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.    

Kings Cross

Went to take a look at the new Kings Cross Square in front of the restored station, the recently revealed station frontage looks great, an elegant design of 1852 by Lewis Cubitt . 

Disappointingly the new steel and glass canopy along the front of the building cuts through the clean lines of the frontage and I question why the canopy could not have been positioned higher up so as not to cut through the top of the arches. 

The square itself is a big improvement on the building that was there before, but it's not finished and was already beginning to look 'used' with litter (no bins) and drink stains across the square. Good to see some trees but not sure about the raised planters and using gravel around the base of the trees was not a good idea as it gets easily displaced.

Generally the whole area is looking much better and the new Kings Cross concourse is eye opening covered with the largest single span structure in Europe.

The City of London

A recent PhotoWalk in the city showed that there are two major office buildings nearing completion, both dominant but quite different from each other. One I like and one I hate.

The one that I hate is the so called ‘Talkie Talkie’ 20 Fenchurch Street by Rafael Vinoly. An ugly, overbearing building and recently the cause of problems with reflection from its concave face producing a heat ray causing damage to shops and vehicles nearby.

The other building is ‘The cheesegrater’ The Leadenhall Building by Richard Rogers. I really like the look of this wedge shape skyscraper, which will be the tallest building within The City of London. I look forward to its completion but already it’s looking good and complements the Lloyds Building also by Rogers on the other side of the road.

Another skyscraper that I like is The Heron Tower in Bishopsgate, completed in 2011 by Kohn Pedersen Fox. Clean lines and looks good with the sky and clouds reflected in the glazing, a successful design for a tall building.

The Leadenhall Building

Chichester & Winchester

Recent PhotoWalks in two historic cities, both sharing similar qualities with old buildings, a Cathedral, grand council offices, some 1960’s and 70’s intrusions and both having crosses as meeting places. I think that Winchester has a slight edge over Chichester but both are good places to visit.

In most towns it’s the Bank buildings that stand out in the High Streets and this is true in both these cities, right up to 1960 banks were proud to present an imposing frontage usually using columns to convey a classical face, or as in one Chichester bank a Gothic one. A previous Blog of mine covers the theme of Banks and columns.

Neither PhotoWalk ventured into the Cathedrals due to photography permit limitations but both are well worth a visit without a camera.

This is the entrance doorway to the Council Offices in Chichester. Doorway and bronze doors to County Hall, 1936 by C.G. Stillman, in neo-Georgian style.