Cherish the sweep from the Mall into Horse Guards, where burgundy tarmac delivers a Palladian vista flanked by pelicans and plane trees. As the road widens your lungs ease and shoulders dehunch, forcing a smile on the most churlish and unabashed joy for the rest. Our mission is to effect a chirpy greeting from the armed guards at the Foreign Office gate, and each day we chip away at this lofty goal.
Horse Guards Road, this modest sweeping incline can make your day
Ivy covering the Admiralty Citadel, built as a bombproof fortress during WWII. Detested by Churchill, this accidentally Brutalist architecture sets off the neighbouring parade ground perfectly.
Horse Guards Parade, a joy to cycle past
We can only presume such regimentation must aid in the guarding of horses
Pelicans inspecting a cyclist
London: The Old Horse Guards from St James’s Park by Canaletto
Detail, these strollers in 1749 are just counting the decades until the invention of the bicycle.