Mind that building!

Back from seeing the folks in Warwick. The town was this weekend host to its annual Mop fair, which takes place in the main streets and squares.

Did I hear you ask what a Mop is? Well, for the uninitiated, it's a traditional 'hiring' fair where labourers and servants would gather near to Old Michaelmas Day to find employment. They would carry an item to identify their trade. And if you had no particular skills, you would hold a mop head. Various stalls providing food and entertainment were set up in addition to the Mop's main function as an employment dating service.

A week later the town hosts the Runaway Mop, which would have offered those people unhappy with their new jobs - or for employers disappointed with their new staff - a second chance to find work.

These days, the Mop is no longer an outdoor job centre, but simply a funfair. Warwick's dates back nearly 700 years, and I have fond memories of visiting as a kid. The close proximity of the old buildings adds an extra thrill that you don't find at regular fairgrounds. There's nothing like the prospect of plunging headlong into the roof of a Georgian townhouse to excite the senses, as this video shows... Apologies for the poor quality, but I just grabbed it on the hoof.

Mops are held in a small number of old market towns, mainly in the Cotswolds/Midlands area. Expect Iain Duncan Smith to pilot 21st century Mop jobseeker fairs in the near future.

Back from Wiltshire

Some snaps from a week in Wiltshire. It rained most of the time, so there wasn't much opportunity to get out and take photos. We were staying in a cottage on the edge of the Stourhead Estate, which includes an excellent Spread Eagle Inn with great local ales. The Estate itself is an incredible piece of 18th century landscape design, and much of it can be accessed by public footpaths.



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We were also in walking distance of some stunning rolling downland scenery, and I enjoyed walking up Whitesheet Hill, which is topped by a multitude of hill forts and burial mounds.









We enjoyed visiting Frome, which felt like a very creative town with loads of vintage clothing stores, the Garden Café veggie restaurant and excellent Black Swan Arts centre.

Back from Germany

Former shop sign, Shadowstrasse

Just back from three excellent days in Germany, specifically the cities of Cologne and Düsseldorf.

I was primarily there for the huge Cologne photography trade fair Photokina, but also visited the Düsseldorf Quadriennale (yes, they do exist).

I'll post separately about Photokina and the Quadriennale, but thought that I'd briefly share my thoughts about Düsseldorf.


Vodafone Tower

Although I've been to Cologne on many occasions, I've never made it to nearby Düsseldorf. First impressions were that it's a bit underwhelming, but during the course of a few days the city really gets under your skin. The inner suburbs seem to consist largely of low-rise 1960s apartment blocks; if you are familiar with the city shots by photography Thomas Struth then you will know exactly what I mean.

It's a place of designer fashion - the Königsallee boulevard is lined with fashion boutiques that reminded me of Paris or Omotesando in Tokyo. In fact, the Japanese influence is everywhere, with a Japan quarter and lots of large department stores that are more downtown Ginza than western Germany. It's testament to the city's status as an international business hub.


Rhein promenade
Right at the heart of Düsseldorf is the cutesy old town, its streets lined with a multitude of bars and restaurants. The Aldstadt faces directly onto the Rhine, which is spanned by a series of cable-stayed bridges which seem to be the favourite type of crossing in this part of the country.


Refurbishment to Town Hall in the Aldstadt


You can never have too many cable-stayed bridges


Düsseldorf's Media Harbour is like a mini Docklands, but with far more interesting modern architecture, by the likes of Alsop & Störmer and David Chipperfield, not forgetting Frank Gehry's fantastical Rheinhafen arts and media complex. Nearby is the TV tower, an obligatory feature of most German cities.











But Düsseldorf's real jewels are its art galleries, and it's a real mecca for photography lovers thanks to its art school, which produced such luminaries as Andreas Gursky, Thomas Ruff, Candida Höfer and Thomas Struth, under the tutelage of the Bechers.

Veggie-tastic at the Museum of Garden History (interior by Dow Jones)

London is full of those moments when you think: "I can't believe that after all these years I have never been here before". And so it is with the Garden Museum, located in a wonderful 14th century former St Mary at Lambeth church adjoining Lambeth Palace, on the south bank of the Thames.

The building is a treat, and it's hard to think it was threatened with demolition back in the 1970s. The veggie café is excellent - I had a tasty Moroccan fruity vegetable tagine, which came with some fab salads. You can choose to sit inside, surrounded by tombs and monuments, or in the churchyard garden.

The museum's interior was revamped in 2008, designed by London-based Dow Jones architects. The building itself was left untouched, the museum housed in a free-standing timber structure constructed between the stone pillars and arches. It's well worth a visit even if, like us, it was just for food rather than to enjoy the exhibitions.

Seeing red at the Serpentine Pavilion

What a scorcher the weekend proved to be. It was far too hot in our airless rooftop eerie, with humidity and searing temperatures that made Tenko look like it was set in Reykjavik.

So what better way to cool off than a paddle around Hyde Park's Diana Memorial Fountain? Although much maligned upon its opening (an inevitable fate as nothing was ever going to be good enough for the tabloids) the bubbling stream is a pleasurable way to cool off overheated tootsies, even when it is filled with marauding children. It's a lot safer now the grey granite surface has been etched to provide some grip for bare feet, although with its sharply incised gullies and sudden protuberances it remains pleasingly treacherous. 

The fountain itself is quite beautiful, the effect marred not only by all the people gawping and dipping their toes, but also the asphalt path that winds across it. With the right setting it could be so much more special, a bit like Thomas Heatherwick's East Beach Café in Littlehampton that looks less like driftwood on the beach and more like a dog turd in a car park.

Back to Diana (I'm beginning to feel like the Daily Express). Much fun can be had trying to spot the metaphors in the design. Does that footbridge represent a Parisian underpass? Do those swirling rapids echo her inner torment about Camilla? It's almost as much fun as the deeply moving Diana and Dodi memorial in Harrods, which never fails to bring a tear to my eye. 

Anyway, the main aim of the day was to experience this year's Serpentine Pavilion. Designed by Jean Nouvel, this year's structure is the 10th commission in the annual series. And like most years before, this overhyped café and auditorium managed to deeply disappoint. The only thing more disenchanting is the exhibition programme at the adjacent Serpentine Gallery. Time spent viewing Wolfgang Tillmans: Three minutes (including one minute for politeness, as it was felt rather rude to leave so hastily). 

The Pavilion is a depressing space, fabricated entirely from red materials. On a hot day, the café interior is an extremely uncomfortable environment, the overwhelming ruby colour scheme makes the space feel angst-ridden. Not a place to linger over a cup of Earl Grey and slice of lemon cake.

This year's effort feels particularly cheap. However, there are moments of delight: the main statement is an inclined red wall clad with red polycarbonate panels, which catches the sun and contrasts with the surrounding trees. Undoubtedly the pavilion incorporates elements that photograph well, making it ideal fodder for architectural magazines. But as a place to visit, linger and relish? No thanks.

Nouvel has created some incredible buildings, but seems determined to drag London down. His design for One New Change in the City, currently nearing completion, is another gloomfest, with its drab angular facades. Located across the road from St Paul's, this "breathtaking monument to modernism" is like the gloomy guest at a party who brings everyone else down.

Mysterious rituals at Stonehenge

To Wiltshire last weekend, for my Aunt's 90th birthday party. Keeping in the spirit of well-preserved ancient monuments, I decided to stop off for an ice cream at Stonehenge, which is only about a mile from where she lives.





Despite it being pretty late in the day, the site was mobbed. It's a very strange place, with visitors encircling the stones but kept at a distance. Most people choose to take audio tours, which produces the rather strange scene of hundreds of people listening intently to their handsets, barely taking any notice of the amazing prehistoric structures.

Watts Chapel and Gallery, Compton, Surrey

We ventured out of London on Saturday to enjoy some country air and sunshine, with a walk along the North Downs Way from Guildford to the small village of Compton and its famous Watts Gallery and Chapel.

The Watts Gallery, built in 1904 to house the collection of Victorian artist G F Watts, is currently being restored. Although this means you can't see his work, the visitor centre does show a fascinating short video that gives some insight into his life and work - including the rather disturbing fact that at the age of 46 he eloped with the 16-year old actress Ellen Terry. The dirty old man.

And in case you're wondering, the G F stand for George Frederic. Watts was brought into this world on Handel's birthday and named after him.

There's a great tea rooms at the site, although it seems to have been recently refurbished and rather less pleasingly eclectic than when I last visited (which was about seven years ago). However, you still get served tea in mismatching china cups; I particularly recommend the artist's blend.

However, in many ways this all pales in comparison to the nearby Watts Chapel, which was financed by Watts and his Scottish designer/ceramicist wife Mary. It was built as the chapel for a new village cemetery, and was designed and decorated under Mary's guidance. The result is a tiny yet gobsmacking building.



Inside is full-blown and heavily symbolist Art Nouveau with the dome decorated with the swirling tendrils of the tree of life and a host of winged messengers.



Externally, the chapel is decorated with terracotta panels with a hybrid of Celtic patterns and Art Nouveau forms. These motifs are further found in many of the grave markers throughout the cemetery.









What's perhaps particularly interesting is that the whole thing was constructed with the assistance of local villagers. Mary was a passionate advocate of art as a social improver. According to the chapel's information leaflet, if the process of creating all the decorative panels kept the villagers "away from the gin palaces of Guildford, this was surely a good thing". Clay to make the panels was found in the grounds of Watts' house, and eventually involved participation from more than 70 locals.



If you haven't visited then you'd better make amends soonish.

Aberdeen in sunshine, shock horror

Despite the planning mistakes of the last half-century (severe Corb-influenced tower blocks, ugly retail developments and all those other essential ingredients that frequently make British post-war architecture so “special”) Aberdeen retains a cityscape that I believe is one of the UK’s most underrated.


The skyline of domes and spires is truly majestic, while the proportions of the wide and long main Union Street give the city centre a grandeur more befitting of a capital city. The granite buildings look like they have been carved directly from a rock face, their cut edges refusing to degenerate in the harsh elements.


Unlike most cities, many of the streets are elevated on viaducts or raised up on embankments, with steep stairs, bridges and tunnels adding to the effect of layering. Probably the best account of its architecture was given by Jonathan Meades in his recent Off Kilter series – you can watch it here>





In the gravy - tomb in St Nicholas Kirkyard


Aberdeen is home to some truly remarkable graveyards, which combined with the grey stonework, Victorian fairytale architecture and remaining medieval nobleman’s houses  give the entire city a sense of gothic gloom. The densely packed graveyards of St Machar’s Cathedral in Old Aberdeen or the city centre’s St Nicholas kirkyard are stuffed to the gills with fascinating monuments that refuse to weather with age, unlike their occupants.



The beach


Footdee



Footdee

Footdee


Away from the grandeur of the centre is the diminutive fishing village of Footdee (pronounced locally as “fitty”). The tiny cottages and huts, laid out in a grid formation, turn their backs to the city’s magnificent beach. Like the cobbled streets of old Aberdeen, or the small number of sublime Art Deco buildings, they help to reinforce Aberdeen as a city of surprises. My favourite Deco building is Rosemount Square, a curvaceous experiment in social housing which features modernist sculptures by Thomas Huxley-Jones.








We were in Aberdeen just a few days after the city council lent is approval to the controversial scheme to comprehensively redevelop the city centre’s Union Terrace Gardens. It has sparked even more debate than Donald Trump’s masterplan for a new £1bn golf resort to the north of the city.


Shadows in Union Terrace Gardens


Created in Victorian times, Union Terrace Gardens incorporate remnants of older open space known as the Corbie Haugh (corbie means crow and haugh translates as a low-lying meadow in a river valley – thanks Wikipedia!).


On a sunny day – as indeed it was last weekend – the steeply-sloping gardens are filled with shoppers and local retail and office workers enjoying the sunshine. And while there is some discussion about whether the gardens are underused there is no doubt that they are popular. Over recent years this debate about the future of Union Terrace Gardens has intensified. Two different schemes have been put forward for its redevelopment, although I’m sure there are many in the city who question why any change is required at all.


The first, more modest, £13.5 million scheme was promoted by Peacock Visual Arts to create a centre for contemporary arts in Aberdeen. The relatively modest building would have been sensitively set into the existing slopes of Union Terrace Gardens and contain a gallery, TV studio, print studio and offices. It was designed by London-based architect Brisac Gonzalez and largely retained much of the Gardens’ existing landscaping.


This scheme had received full planning permission and secured much of its funding, and had been due to begin construction last November. However, plans were derailed when an alternative proposal was forwarded by Sir Ian Wood. Who he? Sir Ian is chairman of Wood Group, a large engineering firm with its roots in the North Sea oil industry.


This second plan would eradicate the existing sloping gardens, replacing them with a level paved piazza. It would cost £140 million, of which Sir Ian has donated £50 million. It was this scheme that last week secured the backing of the City Council. It was a decision made in the face of a groundswell of public opinion against the scheme – even Annie Lennox lent her support to the campaign against it.


There has been a lot of confusion about what this scheme even involves – much talk of car parks, a new shopping centre and so on – but as it stands the project includes a large underground space which doesn’t yet have an intended role and might even end up as a cultural attraction. Or shops. Or a car park. How strange to be spending so much money and not knowing what’s going to happen inside!


While I can understand the idea of creating a large single public space, connecting the cultural attractions along one side – theatre, art gallery, library – with the retail offerings on Union Street, it’s not as if Aberdeen doesn’t already have some great public spaces, including the criminally underused Castlegate.


Despite all these rumblings, Aberdeen remains a fantastic place to visit. Even if only to witness the Hogarth-style scenes of drunken revellers filling Belmont Street in the wee hours.

Postcards from the edge: Seaside images

I've finally got around to uploading a selection of images taken at various English seaside resorts over the last two years. Many were taken as part of my case study work for the Sea Change regeneration programme, operated by CABE.

I am particularly interested in the many social and economic problems that face most of our seaside resorts.  There are high levels of poverty - among the country's highest - tempered by the bright lights and thumping disco music of amusement arcades and fairgrounds. The seaside is not just the domain of holidaymakers and daytrippers, but for the elderly and deprived. Most seaside resorts record above-average levels of unemployment, crime, drug use, prostitution and illiteracy.

Our coastline represents the end of the line. A place of flotsam and jetsam. The seaside is a place of contrasts, where old exists alongside new, smut with children's entertainment, gaiety with despair.

But most of all, I love the English seaside (or more generally, the British seaside). I was a staycationer before the name was invented. I love the signs, smells, sand and lots of other things beginning with S. I have many early memories of the coast, with family holidays spent in a variety of caravans towed behind a gleaming Ford Corsair. Perhaps it's because I come from the dead centre of England, but nothing fascinates quite like the sea.

Photos from the sublime Isle of Wight: From Rock'n'Roll to rolling rocks

A long weekend at one of my favourite UK spots, Ventnor in the Isle of Wight. I get there usually at least once a year, and despite the small size of the island there is always lots to see. The endless variety in the landscape makes it a fantastic place to go walking, and we managed to complete three very contrasting walks in different parts of the island. 

This is a long blog, so I've broken it down into various subsections. Scroll down until you find something you like.

It's only Rock'n'Roll but I like it



As with all seaside places, there is much to amuse the eye. My favourite from this trip is this memorial to Elvis Presley, perched atop a steep cliff in Shanklin. Perhaps it wasn't the burgers that finished him off after all, but walking too close to the edge while on a week's holiday to the island? But conspiracy theorists may be interested to learn that I'm sure I saw him working at Chubby's Chunky Chip Shop in Shanklin.



I also loved this improvised curtain in Ventnor. Kittens rule!

Sublime time

With its steep slopes, unstable cliffs, hairpin bends, vertiginous chines and dramatic landslip, Ventnor is a great example of a sublime landscape (one of the few in southern England) and the Victorians built in a style that only serves to reinforce this sense of awe-inspiring grandeur and terrible beauty.

At Rylstone Gardens (location of the aforementioned Elvis plaque) is a fantastic Swiss-style chalet, while Ventnor boasts such evocative street names as "Alpine" and "Zig Zag" roads. You get a sense that the Victorians wanted nothing more than to imagine Southern Wight as an outpost of Switzerland or Austria. Buildings in the alpine and gothic style add to the feeling of gloomy majesty, which I imagine found great favour with Queen Victoria and other luminaries such as Dickens, Tennyson and Turner. There's a very exotic painting of Blackgang Chine by Peter De Wint, held by the V&A, that shows  a mass of rocks, trees and other debris sliding into the sea.



At Wheeler's Bay, where the Knit Nurse and I were staying, the unstable cliffs are guarded by concrete, and plenty of it. Among the defence measures are these strangely shaped blocks, which help to dissipate the strength of the waves.



Further west, towards the glorious Freshwater Bay, the countryside is slipping into the sea with indecent haste. Part of the coastal military road is down to one lane after recent falls (on 23 February a landslide brought the cliff virtually to the road's edge, making the journey slightly terrifying) while at a National Trust car park, many of the parking spaces have already been claimed by the sea.

Flower power






Although spring is late this year - no bluebells yet to be seen - the hedgerows were still crammed to bursting with flowers, made all the more bright and hyper-real in the sunshine.

The winter of our discontent



Finally, a plea for something to be done about the wonderful Winter Gardens in Ventnor. Overlooking the suitably sublime Cascade, the Winter Gardens were built in 1935, modelled on Bexhill's ultramodern De La Warr Pavilion. I need to seek out Pevsner to discover who the architect was to this building, which features a glazed stair tower. But as you can see from this archive photo, many of the windows have been blocked over the years and alterations have left it a shadow of its former self.


Postcard image taken from www.postcards.shalfleet.net

It's still a great place for a pint (real ales nonetheless) while overlooking the sea, but you do get a strong sense that the Winter Gardens could be an incredible asset for Ventnor, perhaps as a venue for contemporary art and performance. Somebody do something!