Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Prudential Building and Fusiliers

Was lucky to be invited to a dinner hosted by the Dean of my old Alma Mater in Manchester so off I popped to see it. I was a tad early so was able to take some pics with my iPhone.

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In front of the building on the left with the scaffolding was this monument to the Fusiliers. But first the Gothic building, it belonged to the Prudential Assurance company, constructed in 1878 or so and is built of terracotta, designed by Alfred Waterhouse. It was unfortunately under conservation so the beauty wasnt showing up properly. Did you know that the architect was the brother of Edwin Waterhouse, of PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Theodore Waterhouse of Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP. Now there’s an amazing family. Take a look at his history, amazing work.

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This particular monument is for the London Regiment. The history of this regiment goes back to 1685. I was curious as to why this name. As it turns out, it was originally called as Ordnance Regiment and carried Flintlock FUSILS, a type of musket. Why this? well, these chaps were meant to be an escort for the artillery, matchlock rifles spark up when fired and thus could have set fire to the barrels of gunpowder. Not something you want to do, do you?

Did you know this regiment helped save Canada from the American Army in 1775? Also this regiment went to NY, and occupied Philly and and and. They were in Wellington’s Army. Won the first two of the Victoria Crosses of the WW1. They were also involved in WW2 in Anzio and and and. Very brave men. This memorial is for the two world war dead.

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And a small plaque at the bottom commemorates the brave men who fell after WW2.

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The striking silhouette.

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22,000 men died from just this regiment in WW1. Bloody hell.

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A list of all the battalions.

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The business end is pointing up Fleet Street.

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The hooks for hanging the wreaths. Then we popped into the old Prudential Building and had a fascinating discussion on things academic over some excellent salmon. And wine.

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We were shown the vault. Pretty serious one, eh?

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With some explanations on a notice board.

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On the far end, is the main vault.

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It would take some serious horsepower to open this.

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Look at the hinges!!!

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The three long spike kind of things are keys, which were carried by different directors all of which had to be used at the same time to open the vault. You can see the inner room on the board. BTW, i took some photos of another vault before. Here’s the link.

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Then we walked up. These corridors were amazing. The walls were clad with these fired ceramic tiles. Gleaming with lovely intricate work. Amazing work.

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See? each of them were created separately. Can you imagine the sheer work and artistry involved?

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Bright lights and tall long windows.

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Lovely mosaics on the floor.

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And down the staircases. The marble stairs were worn away now. The building was built between 1879 and 1901.

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Popped down to the loo before leaving and saw these lovely stained glass windows. Presumably these belong to the firm. It is amazing to see and feel the history of London.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in London

I had to pop in to a restaurant for a bite to eat and then noticed this lovely church again. I have seen this before and always wanted to explore this more. This is the St. Patrick’s Catholic Church.
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The church is a long narrow one, fascinatingly architected. The frontage also contains the Steeple although I wouldn't call it that. With a statue of St. Patrick in a niche in the front.

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Looks almost Italian, no? But this is Soho Square, one of the most important addresses in London. So what’s the story? Well, as it so happens, this was previously the house of the Earl of Carlisle in 1690. Then in 1760, it was leased by Mrs Cornelys, a colourful character who had a child by Cassanova. But she went bankrupt and it was then purchased by a priest and an Italianiate building was constructed and consecrated the chapel in 1792.

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Beautiful frontage. You can see the greek and roman influence.

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The tower is the most extraordinary sight. Beautiful structure. And to see an Italian style building in the middle of a Soho Square is just brilliant.

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The full building in relief. One day I have to get inside this building and take some more photographs.

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A closeup of the tower. Warm warm bricks. I did not know that there are catacombs underneath the church. One day I have to get inside this definitely. I also did not know that this was the first catholic church created after the English Reformation. Brave men indeed.

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This is the statue of King Charles II in Soho Square. Somebody was evil enough to plonk in a glass in his hand. Very amusing. This statue was constructed way back in 1681 but was restored here in 1938 after it had gone on a bit of a journey. The face has been restored, so it almost looks like it is wearing a mask.

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This is the Picasso Room in the Le Escargot Restaurant just off Soho Square where I had dinner. This statue keeps on fascinating me. It is absolutely brilliant. Calls to me and talks to me. I am trying to find out the provenance of this statue. Any thoughts?

Monday, June 27, 2011

Views of London in May through my iPhone

These are some of the photographs of London which I took using my iPhone in May 2011.

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A long road highlighted in the setting sun

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London from the office. Via a break in the clouds. Fascinating.

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Early morning London, a London of two halves. Sunlit and dark

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Two shots of a moonlit street.

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That is one strange car paint view.

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Weird, tons of birds pecking away. The council had mowed the green the day before so I guess the insects were out…

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Regents Street in the evening. This is around 9PM, still light in the sky

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Looking up Regents Street. This colour of the sky was brilliant. Wonderfully bright and rich.

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Regents Street again.

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And this time, the two sides of the road were connected by a rainbow.

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Silver River.

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The Shadow Hulk! lol.

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Lovely rich green coloured trees, shrubs and hedges with a damn MacDonald’s ice cream cup on top. Welcome to London.

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Bubbles

Diya broke out her bubble machine and here are the results.

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Asked her to climb up on the table…but no bubbles.

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She is laughing at the stick, too windy I am afraid, so we moved to the bottom of the garden.

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Now we are talking, she is so heavily concentrating on it.

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Look look, Baba, a miracle, look at it!

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The world in my bubble

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A whole tribe of them have been born.

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One perches gingerly on the grass

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One bursts in front of her face making her wince

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She giggles at the tickling sensation of a bursting bubble.

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Looking happily at the bubble.

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Another bubble born

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There’s one!

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It is amazing to see the wonder on the faces of children when seeing bubbles.

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One decides to make a break for it over the garden fence

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That’s a baby

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Another baby bubble.

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A bubble which seems to have captured the bubble stalk

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Another one making its escape

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This one is coming back to see me, Baba!

we had huge amounts of fun with this Smile