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...

The Gherkin, the Shard and St. Pauls - from a council flat. Picture of the Week for7 October 2013

This is an evening-time view from the 17th floor of a council tower block on the Elmington Estate in Camberwell.

The full panorama visible from the small balcony of this flat stretches from Telegraph Hill round past Woolwich and Canary Wharf, past St Pauls and just catches the edge of the London Eye. What's wrong with living in a tower block?!

Leadwork repairs: Picture of the Week 24 May 2013

On the Job: an occasional series of tradesmen at work.

Repairing leadwork on the roof of a four storey Victorian house in Huddersfield

Repairing leadwork on the roof of a four storey Victorian house in Huddersfield

The Things Men do with Ladders, no.8 - Picture of the Week 27 Sept.2012

And what happens if she moves her hand...?!

The Architectural Photographer Begins - Picture of the week for 19 Sept 2012

This was the view which I saw, every day, from the windows of the studio in Brighton College of Art, while I was a student there. It's one of the earliest architectural photographs I took, but at the time I was unaware that it was an architectural photograph. I was studying fine art and, while the course was not engaging me, this view always did. When I left, I went on to study photography at Ealing Technical College.




Rooftops - view to rear of Grand Parade, Brighton C1970/ 1971, shot on Ilford 125 film with a Zenit B 35mm camera.

This higgledy-piggledy array of roofs, windows, chimneys, fire-escapes, fascinated me then and still does. It has many of the abstract qualities which I was being introduced to in the work of artists I was studying, angles, planes, light, dark and texture. It also had the drama and mystery of humanity - and this was just some of what was missing from the teaching. I didn't understand conceptual art and found minimalism just boring, I had no idea what to paint so I gazed out of the window at this view.

Stony Stratford Historic Roofing, Pictures of the week 13 July 2012

Having missed posting anything at all last week (due to technical problems, honest!) I'm once again posting several. These show some of the reasons why Archifact stays in business. 

Historic Roofscape

Driving through an old English coaching town, you can enjoy the quaint shopfronts, ancient pubs and historic town houses, but what goes on above your eyeline?