The ten best tall buildings - in pictures

The Observer’s architecture critic Rowan Moore’s choice of man’s towering achievements.     

International selection starring Highgate’s Highpoint I (Lubetkin) and North Kensington’s Trellick Tower (Goldfinger). 

Alternative London A-Z

Fantastic collection -  ariel pix of London buildings which resemble letters of the alphabet. 
Photos taken from Google maps satellite view.  Clues in the file names if you’re as stumped as me.
Alternative London A-Z (via Londonist.com)

Hands up if you love dinosaurs!

The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth, but not the Mineral Rights - Jake and Dinos Chapman
Royal Academy Annenberg Courtyard, Summer 2007.

This was the peak of my plaque photography mission and I’d spent a wonderful summer’s day pootling about SW1 getting under the skin of the likes of Churchill, De Gaulle & Gainsborough, being a little narked that out of 27 plaques in the area only 2 were commemorating women, and if I remember correctly suffering from mild sunstroke as I forgot to take any water, or any money out with me.
Coming across this amazingly joyful installation in the RA courtyard was the icing on the cake for me and I sat in the shade for at least an hour watching children and adults alike playing in the fountains.
According to the RA website:

Three huge metal dinosaurs by Jake and Dinos Chapman have been installed in the Royal Academy’s Annenberg Courtyard for this year’s Summer Exhibition. This is the first time that the Chapmans, key members of the so-called YBA (Young British Artists) generation, have created a large-scale outdoor sculpture.

Entitled The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth, but not the Mineral Rights, it continues the theme of their earlier work, Hell Sixty Five Million Years BC (2004-5), in which models of prehistoric creatures also featured.

Measuring more than eight metres in length and towering up to seven metres high, the three corten steel dinosaurs are the latest installation in the RA’s programme of Sculpture in the Courtyard, and follow on from Anselm Kiefer’s Jericho, Rodin’sGates of Hell and Damien Hirst’sVirgin Mother. 

 The work’s title is a J Paul Getty quote (1892 - 1976).
I chose to upload these this evening instead of writing my planned post on the London Library as I came across the images while looking for an exterior pic of the LL building and they reminded me of so many happy memories banked while exploring London looking for the things that others miss, and that’s exactly what I wanted this blog to be about.

Mary Douglas Quote

"Dirt - Matter out of place."

Walter Bagehot Quote

"A great pleasure in life is doing what others say you cannot."

Gladstone, the second coming

So, leaving the Square, past the wonderful London Library (of which more later), we cross Pall Mall close by the Athenaeum, Reform & Travellers Clubs to pick up our Gladstone link again.
Carlton House Terrace is a Georgian terrace in Classical style conceived by John Nash (1752-1835) to replace the original Carlton House, given to the Prince Regent as a 21st birthday present by his father George iii.   Not content with a 202’ x 130’ pad, on taking the throne the new king had the house demolished from 1829.   According to Ed Glinert in The London Compendium, the columns were used by Nash for the National Gallery and the Ionic Screen was transferred to the Buckingham Palace Conservatories.
Though damaged in WW2, the facades of the stucco fronted terraces have been restored and many of the individual buildings are now occupied by societies and institutes.
10-11, home of the British Academy since 1998, has maintained much of the early C20 interior features (No 10) and is also available for hire for weddings, conferences, location filming etc.
These pics are from the venue site:
Photographer: Claudine Hartzel.

Photographer; Colin Streater.
Our man Gladstone, ‘the people’s William’ took up residence at number 11 with his wife in 1857, living here for 18 years spanning his first and longest premiership.    In 1866 after the defeat of the Reform Bill, crowds gathered round the house shouting for Gladstone which were only dispersed by the appearance of his wife on the balcony.  Can’t see that happening these days - the closest we got was Cherie Blair opening the door to the press in her nightie.
 A number of sources record his personal diaries showing he hosted cabinet meetings in the house - this is a bit more familiar - taking work home!

Gladstone was no stranger to the area, occupying number 6 Carlton Gardens with his father and two brothers from 1837 and as sole resident from 1849 - 54.    He also briefly rented number 4 CHT in 1856… I’m guessing he didn’t use a shopping trolley to shlep his stuff up and down the road though.   He finally sold number 11 after his resignation in 1875 to Arthur Edward Guinness and it remained in the Guinness family throughout the C20.

The BA undertook a year long renovation starting March 2010, knocking walls down to unite numbers 10-11 in one venue.

There are other plaques to Gladstone in W1, SE18 and round the corner in St James Square.

Nancy Astor Quotes

"I refuse to admit that I am more than fifty-two, even if that does make my sons illegitimate."

"My vigour, vitality, and cheek repel me. I am the kind of woman I would run from."

"The penalty for success is to be bored by the people who used to snub you."

To Churchill (again)

Astor: "If you were my husband, I’d poison your tea,"

Churchill: "Madam, if you were my wife, I’d drink it!"

And finally, on announcing she wasn't standing for re-election

"I believe I have something to give to the House of Lords, but I’m not sure they want what I’ve got."

Tony Benn Quote

"If one meets a powerful person..... Ask them five questions:

'What power have you got? Where did you get it from?

In whose interests do you exercise it? To whom are you accountable?

And how can we get rid of you?'"

Prime Ministers & Politics

So, a short stroll round the corner through SW1 takes you past two plaques marking the life of William Ewart Gladstone, one of two Prime Ministers to have enjoyed the Albany lifestyle.
Both installed by the LCC; the first, 10 St James Square commemorates three Prime Ministers to have lived at the same address, William Pitt, the Elder(1708-1778) first from 1759 - 1762, then Edward Geoffrey Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby (1799-1869) from 1837 - 1854, who both predated Gladstone (1809-1898), the ‘Grand Old Man’ who pitched camp briefly in 1890.

Gladstone beats Derby on periods in the daddy chair 4 to 3 (1868-74, 1880-85 1886 and 1892-94) but though Derby holds the record for his 22yr leadership of the Conservative party he actually only held the post of PM for a total of only 4 years, making Gladstone the clear champion. Pitt possibly wins the hand in this case though as the building is named Chatham House in his honour (made Earl of Chatham in 1766). It’s now the home of the Royal Institute for International Affairs.

Plaque rankings give an order of Gladstone (4), Pitt (2) and Stanley just the one.

The second plaque to Gladstone is at 11 Carlton House Terrace, but before leaving the Square it’s worth noting Nancy Astor (1879-1964) at number 4, the first woman to sit in Parliament in 1919 and one of only two women commemorated in SW1. She remained in Parliament for 25 years and as you would expect for a woman in such a position, was well able to hold her own against the boys. When a fellow MP remarked of Churchill ‘we just don’t know what to make of him’, she allegedly replied ‘how about a nice rug?’.
Sounds like my kind of lady!

Astor was also close friends with George Bernard Shaw (commemorated with plaques in W1 and WC2)

And so onwards….

Albany, SW1 - the ultimate bachelor pad

Built in the 1770's, Albany is the perfect pied a terre - as proved by the distinguished list of tenants in its 240yr history.   Originally the home of the 1st Viscount Mebourne, the name was left by Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, some years later and the 'slightly disreputable' air not until the nineteenth century when Henry Holland converted the mansion into 'sets'.
 These sets, or flats will set you back an astonishing £5k per month should you be so inclined, but you may find the restrictions on 'ungentlemanly behaviour' put a dampner on your saunter along the rope walk from Mayfair to Piccadilly.
Oddly enough, considering the calibre of the tenants, many of whom are recognised elsewhere (some more than once) there's not a blue plaque in sight.  But you won't have to travel far to find them.

Residents include:
The architects:
Holland, Basevi (Saville Row), Smirke (Charlotte Street).

The writers:
Huxley (Bracknell Gardens), Priestley, Byron, Rattigan (Cornwall Gardens)

The politicians:
Canning (Berkeley Square), Palmerston (Queen Anne's Gate, Carlton Gardens, Piccadilly), Gladstone Carlton House Terrace, Eglinton Road, St James' Square, Harley Street), Heath, Macaulay, Clark, Nicholson (Ebury Street), Brougham (Grafton Street).

The actors:
Dame Edith Evans (Ebury Street), Terence Stamp

and Simon Jenkins.

This is a tiny percentage of the long list documented in the survey of London (English Heritage) but hey, you've got to start somewhere, no?

Francis Bacon Quote

"Houses are built to live in and not to look on;

therefore let use be preferred before uniformity"

Francis Bacon, Of Building, 1625