Views from Heron Tower

Today I went up to town with my sister and her bf as I wanted to go to the plaza under the Cheesegrater. Unfortunately we got up there and the plaza was shut off (damn) so we wandered around aimlessly (FYI there's a lego model of the Gherkin outside the Gherkin...) until we decided to go up Heron Tower to Duck and Waffle for a drink. Unfortunately they were too busy to serve us which has turned out to be a good thing now I know the wine list starts at £40 a bottle!

Anyhoo, Heron Tower is 46 floors' worth of premium office space near Liverpool Street Station which opened in 2011. The fishtank in reception is the largest privately-owned aquarium in the UK and has an entirely sustainable ecosystem (!). Sadly we didn't go in to the main building so I don't have any pictures but it is pretty impressive even just walking past.

I took these photos in the lift on the way up so please excuse the quality as they were taken through two layers of glass.

Open House London 2014 Day 2 Part 4

Last place! It is tiring just looking back at these things - no wonder I booked the Monday off from work. 

As I was on the DLR and it is, as everyone knows, the best way to travel around London, I went to see Limehouse Town Hall. Unfortunately failed to take into account this would involve walking down Commercial Road (never a good time), but it didn't take too long to get there. 

Limehouse Town Hall was built in 1879. It is Grade II Listed and currently on the English Heritage At Risk register. It is being renovated for use as an arts/community centre and I really hope they can get it all redone as it was a very nice space and the people running it (http://www.lthct.org.uk/) obviously care a lot about it. 

Inside:

I particularly liked the balustrades. 

After having a look round this building I considered dashing off somewhere else (it was about 4.30 or something) but then sanity prevailed and I stopped there. My total was 9, which equals my previous record but is slightly disappointing as I was hoping to beat it. Still I did enough planning this year that sorting out next year should be easier! I also picked up a lot of info about places which are in Open House but also open other times, so I have many other places to go. 

I was very very pleased with the sites I visited and as ever it was a tremendously exciting weekend to be in London. My favourite was probably Crossrail at Canary Wharf (as I can probably go back to Trinity Buoy Wharf). 

Open House London 2014 Day 2 Part 3

My next destination was THE MIDDLE OF FRICKING NOWHERE, or as close as you can get to the middle of nowhere in London (and you can, trust me on this one, I'm good at finding places like this). 

I went out to Trinity Buoy Wharf/Container City, first going to East India DLR and then following the signs (the signage was SUPER helpful, bless them) to Orchard Place. 

The first thing that greets you is this: 

which is nice. 

Just round the corner is this:

And then further down the road is a weird mishmash of artists' studios (Container City), a diner, a boat painted red, the only lighthouse in London and some art installations. And of course there are amazing views over the river. 

It is a really interesting site to wander around, especially if you like the aesthetics of containers (I do!). The installations are pretty interesting and tend to relate to the river:

Alunatime is London's first moon and tide clock and is a graphical notation of time in light (from photos it looks like this is better at night)

Floodtide is tidal sonification, which is to say it makes sounds depending on what the tides are doing.  

Inside the lighthouse was the most exciting thing - Longplayer. Longplayer is an installation I'd heard about somewhere and read about in one of my London books (I think it was Secret London). Longplayer is a song made with Tibetan singing bowls which is designed to play without repetition for 1000 years.

You can listen live! http://longplayer.org/listen/live-stream/

To finish, two views from the site. And the boat. 

In this one you can see the sculpture Quantum Cloud by Anthony Gormley. The darker shape in the middle looks like a human figure if you see it from the right angle (more info - http://www.antonygormley.com/sculpture/item-view/id/269).

Next post: last visit of the weekend! 

Open House London 2014 Day 2 Part 2

After Greenwich I hopped on the DLR to Canary Wharf to go to the Crossrail construction site (THE CROSSRAIL SITE, OMG) which is due to open in 2018. It is being built in an old wharf and is six storeys high (it is massive, people), and as it is a construction site a lot of these pics feature wires/unfinished things/hoardings.

(Some interesting info and a mock-up of what the station will look like here: http://group.canarywharf.com/portfolio/canary-wharf-crossrail-station/)

The entrance to the station is suitably sci-fi (well played, architects):

The station has excellent views over Docklands which are probably even better on non-cloudy days (I will definitely be going back for a visit when it is open even if I don't need to go anywhere haha):

On the top level was the beginning of a garden, another thing that will look really good in a few years' time. 

Going further down into the station there were half-finished escalators, huge ticket halls and incomplete platforms. It was great. 

The ticket hall level: 

Platform level:

Escalator steps!  

After wandering around the platform level (platforms were blocked off so presumably not ready yet) we got to go back up to the ground floor in the service lift (which basically seemed to be a big wooden box), and then left via a slightly different route to coming in.  

This was a great walk and a really interesting site to visit - I would love to tour the other Crossrail sites as well (I did get some good views down into the TCR site after going to Centrepoint for meetings). The station should look fab when it is all finished, and it should fit right in with the weirdness that is Canary Wharf. 

One more post to come! Nearly there (and then I have other photos to post).