Tag Archives: Architecture

Canary Wharf

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Canary Wharf

London is undeniably one of the world’s most important financial centres, and although the City of London has traditionally been at the heart of London’s finance industry, Canary Wharf has today joined it as a place to come where fortunes can be made or lost at the press of a button.

It hasn’t always been like this of course. The area referred to as Canary Wharf is located on the Isle of Dogs and includes the former West India Dock, the first dock to be built in London.

Built purely to handle trade with the West Indies, it still has the same basic layout as when it was built in the early 19th century, but the name ‘Canary Wharf’ didn’t come into existence until 1937 when a warehouse was built at North Dock to handle fruit from the Canary Islands.

In 1802 the North (import) Dock was the first part of the West India Dock scheme to be built, followed 4 years later by the Middle (export) Dock. The South Dock was completed much later and was never really intended to be part of the set-up.

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Originally posted 2019-03-29 15:44:43.

The Tower of London Pt 4 – The Crown Jewels, Chapel Royal of St Peter ad Vincula and The Scaffold

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The Tower of London Pt 4 - The Crown Jewels, The Chapel Royal of St Peter ad Vincula and The Scaffold

The Crown Jewels were originally kept in Westminster Abbey, but after they were stolen in 1303 they were moved to the Tower of London. Although they were recovered, most of them didn’t survive Oliver Cromwell’s Commonwealth. After Charles I’s execution, Cromwell ordered all the treasure to be “totally broken, and that they melt down all the gold and silver, and sell the jewels to the best advantage of the Commonwealth”, and so apart from three swords and the Coronation Spoon, everything on display originates from after the restoration of the monarchy.

For a while they were kept in the Martin Tower and nearly disappeared again in 1671 after Thomas Blood made off with them but was caught before he got past Tower Wharf.

During the 19th century the Duke of Wellington was Constable of the Tower and the Waterloo Barracks were built to provide accommodation for nearly a thousand soldiers, and this is where the Crown Jewels are now kept.

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Originally posted 2019-01-21 22:54:22.

The Tower of London Pt 3 – The Medieval Palace and the Bloody Tower

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The Tower of London Pt 3 - The Medieval Palace and the Bloody Tower

When King Stephen died in 1154, King Henry II became the first of the Plantagenet Kings that were to reign until 1485.

During this medieval period, moats, curtain walls and towers were added to bolster up the defences – not to keep out invading foreign armies – but to thwart any attack from the King’s subjects. King John, Henry III and Edward II all had trouble with their Barons and in 1381 the Peasant’s Revolt tested the young Richard II.

Although the Tower was never meant to be used as a palace, there were occasions when the King of the realm found it useful to hole up here for a while.

It was King Henry III and his son Edward I who built what is now called the Medieval Palace. In fact, it’s a combination of three towers – St Thomas’s, Wakefield and Lanthorn – that make up the royal apartments.

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Originally posted 2019-01-21 15:24:12.

The Tower of London Pt 2 – The White Tower

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The Tower of London Pt 2 - The White Tower

The Keep, known as the White Tower, is the oldest part of the Tower of London and therefore seems as good a starting point as any, both for this review, and for a tour of the Tower.

After William the Conqueror’s successful invasion of England in 1066 he needed to secure its most powerful city, and by building an intimidating fortress in a strategic position next to the River Thames, there was going to be no doubt as to who was the man now in charge.

Work started on the Keep around 1078 and wasn’t completed until 1100, 13 years after William’s death.

It would have been the most formidable stronghold in the land when it was built, and was never intended to be used as a palace.

The White Tower – given its nickname after Henry III had it whitewashed – became more of a place to store arms and munitions than anything else and this is reflected in what there is to see inside.

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Originally posted 2019-01-21 09:51:06.

The Tower of London Pt 1 – Planning a Visit

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The Tower of London Pt 1 - Planning a Visit

With some 2.8 million visitors in 2017, the Tower of London is the most visited paid for attraction in the UK. It goes without saying therefore that a bit of planning before going there will help the visit go more smoothly.

Timing is always important of course, but with a steep entry price of £26.80 without donation for a full adult fare (Jan 2019), it pays to find out if you can reduce your admission costs. If, like me, you travel to London by train, then you can check out the 2for1 London offers available to passengers here https://www.daysoutguide.co.uk/tower-of-london

The offer, if it’s available, is based solely on the full price adult ticket including donation, which as of January 2019 is £29.50; in other words, a total of £29.50 for two people regardless of whether you qualify for a concession or not.

There are also reductions of 15% on the Tower of London website if you book in advance.

It may be worth considering a membership to the ‘Historic Royal Palaces’ which also covers Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace, the Banqueting House and Kew Palace (Kew Gardens are not included). The current individual cost is £52 a year for a Direct Debit membership (Jan 2019).

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Originally posted 2019-01-20 09:38:35.

County Hall and the London Eye

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County Hall and the London Eye

Next to the London Eye on the Lambeth side of Westminster Bridge is the former County Hall, which in my view, is the best-looking building along the South Bank section of the Queen’s Walk.

Work started on the colonnaded building in 1910 to house the offices of the London County Council (LCC) which was formed in 1888. Unfortunately, WWI held things up and it wasn’t finished until 1922. The adjacent north and south blocks were added in the 1930s and the whole complex is now a Grade II listed building.

1965 saw the LCC give way to the newly formed Greater London Council (GLC) which during the 1980s came into conflict with Margaret Thatcher, the incumbent conservative Prime Minister.

During this period the GLC was a Labour controlled council led by the controversial Ken Livingstone. ‘Red Ken’ as he was dubbed by the press, took the opportunity of the location of County Hall to get under the government’s skin. Situated just across the river from Parliament, the GLC raised large banners highlighting the unemployment figures for all to see.

Margaret Thatcher’s response was to add to the unemployment figures by abolishing the GLC, and Red Ken found himself looking for another job.

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Originally posted 2019-03-01 16:06:41.

London Bridge City and The Shard

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London Bridge City and The Shard

London Bridge City didn’t exist forty years ago. Actually, that not’s strictly true – it’s just that it wasn’t called that. It was probably the marketing men that came up with the name for this riverside location on the south bank of the river between London Bridge and Tower Bridge.

This must have been a developer’s dream after Hay’s Wharf closed down in 1970. London Bridge, if you remember, was the first ever river crossing to connect London from the south, and even after William the Conqueror became King of England in 1066, the former Anglo-Saxon religious centres of Canterbury and Winchester still had a strong influence on how the country was run.

Under the circumstances, it’s therefore quite understandable how this area came under the ownership of several leading religious figures who wanted to live next to the river, from where they could easily sail up to Westminster.

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Originally posted 2020-09-09 16:17:09.

Paddington Station

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Paddington Station

Travelling by train from Devon to London invariably means arriving at Paddington, and so I thought it was about time I put on my anorak and take a closer look at the history and working operations of this iconic station.

It was originally designed by the great engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel as the London terminus for his Great Western Railway (GWR) from Bristol, and although the line was opened in 1838 it wasn’t until 1854 that Brunel’s station actually came into use.

Inspired by the design of the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, and with the help of Matthew Digby Wyatt, he created a station that had four platforms protected by a glass roof. This roof had three spans and was supported by wrought iron arches and cast-iron pillars.

Although the original station has been enlarged since, principally by the adding of a fourth span, Brunel would still recognise his creation if he was to come back tomorrow.

In 1863 the station’s status as a major transport hub was given an extra boost when the Metropolitan Railway started running the world’s first underground railway between Paddington and Farringdon using a cut and cover system, and if you want to see how it was done there are some old pictures near to the Hammersmith & City (H&C) underground station.

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Originally posted 2018-04-29 16:20:05.

Marble Arch and the Tyburn Tree

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Marble Arch and the Tyburn Tree

Marble Arch lies at the junction of Oxford St, Bayswater Rd, Park Lane, and the Edgware Road, and it wouldn’t be difficult to imagine that the landmark once stood on an island in the middle of traffic mayhem. Thankfully, somebody had the sense to landscape the area around the monument to give it a bit more dignity, but it wasn’t meant to be here in the first place.

It was originally built for King George IV who inherited Buckingham Palace from his father George III in 1820. In 1827 his extravagant tastes led him to commission John Nash to add the arch as a state entrance, but within three years his own life had come to an end.

The monument was faced with Carrara marble and based on the Constantine Arch in Rome, but an equestrian statue of George IV was never added because the King’s successor, William IV, refused to stump up the rest of the cash to finish off his predecessor’s self-indulgence.

After the death of William IV in 1837 the crown passed to Queen Victoria who became the first monarch to actually live in Buckingham Palace, but she found it too small and began a programme of enlarging it. The plans included removing the arch, and in 1847 it was decided to relocate it to Hyde Park.

The transfer was completed in 1851 and the arch was used as a ceremonial gateway into the north-east corner of the park at Cumberland Gate – and a police station until 1968!

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Originally posted 2018-04-28 10:10:52.

BBC’s Broadcasting House

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BBC's Broadcasting House

This post is primarily about the BBC’s flagship building in London’s Portland Place rather than the corporation itself, but it would be nigh on impossible to talk about Broadcasting House without talking about the business that uses it.

The British Broadcasting Corporation was established on 1st January 1927 after it was granted a royal charter to succeed the fledgling British Broadcasting Company. This charter, which technically allows for independence from any state control, is normally renewed every ten years, and the current one expires on 31st December 2027.

The freedom from government control does not necessarily mean that the corporation is a law unto itself, as it has to operate under an agreement with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport that allows regulation by the government-approved Office of Communications, more commonly known as Ofcom. Amongst other things, Ofcom has wide-ranging powers across the telecoms industry that ‘protects the general public from harmful or offensive material’.

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Originally posted 2024-08-30 09:10:19.

The Banqueting House

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The Banqueting House

 

There are so many tourist attractions in Westminster that it’s inevitable that some worthy places to visit often get overlooked, and I reckon that the Banqueting House is one of them.

I’ve read that some people are somewhat underwhelmed when they come here, which is a bit of a shame really because there’s more substance to it than many people realise. I think it’s better to regard it as a Banqueting Hall rather than a house, because it’s just basically one room – but what a room!

Situated opposite The Horse Guards in Whitehall, the Banqueting House is the only complete part of the Palace of Whitehall to survive the devastating fire of 1698.

From 1530 until the fire, the palace was the home of the monarchy, and with more than 1,500 rooms, was also the largest palace in Europe, larger even than The Vatican and Versailles.
It was designed by Inigo Jones in 1622 for King James I in a style that Londoners had never seen before. Built in the classical style, the highlight without any shadow of doubt is the fantastic ceiling painted by Peter Paul Rubens, and the seating arrangements around the room enable visitors to gain the maximum amount of vision to see and understand the paintings.

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Originally posted 2017-12-20 05:49:37.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO)

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The Foreign and Commonwealth Office

 

Don’t ask me why, but I’ve always been intrigued by what goes on in the ‘corridors of power‘.

What do those ‘Mandarins of Whitehall’ actually do?, and is our destiny really at the mercy of those men in grey suits?

A few years ago I was looking down on those bastions of government control from the London Eye and they looked even more mysterious somehow, so when the opportunity to visit the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) arose during London’s Open House Weekend, I was determined not to miss it.

Obviously I wasn’t the only person curious to see what it was like inside because there was a huge queue to get in, largely because of the security checks that were taking place due to recent terrorist activity in London and elsewhere.

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Originally posted 2017-10-17 17:02:45.

Westminster Abbey – Pt 3 The Nave

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Westminster Abbey - Pt 3 The Nave

Visiting Westminster Abbey to see the grand architecture and explore its history is one thing, but getting a spiritual experience from it is another. If you want the full spiritual experience, there’s no substitute for going to a service whether you’re religious or not, but that’s a different thing to wandering around and taking personal photographs, and as soon as you walk into the Nave you’ll see what I mean.

Standing next to the Grave of the Unknown Warrior looking up towards the Quire Screen is one of the abbey’s classic views: Inevitably though, the occasion will be somewhat let down by large numbers of people wanting to do the same thing as you, but as you can see from the featured image above, it is possible to have a much better experience if you know what to do, and you don’t have to be a magician or need special permission to achieve it. The answer is much simpler than that: Just make sure that you’re one of the last people to leave!

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Originally posted 2023-03-10 14:52:31.

Blackfriars

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Blackfriars

To most people these days, the name Blackfriars probably means the railway and underground station, but the history of this small area in the south-west corner of the City of London has a history that goes back much further.

 As far as I’m aware, there are no official boundaries to define the area that we know as Blackfriars today, but I have seen a map that suggests it stretches from Fleet Street/Ludgate Hill to the River Thames, and from the Mansion House/Garrick Hill to Temple Avenue/Bouverie Street. That may be the modern interpretation of Blackfriars, but it would have been different when the Dominican Friars founded their priory here back in 1278.

For the uninitiated, and that includes me, the word ‘Friar’ is an anglicized version of the French word Frère meaning brother, and it shouldn’t come as any great surprise to learn that these Dominican Blackfriars were distinguished from the Carmelite Whitefriars and Franciscan Greyfriars by the colour of the cloaks that they wore.

The Blackfriars are a Catholic order founded by St Dominic in Toulouse in 1215, and in 1223 they established a priory in Holborn before moving to their new site between the Thames and Ludgate Hill.

Edward I gave them permission to build this new priory near to where the River Fleet entered the Thames. He also allowed them to re-build the city wall around it, and from a humble house and church it expanded to include a refectory, cloisters, a hall, library, stables and garden: In fact, it didn’t only become an ecclesiastical home for the friars, but also an important centre for state affairs with Parliament meetings and state visits from foreign dignitaries.

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Originally posted 2018-12-28 12:42:15.

Temple

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Temple

I’m going to have to tread carefully writing this article because Temple is at the heart of the UK’s legal system, and as I know next to nothing about how it works, I don’t want to end up with a solicitor’s letter on the doormat.

I think I’m on safe ground though by saying that the area gets its name from the 12th century Temple Church built by the Knights Templar as their English headquarters.

Temple, or The Temple, as it’s sometimes called, covers an area roughly between the Strand/Fleet Street to the Victoria Embankment, and Surrey Street to Blackfriars. This means that some of the area lies within the City of Westminster and some of it within the City of London.

The Strand meets Fleet Street near to the Royal Courts of Justice and the Westminster/City of London boundary. This boundary was traditionally marked by Temple Bar, an invisible barrier to begin with, but then a ceremonial gateway where the monarch halted before being welcomed into the City by the Lord Mayor of London. The gateway, designed by Sir Christopher Wren, was removed in 1878 and currently stands at Paternoster Square near St Paul’s Cathedral; The boundary is now marked by a large plinth with a dragon – a symbol of the City of London.

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Originally posted 2019-01-02 11:38:10.

St Paul’s Cathedral

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St Paul's Cathedral

I would hazard a guess that the majority of first time visitors to the City of London want to see St Paul’s Cathedral more than anything else, and it’s not hard to see why.

This magnificent structure built by Sir Christopher Wren, is the architect’s universally acclaimed masterpiece, but before making your way over here it would be useful to know what to expect as it’s very different from Westminster Abbey. Whereas Westminster Abbey is medieval in origin with gothic additions, St Paul’s is 17th century, and has been described as English Baroque which seems a fair description to me.

Many people will know that Sir Christopher Wren was hired to re-build St Paul’s after the Great Fire of London, but perhaps not so many people will know that the Norman church which stood here until 1666 was one of the biggest in Europe, if not the world, with a spire that reached close to 150m high. It wasn’t’t just the height of the church that made it impressive but also its length.

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Originally posted 2017-11-06 23:02:30.

Leadenhall Market

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Leadenhall Market

Metaphorically speaking, Leadenhall Market links Roman London with the Modern City of London, and the reason, is that its location on the site of the old Roman Forum and Basilica is slap bang in the middle of the modern Financial District.

It’s also appropriate that there’s a market here because in Roman times the Forum was their marketplace, and the one in Londinium was the largest north of the Alps, but we know very little of what happened after the Romans left.

What we do know though is that by the 14th century there was a manor house at Leadenhall, and the area around it became known as the place to come to buy poultry. That trade was still in evidence when Dick Whittington, the former mayor of London, came to own the lease of the manor house in 1408, and when he bought the land around it three years later, it was the best place to come, not just to buy poultry, but also meat, game, and fish.

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Originally posted 2018-07-06 16:22:23.

The City of London’s Modern Skyline

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The City of London's Modern Skyline

The City of London may be steeped in history, but that doesn’t mean to say that it’s set in aspic. The city’s Financial District is leaving its stuffy image behind and charging into the 21st century without, it seems, pausing for breath.

Nearly all the financial institutions (The Bank of England being a notable exception) have moved into more modern premises in either Canary Wharf or here in the Square Mile.

Many of these new offices are in skyscrapers, which even though they may not rank amongst the world’s tallest, have captured the public’s imagination with their design. Not all of them are iconic, but below is a selection of some of the buildings that have made their mark already, but as each year passes, so it seems that yet more major landmarks pierce the skies over the City of London.

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Originally posted 2018-07-05 21:43:02.

The Origins of London’s Financial District

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The Origins of London's Financial District

Following on from my article about the City of London Corporation, it’s not difficult to see how London became an important trading and financial centre.

As British explorers opened up new trade routes, then most of the important trading and commerce ended up on the streets of London, the hub of which was centred around what is now called Bank Junction.

The junction is where nine streets converge and includes three of The City of London’s most influential buildings –  the Lord Mayor’s Mansion House, the Royal Exchange, and the Bank of England.

The Bank of England was founded in 1694 and ‘The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street’ was opened in 1735, but the story goes back much further than that.

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Originally posted 2018-07-01 09:36:36.

Guildhall

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Guildhall

London’s Guildhall is the administrative and ceremonial centre for the City of London, and amongst other things, is where the Corporation and Liverymen elect and swear in the City of London’s new Lord Mayor.

Guildhall (and not The Guildhall by the way), comprises a number of buildings, but for the purposes of this review I shall just be talking about the Great Hall which can be regarded as the City of London’s town hall and is the third largest civic hall in England.

This Grade I listed building is the only medieval secular building in the Square Mile and is built over the top of the Roman Amphitheatre, the location of which is marked by a circle of block paving in Guildhall Yard, and the remains of which can be seen under Guildhall Art Gallery (see Londinium).

Guild derives from the Anglo-Saxon word ‘gild’ meaning payment, and a Gild Hall would have been where people had to pay their taxes, and there is evidence to suggest that there has been a tax office or Guildhall on this site since at least the 13th century.

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Originally posted 2018-05-14 06:21:01.