Tag: Battersea Power Station

#1210 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn London, Love, SerendipityLeave a comment

Following on from –

#1209 theoldmortuary ponders.

Aerial views with love involved.

The Heart Hospital and Barts

What a gift to a love of places blog, is a workplace called The Heart Hospital, under the small arrow. So much love for many of the people I worked with there, who are now spread around the world. Love for Marylebone the London village where it was located. Love also for Selfridge’s on Oxford Street which was always on the way home. A corner shop to beat all corner shops. The big arrow is Barts Hospital. The location of my seventeen-year-old self starting a career and also where I finished my professional life 43 years later. An unplanned circularity which is strangely satisfying.

The next picture is looking south to our London ‘home’s’. Dulwich Village, Brixton,Gipsy Hill and Crystal Palace. The greige makes them impossible to point out, but trust me they are there.

Similarly, on a greige day my daughter’s home village of Wimbledon is lost in the mist.

As is the destination of Harrow-on-the-Hill where my son began his international teaching career below the red arrow.

The large green space which is also below the red arrow on the north riverbank is the Chelsea Hospital, home of the Chelsea Flower Show.

And so to conclude my day trip to London. The Shard and the man we surprised there, photographed from Lift 109 at Battersea Power Station. The Shard is on the horizon above his head.

Farewell London Day trip.

Fortunately art can create colour out of greige.

And our friends got giddy and bright after we left. An evening with Abba while we sat on a train.

#1209 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Friends and Family, London, Serendipity2 Comments

I was unsure if I could squeeze another blog out of our midweek trip to London. Not because we didn’t have a great time and the usual laughs with our friends but because our photographs from high up places,The Shard and Battersea Power Station, were, like the weather, somewhat greige.

But first with feet firmly at ground level some serendipity.

While organising ourselves and the Shard security to enable us to execute the ‘surprise’* element of our trip we spent a lot of time in the reception area, watching the moving floral photo opportunity. Countless people had their photos taken against the colourful display.

The mirrors and neon ‘love’ signs were constantly moving, reflecting the flowers and lights so the display was intriguing.

In a rare moment with no humans about I took a picture of the assemblage. This morning I discovered that I had unintentionally created a self portrait.

This gave me the poke I needed to explore our greige aerial cityscapes inspired by the word love, not in the romantic sense.

But I can show you the aerial view of places I love or love to blog about when I am in London. With luck the WordPress algorithm will link this blog to others written about the same places.

Tower Bridge.

I have loved Tower Bridge all my life. Small me could never have imagined her older self driving over this bridge at night for the on-call journey. South London to the City. An extra bit of love because the Dad of a friend used to operate the bridge for his job. How cool is that? Also in this picture the Tower of London. Ten year old me fainted there once when listening to a grizzly tale of public executions. Nothing compares to the fear I felt coming round in a mediaeval building surrounded by concerned men in very fancy uniforms.

Borough Market and Southwark Cathedral

Look for the semi-circular space just above the end of the blue pool. Bustle and serenity. I have shared time at Borough and the cathedral with so many friends and family. A wonderful part of London to love.

Borough Market.

And just like that a 2-year-old arrived !! To be continued…

Watch this space.

#623 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn pondering, Serendipity2 Comments
2014

Every now and again Facebook memories jogs me into a realisation that there was a time in my life without daily blogging. Pondering before blogging was an entirely personal and private dialogue. Often occuring in the commuting time between work and home.

©theoldmortuary.com

I had completely forgotten the quote from 2014 or even the work based incident that made me find it and post it on Facebook.

The quote is quite brutal in its takedown of the value of an apology. I don’t think the world of an apology is quite as black and white. Post-Covid in Britain the value of apologies has been utterly besmirched by the governing Conservative Party, who managed to be quite possibly the worst users of the hollow apology in history.

The broken plate analogy is perfect for this ponder. Because I believe the Japanese have a way of mending plates that demonstrates how a good apology can build back a beautiful broken plate into something different, maybe stronger, definitely a valuable transition.

While a bad apology, a missed apology or a failure to change just creates fragments of plates. Fragments that can echo down through history .

So, somewhat late to considering my 2014 quote, Facebook has prompted a good old ponder which I can share.

The gold standard of apologies is Kintsugi while Roman Pottery is of no value in the world of good apologies.

I always aim for Kintsugi but fear that at times I have taken the Roman Pottery road.

On the receiving end I have wonderful Kintsugi apologies that have strengthened and enhanced my life. Life has also dealt some Roman Pottery style apologies or non apologies. Things to step over and move on.

How good would it be to fix all of lifes broken pots with Kintsugi.

Ponder over, thank you Facebook 2014. I’ve managed to programme in a bit more wisdom since that post.

#373 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Family, Serendipity1 Comment
©Angela Moritz-Smith

On reflection, I should not have been so worried about the repurposing of Battersea Power Station. It has been transformed very sympathetically into a shopping and entertainment hub. A really lovely new destination for our shopping alter egos. My beloved vision of it as a monolithic structure on my daily commute has been altered forever, but that commute has not been mine for quite a while either. My friend Angela was at Battersea the day before me and got the lovely shot that is the header for this blog. Like her, we also went in broad sunlight but the wind ravaged any chances of a reflection.

My reflection shot was taken on the backside of an Airstream food truck.

Inside was a brick-lovers dream. The architecture more fitting for a modern Cathedral than a Power Station.

There was even some carefully preserved flaking paint.

Our trip to Battersea trip was brief bit informative. Definitely somewhere to be revisited. I even managed to buy a favourite brand of coffee. The one that used to keep me going on long on- call shifts in the City of London. All I stay awake for now is small grandchildren, Black Sheep works for that too!

Serendipity and Facebook gave me a lovely coincidence. 10 years ago exactly I was finishing two paintings in my garden in London.

Two pictures that represent either end of my journey today. Nana and Nona duties completed in London we are heading home to the West Country. Not that this is the last blog inspired by our visit to London and the South East. Some retrospective pondering will happen next week I’m sure. For now I will leave you with a turbine room, full of shops and some glass bricks. Another of my mid century passions.

In the Pink, the morning commute and other stories.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn SerendipityLeave a comment

theoldmortuary team has spent the weekend fixing fences ravaged by Storms Ciara, Dennis and Eileen. As garden party guests go these three are banned. In consequence we are a little jaded and completely over February weather. As inspiring, luck would have it, the Artists of the Tamar Valley Instagram prompt for today was #mondaymotivation. It seems Pink is a thing for me on Monday mornings. A simple search for Monday’s in my picture library bought up this 12 year old painting.

Battersea Power station was always my motivation on my journey into central London to produce radiographic images. Neatly demonstrated in pink by this piece of lightbox art in Hong Kong.

©Ovolo Hotel Southside Hong Kong

Making x-ray images used to involve dark rooms. One Monday I produced this image to demonstrate dark room illumination. It was a freak image but very pink.

For a while I produced the social media for an exhibition at Tate Modern, this also appeared in the Monday file.

Not all art images are hugely positive, the next image is a piece of commissioned work that was personalised with the addition of Slovakian poetry. Niche,for certain but the commissioning person ultimately refused to buy it.

A fabulous, pink, Monday image is the wildflowers in early spring that cling to the walls of Trematon Castle. Also sometimes a commuting journey.

Flowers fill the Monday Photo File. These Tulips were captured last February, caught in a sharp ray of sunshine.

2020 take note. Sunshine is permitted in February.

Less in-your-face pink is this February roses. I’m not sure I want to think about the air miles.

Finally to shine a little more pink light into the February gloom. Lightbulbs.

Hoping these pinks have perked up a February Monday, especially in the Northern Hemisphere. Pink is so much better as a #mondaymotivation than black fences and quick drying cement.

theoldmortuary.design

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Architecture1 Comment

IMG_0410theoldmortuary. design has long existed in my mind. Blogging about it is one of the first steps to making it real. Intended as a gathering point for all things creative, it is both a real bricks and mortar place and a notional place of thoughts and creations. As creative projects mature into tangible objects they will be showcased here. Daily blogging will give me the chance to record and comment on the things that inspire or impress me.

The image above of Battersea Power station is a record of a moment. Commuting into Victoria every day there were often fabulous photo opportunities with this powerful architecture. However they were often obscured by other trains. This was a moment when I was heavy-lidded from a period of 24 hour on-call. Thankfully my iPhone captured a rare moment of quiet.

This image is precious because development has obscured this beautiful silhouette forever.