Monday, January 31, 2011

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Borough of Paddington


Sunny Tuesday walk in Little Venice.

And, correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure Paddington isn't a borough anymore. Isn't it in the borough of Westminster? Perhaps things have just changed a bit since 1900. Not unlikely.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Senate House Library


This is the very impressive University of London Senate House Library in Bloomsbury.

According to wikipedia, it was used by the Ministry of Information during the Second World War and inspired George Orwell's depiction of the Ministry of Truth in 1984. I've also heard tell (though I have not had it confirmed) that Hitler thought it was an excellent work of fascist architecture and planned to use it as his headquarters if he ever managed to occupy Great Britain.

Despite some of these negative undertones, I really like this building. Possibly my current favorite in the Bloomsbury area. Much more interesting than the business-as-usual Classical revivalism of my own University College London.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

The White Goat


A brand new bit of public art just outside Spitalfields Market. The goat is meant to represent the waves of immigrants to the East London area over the years. Though, I'm afraid I don't really understand how...

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

19 Princelet Street


This is 19 Princelet Street in Spitalfields. It's supposed to be a museum about the waves of immigrants that have come to this area of East London from the 17th century onwards. Instead, it's slowly crumbling due to lack of funding and is only open to the public a few days out of the year. If you have an interest in the rich immigrant history of London and have an income larger than mine (read: any income at all), consider giving them a few quid to help fix this place up and build some permanent exhibits. It seems like they have the potential to be an incredible museum, much like the Lower East Side Tenement Museum in New York. I can't think why they're having so much trouble raising money.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Truman tower


Gloomy as all get out in Spitalfields. The Truman tower marks the building that served as the Truman brewery for a while and, before that, as a brick factory over on--you guessed it--Brick Lane. Now it holds the Sunday food market.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Evening walk


Heading home from work along Bedford Square in Bloomsbury.

I go to school around here and spent the better part of last summer looking at Google Street View images of these places to get ready for my new neighborhood. I've gotten fairly used to it now, but occasionally a spot of evening sunshine will light something up and remind me why I was so enchanted in the first place.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Friday, January 21, 2011

pathway


Pathway leading up towards the Baptist Church in Hampstead.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Mermaid?


Looks like this should be on the bow of a ship. Instead it's on the side of a house in Hampstead. This house was once occupied by the gentleman who wrote the Eton Boating Song, according to the plaque on the wall. Fancy that.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Blue Door


I seem to go through phases of shooting different neighborhoods. It's probably because I have single days where I'm really productive and then a dry spell for a week, so all my photos are concentrated on whatever I did on that one day.

Keeping that in mind, we just had a slew of photos from Primrose Hill. The next several will come from my old standby, the Hampstead Heath area. It's been cloudy as all get out for the last two weeks (as a chronic hypochondriac, I'm beginning to worry I'm developing a Vitamin D deficiency), but I finally managed to drag my photographing butt outside because I was running out of material for the blog. Enjoy!

Coincidentally, by favorite hangout back home is the Blue Door Pub. Check it out if you ever find yourself in the Twin Cities area. Killer cajun tater tots.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Bridge


The bridge over the train tracks in Primrose Hill, painted quite nicely.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Mock Tudor


Mock Tudor is a popular style of home architecture both here and abroad, but this version of the look, spotted in ritzy Primrose Hill, is a kind of Arts and Crafts re-conceptualization of the style. The black lines are barely trying to look like fifteenth-century supporting beams and are there purely for the aesthetic value. Kind of reminds me of Charles Rennie Mackintosh's work.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

So much niiiiighttime


When the sun sets around 4, you get a lot of night pictures, whether you want them or not.

Friday, January 14, 2011

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Evening


Some nice sunset light on some nice pastel-colored houses at Primrose Hill.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Shard #2


An early January view from Primrose Hill. See the Shard again? Sticking up amid the much shorter buildings in the rightish part of the picture. That thing is seriously going to dominate the skyline come 2012. Maybe I'll try to document its rise over the next several months...

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Hyde Park Corner


The subway at Hyde Park Corner (that is, the underground walking paths and not the tube) is decorated with these murals depicting the lives of important dead men. I think Wellington is in here somewhere. I don't remember whose life this one is supposed to represent, but I liked the crowd scene with the selectively colored-in people. I'm impressed that these murals don't seem to have suffered at the hands of graffiti artists at all.

Monday, January 10, 2011

Got a nickel?


The last in a quick series of three photos from my home state of Minnesota. Snapped this shot of a row of public telephone booths in a local restaurant in Rochester, MN. Or, rather, what used to be a row of public telephone booths.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Mall of America


The second in a series of three winter shots from my hometown; just for the variety, ya know. The Mall of America was all decked out at Christmastime. This mall--the largest in the United States when it opened in 1992--is just my local mall. No big deal.

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Tik Tok


A quick jaunt over to good ol' Minne-snow-ta for some winter shots in my hometown. Spotted this awesome license plate. Too bad it's misspelled. Unless that person's name is actually "Keisha." In which case, that kinda sucks.

Friday, January 7, 2011

More tapestries


A close-up of the tapestries in the Tapestries Room at V&A. I posted a picture of the room as a whole back here.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Melted cheese


After a long day museum-ing, what better way to refuel than with a melted cheese sandwich at the Kappacasein stall in Borough Market. Heaven for a mere £5.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Egg chair


The so-called egg chair in the modern art bit of the V&A. I like it juxtaposed with the museum's Victorian neo-Classical building facade seen out the window.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Tapestries


I find the tapestries room in the V&A to be oddly soothing. Nice lighting, colorful tapestries, and the smell of mustiness and aging fabric. Lovely.

Monday, January 3, 2011

Great Men of the Past


Decorations on the stairwell at the Victoria & Albert Museum commemorate some great artists of the past. Stay tuned for pictures of some of the things you can see at the V&A.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Saturday, January 1, 2011

one-one-oneone!


This blog has really not been going for very long, so it seemed a bit silly to post a Picture of the Year as the January 1 Theme Day. So instead I've chosen this image of a sunny dawn over north London. Pretend it has some metaphorical meaning related to the new dawn of 2011.

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants
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