Day 3 of Blogtour London with Modenus

Day 3 of Blogtour London sponsored by Modenus started with a visit to the Poggenpohl Waterloo showroom. If you aren't familiar with Poggenpohl, this German company has been crafting luxury kitchens for 120 years.  The showroom displayed several beautifully designed state of the art kitchens which incorporated different finishes and options offered.  

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The showroom building itself was beautiful.  The juxtaposition of the rough, aged brick and clean, sleek designs of the kitchens provided the perfect yin and yang atmosphere.  Poggenpohl shares a showroom with C.P. Hart, maker of beautiful bathrooms.  This rustic showroom is actually built into an arch under the bridge. The brick ceiling was amazing and added just the right amount of warmth to the otherwise sleek design of the showroom.

Poggenpohl provided us with a lovely brunch while we toured the showroom.  I learned  the many concepts this German company has incorporated to make kitchen design efficient as well as beautiful.   A huge thank you and shout out to the crew at Poggenpohl for your hospitality.  Poggenpohl  lined up an architectural tour of the city for us as well It was led by Timothy Bruce-Dick of TBD Architects.  Mr Bruce-Dick is a British architect, but lived for many years in California. He was simply delightful, as well as knowledgable about London's architecture.  If you are going to London, and are interested in architecture, I highly recommend joining one of his tours. 

Our bus tour began by getting stuck in a tiny street alley, due to construction.  If you have traveled the narrow back streets of London, you can commiserate with our bus driver who brilliantly turned the bus around in an area that looked impossible for a  Prius. We all held our breath, as though we could magically shrink the size of the bus!  

I documented the name of the street for anyone interest.  Should I return to London, I will make sure not to drive a bus down this street anytime soon! 

Next we were off to a walking tour around the Tate Modern Museum.  Above our heads, was the renovation currently happening to the Tate Modern.

Our kind tour guide Mr. Bruce-Dick, who was so knowledgable and informative
about London's skyline buildings.

While in the Tate Modern neighborhood we visited Neo Bankside Pavilion

which is an award winning innovative residential development designed

 by Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners 

The exterior x- bands on these buildings are for looks and not structural security, but don't  they add incredible visual strength?  These buildings are the Holland Street Towers designed by Richard Rogers.  

Family in Residence by Ivan Murray, work commissioned for the Neo Bankside Gardens.

This development boasts beautifully manicured gardens, as well as,

 outdoor seating areas for its residents.

 This particular apartment had the shades pulled, but many were open exposing

the contents of the spaces.  I can only imagine what it might look like from inside

the apartments looking out.

We toured an interesting  place called "More" London which is a business community adjacent to the Tower Bridge and across from The Tower of London with incredible views of London's cityscape.

"The Rill"  down the center of the plaza points straight to Tower Bridge

These incredible fountains on the plaza at More, London are a lesson in defying gravity.

  Lots of interesting architecture at More, London.

Here we have a 3-D bronze map of the buildings of More, London

Visitors love the pop up fountains on the plaza overlooking Tower of London
 and Tower Bridge.  It was the perfect place for photos.

Looking straight ahead from the plaza at More, London was the Tower of London 

Tower Bridge is a thing of beauty.  Doesn't like picture look unreal? We all wanted to sing "London Bridge is Falling Down" from our childhood nursery songs, when we saw this, but then we remembered this was the "Tower Bridge not London Bridge", although it does look like something straight out of a fairy tale book.

To the left of the plaza was a view of the Walkie Talkie Building (20 Fenchurch Street),known for melting a Jaguar which sat opposite the building one hot day,  The (Leadenhall Building) or "Cheese Grater" aptly named because Richard Rogers was told the design looked like something his wife would use to grate cheese and The Gherkin Building.(30 St Mary Axe) aptly named for its highly unorthodox layout and appearance.
  (Left to right).  

Amazing 7 More London Building

" Egg Building" or "London City Hall" as it is properly named even isn't actually where city hall is located. This building was designed by Norman Foster and cost 43million pounds to build.  It is built to look as though it is leaning. Here it is getting the windows cleaned which is quite a fete and requires this special machinery.  The window cleaning machinery is stored in a shed beside the building for easy access.  

The cool thing about London architecture is the juxtaposition of the old beautiful architecture along side the new sleek modern designed buildings.  This photograph is a perfect example of that concept, which I saw everywhere in London.

After we left More, London we drove across the Tower Bridge to the downtown area to get a closer look at the Walkie Talkie, Cheese Grater, Gerkin and other buildings.  Here is a photo of Tower Bridge as our bus is passing under its arches.

Bright Blue Lamp posts are stationed along the side of  Tower Bridge

Walkie Talkie seen at street level 

Art Deco Building at One America Square

Beautiful Views of The Gherkin Building

St Pauls's Cathedral 

After our tour, we walked over Millennium Bridge for High Tea at The Tate Modern

Crossing Millenium Bridge with view of Black friar's Bridge

Walking along the banks of the Thames approaching the "Wobbly Bridge" as the locals call it or "Millennium Bridge" as it is properly named.  After our tour, we crossed over the Millennium Bridge for High Tea at The Tate Modern

View from the Millennium Bridge from the tea room at the Tate Modern

Our touring day ended about 5, but some of us weren't ready to go inside so we decided to head down to Boroughs Market to see what Jamie Oliver thinks is so fab about this place.  Guess what?  He's right!  It's more than fab!  It is London's most renowned market. Some of our group tasted the sangria, but I rallied forth with a Kir Royale Prosecco.  We sipped our drinks as we strolled around the market.  

Fresh fruits and vegetables were every where!

Here you can find all kinds of cheeses, eggs, and other delicacies.

 Pork Pie

Meringues

Cafe with umbrellas for a roof

Once back at the citizenM hotel, we caught members of our group preparing for the New Modenus Launch which was happening at 7pm at our hotel Laurie Laziure was helping hang the step and repeat inside the front door.  Caught you Laurie!

Captured my market and photography buddy, Jessica Gordon Ryan or @gimletstyle as she passed by the step and repeat.  We ran upstairs to prepare for the big launch.  Here are some photos from the party.  If you haven't checked out the new website for Modenus please, do so!  It's truly amazing!  Veronika Miller has an incredible vision for her brand.  I think the most refreshing attribute Veronika possesses is her true desire to promote and help others.  Modenus offers a community for designers and architects like no other found online.  Go see for yourself.  Also, if you don't know who these people, you need to know them!!!
 Go to www.Modenus.com and check out Blogtour London.  

Richard, Courtney and Corey

The men with the two Lisa's (or June & June we are this trip, little inside joke)

We did get our picture snapped with the "Lady of the Night" Veronika Miller!

There were tons of prizes given away at the launch too.  citizenM, our fab hotel gave away one nights stay and guess who won....Courtney Lake (@courtneyoutloud)

The prize was given in this box, with clever writing and a red toothbrush!

Susan, Rita and Laurie

Corey, Lisa and Courtney

Diego of citizenM with Veronika and Florence of Modenus

Veronika talking to Diego who does social media for citizenM.  So that's who has been responding to all my @citizenM tweets! (Don't you always wonder when you tweet a company who is responding?  Especially when they do it quickly. )

The launch was so well attended, even Kate left baby George to come by for a visit.  
(Kidding aside, we did have all of London's top bloggers, as well a a plethora of design professionals and a few Blogtour LA people in attendance. It was an exciting time for Modenus and Blogtour.  I can't wait to see what is in store for this company.  For now, I'll close by saying, how very lucky I feel to be part of blogtour London.  It has been a very fascinatingly amazing trip!  Anytime Veronika comes calling, I'll gladly pack my bags!

Make sure to follow #blogtourLDN on twitter
or lisamendedesign on twitter, instagram or Facebook for daily updates!



Thanks to our wonderful sponsors of Blogtour London: