Uploads from EricP2x, tagged victorian, with geodata

The Shard

nobody@flickr.com (EricP2x) — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 12:04:32 -0700

EricP2x posted a photo:

Otherwise known as Shard London Bridge, designed by Renzo Piano and standing at 310 metres tall it is the latest addition to London's growing skyline. It is also one of the tallest buildings in Europe.

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Tempus Wharf

nobody@flickr.com (EricP2x) — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 11:04:36 -0800

EricP2x posted a photo:

The same place as previously only a few days later. My friend and I were in the area getting pizzas and beers, the light was pretty cool however, so I decided to get a photo.

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Trafalgar Square

nobody@flickr.com (EricP2x) — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 10:47:54 -0800

EricP2x posted a photo:

Trafalgar Square on a snowy day. The place does not need much description. It is perhaps the most famous and iconic square in the World. It was designed and built by Sir Charles Barry and completed in 1845.

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London Bridge

nobody@flickr.com (EricP2x) — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 06:44:19 -0800

EricP2x posted a photo:

London Bridge in its latest and without the doubt the ugliest incarnation. It was built in 1973 and replaced John Rennie's 1831 bridge which in turn replaced the old medieval and perhaps the most iconic bridge of all. Before that there were a whole succession of bridges on this spot (more or less) going back all the way to the Roman days. In 1834 workmen working on the north side of the Thames shore, close to the bridge, found a bronze head. It turned out to be a head from a large Roman statue portraying emperor Hadrian. It is in The British Museum now. The massive skyscraper under construction is Rafael Vinoly's 20 Fenchurch Street, while the small Classical building is Fishmongers' Hall built in 1834 and which contains the dagger with which Lord Mayor Walworth killed Wat Tyler in 1381. Lots of history in this tiny part of London.

Royal Victoria Dock

nobody@flickr.com (EricP2x) — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 10:55:37 -0700

EricP2x posted a photo:

Royal Victoria Dock is one and the largest of the three Royal Docks in East London. Opened in 1855 it was designed specifically for the large steam ships of the age. It was badly damaged during The World War 2 but saw resurgence in the 1960s, however since that time, just like all London docks it experienced a steady decline. It was closed in the 1980s. Apart from a few cranes, the already seen Millennium Mills and a swing-bridge mechanism seen here in the foreground not much remains of the original dock buildings.

Bridge Over River Lea

nobody@flickr.com (EricP2x) — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 11:57:53 -0700

EricP2x posted a photo:

This bridge dates from around 1860s and used to carry a railway branch of the Eastern Counties and Thames Junction Railway from its line at Canning Town to the Pepper Warehouse of the East India Docks in Blackwall. It is a remnant of a lost World.

Palace Of Westminster

nobody@flickr.com (EricP2x) — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 05:04:17 -0700

EricP2x posted a photo:

Palace Of Westminster designed by Charles Barry and built in 1840–70 in Gothic style. It is one of the most well known and iconic buildings in the World.

Taken on the same evening as the previous photo, but slightly later, when the pretty impressive lights came on.

Brune Street

nobody@flickr.com (EricP2x) — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 10:14:21 -0700

EricP2x posted a photo:

I must say I prefer the old buildings.

Fleet Street

nobody@flickr.com (EricP2x) — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 08:19:20 -0700

EricP2x posted a photo:

Easily one of the best looking streets in London.

Bank Junction

nobody@flickr.com (EricP2x) — Wed, 02 May 2012 11:36:36 -0700

EricP2x posted a photo:

Bank Junction in The City of London

Austin Friars

nobody@flickr.com (EricP2x) — Wed, 02 May 2012 11:36:37 -0700

EricP2x posted a photo:

A narrow street in The City of London

Thalassa

nobody@flickr.com (EricP2x) — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 09:44:28 -0700

EricP2x posted a photo:

A Dutch sailing ship in the Thames at sunset.

Kew Gardens 48

nobody@flickr.com (EricP2x) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 08:43:22 -0700

EricP2x posted a photo:

The Pagoda. There was a fashion for Chinoiserie in English garden design in the mid 18th century. Sir William Chambers was a keen advocate, using decorative buildings and intricate pathways as a reaction to the sweeping 'natural' lines of contemporaries such as Lancelot 'Capability' Brown.

The Pagoda was completed in 1762 and was not universally popular. The great man of letters, Sir Horace Walpole, disliked it and having seen it from Twickenham, where he lived, he complained to a friend that, "In a fortnight you will be able to see it in Yorkshire."

The ten-storey octagonal structure is 163 ft (nearly 50 m) high and was, at that time, the tallest reconstruction of a Chinese building in Europe. Purists, however, argue that pagodas should always have an odd number of floors. Kew's Pagoda tapers, with each successive floor from the first to the topmost being 1 ft (30 cm) less in diameter and height than the preceding one.

The original building was very colourful; the roofs being covered with varnished iron plates, with a dragon on each corner. There were 80 dragons in all, each carved from wood and gilded with real gold. The iron plates were later replaced by slate and the dragons vanished. Claims have often been made that that they were sold to pay off some of George IV's debts, but William Aiton, remembering them from his childhood, is known to have informed William Hooker that their wooden structure had simply rotted away.

In 1843, Decimus Burton wanted to restore the Pagoda to its former glory, but the cost then of £4,350 was considered too high a price to pay.

Wartime exploits
Contemporaries of Chambers often wondered if such a tall building would remain standing, though it had been "built of very hard bricks". Its sturdy construction was proved in World War II when it survived a close call from a stick of German bombs exploding nearby. This was ironic, since at the time, holes had been made in each of its floors so that British bomb designers could drop models of their latest inventions from top to bottom to study their behaviour in flight.

Restorations
There have been several restorations, mainly to the roofs, but the original colours and the dragons have not been replaced, though the question of replica dragons was discussed in 1979.

The Pagoda is closed to the public, although, in 2006 it briefly opened for public access.

Weather watch
The BBC have installed a camera at the top of the Pagoda as a window on the weather. It has captured some of the extremes that have been experienced so far in 2007.

Highlights of the 2007 BBC timelapse footage...

Chambers' Chinese period
Chambers was a significant contributor to the architecture of Kew. He is best known for his more restrained Palladian buildings such as Somerset House, but Kew allowed him to indulge in more fantastical architecture. The Mosque, Alhambra, Palladian Bridge and other decorative buildings have disappeared, and the Pagoda is the only remaining building from his 'Chinese period'. It is, of course, also a vital component of Nesfield's grand vistas.

Kew's Pagoda is a fine example of its type, although far removed from Chambers' original intention due to the loss of its more colourful and extravagant roofing and decorative elements. Nevertheless, the Pagoda is the building most easily seen from outside the walls. If Kew has an architectural icon, apart from the Palm House, the Pagoda is it.

Kew Gardens 43

nobody@flickr.com (EricP2x) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 08:42:06 -0700

EricP2x posted a photo:

Inside The Temperate House.

Kew Gardens 50

nobody@flickr.com (EricP2x) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 08:44:07 -0700

EricP2x posted a photo:

Chokushi-Mon or The Japanese Gateway is is a four-fifths size replica of the Karamon of Nishi Hongan-ji in Kyoto, the ancient imperial capital of Japan.

The replica was originally built for the Japan-British Exhibition, held in London in 1910, a year after which it was dismantled and rebuilt in Kew Gardens. The mound on which it stands was once the site of Sir William Chambers' Mosque, hence its name of 'Mossy Hill'.

Kew's Chokushi-Mon is the finest example of a traditional Japanese building in Europe, built in the architectural style of the Momoyama (or Japanese rococo) period in the late 16th century, a time of peace, prosperity and flowering creativity.

Typically expressive, Chokushi-Mon shows finely carved woodwork depicting flowers and animals, with the most intricate panels portraying an ancient Chinese legend about the devotion of a pupil to his master.

Restorations
The Japanese woodcarver, Kumajiro Torii, carried out some detailed repair work in 1936 and 1957, but by 1988, the edifice was badly dilapidated. With generous support from Japan and elsewhere, a full restoration, combining traditional Japanese skills and modern techniques was completed, after a year's painstaking work, in November 1995.

Today, Chokushi-Mon is seen in rather more than its original splendour, because as part of the restoration, the original lead-covered cedar-bark roof shingles were replaced with traditional visually and more dramatic, copper tiles.

Kew Gardens 39

nobody@flickr.com (EricP2x) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 08:40:38 -0700

EricP2x posted a photo:

Inside The Temperate House.

Kew Gardens 49

nobody@flickr.com (EricP2x) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 08:43:45 -0700

EricP2x posted a photo:

Kew Gardens 44

nobody@flickr.com (EricP2x) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 08:42:26 -0700

EricP2x posted a photo:

Inside The Temperate House.

Kew Gardens 40

nobody@flickr.com (EricP2x) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 08:40:57 -0700

EricP2x posted a photo:

Inside The Temperate House.

Kew Gardens 38

nobody@flickr.com (EricP2x) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 08:40:13 -0700

EricP2x posted a photo:

The Temperate House. Once the largest plant house in the world and now the world's largest surviving Victorian glass structure, the Temperate House is another of Decimus Burton's designs. At 4,880 square metres, it is the largest public glasshouse at Kew, twice the size of the Palm House.

Tender woody plants from the world's temperate regions have always been a major part of the collection at Kew. In Victorian times, the intensity of collecting meant that the Orangery and many other houses quickly became vastly overcrowded and the need for a large temperate greenhouse had become overwhelming.

In 1859, the Government allocated £10,000 to build the Temperate House and directed Decimus Burton to prepare designs for this 'long-desiderated' conservatory. However, in 1863, the Treasury called a halt to building for budgetary reasons. However, the building was finally completed in 1898.

Today, the planting has reverted to Decimus Burton's original geographical scheme and includes many unusual crop plants from warmer climates.