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they have some strange architecture in NZ.  and i love it

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we don't get many of these big buildings in auckland they do in christchurch, and there's a few less of them there having been shaked down a bit.

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i climbed up a huge staircase to get to a road just behind this building only to find the meeting i was heading to was way down the other end of the street which was at the same level as where i started so it was a big fat load of wasted effort

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this funny building is center point's rotund cousin.  you can even see center point in the background below

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no idea what it's called of course.  that would involve some reasearch.  ho hum
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this building has been wrapped up for christmas, but it's quite obvious what's inside.  they've used obvious national health service wrapping.  d'oh.

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well done to shorely for being first to fathom the windmill mystery.  it was of course the sails of a windmill

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they were laid out around the windmill for the winter

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it's quite strange to see it so naked

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without it arms waving

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but it's probably for the best

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here's the back propeller

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and here's some advice

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this little old tower sits in the middle of a road surrounded by modern off ice blocks.  classic london architecture

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just as i took this picture a plane flew by (they do that quite a bit round that area)

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this is a building by my office.  it looks like what you'd hope buildings would look like now in the future when we were back in the past.

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buildings growing up

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this is the warsaw palace of culture and science. it was a present from stalin which was nice of him

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it looks a lot like it's from ghostbusters

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jane and i went for a walk at crazies hill on wednesday, and walked by crazies hall.

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it looks quite posh. that's because it 'bears the facade of the old Henley town hall' (according to here)

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but it's not particularly subtle

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and some rather fancy gates are being fitted

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a quick google search reveals the internal layout which is very fancy ! hoorah for the internet

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it's interesting they are constructing it with the windows added before the top is finished.

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taking photos of buildings being built is probably better than taking them when they are fully constructured. they'll never be in this state again and people in the future will be interested. once it's built, anyone can take their photo. you have to be at the right place/time to get a photo of something being constructed.


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normal
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negative (i love the colour of the sky in this one)
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this is a rubbish picture of a building. but quite nice as an abstract.

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part of working in london is you see buildings beginning and ending their lives. for every gherkin, there's a middlesex hospital

there must have been much excitement when the Middlesex hospital opened in 1910.
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but now it's all shut and moved to the fancy new place on euston road
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and the old place looks so sad
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i'd love to go in and take some photos. but totally unlikely i suspect.

permanent. rather than temporary

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here is the colour photo i took of this typical london scene:
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and here it is converted to grey:
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not much difference really.

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yeah for the BBC

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nowadays you can get all this information from their website

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2 BBC towers, BT tower and All Souls tower. one day i'll take my SLR to work and get this with a bit more wider lense-ness

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i think it looks better from the inside

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with added eye-shadow
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(as guessed by vin here)

what which london building is this ? it's a b-list in terms of buildings go, but is still quite imposing.

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The Monument is one of those funny places which people just forget about. i had a meeitng a few minutes walk from it and i was a bit early so i paid my £2 and went in
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there's 311 steps on the cantilevered stone staircase which seemed to go on forever
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right at the top of the Monument is a drum and a copper urn from which flames emerged, symbolising the Great Fire. The whole thing is 202 feet high - the exact distance between it and the site in Pudding Lane where the Great fire of London began on 2 Sept 1666. The Monument was built to commemorate the Great Fire of London and to celebrate the rebuilding of the city.
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thanks to 300+ years of public access the viewing platform is covered in graffiti
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of course the thing that once stood high above the city is now lost amongst the taller building around it, like the new gherkin building
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but there's still a fine view of Tower Bridge and the river
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more details here

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for all round fantastic futuristic architecture, you can't beat Lancaster (Forton) services (more here). shouldn't all buildings look like this by now ?

these photos were taken out of the window as we drove by

it gives the impression they cook using nuclear power

My all-time favourite service station, for all round loveliness is the Killington Lake one (southbound only, up by the lakes somewhere). It's got its own little lake and would make a nice destination in itself. i only took a picture of the sign this time though.
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i wonder if this was the flashing neon of its day ?


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anglesey abbey is quite beautiful and well worth a visit if you are near Cambridge.



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we were fortunate enough to spot that City Hall was open to the public as we walked down the thames to our tube station after visiting the Tower of London.

the view from the top is quite amazing as are the stairs to get down. plenty more pictures to follow on this one !

here the inside top:

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and here's the downside middle (where they have important meetings):

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as seen in an old book


it was a really reflecty day yesterday with patches of sunshine through fluffy brown rain clouds.

as a result there were a number of strange phenominum, such as this alien face:

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there were some great reflections on the building next door too:
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it was all coming from this rather attractive building:

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but i liked the alien best:
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the phrase 'corporation housing' is great. it seems to point to a past which had an optimistic view of the future.

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and look at this fantastic building version of a belt buckle !

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it's the whole inside-outside thing of modern buildings. outside staircases, outside reception areas captured in massive areas of glass to stop the elements.

why not just have the desks and offices outside and save building the building ?

obviously you'd need a few paper weights to stop your papers blowing away. but we can work on that.


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it's a pile of diet cokes

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this building must have been revolutionary when it was plopped in this park in cottingham near hull.

but now it looks slightly out of date. but still strangely futuristic.

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great use of colour:
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unfortunately uncleanable:
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the barbican towers always looks so big and square when you see them on the horizon across london.

but stand up close and they are quite a different shape

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an ancient building in the shadow of a modern monstrocity. and two signs saying stop.

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water-towers sometimes seem a bit pointless in the UK. it rains all the time anyway, so why do we bother storing it up ?

if you live in the UK you'll probably have seen the flood map which i find fascinating (but only because we're not in a flood area).

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a little room with a view in the middle of the thames (between Tate Modern and St Pauls' Cathedral).

there's loads of obvious jokes here, but i shall avoid making any of them.

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this building wasn't here before. except it was. only there was another building in front which is now gone. so it took me by surprise.

of course if you didn't know it was meant to be there to begin with it won't take you by surprise. unless everything takes you by surprise in which case you would have been surprised anyway.

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the shapes, the colour of the building and the colour of the sky. the future is so retro. modern is so passe.

this car park was built by mad bees. i think.

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a great day for refletioms:
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and general sky niceness:
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whoever thought this was a good idea.

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here's a building recently erected near paddington station. i was brave enough to walk through a little passage and have a look on the other side this morning.

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great view, but a bit drafty

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it's often the case that a reflection can be nicer than the building itself. here is a good example of a hideous concrete monstrocity which is reflecting the ornate building on the other side of the street.

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more of the frontless building (from the side)

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this building looks more precarious each time i pass it. it's now suspended in mid air.

The giders in the foreground are not connected to the main building. The main building is apparently made of a number of floating floors.

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here is a man working on the corner of a floater (again that stick below him is in the foreground and nothing to do with the building):

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i walk past this building quite regularly so apologies if this is a repeat ! i really like this one though so click for largeness.


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6 years ago this was a horrible public toilet that i used to have to walk past on the way to work. i haven't been that way since then and was delighted to see it's been bricked up and painted orange (at least on the outside).

the smell has gone too.

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london is full of very thin pubs. this one is very very thin.

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london is a higgledepiggldy place. it's not uncommon to find two building next to each other with a random overhead tunnel connecting them. often these walkways are angled up or down to reflect the different levels of floor heights in the adjacent building.

but what if one building is built at 90 degrees to another ? what if one building has gravity working downwards, but the one next to it has gravity working sideways ?

well, the answer is to have an overhead tunnel with a rotation slightly built in.

if you come to london you really should track this amazing gravitational altering device out. It's in Covernt Garden next to some theatre.

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i'll return to this building on a sunny day for some better photos. i like how they have hidden their airconditioning.

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this building is more reflection than real thing

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maritime architecture is a fantastic thing. i love looking at buildings near the sea. curved corners seem to be the main feature. absolutely no right angles please.

i was therefore delighted to see this 'modern' building in swanage (a british seaside town). it's quite something.

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there are lots of mysterious door and buildings in london (as any city). here is one with a door which is extremely well secured shut.

a few minutes before seeing this building, in another part of London, i saw a street paving stone has been lifted up and there was a very long and deep staircase down under the road. i was going to take a photo only there were two security chaps inspecting me inspecting their hole.

i find that kind of thing fascinating.

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here is the top of a building at the junction of tottenham court road and oxford street. it's most peculiar and seems to have some kind of ancient chinese gazebo vibe going on.

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esther and i spent a lot of time looking at the sky this morning. here is a building we saw with a roof like stairs (according to esther). on the ground level it was very boring shops. the downside to our amateur architecture event was that we kept bumping in to each other.

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