London Architecture

Originally Posted by lynw

But I can recommend the FCO Fine Rooms being worth a visit. Must get round to visiting the Cabinet War Rooms this year at some point too.

Have been to this the past 2 years. Really would like to visit the Cabinet War Rooms. Last year we booked to see Churchill's bunker up at Dollis Hill which was a little disappointing to be honest. Also would really like to see the St. Pancras chambers, though I think you may have to book in advance.

For things like the Gherkin or Lloyds, you have to turn up very early as the queue sizes become insane!

[Spiderman]

Originally Posted by mumstoy

Funny how people just dont like to move with the times and accept new design/styles.

My Father is a retired Architect and before I was born he and my mother bought a plot of land and he designed and built a house.

The area was very traditional and the house was so modern and unusual (flat roof, whole front was glass) it was frowned upon by the community It was featured in a book of innovative Architect designed houses in the 50's.

I loved that house and it was very sad when they moved a few years ago (it was too big for them) - it was his creation and part of our family - its just bricks and mortar but I get really emotional when I go past it.

Picture please, you've got me very curious if the picture i have in my mind is close to the reality or not.

Originally Posted by Spiderman

Picture please, you've got me very curious if the picture i have in my mind is close to the reality or not.

Well it changed a lot over the years - it was a bit of a chameleon (spelling?) he kept adding bits and changing it!! I will see if they have any photos good enough to scan of the various stages of its life though.

I saw the inside of Lloyds a while ago. The desks are so small!

That's a bit of a bugger, would love to take my 13 year old daughter to this, she want's to be an architect and is obsessed by buildings, old and new.

Trouble is we're off sailing that weekend.

Nutty x

Originally Posted by NuttyT@rt

That's a bit of a bugger, would love to take my 13 year old daughter to this, she want's to be an architect and is obsessed by buildings, old and new.

Trouble is we're off sailing that weekend.

Nutty x

If you look at the openhouse website, you will see they run tours most saturdays. Think theres 4 - whitehall, docklands, city and thames.

Theres a charge for these as theyre guided tours [£18.50 adult/£13 student] but if its something she wants to do then that may be an option.

http://www.londonopenhouse.org/openh...ure_tours.html may be of interest.

Isn't it in the lloyds building they have a "Victorian" style room transplanted from another building ?
I think I saw it on a Fred Dibnah program once.

I think St Pancras Station is one of my faves in London (The original Barlow bit)

Originally Posted by tricky

Isn't it in the lloyds building they have a "Victorian" style room transplanted from another building ?
I think I saw it on a Fred Dibnah program once.

I think St Pancras Station is one of my faves in London (The original Barlow bit)

Just Googled it, thought it was Robert Adam but wasn't sure

http://www.lloyds.com/About_Us/Histo..._Adam_Room.htm

[Viney]

One of my favs in the city is the Gherkin. Still the most unusual there is, well other than the lloyds building across the road.

I worked in the Docklands for a few months, and its like working in a film set. Its all glass and steel with a smattering of marble thrown in for good measure. You stand outside No1 Canada sq, and yo sort of expect a hover car to go by. I always wanted wot work in docklands, now i have, i dont want to go back. It has no soul as a place. Its too clinical. The view form the top floor of there though is worth a trip.

There are some faboulos buildings in the city though.

[northwind]

I wrote a big post on this last night and it's not here I bet I've attached it onto some other post, in a bizarre off-topic brain-fart.

I'm not really an architecture lover, but whenever I'm down in London I try and check out at least one new Wren church, such a variety... Perfect blend of form and function, they're gorgeous buildings that still work perfectly after 300 years. Say that of Canary Wharf But they're all so different as well. It turns out religion does have some uses... Can you imagine anyone building St Paul's without that sort of inspiration? Even today, that dome wouldn't be easy to put up, but it was built pretty much at the same time as the invention of the steam engine, the creation of the theory of gravity... (that's maybe how they did it, gravity being new was easy to avoid). I also like the way they stick out of totally rebuilt areas- totally nondecript concrete blocks, of no interest whatsoever suddenly give way to these perfect buildings. And then you remember he built 57 of the things, including St Paul's, plus other buildings and the Monument, in 30 years. Loads were built with no spires, but designed to take them later, just to get the buildings up- you'd think that'd look obvious but on most you can't even guess that they weren't original.

But I really love this one...


Hawksmoor's Christchurch in Spitalfield. One of Wren's students... There's a theory that Hawksmoor was a cabalist or satanist, mainly because this particular church is just so unsettling... Me, I'd say he wanted sinners to p*** themselves with fear. The thing just looms... Even more so now it's in a modern street. From 3 sides, it's a perfectly normal building, but whenever you approach the spire it seems like it's about to come down on you. Supposedly the inside's much the same, the whole place is designed to make you feel small and at God's mercy.