Victorian Stained Glass 2

A second day course on Victorian Stained Glass is planned to held at the Guildford Institute later this year in the Autumn Term. Details to follow. If you are interested please let me know by email: polypod@gmail.com

In preparation for the course a selection of stained glass window photos are being put on the fotoLIBRA website: http://www.fotolibra.com/gallery/search/pro.php?all_words=polypodphoto 

Victorian Stained Glass

An enjoyable course was held at the Guildford Institute last Thursday when we looked at Victorian Church Architecture & Stained Glass, using local churches in Surrey and N E Hampshire as examples of the Victorian Neo-Gothic style.

The group paid a visit to St Mary's to look at the examples of stained glass in the church, we then finished off the day with a look inside St Nicolas at the wall paintings and especially the excellent Clayton & Bell stained glass.

There was enough interest in the stained glass to propose a day course later in the year to cover the subject in more depth.

Victorian Architecture

Victorian Architecture, a short course at the Guildford Institute, this Thursday 7th February, 10am-2pm. Looking at the buildings and styles of the Victorian Period from Classical to Gothic. Includes a walk around Guildford to look at local examples.

Victorian Church Architecture & Stained Glass, a follow on short course on Thursday 7th March, 10am -2pm, includes a visit to St. Mary's church in Guildford to look at the stained glass.

Details on the Guildford Institute website: http://guildford-institute.org.uk/courses/victorian-church-architecture-stained-glass/

2012 Looking Back4

Heritage Weekend in Guildford

A good weekend visiting heritage properties in Guildford. I managed to ‘do’ 14 properties on the Saturday, most of them I’ve seen before but well worth revisiting to see things that I had missed before.

The best was a tour around the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, although I’ve been to plays there this was the first time that I had an opportunity to see behind the scenes  and it turned out to be a very interesting and good tour.  http://www.yvonne-arnaud.co.uk/ 

Another first time look was into the Baptist Church in Millmead, typical 1970’s architecture not attractive on the outside but better inside with a large and spacious auditorium with plenty of exposed concrete  and timber finishes. The surprise was the full immersion pool set into the floor (of course they are Baptists so I should have known) with interesting reflections of the interior on the water’s surface. http://www.guildfordbaptist.org/ 

Encouraging that ‘Heritage’ now encompasses the 1960s and 70’s. It’s also good to see just how much heritage there actually is in Guildford. 

2012 Looking Back3

London Open House 22 September

A bright but cold start in the City of London, I had planned to visit the Bank of England but the length of the queue put me off so went to the second on my list, The Guildhall. A lot more to it than I had expected with lots of interesting bits in addition to the main hall itself, interesting to see the amalgam of the old buildings with the more recent builds, including the Guildhall Art Gallery.

Then a rush to get to Trinity House  (1794) before it closed, again more to see than I had expected, including a couple of good models of Light Ships, one having a couple of canons (not sure what they were used for?). The building was damaged in WW2 but well restored.

Then onto The Custom House, (1817 & 1825) a large building on the Thames bank. A typical air of governmental neglect inside but with an impressive ‘large room’ in the centre of the building where the main customs business took place, now seemingly just used as an office space.

Onwards to Blackfriars and Unilever House, an imposing 1930’s building, the frontage recently restored with a modern office development behind.

   

Then a walk through the Inns of Court to the days highlight The Royal Courts of Justice (1874-1882) G E Street’s masterpiece. Very Victorian Gothic with little obvious internal changes and a magnificent main hall with corridors and court rooms leading off it. Certainly made an impression on me and the exterior features in my City2City ‘PhotoWalk’ – Blackfriars to Waterloo Bridge via Aldwich

Looking Back 2

Chiswick House

A visit some months ago to Chiswick House to see what changes have taken place since my last visit some years ago. I have known the villa since the early 1960’s having been there with my father soon after the restoration by the then Ministry of Public Buildings and Works (it’s now in the care of English Heritage).

Major improvements have taken place recently in the grounds and a new Café constructed – a modern design which I quite like, using stone from one of the Portland shelly beds giving an interesting textural look to the stone. A definite improvement on the original municipal café that used to be there.

Chiswick House was built in the 1720’s by Lord Burlington as a place to display his art collection and as a place for entertainment and was never used as a residence.  The design is based on the principals of Andrea Palladio and is a fine example of ‘neo-Palladian’ Architecture, one of the best in this country, with Architect William Kent collaborating with Burlington on the design.

The landscaped grounds are dotted with classical features, temples and obelisks dating from the period of Lord Burlington and William Kent plus an orangery of 1813 still with its original plantings of Camellias. The gardens are open throughout the year and the house reopens in April 2013.  

2012 - Looking Back

Nearly the end of 2012 already and after lots of blogging I’ve still a lot to blog about but not the time to do so!

Things have developed well with the ‘PhotoWalks’ program, doing the research and walking the route does take quite a bit of time but has proved to be very interesting. A good program of walks has now been established with additional locations and itineraries being added on a regular basis.

Additional walks have been to the London walks program, one starting at Blackfriars Bridge and ending on Waterloo Bridge via Fleet Street and Aldwich, with the second starting on London Bridge and ending at Bank, via Lombard Street.

Preparing for the walks has been very informative and many interesting buildings and otherwise unseen architectural details have been discovered. My aim is to open people’s eyes Britain’s building heritage and to help them capture the best possible images of what they see.