Salisbury

A train trip to Salisbury on a wet and windy day in February, the last time I visited the city I remember that it was dull and very cold, so I’ve probably not seen Salisbury in the best light!

The city centre busy with people shopping, but first into Wetherspoons The Kings Head Inn, an interesting building with a history going back to the fifteenth century. Watched the rain through the leaded windows.

Then into St Tomas’s church and bought from their book sale a copy of The Red Guide to England, quite a lot has changed since it was published in 1974. I do recall visiting the church back in the late 1960’s but don’t recall much of it (although I still have the guide book), quite a large church with a ‘Doom’ painting.

A good number of interesting buildings in the centre, the Town Hall being especially good, as is Lloyds Bank. Behind the bank the Post Office building and outside two very neglected telephone kiosks – the situation with listed phone boxes needs to be resolved.

Then into the Cathedral with just a few visitors so great to be able to walk around without hoards of tourists, lots to look at but I was particularly interested in a memorial to a Railway Accident in Salisbury on July 1^st 1906 involving the boat train which left the track when travelling at over twice the speed limit through the station resulting in 28 people being killed.

Birmingham

A very wet visit to Birmingham primarily to do the Photography Show at the NEC – that dire collection of sheds where you have to walk miles to get anywhere, anyway it was a good show and worth visiting.

Whilst in Birmingham I wanted to revisit the new Library, a great building. This time I was able to get to see the Shakespeare Memorial Room, this original feature from the city’s Victorian library was designed by John Henry Chamberlain in 1882, it was too busy on my first visit as the library had only just opened, but not too many people this time -  strange to be in a wood panelled period room on top of a modern building.

The Museum & Art Gallery always has things of interest that I have not seen before and the Pre-Raphaelite paintings are fantastic in detail and execution.

Birmingham still has many good Victorian buildings but due to the weather I was unable to take any photos, although I have shot many of them in the past but mostly on film. I ended up sheltering in the Cathedral and looking at the Burne Jones stained glass windows, a fine set.

One building in Birmingham that badly needs to find a new use is the original 1838 London & Birmingham Railway Curzon Street Station by Philip Hardwick, the oldest railway terminus in the world. Unused and neglected for years it’s one of the most important buildings in the city and must be given the attention it deserves. 

Coventry

I’ve visited Coventry many times and quite like it as a city, it has some good parts as well as some post war eyesores. I looked around the two medieval churches in the city centre which I was pleased to find were open for visitors, both have interesting features and stained glass. On this occasion I did not visit the Cathedral due to time constraints and at £8.00 admission I would want to get my monies worth! (not sure how they can justify £8.00?).

One of the best features of Coventry is the central covered Market, a round construction with a car park on the roof. Busy and full of good things that can be found in a proper market – fruit & veg, Meat, hardware, fabrics and household items (nothing arty or crafty). It would be good to have a covered market in Guildford but economics are against having one, although most big towns and cities have a market hall as an asset.

The Banks, as is usual with pre 1960 bank buildings , display their facades to the public with columns and Portland stone giving an impression of solidarity and importance  - it’s disappointing that Banks now no longer value their buildings (or customers) and many good examples have now been sold off. I have written about bank buildings in a previous blog.

Looking Back to 2013

Walthamstow and Crawley

A couple of visits made in 2013 to two different places neither having much of architectural interest to offer.

Walthamstow, apart from the William Morris gallery (which I've not yet returned to after it’s makeover), can only offer the Library as a building worth looking at. Built 1907-9 in red brick by J W Dunford, in a style typical of the period, interesting interiors with good stained glass on the staircase, listed grade 11.

Crawley has a few old buildings with the church of St John the Baptist being probably the best building in the town, C15 and C19 with Horsham slab roofs, listed grade 11*.  The town centre is a disappointment and lacks the post war planning of somewhere like Coventry (which I quite like).

Croydon Continued

I made a special effort to see the Riesco Collection of Chinese Ceramics at Croydon Museum before the council decides to sell off yet more of this important collection which was donated to the museum. How the council can get away with selling off at least 17 items from the collection is difficult to understand, but benefactors are going to think twice before donating anything to council run museums in the future.  http://www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/news/16102013-89-objects-missing-riesco-croydon-council

The trams are an added attraction to the town and a good way of moving people around. They have surprisingly good acceleration and ability to handle steep grades. I would love to see trams come to Guildford connecting the Research Park, Hospital and Uni with the town centre and then out to the East with a possible route down to Cranleigh along the old line. I can’t see it happening as the cost would be too great both in the infrastructure and in the running. But they have been very successful in Croydon and I have experienced trams in a number of other towns where they work very well.

Croydon

A look around Croydon before it gets the Westfield ‘makeover’  http://thecroydonpartnership.com/. At the moment it makes Reading, by comparison, look good! Croydon certainly needs an uplift although it does have plenty of busy shops it’s under pressure from other shopping centres and the demise of Alders has not helped.

There are some quite interesting building facades above the shop fronts, such as above W H Smith a good frontage probably dating from the 1920/30’s period when WHS architects were producing stylish buildings such as in Winchester (see my previous blog). WHS shops are now sadly lacking.

The Whitgift Hospital (Built 1596-9, restored by Butterfield in 1860)looks very out of place, other buildings of note being the church of St John the Baptist (mainly 1870 by G G Scott) and the splendid Victorian church of St Michael and all Angels (1885 by J L Pearson). I could not get into either of these on my visit which was disappointing.

Probably the only other outstanding architecture in the town centre are the Municipal Buildings (1892-96 by Charles Henman) with a prominent clock tower and grade 11 listed War Memorial (James Burford Architect with Paul Montford Sculptor, unveiled 22 Oct 1922).

Reading (Berkshire)

A trip to Reading to update the PhotoWalk details in anticipation of next years walks. A few changes in the town since my last visit but nothing effecting the route itinerary.

Additional information was gathered in Reading Library on a couple of buildings and a few things found that can be added to further PhotoWalks. The highlight was getting inside the RC church of St Jame’s, said to be the first church designed by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin in 1837.

Surprisingly it’s not in a Gothic style but Romanesque, thought to be because the church is next to the Abbey ruins. The church is in good condition and has had additions made over time, the interior is simple but has three interesting original windows in the apse end probably dating from the 1840’s.

The window design may be by AWNP and were made by Thomas Warrington, closely reproducing the geometric and foliate designs of the medieval period.  Although I’m not too keen on stained glass from the 1930’s there are a group of small windows in the Lady Chapel which are quite good depicting the grotto at Lourdes and made by Clarks of Dublin in 1934.

Walking around Reading town centre and looking at the buildings above the shop fronts always reveals more of interest which usually is passed by unnoticed by shoppers. One building well know to locals is Jacksons Corner, home of Jacksons for 137 years and now about to close. An important Victorian corner building but not listed and probably will be lost to redevelopment.