On the South Bank of the Thames, in the Cold Spring Sunshine

After a visit to Tate Modern, which surprisingly wasn't irredeemably awful (they've reorganised their stuff since I was last there, so that it makes a little more sense, including putting some of the things I don't hate in the same spaces - like a gallery on 'Realisms' which chimes with Christine Lindey's course on The Alternative Tradition, a little), I came out into the Spring sunshine to see these two  chaps eating fire and juggling:

Which was quite fun. 

I then did something I rarely do: the tide was out, so I went down to the beach; the real South Bank of the Thames, if you will.

The Shard seems small and unimportant from this angle, compared with the expanse of the River and the rest of London.  And there is a wealth of stuff down at water level you don't see from up on the embankment.

And of course, the River itself is closer.

...while the bridges are... up there.

The red piers from the old, 1864 Blackfriars Bridge are especially impressive from the waterline.

While the Millennium Footbridge (no longer so bouncy) was very busy on the day...

And finally, just like almost every other cultural barn in London in the last ten years, Tate Modern is getting a new bit built...