Category Archives: Art and architecture

Jul 17 2023
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Art and architecture, Daily Post

In Broughton

Sunday 16th July 2023, 12 noon (day 4,343)

In Broughton, 16/7/23

Our nine days in Scotland come to an end. A fine trip, although a lot of driving — all by me — including today’s six-hour stint from Dundee back to West Yorkshire. Over the last two years this has become a familiar journey, and we know where to stop for tea, lunch, the toilet, etc: and also photo opportunities, as I can’t shoot whilst driving. Broughton, a little village nestling in the Scottish Borders, has become one of those spots. There’s a great little tea room just to the left of this shot. This house has a pleasing look to it but yes, the straight line on the left (coming off a telegraph pole I presume) does bother me.

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Jun 22 2023
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Art and architecture, Daily Post, Urban scene

Mural by Red Chilli

Wednesday 21st June 2023, 12.40pm (day 4,318)

Red Chilli mural, 21/6/23

Another case of Someone Else’s Art feeding this blog. I assume this face does also belong to a real person; I wonder how models do actually feel about coming (literally) face-to-face with themselves now and again. I put her to the side of this shot because I also like the conjunction with the stuff in the restaurant window, and the pedestrian timed it well too. All seen on Grosvenor Street not far from my office on campus this lunchtime.

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Jun 02 2023
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Art and architecture, Daily Post

The biscuit factory

Thursday 1st June 2023, 4.45pm (day 4,298)

Fox's Biscuit Factory, 1/6/23

While on one of my random perambulations around northern England, I found myself walking past this establishment, which is one of two factories in the country making Fox’s Biscuits. It’s in Wesham, between Preston and Blackpool. The best thing about this came a minute or so after I took this shot, when I turned a corner and was suddenly downwind of it. I had to stop walking for a while and just breathe in the delicious smell of it. How they live with that all the time in Wesham I have no idea, they must be hungry all the time, feeling like Charlie Bucket.

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May 21 2023
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Art and architecture, Daily Post

Beach huts (under the A55)

Saturday 20th May 2023, 11.40am (day 4,286)

Beach huts in A55, Penmaenmawr, 20/5/23

Penmaenmawr, on the coast of North Wales, must have been a notable holiday resort in the past. Apparently the Victorian Prime Minister, Gladstone, liked it so much he came for a stay year after year. Hard to imagine him (or Rishi Sunak) doing that now, however. The A55 trunk road came ploughing through in the 1980s, ripping apart town and beach, and based on my visit there today, Penmaenmawr has yet to recover, and probably will never do so.

Still, credit for a little initiative — these beach huts are embedded right into the wall that supports the road above, which must therefore have been built that way. So you could argue that they tried. It didn’t work, though. As a result, most likely this will be Penmaenmawr’s only ever appearance on this blog, but at least it is a colourful and sunny one.

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May 07 2023
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Art and architecture, Daily Post, Urban scene

Mural, Cowdenbeath

Saturday 6th May 2023, 2.00pm (day 4,272)

Cowdenbeath mural, 6/5/23

Cowdenbeath, a little town in Fife, offered various entertainments as an excuse to break today’s journey up to Dundee. One that was unanticipated before I got there was a series of really excellent, and huge, murals that decorate the town centre. This one is remarkably good. Look at the sense of focus, and hence realism, that the artist has achieved. Those trucks look absolutely solid. Would that I could get things in focus like that, sometimes.

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Apr 28 2023
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Art and architecture, Daily Post, Hebden Bridge

Sunglow, Eiffel Buildings

Thursday 27th April 2023, 8.50am (day 4,263)

Sunglow, Eiffel Buildings, 27/4/23

There was a bit of the sunglow thing going on in the sky this morning but this shot is more the result of me playing around with some filters which my new camera seems to have built-in. Some of them are ridiculous, to be honest. But this one produces a reasonable effect, even if it is me just messing with gimmicks as I get used to the thing.

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Apr 22 2023
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Art and architecture, Daily Post

Sidgwick Site, University of Cambridge

Friday 21st April 2023, 1.00pm (day 4,257)

Sidgwick site statue, 21/4/23

Over my three days in Cambridge I seem to have avoided capturing anything about the sociability of the conference I’ve been attending. So be it. The Sidgwick site is the utilitarian side of the University, none of this medieval architecture stuff: faculty rather than college buildings. But it was a decent place to spend half a week. Clare thinks this sculpture looks like ‘Minecraft Man’, by the way.

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Apr 02 2023
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Art and architecture, Daily Post

The Sagrada Familia: World’s maddest building?

Saturday 1st April 2023, 5.45pm (day 4,237)

Sagrada Familia, 1/4/23

I suppose I am reasonably well-travelled but this is still only my third-ever trip to Spain, the most recent being in about 2007 for a conference (hence before the start of this blog), and the first being in 1991 when I went inter-railing round Europe and went to Madrid and a couple of the cities in the south. But I never visited Barcelona, and Clare hadn’t done so either, and so when we were thinking about a destination for an Easter break, this was suggested and so here we are.

When in this place, everyone comes to see this building, don’t they? But I’m not sure I actually like it. It’s fantastic, unique, for sure, but it’s also somewhat mad, excessive, lacking in grace and beauty (something not true of St Basil’s, which could also be accused of excess). The other Gaudi buildings in the city are more attractive. It’s just a personal opinion based on a quick first impression, so don’t listen to me though. I suppose that one indication of the impression is that the cranes poking out of the top look at first like they may be a deliberate part of the design. It has been under construction for 140 years now, and still isn’t finished. Heaven knows what might still be to come.

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Mar 16 2023
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Art and architecture, Daily Post

Hopwood Lane, Halifax

Thursday 16th March 2023, 12.20pm (day 4,221)

Hopwood Lane, Halifax, 16/3/23

A visit to the less glamorous side of town. I like the optimistic advertisement for the £3 all-day car parking however.

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Feb 21 2023
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Art and architecture, Daily Post

Holy razor wire

Monday 20th February 2023, 10.50am (day 4,197)

Holy razor wire, 20/2/23

Almost every time I am on campus I pass by the front of this building — the Holy Name Church on Oxford Road. Today saw a rare excursion around the back, and thus a chance to inspect its adornment of razor wire, a deterrent you’d think a consecrated place could do without. But clearly divine intervention is not something that puts off the lead thieves (which I assume is the point of all this).

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