Open Hooooooouse 2015 #8

After that I went off to Pennington Street Docks, because I like docks and goods transport and that kind of stuff (I looooove goods containers, and last year one of my favourite visits was Container City - http://metropolithan.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/open-house-london-2014-day-2-part-3.html). Pennington Street is part of the Tobacco Dock area, which a very, very odd area of London. The warehouses weren't that interesting – just some 19th century brick vaults –but it was nice and cool.

Open Hooooooooouse 2015 #2

I got on the DLR at Tower Hill and headed off to Chrisp Street Market to visit the clock tower, because I like to climb up things to get a good view over the city. Give me a high platform over London and I am happy (speaking of which, I need to book a Skygarden slot at some point).

While I was there, some of the volunteers mentioned there was a walk of the area starting at 12, and having only a vague clue where I even was at this point, I decided to stick around for that.

It was a really interesting walk, although it did involve going up the clock tower a second time, which was quite hard on my legs. A lot of the people on the walk were locals who knew about the area too, so that was good.

The Chrisp Street area was developed as part of the Festival of Britain in 1951, to show how working-class areas could be improved (or rather rebuilt) post-war with care and attention. The area didn't get as many visitors as hoped but various elements of the estate - low-rise housing, open spaces - definitely set the area apart from many places in London, even today.

The tower itself was described by its designer (Sir Frederick Gibberd) as a 'practical folly', and is a freestanding brick structure (with concrete steps) on the edge of the market place.

Views from the tower:

I didn't take many pictures on the walk round the area, but as you can see above there is some really interesting 20th century architecture, including the currently-closed Balfron tower (due to become privately-owned flats, sadly: http://www.eastendreview.co.uk/2015/03/24/balfron-tower-poplar-harca/).

As I said above, I barely knew where I was but it's definitely an area I'm interested in visiting again, preferably with a bit more forward knowledge this time!

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! 

The Crystal

A few weeks ago, I decided to go off to Docklands for a wander. Oh, no, hang on: I decided to go to Woolwich to walk through their Thames Foot Tunnel as I've done the Greenwich one a few times (no photos as the entrances to both have various scaffolding and works going on, and the insides basically look...the same). 

Of course, when you walk through a tunnel you end up in a different place to where you started, so I ended up at King George V Dock and went on the DLR to Pontoon Dock, which is where the Thames Barrier Park is (that'll be another entry). Eventually, I made my long and meandering way round to Royal Victoria Docks. I was going to go on the cable cars to North Greenwich - this wasn't actually planned, I didn't realise until I got to RVD that's where it was...) but it was too windy. Another time...

Next to the cable car station (is that the word? Hmmmm) was a building with a lot of sharp points called The Crystal, and because the cable car was denied to me and I couldn't be bothered to queue for however long it might be before it reopened (people were waiting there! Why? It was a very windy day!) I decided to pop in to find out what the pointy thing was. 

The Crystal is a 'sustainable cities initiative' by Siemens, a sustainably-run building with information and interactive displays and game things designed to look at the possible future of cities and how they can become less environmentally...iffy.

When you go in, they give you a swipe card to start all the information display thingmabobs (I failed to take a picture), which is good for small children running around the place, hahaha. I think it's probably most appealing if you a) love cities (I do), b) are interested in sustainability (I am) and/or c) are a massive hippy (I am). 

It's an interesting space with plenty of electronic things to look at and press, although I would say younger children (say below 8) might get bored quite quickly - although there are things to play with, if you don't get the context behind them you'll just be looking at some blinking lights. To be honest, even if you do get the context there are still a lot of blinking lights:

 

The information boards and games are really interesting, and although it can be slightly depressing when you consider how little most people are prepared to do (look, I live in a place where people can't tell the difference between normal and recycling bins...), it can also be encouraging as a lot of the changes that need to be made are relatively simple and just require a bit of thought. 

A lot of thought and design has obviously gone into the building and the displays, but I think it might get slightly missed being all the way out in Royal Victoria Docks. If you are interested in the future of cities and sustainability, it's worth a visit. And depending on the weather you might get a chance to go on the cable cars as well :).

Crystal website: http://www.thecrystal.org/_html/index.html