THE RAMBLINGS OF A STRUGGLING ARTIST ON LIFE WITH TWO TERRIERS, A PONY WITH ISSUES AND OTHER WILDLIFE AND BIRDS THAT CROSS OUR PATH

14 July 2014

THE BARBICAN, GOSH AND SMUDGE


On Wednesday morning we dropped the dogs and their crates at a friend's farm and set off for London. We had an excellent journey of only five hours. A bit of traffic on the North Circular but then there always is:


The dreaded Hanger Lane Gyratory System:


But once we got onto the A40 and the Westway things were much easier:



Over Edgware Road and onto the Marylebone Road, the site of my College where I studied Architecture in the early 1980's. When I was there it was the Polytechnic of Central London and one of the best schools of architecture at the time. However, snobbery or goodness knows what found it necessary to change all of the Polytechnics in this country into universities, often with rather desperate sounding names. Mine is now the University of Westminster. Actually, the Polytechnic of Central London was originally the Polytechnic Institution in Regent Street and then the Regent Street Polytechnic so I can't really complain I suppose. I always thought it a very ugly building to house a school of Architecture but I've mellowed a bit now in the face of nostalgia. 


We were staying with my old college mate who now lives with his family in the Golden Lane Estate just North of the Barbican and designed in the 1950's by the same brutalist architects, Chamberlin, Powell and Bon who are responsible for the Barbican Estate and complex. The whole complex was built on an area devastated by bombing in WW2. When I was younger, I dismissed Brutalism but have come to look at it differently later in life, especially having seen inside some of these flats and have learnt to appreciate the detailing, if not the general brutal impression. Did you know that Barbican comes from the low Latin word 'Barbecana', meaning fortified outpost or gateway. I didn't. This is one of the three residential tower blocks and one of the low rise blocks seen behind the local primary school. My friend and his wife used to live in one of the top flats with the barrel vault roof. 



We wandered around a bit and had an ice cream. So unusual to be walking without a purpose and without canine companions. 


An old warehouse, now flats and studios, like so many buildings of its type in London:


That Brutalist housing again:


Old meets new:


In a road I remember being boarded up and run down some decades ago, there are now chichi bars and restaurants. This one had dead pigeons and rabbits hanging in the window. No accounting for taste. 


Those barrel vaults again:


Surrounding office blocks:


On the Barbican Estate, there are man made lakes which make the whole thing much more appealing:



London's Pigeons......I don't miss them.



These massive masks are suspended just outside one of the entrances to the arts centre:


London's hire bikes; Boris Bikes.....great idea. 



Wednesday evening was beautiful and I shot these teenage girls doing what teenagers do on a summer's evening:



After a reasonable night's sleep, Thursday dawned and we walked to Great Ormond Street Hospital through hoards of people on their way to work. It rained, but not too hard and we got there early. Two and a half hours later, we walked out feeling like we were actually getting somewhere at last. The team of four psychologists and a psychiatrist looked at OB as a whole person and talked to us at length about everything. We were there for a reassuring two and a half hours and they will be writing to everyone we've had contact with down here in Devon. They suggested that the dreaded CAMHS send someone to spend some time with their cognitive therapists to learn how they approach Tourettes, which would be fantastic, not just for us, but for other children with the condition here. The whole hospital is so impressive, with everything geared for children; colourful and unthreatening. Pictures were difficult but I took one of the cafeteria on my phone before it got busy:


Back to the Barbican to collect the car and then a two hour slog across London and another five hours to get to the dogs, who were VERY pleased to see us. Home at  last. Growing up in London was great but I'm very happy not to live there any more. 

Over the weekend, I found Daisy, the mare who used to come up the drive last year if you remember. I haven't seen her since last autumn. She's looking well for a lady of her age and...........


She has a delightful new foal, whose unusual markings look all smudgy. Definitely a Smudge.






Nib scratching:


These two were flirting outrageously:




The dogs are so pleased to be home:


Three Eurofighter Typhoons (I think) flew over us in a delta formation as we were walking the other day. I saw them coming from a few miles away and managed to catch one of them. Whilst I hate what they can potentially do, I find them so exciting and was left saying "wow" to nobody but the dogs after they'd gone right over my head. When I was about twelve, I wanted to be a jet pilot but they didn't take women in those days. Probably a good thing as they'd have kicked me out when I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes!


Things are getting back to normal here and the summer holidays are pending. I had planned to have repainted the downstairs of the house by now but it just doesn't seem to have happened. OB is doing a drumming course in the first week so maybe I'll try and do it then? Possibly? Don't hold me to it. So, until next time, welcome to a few new followers, I hope your weeks are going well and here are the boys looking winsome in the grass.


53 comments:

  1. Love Smudge!
    I'm so glad you had a useful visit to GOS. I only hope they follow through on all they've promised and that it has a positive effect. Good luck x

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    1. I hope so too Jess - they seemed so professional and determined but we'll see....x

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  2. What a difference in pictures between London and Dartmoor and all brilliant. I hope now you've had a good long session with the right people at GOSH they will all talk to each other between London and Devon and OB will benefit.

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    1. Let's hope so. It just shows how hard you have to push id you want to get somewhere. It shouldn't have to be like that.

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  3. You must appreciate the beauty and tranquillity of Dartmoor even more after 'the smoke'. I used to commute to work in The City for years and can't say I miss it. I occasionally visit if going to the Theatre or Art Exhibition but find it pretty exhausting and frantic
    I love your horse photos and the little smudgy foal is so cute

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    1. Frantic is right Sue. I just find the place so stressful now. However, sleeping there was a revelation. There was no noise at all facing into the estate and I completely understand why they love living there so much. We had to pay the congestion charge as they are about 100 yards inside it!

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  4. I adore that first photo
    My fav film is THE TOWERING inferno

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    1. I love that film too John. Paul Newman is the best looking film star ever and I'd forgotten how many greats there are in that cast. OJ Simpson........hmmmm.

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  5. I was born in Edgware. Spent 6 months in Great Ormand Street Hospital for removal of a TB neck gland ( been drinking milk from a herd of cows before they tested them.) I was only 2 and I contracted measles while in the hospital! It was during the war, but it's amazing how much I remember of that time. I'm sure it's all very different now. Went to an wonderful concert in the Barbican about 20 years ago and recognized your photo. We lived in Finchley and Barnet until I was five. Like you, I would never want to live in London. City life is not for me. Glad the boys are happy to be home and trust the other information and help is soon forthcoming.

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    1. Hi Chris, How funny you lived in Finchley! Before we moved here twelve years ago, we were in East Finchley and I grew up in Highgate and Crouch End. North London girls. 6 months must have been an eternity in hospital at that age - you poor thing.

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  6. Wonderful architectural photos, especially the verticals. I'll never see London, and if I did, I couldn't keep my balance to make those shots. Which, of course, I would have to try anyway. I enjoyed the tour, and the news from the specialists.

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    1. I sometimes miss access to the arts and museums Joanne but otherwise, I'm very happy out in the sticks with the wildlife. Those pigeons are a nightmare!

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  7. What a contrast between London and home! I'm so glad GOSH was such a good experience - particularly for OB. Now let's hope they really follow through with the local people! I love the Smudgy foal - could you tell whether it was a filly or a colt?

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    1. Fill I think, but you know me Virginia, that probably means it's a colt!

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  8. So glad you and son had a good experience at the hospital. They can be so intimidating.
    What a striking contrast between city and country.
    Welcome to the world, little Smudge.

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    1. The whole place is absolutely not intimidating Terry. I don't know how they do it.

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  9. I went to Portsmouth Poly..or The University of Portsmouth as it is now known.I remember filling in a ballot to choose the new name...'nowt wrong with the old one' was not an option.
    Glad that things went well at GOSH.
    Jane x

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    1. Hooray - another Poly-girl! I still have no degree certificate as, in the early eighties, PCL considered degree ceremonies too establishment to bother with! x

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  10. All those bikes and no riders!

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    1. We did see some being ridden around but they were rather underused - yes!

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  11. Oh I like where you live waaaay better!
    Cheers!
    Linda :o)

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  12. Wow. Looks like some major touring. You really got around. Thank you for your photographs.

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    1. Too much time in the car LL. It was nice to walk through the city early in the morning though. SO many coffee shops!

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  13. HI EM GREAT LONDON BUILDING SHOTS HOWEVER i MUS PREFER YOUR NATURAL ONES OF DARTMOOR. THE YOUNG FOALS ARE SO CURE AND THE DOGS LOOK HAPPY TO BE BACK ON THE MOORS ALSO. GLAD THE TRIP WAS WORTH WHILE FOR YOU.

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    1. It was Margaret, or at least I hope so; we're awaiting the letter.....

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  14. I am so glad that things went well at GOSH, I was thinking about this the other day and hoping that all was going well. I don't think that I could live in a brutalist building, but I do appreciate that it was a style of its time and that we need to have all sorts of buildings from different periods, but I personally would prefer to live in something a little softer, although not really oldy worldy if you know what I mean! I am so impressed with your driving in London, I would definitely have given that part a miss, but I guess that the train is so long from where you live it was probably actually easier this way. Hope that OB enjoys his drumming and that you enjoy the painting - or not!! xx

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    1. The train would have cost £180 for the three of us, plus all the underground oyster card business, so about £200. It was far cheaper to drive! x

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  15. Amazing to switch to your blog and find London photographs Em! I am glad that Great Ormond Street went well. I have just set up a monthly standing order to them as they are intending to raise several million to improve their accommodation for parents who need to stay near their seriously ill children. Such a very worthy cause.
    Glad also that you seem to have made some headway over the Tourettes.

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    1. A worthy cause indeed Pat and having sen it for myself now, even more so. Thank you!

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  16. Glad to hear GOSH was worthwhile. I bet it was great to get home to fresh air and open space x

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  17. London what a ghastly place Em. Love the new Foul and yes it was Typhoons.
    I had two fly over me the other day going through the Sound Barrier on their way to seek out a Dodgy suspect Airliner.

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  18. wow, that took me back. I grew up in West London, not far from the Iconic Art Deco Hoover building.
    Lovely photos of the ponies and doesn't Snippet look happy!

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  19. I'm so glad the visit to London was worthwhile for OB but you must be relieved to be back home. Love "Smudge" .

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    1. So relieved. London is just so stressful.

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  20. Thanks for stopping by the other day Em and sending the good vibes for Jackson .
    Loved seeing Daisy again ~ her "smudgy" foal is quite the looker :)

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    1. Gorgeous isn't.....er....she? I've never seen such smudgy markings.

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  21. So glad to hear that your session at Great Ormond street was successful. It will be wonderful if other children in Devon could benefit from your visit too! My sister's friend used to live in the Barbican, remember visiting her there in the 70's. Daisy's foal looks so lovely. Sarah x

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    1. IT does seem outrageous that there are no Tourettes facilities here at all. I guess that's why we've been going round in circles for so long. Fingers crossed......x

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  22. London doesn't look like anything I remember so long ago. So different from American cities. Glad you had such a positive visit for OB. Makes all the long drive worth the while.

    Loved Smudge! Gorgeous photos of the ponies on the moor. I know the dogs were happy to see you!

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    1. The drive was hellish but definitely worthwhile. I just hope we don't have to do it too often.

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  23. Really pleased you got to see the necessary people at GOSH....here's looking forwards. Great pictures from London too, oh so pleased it is far away though, lol. Love Smudge, what an absolute cutey :-)

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    1. Nice-ish to visit but not to live. SO many people.

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  24. Hi Em!! I love the photos - especially of those breathtakingly beautiful horses :)

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    1. It's a privilege to be able to get so close to them and observe their behaviour.

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  25. Such a contrast Em between the London photos and the wilds of Dartmoor, know where I would be, but glad that you have had some success with the hospital visit.

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  26. I am so pleased for you that your visit to GOSH was successful, it is such an excellent hospital. I love your photos of the city. I love the countryside having grown up in Cornwall, but I love visiting London and seeing the architecture. I like brutalist architecture, although a lot of people hate it. Each to their own. x

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    1. As long as it's done well I don't mind it. I'm a HUGE fan of Carlo Scarpa, or Charlie Shoebox as a college friend used to call him!

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  27. Nice job. I love how you captured the birds with the worms. That is such great details.

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