Living in Barons Court, less than an hour’s walk from Piccadilly, one does not expect a rural idyll and one would be, almost, right.
Outside the back of my house, nestling under the Hammersmith flyover is an iconic office building, The Ark. The name derives from its hull-like shape. You can see the flyover in the foreground and Charing Cross Hospital in the background. It was built in 1989 as super-eco offices with a futuristic interior layout.
I see it from my bathroom window everyday but I have never been inside. The architect is Ralph Erskine and his intentions were good. You now know that lots went wrong. Commercially it has not been a success, having trouble attracting tenants although after a £20 million make-over in 2006 expanding the office space from 12,100 square metres to 15,600 square metres it seems to be on a sounder footing. The other problem is that the curved wall of The Ark adjacent to the Piccadilly and District lines reflects the noise of the trains onto the houses on the other side of the tracks. A line of trees has to some extent alleviated this nuisance to neighbours.
Walking up my street to Barons Court station I pass Margravine Cemetery. It covers 16.5 acres, opened in 1868 and closed, for burials, in 1951 – so it’s lucky I’ve made other arrangements (see A Grave Matter). Sunday 31st January this year was the designated day to go out and count the birds in your garden and fellow-blogger, the Northern Scrivener, did just that. He may be surprised to read the tally from Margravine Cemetery; I was. I don’t live in Arcadia but it’s not a concrete wilderness either.
