December 2023 – Where is Phil now?

Horizon 22

Sunday 19 November 2023 – London.

Horizon 22 is the viewing area on the 58^th floor of 22 Bishopsgate, a 61 storey commercial tower in the heart of the City of London. Construction of the tower finished in 2020, though Horizon 22 only opened to the public at the end of September 2023. It is the highest public viewing platform in Europe, it’s magnificent, and it’s free; though you have to book tickets online.

The whole experience is very well managed, access is controlled, but there are loads of friendly staff herding the cat-like visitors and the viewing floor is vast and a work of architectural art in itself. The lift takes 40 seconds, is very quiet and mostly smooth.

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I could have been quite happy just taking photos of the viewing area. That is the top of The Shard, London’s tallest building poking up in the middle of the windows. I very much appreciated that this huge viewing area is not overloaded with visitors, so you can choose the view you want.

The viewing area has views over three-quarters of London, sadly the view out to the north east where we live is the bit that is missing. The views are stunning.

We were lucky that we had a clearish day, apparently the day before all you could see was cloud, and we did get some lovely light.

My feet are not this big; definitely a trick of the camera.

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Horizon 22 is a hard recommend for anyone, local or visitor. Book your free ticket, it’s worth it.

Brutal Day Out – Bethnal Green

Saturday 25 November 2023 – Bethnal Green, London.

One month until Christmas, wow, where has this year gone? I’m sure I’ve said it on numerous occasions in the past but the older I get the quicker the years go by. Sadly the same can’t be said for working days and weeks, they drag interminably. It’s now Christmas Eve eve, Eleanor is at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium watching Spurs beat Everton 2-1 and I’m home in the warmth drinking a large gin and tonic, listening to The Stooges and finalising this post. A win-win for both of us.

This was the fourth Brutal Day Out walk I’ve attended and it was the biggest yet, with 13 walkers, which made the group too big. Organising photographers is like herding cats and I liked it best when there was only half a dozen of us. It’s cool that the original group still come as I like all of them (a rare thing), and there are always good folk in the extended group, but it does make it slow going.

These walks are a good opportunity to see parts of London that most would not normally visit; housing estates for instance; and these were the focus of the walk today. There are a lot of 1960/70 estates in east London. We ended up being invited inside two tower blocks and made our way into a third by following someone in. All three we visited had the most incredible staircases, these buildings may look a bit drab and square and concrete on the outside, but the interiors are quite beautiful, as beautiful as concrete and basic function can get anyway. The first block we entered we were invited by an elderly resident who saw us outside with our cameras and phones and said we had to come in and look at the stairs, and they were pretty cool.

We met outside Mile End tube station, it’s a lovely clear day but very cold, and there is a biting wind, I’m glad I wrapped up warm. The light is a little harsh for architecture photography, or at least my type of architecture photography, but it’s nice to be outside under a a clear sky, it feels like it’s been a long time. Once the group had assembled we crossed the road and walked to our first destination, the Lakeview Estate, opposite Victoria Park. I was surprised to find it was so close to Mile End station; it’s good to be reminded that walking is the best way to learn how a city hangs together.

None of the buildings we visited today were brutalist masterpieces, at least that was the case from the outside and the Lakeview Building typified that. These buildings see the birth of the age of modernism in building construction. Designed in 1958 by the pioneering modernist architect, Berthold Lubetkin, for the then Bethnal Green Council it is an early example of how simple design and construction can be made into something aesthetically pleasing. Sometimes you need to look past the ‘bit ugly tower block’ and look for the details. Lubetkin’s work features a lot on this walk today.

I particularly liked the way the sun came though the open passages between the stairwell and the flats; I may have been moaning about the harsh sun earlier, but the way it caught the steam rising from a gas boiler vent was a highlight for me.

Our next stop was the nearby Cranbrook Estate, another Lubetkin design, though this was a much large estate than Lakeview, comprising of six low rise towers and a series of small blocks making up 529 homes. It opened in 1963.

After walking around taking photos of exteriors we were regrouping outside Modling House when one of the residents arrived home.

She asked what we were doing and once we told her we were interested in architecture she invited us into the building to look at the stairs, ‘because they’re lovely’. They were, though I’m not happy with the photos I managed to get of them.

13 photographers milling about in a small space does make it difficult. I was also conscious that this place is home for lots of people and just because we were welcomed in by one resident didn’t make us welcome by all. We took up a lot of space in the lobby, which in itself was photo-worthy. I like the clean lines and uniformity of the lobby which are verging on ‘Wes Anderson’-ish. Lovely.

The next two stops were quick, single towers, fenced off, similar in style and both designed by Denys Landon. The first is Trevelyan House.

The second is Keeling House; very similar in design to Trevelyn House, but with added scaffold.

Sivill House on Columbia Rd was my favourite building of the day, it wasn’t overly interesting to look at from the side we arrived on, with just a 19 storey brick cliff face with windows, though the other side of the building with its curved stairwell exposed was much more interesting. Completed in 1962 it’s another fine Lubetkin designed construction.

As with Modeling House earlier in the day we were invited inside to have a look at the stairs by one of the residents, though the stairwell is completely different; a 19 storey tightly wound circular staircase that would make anyone dizzy running down.

At the behest of the resident we took the lift to the 19^th floor to take a look down the lift shaft and to take in the amazing view from the top. I would have liked to explore this building a bit more, it looks fun.

Our last stop was the least inspiring for me, or at least the exterior was. However, James Bryne had the maddest staircase I’ve ever seen. I tried to take a photo of it from below but it didn’t work very well, there seemed to be loads of interconnecting short stair cases crisscrossing all over the show. It looked very confusing from underneath. I just took a photo of the entrance instead. It was way less mind boggling. The architects really were into curvy concrete stairs in the 50 and 60s, and I like that a lot.

From James Byrne house most of us went to a pub near Liverpool Street Station, I had a swift pint and then caught the tube back home. It was a good day out and I took an awful lot of photos!

Clifton Cathedral

Sunday 12 November 2023 – Bristol.

Eleanor’s youngest son and his partner moved from London to Bristol at the end of summer, his partner had recently joined me as a civil servant, but in another government department, and in Cardiff. They had been thinking about moving there for a while, it’s a city they know well and life there is much cheaper than London. It’s a city I feel fondly about too. This was to be our first visit to their lovely, slightly mad flat in the very nice suburb of Totterdown, near one of the steepest residential streets in England. It is certainly very steep!

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We caught the train down after work on Friday and came back early Sunday afternoon. In what seems to be the norm these days the Sunday journey was the least enjoyable due to cancelled and delayed trains causing our train to be over busy. We were lucky and managed to get seats for both journeys.

After a leisurely breakfast on Saturday morning we visited Bristol’s most visited area, Clifton; and not for of its famous bridge, nor for the loads of small independent shops, though we did do both of those as well. We went because I wanted to take some photos of Clifton Cathedral; Bristol’s Brutalist masterpiece.

Consecrated in 1973, Clifton Cathedral is a magnificent construction with one of the most unusual and beautiful spires I’ve seen. Between 1962 and 1965 the Second Vatican Council met in Rome to discuss the place of the church in the modern world. It was decided that the church needed to be closer to the people it served and this decision played a key part in the brave design of this building with the 1000 strong congregation much closer to the high altar. Sadly the doors were locked and I was unable to look inside.

Built in the ‘brutalist’ style out of precast concrete the building is all harsh angles and sheer walls. Many assume the word ‘brutalist’ has its root in the English word ‘brutal’, and in many cases there is clear argument that some brutalist buildings are quite brutal. However, the origins of ‘brutalist’ goes back to 1950s, to the French architect le Corbusier and the phrase ‘beton brut’, which translates to ‘raw concrete’. The cathedral is certainly that. It was also really hard to photograph, especially in the savage light that morning.

After stopping for a much needed coffee in a Clifton arcade that was extremely busy we walked up to the famous swing bridge. I’ve been here on numerous occasions before and always like visiting, it’s a marvellous structure; and it looks lovely backed with the autumnal trees.

As the evening dark descended we walked down from the heights of Totterdown to Bristol waterfront to find somewhere to eat. I was really surprised at how busy it was, everywhere was packed and we even found it hard to find a bar with a free table.

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Though I was wrapped up, I wasn’t wrapped up well enough and was quite cold all night, definitely not wanting to be sitting outside over a drink. We wandered around town a bit eventually finding a small Chinese noodle house where we had one of the best Chinese meals I’ve had in a long time, and with the restaurant not being licensed it was cheap to.

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The next day we had a late breakfast at a local ‘greasy spoon’ café and then schlepped back to London on an overcrowded train. We’re looking forward to going back to see more of Bristol, and I’m keen to visit Stokes Croft and St Pauls and the places I stayed in when my daughter lived here 10 years ago.

Florence to Pisa to London

Saturday 21 October 2023 – London.

Our last day in Florence and our last day in Italy, for this trip at least. I’m very keen on coming back as this has been a fantastic break and I’ve loved exploring Pisa and Florence. In some ways it was good we awoke to the forecasted heavy rain. I suspect if it had been gloriously sunny leaving would have been so much harder.

With a downpour going on outside and an evening flight back to London we took the morning slow; a lie in, followed by a big slow breakfast in the hotel, before checking out as close to tossing out time as possible. Departing the hotel fortunately coincided with a break in the rain. I loved the hotel, it was comfy and stylish and served lovely wine at a very nice price and the staff were lovely, I can see why Clive Myrie stayed here when filming in Florence. We chose to walk to the station as it was only 20 minutes away and we didn’t want a repeat of the bus related drama we had when we arrived. We made it to the station in time to get coffee and and a short wait for a train back to Pisa.

We had some loose good weather plans for the day, but they were immediately scrapped when we arrived in Pisa as it was absolutely hammering down, possibly the heaviest rain I’ve experienced in years. We had chosen to come back to Pisa earlier than needed as there is a left luggage office at the station, what we weren’t expecting was a 30 minute queue, luckily with seven rainy hours to kill we weren’t in any rush.

As we’d only been here a few days ago we knew there was a burger restaurant opposite the Keith Haring mural and that both the restaurant and mural were only 100 yards or so from the station. We waited in the very crowded station concourse for the worst of the downpour to stop before making a dash through a sadly washed out food and wine festival to get inside the restaurant before the rain came again.

We managed to draw out eating, what was a very nice burger, and drinking a glass of wine long enough for the heavy clouds to pass and some clear sky to appear. We were a bit damp, but so were most of the other customers who had also made a wet dash to the front door.

We walked across the River Arno and into the old town and walked around listlessly for while. We’re not good with killing time when we know there is a flight or an important train journey coming up; though there weren’t earlier flights with BA to book so it was what it was.

The rain appeared again, not so heavily this time, but we had had enough by then, so we crossed back across the river and walked up the main shopping street. This time I found a shop that sold corduroy trousers I liked, that actually fitted and weren’t way outside my budget. I bought a pair (and unlike some other holiday purchases I still like them now, almost two months later).

After killing a bit more time over a glass of wine in a small bar we collected our bags from left luggage and caught the tram to the airport. We were mega early, but once checked in settled for a couple of large slabs of pizza and more wine in the extremely over-crowded departure lounge. I was fortunate to spot a couple leaving one of the bar tables and manage to grab it before anyone else, so we actually had somewhere to sit, though stupidly I left my coat on the seat when we left to get on the plane. It did give me an excuse to buy a new one a few weeks later.

It was an absolutely lovely holiday. I know I always say this and I always fall in love with every town we stay in, but Florence is something special. If only I could do this all the time!

Florence, day two

Friday 20 October 2023 – Florence.

After the big day of walking and sightseeing yesterday it was a relief to be able to take it easy today. Without any time restricted bookings ahead we took a leisurely and enjoyable breakfast on the balcony of the hotel. It’s a nice to place to relax but the weather hasn’t really allowed us to make proper use of it before now. The ticket for the Uffizi yesterday also gave us access to Boboli Gardens and Palazzo Pitti, both nearby and on our side of the River Arno. We set out for our morning mission to visit them both once our breakfast had settled.

We really enjoyed the gardens, they are huge, though appear to be suffering in parts from the very dry weather. I imagine maintaining such a vast, and popular site is not easy in these times of uncertain weather. We entered from what possibly is considered the back entrance, though it had a great view up the central path leading up a hill which overlooked the river and central Florence, with views similar to those yesterday from Piazza Michelangelo.

There were a few statues scattered around the gardens, and I particularly liked the one that looks like two blokes doing the ‘holding up the Leaning Tower’ pose we saw so much of earlier in the week.

We had arrived at the gardens not too long after opening and it was very quiet, though as time passed and we got closer to the Pitti Palace the number of visitors grew.

There is a grotto in the gardens I wanted to see, though I was a little disappointed when I found it. Though it turns out there are two grottos and I had found the smaller one, the ‘Grotta di Madama, rather than the more impressive Grotta di Buontalenti. Both were built late in the 16 Century. Madama is presumed to reference Maria Maddalena the wife of Cosimo Medici who the gardens were originally designed for.

Purchased in 1550, the Palace was chosen by Cosimo Medici as the new Grand Ducal residence, and it soon became the new symbol of the Medici’s power over Tuscany. It also housed the Court of other two dynasties: the House of Habsburg-Lorraine (which succeeded the Medici from 1737) and the Kings of Italy from the House of Savoy, who inhabited it from 1865. Nonetheless the palace still bears the name of its first owner, the Florentine banker Luca Pitti that in the mid-1400s started its construction. It’s a fabulous huge building containing five different art museums. It was my favourite of the galleries in Florence, perhaps because I had no expectations compared to what I had for the others.

The art was secondary to the interior decoration, the walls and ceilings are just beautifully painted, admittedly extremely excessive and over the top, but glorious still.

For such a huge patron of the arts there are few works that feature Cosimo, and here he is looking quite imperious.

We found an exhibition in the Russian Art gallery with these giant stiletto shoes made entirely from pots and pot lids by the Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos, they looked amazing and were a highlight of all the galleries we visited.

We left the Pitti Palace and stopped for a pasta lunch in one of the squares on the way back to our hotel. I love outside eating, glass of wine and some pasta. I could do this every day. This was definitely a tourist priced trattoria, but the food was very nice. Walking back to the hotel I found a few more of the shrines I’ve been enjoying over the past couple of days.

After an afternoon rest we went back across the River Arno to Florence’s centre in search of the buchetta del vino, the wine wall, we passed yesterday. It is top of my list of things to do in Florence. We found it easily enough but annoyingly it didn’t appear open.

It was too early to eat so we wandered about the centre of Florence for a while, pretty randomly will say, finally stumbling on a few streets with shops that weren’t global brands. I was looking for corduroy trousers, though I didn’t find any that fitted that I liked. There are some very well dressed men in Florence, I would guess most of those were local, us tourists are way more casual! Completely by accident we found an open wine wall, yay! We had to queue for a few minutes and received our glasses of wine just as the heavens opened and it poured. We joined some of the other wine window guests standing in a small private car park out of the rain. It was very nice, proper stemmed glass as well, none of the plastic cups you would get in England.

Naturally we didn’t have umbrellas today. Once the worst of the downpour had passed we started the walk toward the hotel.

Crossing the Arno again I spotted a small murmation of, I guess swifts, over one of the other bridges and we stopped to watch them as they flitted back and forth across the bridge. Our dinner was taken in a small local restaurant as the rain was coming down quite heavily and we didn’t want to go to far. It was our first non-vegetarian meal in Florence and I had fish which was really nice. Annoyingly the rain would remain for most of tomorrow, our last day in Italy.

Another fabulous day I love Florence!

Florence, day one

Thursday 19 October 2023 – Florence.

It continued to rain overnight but we were fortunate during the day and I rarely needed to use the umbrella I borrowed from the hotel after stupidly leaving mine at home. It was a really busy day with pre-booked tickets to two of the big attractions; the Accademia and Uffizi Galleries. Our entry time for the Accademia was at 9:15 so we had a hurried continental style breakfast in the hotel; cold meats, cheese, pastries and bread etc, all washed down with a good cup of coffee, or three. I liked it.

It rained enough on the 30 minute walk to find the ticket office to need the umbrella and get some rain on the cobbles, yay!

High on my list of minor things to see or do in Florence was to find a buchetta del vino, or wine window and I was surprised to find one as we walked to the ticket office. It was too early in the day for it to be open so we made a note of the location with the intention of going back later.

We walked past the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore when we took a slight mis-turn, and wow! What an amazing building. We didn’t have tickets for this and it has been left on the list of things to do when we come back to Florence, which is something I want to do.

The Accademia was impressive! I guess its main reason for being a huge tourist attraction is it has the original Michelangelo David statue; and boom! it’s pretty much the first thing you see once you get through the front door. The statue is impressive, it’s much bigger than I expected, and yes the hands are weirdly large, but it is a beautiful thing and I was surprised about how few people were in the room. I expected it to be packed. Like the experience in Pisa, not overcrowding a venue because you can, makes visiting attractions much more pleasant.

The Accadamia is big; there is lots of renaissance art; there are spectacular pieces by loads of well known artists, but it’s not a period I really like. I mean the art is amazing, beautiful and it’s so good to be able to be up close to it, but I wasn’t wowed by it. I liked this work of Michelangelo’s that was in a series of statues that he had started but never finished before leaving Florence to Rome in 1534.

There were a lot tour bus tourists and it was interesting watching them file in and out of the gallery without going up to the first floor with its large collection of religious works from before the renaissance. I quite like some of the work from this period; it’s quite ‘simple’ and almost cartoony in a way. I was reading a book about the Medici before and while we were away and it noted that Cosimo Medici was torn between the strict Catholicism of 14^th century Italy and Humanism, and during his time as the head of the Medici family and their vast investment in art religious that human figures started to appear more natural and less ‘cartoony’.

After leaving the Accademia we wandered around in many different circles, walking up streets and lanes as they took our fancy. This is what I like most about holidaying. We stopped for coffee outside a church with a memorial to Dante.

There are a lot of what I’m calling shrines in Florence and they are very well cared for and I absolutely love these early forms of street art.

The Porta del Paradiso aka the Gates of Paradise, are found on the back of the baptistery, opposite the cathedral and they are stunning, though the original gates are in a museum. Created by the goldsmith and sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti between 1425 and 1452 the gates are stunning with beautiful motifs of scenes from the bible.

The weather was still in pour favour so walked up to the Piazzale Michelangelo on the far side of the River Arno.

It was a steep, short walk up this magnificent viewing point over Florence and a copy of the Michelangelo’s David Statue.

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We could see very dark clouds looming over the far side of the city so decided to head back down and get back to the centre before the rain returned; and for the pre-booked visit to the famous Uffizi Gallery.

The gallery is amazing, again, not too crowded but enough people to give a buzz.

The building is beautiful, with lovely ceilings, walls and everything surrounding the treasured works of art in the gallery, including a couple of lovely Botticelli works from the late 15 century.

We took a slow stroll back to the hotel after the Uffizi. Walking the streets is such a joy; the cobbles, the narrow alleys between tall buildings, the small number of cars, the random pieces of art, so many things that make strolling an obvious first choice. We took a rest for a while before heading out early in the evening for dinner in another excellent vegetarian restaurant ; L’OV Osteria.

It was another lovely day. I’m really enjoying our Italian stay!