The Merry Month : Looking up
Robert Merry, is an independent stone consultant and project manager who ran his own company for 17 years. He also acts as an expert witness. Here he presents his view of the stone industry this month.
One of my favourite pastimes is looking up. The skyline of London is extraordinary. From Inigo Jones, Wren (teacher) and Hawksmoor (pupil), through Georgian squares, Victorian grandeur, the Arts & Crafts of Whitechapel gallery and the Horniman museum, to the 20th and 21st century temples to the worship of money – the Gherkin, the Shard, Canary Wharf, the Cheese Grater. All hale the worshipful company of cheese graters – an august city institution, I am sure!
Not to mention the South Bank – ’60s hard core concrete edifice all the way to Hackney Marshes visitors centre, the Olympic park and beyond.
They all stand in London, muscling for space and attention. Going unnoticed much of the time as I pass through, round and over them in the daily commute or the regular taxi service I run for the family. “Can you pick me up from / take me to the station / shop / pub…?”.
Will we finally have no need for legs? Surely we will evolve into creatures able to alter our immediate world with the merest movement of an eye lid. Blink – turn on the kettle. Blink – turn up the temperature, feed the cat, book a virtual meeting and procreate all in the same moment. My services as taxi driver will no longer be required. Yipee!
But before we reach this state of inertia there is this world of buildings to explore.
Continuing my theme of last month’s Robert Merry Memorial Library, I have found another addition to the shelves from whence the previous ramble about buildings came: Guide to the Architecture of London by Edward Jones and Christopher Woodward.
What’s so clever about this book is its layout. In it, London is divided into a grid of squares, with the centre further divided into 16 smaller areas. Each area is then presented chronologically in relation to the architecture selected. There is a large cross section through the centuries and a wry commentary on each. And pictures. Lots of very good pictures. The visual impact is what architecture is about (for me, at least) if you don’t actually live or work in the building.
The book refers to who built the structures, when and often for what reason.
It also has two indexes (or indices, if you are that way inclined). One of the buildings, architects, districts, names, etc, etc, as you would expect. The other is an index of building types, from Almshouses, Arcades and Art Galleries to Theatres, Town Halls and Warehouses. So if (like me) you can remember the building or its location, but rarely both at the same time, there is a chance that whatever you can remember is in one or other of the indexes.
At 500 pages and a half A4 format, it won’t fit in your pocket easily (unless you have large empty ones, like mine). But it will fit in your man bag or handbag. If you have neither of these then it does fit in a low slung ‘messenger’ man bag, like what I got. Listen, I live in Hackney. No-one – and I mean no-one – leaves home without their man-bag in my street… preferably on a bike and sporting a beard and large glasses. Unless you’re a woman, then you don’t have to wear the glasses. Boom Boom.
Anyway, I would recommend this book for all you building lovers, especially if you live in London but even if you don’t (I have been told there are people who live outside of London who are very nice and almost normal) because it is the perfect accompaniment to a trip to the big smoke.