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

The derivation of King's Cross

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Unlike many names in Britain that of King's Cross is of relatively short standing - less than two hundred years old. However, the site of King's Cross has carried more than one name, and the oldest of these goes back around thousand years.

Unsurprisingly King's Cross refers to a king and a cross roads. In fact, a statue of King George IV stood at the crossroads from 1830 to 1845. It wasn't much of a statue apparently, a double life-size figure on a sixty foot column at the top of which was a camera obscura and at the base, a building. All of this was made cheaply of brick, even the statue, though the latter was coated to resemble stone. The building in the base of the column was initially a police station and later became a pub.

As with many areas of London, the site was once a village, here called Battlebridge, and was sited at a crossing of the River Fleet. A name such as this at a location of this kind would normally arise from an actual event, and it has been suggested, though with only slight evidence, that the battle was one that took place around 60AD between the Iceni led by Boudica and the Roman army. Today King's Cross is known as a district of London and widely for the main line railway terminus of that name that stands only a few yards from another such terminus, St Pancras - hence the name in today's photograph shot one early evening a few weeks ago.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: King's Cross, St Pancras and the Underground, London
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 17mm (34mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f3.5
Shutter Speed: 1/80 sec
ISO:500
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Railway stations and cathedrals

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The invention of the railways in the nineteenth necessitated the design of a new kind of building - the railway station. In large cities these needed to be large buildings to accommodate the multiple lines, platforms, offices, buffets, waiting rooms etc that were required to cater for the thousands of people who would pass through daily. Moreover, the stations had to protect the users from the weather whilst at the same time allowing sufficient space for the smoke from steam-powered engines to dissipate without inconveniencing people.

Large, glazed train sheds came into being in response to these demands and immediately created a problem for the engineers and architects: what form should the building take that fronts these sheds? Usually a stone or brick facade in one of the established historical styles was erected that contained a main entrance and the necessary offices with, often, a hotel. In London the terminus for the Midland Railway, St Pancras (opened 1868), typifies on the largest scale, this approach. However, the nearby King's Cross railway station (opened 1852) took a radically different approach. Here, George Turnbull and Lewis Cubitt came up with a more utilitarian design in stock brick that won many admirers for its bold simplicity. The large main arches that front the two arched roofs of the Arrival and Departure Halls echo how the big arches of medieval cathedral facades signify the nave and flanking aisles within. The symmetry of the station facade with its central clock tower is still a thrilling sight, and one I enjoy each time I go into and out of London by train.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: King's Cross Railway Station, London
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 17mm (34mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/60 sec
ISO:1000
Exposure Compensation: -0.7 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Lighting the diagrid roof

click photo to enlarge
One the many areas in which architecture progressed in the twentieth century, and continues to do so in the twenty-first, is lighting. Architects have always built with an eye to light - either the sun to model the building and its details, or artificial light from flame or electricity to illuminate and give atmosphere in the darkness. New technology such as neon, fluorescent tubes, lasers, LEDs etc have widened the role of lighting and today it fulfils all its original roles and some newer ones too. Here are two examples of cinemas using lighting, one in a  traditional way, the other in a much more modern manner.

Today's photograph of the evening lighting of the interior of King's Cross railway station's diagrid roof (see the previous post) is nothing too innovative, but is very effective.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Lighting of Diagrid Roof, King's Cross, London
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 42mm (84mm - 35mm equiv.) crop
F No: f5.4
Shutter Speed: 1/100 sec
ISO:640
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Diagrid roof, King's Cross, London

click photo to enlarge
The new Western Concourse at King's Cross railway station in London has a striking diagrid roof.It was designed by the architects, John McAsland and Partners in association with the engineers, Arup. The word diagrid comes from "diagonal grid" and describes a construction method that uses diagonal components very efficiently and economically - steel wall supports and roofs can be constructed that use twenty per cent less materials than would a more conventional steel frame.

The Russian engineer/designer/architect, Vladimir Shukhov (1853-1939, who built in the Constructivist style, is credited with the invention of this method of building. Examples can be seen in most major cities today. In London the "Gherkin" (30 St Mary Axe) and the Queen Elizabeth II Great Court at the British Museum feature the system.

Today's photograph was taken in an attempt to improve on an earlier photograph that I took of the King's Cross roof. On this occasion I used a wide angle lens rather than a fish-eye, but stayed with black and white rather than colour.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Diagrid Roof, King's Cross, London
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 12mm (24mm - 35mm equiv.) crop
F No: f2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/160 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Fisheye King's Cross

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In the 1970s and up to the mid-1980s we travelled from our home to London fairly regularly. Living on the east side of the country we were able to make use of the East Coast mainline. Consequently our London terminus station was King's Cross. The main buildings at this station were designed by Lewis Cubitt and are a marvel of direct, honest, Victorian brick work, with the main facade expressing the interior in much the way that the west facade of a cathedral tells you what to expect inside. Over the years the various owners and operators of Kings Cross did their best to disfigure the main facade with corporate branding and other excrescences. However, in 2014 the whole station was given a makeover that sympathetically restored the famous face of the building and imaginatively added to the interior.

For many years, when I've needed to visit the capital we've driven there. However, on our most recent visit we decided to go by train. That gave me the two-fold pleasure of seeing something of the refurbishment of King's Cross, because once again we'd be using the East Coast mainline, and also it would give me an opportunity to try out my newly acquired Samyang 7.5mm fisheye lens. I was in two minds about buying this lens. On the one hand I enjoy wide-angle and I quite like the distortion that a fisheye lens can confer on a subjects. But on the other hand I recognise that for many it is a specialist, little used lens and might prove so for me.

My first reasonable effort with the lens is shown above. It doesn't really make use of the lens in the way I ultimately hope to, but it does show something of an area of the station that has been given a glazed roof supported by very striking net-like lattice steel tube.

photograph anf text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 7.5mm fisheye
Shutter Speed: 1/125 sec
ISO:500
Exposure Compensation: -0.3EV
Image Stabilisation: On

St Pancras at night

click photo to enlarge
Earlier this year, in May, I posted a photograph of the train shed at St Pancras station in London. Today's photograph shows the same location, from a slightly different point of view, at night. What the earlier photograph doesn't reveal is that the shot was taken through the glass wall that separates the Eurostar trains from the public areas of the building. The image above does show that through the three reflected lights that can be seen in front of the illuminated girders of the roof.

Each time I step into this station I look up in awe at the train shed roof of 1868 that was designed by William Henry Barlow. Its unbroken span was the largest in the world at the time it was built, and even in the twenty-first century, a time of architectural megastructures, it retains the power to impress. I quickly snapped this shot before we went into the nearby Booking Office Bar in St Pancras Hotel, captivated by the light and shade and grateful for the two silhouetted figures that gave the scene focus and a sense of scale. Incidentally the shot was taken with my Samyang 12mm f2 (24mm/35mm equivalence), a manual focus lens that I have had for a couple of months and which has become a firm favourite.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 12mm (24mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f3.5
Shutter Speed: 1/100 sec
ISO:5000
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

St Pancras station train shed

click photo to enlarge
It's a testament to the engineering skills, vision and achievement of the Victorians that so much of the infrastructure that they created still serves us today. Our large towns and cities, for example, still depend to a very great extent on the sewers that they constructed, and the essence of the railway system is almost wholly a creation of the nineteenth century.

I was reminded of this the other day when I walked through the arch under St Pancras Hotel in London and stepped onto the platform where the Eurostar trains were were lined up. What caught my eye wasn't the sleek elegance of the shiny locomotives and their carriages, but the enormous, soaring, single-span arch of the engine shed. This structure was the work of the engineer, William Henry Barlow (1812-1902) assisted by Rowland Mason Ordish (1824-1886). It is slightly pointed, creates a space just over 245 feet (75 metres) wide, and was the largest such building in the world at the time it was erected in 1868. The materials used were wrought iron, timber and glass. Each of the 24 main ribs are six feet deep and are created from a lattice-work of metal that lends the whole structure a light, almost insubstantial appearance. That it continues in service today is a testament to its strength and the skill of those who designed and built it. In the fifteenth year of the twenty first century we are used to being impressed by large, new, exciting structures - earlier in the day I had been looking at 1 St Mary Axe (the "Gherkin") and the new Broadgate development - and it's good, I think, that the buildings that awed the Victorians are still capable of inspiring that feeling in us today.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Sony RX100
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 10.4mm (28mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/125
ISO: 125
Exposure Compensation:  -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Spalding station silhouettes

click photo to enlarge

Silhouettes are a reasonably regular feature of my photographic output. This year I've posted silhouettes of pollarded poplars, electricity pylons, rooks and lights, the disembarking Lynn ferry, and the Observatory Cafe at "The Deep" aquarium, Hull. Quite a few other images, whilst not as obviously featuring silhouettes as strongly the examples cited, nevertheless leaned heavily on dark shapes against a lighter background: shots such as this fishing boat and these shoppers for shoes.

In fact, when I look back at my "Best of..." silhouettes figure quite prominently in most of the photographic categories. For anyone who hasn't dipped into my back catalogue here are a few examples: St Anne's pier, roller coaster repair, street lights, ducks and water, Mount Pavilion, Fleetwood, dead tree, promenade seat, and one of my personal favourites, the bait digger's bike.

I find silhouettes appealing for a number of reasons. They are strikingly bold, dramatic takes on reality, a way of instantly turning the mundane into something visually arresting. Their positive/negative qualities, whereby the outline of the subject creates both the flat dark shape and the light shape that intersect like jigsaw pieces, endows images with a semi-abstract quality that I like. Then there's the counter-intuitive fact that a silhouette of an object often leads your eye to linger longer and often results in you taking in more detail than you would from a well lit photograph of the same thing. Don't believe that? Look at the photograph of the bait digger's bike again and consider whether you'd have explored it as much if the sun had been behind the camera.

Today's photograph was taken on a shopping expedition to Spalding, Lincolnshire. It was taken from a supermarket car park and shows the prominent chimneys of the railway station, a subject I've featured before. Interestingly, as I was writing this piece I remembered that today's photograph is not the first one I've taken featuring silhouetted chimneys, the end of the day and birds flying to roost. This one was taken in Fleetwood, Lancashire, in 2006.

photograph and text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 100mm
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/400
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation:  -0.67 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Spalding railway station

click photo to enlarge

Our modern obsession with "bigger is better" seems to impact on just about everything. Take railway stations. Our great London termini of St Pancras, King's Cross, Victoria, Waterloo and Euston are known across not only the UK, but the world (at least in the sphere of architecture and transport buffs). And our major town stations such as those at York, Bristol, Edinburgh or Manchester, are quite widely recognized. However, when it comes to the many stations in our small towns, miniature architectural gems that date from the 1840s through to the 1880s or thereabouts, there is much less recognition. And yet, they were often built to high standards using local materials, frequently sought to add a noteworthy structure to the area, and often exhibited the "house style" of the commissioning company. Some plunder the historical pattern book - Tudor, Gothic, French Renaissance and Georgian are quite common. All have served railway users well down the years.

In recent decades the cost of maintenance and the changing needs of railway companies and the travelling public have led to the destruction of some of these fine buildings. Others have found alternative uses, for example as shopping centres. Today's photograph shows one such station, at Spalding in Lincolnshire, that has been under-used by the railway in recent years, but which is being adapted to form a "community hub" centred around a station of a very different kind -  South Holland Radio. The yellow brick, asymmetrical, Italianate building was design by the architect, John Taylor, and dates from 1848. It has been knocked about a bit over the years, but still makes a fine sight with its bracketed eaves, tall chimneys and arched windows and entrances. In summer and autumn when hanging baskets and tubs of begonias festoon the facade, as seen in my image above, it looks particularly attractive.

photograph and text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Lumix LX3
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 5.4mm (26mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/1000
ISO: 80
Exposure Compensation: -0.66 EV
Image Stabilisation: On