A Centrepoint View of London

27 June 2006. Once again I was in London for work and it was one of several visits to the Centrepoint building. The Association of Colleges (AoC) was based there, as was the National Information and Learning Technologies Association (NILTA) and The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE).

It afforded some wonderful surrounding views of London. Senate House was the flagship building and administrative centre of the University of London. King George V laid the foundations stone in 1933 and it opened three years later, a huge Art Deco edifice that somehow managed to disappoint both the traditionalists and modernists. It was, at the time, the home of JISC Regional Support Centre for London. It was such an iconic building that it features in some big box office films such as Nineteen Eight-Four, Batman Begins, The Dark Kight Rises, Nanny McPhee and The Big Bang and No Time to Die. This is not a full list...

The sinuous curves of the roof of the British Museum was quite new at this time and this was the first time I had been able to get a glimpse of the external view.

Looking downriver towards Tower Bridge and HMS Belfast.

Looking west along Oxford Street. The Post Office Tower (or was it the BT Tower by then?) dominates the skyline and the green swathe of Hyde Park is clearly seen.

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Miss Franny's Fabulous Fridge Magnets

The last time I showed some of Miss Franny's fridge magnet collection was way back in July. This time I show some of the UK places commemorated on the bits of plastic that disguise our fridge.

This one covers the entire county of Somerset and was bought this year when we spent a long weekend with friends near Wells.

Whilst I'm not going to put up photos of every place mentioned on it - actually there are some places we haven't been yet on it - I'll cover the top right and the one below it. We've been to Cheddar lots of times taking photos of the same unchanging scene every time. The thing that changes is the style of cars in the car parks, so... guess the year!

Weston-Super-Mare was a regular holiday destination place during my early teens. We first went in 1967 but it's a while since we stayed there. I think the last time I visited was in June 2004 whilst on the road for work and whilst it was a June evening, it was cold and dull so that I remember the weather more than the town.

This one is for a very specific place. The British Museum in London is a fascinating place to wander round and anyone with an interest in history and cultures will find time going very fast indeed when you are in there.

I remember it with the open courtyard, but for quite a while now it has been roofed with glass. This looks even more spectacular from outside provided you can view it from a vantage point such as the 17th floor of the Centre Point building.

The King Arthur magnet could have come from any corner of England, or from the centre of it. So many places claim to be the site of his birth, his battles, his city of Camelot...

I even wrote my own version a few years ago which is available for Kindle e-readers.

The fridge magnet came from Tintagel in Cornwall, where the famous castle remains are a few hundred years after the historical Arthur was supposed to have lived. Tintagel features in my book as the home of Merlin.

A 3D sculpted fridge magnet from the Prince Regent's opulent and exotic Royal Pavilion at Brighton. A real mix of styles it comes across as an Indian palace from outside and a Chinese one inside. Well worth a visit.

My photo was taken one night whilst I was travelling for work and due to run a workshop at Brighton University the following morning.

The Polperro fridge magnet shows the entire county of Cornwall and therefore makes finding Polperro quite hard unless you already know where it is!

It's one of my favourite places in the whole of England and despite the fact that it seldom changes, my camera always gets a thorough work-out when I'm there!

A look at foreign parts in the next article about Miss Franny's Fabulous Fridge Magnets!

A Morning at the British Museum

Sunday 15th January 2012. We had to set off for home around lunch time so there wasn't a great deal of time to go wandering.

We decided on a walk down to the British Museum and the Egyptian Galleries in particular.

There are some massive bits of stone in here, though dwarfed by those you can see on a visit to the Aswan Dam I suspect. I've not done that yet though...

Once up on the top floor amongst the mummies (but no daddies...) we found that not all Egyptian statues are on a massive scale. These are grave goods, presumably there to perform tasks for the departed such as dressing and doing their hair etc. You can just imagine them saying, "Can you bend down a bit? A bit more...?"

The Roman mosaic flooring was displayed on the walls of the staircase. As we were climbing two floors both with rather high ceilings these gave an excuse for a welcome breather on the way up! I'm wondering whether to have Burke Towers done with something like this - I'm sure it would last longer than a carpet...!

And that's this little trip to London dealt with. As a group we are currently planning something a little more ambitious for our next trip together. Stay tuned!

Large versions of the photos: Egyptian Gallery, little sculptures, mosaic

BBC - A History of the World

I watched A History of the World on BBC2 tonight. They are trying to tell the history of man on Earth by telling the stories of 100 historical items.

The project is due to last the entire year and involves not only TV but a Radio 4 programme. The TV programme tonight showed several quite well known artifacts from the British Museum and a number of less well known objects from museums around the British Isles.

The public are being encouraged to take part and it is possible to upload photos and stories of personal items. The badge above is a link to the BBC web site so you can read their greater detail about the project.

It did stir my imagination a bit. I could write about items that are or have been in my possession or my family's possession. I could write about things I have seen on travels around my home, around Britain or around the bits of the world I been to. I could write about things that have interested me, but which I haven't seen, either because they no longer exist or because I've just not got to them yet.

Or I could do all three. If I reach 100 of each then I have potentially 300 blog posts - or 100 blog posts featuring one of each of my three types!

I recommend the idea to the house. But I need to think about it rather than just rush at it randomly. So... coming to a blog near you soon...

A Weekend in London

From Shrewsbury I drove into central London where we would spend the weekend. Fran was already in the hotel, having struggled with late trains due to the horrendous weather that was spreading over Scotland and the Lake District.

Gill and Eddie had been down to Disneyland Paris for a couple of days and we met them at St Pancras station off the Eurostar train.

On Saturday we spent the morning in the British Museum.

I was keen to see the Elgin Marbles, having been to see the Parthenon in Athens earlier in the year. The row of sculptures here come from one of the great triangular pediments.

You can see here a copy of the horse's head in situ - it was coming out of the sea, pulling a chariot that is still beneath the waves. The next figure is Dionysus and to reconstruct any further figures the Greeks are shaping stone to reconstruct the pediment itself.

Lord Elgin had permission from the Turkish Ottomans to remove sculptures and he took around half of them. It has been much criticised since and the Greeks want them back and certainly the Parthenon would look much better with the sculptures in place. Set against this however is the fact that, at the time, it was reported that any marble that fell from the Parthenon, ancient sculpture or not, was being burned to produce lime for fresh building work. So if he had not taken the sculptures we can assume that some at least would not exist today.

Then we had a look at the Egyptian galleries with their mummified figures and sarcophagi. It's a bit spooky really. These are real dead people. Britain doesn't do death well - we are not allowed to look on death. When it happens in public the police immediately seal off areas, close roads, erect screens and keep us away. Even if it's a poor Celtic serf whose bones have been dug up after 1600 years.

And lastly, the magnificent bronze ceremonial Roman helmet, found at Ribchester in Lancashire where the Romans had a cavalry fort, Bremetennacum Veteranorum.

After lunch Eddie went off to watch Blackpool play Reading and we, inevitably, hit the West End shops. We met up again and enjoyed an excellent meal at The Mermaid's Tail on Leicester Square. And then somehow I pulled the muscle in the back of my leg as we were heading back to the hotel and by the time we got there I was in agony. Fran also had a massive bruise by the time we got there because as we walked (or hobbled in my case) through Russell Square Gardens I trod on a fallen branch, the other end of which whipped up and dug into her ankle.

But we soldiered on gamely and walked down to Covent Garden on Sunday morning where Eddie and I had a look round the London Transport Museum whilst the ladies indulged in yet more shopping!