Marine Art Deco Ashore - Picture of the Week 30 March 2016

Marine Court. 

This Art Deco style apartment block in St Leonard's-on-Sea - was deliberately designed to somewhat resemble an ocean liner, the RMS Queen Mary. To describe Marine Court takes a combination of architectural and nautical terms. At the eastern end, the curved lower floors protrude like a ship’s bow and the floors above recede like the stacked decks of a liner. At the west end the balconies end in a graceful curl, leaving a gap at the stern. The architects, Kenneth Dalgleish and Roger K Pullen, stopped short of adding portholes, but every seaward facing flat has a balcony. On a sunny day, residents may imagine they are enjoying a luxury cruise from the comfort of their own flat.

RMS Queen Mary sailed the North Atlantic Ocean between 1936 -1967 for Cunard White Star Line. She was built by John Brown & Co on Clydebank, Scotland and sailed on her maiden voyage on 27 May 1936. With the outbreak of the war she was converted to ferry soldiers for the duration of the war. After the war, the Queen Mary was refitted for passenger service and began the transatlantic passenger service for which she and her sister ship the RMS Queen Elizabeth were designed. They dominated the transatlantic passenger service until the jet age in the late 1950s. After several years of decreased profits for Cunard Line, Queen Mary was officially retired from service in 1967. She left Southampton for the last time on 31 October 1967 and sailed to the port of Long Beach, California, United States, where she remains permanently moored. Much of the machinery, including one of the two engine rooms, three of the four propellers, and all of the boilers, were removed. Today the ship serves as a tourist attraction featuring restaurants, a museum and a hotel. 

All Aboard the Santa Express!

Merry Christmas to Everyone!

All Aboard the Santa Express.

Picture of the Week; Leeds first Gasometer

While researching for an extended article on gasometers for publication in QS Eye magazine, I came across this very early photo of an even earlier gasometer.

This stood beside the gasworks at Bean Ings Mills in Leeds and was probably built before 1800. Do you know of an earlier gasometer anywhere?

Bean Ings wool mill, owned by Benjamin Gott was one of the town’s biggest employers from 1790, with over 2000 workers. Gott engaged steam engineers Boulton and Watt to provide a steam engine for this woolen mill when earlier, water-powered mechanisms, which relied on water from the nearby canal, proved unreliable. Bean Ings Mill also acquired its own gasworks (one of the first ever built), complete with a rigid gasometer, so that Gott’s weavers could work by gaslight late into the night.

The exact date of this gasometer’s installation at Gott’s mill is unclear, but some years later, in 1800, much of the mill burnt down and Gott moved the enterprise to Armley. The gasometer must have lasted longer than that, for the photograph to have been taken as photography wasn't around at the time.

Today the site of the mill is home to the Yorkshire Post building at the end of Wellington Street.

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Photo found at :- http://www.leodis.net/discovery/discovery.asp?page=2003219_348858059&topic=200335_73055447&subsection=2003724_663265408&subsubsection=2003911_593959988

The Things Men Do With Ladders, no 14. Picture of the week 9 October 2015

Haven't posted one of these for ages, but I've recently spotted another batch cropping up on't internet.

Ok, so which day do the bin men come? Don't imagine he knows that, or anything else.

The De La Waar Pavilion, Bexhill is not an Art-Deco Masterpiece; Picture of the Week 26 September 2015

The De La Waar Pavilion was built in the 1930's as an arts centre to lure the cognoscenti to the delights of Bexhill-on-Sea, a previously quiet seaside resort of no great fame.  The pavilion has often been described as an Art-Deco masterpiece.  I disagree, it was designed as a Modernist masterpiece. 

The only possibly Art-Deco element in this design might be that curvaceous semi-circular stairwell, though the lines are pure and very plain. There's none of the extraneous decoration which seems to be compulsory in supposedly Art-Deco designs. In fact the term 'Art-Deco' is a post WWII invention. 

'Art-Deco' was unheard when the De la Waar was built.  http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/a/art-deco/ 

“A modernist building of world renown that will become a crucible for creating a new model of cultural provision in an English seaside town which is going to lead to the growth, prosperity and the greater culture of our town.”  Thus said the 9th Earl De La Warr in May 1935, as he laid the plaque which forms part of the floor of the De La Warr Pavilion's foyer.


The Pavilion opened to the public for the first time on the 12th December 1935, to critical and popular acclaim and controversy. Some Conservative critics were horrified by the plain lines and lack of ornamentation, but the public flocked to the concerts and the seafront restaurant.

The interior of the elegant stairwell is beautifully functional, following the tenets of Modernism as practiced by its major practitioners Le Corbusier and Mies van de Rohe. The design for a Modernist building should abide by the principle of form following function, without the necessity for extraneous detail or ornamentation. The De la Waar building has no Art-Deco flourishes, no sunbursts, no Egyptian motifs. It relies on simple lines and generous spaces to provide a graceful, practical place for its designated functions.  

Today the De la Waar Pavilion is a Grade I Listed building : http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-292006-the-de-la-warr-pavilion-east-sussex/photos/?connected_with=facebook#.Vgcc0vnBzGc

Windows 10 is a Pain and a Conspiracy!

I have recently updated my laptop to use Windows 10 and am finding it more than frustrating! Just one of its many foibles is its incompatibility with Blogger. I'm currently unable to post Picture of the Week, or any other images. I assume this is a deliberate attempt on Microsoft's part to inhibit people who want to use Google products, such as Blogger.

So Picture of the Week is suspended, until/unless I can find a way around Microsoft's progress towards world domination.

Salcombe and the Minton Tiles Mystery. Picture (s) of the Week, 23 August 2015.

Salcombe on the southernmost tip of Devon is a very pretty little town, but for the visitor who's already looked at the harbour, the lifeboat and the two or three small galleries there's not very much to do if you aren't really into messing about in boats! The crab sandwiches sold by local cafes are very good but not exciting enough as they don't last long.

Unexpected things do crop up though, if you look around. 


The view down Cliff Road towards Fore Street, the road

 is either narrow, or very narrow. One way traffic is in

force but anything bigger than a transit van would be in
trouble. Is this a clue to the unexpected Minton tiles?

Look up and you can see a procession of elegant corbel

supports to the overhanging roof. Described to me as a

'dental course', this row stops where it hits the doorway.

The only conclusion which can be drawn is that there

was once a one storey high front porch or lobby on

the house which has been removed, or was accidentally

demolished by a large vehicle.

Architectural detective work is fun!

Look down and just outside a front door

you can see these pretty encaustic tiles,

probably Minton, projecting out into the 

road, with the tarmac and yellow lines

beside them. This seems odd. Why would

the street be decorated with tiles usually

used indoors? The Salcombe climate may be mild, but pedestrians and vehicles

would quite probably damage them.

 

 





Window in Flint Wall - Picture of the Week 14 August 2015

This pretty, shuttered window is on the front of a small terraced house in St Leonards-on-Sea. The window seems rather large for the house and was probably once a shop window. It is a shame that the flint stones, arranged in careful rows in the wall, have been painted over. Nearby houses have left them plain, as originally intended and though rather dark, they are an attractive part of the local Sussex vernacular in building. The ugly grill at ground level covers a small light-well to a cellar room.

Aden, Peaceful Again? Pictures of the Week 23 July 2015

After months of terrible fighting, in which the people of Aden have suffered from gunfire, bombing, starvation, thirst and disease, the battle seems to be over. Supplies are arriving by sea and air. To celebrate, here are a few postcard photos of Aden at peace, in around 1959. Most are by photographer Dick Ketchian.


The handsome Idrus Mosque. I hope it has survived.

Water cart in Crater

Waterfront buildings

The famous Tawila Tanks,
dating back to the 7th century

Crater town which has apparently
been badly damaged in recent fighting.





The Hepworth, Wakefield - a Runaway Success in just 4 Years, Picture of the Week, 13.7.15

The award winning Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield opened in May 2011. As well as highlighting a collection of wonderful work by Yorkshire sculptor Barbara Hepworth, it took over the collection formerly housed in the Wakefield City Art Gallery.

The award winning building is beautifully situated on a weir on the River Calder.

Despite opening before the recession ended, visitor numbers have exceeded all expectations. The original modest hope was for up to 150,000 visitors per year, this number was achieved in the first eight weeks after opening. Even though numbers reduced slightly after the initial enthusiasm, the Hepworth greeted their one millionth visitor, a delighted Australian woman, after just two and a half years, in December 2013.

I make no apology for plugging this lovely gallery. There is no comparable place named after a woman artist that I know of and anyone who is interested in modern art or architecture shouldn't miss it. Visitors from further afield could even make an art holiday out of their visit. The Hepworth's proximity to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park has led to the formation of the Yorkshire Sculpture Triangle, helping the Hepworth's popularity. The third point in the triangle is Leeds Art Gallery and its conjoined twin the Henry Moor Institute. Four fantastic galleries and, apart from special exhibitions, entry for everyone is free!

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http://www.ysculpture.co.uk/

http://ripassetseu.s3.amazonaws.com/www.hepworthwakefield.org/_files/documents/dec_13/FENT__1386266814_Press_Release_-_5_Dec_-_The_He.pdf

The Gasometer - a Vanishing Sight. Picture of the week 3 July 2015

Is there a gasometer near you? If there is, take a photograph for posterity because this iconic part of our industrial heritage won't be around for much longer.

This rather elegant lattice structure is part of Huddersfield's gasometer (or gas-holder), a familiar sight near the town centre, just off the Leeds Road. Any fan who has ever watched a match starring either the Huddersfield Giants or Huddersfield Town FC and tried to park near the John Smith (formerly Galpharm) Stadium will have passed it or parked in its shadow.

Strictly speaking this is the structure which supports the actual telescopic gas holder as it rises and falls according to how much gas is inside, sealed in by the reservoir underneath. The telescoping gasometer was invented as early as 1824, in Wolverhampton. In Huddersfield the actual gas holder never rises these days, the curve of its top is just visible above the roofs of the factory sheds in the photo below. The structure is obsolete, surplus to the requirements of modern technology which the grid uses today to distribute gas by less impressive methods.

 All over the country, gasometers are being demolished, reduced to scrap metal. It can only be a matter of time before the same fate falls to this one.

The former Huddersfield Gas Works site (dating back to the 1820's) covered an area of 3.2ha and originally by 1837 had three gasometers. Over the years gasometers have come, gone and been re-built on the site. This last remaining one was built in 1916, it is 127 feet high and 220ft in diameter and the actual gas holder (the 'bell') has 3 telescoping sections which rise as the internal gas pressure increases. The gas works itself was decommissioned in 1972, when National Grid started distributing natural gas from the North Sea.

The Huddersfield Gasometer has been immortalised by local artist David Blackburn, whose 1981 pastel painting Industrial Landscape with Gasometer is in the V & A Museum in London.

Sarah O'Carroll @GasometerGal is trying to record as many gasometers as possible, before they all bite the dust.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-30405066

http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/gas-holder-huddersfield-a-february-2012.t68912

http://www.historywebsite.co.uk/articles/Gas/Production.htm

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/10473071/Gasometers-a-brief-history.html

What changes? Albion Street, Leeds 40 years ago - Picture of the Week 21 June 2015

This is not a picture of buildings in a city centre, it's a picture of people, in a city centre. Without people, cities don't exist. Fashions in clothes will change a bit, as illustrated. In Leeds today, flares are probably even les socially acceptable than fur coats, however baby buggies are still current, as are pedestrian precincts, shoe shops and 'To Let' signs.

This photo of mine was used on the cover of the book - Planning Cities, Legacy and Portent by Architect, Author, Town Planner and Lecturer at the University of Leeds, Bill Houghton-Evans, 1975 (pub. by Lawrence and Wishart.)
Today (June 2015) if you Google 'Albion Street, Leeds' you are directed to a car park. However, the real Albion Street, Leeds, is still a pedestrian street. There are still no cars and the area is still full of shoppers, with or without flares. Does London's Oxford Street have a lesson to learn?

Cultivated Rooftops in Kensington - Picture of the Week is Back!

It's always worth looking up. Many people's homes have unintentional rooftop growths in the form of buddleia, elder and random grasses, but not in Kensington. Here they have olive trees, cultivated on top of this mansion block in a globular form.

The neighbouring roof-top looks somewhat wilder though still cultivated. One can only assume that people who can afford to have trees on their roof in Kensington can also afford to have had the structure strengthened sufficiently to cope with the added load.

I don't suppose they care that olive trees carry the genetic imperative to grow to a massive breadth and live for two thousand years. (see http://expertslife.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/the-oldest-olive-tree-in-world.html ) These highly pruned specimens will probably blow away or break in winter gales.

And yes, it seemed about time to bring back 'Picture of the Week'. Now I have no excuse to not go out with my camera...

Historic Colt House, Bosham; Picture of the Week 23 May 2014

Going through old family photos I came across this one of my grandparents house in Bosham, Sussex, under construction. I've blogged about their house before, but at the time had few photos of it. This was a Colt house, partly pre-fabricated and constructed almost entirely of timber, apart from foundations and chimneys. These houses became very popular in the 1930's. Further research will, I hope, tell me exactly when this one was built, I've always assumed it was before WWII.

I spent large parts of my childhood in this timber framed and clad house. It had three reception rooms, four bedrooms, a lovely bathroom with separate toilet, a kitchen with a large, solid fuel Aga, a scullery and a front door which was at the back of the house - a gravel drive swept right around the side of house to this front door which in my lifetime the door wasn't used - the entrance lobby was used for storage! The photograph below shows the completed building in the 1950's. The French doors from the sitting room are open onto the brick patio, the windows to the right are in the dining room. The small porch to the right contained the main entrance and connected by a brick corridor to the coal bunkers and the large garage.

These and other photographs show a solid, unpretentious building with traditional tile hanging to the first floor and a clap-board clad ground floor, both imitate the local vernacular. The windows are metal framed, probably Crittal, the hanging tiles are actually cedar shingles, which over time mellowed to a soft grey and never needed painting, the clapboard was a creamy white.

Inside there was no plaster. Apart from dado height panelling on the stairs the interior had soft, fibreboard walls, wallpapered downstairs but not up. In a wind the house would creak and pop, but flexibility is no bad thing.

The Things Men do with Ladders no. 13; Picture of the Week 18 May 2014

This is the thirteenth of these which I've borrowed from elsewhere. Thirteen, unlucky for some, probably this bloke as his ladder appears to be tied to the top of his flimsy garden gate with - no not rope -  just a bit of old rag.

In Barbara Hepworth's Garden, St. Ives. Picture of the Week 11 April 2014

 



Steam Engines, Science Museum 1972 - Picture of the Week 3 April 2014

Romanesque Window - Picture of the week 27 March 2014

This Romanesque window is on the third floor of a building on Exhibition Road, London, not far from the V & A and the Natural History Museum.

The area has an extraordinary and varied number of high quality buildings, this charming window is on one of the architecturally less important ones.

White Horse - graffiti; picture of the Week 19 March 2014

One of my favourite graffiti works.

This little horse walks along a wall in a tiny, narrow alley off a side street in St Leonards-on-Sea.
Although less well publicise than St. Ives in Cornwall, St. Leonards has been a bit of an artists colony for many years.

Red Kite, Picture of the Week 5 March 2014

Red kite photographed on 3 March 2014, soaring above a multi-storey car-park in High Wycombe, Berkshire.

Three hundred or more years ago red kites lived throughout Britain and Ireland and were a common sight even in cities. Shakespeare wrote of them as stealing underwear from clothes lines! Kites have diverse appetites, eating small birds, rodents, frogs, insects, earthworms and carrion. Where they scavenged on man made rubbish and carrion they were often welcomed as useful in cleaning the streets.

 

But one hundred years ago the picture was very different. Only a handful of red kites were left, in the West of Wales. Elsewhere they had been shot and poisoned out of existence, mainly by landowners, farmers and gamekeepers. Other birds of prey were treated with the same arrogant brutality, but most survived in larger numbers than the unfortunate kites. 

 

Today the kites are back. Once they were protected, the Welsh population began to expand. In England, Scotland and Northern Ireland they have been re-introduced in groups, sometimes using birds originating in Scandinavia. In England the reintroduced birds can be found in the Buckinghamshire/Oxfordshire area, Hertfordshire, Northamptonshire, Yorkshire, Gateshead, Northumberland and the Newcastle area and Grizedale Forest in Cumbria. The Scottish population is centred around the release sites in Dumfries and Galloway, Stirling-shire and west Perthshire, around Black Isle in Ross-shire, and on the outskirts of Aberdeen City.

 

All the re-introduced groups have formed breeding populations and the total number in the UK today is around 1,600 pairs, according to the RSPB, who keep a close eye on them. Still not a lot of birds, but where they live, they are quite visible and not afraid to fly over towns and cities. The first kite for 150 years was seen in London in 2006 - http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/shakespeares-red-kite-returns-to-london-after-an-absence-of-150-years-522771.html