Following on from his 10 Amazing Windows, Instagram photographer Joseph Pickard demonstrates the benefits of being a tourist in one's own city, documenting ten of his favourite views, alongside our selection of ten facts.
1. With sunlight favouring the north bank, the south side of the Thames was slower to develop as a residential area. Instead, during the Middle Ages, the south bank developed as a place of raucous entertainment outside the formal regulation of the City of London, housing theatres, brothels and bear-baiting rings.
The GherkinCourtesy of @josephowen
2. Designed by Foster and Partners, 30 St Mary Axe, better known as The Gherkin, consists of 744 windows and takes just under two weeks to clean.
Tower BridgeCourtesy of @josephowen
3. With 4,000 users daily, requiring 22,000 litres of paint and its bascules raised more than 1,000 times a year, Tower Bridge is one of London’s best known bridges.
The BT TowerCourtesy of @josephowen
4. Since the restaurant on the top floor of the BT Tower closed for security reasons in 1980, London has been deprived of a revolving restaurant similar to that of the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada.
O2 Arena seen from Emirates Air LineCourtesy of @josephowen
5. The ground of the O2 Arena caters not only for concerts, but can also be changed to work as an ice rink, basketball court and exhibition space.
Great Court at the British MuseumCourtesy of @josephowen
6. It was specified in the architectural brief of Lord Foster that the Great Court at the British Museum be based around creating, revising and revealing new, old and hidden spaces.
Old Naval College, GreenwichCourtesy of @josephowen
7.The Old Naval College in Greenwich was originally the site of the Palace of Placentia, birthplace of Tudor queens Mary I and Elizabeth I and reputedly the favourite palace of Henry VII, who built it.
National TheatreCourtesy of @josephowen
8. The National Theatre, "one of the seven wonders of London", was famously described by the Prince of Wales as "a clever way of building a nuclear power station in the middle of London without anyone objecting".
The Barbican CentreCourtesy of @josephowen
9. The Barbican contains 130,000 cubic metres of concrete, enough to build over 19 miles of a six-lane motorway. There are 75 miles of pipe work, enough to stretch one and a half times round the North and South Circular Roads. The area around Barbican derives its name from the Saxon words ‘burgh kennin’ meaning ‘postern tower’, or from the Latin ‘barbecana’, a fortification.
Zaha Hadid's Aquatics Centre, Queen Elizabeth Olympic ParkCourtesy of @josephowen
10. Together, the three pools at London's Aquatics Centre contain 10 million litres of water and are lined with 180,000 tiles – there are just over half a million tiles in the whole building itself.
