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Portland, Maine's piece of the Berlin Wall. Located on Long Wharf in the Old Port.
Corey Templeton Photography | Portland Daily Photo | Facebook
Pitt Street, Sydney, (showing west side) from King Street - showing condition of awnings, verandahs, signboards
Dated: December 1878
Digital ID: 745_a019_a019000011
Rights: www.records.nsw.gov.au/about-us/rights-and-permissions
In 1879 The City of Sydney Improvement Act was constituted as a result of the findings of the Sydney City and Suburban Sewage and Health Board regarding the poor condition of buildings and sanitation within the City of Sydney due to a lack of proper legislation and codes of building practice. The City of Sydney Improvement Board was appointed to execute the Act. These photographs, taken by private photographers for the Board, show buildings in need of repair or undergoing alterations, as well as views of streets showing the condition of awnings, signboards and walls of shops, hotels and private residences.
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The Gudong (故宫), or the Imperial Palace, better known by its unofficial title the 'Forbbiden City', was the home to 24 Emperors of China, during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and from where the Emperors issued their commands, with absolute authority, over their millions of subjects. During these reigns the palace was closed off to the outside world, with regular Chinese not even allowed to approach the walls. The Palace is a venerable maze of over 800 buildings containing supposedly over 9000 chambers.
Although the commencement building of the palace was issued by Kublai Khan, the palace was really built by the Ming Emperor Yongle when he switched the Imperial capital to Beijing in 1403, and construction lasted from 1406-1420, and the majority of buildings are in Ming style. The buildings are laid out in accordance with geomantic theories; the balance of yin and yang, negative and positive. As such the palace stood at the centre of Beijing, which was also considered the centre of the universe, and as such was the essence of supreme harmony.
After being the home of 24 emperors the Forbidden City ceased being the political centre of China in 1912 with the abdication of Puyi, the last Emperor of China. Under an agreement with the new Republic of China government, Puyi remained in the Inner Court, while the Outer Court was given over to public use,until he was evicted after a coup in 1924.The Palace Museum was then established in the Forbidden City in 1925.In 1933, the Japanese invasion of China forced the evacuation of the national treasures in the Forbidden City. Part of the collection was returned at the end of World War II, but the other part was evacuated to Taiwan in 1948 under orders by Chiang Kai-shek, whose Kuomintang was losing the Chinese Civil War.
After the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, some damage was done to the Forbidden City as the country was swept up in revolutionary zeal. During the Cultural Revolution, however, further destruction was prevented when Premier Zhou Enlai sent an army battalion to guard the city.
The Forbidden City was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987 by UNESCO as the "Imperial Palace of the Ming and Qing Dynasties", due to its significant place in the development of Chinese architecture and culture. It is currently administered by the Palace Museum, which is carrying out a sixteen-year restoration project to repair and restore all buildings in the Forbidden City to their pre-1912 state
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It is a beautiful day. The shepherd just sat quietly by the flock. The sentinels on the wall peer across the fields, nothing to be seen. In the city, life goes on quietly.
Ai, a young boy trips over a stone. The guards on the wall are having a laugh, but luckily his mother is there to comfort him.
What a lovely, peaceful day.
Right? flic.kr/p/2pzBSRx
The Western Wall, sometimes called the "Wailing Wall" is an important Jewish religious site located in the Old City of Jerusalem. Part of the wall dates from the year 19 BC. Pieces of paper can be seen wedged in the cracks....Jews believe that you can send a message to God by placing a note in a crack between the stones.
I love this, and whoever made it is very good! Seen on the 8th floor at the Leeds Met Art & Design building.
Shanghai. Old bike and modern cousin in a couryard in Duolun Road. I enjoyed walking around this relaxed old neighbourhood inhaling the past... The master of this bike was sleeping in a chair nearby and his wife was arranging some things for sale. She could not understand that I wanted to take a picture of their old bike.
In Journey's entryway, a wall of various crosses are displayed. Different colors, sizes, textures, mediums and history all together in unity of faith. Just like all of us!
Granite blocks used as dry stone walling near Two Bridges, on Dartmoor, Devon.
This wall is close to the path leading to Wistman's Wood. Like most stone walls in the British countryside it is obviously 'dry' (unmortared). These blocks are up to about 600-900 mm across. This is large compared with most dry stone walling elsewhere around Britain. In this area the walls may be as old as 17th Century. I would guess the wall here was once a bit more regular along its upper edge and is now rather in disrepair, but it has evidently been like this for quite a long time.
The granite is local Dartmoor granite, dated between 254 and 295 million years old, tectonically Variscan (Hercynian) in age and stratigraphically Permian (299-251 million years).
PH2011(--)
ID: DSC_2872
Wall of a seemingly infinite number of different minifigs - at the Lego Store at Downtown Disney in Florida.
I prefer the red wall, but the reflexion on the ceiling is amazing. I got some headache trying to balance colors in PS cause this photo is from a scanned Fuji Velvia 100 slide film. You can see I'm far from a PS god if you look at the greenish light before and after the yellow wall. But after all, you cares!!!
We walked through Tal-y-bont looking for big autumn leaves and passed this lovely stone wall with it's late hydrangea flowering over the top. In the slate stone crevices grow maidenhair ferns and polypody.
No visit to York would be complete without a walk around the City Walls. At 3.4 kilometres long, the beautifully preserved walls are the longest medieval town walls in England. About 2.5 million people walk along all or part of the City walls each year, enjoying some amazing views. The completion of the entire circuit will take approximately 2 hours. There are five main bars or gateways, one Victorian gateway, one postern (a small gateway) and 45 towers.
York City Walls
The city or ‘bar’ walls of York are the most complete example of medieval city walls still standing in England today. Beneath the medieval stonework lie the remains of earlier walls dating as far back as the Roman period.
The Roman walls survived into the 9th century when, in AD 866, York was invaded by the Danish Vikings. The Vikings buried the existing Roman wall under an earth bank and topped with a palisade – a tall fence of pointed wooden stakes.
The wooden palisade was replaced in the 13th and 14th centuries with the stone wall we see today.
The medieval city walls originally included 4 main gates or ‘bars’ (Bootham Bar, Monk Bar, Walmgate Bar and Micklegate Bar), 6 postern or secondary gates and 44 intermediate towers. The defensive perimeter stretched over 2 miles encompassing the medieval city and castle.
By the late 18th century, however, the walls were no longer required as defences for the city and had fallen into disrepair. In 1800, the Corporation of York applied for an Act of Parliament to demolish them. In addition to the poor condition of the walls at the time, the narrow gateways of the bars were inconvenient and the walls themselves hindered the city’s expansion.
Many other cities, including London, were removing their outdated, medieval city walls at this time. In York, however, the city officials met with fierce and influential opposition and by the mid-nineteenth century the Corporation had been forced to back down.
Unfortunately, the call for preservation came too late for some parts of the walls – the barbicans at all but one of the gateways (Walmgate Bar) had been torn down along with 3 postern gates, 5 towers and 300 yards of the wall itself.
Since the mid-nineteenth century the walls have been restored and maintained for public access, including the planting of spring flowers on the old Viking embankment. Today the walls are a Scheduled Ancient Monument and a Grade 1 listed building.
Bootham Bar
There has been a gateway here for nearly 2000 years - Bootham Bar is on the site of one of the four main entrances to the Roman fortress.
The existing structure is not Roman but it has been around for quite a while. The archway itself dates from the 11th century and the rest of the structure is largely from the 14th century. In 1501 a door knocker was installed as Scots were required to knock first and seek permission from the Lord Mayor to enter the city.
The bar was damaged during the siege of York in 1644. Like Micklegate Bar, it was sometimes used to display the heads of traitors, the heads of three rebels opposing Charles II’s restoration were placed here in 1663.
Bootham Bar was the last of the gates to lose its barbican, demolished in 1835.
Fishergate Bar
1315AD - 1487AD
Fishergate Bar is one of six gateways in the city walls. It faces South towards Selby. Nearby used to be the large flooded area known as the King’s Fishpond.
‘Barram Fishergate’ is the first documented reference to the bar, in 1315. A central stone above the archway reveals the date of the current bar. It contains the York coat of arms and an inscription which reads:
‘A.doi m.cccc.lxxx.vii Sr Willm Tod knight mayre this wal was mayd in his days lx yadys’
This tells us that sixty yards of the wall, including the bar, was built in 1487 under Sir William Tod, mayor of York.
But just two years later, in 1489, Fishergate Bar suffered considerable damage in the Yorkshire peasants’ revolt against Henry VII. The rebels burned the gates of the bar after murdering the Earl of Northumberland. The gateway was bricked up soon after and wasn’t re-opened until 1834, to give better access for the cattle market.
Micklegate Bar
Micklegate Bar was the most important of York’s four main medieval gateways and the focus for grand events. The name comes from 'Micklelith', meaning great street.
It was the main entrance to the city for anyone arriving from the South. At least half a dozen reigning monarchs have passed through this gate and by tradition they stop here to ask the Lord Mayor's permission to enter the city.
The lower section of the bar dates from the 12th century, the top two storeys from the 14th. The building was inhabited from 1196. Like the other main gates, Micklegate Bar originally had a barbican built on the front, in this case demolished in 1826.
For centuries the severed heads of rebels and traitors were displayed above the gate, the many victims include Sir Henry Purcey (Hotspur) in 1403 and Richard, Duke of York in 1460. The last of the severed heads was removed in 1754.
Monk Bar
Monk Bar is the largest and most ornate of the bars, it dates from the early 14th century. It was a self-contained fortress, with each floor capable of being defended. On the front of the bar is an arch supporting a gallery, including 'murder-holes' through which missiles and boiling water could be rained down upon attackers.
Monk Bar has the city’s only working portcullis, in use until 1970. Like the other main gateways, Monk Bar originally had a barbican on the front. This was demolished in 1825.
The rooms above the gateway have had various uses over the years, including as a home and as a jail for rebellious Catholics in the 16th century.
The Red Tower
1490AD - 1491AD
The Red Tower, built in 1490, forms the only brick section of York’s famous city walls. Because it was built of brick its construction did not sit well with the local stone masons. So much so that it was the cause of dispute, and even murder.
The masons who worked on the majority of York’s walls and buildings were unhappy about the employment of tilers to build the Red Tower; their unhappiness led to them attempting to sabotage the building of the tower. The tilers had to ask for protection from the city council to stop the masons from threatening them and breaking their tools.
This protection made little difference, however. In 1491, the tiler John Patrik was murdered. Two leading masons, William Hindley and Christopher Homer, were charged with the murder but quickly acquitted.
The first recorded use of the name “The Red Tower” was in 1511, presumably in reference to its red brick colour rather than its bloody past.
Despite forming an important and unique part of the city walls, the Red Tower fell quickly into disrepair. It had to be repaired multiple times, notably in 1541 and 1545, and was in ruins by 1736. It was roughly restored in 1800 and became known as ‘Brimstone House’ – probably a reference to its former use as a manufactory for gunpowder. It has two storeys, and a garderobe. The way that the tower appears now is thanks to G F Jones’ restorations in 1857-8.
Walmgate Bar
Walmgate Bar is the most complete of the four main medieval gateways to the city, it is the only bar to retain its barbican, portcullis and inner doors.
Its oldest part is a 12th century stone archway, the walled barbican at the front dates from the 14th century, the wooden gates from the 15th century and the timber-framed building on the inside from the 16th century.
It was burned by rebels in 1489 and battered by cannon during the siege of 1644.
Baile Hill
William the Conqueror ordered two castles to be built in York, one on either side of the River Ouse.
They formed a defensive system in response to the recent violent unrest.
'York Castle' was later reinforced and eventually rebuilt in stone and so now appears much more substantial. But originally both castles were of a similar size and layout.
Baile Hill is the name given to all that remains of York's other castle. It was the man-made mound, or motte, of the castle.
Excavations in 1979 revealed remains of timber buildings and a strong fence at the summit of the mound, together with a staircase up one side. The surrounding bailey was defended by a bank of earth built on top of the original Roman city wall.
Barker Tower
This river-side tower was built in the 14th century. It was positioned at the boundary of the medieval city-centre and, in conjunction with Lendal Tower on the opposite bank, was used to control river traffic entering the city. A great iron chain was stretched across the river between the two towers and boatmen had to pay a toll to cross it. The chain also served as a defence for the city. As early as 1380 Thomas Smyth was named as the tower’s ‘keeper of the chain’.
For boats coming downstream it would be the second toll in quick succession; St Mary's Abbey had its own tower and toll collection system a little further up the river.
Barker tower was leased for long periods to various ferrymen (and at least one woman) who ran passengers across the Ouse until Lendal Bridge was built in 1863. The ferry ran 'in summer and winter, fair weather and foul, Sundays and weekdays'.
The ferry was put out of business when Lendal Bridge opened in 1863. The tower has had plenty of other uses over the years, including as a mortuary for a brief time in the 19th century.