Afternoon tea at Le Méridien Piccadilly, courtesy of RIBA

Today we are breaking the tradition of a blog lifetime and telling you about something that happened midweek. On a Wednesday, in fact. But fear not – it was very exciting and blog-worthy…

We were invited by the team from the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and the lovely people at Le Méridien to a bloggers’ afternoon tea at the beautiful hotel on Piccadilly. RIBA and Le Méridien are currently collaborating, and as part of this partnership, RIBA has curated a beautiful photography exhibition, ‘Unlock London: A City in Pictures’, showcasing a stunning selection of 17 black-and-white images of London’s most iconic landmarks taken by leading architectural photographers from the 1930s through to the 1960s.

We were given a tour of the balcony first, and the opportunity to snap a few pictures in the last of the summer sunshine…

Terrace at Le Meridien, Piccadilly

From atmospheric architectural shots down to finer details:

Flowerpot on table at Le Meridien, Piccadilly

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Modern day royalty at Kensington Palace

As the second part of our Historic Royal Palaces half-price January, we headed to Kensington Palace, both of us for the first time. In the beautiful setting of Kensington Gardens, the Palace is an interesting mix of historical state apartments and high-security home of William, Catherine and baby George, amongst other royal family members.

Kensington Palace

The first highlight was not a sighting of Harry popping out to get milk, but an extremely chubby squirrel in a nearby tree.

Squirrel

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