Limehouse & Greenwich

A recent visit to Limehouse, Canary Wharf and Greenwich. A wet Limehouse and only the exterior of St Anne’s church accessible, too dim to get good photos but some record shots taken anyway.

St. Anne’s (built 1714-30) is one of Nicholas Hawksmoor’s six London churches, he is one of the great British Architects of all time and is featured in my blogs. He could do the Classical ‘fancy bits’ when required but his individualistic interpretations of both Classical and Gothic styles set him apart from other Architects (except perhaps Vanbrugh who he worked with on some buildings).

Hawksmoor’s bold, elemental and in some cases abstract detailing stands out, he is famous for his keystones! This was my first visit to St. Anne’s and particularly admired the tower which is its crowning achievement -he was particularly good at designing unique towers. The tower must have really stood out when it was first built but is now dwarfed by the tower blocks of Canary Wharf just down the road.

Leaving Limehouse a look around Canary Wharf some fantastic buildings but I love the underground station, some great concrete. Then followed by a visit to the Museum of London Docklands, contains some good exhibits about the importance to London of the River Thames and the docks.

Next a walk under the Thames via the Greenwich Foot Tunnel (built 1897-1902) currently the period buildings atop the shafts are undergoing restoration and the lifts are not working so many steps to descend and then ascend into Greenwich, the foot tunnel is an experience worth trying.

     

Southwark Part2

Another trip to Southwark with a visit this time to two Cathedrals – one Anglican and the other Roman Catholic. St George’s the RC Cathedral,  was designed by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin and opened in 1848 but was bombed and gutted by fire in 1941.

Subsequently rebuilt to an Arts and Crafts/Gothic Revival style by R B Craze retaining what little survived of AWNP’s work which includes some encaustic tiling and painted carving. The new work keeping to gothic principals but lacking the decoration and detailing beloved of Pugin. Mainly modern stained glass – not much to my liking.

The cathedral building is not well known and could be confused with the other Southwark Cathedral. It also can easily be passed by in the street as it lacks a tower and spire, although Pugin had designed the church to have one and had originally designed a much larger church, but lack of money put pay to his plans.

After a quick dip into the Imperial War Museum which is opposite to St George’s I returned to the better known and easier to find cathedral: The Cathedral and Collegiate Church of St Saviour and St Overie, Southwark – the only cathedral that reverberates not to the sound of the organ but to the rumble of trains passing on the viaduct nearby!

Looked around the interior to check out suitable subjects/views/angles to photograph in anticipation of running photo courses at the cathedral starting in October, see my photo blog: http://polypodphoto.blogspot.com/

Southwark & Bankside (London)

What a change to this part of London from the days when I walked around in the late 1960’s (having worked over the river in the city). Former warehouses now converted into expensive apartments and shops, with tourists flocking to see the sights – the Globe Theatre and of course Tate Modern.

Then there’s Southwark Cathedral, I’ve always thought that the Cathedral sits oddly in its setting overshadowed by railway viaducts and up close with Borough Market. An exciting new viaduct is currently being built soaring over the market as part of the Thames Link / London Bridge Station improvements - worth looking at, as is The Shard.

Southwark Cathedral , although the original building dates from the 1200’s and the central tower from 15C, much has been repaired with the Nave being rebuilt in 1890-96 by Sir Arthur Blomfield . Lots of interest to see within the church, monuments and stained glass, especially the Shakespeare window by C Webb of 1954.

I am currently planning a series of Photography Courses to take in the Cathedral  and Historic Bankside, see my photo blog for details http://polypodphoto.blogspot.com/

Aldershot & Fleet

ALDERSHOT (Hampshire)

Aldershot still retains some of its original Victorian buildings but some of those that remain are under threat from developers who want to ‘improve’ the town centre. Once a thriving town due to its large army garrison - the ‘Home of the British Army’ the town centre has been going downhill for some time –probably not helped by the reduction in the army presence.

It now looks like its lost the battle to other nearby larger and better shopping centres. The local paper recently carried out a survey on the street to gauge local opinion about the proposed demolition of three old buildings next to the Wellington Centre who want to expand (despite having a whole Mall full of empty shops which they can’t let).

I was approached for my thoughts on the loss of these buildings and my views appeared with others in last week’s Aldershot News & Mail.  The general feeling from the respondents was that it would be a pity to lose anymore local heritage but there was a need for better shops and to improve the shopping facilities. In the case of these three buildings none of them are of any special architectural merit but they do contribute to the diversity of the streetscape, their loss will be one more step to the ‘clone high street’.  Personally I consider that it would be a mistake and once they are gone they are gone.

FLEET (Hampshire)

A straight main street with no buildings of any architectural interest at all so the parish church comes as a surprise. A small gem by the flamboyant Victorian Gothic Architect William Burges. All Saints church built 1861-62 (West end lengthened 1934 by A.J.Stedman). Built in red brick with stone details,  the interior brickwork and roof painted with geometric ornamental motifs (Burges used extensive painted decoration in most of his buildings such as Cardiff Castle).

Plain glass but interesting Nave windows with Chancel stained glass by Clayton & Bell, the Chancel is painted white and looks out of place it should be dark to match the Nave (I agree with the Pevsner guide on this). The tomb of the benefactor is worth looking at with two well figured stone dogs at his feet.