Sunday 29th April, a very wet and windy
Portsmouth City Centre – too wet for a PhotoWalk so postponed to a proposed
date of Sunday 5th August, with the same itinerary starting at the
Guildhall.
Although the rain imparted a certain atmosphere to the
townscape it was not good for photography with even the best Portland stone
faced building looking decidedly grey. Even the Guildhall, viewed through the
window of Wetherspoons I K Brunel, lacked any attraction to the eye of a
photographer.
Interesting to recall that the Guildhall was completely
gutted during WW11 and a lot of it was rebuilt in the 1955-59 but minus some of
the original features, the interior a now very period 1950’s.
The more I look around Portsmouth the more I find of
interest and knowing that a substantial part of the city was destroyed or
damaged during the war makes looking round that much more enlightening.
After abandoning the PhotoWalk I had a look around old
Portsmouth and the area near to the Cathedral to see if there is the potential for
holding a PhotoWalk there in the future, but it was so wet that it proved
difficult to make a judgement.
Finally, the highlight of the day, a visit to the church of St AGATHA ‘a grand Italianate basilica of 1894 enriched
with marble, granite and carved stone. The apse contains Britain's largest
sgraffito mural, by Heywood Sumner c1901’.
It is planned to end the next PhotoWalk at St Agatha’s and I am
currently in conversation with them to arrange this. Well worth a visit and
look around this hidden gem of Portsmouth.
