Category: Architecture

Local Matters

There have been Santander Cycles in my street for a few years but now they have been joined by something new.

Barons Court Station

It’s easy to take something you see every day for granted. I have lived in Barons Court since 1976, continuously since 1984, and have taken the station for granted, but it has many special features making it one of the most distinctive stations on the underground.

A Tale of Three Towers

The brutalist 1960s Economist tower is losing its eponymous tenant, The Economist, and being given an internal make-over. Externally it will look the same as it’s grade II* listed. It was a bold choice fifty years ago and attracted the opprobrium of many denizens of St James’s.

Under the Flyover

Don’t think that I rant about all modern architecture. There is a lot of good stuff on my doorstep. Hammersmith Broadway and the flyover are not a good setting for anything but there are three interesting buildings which overcome their awkward positions.

Kensington Gardens

I had a little rant about some modern architecture in July 2015 which I expect you’ve forgotten by now; I almost have, as Queen Elizabeth I said about something different. I refreshed my memory by re-reading Athens, 1931.

Temple Time

Friends invited me today to the Hindu temple in Neasden, as they thought it would interest me and it did. The building, opened in 1995, has intricate carving in stone and wood and an elaborate archway, above.

All about Aloysius

There are some unfathomable mysteries in life. One is why John Betjeman called his teddy bear Archibald Ormsby-Gore. He took Archie with him to Oxford and Archie appears in Brideshead Revisited as Sebastian Flyte’s teddy, Aloysius.

A King in Soho

I had supposed that the Church of England is busy selling off vicarages and closing churches. Now I have found a new church, opened on St Anne’s Day in July 1991 and it has a link to a mountainous Mediterranean island.

On The Street

The scaffolding is finally being removed from the LAMDA theatre fly tower. It’s no beauty. It reminds me of a giant water tank.

Wild Cat

Maybe it’s because opera tickets are often expensive but there is a tendency to play safe and book old favourites. The mantra “there’s always a good reason for it being rarely performed” is often recited. However, Wexford only perform rarities and Valencia are putting on something by Manuel Penella – que?.