in praise of ordinary things (a thread about streets and buildings)

[BluesDave]

it's delightful. Whereabouts in Colliers Wood is it?

I can't actually remember. I must have taken the photo over a year ago.

 

[ColinJ]

I like looking at the pictures folks, but could you please keep the sizes down to something sensible? (That fit the browser page not a virtual monitor about the size of your wall!) It's bad enough loading them on a fast broadband link and viewing them on a widescreen monitor, but they must be a nightmare on smartphones?

I don't know what is happening to the image posting system, but some don't seem to work. I've had problems too.

 

[srw]

Up-to-date house design in 1938. Built so that junior clerks in the city could live in the country.

Up-to-date house design in 1929. In many ways far more practical (though actually these were pretty cheaply built). I wonder what suburbia would be like if this sort of design had caught on?

 

[Night Train]

On a similar 'white house' theme.
This was the last house I looked at buying in London before givng up and moving to Manchester.

Fantastic Art Deco interior but in such poor condition that I couldn't afford the renovation.

 

[Baggy]

I can't actually remember. I must have taken the photo over a year ago.

Apparently it's at Weybridge Station in Surrey, some more info on this flickr page.

 

[dellzeqq]

I like looking at the pictures folks, but could you please keep the sizes down to something sensible? (That fit the browser page not a virtual monitor about the size of your wall!) It's bad enough loading them on a fast broadband link and viewing them on a widescreen monitor, but they must be a nightmare on smartphones?

I don't know what is happening to the image posting system, but some don't seem to work. I've had problems too.

 

[dellzeqq]

Up-to-date house design in 1938. Built so that junior clerks in the city could live in the country.

Up-to-date house design in 1929. In many ways far more practical (though actually these were pretty cheaply built). I wonder what suburbia would be like if this sort of design had caught on?

SCRUMPTIOUS!

 

[BluesDave]

Apparently it's at Weybridge Station in Surrey, some more info on this flickr page.

That would clearly explain why I've never been able to find it again. I must have photgraphed it when I went to look at that job in Weybridge last summer.

 

[swee'pea99]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Chester_Town_Hall_(2).jpg

I have done a lot of work in the lofts here. the carpentry is amazing for something that would never be seen , and the stuff that can be seen is truly outstanding

Brings to mind a story in a biography of Wittgenstein by Norman Malcolm, who recalls being stopped by the great man while walking across a quad in Cambridge and made to come down to the loos and stand up on one of the seats so's to be able to inspect the cistern mechanism, which, said W, spoke of an age when craftsmen took pride in 'doing their work to perfection, for the simple reason that that was the way it ought to be done.'

 

[dellzeqq]

Brings to mind a story in a biography of Wittgenstein by Norman Malcolm, who recalls being stopped by the great man while walking across a quad in Cambridge and made to come down to the loos and stand up on one of the seats so's to be able to inspect the cistern mechanism, which, said W, spoke of an age when craftsmen took pride in 'doing their work to perfection, for the simple reason that that was the way it ought to be done.'

be careful where you go with this one. Ruskin was absolutely bonkers about craftsmanship, but not quite so bonkers about paying for it. He gave contradictory instructions to the masons working on the Oxford Museum, the masons didn't get paid, and took their revenge by turning busts of 'great men' in to parrots and monkeys. And shitting off the scaffold on to poor old Ruskers' head......so it may be that most craftspeople worked for money.

 

[ColinJ]

I must take my camera up to Cragg Vale (a village on the 'longest continuous gradient in England') to take a picture of the tiny bungalow which I spotted a few months ago built into what used to be two derelict public toilets! In fact, I'll Streetview it and see if the Google car went up there before or after the conversion. Here you go!

 

[srw]

SCRUMPTIOUS!

*looks out of window at neat row of met semis opposite*
*feels lucky*

We did look at one of the sun houses (second picture) when we moved here. It went quickly for the asking price to an architect; our met chalet bungalow (big downstairs; small upstairs - perfect for a couple without children) took a long time to sell and went for a fair chunk under the asking price. The previous owners moved to Poundbury. The first owner was a clerk, but no administrative worker could afford it now.

The whiteness of the met semis is not uniform, and not original - they're all rendered (OK - pebbledashed), and most of the owners have, over the years, painted them.

Some people have not been so respectful. I feel sorry for this house, which has had an inappopriate bit of vernacular slapped on top.

 

[srw]

Speaking of Arts and Crafts:


Watts Memorial Chapel, Compton, Surrey by Martin Beek, on Flickr

An impressive achievement by a bunch of amateurs, but the iconography is something else. I can't help thinking that the designer was the sort of person who these days would be weaving dreamcatchers and chanting over crystals - it's just that flaky mysticism was slightly more Christian 100 years ago.

 

[colly]

so it may be that most craftspeople worked for money.

Well what would you have them work for??

Wanting payment for your work and doing a good job are not mutually exclusive.

 

[2wd]

Its a derelict Railway building in Oldham and cant be knocked down due to being listed

Been subject to a few ideas over the years trying to turn it into flats but all fell through

Has a unique curved structure and was probably spectacular in its day

More pictures here http://www.urbexforums.co.uk/showthread.php/7847-Clegg-St-Railway-Goods-station-Oldham-April-2010

Plus the mills around Oldham always fascinate me how they built such structures