This view upstream from the embankment opposite the Houses of Parliament is the kind of view I like the best: the obvious thing to do is draw the well-known sight (which I did as well), but what is behind you is often telling another story. Past the moored pleasure boats, Lambeth Bridge, and the towers of Vauxhall is a thicket of construction cranes that are working to change the face of Nine Elms. Disused industrial land larger in area than Hyde Park is being developed into a residential and business district, with new US and Dutch embassies (by 2017), homes for 30,000, jobs for 25,000 and there are plans for a new pedestrian and cycle bridge and rail stations. I've written before about the tortured landscape of Vauxhall; big changes there are also part of the plan.
