Earth, wind, fire and water (part I)

Firstly, many apologies for the curious layout and arrangement of photos in this post. This is due to current difficulties with uploading images to Blogger.

Open House London, the major annual showcase of the capital’s architecture, has recently changed its name to Open-City. Over the course of the weekend, many of London’s buildings were open to the public, encouraging people to learn more about architectural design, and appreciate the amazing variety of buildings within local communities all over the capital.

 





I’d strongly urge anyone who wishes to see the huge variety of architecture in London to take a trip on a Thames Clipper from The London Eye to The O2 at Greenwich. I recently took one of the high speed catamarans to see an Earth, Wind and Fire in concert at the O2 Arena, so I thought I’d share some of my photos with you. This is just a very small selection, so you get an idea – sorry I can’t replicate the sounds, or that ‘wind in your hair’ feel of a blowy day on a boat (I could have done with one of the new feather hair bands from ShopCurious).






The pier where you set off on the Clipper offers some amazing opportunities to get a close up look at the London Eye, and there are some classic views of the Houses of Parliament too.

You’ll pass tons of well known landmarks, of course, but what I really love are the quirky curiosities like old warehouses and pubs – the buildings that give you a sense of London’s history as a port and a centre of commerce.

Once you get further down river, there are more expansive views, like this one of the Royal Naval College at Greenwich.

Arriving at the O2 was the best part of the journey for me. I have a curious passion for desolate places and mud flats. To me, the river always looks better when the tide is out. Here you’ll see dilapidated wharves and old gasometers alongside modern sculptures, and there’s quite a lot of new building going on too.

There’s also a spectacular new office complex, called Ravensbourne (see below), at Greenwich Peninsula. Designed by Foreign Office Architects, it’s due to open at the end of this month and will house the latest techonologies in HDTV studio, prototyping facilities and collaborative technologies. The Open House brochure describes it as “an inspirational new learning environment, over interlinked floors around an impressive central atrium.”

  The O2 atrium is actually quite impressive too. I treated myself to dinner on the upper terrace at Gaucho (a rather curious combo of seafood and spinach with garlic and chilli oil – Mmmm.. )

Going home by river was even more impressive. London is looking more like Hong Kong than ever, and Canary Wharf looks stunning lit up at night.

More traditional sights included popular favourite, Tower Bridge. But the piece de resistance was the London Eye, which bathed the water in electric blue light.

Oh, and there’s something I omitted… I expect you want to hear about the concert too...

Do you?

Time and tide...

The river is constantly changing and there’s always plenty going on. Over the weekend, I wandered down to watch the University Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge: an annual rowing event that’s been held on the River Thames in London since 1829.

I’ve been watching the crews training for the past few weeks, from the comfort of my flat overlooking the river. They venture out in all weathers – mainly strong winds and driving rain at this time of the year…rather them than me.

As I walked towards the start of the race at Putney Bridge, I checked out the form of the teams from a distance.















It was rather a gloomy afternoon, but that didn’t stop around a quarter of a million people lining the banks of The Thames to catch a glimpse of the teams as they sped past. Of course, we'd all have kept a lot warmer and seen much more of the race had we settled for the brilliant television coverage, but being one of the spectators at this hugely popular event is all about soaking up the atmosphere.

The assembled throng seemed to be more ‘beer bellies and baby buggies’ than the ‘blazers and boaters’ usually associated with rowing events. Typically, there were a few rather curious characters who stood out from the crowd.

London based Filipino artist, Chito Salarza-Grant (right) was wearing an extraordinary hat that he’d designed especially for the occasion.

He kindly let me try it on, but the handmade boat was so heavy that I had to stoop forward to prevent the hat toppling off my head – not such a great look for me.

Being by the water, I rather wished I’d worn some of Bebaroque’s stylish, silky sheer Saylor tights, which have just arrived at ShopCurious. They're totally covered with sailor inspired tattoo designs and perfect for after-race parties... though, unfortunately for this occasion, the screen printed pattern comes in a shade that's probably best described as Oxford blue.

In any case, I decided not to hang around and celebrate, as I had some visitors arriving.

The following day, we went for a walk along the river and it was altogether a different scene.

We could hear the chants and roars of Fulham supporters from the football ground across the river, but on our side things were pretty much back to normal for an Easter Sunday - with just a few people about, dodging the April showers, to walk their dogs and babies.

And so the river of life goes on…

As observed by the curiously appropriate motto on the clock of St Mary’s Church in Putney:

Time and Tide Stay for No Man.


Do you?

(photo by George Rex)