Sunday, 16 January, 2022
I suppose this happens in lots of urban areas, but walking in London can feel like you have a portable time machine or a holodeck. The mass of new and even futuristic, or otherworldly, buildings have replaced old London, but only in patches. Peeking out here and there and taking over in other patches buildings from older times stubbornly remain. I recently saw a photo called Layers of London and I understood that concept. I’ve also become aware of the layers that are underneath the layers we now live in, so while buildings are now reaching towards the sky, I also think of how below me it must reach. It all seems to live in harmony. On this Sunday I was very conscious of the harmonious contrast, then on the following day it came home to me once more. But I won’t jump ahead yet.
Krish had seen a structure from the bus that seemed worth a visit. At first we thought it was permanent, but then discovered it wouldn’t be staying so we set out to take a closer look. What he’d seen was an orb which cycles through an LED coloured sequence, called Singularity by Squidsoup – the name alone was intriguing enough. It sits in the front courtyard of a new complex called Principal Place in between Shoreditch High Street Station and Liverpool Street Station.
It was a clear, cold evening and the night before the wolf moon – the full moon of January. It already looked quite full and very bright. Here in London’s financial district, a wolf moon seemed appropriate.
Principal Tower is tall for London, at 50 storeys. It’s residential, not commercial, and was completed in 2019. Principal Place office block is lower, with only 15 storeys. Both buildings were designed by the architects Foster and Partners. We’ve been hearing a lot about Richard Rogers lately so Foster’s name is top of mind. So there’s more Star Trek going on here – Singularity. ‘8m geodesic sphere with volumetric real time LED lighting’ – so there you go. My camera didn’t do it justice, so there’s a website here where you can see what it looks like. The video there shows the depth and detail of the lovely piece. It’s hard to capture a 3D object in a 2D format. and my own photos and videos are shallow by comparison so do take a look.
We wanted to drag a chair over but the security guard said no, so we sat in one of the large wooden chairs they’re kind enough to have over to the side of the building. The sphere, the almost-wolf moon, the clarity everywhere, and the fact we were mostly alone there made everything feel calm and reassuring. Cities have their own beauty.
The photo that didn’t work (I’m sure I took it but #fail) is the one that showed the moon framed within Singularity – that one would have been lovely, so you’ll have to imagine the contrast and harmony of that one.
In the same courtyard is another art installation of a person – like a sketch or outline for a drawing. James Burke did this giant blue steel work, which weighs 1.2 tonnes. It’s called In Anticipation since the character is stepping forward from its plinth (all difficult to see in that dark night so worth a daytime look – ‘the waiting figure appears to have descended from its plinth and is perched against it. Leaning forward expectantly with its head looking back towards the high street.
This wouldn’t be the end of the art, unsurprisingly in London and this area in particular, but there were hidden gems ahead. Once more we stepped away from the familiar and found ourselves in new territory with that mixed feeling that is surprise and ‘well, of course’ that comes with discovering streets we’ve somehow never walked down. The density is overwhelming. So I looked up the meaning of Singularity. It’s bandied about often on Star Trek but I’ve not thought much about what it meant – ‘a point at which a function takes an infinite value, especially in space–time when matter is infinitely dense, such as at the centre of a black hole.’
We thought at first we’d walk down just one street to see what was there and I was distracted by the thought that I’d never actually gone into the courtyard of Broadgate Tower. It was right in front of me now so up the stairs we went to look a bit more closely. I’ve always loved the geometric structure. It has very tall (functional) steel girders that reach diagonally – a very interesting design which was created to ‘reflect shadows and produce light that would change throughout the day.’) At night it’s dramatic.
And the old refrain of I must come back when it’s daytime. Both buildings have green credentials and I hear there’s an area for bees, birds, insects and butterflies on one tower roof, and a peregrine falcon bird box on the other. I wonder if they are open to the public.
We thought we would walk down the street towards Moorgate. We were on Worship Street. In the 1700s this was all fields apparently and was called Hog Lane. Today it’s a commercial area with warehouses, clubs and offices but also a very cool strip of listed Victorian workshops, artisan these days. Having just come from two monumentally modern and stylish steel and glass blocks, it was definitely a time warp. There was a film crew about so the buildings were obscured. Are you tired yet of me saying I must come back? We passed lots of clubs on the ground floor of converted warehouses and there was enough of a trickle of people heading towards them to keep them open.
We were still heading towards Moorgate, but to our right we saw a forked road and suddenly the thought of seeing something we hadn’t seen before was more appealing. We decided to take the left one, Clifton Street, with more warehouses.
As we passed the wall mural we thought we’d hit a dead end, but straight ahead of us was a gate. It felt a little dangerous to go through but we’d done well so far and went ahead. It wasn’t so scary once we were in there. In fact, there was a bit of a garden beside us, with another wall mural by Noir. What did seem a bit spooky was a large, gothic-looking church in a yard right ahead of us. We were both a bit surprised by it – a church that we’d never known was there before.
We walked beside Mark Street Gardens, apparently one of the youngest parks in London, created in the early 1980s. And once through, we found ourselves on Leonard Street. So many restaurants here and there, mostly closed, with an occasional pair of partyers wandering by. This was an area that we should know better but actually don’t.
When we hit Great Eastern Street, I thought about going down New Inn Yard again to get the bus home on Shoreditch High Street but instead we chose a small road ahead of us. I was totally surprised to find myself beside Blacklock on Rivington Street, which is really close to Old Street. This was accidentally a better choice and a good reminder that the density of London means my mind can place something much further away than it actually is. It was just one bus home from Old Street, a perfect accidental discovery.
And homeward it was!