Category: Architecture

Building Barons Court

London is being transformed by new blocks of flats and offices. Supply will outstrip demand, especially if we have a Brexit led recession. I have looked at some old Ordnance Survey maps to see how it changed towards the end of the 19th century.

Grave Matters

It took a third visit to find this rather prominent grave at St Nicholas’s Chiswick. It is in a part of the graveyard that I thought only had modern headstones.

The Eisenhower Centre

Walking around London you see things that you’d miss on a bus or in a taxi. The Eisenhower Centre is an example.

Appointment at the Dentist

My first office in the City was in Mark Lane – I was there for sixteen years. Now I re-visit to see my dentist. On Monday when she’d finished with me I visited St Olave’s – where Samuel Pepys worshipped and is buried.

Bridges

There are now three crossings on the Forth. The new Queensferry bridge is on the right. But we don’t do new here, so let’s turn to an older bridge.

George Basevi

Wednesday’s post was mostly about the Grosvenors. The architect for Belgrave Square and the classical terraces surrounding it is George Basevi. He gets a mention on the plinth of Robert Grosvenor’s bronze.

What’s Up?

An unusual convention in Bridge is the Lightner double, described by Susanna Gross in The Spectator as “a bolt out of the blue which strikes fear into your heart. There you are, having bid confidently to slam, when suddenly one of your opponents pulls out the red card. Eek! It’s a Lightner double, which means they… Continue reading What’s Up?

Cathedral Crawl

The friends I stay with in Wales are on a mission to visit every cathedral in England and Wales. They have twice come to stay with me, to tick off St Paul’s and Westminster Abbey, a cathedral from 1540 to 1550.

Ding Dong!

Ding Dong! The bridge is dead. Which old bridge? The Garden Bridge! Ding Dong! The Garden Bridge is dead.