Architecture – Page 3 – slightly weird

14th May 2022

A day in Colchester

Thursday, 5 May, 2022

May was a month for travel. Some of this was because British Rail had a big ticket sale, 50% off for a million tickets. This, plus our 30% rail discount, made travelling very tempting. We had two stays away – Norwich, and coming up soon, Nottingham, and one day trip to Colchester.

I’m not keen on day trips since my knee has been so painful. The overnight trips have lots of rest and relaxation built into them, but when you have a day trip you have nowhere to go to rest comfortably. However, with a bit of planning and a lot of cooperation, it can be done.

The truth is that I’d not thought much about Colchester. From time to time I’d read about it, that was the UK’s oldest town and that it was a market town. During the pandemic, a local cake shop Victoria Yum moved there. The owner, Kiersten, put Instagram posts up regularly. So I had a plan to go to Colchester, check it out and go say hi to Kiersten. We’d tried to go there as a stop after Norwich – it’s on the same line – but the fare was too high. The sale made it much more reasonable.

I did a bit of research on interesting things to do and we set off for our train. It’s about 45-50 minutes to Colchester from Stratford. It seemed to go quickly.

When you get to Colchester by train, you aren’t actually in the town of Colchester. That’s reached by another train that makes an 8-minute journey to Colchester Town. Luckily our ticket got us all the way there. It felt funny to be on the Norwich train again.

A map showing the four quarters of Colchester

Colchester looked small and quiet and we started to walk. We found one of our places of interest right away. It was just behind the station, St Botolph’s Priory. It was founded between 1093 and 1100. In the Colchester siege of 1648 the early Norman church was largely destroyed by cannon fire and has never been repaired. The church had been built of flint rubble with arches and dressings in brick, mostly reused from Roman buildings at nearby Colchester. This was a lovely ruin. We sat and admired it for a while.

We left the priory and headed into the centre of town. Although Colchester lacked much in the way of energy or urbanity, it was visually interesting a lot of the time and I took many photos. It’s already hard to decide which ones to use and I’ve only just started.

Colchester has the accustomed lanes all leading to a more modern shopping area. We wanted to get the lay of the land, see what we were in for in terms of architecture and scope, and of course where to eat. Krish had booked a place already but we then decided it was better for dinner. After a heavy lunch, who wanted to walk around so much?

The lanes were full of small cafes and shops. We poked around a bit before looking for our lunch choice of restaurants.

We somehow hit Red Lion Yard, where Kiersten has her shop, without trying. And a lovely yard it is too! Festooned with union jacks and the site of the fantastic old Red Lion Inn. It felt festive and very English. I popped in to say hello to Kiersten and we had a glimpse of the inside of the inn as we walked by towards the high street.

Interior of Victoria Yum — Victoria Yum, Kiersten on the left – inside the buildings of the Red Lion Inn

Colchester’s main high street has a grand building. the Town Hall. Very impressive! We continued along, then back into the lanes area looking for a place called Timbers.

Timbers sounded like it would be a nice old Tudor style pub, but instead was a café. My assumptions led me to walk by it a few times. Perhaps I should have kept walking, but such is life when you care what you eat! Krish decided he would get a breakfast and I’m not keen so ordered my own thing, the daily suet pudding (steak and mushroom) and it arrived as an enormous plate in front of me. Right then! You won’t be surprised to hear that I ate almost half of it. ) It was the same for Krish, whose breakfast was aptly named Mega. Did I mention we didn’t want anything heavy? )

If we’d been at home, a nap would be in order even though we hadn’t eaten even one whole lunch between us. However, we had about six hours to go, so we walked on.

We found our next two targets quite easily and accidentally. The first was the Jumbo Water Tower. It’s very hard to miss! It was completed in 1883 and was nicknamed ’Jumbo’ after the London Zoo elephant as a term of derision in 1882 by Reverend John Irvine who was annoyed that the tower dwarfed his nearby rectory. Jumbo or not, it’s a brutalist and ugly thing in an otherwise pretty little area where we also saw a Quaker Friends’ House doubling as a polling station. It was local voting day in the UK.

The water tower was right at our next target, the Balkerne Gate. It is the largest surviving gateway in Roman Britain, dating from the second century. It’s a very impressive structure with the lines of red brick running through the stone wall that we got used to seeing in Torino.

Next to the gate is a big white pub, The Hole in the Wall, with some of the Roman gate showing under its foundation, where they had simply built on top.

Beyond the gate, is a highway and beyond that a large residential area so it was time to turn back and track down the final area we’d planned to check out, the Dutch Quarter. Continue reading “A day in Colchester”

14th February 202222nd February 2022

Going west – Belgravia

Monday, 14 February, 2022

I took a rest day on Valentine’s Day. It’s just a coincidence that I took that particular day. However, it occurred to me that if we did something we might end up eating something nice, somewhere.

The winter has been pretty grey with lots of rain, but on Valentine’s Day, although it wasn’t sunny, it wasn’t raining either. We decided that it might be a good day to take the number 38 bus all the way to the end – from Hackney to Victoria. It’s a well-known route. We’ve done it many times before, but typically we get off when we reach Shaftesbury Avenue, a street which runs parallel to Oxford Street – one one side is Soho, and on the other Chinatown. Lively in every direction. Going to Victoria takes you along fancy Piccadilly and past even fancier Park Lane, and into Buckingham Palace territory.

Full 38 bus route map from Hackney (Clapton Pond) to Victoria

First off, the photos seem lacklustre – because of the grey – or maybe I’m wrong, They all I have so they’re going here anyway. Secondly, I thought it might be interesting to show how the terrain changes as you move west, and I’m not sure I achieved that but here goes, anyway. All taken from the top of the bus, through the dirty window, but not too bad!

I took this photo on Balls Pond Road in Dalston. A typical East end main road row of houses

Leaving Balls Pond Road, the bus goes down Essex Road, where things start to space out a bit and there are more blocks of flats rather than just houses

At Angel the characteristic N1 Georgian architecture asserts itself. Things are looking more upscale already

Leaving Islington, you arrive on Rosebery Road, Clerkenwell, where you’ll see the art deco awning for the old Finsbury Town Hall. The inside is described as opulent, a mix of art nouveau, baroque and art deco. Building began in 1894.

With Mount Pleasant Post Office on one side and Exmouth Market on the other, this has always felt like the beginning of the west end, which is the centre of London. In fact it has a central post code, EC1

Feeling more central now, as you pass Gray’s Inn, Gray’s Inn is one of the four Inns of Court which have the exclusive right to call men and women to the Bar of England and Wales. The inn has existed for more than 600 years, but these buildings date mostly from between 1669 and 1774. Now we’re officially west, post code WC1

The Fryer's Delight — Leaving Gray’s Inn Road, you’re in Bloomsbury. It stands at the edge of the west end, just before you hit the shopping areas

Passing Holborn Station, looking more like the west end now. Here’s where they announced bus stop closures and a diversion ahead.

The bus diversion announcement told us after our next stop, ,Tottenham Court Road, we’d be going down Charing Cross Road, around Trafalgar Square, and up to Piccadilly Circus. A detour can be annoying but this one was nice – a scenic route for once. I can’t promise the route is accurate on the map. Maps and I aren’t good friends.

Along Charing Cross Road it feels very west-endish

Feeling like a tourist as we pass Trafalgar Square

In the very centre at the back of the photo is the very grand Admiralty Arch. It has some awful hoarding in front of it. One of my favourite views ruined…for now

Passing Waterloo Place — Waterloo Place, as we passed by it. Always always impressive and grand

Speeding along Piccadilly and barely managed a photo of The Royal Academy

Google tells me that this is the Royal Air Force Club – we are by Marble Arch and Hyde Park

Buckingham Palace stop — It seemed like the height of posh to be nearing a bus stop called Buckingham Palace. The bus doesn’t stop near there. Nothing does. But it did mean we were a hop away from our destination

And we were there. It had taken about an hour and a half, including the detour, but just one bus from door to door. We
were ready to explore Belgravia.

Continue reading “Going west – Belgravia”

7th February 202219th February 2022

Revisits – where do I go?

Monday, 7 February, 2022

I must confess to wanting to see somewhere different. Lately, I’ve been returning to old haunts, though. I have many trips in mind, but the pandemic hasn’t let go of us. I’m not sure where it will land us, but for now I’m just not keen to go too far. I have a birthday coming up in just a month and, while Krish talks about travelling a few hours to get a perfect Chinese meal, my sights are set closer to home. There must be something wrong with me! Or maybe not.

Before the pandemic we would go away at least a few times. That year, 2019, it was trips to see my aunts in Southend, an overnight to Leicester, six weeks in Toronto, a few days each in Glasgow and in Pembrokeshire. There may have been others. There must have been. Now Krish talks about revisiting Porto, Budapest, Torino, perhaps a new place – Istanbul, Valencia, Copenhagen… we’ve bounced the idea of Warsaw, of Marrakesh, Sicily… With the pandemic on our minds, we thought about the UK and there are still places that are on my list but untried – Nottingham, Colchester, Norwich..

Both aunts have died now. It takes me a while to let that sink in. I dreaded those journeys each time and always knew they would inevitably end. Now they have. Our Two Together rail discount card lies idle. At least it really helped with our couple of trips to Southend earlier, and to Sheffield and Leicester. When the weather turns warmer, there will hopefully be more.

And close to home we’ve stayed for the most part. Krish’s hospital visits meant I could explore alone or with him in areas that I didn’t know very well. Now he’s not going very often so revisits to closer familiar places are the ticket They’re an opportunity to find something different and have one of those why-did-I-never-notice-that-before moments. Somehow there’s always at least one. It surprises every time.

It worries me, when I consider returning to Toronto, that I can’t have nearly as many of those moments in a city built on a grid system and where there’s a certain uniformity of architecture. My friend, Esmeralda, once described it (after returning from her travels) as homogenous. I’d definitely have to adapt and be more willing to walk further and dig deeper.

So here’s a look at the familiar places I’ve visited in the last couple of weeks.

I took Krish to see Wood Street. It’s only a few stops away so an easy journey. I wanted to check out the Mexican Homies on Donkeys so we headed over to the Wood Street Market that had been closed when I was last there, before Christmas. The market is an indoor arcade filled with jumbled little kiosks and rooms. A notice at the entrance told us that this used to be The Crown Cinema, from 1912 to 1956 and is now a haven for antique and record collectors. I took photos of some of the colourful little shops inside.

The visit to Homies on Donkeys was to taste a taco or two and buy a bag of corn tortillas – so hard to find in London. I decided that I would taste the tacos first before investing in a bag of 40 tortillas. The choices weren’t ones I’d have ordinarily bought but I chose a milder chicken and a spicier pork one. Both tasted strongly of chipotle, and the extra guacamole I ordered was runny like a salad dressing. Not a bad taco but not a great one. I left without buying the tortillas.

Down the street we came across two Palestinian places. Only later did I think that maybe I could have taken some falafels home. We kept walking – I’d seen a sign that the William Morris House was close by so we aimed to walk there. It just wasn’t clear where or how far it was so we turned on our heels back to the station instead.

We had a run into Whitechapel. Krish wanted lentils, I wanted dumplings, and it was time for more samosas. I’d seen an ad for dumplings – three bags for 9.99 – at a store in Whitechapel that looked like it was new. As soon as we reached our stop, Krish decided he could do without the lentils – cross that off the list, then. Instead we went looking for the dumpling place. It’s called Tian Tian Market and it’s in the new complex near Aldgate East Station, where Guan (the supper club guy) lives. That store was so tidy! And spacious.

Whitechapel has a curious mix of architecture. Sometimes it’s very modern, sometimes it’s very old. Sometimes it’s a jumble of styles that make no sense.

It would be interesting to be able to see into the future and know what the area will look like, perhaps in fifty years from now. I have no doubt some of the old will remain, but I really think it will be unrecognisable. Continue reading “Revisits – where do I go?”

17th January 202229th January 2022

Two faces of Hackney Wick

Monday, 17 January, 2022

This isn’t the first time I’ve blogged about Hackney Wick, and it’s likely not to be the last time. The thing about the area is that it’s changing – rapidly. In a nutshell, it’s gentrifying. When I first arrived in Hackney, I found out that I lived close to a community of artists – largest in Europe, it claimed – so I wandered over. What I found back in those early 2000s days was a largely derelict area, kind of like a rambling collection of industrial parks, and being me, I was fascinated with the whole thing. I took photos back in those days – of walls and buildings covered in art, some accomplished, some scribblings, and of letterboxes and doors. No official nameplates there – just painted and written flat numbers outside old factories with names listed one below the other. I had flashbacks of being in San Francisco and of communes, everyone in together.

There was a street festival every year, Hackney WickED, so I went back for it. People sat around on the ground, on fire escapes, at booths. There were others spray painting new art. There were cafes, often vegetarian or the not talked about so much in those days vegan. There was live music. I walked by the canal and saw people sitting on rickety chairs. Beatnik, hippy, arty, unconventional, rebellious, eco warrior…I could go on.

I remember going to the Hackney Pearl – everybody loved that place and I thought I must be missing out. One visit there cured me of that. There was a Banksy in those days by the canal. I remember that. The whole place was a mess but somehow glorious. The Olympics changed all that. Hackney Wick was somewhat exempt, being on the over side of the canal to all the action, but it was brushed and that’s all it took.

One by one the scrapyards and the factories tumbled – converted or demolished. The artist-heavy community rebelled. They were always good at that. As far as I can tell, they didn’t get too far, although there are holdouts. What you see in Hackney Wick today is the remnants of what used to be alongside the very smart, but sadly no-personality luxury loft conversions and luxury flats. They have names that are a nod to the past – Bagel Factory, Shoe Factory, Ceramic Works. They don’t fix the past.

The protests continue…for some. Interestingly, in the local paper an interview with an older resident was glowing about all the changes. What works for some doesn’t for others.

Protest art on the side of the Hackney Pearl

The Lord Napier Pub has often been featured as an icon for Hackney Wick, since it’s been covered in graffiti for many years. It also happens to be Hackney Wick’s only pub something I find quite inconceivable for this city of pubs on every corner. On the other hand, Hackney Wick is perhaps just a corner. It’s posh inside now and the art continues (with new works by Tizer, Sweet Toof, Phelgm, Run, Mighty Mo, ThisOne, Oust, DKAE, Lucky, BuskOne, Will Barras, Greg Abbott, Teddy Baden & Cept.) I’ve also heard they have good Northern Thai food, but I haven’t been able to try it yet.

Lord Napier pub before regeneration (not taken by me)

On these next photos, with the ominous Phlegm figure threatening with an overhead anvil on the left, you can see the very modern building that’s now close to it.

The map shows how compact the area is and also a rough guess at where we walked. I’m sure I must have left some off but I have a terrible sense of direction and get completely turned around in my memory and in real life. The photos show some interesting sights along the way.

We had plans to eat while at Hackney Wick. I was quite keen to try the food at the pub, but Krish suggested we look for pizza and did some research to see where. He chose Natura. At first it didn’t look like much. A pizza and pasta place at the end of a street where the housing estate is. Inside there were rough wooden block tables with bench seats. At lunch time many of the regular sized pizzas are served with a drink for 8.40, about a third less than at dinner. We ordered a pizza with ham and some spaghetti with meat sauce. They were really friendly in there and we were relaxed, the only people in there. The server told us that it was usually a busy place in the evening but lunch times were quiet – so cheaper pizza! The pasta was so so, the pizza was well done. Krish wants to go back for lunch again and get a different pizza.

The estate hasn’t changed at all. I wonder how the residents feel about their area and all the changes it’s gone through, and their new well-heeled neighbours. And come to think of it, the estate is the third face of Hackney Wick.

We noticed a lot of orange-based graphics as we walked, along White Post Lane. It wasn’t until I got home and read the local Wick paper that I learned more. The artwork was an initiative called Paint the Town Orange by an enterprise called MEUS. MEUS is a tech company focused on the fitness and wellbeing of men. Ten top street artists created art to raise awareness for men’s mental health during men’s mental health month, November 2021. Here are just some of the pieces we saw on our walk.

The heart of Hackney Wick is small enough to discover all in one go, but we tend to take things in smaller bites, especially when they are so close by. There’s a barbecue spot I’ve been wanting to try for quite some time so there’s a good reason to be back soon. We headed back towards the Lord Napier, to our bus stop, and home for tea!

16th January 202226th January 2022

Time Warps in London – A Singularity

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.

Map of Worship Street walk — We started at the bottom of the map – and worked our way up to the top, small turns with big results

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.

Shine Your Light mural — ‘Shine Your Light’ mural outside Zetland House by Luke Smile. Aptly named. His artwork always gives positive messages

Zetland House was once a printing house for the Bank of England. The wall is painted by David Shillinglaw

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!