Dark days begin at 3:30pm. Intermittent rain. Brollies ready for the downpour and lights. Everywhere are lights… in SoHo, Carnaby Street, Trafalgar Square , Covent Garden and Winter Wonderland in Hyde park.
The Angels in Regent Street, the shop windows along Piccadilly.  Hamleys toy store. The whole city is lit up.

We ride the tube to the pantomimes and take the boat up and down the powerful tidal river… London in the wintertime. As if the long summer nights of June and July were the side show. Walking through the waves of people, tourists, and locals.

Teeming and pouring through the streets, shops, and the underground. Theatres brimming with busloads of tourists to see the merry musicals. As if tomorrow would never come. The last hurrah. Racing against that 11 pm pub curfew, when suddenly all goes quiet and places that were once welcoming throw everyone out on the wet streets. “Time, gentlemen, please!” All before the tube closes. “Mind the gap.” is all you hear… London falls asleep, and the lights go out.

Tourists wander back to their hotels from theatres on every corner. And quietly, even SoHo drops down as street cleaners begin the clean up for another day in London Town.