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7 hours agoLondon's weekly railway news
London's rail transport is undergoing significant upgrades and changes, including pay rises for staff and new train services.
It's not a house of outstanding art, being a self-taught carver whose skills evidently advanced over the years, as you can see the evolution from fairly rough carving on the stairs to the very skilled work in the living room. He also created the paintings on the walls - talented chap - but never finished the carving in the living room, as his time finally ran out.
The Grade II listed building is on Historic England's Heritage at Risk Register and is currently recorded as being in poor condition. The national Marine Society and Sea Cadets (MSSC), which held the lease, has confirmed that it can no longer meet the building's repair obligations and will surrender the lease so that restoration can be carried out by new occupants.
Twelve weeks after coming on the market, the Surrey house used to portray the home of actress Maggie Smith's character, Lady Violet Crawley, found a buyer and recently closed along with several adjacent properties for nearly $9 million. Known as Dower House on the TV series, it was built around 1686.
There's a three-story turret, a front porch the size of some one-bedrooms, and a private driveway (with a porte cochere, no less). Wave-shaped dormer windows overlook the Spanish-tile roof. Inside, there's parquet for miles, wood paneling, stained glass, beamed ceilings, and a classical frieze of men in togas. Out back, there's a pergola and a small pond. "They don't build them like that anymore," says broker Joe Brikman,
These days, brutalist buildings are among London's most celebrated works of architecture. But it hasn't always been this way. Back in 1967, the Southbank Centre, one of the city's most striking examples of the style, was voted Britain's ugliest building by readers of the Daily Mail. In the latest indicator of just how much times have changed, today (February 10) the Southbank Centre has been awarded listed status by the Department for Culture Media and Sport.
Wandsworth Council has approved the fashion brand's plans to modernise and extend two buildings, in Battersea, to support its international growth. The redevelopment means Vivienne Westwood's headquarters will stay in Battersea, which the brand has called home since 1995. The new building will bring together all of the company's departments under one roof as part of a restructuring of the fashion house, while providing more space for the brand's expected growth over the next 15 years.
Despite its proximity to one of London's busiest tourist attractions, its back street location is remarkably quiet and peaceful. Leading off Stafford Place, it was originally, and unsurprisingly, called Stafford Mews, as it was built as stabling for houses on Buckingham Gate, facing the palace. Constructed around 1860, the stables were simple two-storey houses, built initially with stables at the ground and accommodation above.
"After careful research and thought, my design for the Queen's monument will emphasise her role as head of state and proudly follows a sculptural tradition that shows kings and queens from the House of Windsor in a standing position," said Jennings. The previous horse-riding images had been for illustrative purposes only to show the size, scale and location rather than the final design, says the Cabinet Office.
Striking silhouettes, sumptuous fabrics, bright colours, frills galore, and all manner of ornate accessories define the clothing of the Victorian period, that is, during the reign of Queen Victoria, which spanned seven decades of the 19th century. This was a time of dynamic change as the Industrial Revolution resulted in an expansion of the middle classes. Victorians were persuaded to part with their growing disposable income by mass advertising that ranged from gorgeous colour supplements in popular magazines to striking posters in railway stations.
The most arresting is a dramatic circular void carved into the ceiling, a spatial echo of St Paul's dome, translated from the sacred to the everyday. Below it, a monolithic espresso counter holds the room together, its weight and material language borrowed from Tate Modern's industrial character and the infrastructural logic of the riverbanks themselves.
So, this late 1970s block of flats was built on the site of the former estate office. So did the red corbel come from there? Looking at a photo of the corner of Risinghill Street and Penton Street, taken in 1956, doesn't seem to offer much help, as it shows a row of shops and behind a row of terraced houses.
If you're an art deco architecture geek, you'll no doubt know all about Ibex House. The shimmering pale office building, which you'll find on the east side of the Minories in the City, is renowned for its long streamline moderne curves and mesmerising black-framed windows. The vast H-shaped structure is Grade II-listed and one of London's most remarkable surviving art deco buildings.
Originally called the Grand Triumphal Arch, it was built in part to commemorate Britain's victories in the Napoleonic Wars and as part of King George IV's remodelling of Hyde Park and Buckingham Palace. Announced in 1825, it would take a year of wrangling to settle on a design for the arch. The chosen architect, Decimus Burton, initially planned a triumphal arch modelled on the Arch of Titus in Rome,
An excavation in central London has uncovered the remains of a boys school complete with artifacts from the students' schoolwork and their playtime. The objects include a slate tablet used as an erasable notebook to practice handwriting, a slate pencil and several ceramic alleys marbles made of decorated white ceramic from the Victorian era. Artifacts related to children's lives are less frequently found than ones relating to adults, so these objects give us a special glimpse into the lives of schoolboys.
Battersea Power Station is a former coal-fired power station located on the south bank of the River Thames in London, originally designed by architects J. Theo Halliday and Giles Gilbert Scott. Notable for its appearance on the cover of Pink Floyd's 1977 studio album Animals and in Alfred Hitchcock's 1936 film Sabotage, the station is one of the world's largest brick buildings and is known for its Art Deco interior fittings and décor.
"This is our first home together as a blended family. I really wanted it to look and feel special for everyone," Cheylene writes. "When designing the rooms, I kept three things in mind: Keep it durable (a must with three boys!), keep it thrifty (we didn't want to spend too much), and keep it FUN. It's all still a work in progress, but we feel very much at home here."
A Victorian drinking fountain has been restored to its original location following conservation, but it is not fully functional and cannot dispense drinking water. The Princes Circus fountain was installed in 1879 to commemorate Queen Victoria's 60th year on the throne, but was originally in a different location. It used to be a bit further north, on the junction of New Oxford Street and Shaftesbury Avenue, opposite Coptic Street. In 2003, it was moved to sit in a fenced-off island space outside the Shaftesbury Theatre.
Fiona Twycross, the heritage minister, is to be congratulated for finally giving London's Southbank Centre Grade II listing (Campaigners welcome long overdue' listing of brutalist Southbank Centre, 10 February). I remember being shocked when I first saw it in the 1960s, but it has become a remarkable symbol of the zeitgeist. Its grey concrete and its childlike composition together express the fatalism and despair of a nation in economic and political decline.