Neighbours of 1902 and 1970

click photo to enlarge
A mere sixty eight years separates the completion of the two buildings shown in today's photograph yet it might be centuries and they might be from different planets. However, both are on Euston Road in London.

On the left is the London County Council (LCC)Fire Brigade Station of 1902, built with flats above the two-bay engine house. It is the work of an in-house architect of the LCC, H. F. T. Cooper. The materials are red brick, Portland stone and slate on the roofs. Yellow stock bricks are used in the basement. The style is Arts and Crafts and it is notably asymmetrical.

The building on the right, now called Evergreen House, was conceived in 1965 and completed in 1970.It is built of steel and glass in the International Style, one of many towers across the world that owe a massive debt to Mies van der Rohe.

There are those who abhor such juxtapositions, usually favouring one style over the other, and wishing that there was greater consonance between adjacent buildings. I can see the place for that kind of planning. However, I can also see the visual delight in seeing the contrast of two completely different styles side-by-side. And as a photographer I revel in it as this blog frequently testifies. See here, here and here for example.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: 1902 LCC Fire Brigade Station and 1970 Evergreen House, Euston Road, London
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 54mm (108mm - 35mm equiv.) crop
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/320 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Walter Crane, Art Nouveau and psychedelia

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In the south aisle of the church of Holy Trinity in Hull there is a stained glass window designed by Walter Crane (1845-1915). Crane is best known as a very original and accomplished book illustrator though he also painted and designed pottery, textiles and wallpaper. He was the second son of a portrait and miniature painter, and grew up influenced by not only his family, but also Japanese prints, the work of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the writings and philosophy of John Ruskin. In time he associated himself with William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement, and became one of their chief propagandists.

It is this background that helped turn Walter Crane into one of the seminal influences in the development of Art Nouveau, a movement that flowered in continental Europe and the United States but which had its origins in Britain. It sprang from a group of Arts and Crafts designers, illustrators, painters and architects who stepped beyond the medievalising advocated by Morris and injected notes of willfulness, decadence, and extreme curvilinearity into their work. The man responsible for what has been called the first manifestation of Art Nouveau, Arthur Mackmurdo, is not well known today. But, to those interested in the history of art at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth the other pioneers are better remembered - C.R. Ashbee, Arthur Liberty, Aubrey Beardsley - and in the case of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, widely recognised.

I cannot claim to like Crane's work in stained glass at Holy Trinity but I do find it remarkable. Why is this? Well, I find the composition too "busy" with figures that feel artificially "forced" into the restrictions imposed by the tracery. The colours are, to me, kaleidoscopic, but not in a good way, seeming too uncontrolled. The overall "feel" of the window is sensual, voluptuous even: quite out of keeping with most Church of England stained glass, something that makes it appear a bit of an oddity among the more formal pieces. Moreover, the label that always comes to my mind when I see this window is not Art Nouveau but "psychedelic." That's perhaps not surprising. When psychedelia was at its height in the late1960s and early 1970s Art Nouveau (and the Arts and Craft Movement) made a comeback. So, in those years, as well as seeing the psychedelic art on album covers by the likes of The Incredible String Band and Cream, we could also pop along to the Athena poster store and buy Alphonse Mucha prints, or call in at the local shops and buy a range of fabrics and wallpapers newly printed with original Willam Morris prints, such as "Strawberry Thief" or "Chrysanthemum Major". Perhaps it's my age, but it's a memory of those times rather than the origins of Art Nouveau that the heady, swirling lines and dazzling colours of Crane's Hull stained glass sparks in me.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 40mm
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/30
ISO: 500
Exposure Compensation:  -1.67 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

All Saints, Brockhampton, Herefordshire

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Like many people with an interest in church architecture - in fact English architecture in general - I have a high regard for All Saints, Brockhampton in Herefordshire, the 1901-1902 masterwork of William Richard Lethaby. But, as a photographer I've found it a frustrating building because, on the three occasions that I've visited it, the light has been less than satisfactory. In fact, on my most recent visit a week ago it was downright flat and gloomy.

Lethaby was an apprentice to Norman Shaw and became something of a disciple of William Morris. At the time he built Brockhampton church he was principal of the Central School of Arts and Crafts and Professor of Design at the Royal College of Art. Considering his background was relatively humble compared with architects of his day (his father was a gilder and carver) he achieved a great deal. At Brockhampton Lethaby tried to put into practice the principals he espoused. The materials are local - stone, thatch, timber, though with concrete between the striking stone roof arches, and the workmen he engaged were all local. The design takes the vocabulary of traditional buildings and gives it the architect's own interpretation. Thus, whilst the arches are pointed they avoid copying Romanesque or medieval precedents. The tracery echoes the reticulation and cusped forms of Gothic, but are obviously not medieval. Similarly, the stone carving and metalwork draws on the naturalism and stylization of the Arts and Crafts rather than, say, the Decorated period of English Gothic, which also valued these qualities.

Lethaby's church sits well on its sloping site, nestling naturally into its surrounding fields and parkland, at first looking older than its 110 years. The exterior has an engaging domesticity that is repeated when one enters the building. The relatively low, enclosing roof, warm-coloured stone, waxed oak, and glowing lights make it a welcoming building. Christopher Whall's stained glass, some Burne-Jones tapestries and embroidered and appliqued cloth adds a few stronger coloured highlights.

My photographs show the underside of the low crossing tower, a view down the nave and the exterior from the south. The outside image required work to extract anything of value. On my next visit I'll have to order better weather and a different time of day to get some strong, directional light to model the building! Incidentally, this church has received the highest form of flattery, higher even than the words of the architectural historian, Nikolaus Pevsner, who called it "one of the most convincing and most impressive churches of its date in any country." Intrigued? Read here.

photographs and text (c) T. Boughen

Main Photo
Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 35mm
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/200
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation:  -0.67 EV
Image Stabilisation: On 

Royal Arcade, Norwich

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In a recent post I suggested that the buildings that survive the bulldozer are those built in the right place to high standards. I could have added that structures exhibiting qualities before their time also have a chance of a long life. In that group of buildings stands the arcade, the forerunner of today's shopping malls.

Victorian shopping arcades can be found across the UK. Glass roofed, with rows of small shops, each with an entrance door and window, sometimes single storey, often with two levels, cross-shaped or simply linear, these arcades have seen their ups and downs over the decades, but have sufficient charms and economic attractions that they still exist today.

One of my early posts shows the Leyland Arcade at Southport, Lancashire, a fine example from 1898. Today's photograph shows the Royal Arcade, Norwich, built the following year. What makes this example special is the entrance front at Back of the Inns, and the decorative scheme, which is the closest that English Arts and Crafts gets to the Art Nouveau of Continental Europe. It is by George Skipper, a gifted provincial architect, who went on to design in the Edwardian Baroque style. In this building the arcade's plan is a "T" shape, with a single transept branching off the main thoroughfare. The entrance is a scheme in Doulton-made coloured glazed tiles (faience) by W. J. Neatby. The stylized, inverted heart-shaped flowers, the stained glass flowers/trees and the characteristic lettering are all Art Nouveau in style. So too is the female head framed by elongated wings at the apex of the concave gable. Inside the building are bow-fronted shop windows and a colourful frieze that includes peacocks and flowers. The striking lamp shades and the floor details date from a sympathetic restoration of 1986-91.

The Royal Arcade is a building I have been familiar with through books and photographs for many years. I was pleased to have the opportunity to see it and photograph it even though the dull, damp day wasn't quite what I would have wished for. I was also delighted to find it busy with shoppers, a confirmation of its continuing attraction.

photographs & text (c) T. Boughen

Photo 1 (Photo 2)
Camera: Lumix LX3
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 7.4mm (35mm/35mm equiv.) (5.1mm (24mm/35mm equiv.))
F No: f5.6 (f4)
Shutter Speed: 1/800 (1/1000)
ISO: 80
Exposure Compensation: -0.66 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

A cricket pavilion and a puzzle

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A cricket pavilion in a village or small town often has to fulfill a number of purposes. It is a meeting place for a team and its supporters; a vantage point (often raised) from which to sit and watch the game; a place in which to change into cricket "whites"; somewhere that refreshments can be prepared and served; and often it includes a scoreboard or box in which the progress of the match is recorded, and a clock.

But, whilst the functional aspects are clearly most important attributes of this type of building, cricket pavilions are often designed with aesthetic considerations in mind too. Often they are symmetrical, with centrally placed steps out of which the players issue. Gable ends and decorative barge boards frequently feature in their make-up. So too do clock turrets, bay windows (for a good view) and balustrades. In fact, they sometimes seem to combine the details of a bungalow and a miniature town hall! And then there are the thatched pavilions! Thatch pretty much died out as a first-choice roofing material in the seventeenth century when clay tiles began to be more widely available and affordable. So one wonders why it re-appeared in the early twentieth century on quite a few houses, barns and, yes, cricket pavilions. The answer lies in the Arts and Crafts Movement which sought to revive traditional techniques and materials, but use them in a modern way.

This pavilion at Uppingham, Rutland, even though it was built as late as 1923, shows the influence of Arts and Crafts ideas in the plain white walls, the simple, vertical, closely spaced windows, the half-height glazing to each side of the entrance door, and in that thatched roof with its thatched bell-tower. There are two further interesting aspects to this pavilion. Firstly, most such buildings have a front facing the field of play - as this one does. They also have a definite "back" that is utilitarian in character because it is often close to the field boundary. The location of Uppinham's pavilion, at a corner where two roads meet has led to the architect giving it a second front at the back - the one in my photograph. The second aspect that puzzles me is this. Why, when so much effort has gone into making the facade (and its landscaping) symmetrical, is its perfection broken by the single small window on the left?

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Lumix LX3
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 5.1mm (24mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f4
Shutter Speed: 1/640
ISO: 80
Exposure Compensation: -0.66 EV
Image Stabilisation: On