in 1957. Many portions of the old church survived the war and have been sympathetically restored [2]. Its outer walls are 15th century, with a 7th century Saxon doorway surviving from the original church. Many brasses remain in the interior (where one of London's brass rubbing centres is now located). Three outstanding wooden statues of saints dating from the 15th and 16th centuries can also be found in the church, as can an exquisite font cover which was carved in 1682 by Grinling Gibbons for â12, and which is regarded by many as one of the finest pieces of carving in London. In 1999 the AOC Archaeology Group excavated the cemetery and made many significant discoveries[3] . The church has a museum called the Undercroft Museum. All Hallows-by-the-Tower is celebrated and remembered throughout the world in the use of its name both in Dublin (All Hallows College) and in Brisbane, Australia (All Hallows' School). (most text for the description of this episode from Wikipedia). (Opening sequence with street map and aerial photography from Google Maps).

You asked for it - and you wanted it in high definition! So here it is, another bus ride - this time the No.28 as it passes through the capital's financial heart - the City of London. This time I have included the original audio from the bus ride mixed with some ambient bass guitar music to give you a great journey through the historic City. If you fancy following the journey on a map: We start at Cannon Street at the junction with Bread Street, and head east towards Queen Victoria Street. Passing Bank underground station with the Bank of England building on the left, we head on to Threadneedle Street. The bus continues along Threadneedle Street to Bishopsgate (and the corner of Liverpool Street station) before finishing at the east end of the City at Shoreditch High Street. What is particularly interesting about this 10 minute journey is the sheer amount of building work going - particularly at the eastern end of the City. New shiny towers are being built where old building once stood. There may be a 'credit crunch' but the amount of financial trade that continues to head London's way is not denting the desire of banks and financial institutions to build here. The City's Griffin (a boundary marker at every main road entrance to the City) is all but lost amongst the builder's fencing as we leave. The building works also explain the rather jarring effects from the state of the roads in the City! This episode is in high definition but the bitrate, at 1500kbps, is half the normal bitrate for LLTV episodes so there are some compression 'artifacts' present during the journey. The lower bitrate is to fit in with the 525MB/month maximum download size of my podcast service account, and also my guarantee to subscribers of LLTV who have to keep an eye on their monthly download limit.

Summer In The City 2008, LLTV's continuous journey through central London, airs from the last week of July through to the first week of September. You can be part of it! Watch this short promotional video on how you can join in and influence the journey. (To save your bandwidth given that this is a promotion , this episode is 9.5MB in size and has 640x360 image resolution - not HD!).

This episode was filmed in London's Docklands, and old victorian industrial area to the east of the City of London, now redeveloped for living, leisure and commerce. The Royal Victoria Dock is a former shipping port connected to the River Thames. Opened in 1855, it was the first London dock to be designed specifically to accommodate large steam ships. It was also the first to use hydraulic power to operate its machinery and the first to be connected to the national railway network. Like the rest of London's Docklands, its original use is now long over. From the 1960s onwards, the Royal Victoria, like all of London's docks, experienced a steady decline as the shipping industry adopted containerization, which effectively moved traffic further out into the Thames estuary at Tilbury. The dock finally closed along with the other Royal Docks in 1980. The dock fell into dilapidation although, in 1988, the French musician Jean Michel Jarre used the site for a his 'Destination Docklands' concert! Since 1994, the dock has experienced major redevelopment under the London Docklands Development Corporation. The dock itself is accessible to ships, although its western entrance has been filled in and it is now used chiefly for watersports. Its transport links have been greatly improved with new roads and Docklands Light Railway (DLR) lines running along both its north and south side. Most of the original warehouses have been demolished but the historic 19th century K-S and W Warehouses - both listed buildings - have survived. The ancient cranes dominate the waterline. They have been kept as a form of historical work of art. The dock is dominated by the ExCeL Exhibition Centre, constructed on the north quayside and opened in November 2000, and by the adjacent high level Royal Victoria Dock Bridge (which part of this episode is filmed from). The waterside location of ExCel is used to its advantage when it hosts the annual London Boat Show, with visiting vessels moored alongside the exhibition centre. On the south side of the Dock is Britannia Village. The award winning development, which included the high level footbridge, was commissioned by LDDC and carried out by Wimpey Homes, the Peabody Trust and the East Thames Housing Group between 1994 and 2000. In the distance is London City Airport, used by smaller commercial aircraft for passengers wishing to land close to the heart of London (unlike Heathrow!). The episode ends with a plane taking off and passing overhead.

This five minute episode captures the people relaxing in the warm weather at Piccadilly Circus, a famous road junction and people space in the heart of the West End close to Leicester Square. on Friday 20 June 2008. In this episode you get to sense the atmosphere of the place, from the neon and video signs, the breathtaking horse fountain, to the random community of workers, residents and tourists sitting around the large circular base of the Shaftesbury fountain and statue of Eros.

LLTV EXPERIMENTAL EPISODE In this episode I mount a cheap 'HD' camcorder (which captures video onto a solid-state memory card) and proceed to cycle my way through part of London's West End. The seven minute journey (x2 normal speed) starts just south of Regents Park and heads down Portland Place, south along Regent Street (passing Oxford Circus, the junction with Oxford Street) and through Piccadilly Circus to Leicester Square. Then bike turns north up Charing Cross Road then east towards Covent Garden before finishing at Bow Street. The journey is continuous - where you see a fade transition it is only chopping some time out of where I was at a red traffic light for a while. This episode lacks the 'finesse' I like to put into the LLTV experience - the picture and sound quality is below the finely defined detail that comes from my my main HD camcorder. In addition there is an intense amount of picture movement at times, making this episode not suitable for viewers prone to epilepsy. However I thought I would air this experiment to get your feedback. Next week I'll make up for it with a nice smooth tripod-mounted London experience! I would welcome your feedback from this episode, good and bad - please contact me via at email: nick@lansley.com with your thoughts!

Following on from the previous episode I managed to blag (London-speak for 'negotiate'!) a free trip from London Bridge to St. Katherine's Dock just beyond Tower Bridge. The trip passes the cruise liner moored next to HMS Belfast as well as taking in the buildings next to the river. I intend to film a longer trip along the river soon, so consider this a 'taster' of a future episode!

London is 'famous' for the huge amount of traffic on its roads - but is the River Thames any different? We'll watch from London Bridge (looking towards Tower bridge) as the river traffic make its presence known. No wonder most boats on the Thames are fitted with rear-view mirrors!

St. James's Park is a beautiful landscaped mix of lake, woodland and grassy areas between Buckingham Palace and Whitehall (home of UK Government). In this episode, filmed Thursday 15th May 2008, we take a stroll through the park observing the peaceful scenery and watching the people make their way from work, as well as ducks and squirrels (who are already home). A peaceful park in the middle of London's urban bustle.

The Woolwich Ferry is a boat service across the River Thames which is operated by the London Borough of Greenwich, and licensed and financed by London River Services, the maritime arm of Transport for London. The boats carry foot passengers and any sized vehicles from bicycles to the largest lorries. The service links Woolwich in the London Borough of Greenwich with North Woolwich in the London Borough of Newham. It also links two ends of the inner London orbital road routes - the North and South Circular Roads. A ferry service had operated across the river at Woolwich since at least the 14th century. The free ferry service was instigated by Sir Joseph Bazalgette using powers granted in the Metropolitan Board of Works (Various Powers) Act 1885, and was officially opened on 23 March 1889. This episode will take you on the crossing over the Thames, observing the Thames barrier from the seaward (unprotected) side. The two ferry boats in operation 'synchronise' with each other, passing each other as one heads south and one heads north, swapping shores every few minutes.

The Thames Barrier, built over ten years from 1974, protects London from the occasional tidal storm surges that could cause massive flooding by an overflowing Thames. It's a beautiful 'building' on the river, seen in this video from both land and the river itself. Filmed Friday 18th April 2008.

Spring in Trafalgar Square - a great meeting place for Londoners and visitors alike. As warmth takes hold in London, we join people meandering through the square, watching the fountains, checking their maps, climbing over the lions at the base of Nelson's Column, and sightseeing the 'fourth plinth' which is currently holding Thomas SchÃtteâs sculpture Model for a Hotel 2007, unveiled in November 2007. It is built of specially engineered glass in yellow, red and blue which collects the light, reflecting it through the edges. Filmed in early April 2008, just before the weekend turned cold and snowy again!

As Sunday 30th March 2008 dawned in London it brought mild, warm winds and beautiful sunshine.- as if to make up for the fact that this particular day was only 23 hours long as the clocks have just moved forward! Jumping on the bike I pedalled into the centre of London and crossed over to the South Bank using Jubilee Bridge, which is where this episode starts. The South Bank is a term used to describe 'Queens Walk' which starts at the GLC building and the London Eye (millennium wheel) and heads East along the Thames. At every step are street entertainers, restaurants, theatres and more. As you'll see, the sunshine brought out many Londoners to enjoy this first sense of Spring. (I use the title 'South Bank Show' as it was a popular arts programme on British TV in the 80s and 90s).

If there is a slightly 'hurried' feel to this week's episode, it's because I endured the falling sleet and snow of a Bank Holiday Monday (24 March 2008) to bring you these pictures, fearing all the time for the health of the video camera seeing as how electronics and water rarely mix! So, you may not find this episode relaxing but you should find my visit to Fleet Street full of the most interesting buildings - of churches nestled in amongst the public houses, of offices ancient and modern, and of ex-printing works of well known British newspapers such as The Times and the Express. The film starts at the Temple end of Fleet Street (close to where last summer's episode 'Temple: It's The Law!' also starts which heads south through Temple Bar). We then walk towards the east end where St. Paul's Cathedral stands.

(This episode has been updated because the original video file was somehow corrupted whilst being uploaded to my podcast service provider. Please accept my apologies if you downloaded this episode twice - this 'updated' version is the one to watch). In this special edition episode I wanted to capture London from the point of view of millions of Londoners as they live and work all around London every day. The best place to to this? From an upstairs seat at the front of a typical red London bus. Youâll be taking a 23 minute near-realtime journey on London bus no. 328. The entire route of the 328 is from Golders Green to Chelsea but this episode picks up the journey from West Hampstead and ends as it arrives in Notting Hill. If you would like to follow the journey you can download appropriate maps from the www.londonlandscape.tv web site. The reason for ânearâ realtime is that the journey I filmed involved a lot of stopping, so I have edited out unnecessary stop time which has removed 7 minutes from the usual 30-minute journey and makes the episode flow better. What will you see? You will see no world-famous landmarks, no well-known buildings, just London suburbs wealthy and not so wealthy as the bus travels through them. Observe the people, the vehicles, the buildings, the shops. This episode is an exercise in ambiance taking in the âordinarinessâ of one day in March 2008. The ambiance is not just visual - for the soundtrack to this episode I have recorded that dayâs (14 March 2008) tune across the most popular radio stations in London. They feature, in soundtrack order: BBC London (news / talk / music) Capital Radio (chart music) Heart (middle-of-the-road + chart music) LBC (news / talk / phone-ins) Virgin Radio (rock / classic hits) Choice FM (hip-hop / r&b) Kiss 100 (dance music / youth) Magic (classic hits) Classic FM (classical music) Gaydar Radio (dance / clubbing music) Smooth FM (middle-of-the-road music) XFM (rock / indie music) BBC Radio 4 (news & entertainment). On the LLTV website, each of the above radio stations has a link to its own website where you can find out more. All the above stations give you the ability to listen online but some may be restricted to listeners in the UK only for licensing reasons. These radio stations are amongst the most popular in London by audience size but there are plenty of other stations (around 15 on FM and more than 50 on DAB digital radio) including specialist cultural community stations in various spoken languages from Greek and Polish to Punjabi and Arabic, just about any sort of music genre from pop to jazz, classical to hip-hop, as well as religious stations for christian, jewish, islamic, hindu and sikh faiths. There are radio stations just for kids, for the armed forces, and for the elderly. Thereâs even a station run by the UK Department for Transport called âTraffic Radioâ that just transmits non-stop traffic bulletins. Enjoy the trip! Technical info: In order to get the best picture quality for the smallest download size for such a long episode, the picture size in this episode is 960x540 and the bitrate averages 1485kbps.

The British Museum in Holborn, central London, is your complete guide to human history and culture. Its collections, which number more than 13 million different items from around the globe, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its beginning to the present. This episode explores the architecture of the museum, and visits just a few of the many galleries of objects on offer. The Queen Elizabeth II Great Court is a covered square at the centre of the British Museum designed by the engineers Buro Happold and the architects Foster and Partners. The Great Court opened in December 2000 and is the largest covered square in Europe. The roof is a glass and steel construction with 1,656 uniquely shaped panes of glass. At the centre of the Great Court is the Reading Room vacated by the British Library, its functions now moved to St Pancras. The Reading Room is open to any member of the public who wishes to read there.

Filmed 19 February 2008 Hammersmith Bridge is a suspension bridge which is more than 100 years old, spanning the River Thames linking Hammersmith to Barnes. The main structure is built of wrought iron and is 700ft long and 43ft wide. This episode takes you on a short journey from Hammersmith Bridge along the north shore of a bend in the River Thames, taking in boat communities, rowing teams, and life on the water. The bridge has had a dramatic life from buckling under the weight of heavy traffic to being subject to terrorist bombing. The fact that it survives and remains open today is testament to the love of the local community who have rallied to support it. The current suspension bridge was designed by noted civil engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette and rests on the same pier foundations constructed for an older bridge designed by Tierney Clark. It was opened by the Prince of Wales on 11 June 1887.

If you have an Apple TV it should have performed its software update by now (more info here), offering a great new interface and easy access to London Landscape TV episodes. Follow this 2 minute tutorial to get London Landscape TV episodes directly to your Apple TV (without the need for a computer/iTunes to sync with) so you can enjoy high definition video of London on your HDTV screen.

One of London's most famous landmarks and one of its most hidden are located next to each other! Tower Bridge is an icon of London with its rising road-decks that hinge up to allow traffic through. The bridge was opened on 30th June 1894 but, thanks to its co-location with the Tower of London, the chosen design makes it look a lot older. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_bridge for more information. Right next to Tower Bridge's north pier (so on the north side of the Thames, surrounded by wharves and more modern buildings), is St. Katherine's Dock. From pre-Roman times, the area known as St Katharine Docks has been a centre of commerce and trading. But the real roots of today's complex of commercial and residential buildings can be traced back to the 10th century, when King Edgar (959-975) gave 13 acres of land on the site to 13 knights with the right to use the land for profit which provided the basis for trade in foreign goods which continued for a thousand years. Today St. Katherine's Dock is a secret haven for old barges made into beautiful homes, yachts and the latest millionaire floating 'ships'. Note: All the shots in this episode were filmed on 3 February 2008 with the exception of the first 'aerial' shot which was filmed in May 2007 from the top of the Fire Monument, currently closed for refurbishment.

Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London (and historically simply as The Tower), is a historic monument in central London, on the north bank of the River Thames. It is located within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and is separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space known as Tower Hill. The Tower of London is often identified with the White Tower, the original stark square fortress built by William the Conqueror in 1078. However, the tower as a whole is a complex of several buildings set within two concentric rings of defensive walls and a moat. The tower's primary function was a fortress, a royal palace, and a prison (particularly for high status and royal prisoners, such as the Princes in the Tower and the future Queen Elizabeth I). This last use has led to the phrase sent to the Tower (meaning imprisoned ). The Tower of London has also served as a place of execution and torture, an armoury, a treasury, a zoo, the Royal Mint, a public records office, an observatory, and since 1303, the home of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom. Filmed Sat 2 Feb 2008.

The thing that many LLTV viewers tell me they enjoy most is just seeing the 'other-ordinariness' of life in London in general, and 'people-watching' in particular. What better place see this than a busy railway station in the heart of London's Financial district, known as 'the City'? Liverpool Street Station is best known for linking the City of London to London Stansted Airport, but it also serves passengers travelling to the East of England too. By chance I happened to be on a train approaching Liverpool Street Station on 23 January 2008, and I had the HD camera with me....

It's good to kickstart the year with some drama, but the passengers of a British Airways Boeing 777 flight into London Heathrow got more than they bargained for when the engines failed to respond to a request for thrust on final approach. As a result, the aircraft glided in on such a low trajectory that it barely passed the airport boundary fence and landed heavily on the grass verge, causing the landing gear to collapse and shear off. The aircraft continued to bounce along the grass coming to a stop at the start of the runway. I filmed these high-definition video pictures on Sunday 20 January 2008, three days after the crash, as the plane was lifted onto stills in readiness to be moved to a hangar, and the investigators were still at work to discover the cause of the accident.

As London Landscape TV celebrates more than 90,000 downloads since it started at the end of April 2007, here are 30 minutes of the very best footage (including a few shots airing for the first time) of London throughout 2007. Shown chronologically, watch London progress through the seasons as we re-visit all the great locations in the capital city that was captured for LLTV viewers since May. This podcast goes back to basics: the only fx allowed (outside the opening titles) are fade transitions from scene to scene. The only sound is that captured by the camera as it filmed each location. Please use this episode as your window on London. Put it up on your computer screen or LCD panel as a background. Just enjoy London from the many viewpoints the camera used. Enjoy its scenery, its architecture, and above all its people. London Landscape TV continues its filming of the UK's capital city throughout 2008, so stay subscribed, tell all your friends, and write to me at nick@lansley.com with your feedback and places you would love to see filmed in London! If you use iTunes please feedback your views on the LLTV podcast page (in iTunes highlight 'London Landscape TV (HD720p)' in your list of podcasts and click the right-arrow that appears next to the 'clean' tag). Oh and have a Happy New Year! Best regards Nick Lansley London Landscape TV.

Every night in December, Carol groups from London are each given an hour's slot at Trafalgar Square to sing their Christmas hearts out in front of a festive audience. Here is a carol from one such group, filmed live in front of a free audience in front of the National Portrait Gallery. Behind them is the tree given by Norway (as they do every year) for thanks in response to military help given by the UK in World War II. So Merry Christmas to every London Landscape TV viewer - and watch out for some fantastic fresh film of London every week in the New Year!

Every night in December, Carol groups from London are each given an hour's slot at Trafalgar Square to sing their Christmas hearts out in front of a festive audience. Here is a carol from one such group, filmed live in front of a free audience in front of the National Portrait Gallery. Behind them is the tree given by Norway (as they do every year) for thanks in response to military help given by the UK in World War II. So Merry Christmas to every London Landscape TV viewer - and watch out for some fantastic fresh film of London every week in the New Year!

12 December 2007 - I catch the sunlight fading by the River Thames as London's evening lights come to life - spectacular buildings lit up on the city's riverscape. I then visit Leicester Square to catch some of the latest movies and enjoy the Christmas fun-fair. Finally I join the many thousands shopping for Christmas gifts at Oxford Circus, where the great shopping districts of Oxford Street and Regent Stree meet. The Christmas lights on both streets are truly excellent tis year (I hope my HD camera did tthem justice!).