49 today

Yes, even if I don't look it, I have turned 49, so only one short of the big one.

Had a very pleasant day to celebrate. It coincides with London Open House weekend, ie a day in which one can potter around public buildings not normally open to the public. So I consulted my little book and headed off to Whitehall via Trafalgar Square, and being a nice day I took some shots there

And then I went around Admiralty House. Alas I cannot show you any of the beautiful Georgian interiors, fine marble fireplaces or indeed interesting collection of maritime pictures, because you are not allowed to take photos. So all I can reproduce is the rather less impressive exterior.

By contrast, just down the road at The Foreign & Commonwealth Office, they don't worry about photos, so I have lots. Their fetish is mobile phones, which must be switched off.  Anyway, this is a fantastic building, which amazingly was intended for demolition in the Twentieth century, but luckily they went for restoration instead. Anyway, lets begin outside, and the pretty lengthy queue to get in. Individual bag searches of course.

Then into the entrance to the India Office, built in 1886.

Which leads into the magnificent Durbar Court, initially open to the elements (and the pigeons) but now glazed over

Then you go on to the Muses Stair, toplit by a lantern supported by the muses. The staircases are just so impressive.

And a corridor leads you into the Locarno suite of rooms. It beggars belief that the sumptuous ceilings were covered over and the area split into offices, until properly restored in the late Eighties. Rather touchingly, there was a little video set up with a recorded welcome from William Hague to the Open Day. Well I thought it was nice touch.

And finally back down another staircase, this time the Grand Staircase, which does indeed live up to the name. Great ceiling, but its the murals that really draw the eye. Just wonderfully bombastic. They show the "origin, education, development, expansion and triumph of the British Empire" and feature scantily clad muscular youths. Makes you proud to be British, as was no doubt the intention. But they would also have fitted equally well into a Nazi mural depicting the superiority of the Aryan race. But lets not go there, and just enjoy them for what they are.

From the Foreign Office I headed off to Parliament, or rather the new (ish) office block next door, Portcullis House. Alas again no photos, but mobiles were ok. So I can't show you the rather striking atrium, or any of the political art collection, just the exterior. But I was also lucky enough to catch a lecture on the construction of the building by both the architects and civil engineers which give a much better idea of the cleverness of the building  and the difficulties in construction. Firstly all the bits were prefabricated and brought to site, in part because there was no room to put things anywhere for storage. Then it couldn't have conventional foundations because of the Westminster Tube station directly underneath. So the roof is supported by just six columns, and then the walls hang off the roof. There is a very trendy ventilation system (hence the chimneys) and interesting wavy ceilings which both help the ventilation and improve the acoustics. And quite attractive banks of reflective mirrors in the glass atrium ceilings which means that rather than having lights in the ceiling (which would make changing light bulbs a pretty skilled and challenging job) you can have lights low down which can be aimed at the reflectors to cast a downward light. Neat solution. 

And contrary to what we were told at the time, it came in under budget rather than over budget. The difference being it was over the price when started in 1991, but the press ignored the fact that it took 10 years to complete and inflation linking was built into the original budget. Anyway, one of the more interesting bits of the day.

The final leg of my architectural tour was the the Royal Institute of British Architecture (RIBA) building itself. An art deco building in Georgian surroundings, I have to say it was the most disappointing of my destinations. Just nothing very exciting about it at all. It was apparently a bit of a job creation scheme between the wars. 

Well that was part one of my day. Part two was to celebrate my birthday at my local Italian restaurant with two of my mates. And that was a great relaxing evening. Genuinely couldn't think of a better way of spending an evening than with these two, just chatting about anything that came into our heads. Thanks chaps.