A Commonwealth Institution

Last week I took advantage of the wonderful London Open House weekend to visit the Commonwealth Institute for the first time in over 40 years.Long closed and gently decaying, it was revealing its interior to the World for one last time before extensive changes are made in order that it can become the new home of the Design Museum in 2014.

 

 I have always loved this building, perched, as it is, on the edge of Holland Park (which also happens to be one of my favourite places in our City). My first visit to the Institute was as part of a school group, unsurprising really as my school was only about 10 minutes walk away, but I went several times after, either on my own or with friends.

In many ways, it was a dry and dusty place, full of the sort of  stuff that, if it were in the Science Museum or the Natural History Museum, you would hurry  past on the way to something more exciting. The production of cocoa or sugar cane not being the most interesting thing to a teenage boy! I think, perhaps, that I would get more from the exhibits now than I did then. However, although I probably didn’t understand why at the time, the building was fascinating. Details of its design and construction have been well covered elsewhere, so I will just say that it seemed to be more like the set of a James Bond film than a museum……and that roof was just something else! 

 Opened by the Queen on the 6^th November 1962, it gave sterling service promoting the Commonwealth and providing educational services to thousands of school children. It was closed, suddenly and controversially in 2002. Since then the building has had a very rocky ride, with a whole string of proposals and objections and all the time deteriorating year by year.

 Now, it has a future, it’s not a future that pleases everyone but then what would. The exterior is Grade 11* listed and is regarded by English Heritage as the second most important modern building in London (after the Royal Festival Hall) but the listing does not follow through to the interior. Design Museum representatives were a little cagey about the planned changes to the inside but I’m pretty sure that we can assume they’ll be extensive.  

 I think that we have to be practical here. It is currently a wonderful space and it will be a great shame to lose it, but it was originally designed for a specific purpose and that purpose has now passed.  To make it useable, and the future of the building is entirely dependant on it being useable, change has to be accepted. We can only hope that those changes are as sympathetic as possible.

Did I mention the flagpoles? They’ve been a feature of that part of Kensington High Street for so long. Visible even when the Institute is largely hidden by the trees. Whatever happens to the rest of the building, I hope they keep the flagpoles. They look fantastic…….even without the flags!

There are more of my pics here but, as I am unable to fly, there is an excellant photograph of the complex hyperbolic paraboloid copper roof here. The Evening Standard article itself is no longer relevant, except to show just part of the complex and troublesome history of this wonderful building.

It’s September!

So August has come and gone and with it my first year of blogging. At 3750 odd views in that year, I’m not much of a player in the blogosphere but that’s about 3700 more views than I would have expected so I am well pleased.

A year ago, I kicked things off by posting about my local street party, the Notting Hill Carnival and we have just seen this years event pass without major incident. August in London was a strange month, starting with riots on the streets and ending with Europe’s largest street event. Numbers at Carnival were certainly down this year, probably due to the combination of a dull weekend and the nagging suspicion that something unpleasant may just happen. With the exception of one serious assault and a lower than usual number of arrests for minor offences, all went well and the changes in timing, brought about by the earlier disturbances, meant that peace (and quiet)  settled over the area fairly soon after the sun went down.

For anyone who missed the Notting Hill Carnival, for whatever reason, but still like a parade, then consider going to the final evening of the Thames Festival. Less crowded than Notting Hill and taking place after dark it has a completely different, but no less enjoyable, atmosphere. As an added bonus, the Festival ends with a fantastic firework display, over the river, between Waterloo and  Blackfriars Bridges.

The Night Carnival and firework display  are just the culmination of a whole weekend of events taking place between Westminster in the west and The St Katharine Docks in the east. Look out especially for the Feast on the Bridge on Saturday. Southwark Bridge will be closed to traffic and transformed into a large, al fresco, dining area. Plenty of good food and entertainment and a lot of fun…………..even for kids as old as me!

The Festival Market runs for the whole of the weekend and whilst you are there seek out Amelia Parker, whose stall will be in front of the Royal Festival Hall. Her clay pipe jewellery is not only beautiful and unique but are probably the only truly Thames related items that you will find in the entire market. OK, this is a blatant plug for a friend, but do take a look, I'm confident that you will be impressed!

 Finally, if you missed both the Notting Hill Carnival and the Thames Festival, there is the chance to see a different kind of parade and another firework display on Saturday 12^th November. With nearly 800 years of history behind it, the annual Lord Mayors Show is a visual, though usually somewhat chilly, treat.

London Riots

There is a kind of communal madness going on in London at the moment. This is the third night of incidents but the situation is escalating. Outbreaks of rioting, looting and violence are occurring  all over the city.

I arrived home from work at about 10.30 and was flipping between the BBC and Sky news channels and talking to a friend on the phone about the situation, when I heard shouting in the street. When I looked out I saw a group of youths attacking the pub across the road which had closed earlier than usual, presumably as a precaution. They were smashing the windows and kicking the doors in. They eventually broke through and a couple of them entered the premises.

Several neighbours were at their windows who were clearly calling the police and there were staff still on the premises. Although I didn’t see them leave, I don’t think the gang hung around for very long.

This was a relatively minor incident in the overall scheme of things, but it could have been much worse. I suspect that they grabbed a few bottles and moved on without following the trend in other areas of setting fire to the building. I have no idea where they went but I doubt that this was the first, or the last, attack that they made this evening.

It is now shortly after 1.00am and news reports are coming in all the time of similar rioting happening all over town. This is unlike anything we have ever experienced before.  Riots are not unknown, but in the past they have been restricted to a relatively small area. This something quite new and very disturbing.

There are reports of police inaction but to be fair there is probably very little they can do. There are so many incidents that there is no way that they can contain all of this craziness.

None of this bears any relationship to the incident that sparked the whole thing. Looting and burning is not protesting. Looting and burning is vandalism and theft. People are losing their homes and livelihoods and  before very long someone is going to lose their life.

I love London, and I am proud to be a Londoner. I really couldn’t bear to live anywhere else, but at this moment I feel shamed by what is happening. It’s impossible to see how far this will go and, for most of us, there is little we can do but sit back and watch.

The Sewer and the Olympics

I saw a report yesterday about the Thames Tideway Scheme, the controversial plan to run a rainwater sewer from Hammersmith to Beckton/Crossness. Apparently  Chicago has one of these that works quite well there. However, their experience has led them to suggest that a similar system may not be suited to London and many experts here, as well as several of the councils affected by this hugely expensive scheme, seem to agree.

The really interesting thing is that in addition to the sewer, Chicago is developing an innovative system to control rainwater runoff. Known  as the Green Alleys Program, they are using permeable surfaces on a number of side streets and in the parking lane of some larger streets, allowing rainwater to drain directly into the earth rather than being channeled into the sewers (the direct opposite of our obsession with paving over our front gardens). The scheme is in its early stages but shows great promise and is being extended. It has also been used on parking lots and at least one school has a graded parking lot that drains into a kind of pond/bog garden which ultimately has the same effect. This, and a whole range of other schemes, aim to make Chicago the Greenest City in America. We could do far worse than steal a few of these ideas for our own use!

I don't like paved over front gardens for all kinds of reasons but there are existing systems in use here that utilise a kind of concrete honeycomb with grass growing in the cells of the comb so that you have a hard standing that is barely visible AND drains water away............mind you, you still can't have a garden wall or a decent bit of privet!

.......and another thing. One year from yesterday will be the busiest day at the Olympics and nerves are starting fray with regards to the transport system. We, Londoners that is, are apparently being advised to change our travel arrangements, take our holidays, or even to work from home to relieve the pressure on the buses and the tube. These people clearly do not live in London but surely inhabit the homeland of the mysterious Cloud Cuckoo. Despite the wonders of the internet and the mobile phone most people are still tied to a work place and a job that is site specific and some of those people are involved in jobs which, if they were to take the current advice, could have an adverse affect on the visitors experience of the Capital.

.........bugger it's too late now to dump the whole lot into the laps of the Parisians, can't we just sell it to a corrupt Russian oligarch to use for his own dubious ends.

Enough for now, maybe I'm just grumpy because I've been too hot and uncomfortable for the last couple of days, and I'm tired because sleeping hasn't been easy. We are, after all a temperate, if not a temperant, society..........but good news........the weather is getting worse hoorah!

The Lavender Hill Mob

The Ealing Comedies are amongst the best loved products of the British film industry. One of these is currently showing here in London, at the Odeon, Panton St. giving us the rare opportunity to see it on a (relatively) big screen.  After handing over an eye watering £11.45, I settled down to wait. Screen 2 at Panton St is typical of  any multi screen cinema and as such is comfortable enough but adds nothing to the cinema going experience.

As the lights dimmed we slipped into the seemingly endless series of trailers of “now showing” and “coming soon” films. These were a serious assault on the senses. Designed, as they were, to show off the power of digital technology. The sound, in particular, left me with the sense that there was blood trickling from my ears. I have no idea what any of those films were, except that one included rapping penguins and another featured Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher!

Eventually this madness stopped and the old familiar certification appeared on screen, assuring us that The Lavender Hill Mob was highly unlikely to offend anyone……….bliss!

Released in 1951, written by T.E.B. Clarke and directed by Charles Crichton, it is a beautifully crafted heist movie. Henry Holland (Alec Guinness) is a clerk in the Bullion Office  at “The Bank” who for twenty years has been responsible for the transportation of gold. His devotion to his job and his utter reliability make him appear to be the ideal man  for this position, but he has a secret. He has developed the perfect plan to steal a consignment and escape from the tedium of his life. The only fly in the ointment is how to dispose of the gold. Selling it on the post war British black market is far too risky but getting it out of the country seems like an impossible task.

Enter Alfred Pendlebury (the wonderful Stanley Holloway), the new lodger at the boarding house in Lavender Hill where Henry Holland lives. A frustrated artist, Pendlebury owns a small foundry producing cheap souvenirs for the British and European holiday trade. Put two and two together and you have the basis for a very entertaining 80 minutes.

Everything works in this film. The set pieces, the robbery, the wild run down the spiral staircase of the Eiffel Tower and the car chase are wonderfully handled. It is both funny and tense and all of the characters are likeable, how often can you say that!

The cast is brilliant, the two principles are well supported by Alfie Bass and Sidney James as professional thieves recruited to assist in the caper. There are many other well known names in the cast, such as John Gregson, Sidney Taffler and Michael Trubshawe and even more of those shamefully anonymous character actors from the period such as Marjorie Fielding, Clive Morton and Meredith Edwards. Blue Peter’s Valerie Singleton apparently has an  uncredited part although I think that I must have blinked while she was on screen, because I didn’t see her. There is even an early and quite brief appearance by Audrey Hepburn. But there is one star that hasn’t been mentioned yet.

London. This film is as old as I am and provides some wonderful footage of the Capital in the post war years. Surprisingly, Lavender Hill makes little or no contribution but there are some nice shots of Notting Hill/Dale. However, the real interest is in the City. The Bank, The Royal  Exchange  and most importantly the area around St Paul’s are very well portrayed. The amount of open space around the Cathedral, the result of wartime bomb damage, may well astonish some younger viewers.

So, this is not a slick, high tech, modern heist caper. There are plenty of those around and many of them are very entertaining, but this is something special. Seemingly old fashioned now, it was cutting edge in its day.

Go and see it.

From left to right - the former Bramley Arms, the site of the Old MacDonald police car crash - Lavender, you have to use you imagination for the rest of the title - St Paul's, not as depicted in the film!

L’Invasion

We are being invaded by the French! Well, it’s not really an invasion, it’s more of an infiltration……and it’s not actually the French, but it is something very, very French.

In recent years we have become much more of an outdoor society. Perhaps it’s global warming or possibly we’re just becoming more “European” in our approach to life, but whatever the reason we are enjoying outdoor socialising more than ever. This has led to the proliferation of outdoor eateries and pavement cafes. It has also resulted in a serious improvement in the standard of mobile food vendors. Of course, the humble burger van is still out there and is, I am sure, still doing very well, but it is also now possible to get a decent cup of coffee and a snack or light meal from a café on wheels.

Many of these are served from imported vehicles, such as Piaggio three wheelers (just enough room for a coffee machine, but little else) and Airstream trailers (I do love an Airstream!) but the subject of this rambling is the vehicle that seems to have become the current weapon of choice in the street food wars. It is, of course, the Citroen H Van.

Perhaps not the prettiest of vehicles, with its boxy shape, snub nose and corrugated panels, but it certainly does exude a certain Gallic charm. You can easily imagine it sitting in a shady corner of the car park, sipping a pastis and smoking a Gauloise. In production from 1947 to 1981, it is a slow but eminently practical van with its low floor and high roof (most people would be able to stand upright in an H Van), its square lines have enabled it to be converted to suit just about any purpose, without resorting to an expensive, bespoke, coachbuilt body........and it is perfectly suited to the mobile food trade.
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For many years they have been catering for the needs of French travellers, parked at the side of the road, surrounded by plastic chairs and tables sheltering under Pernod and Ricard umbrellas. Overseen by portly chaps in stained aprons, there never seemed to be a shortage of punters prepared to lay down their francs and euros for a generous plate of steak frites before continuing their journey.

Now, they are here and, to my mind at least, are a very welcome addition to London’s al fresco scene. Serving everything from booze to crepes, they are cropping up at popular locations all over the Capital and beyond and long may that continue.

Of course, not all H Vans are used for catering, the black, short wheelbase model below, is a (rarely driven) mobile advert, pointing prospective buyers towards the slightly off the beaten track Temperley store in Notting Hill.

More information on the vans can be found here and here.

Is the Westway Sexy?

In 1964 a monster came to London. It clawed and chewed its way  from White City to Paddington leaving a broad ribbon of grey behind it like an elongated concrete worm cast. The Westway  was making its presence known. The background story to the Westway is really quite simple. Even in those far off days, the problem of increasing traffic was an issue. The A40 was, and indeed still is, one of the major roads into London from the West, carrying traffic from the Thames Valley and beyond.  It thundered Eastwards, squeezing past White City Stadium,  before finally emptying into Wood Lane and that is where the problems really began.

 

 It should be pointed out that the A40 wasn’t the road that it is today. There were none of the underpasses and flyovers that we are now familiar with. All of the major junctions were roundabouts and congestion was already a problem, but all of this paled into insignificance compared to that final junction at Wood Lane.

This was a T junction leading South towards Shepherd’s Bush and North, ultimately, towards the Great North Rd. The real problem was the railway. Running parallel and to the East  of Wood Lane are both mainline and underground tracks, effectively blocking any easy way through to Central London and the East.

None of the existing routes from there were suitable to carry the ever increasing weight of  traffic so it seemed that the only way was up!

To be honest the plans were much more ambitious than this. London was to become a network of ring roads with links to the motorways and trunk roads radiating from it. Ultimately, very little of this was actually built but the Westway and its companion the West Cross Route did eventually make it off of the drawing board and into reality.

Construction began in 1964, working its way Eastwards until it linked up with the, independently planned,  Marylebone Flyover which was opened in 1967. The 2.5 mile (4 km) Westway itself was formally opened by Michael Heseltine in July 1970.

Like most locals, I suppose, I have mixed feelings about the Westway. Despite the protests of  the residents,  a great swathe of  North Kensington, Notting Dale and Paddington was cleared, homes and businesses were lost and communities were destroyed. I regret what was lost, despite the fact that  much of it was considered to be slum housing. On the other hand, many residents found themselves living in the new tower blocks that sprung up adjacent to the new road, which at that time were a vast improvement on their former living conditions. The irony is that the lost housing would now be considered highly desirable though, in all probability, way beyond the means of its former inhabitants.

To a large extent, the Westway has done what it was supposed to do, but it’s doubtful that anyone back then could have conceived just how many vehicles would be on the road by this point in the 21^st century. We still suffer from traffic congestion and it’s likely we always will. I am a driver and, almost by definition, that makes me a hypocrite. I complain about traffic  congestion, whilst simultaneously being part of the cause of that congestion………I am not alone! The simple fact is that there are just too many cars on the road.

Today, the Westway is home to a whole range of activities. Lurking in its vast shadow are all manner of things from garages to naughty knicker shops. From health clubs to skateboard parks and from pop up galleries, restaurants and bars to riding stables. So it seems that the communities of the past have been replaced by those of a different sort.

Anyway, that’s the background out of the way. I return to my original question. Is the Westway sexy?

For the pedestrian, the central section is a little boring and, to a large extent, inaccessible (with the exception of the wonderful sweep out over the Grand Union canal). The Eastern section, close to Little Venice and Bishop’s Bridge Rd, if not sexy, is at least alluring. With its roundabout and its proximity to Paddington Basin, it certainly holds the attention.

However, it is really at its best at the Western end. Take a walk under the Northern Roundabout, where the Westway links with the West Cross Route. Here, among other things, you will find a sports centre and the riding stables but ignore these and just look up. The main road itself and the various access roads sweep and swoop around over your head. Thrusting out from the roundabout  are the spurs of the unbuilt section of road which was intended to force its way Northwards and the roadway at this point has a deep central spine which adds to the sinuous nature of the construction. Ignore the raw concrete and just enjoy the shapes.

So, is the Westway sexy……………hell yes…………but then again, maybe I should just get out more!

Check it out for yourself.