The Fridays London Ride - Windows and Death - 29th December

[ianmac62]

Will there be handouts and a test in the pub afterwards?

I shall have a hand-out about Lenin and Stalin in London when we pause outside the Marx Memorial Library. Now where did I leave the Banda machine?

 

[slowmotion]

It's above Boots on the corner of Gracechurch and Fenchurch.

Crikey! Do you work for George Smiley?

 

[PaulRide]

Lutyens was a stylist, a bit of a flibbertygibbet. We'll pass his Page Street estate which is like nothing else on earth.

I had no idea that Page Street was by him - I'd meant to look it up after walking past on my way to a meeting of the executive committee of the Conference of Solicitors for Catholic Charities (now there's over-specialisation for you!) and being startled by it.
Anyway, for your delectation, I present the building in its pre-Lutyens state in 1906.

 

[dellzeqq]

A will'o the wisp? A clown?

I haven't the foggiest who designed my workplace (which I think you will also go past) - it's vacuous from the outside but rather nice to work in. It's above Boots on the corner of Gracechurch and Fenchurch.

too late for my copy of Pevsner. Perhaps it's time to get a new one.....

 

[dellzeqq]

I shall have a hand-out about Lenin and Stalin in London when we pause outside the Marx Memorial Library. Now where did I leave the Banda machine?

Banda machine! I can almost smell the spirit!

We had a Gestetner. Happy days!

 

[dellzeqq]

Will there be handouts and a test in the pub afterwards?

I hadn't thought of that, but, thankyou - I'm on it, and your fellow Fridays members will be forever grateful.

which is the oldest? (and Wikipedia has it half wrong)
and which is the one with the revolutionary structure?

 

[mmmmartin]

i think the revolutionary structure is the square one on the right, which, if I recall correctly, consists of girders with things hanging off them, and when the IRA bombed the nearby NatWest tower, the building in the photograph simply shuddered a bit (as, in fact, did we all) and nothing happened. The Lloyds building, with all the facilities stuff on the outside, was very much poo-pooed by Mr DZ as a silly idea on the ride last year. Rightly so, in my opinion.

On a side-note, it is interesting to see that while the Gherkin becomes narrower as it rises, from my office I can see a building going up that becomes wider as it rises. I'd be interested to hear the logic used in the design of the one, and also the logic used in the design of the other.

 

[srw]

I hadn't thought of that, but, thankyou - I'm on it, and your fellow Fridays members will be forever grateful.

which is the oldest? (and Wikipedia has it half wrong)
and which is the one with the revolutionary structure?

It's the Aviva building, isn't it, by a year or two over the Lloyds building. The church at bottom left is not only a modern reconstruction after the IRA bomb, it's also home to one of the less wholesome and more outré evangelical congregations in the Church of England. Isn't someone senior in one of hte oil companies on the non-stipendiary staff there? On the other hand, just next door to the Aviva building is St Katharine Cree, which IIRC is pre-great fire, and so one of the oldest buildings in the City.

I think that the Aviva building is revolutionary because it hangs from the top, like the next-door tower which has recently been demolished. On the other hand the Gherkin is revolutionary because it's got passive air-conditioning, and the Lloyds building is revolutionary because it's built inside out. And the church is revolutionary because it preaches love, peace and tolerance.*

And the walkie-talkie is built the way it is (I gather) because office space is more expensive the higher up you go. We can also see it from the top of our building.

*This may not be true of that particular church.

 

[dellzeqq]

srw goes to the top of the class! He's going to be a hard man to beat!

As Martin says, the structure of the Aviva building (formerly the CU tower) saved it when the bomb went off.

 

[srw]

It helps that I (a) am interested in architecture and the built environment (b) am a sink for useless knowledge and (c) worked across the road in Leadenhall Street for nearly 10 years. My office was shaken daily for 18 months by the demolition of the old Lloyds Lime Street building and the construction of the new Willis tower. I gather there are now plans for yet another tower in the space that office now inhabits.

 

[dellzeqq]

A friend of Tim H
Adam B
Adrian C
Alice L
Andrew B
Anne H
Cate R
Charlie B
Charlotte B
Chris B
Chris By
Clive B
David M
Davy S
Diana
Eddie C
Els V
Gail G
Geraldine M
Grace W
Grahame D
Helen B
Ian At
Ian McS
Ian S
Jenny M
Jocelyn C S
John B
John G
Julia B
Julian N
Julie G
Katharina S
Liz Bt with John B
Louise M
Marilyn B
Mark G
Mark P
Martin B
Martin S
Martin T
Martin W
Mick D
Miranda S
Moses A
Mrs D who may have a first name
Mrs R who may have a first name
Olaf S
Pamela W
Paul R
Paul Rb
Peter L
Philip K
Rebecca O-B
Ronald R
Ross C
Ruth L
Sandra S
Sig E
Simon B
Sonia W
Stephen O
Stephen T
Steve W
Stuart A
Stuart G
Susie F
Tacey L
Tilman B (+1?)
Tim H
Titus H
Tom B
Xi C

not to mention Dan, Iain, Peter and Abbe

 

[Andrij]

A will'o the wisp? A clown?

I haven't the foggiest who designed my workplace (which I think you will also go past) - it's vacuous from the outside but rather nice to work in. It's above Boots on the corner of Gracechurch and Fenchurch.

Howdy, neighbour. (I work veeerrrryy close to that corner).

 

[subaqua]

srw goes to the top of the class! He's going to be a hard man to beat!

As Martin says, the structure of the Aviva building (formerly the CU tower) saved it when the bomb went off.

Who were the builders of each then. not structural engineers but actual builders.

The Gherkin was Skanska UK . and the aircraft light was fitted by one of the sparks who used to work for me who goes by the nickname of "Zippy"

 

[srw]

Howdy, neighbour. (I work veeerrrryy close to that corner).

Another denizen of insuranceland?

Ask mmmmartin which address I sent him to when he kindly agreed to sell me a couple of Fridays' jerseys and deliver them to my office in person.

 

[srw]

You really don't want to have to read it again

I discover that I was even right about St Katharine Cree - both its date (1504 and 1631) and its odd spelling of "Katharine". I worry about myself sometimes.