HA HA SAID THE PARK

 

 

War Memorial Park was once the grounds of Goldings, a country house built by Francis Russell in the late 18th Century. He bought Hackfield Field to create 6 acres of parkland to the south of his house, which incorporated parts of old timber frame cottages, but was restyle in a manner not unlike that of John Soane.

To separate the house and its garden from the parkland he built a ha-ha (concealed ditch) (1) parts of which are still visible at the south entrance to the park, close to the War Memorial itself. (2)

 

 

The house itself is now the registry office (3), and framed by council offices in modernish style. The older block leans towards brutalism (4), and the newer one towards postmodern vernacular (5).

Perhaps surprisingly, the whole urban set piece works rather well.

 

 

Uses of moulded clay. Pictorial inserts in a tree seat. (This kind of incidental street art is very common in Basingstoke) Ionic capitals and entablature in Fairfields School, a board school dated 1887 using typical local materials in a somewhat Dutch manner.

The school is still in active use, and a privelege to have on my walking routes, which also feature Georgian houses and many retaining walls that lean alarmingly. Very picturesque but sooner or later they will have to be rebuilt, hopefully in a sensitive manner.

 

 

It has to be said that although the call to prayer was intriguing when I first moved to Dubai and I have great respect for my many devout Muslim friends (and some not so devout perhaps) this is the sound of my home country, England and feels very comforting on my Sunday afternoon walk.

Culture is deeply embedded in our history. I to cannot be frozen, nor can it be changed in an arbitrary manner. Continuity is important. Although I travelled the world for 45 years and England has changed quite alarmingly while I was away, it is still my home.

 

 

BEDDING IN - NEW ROUTINES

 

Incremental progress on my Baroque church model. The "air-lock" doors don't feature in the floor plans I have seen, but it's a normal feature of church design (sound lock really) and perfectly obvious when you try to build a model from publicly available photographs. So that's one thing I've been working on. Still not quite happy with the proportions of the various components, but we are moving in the right direction.

Some effort has also gone into the column bases and the shafts, which are less tapered than my "standard" corinthian version. And finally the beginnings of infill panels between the columns which are framed up with various designs of niche and cartouche. It seems to me the niches were intended to take statues, but in the end were left blank.

I have yet to add the hollowing out of the wall for these niches, plus the pendentives currently looming above as dark voids. Day by day, we do what we can, and gain insight along the way.

 

Nibbling away at this seemingly herculean task. Accepting the less than perfect for good reasons. Making headway day by day.

This is San Carlo, a tiny church placed at a junction with four drinking fountains and dedicated to Charles Borromeo, an opponent of the modest reforms introduced by the breakaway church of England.

Distant times but familiar human nature. Also a very beautiful and greatly loved place of worship to uplift the human spirit. I have introduced preliminary versions of the side altars. Modeled in place to establish the basic size and proportions, then kept 'open' while I copied the geometry to a loadable family template. Now the two copies can be further developed as RFA files, with efficient use of time and computer memory.

 

This is a ghost gable on London Street, a short walk from my place. I decided to 'AI out' a 'for sale' sign that was distracting my eye from the subtle shadow letters. Of course the gremlin then hallucinated nonsense letters, so I proceeded to pixelate these away.

On future visits to the Reference Library I will look out for older images and text relating to this music shop that once thrived in a street that is now dominated by Turkish Barbers and exotic groceries.

Change is an ancient feature of English society and a fascinating study topic. But has it gone too far, too fast? It's a worry.

 

 

Friday late lunch. Rewarding myself for a nice long walk with fish and chips at the local Weatherspoons.

 

Still have to buy the hooks and plan picture hanging properly, but for the moment I've got a workable arrangement in place at my new home and most of the clutter tucked away.

Beautiful day.

 

 

MARY MARY QUITE CONTRARY

 

9am and it’s about time I got dressed and took some exercise.  Forecast to be mostly cloudy today and about 15 degrees, but no rain. Checking the weather is a new feature in my life as I gradually develop new daily routines. Quite pleased with myself for getting a couple of hours in on San Carlo over morning coffee. And enough images now for another LinkedIn post, composed as I take my meds.

At last I have part of the floor plan shaping up into something reasonable. This is a challenging building; we knew that from the start. I always enjoy coming across the limits of the floor plans that have been copied from book to book. I have a section that seems to be based on measurement, and my own floor plan is going to be highly speculative, but it certainly is invigorating to piece together the puzzle and develop a solution that is at least plausible.

To what extent is the undulating façade a premeditated stylistic move, as opposed to a solution to the out of square street junction. A way to mask shifting angles as the bulk of the interior is orthogonal to the side street.  Of course the intersecting ellipses are deliberate and clearly baroque. Progress made, but daunting challenges remain.  Time for a walk.

 

The story of yesterday. My morning walk took me to St Mary's church. I photographed the exterior on a previous visit, but had never been inside. The services are mostly held in a modern addition, square in plan, but on the diagonal. There is an in between space that acts as a coffee shop, very welcoming. I had a small square of ginger cake and a peppermint tea. The old church was built in phases, but all in the gothic revival style.

Walked on to the mall, sorted out my Internet/mobile contracts and stopped off at Wimpy for a fish and chips lunch.

 

More photos from the interior of St Mary's Basingstoke (Eastrop). Ages ranging from Georgian to Edwardian (Let's say 1750 to 1914 or birth of John Soane to the First World War) So not medieval, but still quite a sweep of history. I think it represents the town expanding to the East along the route of the canal. The beginnings of the industrial revolution which brought a surge in population growth and eventually in prosperity.

 

 

Then another Mary from another age. Queen Mary's sixth form college is just a short walk from my place. Very modern (late 20th to early 21st centuries) with an emphasis on the arts. I went their to see my younger grandson playing football with his scouts group. The pics here show some of the later buildings which perhaps try a little too hard to be geometrically adventurous. The older work is strictly rectilinear and with a limited materials palette. I think it's good to have that sense of built history on a campus, even if few of its current users notice at a conscious level.

Quite a lot of sun around lunch time and I was feeling the effects by the time I trudged home. Just OK I think. Probably it's good to push the stamina envelope slightly, but not too far.