Lockdown Diptych / V

• Left: Matisse / 'Nuit de Noel, 1952', Amsterdam.
• Right: Tudeley Church / E Window, by Chagall, Kent. 

(CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Broadgate Tower

[from the archives of 2011]

Architects: SOM, completed 2009. Sleek, 164m high, steel twin-core skyscraper with 33 floors. It has a BREEAM "excellent" environmental rating. Located just north of Liverpool Street station, but (for an interesting contrast of old and new) photographed from Fleur De Lys street in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

©2011 All Rights Reserved

QEH / Southbank

Architects: Norman Engleback et al. LCC/GLC Department of Architecture, 1967. The South Bank Centre has announced that it is at risk of closure until April 2021, due to the pandemic. At least one right-wing publication has recently called for its privatisation, a troubling sign of the times in the UK. London Borough of Lambeth. 

Sources (from top-left clockwise)... 

• The Hayward / wall detail 
• QEH / from National Theatre 
• QEH / Entrance 
• QEH / Door detail 

(CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Hoxton Community Gardens - clock tower

[from the archives of 2011]

Just off Hoxton Street are gardens run by The Hoxton Trust, home to this folly-like clock tower. The cupola is said to have come from the old Homerton Hospital, so may be mid-19th century. London Borough of Hackney. 

©2011 All Rights Reserved

Pitfield Street, south

[from the archives of 2011]

Bookartbookshop which specialises in artists' books and The Cottage Café. Hoxton, London Borough of Hackney.

©2011 All Rights Reserved

Friends' Bridge

[from the archives of 2011]

Designed by Whitby & Bird (WhitbyBird) working with the Art of Change, 1998. 40m total length, arch span 34m, cost GBP200,000. Hackney Main Marsh, over the river Lea. London Borough of Hackney. 

©2011 All Rights Reserved

Flag fence

[from the archives of 2011]

Hackney Wick, London Borough of Hackney. 

©2011 All Rights Reserved

Idea Store, Chrisp Street

[from the archives of 2011]

Architects: Adjaye Associates, 2004. Intended to create a warm and inviting interior through the use of coloured glass panels and timber. Received an RIBA Building Award in 2005 and was a forerunner to the Whitechapel Idea Store. The sculpture in foreground looks like giant nails have been hammered into the pavement; sculptor currently unknown by me, installed 1989. London Borough of Tower Hamlets. 

©2011 All Rights Reserved

Mountsfield Park Gates

[from the archives of 2011]

Sculptor: Heather Burrell, 2004. Based on a sycamore spinner motif, but also intended to suggest butterflies. I guess the material is black-painted steel. London Borough of Lewisham. 

Detail

Shadow
All pics ©2011 All Rights Reserved.

Serpentine Pavilions / 2010-19

This year's pavilion by Counterspace Studio has been postponed until 2021 due to the pandemic. Here is a photo collage of the previous 10 years' pop-up pavilions at the Serpentine Gallery, City of Westminster, London.

2019 — Junya Ishigami from Japan. 
2018 — Frida Escobedo from Mexico. 
2017 — Francis Kéré from Burkina Faso. 
2016 — Bjarke Ingels from Denmark. 
2015 — José Selgas and Lucía Cano from Spain. 
2014 — Smiljan Radić from Chile. 
2013 — Sou Fujimoto from Japan. 
2012 — Herzog & de Meuron from Switzerland and Ai Weiwei from China.
2011 — Peter Zumthor from Switzerland. 
2010 — Jean Nouvel from France. 

(CC BY-SA - credit: Images George Rex.)

Link bridge colonnade, West Ham station

[from the archives of 2011]

Part of a concrete and glass-block pedestrian bridge linking station platforms. Architects: van Heyningen and Haward, 1999. The designers made reference to the earlier (1930s) tube-station work of Charles Holden. London Borough of Newham. 

©2011 All Rights Reserved

Parish Watch House

[from the archives of 2011]

Built 1826 at the southwest corner of St Matthew's churchyard, for watchmen who guarded the graveyard against body-snatchers. Since 1792 a person had been paid 10s 6d per week to be on armed guard. The market for cadavers was created by the local medical schools. The building is Grade II listed. Bethnal Green, London Borough Tower Hamlets.

©2011 All Rights Reserved

Hoxton Railway Station

[from the archives of 2011]

Stainless steel meets brick at this overground station opened in June 2010. Architects: Weston Williamson. Received a commendation at the Hackney Design Awards 2010. London Borough of Hackney. 

©2011 All Rights Reserved

Grove Passage, E2

[from the archives of 2011]

London Borough of Tower Hamlets

 ©2011 All Rights Reserved

Container City

[from the archives of 2011]

Here is London's Container City, where old shipping containers have been recycled into artists' studios and offices — developed by architects Nicholas Lacey and Partners along with Urban Space Management at Trinity Buoy Wharf, London Borough of Tower Hamlets. 

©2011 All Rights Reserved

Lockdown Diptych / IV

Left: Grundtvig's Church / Vault, Copenhagen, 2016.
Right: St Pancras Station / Rib Vault, London, 2014.

(CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Sun Chairs

[from the archives of 2011]

Chairs bask in the spring sun at an Italian restaurant — located in Broadway Market, London Borough of Hackney.

©2011 All Rights Reserved

Barking Central

[from the archives of 2011]

Private residential development designed by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, built by Redrow, around a pleasant "aboretum" forming part of a street design by Muf. A new library/learning centre is also incorporated. Completed 2010. Too many awards to list! London Borough of Barking and Dagenham.

©2011 All Rights Reserved

GMV, Kilby Court

[from the archives of 2011]

Architects: Proctor and Matthews, completed 2004 as part of Phase 2. Civic Trust Award 2004, World Wildlife Fund/House Builders Federation Sustainable New Homes Award 2004. View shows corner of Child Lane and Greenroof Way, Greenwich Millennium Village, London Borough of Greenwich. 

©2011 All Rights Reserved

GMV, Da Vinci Lodge

[from the archives of 2011]

Part of the uniontwo development of the Greenwich Millennium Village completed 2010. GMV is London's largest regeneration project. Seen across Swan Lake from the Ecology Centre trail. Architects: Ralph Erskine (1914-2005)/ Hurley Robertson & Associates. London Borough of Greenwich.

©2011 All Rights Reserved

Barking Central: Bath House balconies

[from the archives of 2011]

Bright coloured steel balconies cantilever out of brown brickwork at the Bath House elevation overlooking Arboretum Place. Architects: Allford Hall Monaghan Morris; builders: Redrow; street architecture by Muf. London Borough of Barking & Dagenham. 

©2011 All Rights Reserved.

Lockdown Diptych / III

Left: Door Pair / Bloemgracht, Amsterdam, 2016.
Right: San Rocco, Venice, 2004.

(CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Methodist Church, Leytonstone High Road

[from the archives of 2011]

Attractive brick-built church in the modern style, architect not known, completed 1972. London Borough of Waltham Forest. 

©2011 All Rights Reserved

Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, interior

[from the archives of 2011]

(Photo by permission of Laban). Spiral staircase of black-painted concrete. Winner of the Stirling Architecture Prize 2003, designed by architects Herzog & de Meuron. Deptford, London Borough of Lewisham. 

©2011 All Rights Reserved

Pavilion, Ferranti Park

[from the archives of 2011]

Ferranti Park was established in 2005 on the site of a disused road-salt depot, opposite the Laban Centre for Dance. The design team included this beautiful open pavilion to provide a space for outdoor performances or a covered meeting point for residents. The park won an award from Local Government News. London Borough of Lewisham.

©2011 All Rights Reserved

Brighton Aquarium wall panels

[from the archives of 2010]

Showing 2 of a total of 14 panels illustrating imaginary underwater scenes. Inset into the arches of the south wall of Brighton Aquarium, or Sea Life Brighton as it now appears to be called.

[All Rights Reserved]

Battersea Power Station

[from the archives of 2009]

Designed by Leonard Pearce & Giles Gilbert Scott. Built in 1930s and 1950s — the largest brick-built structure in Europe — this coal-fired generating station closed in 1983.

[All Rights Reserved]

Laban

[from the archives of 2010]

The Laban Centre for Dance, winner of the Stirling Architecture Prize 2003, by architects Herzog & de Meuron. Translucent polycarbonate cladding in lime, turquoise and magenta with a reflecting reception area. Looked rather like a mirage to me, and doubtless it's an inspiring building for the dance students — at night, light is transmitted out like a lantern. Inside includes a 300-seat theatre and there are also landscaped grounds for outdoor rehearsal and performance. Deptford, London Borough of Lewisham.

[All Rights Reserved]

Lockdown Diptych / II

Left: River Reflections, II, river Wandle, Merton, 2010.
Right: Chain Links, Southwark, 2010. 

(CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

St Mary's Church, Wimbledon

[from the archives of 2010]

Viewed from west. Original church mentioned in Domesday. Subsequent Georgian building extended and re-clad by architects Scott & Moffat in the mid C19. Grade II listed. London Borough of Merton.

[All Rights Reserved]

7 More London Riverside

[from the archives of 2010]

Architects: Foster + Partners, completed 2010. Beautiful new office block in the More London development. The dark-neutral glass curtain from Interpane Glas Industrie AG is part of a strategy to make this the third building in the UK, and the first offices in England, to achieve the BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ award for environmental performance.10 floors, 44m high and 60,884m² in the London Borough of Southwark.

©2010 All Rights Reserved.

Rolling Bridge, rolled-up

[from the archives of 2011]

Thomas Heatherwick's Rolling Bridge and Marcus Taylor's Helix Bridge are actually sculptures based on a bridge theme; neither is a serious working bridge, but both are a lot of fun!

©2011 All Rights Reserved