A W N Pugin

I’m fortunate to have three of Pugin’s original publications, although in poor condition (the books are over 160 years old) they are still very interesting to look at, even if his words are dated! But his writings were to change the state and look of British Architecture.

In ‘An Apology for The Revival of Christian Architecture in England’ Pugin starts off by saying ‘The age in which we liveis a most eventful period for English art. We are just emerging from a state which may be termed the dark ages of architecture.’

He condemns classical "pagan" architecture, commenting on the (1840) 'moderns' Pugin says that 'we are called upon to admire their thrice-cooked hashes of pagan fragments (in which the ingredients are amalgamated in utter confusion) as fine national monuments of the present age.' He then goes on to promote Gothic as the only true Christian style.

Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin

Very pleased to see that one of my favourite architects is getting an airing on BBC4 ‘Pugin: God’s own Architect’.

I’ve been interested in Pugin from the early 1970’s when he was little known and overshadowed by other more well known Victorian architects, happily he is now recognized as a major influence on British Architecture.

Architect and designer he lead a frantic life, producing plans for hundreds of churches and buildings including the Houses of Parliament (with Barry) and drawing thousands of designs for interior decoration, married 3 times and having 8 children - he was dead by the age of 40 !

CITY OF LONDON

A dull overcast Saturday in the City of London, almost deserted streets except the occasional tourist straying away from the usual traps of St Pauls and the Tower of London. The city is a great place to walk around with a camera when people are not at work.

Apart from the disappointing lack of light there was lots to see and (try) to photograph. I found some parts of the city that I had not seen before and managed to find some listed buildings that I had read about in the architectural guide books and revisited buildings already seen and photographed on previous excursions around the city.

The second ‘PhotoWalk’ planned for Sunday 25^th March will cover the area from Tower Hill to Monument looking up and down the roads and odd narrow alley for interesting angles to photograph. Some of the buildings and sculpture can be seen in the ‘London’ set of images on FotoLIBRA  http://www.fotolibra.com/?u=26969