Hampstead skyline

I'm in London with The Old Man. Things were a bit grim when I arrived yesterday but have improved.
I was dropping exhausted into bed as the midnight fireworks exploded. Today the rain has hardly ceased.

This is the view east-ish from the junction of Flask Walk and Well Walk, both names referring to the chalybeate springs that turned this village from an impoverished rural hamlet to a fashionable spa venue. The curious crooked chimney on Flask Cottages, right, is unexplained but may signify a past change in the roof line. These Georgian dwellings fetch stratospheric prices now. Hampstead has recently been pinpointed as having some of the highest property values in the UK.

In the centre is the spire of Christ Church, built in the 19th century to serve the burgeoning population. Left, the tall chimney that once belonged to Hampstead workhouse, the Victorian solution for those who had fallen on hard times. To eliminate any possibility of scrounging, the inmates (jobless, destitute or vagrant, and unmarried mothers with their offspring) had to work long and hard for their minimal benefits: gruel, a narrow bed, rough clothing.
The place was subsequently turned into a hospital and is now, of course, a gated residential community. It's too predictable to be ironic.