One of the things I like about living in London is the frequency of fireworks displays, and their size and scale. During autumn / winter there are at least 4 good-sized shows, so they average roughly one per month. In September there’s the Thames festival, which, as far as I know, is just a general party for no particular reason – circus for the people. Then there’s Bonfire Night of course, when every borough with a modicum of self-esteem puts on their own show, so there are shows in all the major parks, and you can pick & choose. (Of course there are lots of unofficial fireworks as well, and people start trying out their bombs about two weeks earlier.) Just one week later there’s the Lord Mayor’s show, and after that there’s a 6-week wait until New Year’s Eve.

We missed Bonfire Night this year, since we spent all the evenings of last weekend in concerts. But yesterday the Lord Mayor’s show made up our fireworks deficit.

The Lord Mayor’s show starts as early as 5pm, probably because it’s a family-oriented event. This time of the year, it’s almost dark by 5pm, and the little light that’s there doesn’t distract at all. In fact it makes the fireworks a bit different from the usual, and if the sky is clear it looks very pretty, with sunset colours almost gone. We could see huge clouds of brown smoke billow from the barge that the fireworks are shot from, and drift in towards South Bank. (I’m glad we weren’t standing on that side of the river.)

Good show – well composed and had a nice rhythm. Not as many “big bangs” as some shows we’ve seen. There were quite a few “two-stage” bombs – instead of the usual “up and explode” they did “up and explode and change direction”, or “up and explode and explode again” – as well as double circles (that look like Saturn with its rings). Also lots of simple sparkling things – plain white twinkling starfalls and golden rains. Very nice. I am getting spoiled here, though – 15 minutes of fireworks actually felt a bit short!