Last week I shared some of the City green spaces we wandered through on our most recent visit. We know the City has changed since the time we commuted there everyday, for me that’s seven years ago now - I’m not sure how, but it is, and as well as having a new space to walk we were keen to see how things had changed. It was one of those walks where my phone wasn’t out of my hand for long, as there was something to see - and snap - almost around every corner. Only later when I was scrolling through my photos did I realise that themes were apparent - green spaces, and today’s post - lines and sculptures.
The building above is at the corner of Cannon Street and Walbrook so my phone was out almost as soon as we left the station. It’s the first time I’ve seen it properly in daylight. I’ve walked past it on evening trips to meet friends (not recently obviously) and so it was good to take a slower, closer look. As you’ll see, not all of the lines are straight - some are curved.
This post is another which could fit in the “if you look, it’s amazing what you can see” category - but it’s so true. At a quick glance you see a huge building, office space but looking closer at the detail, there’s much more to it. But that’s not new, as the railings outside St Paul’s Cathedral show.
There’s plenty of colour too, it’s not all drab grey and beige office buildings - though there are a lot of those too. At 88 Wood Street there’s an injection of primary colour at the entrance for people and the exit for air, in a way that reminded me of parts of the Pompidou Centre in Paris.
I have some favourite spots in the City and was able to sneak in a good few into our route. The Barbican is one of those places that I think each time I go I see something new, or enter/leave via a different way - and it’s great. On this visit we found ourselves recalling memories from the long-gone Pizza Express on the walkway and found ourselves pausing and admiring this view. To the left is the green space which is the penultimate image in my earlier post, but I couldn’t exclude this photo from a post about lines. Look carefully under the stairs at the ornate iron gates, and it could also be a contender for my next post in this series - where old meets new.
I mentioned colour before and I’m going to mention it again. This sculpture, called Chromorama and is by David Batchelor proves my point. It is made of 35 illuminated light boxes using the entire colour spectrum which face all directions and is just outside Broadgate. I’m not sure how long it’s been there, but it’s the far side of Broadgate and not the entrance I’d usually use, so if it’s been there a while that explains why I’d not seen it before.
Now I need to go back one evening to see it illuminated. And as if to prove my point about lines, as I turned round the office buildings behind me shouted lines, and so did the zebra crossing.
As we headed over behind Liverpool Street the skyline was dominated by these diagonals, which I’m sure have more purpose than design.
We also bumped into more sculptures than you’d think you would. I liked these neon signs outside an office block in St Mary Axe - You’ve gone touching leaves in the moonlight. The work is by lumiere artist Elisa Artesero is called Garden of the Floating Words, and has previously been on display in Canary Wharf.
I also liked how it reflected in the lights in the office building it was outside, whose reception lights gave a kind of bokeh effect.
On our way towards Fenchurch Street we passed more ‘funnels’ these ones covered in a bright geometric design. Once there we found ourselves looking up, and up again and being slightly bamboozled by all of the lines.
Our last stop in this post is in Old Broad Street with this City Wing Sculpture, which I had seen before and when it was installed a year or so before I stopped working in the City. It’s by Christopher Le Brun and is way larger than it looks - I think you’d easily be level with its tip on the third floor. I’ve one more post to come in the themed posts from our City Walk, so look out for that in the next week or so.