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Last autumn, we felt confident enough to start arranging things in the new year. One of these was a show by Chinese acrobats that Jools wanted to see. She got Jen, Sylv and a friend to go. And yesterday was the day of the show. I made it clear it wasn't for me, but I would go up to rephotograph some City churches and we would meet up afterwards for a meal before coming home.
When we arrange things, we don't know what slings and arrows fate might throw at us. In Tuesday's case, it was a Tube drivers strike, and no last minute talks fixed that. I could arrange my trip to avoind using public transport other than the train up and back home, which were unaffected. Jools thought they would be OK, as their tickets were for the Odeon, which she thought was in Leicester Square, but it turned out was the old Hammersmith Apollo. Now, usually this would not have been a problem, but on Tuesday it was.
They arranged to leave an hour earlier than planned and try to get a taxi, which they did after waiting in line for an hour, getting to the theatre just half an hour before showtime, leaving them only time to get a snack.
Their journey up was done outside rush hour, the show ened at five, and they had to get back to St Pancras. Which would prove to be an adventure.
For me, however, it was a walk in the park. And to add to the pleasure of the day, I would meet up with my good friend, Simon, owner of the Churches of East Anglia website, just about every word and picture done by his own hand. His website also covers the City of LOndon churches, so I asked if he wanted to meet up; he did, so a plan was hatched to meet and visit a few churches, one of which, King Edmund, he had not been inside. He wouldn't arrive until jsut after ten to get the offpeak ticket prices, I would get up early as a couple of the churches would be open before nine.
A plan was made, and I had a list of chuches and a rough order in which to visit them.
The alarm went off at five, and we were both up. I having a coffee after getting dressed and Jools was to drop me off at the station, and as we drove in the heavy fog that had settled, I realised there was a direct train to Cannon Street just after seven, could I make it to avoid a half hour layover at Ashford?
Yes I could.
Jools dropped me off outside Priory station, I went in and got my ticket, and was on the train settled into a forward facing seat with three whole minutes to spare.
The train rattled it's way out of the station and through the tunnel under Western Heights, outside it was still dark. So I put my mask on and rested my eyes as we went through Folkestone to Ashford, an towards Pluckley, Headcorn, Marden to Tonbridge, Sevenoaks and so onto south east London. The train filled up slowly, until we got to Tonbridge which left few seats remaining, and at Sevenoaks, it was standing room only, but by then its a twenty minute run to London Bridge.
After leaving London Bridge station, the train took the sharp turn above Borough Market and over the river into Cannon Street. I was in no hurry, so enoyed the peace and space of an empty carriage before making my way off the train then along the platform and out onto the street in front. A heavy drizzle was falling, so I decided to get some breakfast and another coffee. Just up Walbrook there was an independent sandwich place, so I went in and asked what I wanted: faced with dozens of choices, all made to order, I had no idea.
I decided on a simple sausage sandwich and a coffee and watched people hurrying to work outside. I had all the time I wanted.
I check my phone and find that opening times were a little different, but St Mary Aldermary was open from half eight, so I check the directions and head there.
It was open, mainly because there is a small cafe inside. I ask if I could go in, they say yes, so I snap it well with the 50mm lens fitted, and decide that something sweet was called for. They recommended the carrot cake, so I had a slice of that and a pot of breakfast tea sitting and admiring the details of the church. Once I had finished, I put on the wide angle lens and finished the job.
Just up the lane outside was St Mary-le-Bow, which should also be open.
It was. Also because they had a cafe. I skipped another brew, and photographed that too, and saw that the crypt was open too, so went down the steps to that. Simon tells me that the church got it's name because of the brick arched crypt: bowed roof.
A five minute walk past The Bank of England was St Mary Woolnorth and St Mary Abchurch: both open, and both recorded by my camera and keen eye.
It was now near to ten, so I texted Simon to let him know to meet me at St Edmund, and I set off in the wrong direction. I only realised this when I was the other side of The Bank, so checked my map and retraced my steps and went down Lombard Street.
The rain was still falling gently, and I was damp, so found shelter under a balcony, as the church was not unlocked. The smell of tale piss rose from the pavement, it wasn't pleasant.
Simon arrived, we shook hands and reviewed the plans, and with it being nearly half ten, thought we would give Stephen Walbrook another go. And wonder of wonders, it was open! The church has been reordered, which isn't to everyone's taste, but the doughnut in the centre can be removed if needed, and Wren's church is still there, including the wonderful painted ceiling.
We went to Cornhill, as Somon had never visited St Peer there, or rather never found it open. I had a feeling that Friends of the City Churches were watching it on Tuesday, so should be open. And it was, although a workshop was going on, we went round not getting in anyone's way getting shots, and then chatting with the watcher, who didn't quite match Simon's knowledge, but the watcher had his book for reference.
Another church Simon hadn't been inside was St Katherine Cree, which again was a five minute walk back across the Square Mile.
It too was open.
Yay.
Pride here was the fine rose window, wheel-like for St Catherine.
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This is a very unusual church for London, unusual for England, for it was one of the very few churches to be built during the Laudian years at the start of the 17th Century. More than this, it can proudly claim that the new church was consecrated by Archbishop Laud himself. Even more, the vestments he wore and the ceremony he oversaw on the occasion were both used in evidence against him at his trial before he was summarily beheaded by the Puritans. You don't get a much higher pedigree than that.
Under the circumstances then, it is perhaps a little disappointing that the church is rather traditional, rebuilt on the exact foundations of its medieval predecessor, and perhaps doesn't really reflect what we know of Laudian worship at all. As Elizabeth and Wayland Young observed, it answers no questions about its time, informing one only that it was a time of change and indecision. The same may be said of the almost exactly contemporary church of St John in the city of Leeds in Yorkshire.
The dedication is an abbreviation of St Katherine Creechurch or Christchurch, for this was the site of the Augustinian Priory of Holy Trinity Aldgate, the parish of which was known as Christchurch. The people of the parish used the Priory church, which the monks seem to have found something of a nuisance, so in the 14th Century they gave the parish its own church, which Simon Bradley suggests may have been the former cemetery chapel. As the parish of Christchurch had been made up of four earlier medieval parishes, the new church took its dedication from one of them, St Katherine.
At the dissolution the parish was offered the Priory church, but they turned it down, probably because it was in a poor state of repair, or perhaps they were merely proud of the new tower built against their own church some thirty years earlier. Instead, St Katherine Cree was rebuilt against the tower, and consecrated in 1628. You step into an interior which feels much larger than seems possible from outside. At the time of the rebuilding the floor was raised up higher than the old church. The ceilings are vaulted above the deceptively powerful arcades, but it is the east window that draws the eye, a rose window like a Catherine wheel, one of the most memorable in London. Below it, the semi-circular sanctuary is simple and elegant.
Much of the glass in the east window is of the 1630s, as is that at the west end of the north aisle, for this church survived the Great Fire. Samuel Pepys described how it was used by the Corporation as a meeting place in the days after it. At the east end of the south aisle reclines Sir Nicholas Throkmorton who died in 1570, above an altar as if he were a southern European Catholic saint, and on the other side of the church above the font provided at the time of the rebuilding is another striking memorial to Bartholomew and Ann Ensor, showing them as shrouded figures leaning either side of the inscription. Bartholomew died in 1636, so this must have been one of the first new memorials in the rebuilt church. Most of the other windows are filled with late 19th and early 20th Century glass of varying quality, for this part of Leadenhall Street survived the Blitz. And so, apart from Michael Farrar-Bell's 1960 memorial glass to the victims of the German bombing of RMS Lancastria off the coast of France on 17th June 1940 with the loss of more than four thousand lives, St Katherine Cree remains in all its pre-war singularity.
Simon Knott, March 2022
www.simonknott.co.uk/citychurches/033/church.htm
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William Laud (LAWD; 7 October 1573 – 10 January 1645) was a bishop in the Church of England. Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by Charles I in 1633, Laud was a key advocate of Charles I's religious reforms, he was arrested by Parliament in 1640 and executed towards the end of the First English Civil War in January 1645.
A firm believer in episcopalianism, or rule by bishops, "Laudianism" refers to liturgical practices designed to enforce uniformity within the Church of England, as outlined by Charles. Often highly ritualistic, these were precursors to what are now known as high church views.
In theology, Laud was accused of Arminianism, favouring doctrines of the historic church prior to the Reformation and defending the continuity of the English Church with the primitive and mediaeval church, and opposing Calvinism. On all three grounds, he was regarded by Puritan clerics and laymen as a formidable and dangerous opponent. His use of the Star Chamber to persecute opponents such as William Prynne made him deeply unpopular.
For all you blondes who have been asking, we now have a group in-world, . Brilliant Blondes, search and IM any blonde to join, if you like, show us your brains and beauty!
When I got to the beach, I was at first very worried about what other people were noticing about me and wore a swimsuit cover unless I was taking pics. But after a while I noticed people either didn't care or liked me so I walked up and down the beach in my bikini just like any other woman.
"Are any of us so different from this tree -- strong, full, with a life almost unnoticed? And who among us does not grow and prosper when someone shines even the smallest bit of sunlight upon us? What more do I need to know of God and faith?... If I cannot see the face of God in a flower or a shaft of light, why should I expect to see it in ideas and books?" - a Jesuit priest
"Like a grain of fire, God plants His undivided power, buries His thought too vast for worlds, in seed and root and blade and flower..." - Thomas Merton
The men in the community of Nirona seemed to hold the magic of color creativity in their hands while the sharp, confident women exuded it through their chunky jewelry and intensely embroidered costumes.
Lacquer Art, Nirona Village
confident mature doctor - Confident mature doctor over white background.. To Download this image without watermarks for Free, visit: www.sourcepics.com/free-stock-photography/24716508-confid...
Image Source: www.archivessearch.qld.gov.au/items/ITM299141
Australia was approaching its bicentennial celebrations, and after Brisbane’s success hosting the 1982 Commonwealth Games, Brisbane City Council and the Queensland State Government were confident they could win the bid to hold the next World Exhibition.
Brisbane won the right to hold the event and Expo 88 was officially opened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on 30 April 1988. By the time it closed, it had changed the way the world saw Brisbane and helped shaped the city as we know it today.
Starting with an estimated budget of $645 million, the Queensland State Government developed a World Expo that would recoup and support its own costs and promote international investment in Queensland, both during and after the event. South Bank, badly damaged in the 1973–74 floods, was chosen and the site acquired for $150 million. Developers completed construction on time and within budget. The targets set for ticket sales were reached 11 weeks before Expo 88 had even opened. It was off to a smashing start.
Celebrating ‘Leisure in the age of technology’, there was an incredible range of pavilions, performances, parades, comedy and artwork on show. Guests could experience over 50 restaurants filled with flavours from around the globe. Hosted over six months, it drew more than 18 million people to the renewed South Bank parklands district. An average of 100,000 people a day entered the gates.
An influx of royalty, celebrities and international visitors came to Brisbane for the exhibition, but it was Queensland residents who attended the most often, purchasing 500,000 season tickets. Expo 88 provided something the city needed: an easy-to-access recreational facility with exciting things to do, see and experience. Brisbanites returned again and again to socialise and enjoy the festival atmosphere.
The monorail was one of the most popular attractions. Giving travellers a view of the entertainments from above, it operated along a 2.3-kilometre track during Expo 88, taking up to 44,000 visitors a day from one side of Expo to the other, along the Brisbane River. Built by Swedish manufacturer Von Roll, the monorail cost $12 million and comprised four MkII trains with nine carriages each. The idea of keeping the monorail operating after Expo and extending it into the Brisbane CBD was discussed. Ultimately, the existing monorail wasn’t a feasible long-term people-moving solution and it was disbursed. Three trains were sold back to Von Roll and were used in Germany’s Europa-Park. The remaining train and some tracks were incorporated into the Sea World theme park on the Gold Coast.
Some of the most significant installations, exhibitions and artworks from Expo 88 were relocated and continue to be enjoyed today. Ken Done AM, a prominent Australian artist and designer, was commissioned to produce the entry and exit statement art pieces for the Australia Pavilion. Using the word ‘Australia’, Done produced a sign nearly six metres tall that could not be missed by anyone who attended Expo 88. The letters have since been restored and are on display at the Caboolture Heritage Village. The Nepal Peace Pagoda was the only international pavilion that remained on-site, after a petition asking that it remain attracted about 70,000 signatures. The Japan Garden and Pond were gifted to the city of Brisbane and moved to the Botanic Gardens at Mt Coot-Tha.
The buzz of activity, the investment in South Bank’s infrastructure and the spotlight on Brisbane transformed the city. The physical legacy left by Expo 88 turned South Bank into a thriving social space and prominent cultural hotspot: 42 hectares was dedicated to the construction of the South Bank Parklands.
blogs.archives.qld.gov.au/2021/10/29/when-the-world-comes...
Last night was was the birthday celebration of a good friend of mine, and as per usual, I asked the host for a quick portrait.
She has an awesome wall paper that I thought would be great for a backdrop, and went with a one light set up.
I chose the umbrella instead of a softbox so I could light the background a little as well as being easy to set up..
A great night with many laughs.. Happy Birthday Steve.. (no, this isn't Steve..)
Strobist info:
YN560 @ 1/32 through umbrella camera right.
Triggered with CTR-301p's
blog..
facebook..
Isolated full length studio shot of a confident business team standing side by side and looking at the camera.
The RMAS tug Confident seen on the 26 June 1977 at Spthead touring the vessels moored up for the Jubilee Fleet review.
KIDS: Pay close attention to these masterful, minimalist details.
Florida Av, Peaks Island in Casco Bay, Portland, Maine USA • This past Saturday was the annual (secret) Sacred & Profane Festival, as always, held in Battery Steele (1942), also known as U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Battery Construction #102, a United States military fortification, completed in 1942 as part of World War II, it is located on 14 acres (5.7 ha) on the oceanside area of the island. It is named for Harry Lee Steele, who was a coastal artillery officer during World War I. It was built to protect Casco Bay, particularly Portland harbor, from Kennebunk to Popham Beach in Phippsburg. – from Wikipedia. ~ It's now one of thirteen island parcels owned and managed by the Peaks Island Land Preserve
• Portland and the other harbors of southern Maine were terribly important ports. Civil War forts still dotted the islands around these harbors, but Portland now needed far more advanced fortifications to protect it from German attack.
So Peaks Island became home to over eight hundred soldiers. Concrete bunkers and observation posts are everywhere. On the far side of the Island are two huge abandoned gun turrets separated by several hundred feet of underground tunnel. Each held a monster 16-inch naval gun. The guns were test-fired only once. Their blasts broke windows all over the island and the recoil, transmitted through rock, caused small earthquakes. After the war, an Islander ran into a German U-boat captain who said he'd spent the war looking at Peaks Island -- through a periscope. … Invasive bittersweet vines, once planted as camouflage, now grow over that history. – From a report of a visit to the Island by John H. Lienhard.
☞ On October 20, 2005, the National Park Service added this structure and site to the National Register of Historic Places (#05001176).
• GeoHack: 43°39′32″N 70°10′50″W.
Last autumn, we felt confident enough to start arranging things in the new year. One of these was a show by Chinese acrobats that Jools wanted to see. She got Jen, Sylv and a friend to go. And yesterday was the day of the show. I made it clear it wasn't for me, but I would go up to rephotograph some City churches and we would meet up afterwards for a meal before coming home.
When we arrange things, we don't know what slings and arrows fate might throw at us. In Tuesday's case, it was a Tube drivers strike, and no last minute talks fixed that. I could arrange my trip to avoind using public transport other than the train up and back home, which were unaffected. Jools thought they would be OK, as their tickets were for the Odeon, which she thought was in Leicester Square, but it turned out was the old Hammersmith Apollo. Now, usually this would not have been a problem, but on Tuesday it was.
They arranged to leave an hour earlier than planned and try to get a taxi, which they did after waiting in line for an hour, getting to the theatre just half an hour before showtime, leaving them only time to get a snack.
Their journey up was done outside rush hour, the show ened at five, and they had to get back to St Pancras. Which would prove to be an adventure.
For me, however, it was a walk in the park. And to add to the pleasure of the day, I would meet up with my good friend, Simon, owner of the Churches of East Anglia website, just about every word and picture done by his own hand. His website also covers the City of LOndon churches, so I asked if he wanted to meet up; he did, so a plan was hatched to meet and visit a few churches, one of which, King Edmund, he had not been inside. He wouldn't arrive until jsut after ten to get the offpeak ticket prices, I would get up early as a couple of the churches would be open before nine.
A plan was made, and I had a list of chuches and a rough order in which to visit them.
The alarm went off at five, and we were both up. I having a coffee after getting dressed and Jools was to drop me off at the station, and as we drove in the heavy fog that had settled, I realised there was a direct train to Cannon Street just after seven, could I make it to avoid a half hour layover at Ashford?
Yes I could.
Jools dropped me off outside Priory station, I went in and got my ticket, and was on the train settled into a forward facing seat with three whole minutes to spare.
The train rattled it's way out of the station and through the tunnel under Western Heights, outside it was still dark. So I put my mask on and rested my eyes as we went through Folkestone to Ashford, an towards Pluckley, Headcorn, Marden to Tonbridge, Sevenoaks and so onto south east London. The train filled up slowly, until we got to Tonbridge which left few seats remaining, and at Sevenoaks, it was standing room only, but by then its a twenty minute run to London Bridge.
After leaving London Bridge station, the train took the sharp turn above Borough Market and over the river into Cannon Street. I was in no hurry, so enoyed the peace and space of an empty carriage before making my way off the train then along the platform and out onto the street in front. A heavy drizzle was falling, so I decided to get some breakfast and another coffee. Just up Walbrook there was an independent sandwich place, so I went in and asked what I wanted: faced with dozens of choices, all made to order, I had no idea.
I decided on a simple sausage sandwich and a coffee and watched people hurrying to work outside. I had all the time I wanted.
I check my phone and find that opening times were a little different, but St Mary Aldermary was open from half eight, so I check the directions and head there.
It was open, mainly because there is a small cafe inside. I ask if I could go in, they say yes, so I snap it well with the 50mm lens fitted, and decide that something sweet was called for. They recommended the carrot cake, so I had a slice of that and a pot of breakfast tea sitting and admiring the details of the church. Once I had finished, I put on the wide angle lens and finished the job.
Just up the lane outside was St Mary-le-Bow, which should also be open.
It was. Also because they had a cafe. I skipped another brew, and photographed that too, and saw that the crypt was open too, so went down the steps to that. Simon tells me that the church got it's name because of the brick arched crypt: bowed roof.
A five minute walk past The Bank of England was St Mary Woolnorth and St Mary Abchurch: both open, and both recorded by my camera and keen eye.
-------------------------------------------
St Mary Abchurch is many people's favourite City church, and it is not hard to see why. Sandwiched between the busy thoroughfares of King William Street and Cannon Street, with Bank underground station and the Mansion House not far off, Abchurch Yard comes as a complete surprise, an intimate space with its picturesque church on the northern side. The tower is pretty well invisible from ground level, but the facade is one of Wren's loveliest. The medieval church here had been destroyed in the Great Fire, and for its replacement Wren erected perhaps his squarest, most rational and most protestant church of all. There are no aisles, and on stepping inside it is the roof that takes the breath away, a vast painted dome. It depicts the name of God in Hebrew surrounded by clouds and rays of light, and is a reminder that the non-conformist congregations of the late 17th Century thought of their buildings as synagogues. St Mary Abchurch has never been a non-conformist church, I hasten to add, but the City merchants were the driving force behind early modern protestantism in England, and you can see the influence here.
The dome was practice for the cathedral. The furnishings beneath it are superb. The huge, dominating reredos is by Grinling Gibbons. Almost all the furnishings date from the last thirty years of the 17th Century, with only a tinkering by the Victorians to come. Since the fire at St Mary at Hill, this is the best surviving example of what some quiet, forgotten back-street City churches were like before the Blitz, exactly the kind of place that Betjeman recalled in Summoned by Bells when he used to stand by intersecting lanes among the silent offices and wait, choosing which bell to follow. And, once inside, while a hidden organist sent reedy notes to flute around the plasterwork, from the sea of pews a single head with cherries nodding on a black straw hat rose in a neighbouring pew. The caretaker? Or the sole resident parishioner?
If you visit when the Friends of City Churches attendants are on duty, you may be allowed to do two things. Firstly, the font cover is operated by a central wooden screw - if they let you raise it, you will find it lifts as lightly as air. Secondly, you may be allowed to go down into the crypt which was discovered during the restoration after the Blitz. This is vaulted, but it is not under the church at all - rather, it is under the yard next door, which can never have been a churchyard. Pevsner thought it might have been the undercroft of a 14th Century chancel chapel.
The name Abchurch is often thought to be a corruption of 'upchurch', although there seems no obvious reason for this. Perhaps it more likely refers to the name of a long-forgotten patron. The church suffered considerable blast damage during the Second World War, but was restored exquisitely in the years that followed, and is a must-see for anyone in search of lost time.
Simon Knott, December 2015
Image Source: www.archivessearch.qld.gov.au/items/ITM299141
Australia was approaching its bicentennial celebrations, and after Brisbane’s success hosting the 1982 Commonwealth Games, Brisbane City Council and the Queensland State Government were confident they could win the bid to hold the next World Exhibition.
Brisbane won the right to hold the event and Expo 88 was officially opened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on 30 April 1988. By the time it closed, it had changed the way the world saw Brisbane and helped shaped the city as we know it today.
Starting with an estimated budget of $645 million, the Queensland State Government developed a World Expo that would recoup and support its own costs and promote international investment in Queensland, both during and after the event. South Bank, badly damaged in the 1973–74 floods, was chosen and the site acquired for $150 million. Developers completed construction on time and within budget. The targets set for ticket sales were reached 11 weeks before Expo 88 had even opened. It was off to a smashing start.
Celebrating ‘Leisure in the age of technology’, there was an incredible range of pavilions, performances, parades, comedy and artwork on show. Guests could experience over 50 restaurants filled with flavours from around the globe. Hosted over six months, it drew more than 18 million people to the renewed South Bank parklands district. An average of 100,000 people a day entered the gates.
An influx of royalty, celebrities and international visitors came to Brisbane for the exhibition, but it was Queensland residents who attended the most often, purchasing 500,000 season tickets. Expo 88 provided something the city needed: an easy-to-access recreational facility with exciting things to do, see and experience. Brisbanites returned again and again to socialise and enjoy the festival atmosphere.
The monorail was one of the most popular attractions. Giving travellers a view of the entertainments from above, it operated along a 2.3-kilometre track during Expo 88, taking up to 44,000 visitors a day from one side of Expo to the other, along the Brisbane River. Built by Swedish manufacturer Von Roll, the monorail cost $12 million and comprised four MkII trains with nine carriages each. The idea of keeping the monorail operating after Expo and extending it into the Brisbane CBD was discussed. Ultimately, the existing monorail wasn’t a feasible long-term people-moving solution and it was disbursed. Three trains were sold back to Von Roll and were used in Germany’s Europa-Park. The remaining train and some tracks were incorporated into the Sea World theme park on the Gold Coast.
Some of the most significant installations, exhibitions and artworks from Expo 88 were relocated and continue to be enjoyed today. Ken Done AM, a prominent Australian artist and designer, was commissioned to produce the entry and exit statement art pieces for the Australia Pavilion. Using the word ‘Australia’, Done produced a sign nearly six metres tall that could not be missed by anyone who attended Expo 88. The letters have since been restored and are on display at the Caboolture Heritage Village. The Nepal Peace Pagoda was the only international pavilion that remained on-site, after a petition asking that it remain attracted about 70,000 signatures. The Japan Garden and Pond were gifted to the city of Brisbane and moved to the Botanic Gardens at Mt Coot-Tha.
The buzz of activity, the investment in South Bank’s infrastructure and the spotlight on Brisbane transformed the city. The physical legacy left by Expo 88 turned South Bank into a thriving social space and prominent cultural hotspot: 42 hectares was dedicated to the construction of the South Bank Parklands.
blogs.archives.qld.gov.au/2021/10/29/when-the-world-comes...