"I like royal blues and peacock green and scarlets and saffron yellow – even the names of them sound good" (c)

"The world's a fine place for those who go out to take it." (c)

Soames Forsyte walked out of his green-painted front door three days after the dinner at Swithin's, and looking back from across the Square, confirmed his impression that the house wanted painting.
 Soames was an 'amateur' of pictures, and had a little-room in No. 62, Montpellier Square, full of canvases, stacked against the wall, which he had no room to hang. He brought them home with him on his way back from the City, generally after dark, and would enter this room on Sunday afternoons, to spend hours turning the pictures to the light, examining the marks on their backs, and occasionally making notes.
They were nearly all landscapes with figures in the foreground, a sign of some mysterious revolt against London, its tall houses, its interminable streets, where his life and the lives of his breed and class were passed.
John Galsworthy. "The Forsyte Saga"

"The Glory of the Garden it abideth not in words." (c)

"Our England is a garden that is full of stately views,
Of borders, beds and shrubberies and lawns and avenues,
With statues on the terraces and peacocks strutting by;
But the Glory of the Garden lies in more than meets the eye.

For where the old thick laurels grow, along the thin red wall,
You will find the tool- and potting-sheds which are the heart of all ;
The cold-frames and the hot-houses, the dungpits and the tanks:
The rollers, carts and drain-pipes, with the barrows and the planks.                                 

And there you'll see the gardeners, the men and 'prentice boys
Told off to do as they are bid and do it without noise;
For, except when seeds are  planted and we shout to scare the birds,
The Glory of the Garden it abideth not in words."
Rudyard Kipling
The Chelsea Flower Show has been held in the grounds of the Chelsea Hospital every year since 1913, apart from gaps during the two World Wars. It used to be Britain’s largest flower show (it has now been overtaken by Hampton Court), but is still the most prestigious. It is the flower show most associated with the royal family, who attend the opening day every year.
take a look around - Chelsea Flower Show 2012.

“It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.” (c)

Avondale Park was laid out in in the 1890s by Kensington Borough Council on the former site of the main refuse dump and cesspool. The park opened to the public in 1892 and among the original facilities were a playground, shelter, entrance lodge and bandstand, the latter demolished in 1966. A grey granite drinking fountain was presented by the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association. In recent years a nature area has been created and there are ornamental bedding displays in some areas including around the Lodge.

"And see undrugged in evening light the decent inn of death" (c)

Kensal Green Cemetery opened in 1833 and was the frst commercial cemetery in London. The need for large cemeteries in London was stimulated by the increase in population and the inadequate space provided by existing cemeteries and churchyards.
Campaigners for burial reform and public opinion considered the best solution would be “detached cemeteries for the metropolis”, and in 1832 Parliament passed a bill that incorporated the General Cemetery Company “for the Interment of the Dead”.
 The General Cemetery  Company had purchased  land for the cemetery in  1831 and promoted a  competition for the design of  a new Cemetery at  Kensal Green.
 The brief  included two chapels with  catacombs, entrance  gateway with lodges and a  landscaped layout for  monuments. There were 46  entrants, and the winner  was Henry Edward Kendall  (1776- 1875) for his designs for buildings in the Gothic style which can be seen in his perspective drawing in the RIBA Architectural Library.

"How can a heart expression find? How should another know your mind?" (c)

Freemasons’ Hall is the headquarters of the United Grand Lodge of England and the principal meeting place for Masonic Lodges in London. Grand Lodge has been in Great Queen Street since 1775, the present Hall being the third building on the site.
Built between 1927–1932 as a memorial to the Freemasons who died in the First World War, it is one of the finest Art Deco buildings in England, and is now Grade II* listed internally and externally. In addition to the Grand Temple (seating 1700) there are 21 Lodge Rooms, a Library and Museum, Board and Committee Rooms and administrative offices. The building is fully open to the public.

"One doesn't recognize the really important moments in one's life until it's too late." (c)

 58 Sheffield Terrace, London W8, you will see a Blue Plaque marking the home she lived in (Sheffield Terrace is the only house in which Christie had a room designated for writing).
It was the house that she was attached.
The attraction of Sheffild Terrace, as she explained, was spaciousness.
 "The layout was perfect, including the room for Max's library, with space for large tables to take papers and pottery, as well as a chimney designed by him. <...> and has an Assyrian brick with cuneiform writing over the mantelpiece, so the room was clearly labelled as an archeologist's private den."
The left-hand room at the top was  to be her workroom and sitting room. There would be no telephone, but it would have a grand piano, a large table, a sofa, an upright chair for typing and easy chair  and there was to be nothing else.
However, it was a house that suffered on the war. She wrote in 1940 - " Sheffild Terrace was hit a few days after we left! Front door and steps blown up - roof and chimney - windows and etc."
Her novel Taken on the Flood (1948) describes the bombing of the house which might have been derived from this experience.