Friday 30th November 2018, 6.10am (day 2,654)
The last morning of November, and I pull duty again on the 6:32 service to Manchester. The castle battlements at the bottom of Keighley Road look suitably dramatic in the moonlight (and streetlight).
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Category Archives: Art and architecture
Humanities Building, Bridgeford Street
Thursday 29th November 2018, 1.45pm (day 2,653)
On the outside, not one of the campus’s more attractive buildings, but it was looking OK this afternoon, and inside it’s actually quite pleasant, with lots of dark wood panelling etc. Mind you I still get lost in this building sometimes as it has a very confusing room layout, despite (or perhaps because of) hosting the schools of Planning and Architecture.
The Birchcliffe Centre
Monday 5th November 2018, 10.55am (day 2,629)
This building was built in 1899 as a Baptist chapel. Worship (and/or baptisms) haven’t taken place here since the 1970s, but it is now a conference centre and youth hostel. As it is only a few minutes’ walk from my house it was nice to work here today rather than in Manchester, but it does lie halfway up a fekkin’ steep hill, which I had to climb three times in the morning. Maybe that’s why the Baptists stopped worshipping here after a while, and moved to the much more conveniently sited Hope Baptist Chapel down in town…
The Parkinson Building, University of Leeds
Saturday 20th October 2018, 8.50pm (as you can see) (day 2,613)
A Saturday night out in Leeds. However, there are no photos of that, thanks to fascist doormen who seemed to be worried that my Mario Testino-style gear (cost of camera, £250) would somehow be a threat to image rights the world over. So here, instead, is the architectual centrepiece of the place where, many years ago — 25 this year, in fact (good grief) — I first came as a student. It’s still a cool building. And all in all a nicer campus than the one I presently work on (sorry, Manchester, but it’s true).
A good wall (St James’s Street)
Thursday 18th October 2018, 2.55pm (day 2,611)
This is a good bit of wall. And well lit. It looks like a collage. There must be something philosophical to be said about walls, how a good one is not just a monotonous single surface but an accumulation of bits and pieces over time. I wonder how many walls I have featured on the blog — here’s another good one for example. Not to mention the Berlin Wall….
Antenna
Wednesday 17th October 2018, 6.35pm (day 2,610)
The TV mast on Emley Moor, east of Huddersfield, is well-known to anyone who lives in Yorkshire. Built in 1971 (after the previous version fell down due to ice), at 1,084 feet, or 330.4m, it is still the tallest free-standing structure in the UK and the fourth-highest in Europe. Why did I find myself up close to it on this pleasant evening? Well, you know. I get about.
The bit of this photo that troubles me is in the bottom left — the lines being the guy ropes for the radio mast, almost as tall, which stands just nearby, and which I’m pretty sure is new. But I guess you can ignore them.
The Piece Hall
Monday 8th October 2018, 6.10pm (day 2,601)
Halifax’s Piece Hall was built in 1779 and was originally a textile market. It reopened last year after a very expensive restoration project, and certainly is a very smart place now: at the same time it has lost its old ramshackle appeal. Maybe there’s no way of keeping both. It’s not an easy place to photograph from ground level without getting the perpendiculars askew, but I did my best here.
Stuck at home (with this view)
Monday 1st October 2018, 8.55am (day 2,594)
The second monochrome shot in a row but it was a way of bringing some added interest to this view. I worked at home all day and did not leave the house. I know it’s a pretty distinctive view, in relative terms. But it is also everyday, for us at least.
Cemetery, near Sellafield
Wednesday 5th September 2018, 12.50pm (day 2,568)
I am posting this and tomorrow’s pic while lying in bed on Friday morning recovering from a two-day hike. Between 11.15am on Wednesday morning and 3.30pm on Thursday I walked 30 miles, which I calculate as an average of around 1.05 miles/hour even while I was asleep. No wonder I feel a little delicate this morning.
Anyway, looking back — it’s never easy to choose only one photo to encapsulate a day of varied landscapes and experience, but being very close to the delights of Sellafield nuclear power station (or ‘reprocessing plant’, or whatever it is these days) was certainly a significant feature of day 1. i was hard up against the perimeter fence at one point. It hisses, throbs, puts out strange noises and generally dominates everything round here in West Cumbria. So it can feature today, albeit in the background of this shot of the churchyard where I sat and had my lunch.
Building materials
Saturday 1st September 2018, 4.50pm (day 2,564)
This wall has been around for a while, separating the beer garden of the White Lion (the oldest building in Hebden Bridge) from the river. When this wall was built, or last rebuilt anyway, the supply of stones must have been a tad short that day. Whomever this headstone was ‘Sacred to the Memory of…’, let’s hope their spirits aren’t still hanging around to get pissed off.
Being 42 