Checkerboard City
After spending some time at the Tate's Hogarth exhibition, we wandered toward Victoria Station, through an area of London where we'd not yet been--very quiet, very strangely removed from the rush and crowds near the station. This building almost blinded us with its checkerboard pattern, even more so, considering that there were two such buildings on either side of the street with exactly the same motif. Very odd. In many ways, London is itself a checkerboard city, with neighbourhoods changing within the space of blocks, even single buildings: turn left and you may find what you expect; turn right and something entirely different may greet you. In that way, it's a great city to explore, because you never really know what you're going to find!
1 comment:
These buildings are part of Westminster City Council's housing stock and if I can recall correctly as recently as 1994 or 5 had no separate bathroom - the bath was in the kitchen, covered up with a big board and used as a worktop during the day. This was common in public housing stock in London. In the past few years, the govt has put together a "decent homes standard" which all public housing had to reach by a certain date setting minimum standards, expecially for kitchens and bathrooms, so something should have changed by now I hope. Although the flats were small and I'd love to know how they've fitted it all in.
I always kinda linked the appearance of the buildings from outside though.
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