My personal favourite is the Natural History Museum.
What it contains is interesting enough, but it's the Waterhouse building itself that never fails to take my breath away. The terracotta facade, with its sculptures of extinct and extant beasts and birds, is worth spending a half-hour or so admiring outside, before going in to see the grandeur of the great hall. Alfred Waterhouse, the architect, said of this building:
"...wherever I thought that the particular objects in view could not be best obtained by a strict obedience to precedent, I took the liberty of departing from it."The new Darwin centre sits a little uneasily beside his masterpiece, as does the Earth Gallery before it, though it was always intended that the west and east wings would be built, but sadly, budgetary considerations put paid to that.
It's a true masterpiece of Victorian design, and no modern building in London can hold a candle to it.
Tomorrow - C is for Comic.
Couldn't agree more. And you know what? The shop doesn't have a book on the building itself, which was the only thing I wanted. Perhaps someone should suggest it to them?
ReplyDeleteI agree, it's a lovely old pile. But...
ReplyDeleteTomorrow - C is for Comic.
What about B? C'mon Julia, don't shortchange us.
Er, not that you've been actually paid or anything, of course. ;-)
ReplyDelete"And you know what? The shop doesn't have a book on the building itself.."
ReplyDeleteThat's a shame, I'm sure it'd sell well.
"What about B? C'mon Julia, don't shortchange us."
Ah, that would have been 'B for Book' ... except I put it under 'L for Literature' instead. :)
Thank Julia - this was EXACTLY what I was hoping for - something beautiful and old and full of meaning and worth keeping that I wouldn't usually find in my tram-tracks political rantings....
ReplyDeleteI went to the Wikipedia to look at the building's entry there and it's fantastic. The Victorians knew how to cherish the ancient and revive it and build on it and let it grow into something beautiful and new. Greatness, indeed.
I've been dinosaur mad since I was this high and I've always wanted to visit the museum to see the fossils but I'm likely to walk around the place now with an eye to the edifice.
The whole of Albertopolis is fascinating. I went to Imperial, and in that couple of blocks you have the National History Museum, Geological Museum, Science Museum, V&A, IC itself, the Royal Schools of Music and Art, the RGS and the Albert Hall, among others. You got a bit blasé walking past this much significant architecture every day.
ReplyDelete"The Victorians knew how to cherish the ancient and revive it and build on it and let it grow into something beautiful and new."
ReplyDeleteThey did, didn't they? It was truly the last great age of discovery, creativity and exploration.
"You got a bit blasé walking past this much significant architecture every day."
Yes, working in London you tend not to stop and see what's around you. I sometimes envy the tourists...
There was a book I read when I was a child, about the statues and gargoyles of London coming to life. I can't remember what it was called or who wrote it now, but it inspired me to look at the buildings in a new light whenever we drove through London...
I drove past it on Saturday with my son, slowly, as you must with London traffic and we both remarked on its beauty. I remember when it was a sooty dark gray and the years they took to wash it clean and suddenly all those gorgeous colours were revealed in the brickwork. Magnificent!
ReplyDelete