Open House London 2014 Day 2 Part 1

Trying to get up to date on my photos while I am actually on holiday, so here is where I went on the Sunday of Open House weekend. 

I started off on Lee High Road (probably a good thing that the amazing wool shop on Lee High Road is shut on Sundays) at Boone's Chapel, a former almshouse chapel which is now being used as an architect's studio. 

It was built in the 1680s as the chapel for almshouses built by the Merchant Taylors' Company. The founder - Christopher Boone - was at one point probably one of the richest men in the country and was one of the commissioners of the East India Company. 

The chapel is currently all that's left of the almshouses, which is a shame (the other buildings were demolished in the 1870s). It fell into disrepair for a while but money was raised to restore it and it is now in use as an architect's studio. 

I then stopped by a church (failed to take picture of the name so currently very confused trying to work out what church it was and why won't it show up on Google maps aaaaaagh). I can't just look it up on the Open House site as the guy who told me about it said it wasn't officially part of Open House and wasn't on the website. I went into the grounds/churchyard but didn't go in as there seemed to be services on and as it wasn't officially part of the weekend I didn't feel comfortable interrupting. 

OK I FOUND IT. St Margaret's Church, confusingly enough across the road from St Joseph's Vale. Bloody hell. 

ANYWAY. After that I went off to Blackheath via a shortcut that someone at Boone's Chapel told me about (I am saving this knowledge for future reference). I then got the bus to Greenwich and went to Noodle Time for lunch, because Noodle Time is the best and yes I do think this is relevant. 

In Greenwich I visited St Alfege Church, which as it turned out was a Hawksmoor Church so the deja vu from the day before was a bit odd. The current church is 300 years old and is undergoing a bunch of renovation works. It was damaged by fire in 1941 but was restored to the original design. 

NB photos on the outside are odd angles because some of it was covered up due to renovations. 

Ok, so that was the first part of my Sunday but the two (or three, depending on how you count it) most exciting things are still to come. However it is getting late so I will come back to this tomorrow!

Open House London 2014 Day 1 Part 2

After Bloomsbury I went off to Liverpool Street to visit Broadgate City of London: Behind the Scenes, which is a model showing the huge amount of work being done at Broadgate (Broadgate Circle to reopen in 2015!). I like models showing building works and in fact visited a different one at a previous Open House. I also visited New London Architecture and blogged about it here ages ago (http://metropolithan.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/new-london-architecture.html).

A very nice lady explained the model to me, and then I forgot to take any photos of it. However I think that the visitor centre is open to the public so it's worth popping in if you're near Liverpool Street. The lady (I didn't get her name) also gave me some leaflets about what's going on at Broadgate, which is how I found out that the Finsbury Avenue floor lights up at night, so obviously I need to get down there post haste (http://www.broadgate.co.uk/art/LitFloor). 

As I failed to get any pictures of the model, here is a link to the architecture part of the website: http://www.broadgate.co.uk/Architecture.

I then went off to 10 Exchange Sqaure for a rooftop tour (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) which was miraculously being offered without pre-booking. Sadly it was quite cloudy by this point BUT SERIOUSLY, ROOFTOP TOUR. So yes, there was a tall building, you could go up it, I went up it, HURRAH. 

Outside and inside the building:

Roof views:

I thought I had gone to six places but looking at my photos and notes it seems to be five. I'm now trying to work out whether I've accidentally counted the Embassy of Belgium (I did go there but their spaces were filled) or whether I went somewhere and forgot about it. I did go past quite a few of the sites in the city but didn't actually visit them. 

Open House London 2014 Day 1 Part 1

Open House is a weekend that runs in September where buildings in London are open to the public. For the past three years I've been away during Open House BUT NOT THIS YEAR. This year I am here and I have been planning. 

There are over 800 sites taking part and the maximum I have ever managed in a weekend is 9, so first I had to narrow it down. Then I had to narrow it down again. And then again. There were custom maps involved, it was GREAT. I got it down to 19, but even that is mostly a guide as yesterday I visited 6 sites, two of which weren't even on the list (I tried to go to another 4 but two had big queues, one was full and on the way to the third I realised I'd get there too late to get in). 

I started off at Friendship House, which is an hostel accommodation place near Borough tube station. The guy who gave me a tour seemed to be a little confused as to why I had turned up for a tour when I wasn't looking to stay there, but hey, if you open up a building, someone like me will turn up. 

It turned out to be one of those buildings I'd passed on the train hundreds of times but had never really thought about (I presumed that it was flats because I presume everything on the way in to London Bridge is flats). The rooms are self-contained, with mini fridge and mini freezer, there are self-catering kitchens on every floor, a communal quiet space (not quite sure how that bit works tbh) and a gym. It was interesting to have a nose around and if you are looking for somewhere to stay in London it's actually pretty smart and pretty cheap: http://lhalondon.com/friendship-house/

After that I went to the Swedenborg Society on Bloomsbury Way. Emanuel Swedenborg was a Swedish philosopher and inventor, and the Society is a publisher and bookseller. They also organise events and film screenings (their next showing is a Jim Jarmusch double bill). However I didn't know anything about him or the society but I was interested in the Doulton tiles on the staircase mentioned in the programme*.

The building is a Grade II listed Georgian domestic building that was refurbished in the 1920s. It was a very calm, quiet space and the tiles were lovely. 

(as per usual my camera is weird with light; thinking of getting a new one even though this one still works)

After the Swedenborg Society I went to St George's Bloomsbury, which wasn't on my list but was very close by. I think I might have been before with my sister but I'll have to check with her. 

St George's is the last of Nicholas Hawksmoor's London Churches and it was conscrated in 1730. The chandelier (see below) was once in the V&A (which reminds me, V&A-related update coming up after the Open House stuff). 

There are so many photos I'm going to do the next lot in another entry (especially as they are rooftop photos). 

*Yes, I did so much narrowing down that tiny details like that helped me make the decisions!

Thames Tunnel at Rotherhithe

...or Wow, My Camera Is Terrible In Low Light.

So the Thames Tunnel at Rotherhithe is not normally open to the public, for the very good reason that it's usually the tunnel London Overground (/East London Line) trains use to travel between Rotherhithe and Wapping. However! For some reason they decided to open it this Bank Holiday Weekend, so I jumped at the chance and managed to convince my stepmum to come too ('will I need my camera?' 'well, it depends if you want to take photos of a brick tunnel. I mean, obviously I do, but you might not.' 'I think I'll leave it here.'). It was really interesting to visit and I'm quite pleased that I have now walked through the Greenwich, Woolwich and Rotherhithe foot tunnels. 

Construction started in 1825, and it was the first tunnel under a river anywhere in the world. The tunnel was designed by Marc Brunel and Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and it took almost 20 years to complete (workers could only do two hour shifts because of the conditions). When they ran out of money during construction a banquet was held in the tunnel to raise funds.

The tunnel was opened to the public in 1843, and quickly became a very popular tourist attraction, with shops opening in the tunnel and fairs etc being held there. However after twenty years the tunnel was sold to the East London Railway and used to run trains. The East London Line was eventually extended and then became part of the London Overground network.

Photos from the walk: 

Some of the original arches, and some that were replaced after Rotherhithe was bombed during WW2. 

Views down the tunnels:

And some other miscellanous pictures of things: 

Sort of a doodle

There were regular signs on the floor showing the distance to the nearest station.

The thing with the two wires running over the circles is the tunnel telephone system for drivers to use. 

View of Rotherhithe platform from an unusual angle.

The view down into the tunnels as we were leaving.