Red crane question

click photo to enlarge
A while ago I was on the street in Shoreditch, London, at 6.58 a.m. taking today's photograph. The EXIF details of this image show that to be the time. I have to say that it is not usual to find me taking photographs at that time of day, but it does occasionally happen.

What prompted the photograph was the angles in the composition, the crystal clear light that delineated the new (and terrible) hotel,the bright red crane next to it, and the backdrop of an azure sky. I liked the juxtaposition of the crane and its shadow with building, and the red on blue adds a blast of colour that compensates for the mushroom tones of the hotel's cladding.

As we waited for our rendezvous the crane driver came along to start his day working on the site below his machine. His first task was to climb the ladders inside the column of the crane to his cab at the top. This he did in a very slow and deliberate way, lunch bag over his shoulder, waiting for a couple of minutes at each stage, presumably getting his breath back. During the ten minutes or so that we watched he ascended about half way to his workplace. And, as we watched him climb, this question popped into my head - is there a toilet at the top of such a crane? If there isn't it's long way down and back up again to achieve relief! I recently consulted the all-knowing WWW in search of the answer and was surprised by what I discovered. Apparently built in toilets are rare. Climbing down and back up does happen. A bucket is often used. So too is an empty milk bottle. And someone has designed a "toilet-in-a-bag" for crane drivers who are caught short. So, not only is the job of such a crane driver lonely, it also lacks a workplace essential that most other people take for granted.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: M by Montcalm Hotel and Red Crane, London
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 17mm (34mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f4.1
Shutter Speed: 1/2000 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

St Pancras Hotel, London

click photo to enlarge
George Gilbert Scott was one of the most prolific and able of Britain's Victorian architects. He came from an architectural dynasty and is sometimes referred to as "the middle Scott" to distinguish him from his similarly named father and son. In the 1860s he had many projects underway including three of national importance - the Foreign Office, the Albert Memorial and St Pancras railway station and hotel. Scott's office trained many architects who went on to achieve fame in their own right but he kept close control of all that passed through the firm, and ensured that the high standards that characterised his work was maintained.

St Pancras railway station on Euston Road was the London terminus for the Midland Railway. Scott's Gothic-based design incorporated the engine sheds and platforms (the latter designed by William Henry Barlow) as well as the rooms needed for the station and the Midland Hotel that fronted the building. The functional engine sheds and the elaborate Gothic brickwork, towers and spires admirably convey the Victorian fascination with and ambivalence about buildings as art as well as the allure of new technology and engineering. My photograph shows a large part of the main elevation facing Euston road, but doesn't include the curved wing out of view on the left of the frame.

I've tried for a photograph of this elevation before but haven't produced anything that satisfies me. On a recent visit I decided that the ornate lamp post might be a suitable "anchor" for an asymmetrical composition, and so it proved.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: St Pancras Hotel, London
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 15mm (108mm - 30mm equiv.)
F No: f5
Shutter Speed: 1/320 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

St Pancras before the rain

click photo to enlarge
Today's photograph was taken from in front of King's Cross railway station in London: in fact, from the space in the foreground of yesterday's photograph. We were waiting for a train to take us home and I'd noticed that a stormy sky was gathering above this part of London. Opportunities of that sort are to be seized and so I walked around looking for a shot or two. I missed the zig-zag of lightning that flashed near the clock tower but did get this image of the dark grey clouds as they gathered above the buildings. In the photograph you can see the side of the St Pancras Hotel and on the right of it the glazed train sheds.

One of the things I like about a big city is the pools of light that make evening photography so appealing. It's something that isn't found in a country village and I always relish a visit to London that gives me opportunities to be out and about when the daylight is fading.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: A Gathering Storm, St Pancras Hotel, London
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 17mm (34mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/80 sec
ISO:400
Exposure Compensation: -0.7 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Carbuncles and silly names

click photo to enlarge
The right-most of the two new buildings in today's photograph was a 2015 nominee for the Carbuncle Cup,an architectural prize awarded by the UK's "Building Design" magazine to "the ugliest building in the United Kingdom completed in the last 12 months." It didn't win, and wasn't even short-listed, because last year it faced severe competition. The winner was, in my opinion, the ugliest building erected in the UK so far this century, and probably in the past fifty years - Rafael Vinoly's 20 Fenchurch Street, also known as "The Walkie Talkie".

If there was a prize for the silliest name for a building then the angular monstrosity shown in today's post would surely have won. It is a hotel in the Shoreditch/Hoxton area of London, near "silicon roundabout" and is called, M by Montcalm Hotel. Why do I dislike this building? Well, it defaces the area in which it stands by acknowledging nothing around it, not even the banal new block next door, an essay in what looks like 1930s Moderne-cum-very stripped classical, that matches it for height. The hotel's sharp points, sloping windows and decorative cladding all seem designed to grab the eye, provoke reaction, say "look at me", and nothing else. The absence of right angles in the elevations seems to be worn like a badge of pride, a feature designed to make passers-by feel that either they or the building is falling over. It's a cheap trick that lacks reason, one that quickly becomes tiresome and provokes a "so what" response.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: M by Montcalm Hotel, Shoreditch, London
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 22mm (44mm - 35mm equiv.) crop
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/640 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Rhododendrons, the beautiful invaders

click photo to enlarge
The rhododendron (Rhododendron ponticum) was introduced to the British Isles some time around the year 1763. It was valued as an attractive, evergreen shrub that in May and June produced multiple, large and showy flowers. Its popularity grew and in the nineteenth century it became a staple of large gardens, parks and hunting estates (where it provided shelter for game species) on the wetter, western side of Britain where the soils were acidic. As well as this particular species being widely planted it was also used as a rootstock for hardy, cultivated varieties. With this high level of interest the rhododendron quickly became established and started to spread. By the twentieth century it became recognised for what it was; a rapidly invasive coloniser, filling woodland floors beneath the tree canopy, spreading into moorland and heathland, a plant that suppressed and replaced native species and made forestry much more difficult and expensive. Today the Forestry Commission has programmes of control designed to subdue the rhododendron and remove it from areas where it is not wanted.

One can understand the enthusiasm with which Victorian gardeners adopted the plant. It is like no other evergreen shrub when it is in flower. Not only are the individual blooms very big, they are numerous and quite beautiful. When seen en masse on a large group of bushes the sight is quite overpowering. As a child I enjoyed seeing the purple flowers on the millstone grit rock outcrops and in the woods near Settle in the Yorkshire Dales. In later life I sought out the varieties that Victorian landowners had planted around Bleasdale and Abbeystead in Lancashire's Forest of Bowland: various shades of purple, red, yellow, orange and white could be found. Today I make a point of visiting Woodhall Spa to see the annual show of multicoloured exuberance. Were I a forester, of course, any pleasure I got from the beauty of the flowers would be seriously tempered by the cost and work involved in controlling their spread.

Today's main photograph was taken in the Yorkshire Dales. The shot shows something of the glow that each flower exhibits when seen against the dark green, shiny leaves. The smaller photograph was taken the other day in the grounds of the Petwood Hotel in Woodhall Spa. These rhododendrons, a pink cultivar probably closely related to the ponticum variety, were planted in the early 1900s - about a century ago - and today, in places, form veritable "cliffs" of blooms 25 to 30 feet high.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo 1
Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 250mm
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/200
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation:  -0.33 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Afternoon tea at the Petwood

click photo to enlarge
I'm a northerner, born and bred. Consequently I have breakfast shortly after I rise - porridge and a cup of tea all year round for me - dinner is what I eat near noon, tea is a meal I consume around five o'clock (teatime) and supper is a small snack and more tea (cup of) an hour or two before bed. I often have a mid-morning cup of coffee or tea and a mid-afternoon cup of tea. The names I give to my mid-day meal and evening meal are not those used in the southern half of England however. In these parts, generally, what I call dinner is called lunch, and my tea is called dinner and is eaten later, perhaps around seven o'clock. Confusingly, in southern England an evening meal is sometimes referred to as supper. The southern way is to have afternoon tea of, perhaps, a cup of tea and a buttered scone to fill the hunger gap between lunch and dinner. These names are not regionally hard and fast because social class differences sometimes cause northern people to adopt the southern terminology. All of which is confusing enough for the natives; it must baffle visitors to our country.

One of my sons and his wife visited recently and while we were out one dull, damp and overcast day we stopped off at Woodhall Spa. In this large village is a memorial in the form of a breached dam that commemorates the members of the RAF's 617 Squadron, "The Dambusters", who gave their lives during the second world war. Since the end of that conflict thirty further members of the squadron have died and a new memorial has recently been unveiled that will commemorate them. Lincolnshire is sometimes known as "Bomber County" because of the large number of airfields that were created here during WW2. Today it continues to be the home of some of the RAF's largest airfields.

After a brief stroll round the streets and a viewing of the memorials we slipped into southern English mode and went to the Petwood Hotel for afternoon tea and cake. This former large house in the Edwardian Elizabethan-cum-Tudor "black and white" style, was built in 1905 for Grace Maple who became Baroness Von Eckhardstein and later Lady Weighall. In the 1930s it became a hotel and during the war it was requisitioned by the RAF as an officers' mess. The building contains much memorabilia from those days when pilots from 617 Squadron (who flew Lancasters) and 627 Squadron (who flew Mosquitoes) based at the newly created airfield of RAF Woodhall Spa spent much of their off-duty time there.

My main photograph shows afternoon tea being taken in one of the Petwood's large, panelled rooms that overlook the extensive gardens that were full of rhododendrons in flower. The smaller photograph shows a view of the building's south elevation seen from near the Round Pool.

photographs and text © Tony Boughen

Photo 1
Camera: Sony RX100
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 10.4mm (28mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/30
ISO: 200
Exposure Compensation:  -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Pubs, hotels and vanishing customers

click photo to enlarge

Anyone who lives in England or who visits on a regular basis can't help but notice the decline of the English pub. At the end of last year they were closing at a rate of 25 per week as large pub operators and privately-run businesses decided there was over-capacity and that many establishments were unprofitable and never going to be able to produce a profit. A combination of cheaper alcohol from supermarkets, the ban on smoking in buildings open to the public, the tightening of everyone's belt following the banking crash and the increased competition for discretionary spending has resulted in many closures over the past few years. Boarded up buildings can be seen in villages, towns  and cities across the country. This is nothing new of course. A hundred and more years ago even the smallest English village had a pub, and often not one but two, three or more. That was a time when beer was safer to drink than"Adam's ale" i.e. water. Most of these didn't survive the changing circumstances of the twentieth century. What is different about today's closures is the scale and the short period of time over which they are happening.

The down-turn in the fortunes of the pub has been mirrored, perhaps to a lesser extent, by hotels. The rise of mass foreign holidays in the 1960s on the back of increasing incomes and cheaper air fares made a big dent in the custom that English hotels received, and over subsequent decades this only increased. So this sector of the "hospitality industry" has suffered too. The recent economic downturn has offered some relief with more people indulging in "staycations", and the swapping of a stay in a country hotel, travel lodge or seaside resort for a fortnight in Spain, the Dominican Republic or Thailand. But hotels also have a long history of closures, with many buildings being unable to adapt (or be adapted) to modern needs and standards. I wonder if that was the fate of the Stamford Hotel in Stamford, Lincolnshire. This large building, begun in 1810 and completed fifteen or twenty years later after a period of inactivity, looks more like a Georgian Assembly Rooms with its giant order of Corinthian columns in antis. Its scale looks incongruous on narrow St Mary's Street and today it is subdivided and occupied by a number of small businesses. Looking at this Francis Frith postcard it appears that it was still functioning as a hotel in 1922. When did it stop trading I wonder? On a recent day in Stamford I passed through the building, taking this photograph of its fine cantilevered stone staircase that is lit by windows and a glass-topped lantern above.

photograph and text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 17mm
 F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/50 sec
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation:  -1.0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On