View allAll Photos Tagged HighWalk
Looking back at a very strange year. Started really well, but quickly changed.
1. Iglesia de la Compañia de Jesús, 2. Iglesia y Convento de San Francisco, 3. On the equator line, 4. Wild horses, 5. Cotopaxi National Park, 6. Black-capped squirrel monkey, 7. Crested owls, 8. Boat-billed flycatcher, 9. Hoatzin, 10. Competition, 11. Showing his moves, 12. Low tide paddling pool, 13. Galápagos Flycatcher, 14. Snoozing, 15. Rough seas, 16. Palo Santo trees, 17. Puerto Ayora fish market, 18. Galápagos penguin, 19. Marine iguanas, 20. American flamingo, 21. Puerto Velasco Ibarra cemetery, 22. Pink magnolia bud, 23. St Peter's Church, Cambridge, 24. Kettle's Yard, 25. Bright, 26. London Wall, 27. Rouge White, 28. Barbican Highwalk, 29. York, 30. The Chapter House, 31. York Minster, 32. Merchant Adventurers' Hall, 33. Merchant Adventurers' Hall, 34. Barley Hall, 35. Sunday evening in the City, 36. Boxing Day
Created with fd's Flickr Toys
Taken for the RPS "Bleeding London" Project. As part of this project I decided to set myself my own
challenge and project to photograph every street in the Square Mile- progress can be followed at bleedinglondoncity.blogspot.co.uk/
'Power and generators' by Dorothy Annan, 1960. One of nine large ceramic panels now permanently displayed on the Barbican Highwalk, City of London.
It's all gone rather "Pete Tong" in a Large and Dark Styley.
So here we are at the results from the second roll of 120 film from my beloved Yashica and I have to say my "beginner's luck" with the Sunny 16 rule has dropped off signifcantly - as can be seen here I've developed a habit of under-exposure-itis and the bulk of the roll has come out in a similarly gloomy and dark fashion.
Woe is me.
Help from any film fans out there who can recommend a good, but reasonably priced, light meter is most welcome... as are thoughts on how to get a negative out of the plastic wallet and onto the scanner without it attracting every tiny spec of dust in a 100 yard radius. Post scanning I spent a good while with the 'heal' gadget getting rid of all these specs and my scanning is on hold until I find out how to avoid this.
I'm guessing it's to do with a static build up as the negative moves out of the wallet - maybe if I get some gloves or somesuch that would also help with handling in general? All help gratefully received as I'm at a bit of a loss.
Having said that I think the result - and this is a "straight scan" with no lightening or darkening - certainly reflects the location and the current state of the building... for here we have the Moorgate Telephone Exchange, a building which seems to defy the recording of any kind of architectural history whatsoever as there is simply nothing about it anywhere (At current stage of my search anyway).
Maybe it was one of those Cold War "secret buildings" that didn't appear on maps and never existed? You didn't see me as they used to say on The Fast Show.
The building is much beloved by my fellow Flickrite Beechlights whose photostream I can highly recommend, and not just for his shots of this location. Go on - have a look and Flickr-Surf (but leave a comment first!).
The building is up for development after BT sold it for a large wad a couple of years ago - there are some shots on the architect's website of the proposed new building. Interestingly the mockup still shows Ye Olde Highwalk and defunct booths on the right hand side.
Unsurprisingly the redevelopment is on hold and the building remains empty... although since taking this shot the formerly empty windows of the exchange are now, on the Barbican side, full of posters for Camelot with the tag protection through occupation as described in this article in Property week from 2007.
The Big Idea is that Camelot rent out living space in the building for anything between £20 and £60 a week and, in return, the owner get the protection of having people living there to keep the n'err to wells at bay. As is clear here some work is going to be required to make the adhoc living arrangements for prospective tennants.. which I think this gives some indication of how long it's likely to be before any kind of demolition begins
I've put in an enquiry as to the rent here as I rather like the prospect of living here. While I'm waiting for a reply and bemoaning my gloomy reel of shots I'll leave you to...
.. enjoy
London, England, UK - September 10, 2018: Traffic passes through a junction at Barbican in London, passing a pedestrian crossing painted with jaunty patterns.
Moor House Construction - September 2003 as taken from St Alphage Highwalk.
Nearly 11 years later and only Moor House, the building under construction, and Tower 42 remain.
As part of the Open House London event, I went on a guided tour of The Barbican Centre in London.
We had a look around the highwalks on the estate and the "Conservatory" area, among others.
A few more stretches gone - recently closed off for redevelopment works. Presume the 'Barbican' structure is listed so will remain, what it will lead on to in due course I have no idea.
As part of the Open House London event, I went on a guided tour of The Barbican Centre in London.
We had a look around the highwalks on the estate and the "Conservatory" area, among others.
As part of the Open House London event, I went on a guided tour of The Barbican Centre in London.
We had a look around the highwalks on the estate and the "Conservatory" area, among others.
Another text from my sister this morning to say my Mum was feeling unwell again so they were getting the doctor out again. Poor Mum, it's just never ending at the moment. The doctor couldn't find anything obviously wrong but did raise the possibility of respite care - which my Mum is open to. Only trouble is there are not actually any beds available :( Hopefully they can get some home care soon though.
Busy day at work - lots to juggle at the moment. I took a little walk at lunchtime - went into the car park underneath the Barbican on Fann Street and up one of the stairwells there to the highwalk. Took this shot in the entrance, looking up.
Watched the final episode of Mr Robot with Tim this evening. Excellent, but ended on a bit of a cliffhanger, predictably...!
Beautiful sunny morning today. I nipped down off the highwalk to get a few photos, but turned out my favourite one was of the stairs themselves.
Tim got signed off from work today for a week, and also got some antibiotics for his (what has now developed into a) chest infection. He also held fort while our plumber and his mate came in and started work on removing our old boiler and installing a new one. They've made a good start, but of course we're without heating and hot water now. Thank goodness for the gas fire in our living room!
Looks really good large and on a dark background.
The only remaining counterpart to St Alphage House is City Tower seen here on the right with a rather spanky new hanging wall... although, looking at the oridinal exterior as seen on St Alphage House in the adjacent photograph, I have to say that personally I prefer the old one. The new look is to... faceless corporate glass wall.
I took this on my way to Moorgate Station after work and used a small wall as a tripod, hence the jaunty angle.. I was going to straighten it in Photoshop but on further consideration I rather like it as it is.
The moon worked out well, as did the trail of the plane just below which I've left in because it was an unexpected bonus - I didn't spot it when I took the shot!
The high-level walkways around here all have funky names - the one in front crossing the road below is callded Bassishaw Highwalk. The designiners of The Barbican and the area used a 'vertical model' of architecture - cars at the bottom, then carparks, then walking space and above that offices and accomodation.
They figured is would make big open spaces and keep the cars out of the way of the 'people space'. Unfortunately, with the accomodation and offices rising above it made the pedestrian spaces into desolate wastelands, populated by shops in boothes which invariably failed.
The carparks below were always dingy and a haunt for ne'er do wells. Like a lot of ideas, great in practice but an abject failure in reality.
Yes I know the Barbican's successful, but it's an anomoly - the design methhodology fails and it's in a much hated Brutalist style.. but people love it. They hate Baynard House even though it uses the exact same design and construction methods and even looks similar.
"Go Figure" as some say.
but where?
This is going to be pretty hard, I think, but I've already come up with one slightly cryptic clue.
Still feeling really buggy today. Brain still not working properly - wandered round Waitrose at lunch and bought loads of stuff I don't really need, then got back to work and realised I didn't have any lunch. Cue a return trip to Waitrose; d'oh!
Had a good day at work though. Stopped briefly on the highwalk on the way home to capture this view. I suspect that's quite a big building that's going up (very slowly) in the foreground, so got to make the most of the view while it's still there. Used the highwalk wall as my tripod for this shot - hence the title.
Take a look Large and Dark.
For "Guess Where London" I have a suspicion this may be guessed ultra-quickly - maybe let it gather some views first if you know this as a slam-dunk? Guessed by secretlondon123.
The view here is of an unbridged gap in what remains of the pedway (or highwalk) scheme across London - originally planned to total over 30 miles in length it strove to take the pedestrian above the traffic and into the clear air above.
Conceived during the post-war planning of the 1960's the scheme was quite substantial. Apparently there is a document called Drawing 3400B which illustrates the full extent planned - to run from Fleet Street to Tower Hill across the whole of The City of London.
Unfortunately the scheme was somewhat doomed from the start as it relied on the piecemeal rebuilding of the City to join together sections as they were planned and executed. This meant that there were always gaps... and these became more and more difficult to bridge as the cost of building and maintenance escalated and the momentum of the conservation movement made the destruction of old buildings which stood in the way more and more problematic.
As time went on other problems surfaced - access for emergency services, the increased costs of lighting and change in architectural fashion. This said there is a remarkable amount still around although this is being gradually eroded.
There is much rambling on the Pedways and Highwalks elsewhere in my photostream and across Flickr - m'learned friend Blech is a fan of the Highwalks and has a set dedicated to those around Moorgate and the Barbican. Beechlights and Homemade both have excellent shots of the area too.
The building pictured here is rather anonymous - Google Streetview have a shot of the other side of this orphaned section of Highwalk (over 63 Moorgate if you're in the area).
But for a more complete view of what might have been I can recommend a look at The Living City - a publicity film for the City of London from 1970 which I stumbled across on YouTube. If you're pushed for time slip forward to around the 16 min mark as there's a secion on the Barbican and area there.
Alternatively grab a cuppa and watch the whole half hour!
Enjoy
As part of the Open House London event, I went on a guided tour of The Barbican Centre in London.
We had a look around the highwalks on the estate and the "Conservatory" area, among others.
Elevated walkway, seen from the upper Barbican Underground exit. Take this walkway to get off-road to either the Barbican centre or the Museum of London.
As part of the Open House London event, I went on a guided tour of The Barbican Centre in London.
We had a look around the highwalks on the estate and the "Conservatory" area, among others.
As part of the Open House London event, I went on a guided tour of The Barbican Centre in London.
We had a look around the highwalks on the estate and the "Conservatory" area, among others.