LONDON ON CHRISTMAS NIGHT, 2019...

...and  after Midnight Mass at a much-loved church  I walked back along the Thames with a lantern, singing Christmas hymns and carols, from London Bridge to Tower Bridge,  the river glittering alongside, and HMS Belfast looming sturdily up in the dark. Very few people about and all the places  familiar to me in the daytime ...the Borough Market and the streets around there - Clink Street and the Borough High Street and Tooley Street - were almost deserted  although there were some small groups of revellers, one or two lone folk hurrying, a watchman in a lit-up office, with whom  a "Merry Christmas" was exchanged. The accoustics under railway bridges are magnificent: it felt strange to be singing alone beneath arches where I have often sung with parish processions.

And so finally along Tower Bridge Road and to our room in our Christmas  hideaway.. .