Floral Hall portico, Borough Market, London

click photo to enlarge
We've visited Borough Market, Southwark, in London on many occasions over the years. In fact, in a recent discussion with friends about London markets I named it as my favourite. It specialise in food, and is a great place to see the variety that the world has to offer, as well as somewhere to find an interesting snack or a sit-down meal.

In recent years it has been comprehensively re-developed but has retained much of its original structure that interfaces with the nearby buildings of Southwark (including the cathedral and the Shard), as well as the railway that passes over it.

However, there is one building in Borough Market that has always puzzled me. It is a steel and glass portico painted silver; an ornate, obviously Victorian structure that appears to be an entrance and which bears little relationship to the rest of the market. On our recent visit to the capital I resolved to find out what it is. It seems that the building dates from 1858-9 and was originally part of the Floral Hall adjoining Covent Garden Theatre. It was re-sited as the entrance to Borough Market in 2003 having been in storage since the 1980s when it was taken down during a re-development of Covent Garden. The architect of the piece was Edward Middleton Barry and the structure is Grade II Listed. It was been sensitively restored at the time of its installation and it makes an eye-catching addition to the street scene in this part of London.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Floral Hall Portico, Borough Market, London
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 14mm (28mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/320 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

New uses for old porticos

click photo to enlarge
Our weekend walk along the South Bank in London involved a detour due to building work. This took us along a road I'd never been on before, one that presented me with a puzzling sight.

Number 57 Stamford Street is a modern block of flats, not especially different from many other expensive developments in London. The facade facing the road is concave, mainly black, with a grid of balconies and supports. The side has similar (though flat) balconies set into a background of orange brick. Had this been all the building amounted to I'd have passed it by with a glance, a brief thought or two, and nothing more. What caused me to pause, think a little more deeply, and then take this photograph, was the incongruous and anachronistic looking hexastyle portico in the Greek Doric style right in the centre of the Stamford Street elevation. It is painted white, looks quite severe, and initially made me wonder whether it was some kind of Post-Modern architectural joke. However, a closer look revealed that it was from the 1800s and probably dated from the time of the Greek Revival in the early part of that century. It serves as the main entrance to the new block, and was clearly either re-sited or had been retained when the site was cleared for the present building. Then I wondered about the white painted (stucco?) first floor. Was any of that original? My final thought was this: the old portico on the modern structure doesn't really work because there's not enough connection between the new and the old, and the contrast in styles between the two is simply too great.

When I got home the modern wonder that is the internet revealed that the portico was from a Unitarian Chapel of 1823 designed by Charles Parker, which does indeed make it a Greek Revival piece. Parker built quite a few churches and houses, though he is better known to many for publishing Villa Rustica (1832), a book that brought Italian house design to the attention of British architects and was influential in popularising the English villa with an "Italianate" tower. His chapel was demolished in 1963, but the portico was retained. This sort of architectural salvage is something I've seen happen in a few cities, for example this facade of the former Hull Co-operative Institute (1833) that is incorporated into modern flats. The source I found didn't say whether the London portico is in situ or has been moved, but I'm guessing it's the former.

So, how do you photograph such a thing in the narrow, dark canyon of a London street with the sun low in the late afternoon. I decided that symmetry demanded symmetry and stood directly opposite the portico - you can see my reflection in the glass of the entrance door. The original shot had converging verticals from me having to tilt the camera upwards. I have corrected these in post processing.

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Lumix LX3
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 5.1mm (24mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f4
Shutter Speed: 1/500
ISO: 80
Exposure Compensation: -0.66 EV
Image Stabilisation: On