April 2024 – Where is Phil now?

The bluebells of Chalet Wood (2024 edition)

Friday 12 April 2024 – Wanstead Park, London.

After significant procrastination I finally bought myself a new camera. I say ‘new’ but what I really mean is I bought myself another camera. I love the Canon 5d Mk2 and I’ve used Canon cameras since 1984 when I bought my first SLR; a Canon AE1. I’m comfortable with how they work and how they feel in my hands, but I’m tired of the size and weight of the 5d and want something smaller and lighter. I used Panasonic Lumix camera when I travelled in Asia and Sri Lanka all those years ago and still have a working GF1 and GX1, they’re both getting on now, but that isn’t why I don’t use them. I just don’t like how they feel.

After a ton of research and talking to people I trust I committed last weekend and bought a second hand Fujifilm TX2 and a 18-55 ‘kit’ lens, both online. Today was the first outing and I’m happy I made the right choice. Once I sell all the other camera gear I will buy a better lens, or maybe two, but then sell the kit lens. I’m trying to declutter a bit so getting rid of a load of camera stuff will be the bonus on top of hopefully paying for the XT2 with what I make.

In a burst of unusual timeliness we had the time and inclination to walk the 40 minutes to Chalet Wood in Wanstead Park while the bluebells were at peak bloom. Visiting is an annual event but we often only remember to go when we see photos on social media and by then the blooms are fading. While they are never disappointing they are not as beautiful as they could be if we went at the right time.

With Eleanor not working on Friday and me now doing a nine-day fortnight, being able to visit the bluebells on a less busy week day was a real bonus. It was a lovely walk and the bluebells were magnificent. The fields are not vast, but are so much bigger and better than what the camera reveals, so I absolutely recommend a visit, but maybe wait for peak bloom next year.

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Chalet Wood is one of a dwindling number of large scale bluebell fields anywhere near London. They only bloom for a few weeks in mid-spring and are only found in ancient forest sites; and there are not many of those left in the UK sadly.

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Carparks, glorious carparks

Saturday 06 April 2024 – Uxbridge, west London.

The final instalment of this ‘unofficial’ brutal day out photo walk was finding the unexpectedly wonderful Grainges and Cedars car parks; one on either side of The Pavilion shopping centre in Uxbridge.

I couldn’t find anything on the internets on the history of these car parks, though the shopping centre opened in 1973 so I guess the car parks are of a similar vintage. The twin circular approaches of the Grainges are a symphony in concrete and were a bit of an expected bonus, if there is such a thing. They were much better than I/we expected and there was a fair bit of enthused cooing over them.

They are just car parks after all so I’m not going to bang on about them too much, so will let the photos do the talking.

Grainges

Cedars

As a small bonus to the bonus there was a really nice BT building in between, annoyingly the entrance was fenced off so we couldn’t get right up close. I loved the scalloped windows.

It was a full on day and very enjoyable. I really enjoy hanging out with this group of concrete building photographer/enthusiasts and am looking forward to the next outing; to exciting Croydon, in a couple of weeks.

My next post will not feature concrete in any shape of form and will definitively be more colourful!

Brutalist Brunel University

Saturday 06 April 2024 – Uxbridge, west London.

Uxbridge station was a surprise modernist bonus; and what a lovely station; so much better than the old, grimy and grim station at Leytonstone where I live. It would be fun to have 30 mins here without passengers wandering past wondering why five people were pointing cameras.

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Uxbridge was really busy, lots of shops and seemingly well frequented by shoppers and pedestrians, it’s too suburban and not my sort of place, but it was good to see a busy shopping area. We popped round the corner from the station to catch a bus for the 10 minute ride out to Brunel University. There nice building over the road from the bus stop was an additional treat to be had while we waited for the bus.

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The main reason for coming all the way out west was to have a look at the university’s lecture centre which is a proper brutalist masterpiece. Designed by John Heywood, the centre opened in 1971. Apparently it has had been undergoing maintenance recently so we timed it well, avoiding any lingering scaffold or hoardings. It really is a beauty; small yet perfectly formed. It, along with a couple of other Brunel buildings, particularly Tower D, feature in Stanley Kubrick’s ultra-violent dystopian ‘A Clockwork Orange’ film.

I quite liked this sculpture by Philip Whitten to celebrate the Shoreditch College’s golden jubilee in 1969.

After cooing over some lovely concrete and resting with a refreshing coffee and snack from a conveniently open student café we walked around the rest of the small campus and took a few photos of some of the other 1960s constructed buildings, including Tower D. There was a lot more of interest than we expected, which made for some very happy photographers of 60s and 70s concrete. Probably worth a proper Brutal Day Out and some stage.

Next, back to Uxbridge and carparks…

Brutalist Harrow

Saturday 06 April 2024 – Harrow, west London.

It’s been quite a while since I schlepped out to far west London, it’s definitely not been in the last five years at least and to be fair I’d no need to go there, until today. It wasn’t really a need either, I wanted to get out of the house, and visiting Uxbridge to take photographs of the John Heywood designed lecture theatre at Brunel University that features, among other Brunel buildings, in Kubrick’s dystopian masterpiece ‘A Clockwork Orange’ seemed like a good thing to do. I popped a question on the brutalist architecture Instagram group I belong to to see if anyone was interested in coming along as well and five of us took the hour long journey out west. There will be more on Brunel in the next post as I ended up taking too many photos to fit nicely into one.

As we were travelling all that way out we decided to take in the Harrow Civic Centre and a ‘nice’ concrete underpass in Harrow-on-the-Hill, both of which make up the photos in this post.

Disappointingly, and unknown to us when we left London, Harrow Civic Centre is being demolished to make way for some new developments and the downsize of the council’s office space. The entire building was surrounded by slightly too high to photograph over hoardings. Opened in 1973 the imposing concrete building apparently has a ceramic mural on the first floor comprising of 1000 photos of Harrow. I imagine it would have been really impressive and it hope it doesn’t get destroyed when the building is knocked down.

Most of the photos I took are of the top half of the building and I had a slight obsession with the security cameras.

I understand why some of these ‘older’ buildings need to be replaced, I imagine they are costly to retrofit to modern needs, are not cheap to maintain or heat and cool, but I can bet the main reason it’s coming down is people think it’s ugly. I suspect what ever gets built to replace will be even uglier.

Moving on from the centre of Harrow we walked to nearby Harrow-on-the-Hill to get the train to Uxbridge; and to take a few photos of an underpass. I suspect people think we’re odd. We stopped to take some photos on the way… Architecturally this part of west London is very different to the part of east London I live in. There are similarities of course, both are quite clearly suburban England, but to the local they look and I suspect, feel, quite different.

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We also had the unexpected bonus of a carpark behind the shopping centre with a really fine orbital ramp, one that was very different to the carpark we visit in Uxbridge later in the day.

We stopped for the obligatory group photo in the underpass before walking to the station. I don’t know much about the underpass, or even what the road system is that passes overhead, but it’s quite nice is seemingly well patrolled as there was none of that commingled stench of weed and piss that you would imagine for such a place.

The band

Beer

Monday 25 March – Beer, Devon.

It’s been almost a year since I’ve driven a car and God knows how many since I last drove a manual gear shift. I have to say I didn’t particularly enjoy the time on the road over last two days, though at least the rental car was easy to drive and comfortable and the journey to and back from Devon was without incident.

Gill, Eleanor’s only sibling and older sister moved to America with her now late and ex husband, Jack, in the mid-eighties. Jack passed away at the end of last year and the family wanted to bring his ashes back to the UK to be scattered in the sea off Devon. Gill, her three adult children and Jack’s new wife and some friends had come to the UK from all over the US to gather together for a Sunday evening meal with Jack’s English family in a pub in Beer; a small fishing village miles from nowhere in rural coastal Devon, not far from where Jack grew up. Dinner was followed by a brief ash scattering ceremony on the beach below the pub.

Holding the event in Beer meant I had to drive as Eleanor has never learned and public transport was going to be difficult if not impossible on a Sunday. We also took Eleanor’s son and their partner as they also don’t drive.

I collected the rental car on Saturday afternoon and we left for Devon at 10:00 on Sunday morning. Living in North East London and heading south west meant traversing the city. The M25 London orbital motorway was partly closed for road works, annoyingly in the direction we wanted to travel, so we had to resort to using the A406, the infamous London North Circular; my least favourite road in London. Naturally there was an accident somewhere and the sat nav sent us and loads of other cars down a string of now jammed residential side streets. This is why I hate driving. It took 90 minutes to clear London and finally get on the open road. At least it wasn’t raining.

To be fair it wasn’t a terrible drive, there was expected traffic as we passed Stonehenge, but I’m never going to complain about driving slowly past such a remarkable place. We arrived in Beer just before 3, in time to check into our room in the pub where the meal was being held and get a quick stroll on the beach before the 4 o’clock gathering.

Beer is small, but bigger than I recalled from the last time I passed through here in 2012; to be fair to me at the time I was over halfway through the 56km coastal run I did for my 50 birthday and wasn’t paying a lot of attention to the shape and size of each town I passed through.

We were staying in the Anchor Inn, right on the sea front and had a room overlooking the sea which was fabulous; the view, the room was average.

We ditched out bags and nipped out for a stroll on the beach before meeting Eleanor’s family. Like Hastings, Beer is a working fishing beach, though significantly smaller than Hastings, which has the largest beach launched fishing fleet in Europe; I think, its definitely the largest in England!

After the walk and a sneaky Devon ice cream in the sun we joined the large family group in the bar of the hotel for an early meal and some beer, t would be rude not to drink beer in Beer. I enjoyed meeting and spending some time with Eleanor’s wider family who we don’t see often at all. Maybe a trip to America in the near future is on the cards?

Fed and watered (beered in my case) we all went down to the beach as the evening descended to toast Jack’s life and for the family to scatter his ashes into the sea. I didn’t know Jack, so after raising a glass to his memory I stood back and let his family and friends say their farewell.

As predicted the wind increased in the middle of the night and with it came the rain. The bed was quite small and with the noisy weather battering the sea front window on the other side of the room I had a relatively sleepless night.

It was still raining when we left in the morning and the rain stayed with us for the first hour of driving. It wasn’t fun, but at least we didn’t hit any real traffic on the way back to London and made it back in reasonable time.

I’m not going to rush to drive again, but will have to rent a car to head back to the south west for a tiny music festival I’m attending in Glastonbury in July; but not ‘that’ music festival.