Last weekend we fancied a trip to Spencer House, a Historic Houses Association property, as they were doing a National Trust member BOGOF offer, so we went while we had the chance! It was beautiful, although at £12 each not the cheapest option if you’re paying full price. However, there was a strict ban on photography [boo 🙁], so we thought we’d include some shots from the rest of our day.

From Spencer House we wandered down towards St James’s Palace, and saw this beautiful building – and many others! This was, in fact, an HSBC – one way to make that trip to see your bank manager more enjoyable…

St James’s Palace was intriguing – quite different in look from the other royal residences, like Clarence House, I realised it had rather fallen under my radar.

We then walked up the Mall to Buckingham Palace, stopping by the gates to Green Park, where the tourists magically dispersed just in time for us to take plenty of shots…

We then braved the crowd at the Palace gates, but most interesting to us were these lanterns:

Finally, we walked back across Green Park to arrive at the right time for our house tour. We did some serious [/not-so-serious] wildlife spotting, with a moorhen:

A swan, preening:

And my personal favourite, a very personable and focused squirrel!

It was a lovely day, and I’m glad we opted for the more clichéd parts of London – yes, there were tourists, but also some of the most beautiful parts of the city. At £6 each and an hour long, the tour was a highlight but also just one part of a successful (and mostly free!) day out.