Where to park

I have a new bike, and I'm going to start cycling to work soon. I'm extremely paranoid about theft, and I've been pondering the question of where I should leave my bike.

My office is by Buckingham Palace and Victoria. I will be using 2 mini D-locks. My options include:

• There's a row of those inverted-U stands just across the street, but I'd have to walk to a window to actually see it.
  
• There are railings in front of buildings that I can see directly from my seat, just by turning my head. But there was a post in another thread warning that some of them are flimsy, and you can simply kick them in.
  
  

My questions:
1) Does anyone have any opinions on which option is better? The "official" inverted-U stands that are out of sight, or the potentially weak house railings that I can keep an eye on most (but not all) of the day?

2) What's the law on locking a bike against railings in front of a building, if there's no "don't chain your bicycle against these railings" signs?

3) Does anyone know how safe this neighborhood is in terms of bike theft?

Thanks y'all.