To conclude my photo board of my sunny trip to Canterbury here is a selection of shots of architecural detailing and other views looking up in various spots around the city….
Category: Historic landscapes
My first ‘Over My Head’ post was of architectural detailing in Canterbury High Street. The second features pictures in and around Canterbury Cathedral also taken last week, as before looking up.
Some of the newly – cleaned outside of the cathedral was looking rich and creamy gold, probably how it must have looked a thousand years ago. And the interior was as awe inspiring as you might expect for this most important of Anglican religious centres.
I find it interesting that so much trouble and effort (as well as skill) was put into making buildings and objects look great in places you wouldn’t normally expect to look, well at least casually that is. Maybe in days gone by people had their heads in the clouds more…..
Old School Gardener
We had a weekend in Kent and Essex last week. Sunday was the sunniest day so far in this gloomy UK winter, and we spent the day in Canterbury and Whitstable. I loved Canterbury with its eclectic mix of old buildings including the famous Cathedral, of course. I was particularly struck by the interesting architectural detailing above and so this is the first of three photo sets capturing some of the world ‘over my head’ in this lovely city. First a few images from the High Street…
I’ll be covering ‘over my head’ in the Cathedral in my next photo post on this lovely day trip.
Old School Gardener
‘In sheltered spots the colours now return.
Brave crocuses and aconites of gold
Form brilliant carpets on the dreary floor
Of winter borders. In the woods unfold
The spikes of cuckoo pint, now showing more
And brighter green than hardy fronds of fern.
There’s colour, too, where tits and finches fly,
Attired already for the affairs of spring.
And, welcome even more, on oak branch high
As daylight fades a thrush begins to sing.
The hazel catkins shiver in the breeze,
In yellow clouds pale pollen drifts away.
A thousand starlings pass above the trees,
And silvered silk the willow wands display.’
John (Jack) Kett
from ‘A Late Lark Singing’ (Minerva Press1997)
In a recent article on Io9, I came across this article: 10 Failed Utopian Cities that Influenced the Future
Reading through the Utopian dreams and failed society reboots of architects like Frank Lloyd Wright and industrialist Henry Ford, I can’t help but notice their different relationships to food and its production whether in gardens or pastures. They definitely focus on the planned and built environment as the cure to the diseases of human settlements. I guess when all you have is a city planning hammer, everything looks like a nail.
But let’s get back to the issue of agriculture and the placement or absence of gardens and farms in these failed bright futures of the past. Henry Ford’s Fordlandia actually built a city in a cleared part of the Brasilian rainforest to harvest rubber for the new Ford automobiles rolling off of the assembly lines in the U.S. Based…
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What more is there to be said on Robin Hood Gardens? Its architecture and its planned demolition have inspired voluminous and passionate writing on both sides of the debate – it’s become less a council estate, more a proxy in a cultural war.
This story begins in 1963 – though it stretches back further, of course, in terms of East End housing problems and the visions of politicians, planners and architects in solving them. Still, in that year, three small areas of land became available to the then London County Council for redevelopment. Alison and Peter Smithson were commissioned to draw up designs for two separate buildings with plans for further which would form ‘one big linked dwelling group’.
Two years later, the Greater London Council decided to demolish the adjacent Grosvenor Buildings – seven private tenement blocks opened in 1885, replacing slums cleared by the Metropolitan Board of Works. The…
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An exciting event is coming your way soon: On Sunday 6 April will see the Ouse Washes Experience.
This is a brand new event, which will be held in the heart of the Ouse Washes Landscape Partnership scheme area.
The Ouse Washes Experience: a sponsored run or cycle ride
This event is organised by the Ely Hereward Rotary Club, in close co-operation with the OWLP scheme, Cambridgeshire ACRE, Mepal Outdoor Centre, RSPB, Environment Agency, Cambridgeshire County Council and Cambridgeshire Police.
The idea is that all participants will either run or cyclealong the Ouse Washes between Mepal and Welney, for either 4 or 9.6 miles (6.4 or 15 km), that is from Mepal until the Welches Dam/RSPB Ouse Washes reserve, or until the end in Welney village.
See the Ouse Washes close up – all abilities are welcome
Cyclist and runners of all ages and abilities…
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Grapevines in Jerez, Spain
Location of Emona within present day central Ljubljana, from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emona
Ljubljana is celebrating 2000 years since Emona, a Roman settlement, was founded. Emona belonged to the province of Italy and had around 5000 inhabitants. Modern Ljubljana overlaps with site of old Emona. Roman remnants are to be seen in archaeological parks, galleries, architecture and museums across Ljubljana. I’ve found a ’73 year booklet about Emona frescoes yesterday. It is fascinating to discover Emona homes were as neatly decorated as they are today. I am particularly fond of floral motifs used on Emona frescoes , they tell us the story of nearby flora of the time , of the artists of the time, of the pigments used and of the social importance of the beauty that is telling its story even after 2000 years! Here are some illustrations from the booklet:
Ljudmila Plesničar Gec, Emonske freske, Ljubljana 1973
Imagine a Hampstead Garden Suburb built for working people. Better still, if you’re in London take the Tube and get off at Acton East and visit the Old Oak Estate where you’ll find just such an estate.
We’ve looked at the work of the LCC’s Architects’ Department Housing of the Working Classes branch before – at the Millbank Estate, at Totterdown Fields, and at the White Hart Lane Estate. These are all fine arts and crafts-inspired estates but to Susan Beattie, Old Oak stands as ‘the culminating achievement of the Council’s venture into garden suburb planning before the first world war’ – a work of ‘splendid maturity’. (1)
Rising costs of land and labour were forcing the LCC to look to what were then the London fringes. In 1905, the Council purchased 54 acres in Hammersmith from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners at a cost of £29,858. Eight acres…
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Old School Garden 