Waterloo, from my recent visit to London. This is King's
College, an excellent example of the Stripped Classicism that was preferred in
England between the wars, rather than Corb-style Modernism.
It was later seen as a timid cop-out. Hopefully many can see it now as a
serious attempt to meet the demands of industrial production while maintaining
some continuity with the past.
I'm not suggesting that this example is of any great architectural merit, but
it's part of the nuanced and continuous evolution of building design in modern
Britain.
Flemish Bond by the way.
Two versions of the same image: a portion of brickwork which is typical of Basingstoke's Victorian/Edwardian housing stock. Flemish Bond. Polychrome. Nine inch (one brick) external walls. The first image is a photo, the second an AI watercolour. I find that these watercolours add both clarity and confusion. You never know quite where the balance will fall. If this instance didn't hallucinate blue bricks where they shouldn't be it would be fine.
It did help me to spot the small 3/4 which really should have been worked out
in the joints across the width of the dwelling, instead of violating the logic
of Flemish Bond in the three courses below the decorative band. Quite
unnecessary. The bricklayers should have paused to dry-bond the first course
over that long stone lintel, then mark the positions of the joints with a stick
of chalk, and widen the cross joints slightly to maintain the bond.
Easy for me to say 🙄
View from my living room. The transition to cold and wet
seems quite abrupt. I'm keeping up my daily walks pretty well so far, but you
have to take the opportunities promptly when they arise.
I do love the chimney stacks. Such a poignant reminder of the fossil fuel
revolution that ushered in the modern world. Without coal and all that followed
(oil, gas, electricity) we would most of us still be farm labourers. Healthier
perhaps in some ways, but with shorter lives.
It's great to be back in a country where the buildings still remember that
history.
