St Pancras

A week before we disappeared off on 'holiday', Mark travelled through London and had to wait on St Pancras station for a couple of hours. He spent the time experimenting with my Dad's old camera, trying to find some interesting compositions. He offered them for the blog and I was very happy to dedicate a post to his shots.

The curved sweep of the station frontage. There is so much detail in the architecture of this building!

Since becoming the International terminus for the Channel Tunnel trains, St Pancras has had something of a restoration and revamp. I love the arched roof. It lets in so much light.

The Olympic Rings are here in anticipation of the big event next summer.

Because it is now such a busy terminus, St Pancras has also sprouted a plethora of shops to entice the traveller to part from his hard earned money.



Statues represent the theme of the traveller. One wonders where this smart gentleman may be going...

...or how long it will be before this loving couple are reunited.

The plaque caught Mark's attention because of the named location. Butterley, in our home county of Derbyshire, is now the home to the Midland Railway Centre.

I hope you enjoyed Mark's collection. I must encourage him to offer more photos for future posts.

Canary Wharf by night

I love the steam venting from the pyramid.

Penny for your thoughts

At the foot of Cubitt Steps, just south of Cabot Square, a pair of men are sitting on a bench.

One is gazing out over the West India Docks towards Heron's Quay

...while the other gazes, hollow eyed, towards the Square.

As I watch them musing, I wonder what they are thinking.   

Are they considering all of the changes which this place has seen since the years it was the busy Port of London, with ships bringing in cargo from all over the globe?    

Or, maybe their thoughts are more personal; family, home, work (though ageless, their smooth skin suggests they are young enough for active employment). Perhaps they have been hit by the cuts and no longer have jobs to go to; no money, many cares.

Perhaps someone they know is in trouble or difficulty. With their hunched shoulders and stony expressions, they hold an air of sadness.

I wish I could know! Wish I could ask!

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Sculptor: Giles Penny. 1990

To read other p-p-p-p-posts, potter over to Jenny Matlock's Alphabe-Thursday and join in the fun.

Docklands

My brother in law works in the field of valuing, buying and selling land and property. During the years of the Docklands redevelopment, the firm in which he is employed was involved in a lot of multi-million pound land deals; some of which were John's responsibility! If it were me, I don't think I'd sleep at night.

This was one of his deals. The land on which this building now stands sold for over £40,000,000! I can't quite get my head round numbers that big.

The original London docks were built throughout the 19th century to cope with the fast growing demand for space, partly from overseas trade, but also from coastal trade; particularly of coal, needed to heat the houses of the fast growing population of the city. Rival companies competed for the trade; notably the West and East India Dock Companies, Surrey Commercial Docks Company and St Katharine Docks Company. If we could have stood on Tower Bridge around 1790, we would have seen hundreds of ships and thousands of tons of cargo moving up and down the river on a daily basis.

This particular body of water is the West India Docks.

This is what the area looked like in 1962; West India Docks from the air, showing the warehouses and rail network. If you look carefully, you can see the cranes unloading the docked ships.

http://www.superstock.com/stock-photos-images/1895-42952

Some of the cranes have been preserved as a kind of artistic memorial to the history of the area. Now they stand juxtaposed with the new commercial structures, and somewhat dwarfed by them!

DLR

Over New Year, we stayed with family in London. A good time was had, including a day around Greenwich and Docklands, during which, we travelled on this.

The Docklands Light Railway is an automated light railway system, opened in 1987 to service the Docklands area of East London. This whole Port of London area fell into decline when goods began to be transported in container ships. Being a river port, London was not suited to the continuous passage of such huge ships and a new container dockyard opened at Tilbury in Essex.  

Very quickly, strategies were mooted to redevelop the area and this light railway system was an integral part of bringing life back into the former port. 

To begin, there were two lines, from Island Gardens to Stratford (close to the Olympic sites for the 2012 games) and to Tower Gateway, near to Tower Bridge.

Since then, extensions have been built to Bank (in the heart of the city), under the Thames to Greenwich (our first destination) and out to London City Airport. Some of this development has required the railway to go underground.

On 9th February 1996, an Irish Republican Army bomb was detonated under a bridge close to the DLR South Quay Station. The bomb killed two people, injured thirty nine others and caused £85 million worth of damage. It was a tragic event in the history of the area.

I can't remember how long after this it was that myself, my husband and our then young sons travelled on the DLR, but soon enough that the normally fully automated system needed a little bit of help. We had boarded at Stratford and installed ourselves in the very front seats of the very front carriage. At one stop we found ourselves being joined by an apologetic DLR employee, who explained that, due to the continuing danger of debris falling onto the line, the train needed a 'driver' to start it from each station over the next section of the line. We moved the boys onto knees to make room. 

At the very next stop, Mark was rewarded by being invited to press the button to start off the train and at the station after that, it was Ben's turn. At age 4 and 2 respectively, it was quite a thrill. They have always liked trains!

This time around, our final stop was at Canary Wharf. I loved the station roof!

...through which you can just make out the tower.

Calling "Time" on Christmas 2

Moving from Sheffield to East London, this is the roofspace of the Greenwich Indoor Market.

The market itself was disappointing on this occasion though, with only around half the usual number of stalls. I guess most traders were taking a break after the Christmas rush.

A short ride away is Canary Wharf, with its indoor shopping centre, featuring a bauble cluster theme on both ceilings and tree.

Outside, in Cabot Square, the trees around the fountains were lit up, overshadowed by the towering office blocks...

and at the end of the Wren Landing footbridge, the dockside railings were covered in brightly lit snowflakes.

I'm appreciating your comments from yesterday :)

Any likes or dislikes from today?

London Thames part 1 Greenwich to Tower Bridge

When we visit London, one of our favourite journeys is along the Thames on a cruiser. Combined with an hour or so in Greenwich Indoor Market and a stroll along the South Bank, it's the kind of day which gives a buzz. 

Greenwich is probably most famous for the zero meridian; the line from which all time zones are measured, but it is also home to the National Maritime Museum, the Observatory, the Cutty Sark (currently undergoing restoration after a fire), a foot tunnel under the Thames and the Royal Naval College (pictured).

Interestingly, the domes on here were designed by Christopher Wren and were his practices for the dome of St Paul's Cathedral.

Journeying upstream towards London centre, we pass Canary Wharf, the tallest building in the capital.

These Lego-brick looking apartments are part of the massive Docklands development which has transformed this part of East London from a rough docks to a prestigious residential area, complete with huge price tag. This particular building was designed to give every apartment a river view, because an apartment with a view of the Thames will sell for around a quarter of a million pounds more than one without.

Moving on, the Captain Kidd pub is named after the famous pirate who was hanged just up the river at Execution Dock in 1701, convicted of murder and piracy. On the first attempt, the hangman's rope snapped, so they took him down and tried again, after which, they doused his body in tar and left it to rot, suspended in a cage over the Thames as a warning to others.

It was thanks to pirates like Kidd that London was the first city in the world to have a dedicated river police service. Their headquarters is still here in Wapping.

Passing under Tower Bridge, City Hall becomes visible. The home of the office of the Mayor of London, it stands 45m tall, with 10 floors and is described as 'A glass globe that's as green as possible', running on 1/4 of the energy consumption of an equivalent high spec office building.

And looking back, there is the unmistakable shape of Tower Bridge itself.

Tomorrow, I'll journey on to Westminster, but for now you might like to take a look at Alphabe-Thursday to see what else in on the L menu.

Spot the rainbow

Do you see it?

Look closer...

There's an extravaganza of rainbows at Jenny's!

U is for undecided

I need some help. I have a laptop which I use in the classroom and I want to choose a background a little more interesting than the standard windows screen.

I definitely don't want to use a photo of the school or the school logo, because we see those all of the time. I want something a little removed from everyday life in school.

What do you think? This one...

...of Tower Bridge in London ? It's relevant because we did a topic on cities earlier in the year, though they might be thinking that we've moved on from there.

This one...

...of the harbour in Pwllheli, North Wales? Quite a few of the children holiday in Wales; plus it's a busy picture and they would like the seagull on the yellow post!

Or, this one...

...because quite a few children have connections to farms or farming families (and besides, most children like animals)?

I'd appreciate knowing what you think.

If you would like to see more U posts on Alphabe-Thursday, click this link.

S is for silhouette

I love to see objects silhouetted against the evening sky, whether they be natural objects or man made. The sky has such a rich range of colour and tone that even a total non artist like me can appeciate it.

Last Christmas, we went down to our London family and the boys' aunt and uncle took them to a Go Kart track for their present. They had a great time racing, finishing just as it was beginning to go dark. As we walked back to the car, I took these photos.

Even in the East End of London, surrounded by busy roads, railway arches and multi-storey housing, it is possible to find such beauty!

For more Alphabe-Thursday offerings, visit Jenny Matlock here.