# The Fridays London Ride - Windows and Death - 29th December



## dellzeqq (26 Nov 2012)

I may just have messed this up. The (non) plan was to schlepp up to Hyde Park Corner, set off at 11.30, wander around London, looking at some of the stuff that I like, grouped loosely around a couple of themes, which would be a) windows and b) death and then go to All Bar One and get tanked.

Now.......there's been quite a bit of interest, and if we have a crowd, and particularly if people are coming from quite a way, I've got to up my game a bit. So it's back to Pevsner, Steen Eiler Rasmussen and Sir John Summerson (and Sigfried Gideon if I fancy a bit of self-laceration) for a bit of revision, hopefully to come up with stuff you can't get from Wikipedia. I may change the start time to 10.30 or 11 if I get the ok from a couple of people who are coming from quite a way and may have already booked their railway tickets.

So....I will be registering people in order to have some idea of numbers. If we have more than about forty then I'll make adjustments - there's no point in standing on the Embankment wittering on about Bazalgette (the sewer chappie, not his wretched grandson) if the people at the back can't hear you. 

If you've already sent me an e-mail I'll endeavour to get back to you today. And if you're thinking of coming on this one then please bear in mind the possible change in start time.


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## Mark Grant (26 Nov 2012)

Email sent.


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## StuAff (26 Nov 2012)

Same here.


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## ianrauk (26 Nov 2012)

yup.. me too


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## subaqua (26 Nov 2012)

2173004 said:


> Will it be raining?


 I'll have a word with the weather gods for you.

that means yes I will be coming if I am allowed. (SWMBO will allow, its Dell and the CC collective that needs to say yes)


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## ianrauk (26 Nov 2012)

Will the friendly plod be there with bike marking again?


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## dellzeqq (26 Nov 2012)

ianrauk said:


> Will the friendly plod be there with bike marking again?


I will ask.


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## Davywalnuts (26 Nov 2012)

I've just changed my blood donation date from that day as the two don't mix that well.. and of course, it then frees me up for any talk of a night ride on the 28th.. it is, after all, a Friday night then.. and if, one happens, that is...

Email just about to do...


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## GrumpyGregry (26 Nov 2012)

Alas and alack, much as I'd like to see you all in daylight, I shall be en route to sunny Florida and Disneyworld. Don't judge me.


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## AKA Bob (26 Nov 2012)

ianrauk said:


> Will the friendly plod be there with bike marking again?





dellzeqq said:


> I will ask.


 
Due to that big sports event in the Summer we are planning a bit of a break over Christmas but I can always ask. Failing that I can bring some stuff with me and assist with some DIY!

Hopefully I should be fixed by then and can join in the fun? So can my name be added to the list.


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## slowmotion (27 Nov 2012)

dellzeqq said:


> I will ask.


Will a massive crowd of tourists greet us in front of Buckingham Palace, as we swept past like last time? I rather got a taste for being a celeb...


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## AnythingButVanilla (27 Nov 2012)

I'm a definite and he's a maybe and we'll send emails tomorrow. I'm off work for two and a half weeks over Christmas for the first time in over a decade and forsee a lot of bike riding happening.


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## User10571 (27 Nov 2012)

AKA Bob said:


> .....Hopefully I should be fixed by then and can join in the fun? .......


 
Is that fixed as in err..... fixed?
Or have you been poorly?
Either way, I hope you're fixed.


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## GrumpyGregry (27 Nov 2012)

AKA Bob said:


> Hopefully I should be fixed by then


What's this? Have you been broken?


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## Tim Hall (27 Nov 2012)

DKUATB. Parks and Palaces ride. Slippery road + AKA Bob + Gravity = borked arm.

Keep mending AKA Bob.


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## AKA Bob (27 Nov 2012)

Tim Hall said:


> DKUATB. Parks and Palaces ride. Slippery road + AKA Bob + Gravity = borked arm.
> 
> Keep mending AKA Bob.



Plus a small intervention of a car that had done a dodgy overtake on a blind bend and clipped the front of my bike as they pulled in to avoid a car coming the other way! Before you ask I didn't get his number as I was approaching the curb rapidly at over 30 miles per hour on a Brompton!

So I can now personally vouch for the merits of helmet wearing as it stopped me from more serious injuries! In the end I am enjoying a radial head fracture in my right elbow, tissue damage in my wrist and some nice road rash on my knees.

Doctors says it should be six weeks which means on 22nd if all goes to plan I can jump on the bike again!


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## GrumpyGregry (27 Nov 2012)

GWS boss!


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## Tim Hall (27 Nov 2012)

AKA Bob said:


> Plus a small intervention of a car that had done a dodgy overtake on a blind bend and clipped the front of my bike as they pulled in to avoid a car coming the other way! Before you ask I didn't get his number as I was approaching the curb rapidly at over 30 miles per hour on a Brompton!
> 
> So I can now personally vouch for the merits of helmet wearing as it stopped me from more serious injuries! In the end I am enjoying a radial head fracture in my right elbow, tissue damage in my wrist and some nice road rash on my knees.
> 
> Doctors says it should be six weeks which means on 22nd if all goes to plan I can jump on the bike again!


Sounds nasty. Did any sound escape your lips when you hit the deck? Did Titus Groan?


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## mmmmartin (27 Nov 2012)

GregCollins said:


> What's this? Have you been broken?


Greg, it's been all over Twitter, and in that phrase you are revealing that you do not follow him on Twitter and thus are Not Young.


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## GrumpyGregry (27 Nov 2012)

mmmmartin said:


> Greg, it's been all over Twitter, and in that phrase you are revealing that you do not follow him on Twitter and thus are Not Young.


Actually I do follow him on twitter. But I've recently had the pleasure of implementing a policy which prevents folk outside our comms team from accessing twitter on the network at work. Facebook is next to be restricted. This makes me definitely Not Young.

of course certain cycle forums remain accessible.


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## topcat1 (27 Nov 2012)

Congratulations Simon and the Fridays gang, i just received the dec/jan issue of the ctc mag and there's a nice write up about the LonJog


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## dellzeqq (27 Nov 2012)

I've not seen the article!


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## StuAff (27 Nov 2012)

topcat1 said:


> Congratulations Simon and the Fridays gang, i just received the dec/jan issue of the ctc mag and there's a nice write up about the LonJog


This post is useless without links to decent quality scans of the article


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## dellzeqq (27 Nov 2012)

it's arrived! Not bad


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## StuartG (27 Nov 2012)

mmmmartin said:


> Greg, it's been all over Twitter, and in that phrase you are revealing that you do not follow him on Twitter and thus are Not Young.


mmmmmmmmmmmmartin your application to have Greg admitted to the Bus Pass Wing of FNRttC has sadly failed. Living in foreign parts has a terrible cost. Whereas my cradle snatched loved one will be admitted next May on her 60th birthday courtesy of a special Boris scheme for us in groove city.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-19777698

Why even DZ can look forward to stacking his Brommie with the prams ...


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## ianmac62 (27 Nov 2012)

I shall scan and post the article from "Cycle" later today.

In the meantime, looking forward to the "Windows and Death (and Linoleum)" ride.

A formal email has been sent, DZ.


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## dellzeqq (27 Nov 2012)

article e-mailed to LonJoGers


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## StuartG (27 Nov 2012)

dellzeqq said:


> it's arrived! Not bad


Thanks, got it. You're as pretty with the pen as the powder DeeeZeee ...


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## AKA Bob (27 Nov 2012)

Having checked the work calendar and spoken to some members of staff I can now confirm there will be free cycle security marking being offered again this year to any interested parties.

I imagine we will be offering our services from 9.30am onwards or an hour before the start time if it changes.


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## AKA Bob (27 Nov 2012)

Tim Hall said:


> Sounds nasty. Did any sound escape your lips when you hit the deck? Did Titus Groan?



Yes for the record there was some 'Groaning' !

My mate Mervyn says it comes and goes in Peake's


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## srw (27 Nov 2012)

Windows and death? Is there a blue screen too?

Sadly I'll be unable to offer my stories of life in EC3 (which are about as exciting as they sound) - I'd love to hear about the history of windows from 1700 to 1900 (most evenings it's a history of drawing the curtains), but we have a birthday lunch to go to.

See you all sometime next year - the rides are in the diary.


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## User10571 (27 Nov 2012)

AKA Bob said:


> Plus a small intervention of a car that had done a dodgy overtake on a blind bend and clipped the front of my bike as they pulled in to avoid a car coming the other way! Before you ask I didn't get his number as I was approaching the curb rapidly at over 30 miles per hour on a Brompton!
> 
> So I can now personally vouch for the merits of helmet wearing as it stopped me from more serious injuries! In the end I am enjoying a radial head fracture in my right elbow, tissue damage in my wrist and some nice road rash on my knees.
> 
> Doctors says it should be six weeks which means on 22nd if all goes to plan I can jump on the bike again!


Ouchness!
GWS.


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## ianrauk (27 Nov 2012)

AKA Bob said:


> Having checked the work calendar and spoken to some members of staff I can now confirm there will be free cycle security marking being offered again this year to any interested parties.
> 
> I imagine we will be offering our services from 9.30am onwards or an hour before the start time if it changes.


 

Cheers Titus..much appreciated. Will bring the new bike then


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## ChrisBailey (27 Nov 2012)

AKA Bob said:


> Hopefully I should be fixed by then and can join in the fun? .


 
http://www.cyclechat.net/threads/re...y-10th-november-2012.112305/page-2#navigation

Post #29

Having witnessed the immovable object meet the (seemingly) irresistible force my other recollection was the TEC Sean raising two fingers in front of Titus and asking 'How many?' Titus came back with a dismissive 'Five' but alas peeled off to Staines railway station just a few minutes later.

Looking forward to getting another of my bikes 'Bike Registered'

GWS

Chris


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## rb58 (27 Nov 2012)

Can I come please? Email sent Simon.

Mend soon Titus!!


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## martint235 (28 Nov 2012)

[QUOTE 2176348, member: 1314"]Blast - I've got tickets for Harlequins v London Irish at Twickenham that day. So see some of you on Dec 14 for xmas drinks.[/quote]



2176469 said:


> Unlucky.


 Yep particularly as I know that London Irish are about to start hitting form about now. (Well it has to happen at some point!!!)

I'll be there on the 14th, can't wait!!


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## ceepeebee (30 Nov 2012)

Tim Hall said:


> Sounds nasty. Did any sound escape your lips when you hit the deck? Did Titus Groan?


or was Titus' Hand chronicus?.........

look, I've been trying to get that right all morning and that's the best I got....stop, no, really I'm sorry


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## Paulus (30 Nov 2012)

Put me down for the ride, last years was great fun. Email sent.


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## dellzeqq (1 Dec 2012)

over 60 signed up. Not much room left.....


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## wanda2010 (2 Dec 2012)

60? Impressive


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## StuartG (2 Dec 2012)

Anybody under 60?


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## Paulus (3 Dec 2012)

StuartG said:


> Anybody under 60?


 
Just about.


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## StuartG (3 Dec 2012)

Paulus said:


> Just about.


Bl**dy Kidz. Whatever have they done for us?


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## dellzeqq (3 Dec 2012)

over 70 now. That's quite a surprise.


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## User10571 (3 Dec 2012)

dellzeqq said:


> over 70 now. That's quite a surprise.


A PA system is your friend.....


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## Tim Hall (3 Dec 2012)

User10571 said:


> A PA system is your friend.....


I'd pay money to see our esteemed leader tow Beatrice around That London...


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## ttcycle (3 Dec 2012)

I'm a maybe for this one Simon.


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## dellzeqq (4 Dec 2012)

User10571 said:


> A PA system is your friend.....


I have the offer of a megaphone, but I'm a wee bit reluctant - many Londoners will be relishing the peace and quiet. A milk crate on the back of the Brommie might be more help


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## dellzeqq (4 Dec 2012)

2186762 said:


> I've got a Grolsh crate somewhere. That would be more appropriate.


sounds good! I think the road bike might not be appropriate. I intend to carry my copy of Steen Eiler Rasmussen with me, and quote from it at full volume when we reach the excrescence, the MK Dons of architecture that has the gall to call itself the Adelphi.


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## PaulRide (4 Dec 2012)

So it looks as though we'll be passing the heavy-handed fake Queen Anne Lutyens facade behind which I pretend to work, but that we will not pause to admire it. I am not offended.


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## subaqua (4 Dec 2012)

as we turn in to Tooley Street if everybody looks left they will see where I work, and I can point out the position of the original London bridge, which was replaced by Mcintoshes in 1823ish. If there were not 70 odd of us i would try and get us onto site to look at the 1820 granite piers that support the bridge constructed between 1967-1970.

John Bonnington partnership designed the building .


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## dellzeqq (4 Dec 2012)

PaulRide said:


> So it looks as though we'll be passing the heavy-handed fake Queen Anne Lutyens facade behind which I pretend to work, but that we will not pause to admire it. I am not offended.


ah - let's get our definitions right. There's Queen Anne (and we go to Queen Anne's Gate) and Queen Anne 2 (the revival, which we will see at the Norman Shaw Building). Now......I think Lutyen's building is, strictly speaking, neither. The geometry is too centralised to be proper QA, and the articulation and absence of quirky offsets means it's not really QA2. Personally I stick QA2 in to the English Free Style category along with Romano-Romanesque........

Lutyens was a stylist, a bit of a flibbertygibbet. We'll pass his Page Street estate which is like nothing else on earth. For my money he was best where he had the space for a bit of whimsy - the doorway at Campion Hall, or the house in Sonning now owned by Jimmy Page. 65 Lincoln's Inn is just a bit big for him.


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## ianrauk (4 Dec 2012)

I have checked the search box and this seems to be the second time that the word flibbertygibbet has been used on the forum

(Now the third)


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## User10571 (4 Dec 2012)

dellzeqq said:


> ah - let's get our definitions right. There's Queen Anne (and we go to Queen Anne's Gate) and Queen Anne 2 (the revival, which we will see at the Norman Shaw Building). Now......I think Lutyen's building is, strictly speaking, neither. The geometry is too centralised to be proper QA, and the articulation and absence of quirky offsets means it's not really QA2. Personally I stick QA2 in to the English Free Style category along with Romano-Romanesque........
> 
> Lutyens was a stylist, a bit of a flibbertygibbet. We'll pass his Page Street estate which is like nothing else on earth. For my money he was best where he had the space for a bit of whimsy - the doorway at Campion Hall, or the house in Sonning now owned by Jimmy Page. 65 Lincoln's Inn is just a bit big for him.


 
This is just a warm up.
Isn't it?
By the 29th the architectural _bon mots_ will be issuing forth like a runaway train.
Those of a fragile disposition should be warned.

Come to think of it, what you could really do with is an elevated lectern (in classic style, of course).
Or a small balcony.

On wheels.

The only trouble with balconies is that they have a bit of an image issue.
With dictators and their like.


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## Flying Dodo (4 Dec 2012)

User10571 said:


> Come to think of it, what you could really do with is an elevated lectern (in classic style, of course).
> Or a small balcony.
> 
> On wheels.


 
How about a Segway?


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## dellzeqq (4 Dec 2012)

Ian had me worried until I looked for myself...
http://www.cyclechat.net/threads/its-not-been-ruperts-week.99251/post-1795995 

have you noticed that 'tad' has slipped in to the CC lexicon?


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## User10571 (4 Dec 2012)

Flying Dodo said:


> How about a Segway?


Illegal over here, I believe.


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## dellzeqq (4 Dec 2012)

Flying Dodo said:


> How about a Segway?


only if I can wear my Napoleon uniform with the big hat.


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## srw (4 Dec 2012)

dellzeqq said:


> Lutyens was a stylist, a bit of a flibbertygibbet.


A will'o the wisp? A clown?

I haven't the foggiest who designed my workplace (which I think you will also go past) - it's vacuous from the outside but rather nice to work in. It's above Boots on the corner of Gracechurch and Fenchurch.


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## AnythingButVanilla (4 Dec 2012)

Will there be handouts and a test in the pub afterwards?


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## ianmac62 (4 Dec 2012)

AnythingButVanilla said:


> Will there be handouts and a test in the pub afterwards?


I shall have a hand-out about Lenin and Stalin in London when we pause outside the Marx Memorial Library. Now where did I leave the Banda machine?


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## slowmotion (4 Dec 2012)

srw said:


> It's above Boots on the corner of Gracechurch and Fenchurch.


 Crikey! Do you work for George Smiley?


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## PaulRide (5 Dec 2012)

dellzeqq said:


> Lutyens was a stylist, a bit of a flibbertygibbet. We'll pass his Page Street estate which is like nothing else on earth.


I had no idea that Page Street was by him - I'd meant to look it up after walking past on my way to a meeting of the executive committee of the Conference of Solicitors for Catholic Charities (now there's over-specialisation for you!) and being startled by it.
Anyway, for your delectation, I present the building in its pre-Lutyens state in 1906.


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## dellzeqq (5 Dec 2012)

srw said:


> A will'o the wisp? A clown?
> 
> I haven't the foggiest who designed my workplace (which I think you will also go past) - it's vacuous from the outside but rather nice to work in. It's above Boots on the corner of Gracechurch and Fenchurch.


too late for my copy of Pevsner. Perhaps it's time to get a new one.....


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## dellzeqq (5 Dec 2012)

ianmac62 said:


> I shall have a hand-out about Lenin and Stalin in London when we pause outside the Marx Memorial Library. Now where did I leave the Banda machine?


Banda machine! I can almost smell the spirit!

We had a Gestetner. Happy days!


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## dellzeqq (5 Dec 2012)

AnythingButVanilla said:


> Will there be handouts and a test in the pub afterwards?


I hadn't thought of that, but, thankyou - I'm on it, and your fellow Fridays members will be forever grateful.




which is the oldest? (and Wikipedia has it half wrong)
and which is the one with the revolutionary structure?


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## mmmmartin (5 Dec 2012)

i think the revolutionary structure is the square one on the right, which, if I recall correctly, consists of girders with things hanging off them, and when the IRA bombed the nearby NatWest tower, the building in the photograph simply shuddered a bit (as, in fact, did we all) and nothing happened. The Lloyds building, with all the facilities stuff on the outside, was very much poo-pooed by Mr DZ as a silly idea on the ride last year. Rightly so, in my opinion. 

On a side-note, it is interesting to see that while the Gherkin becomes narrower as it rises, from my office I can see a building going up that becomes wider as it rises. I'd be interested to hear the logic used in the design of the one, and also the logic used in the design of the other.


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## srw (5 Dec 2012)

dellzeqq said:


> I hadn't thought of that, but, thankyou - I'm on it, and your fellow Fridays members will be forever grateful.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 It's the Aviva building, isn't it, by a year or two over the Lloyds building. The church at bottom left is not only a modern reconstruction after the IRA bomb, it's also home to one of the less wholesome and more outré evangelical congregations in the Church of England. Isn't someone senior in one of hte oil companies on the non-stipendiary staff there? On the other hand, just next door to the Aviva building is St Katharine Cree, which IIRC is pre-great fire, and so one of the oldest buildings in the City.

I _think _that the Aviva building is revolutionary because it hangs from the top, like the next-door tower which has recently been demolished. On the other hand the Gherkin is revolutionary because it's got passive air-conditioning, and the Lloyds building is revolutionary because it's built inside out. And the church is revolutionary because it preaches love, peace and tolerance.*

And the walkie-talkie is built the way it is (I gather) because office space is more expensive the higher up you go. We can also see it from the top of our building.

*This may not be true of that particular church.


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## dellzeqq (5 Dec 2012)

srw goes to the top of the class! He's going to be a hard man to beat!

As Martin says, the structure of the Aviva building (formerly the CU tower) saved it when the bomb went off.


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## srw (5 Dec 2012)

It helps that I (a) am interested in architecture and the built environment (b) am a sink for useless knowledge and (c) worked across the road in Leadenhall Street for nearly 10 years. My office was shaken daily for 18 months by the demolition of the old Lloyds Lime Street building and the construction of the new Willis tower. I gather there are now plans for yet another tower in the space that office now inhabits.


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## dellzeqq (5 Dec 2012)

A friend of Tim H
Adam B
Adrian C
Alice L
Andrew B
Anne H
Cate R
Charlie B
Charlotte B
Chris B
Chris By
Clive B
David M
Davy S
Diana
Eddie C
Els V
Gail G
Geraldine M
Grace W
Grahame D
Helen B
Ian At
Ian McS
Ian S
Jenny M
Jocelyn C S
John B
John G
Julia B
Julian N
Julie G
Katharina S
Liz Bt with John B
Louise M
Marilyn B
Mark G
Mark P
Martin B
Martin S
Martin T
Martin W
Mick D
Miranda S
Moses A
Mrs D who may have a first name
Mrs R who may have a first name
Olaf S
Pamela W
Paul R
Paul Rb
Peter L
Philip K
Rebecca O-B
Ronald R
Ross C
Ruth L
Sandra S
Sig E
Simon B
Sonia W
Stephen O
Stephen T
Steve W
Stuart A
Stuart G
Susie F
Tacey L
Tilman B (+1?)
Tim H
Titus H
Tom B
Xi C

not to mention Dan, Iain, Peter and Abbe


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## Andrij (5 Dec 2012)

srw said:


> A will'o the wisp? A clown?
> 
> I haven't the foggiest who designed my workplace (which I think you will also go past) - it's vacuous from the outside but rather nice to work in. It's above Boots on the corner of Gracechurch and Fenchurch.



Howdy, neighbour.  (I work veeerrrryy close to that corner).


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## subaqua (5 Dec 2012)

dellzeqq said:


> srw goes to the top of the class! He's going to be a hard man to beat!
> 
> As Martin says, the structure of the Aviva building (formerly the CU tower) saved it when the bomb went off.


 
Who were the builders of each then. not structural engineers but actual builders.

The Gherkin was Skanska UK . and the aircraft light was fitted by one of the sparks who used to work for me who goes by the nickname of "Zippy"


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## srw (5 Dec 2012)

Andrij said:


> Howdy, neighbour.  (I work veeerrrryy close to that corner).


Another denizen of insuranceland?

Ask mmmmartin which address I sent him to when he kindly agreed to sell me a couple of Fridays' jerseys and deliver them to my office in person.


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## srw (5 Dec 2012)

srw said:


> _You really don't want to have to read it again_


I discover that I was even right about St Katharine Cree - both its date (1504 and 1631) and its odd spelling of "Katharine". I worry about myself sometimes.


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## theclaud (5 Dec 2012)

srw said:


> I discover that I was even right about St Katharine Cree - both its date (1504 and 1631) and its odd spelling of "Katharine". I worry about myself sometimes.


Time to go out for a bike ride, srw!


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## ianmac62 (5 Dec 2012)

theclaud said:


> Time to go out for a bike ride, srw!


I've gone on a bike ride tonight. It's cold! This is the first time I've worn a down jacket while pedalling a Brommie. Still, wouldn't want to miss the Johnstone's Paint Trophy excitement at Sixfields. It's half-time: Cobblers 0 Orient 0.


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## srw (5 Dec 2012)

I went for a bike ride earlier - a short pull up the hill from a station to our training centre, and then down again after lunch.


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## Becs (5 Dec 2012)

Can I be a maybe?


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## thom (6 Dec 2012)

I shall be out of London for this ride - always seem to miss these unfortunately.
I see Hanover square is not on the route although in August it was indeed the scene of death caused by a 300 kg window which was left precariously balanced against a wall during construction of a new building.


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## dellzeqq (6 Dec 2012)

Becs said:


> Can I be a maybe?


possibly.

Just let me know when you're certain. I'm not holding places because it's almost full already.


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## Becs (7 Dec 2012)

dellzeqq said:


> possibly.
> 
> Just let me know when you're certain. I'm not holding places because it's almost full already.


 
I won't know until a few days before - depends how horrific xmas is! Surely I can bimble along to the pub at least?


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## dellzeqq (7 Dec 2012)

you'll have mail in a bit.......


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## dellzeqq (7 Dec 2012)

srw - I've been annoyed by not being able to attribute the building you work in - but I think I've worked out the building it pays tribute to







Carson Pirie, Chicago. 1899


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## dellzeqq (8 Dec 2012)

about 80 now

A friend of Tim H
Abbe M
Adam B
Adrian C
Alice L
Andrew Br
Andrij B
Anne H
Cate R
Charlie B
Charlotte B
Chris B
Chris By
Clive B
Dan P
David M
Davy S
Diana
Eddie C
Els V
Gail G
Geraldine M
Grace W
Grahame D
Helen Sk
Iain C
Ian McS
Ian S
Jenny M
Jocelyn C S
John B
John G
Julia B
Julia R
Julian N
Julie G
Katharina S
Kim T
Liz Bt with John B
Louise M
Marilyn B
Mark G
Mark P
Martin B
Martin S
Martin T
Martin W
Mick D
Miki Y
Miranda S
Moses A
Mrs D who may have a first name
Olaf S
Pamela W
Paul R
Paul Rb
Peter M
Philip K
Rebecca O-B
Rebecca T
Ronald R
Ross C
Ruth L
Sandra S
Sig E
Simon B
Sonia W
Stephen O
Stephen T
Steve W
Stuart A
Stuart G
Susie F
Tacey L
Tilman B (+1?)
Tim H
Titus H
Tom B
Xi C

I'm going to see All Bar One


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## Andrew Br (9 Dec 2012)

She's not Helen Br.
Just saying...............

Helen S or Sk works.


.


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## dellzeqq (10 Dec 2012)

состоянии линолеум завод № 24 found it!


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## ianmac62 (10 Dec 2012)

dellzeqq said:


> состоянии линолеум завод № 24 found it!


You've lost me now, DZ. The State Linoleum Factory No 24?

My knowledge of Leninist linoleum is limited to that in the small room he worked in at 37a Clerkenwell Green, now the Marx Memorial Library. When I went to a meeting there about a dozen years ago - it was the AGM of the William Morris Society (Morris had guaranteed the rent which the socialist tenants were paying in the 1880s) - the Library was selling small framed squares of the original linoleum - linoleum that Lenin had walked on! It seemed expensive at the time and, regretfully, I didn't buy a square.

So, what about this factory?


----------



## mmmmartin (10 Dec 2012)

ianmac62 said:


> My knowledge of Leninist linoleum


This is yet another example of why The Fridays is such a wonderful institution - where else would you see that phrase but on a Fridays thread?


----------



## StuartG (10 Dec 2012)

Was it fixed or railed linoleum?


----------



## dellzeqq (10 Dec 2012)

Ian - I'm decoding a 'lost' novel by Ilf and Petrov. It would appear that this very linoleum was used to conceal the Zinoviev Shopping List. Which is not the same thing as the Zinoviev Letter, being, as you will have guessed, a shopping list.


----------



## clarion (13 Dec 2012)

I emailed, with fingers crossed, but I don't know if I can uncross them yet.


----------



## dellzeqq (13 Dec 2012)

A friend of Tim H
Abbe M
Adam B
Adrian C
Alice L
Andrew Br
Andrij B
Anne H
Brian L
Cate R
Charlie B
Charlotte B
Chris B
Chris By
Clive B
Dan P
David M
Davy S
Diana 
Eddie C
Els V
Gail G
Geraldine M
Grace W
Grahame D
Helen S
Iain C
Ian McS
Ian S
Jenny M
Joan A
Jocelyn C S
John B 
John G
Julia B
Julia R
Julian N
Julie G
Katharina S
Kim T
Liz Bt with John B
Louise M
Marc C
Marilyn B
Mark G
Mark P
Martin B
Martin S
Martin T
Martin W
Mick D
Miki Y
Miranda S
Moses A
Mrs D who may have a first name
Olaf S
Pamela W
Paul R
Paul Rb
Peter L
Peter M
Philip K
Rebecca O-B
Rebecca T
Ronald R
Ross C
Ruth L
Sandra S
Sig E
Sonia W
Stephen O
Stephen T
Steve W
Stuart A
Stuart G
Susie F
Tacey L
Tilman B (+1?)
Tim H
Titus H
TJ A
Tom B
Veronique F
Xi C


----------



## clarion (13 Dec 2012)

clarion said:


> I emailed, with fingers crossed, but I don't know if I can uncross them yet.


 
I know now. Thank you.


----------



## mmmmartin (14 Dec 2012)

ah good. I can talk to you about that Galaxy you were thinking of selling.


----------



## ceepeebee (14 Dec 2012)

It looks like there have been some oh so minor tweaks from last year. I only notice as instead of going near the GLW's place of work, we're actually going past their front door (and up my favourite little bit of London pave soon after I think - that little ramp of cobbles that goes up onto Clerkenwell Road - something really pleasing about that 50 yard stretch)


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## tiswas-steve (16 Dec 2012)

Am I too late for this little jolly ? I won't be able to commit for definitely until a few days before the 28th so that will give me time to swot up on this Leninist linoleum marlarky .....


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## mmmmartin (16 Dec 2012)

Unworry about Leninist linoleum malarky. Ride near IanMac and hope he answers the hard questions. Remember also that whereas last years ride was on a weekday so the "can't bring that bike into the station after 4pm mate" rule applied, this year it is on a Saturday so more refreshment may be taken knowing that a later departure can still involve a train ride home. Although last year some people decided to wait until the 7pm deadline had passed and bikes were once again allowed on trains so they decided to sit tight. And, perhaps, become a bit tight.........


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## tiswas-steve (16 Dec 2012)

mmmmartin said:


> Unworry about Leninist linoleum malarky. Ride near IanMac and hope he answers the hard questions. Remember also that whereas last years ride was on a weekday so the "can't bring that bike into the station after 4pm mate" rule applied, this year it is on a Saturday so more refreshment may be taken knowing that a later departure can still involve a train ride home. Although last year some people decided to wait until the 7pm deadline had passed and bikes were once again allowed on trains so they decided to sit tight. And, perhaps, become a bit tight.........



That could be a plan then, I'll look over IanMac,s shoulder,copy his answers and hope that sir doesn't catch me.


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## ianmac62 (16 Dec 2012)

tiswas-steve said:


> I'll look over IanMac's shoulder,copy his answers and hope that sir doesn't catch me.


There will be a Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist hand-out at the appropriate point; and a test. 

I only regret we don't have a Mao Tse-tung Thought halt!


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## ceepeebee (16 Dec 2012)

I'll bring me tank....


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## ceepeebee (16 Dec 2012)

actually my old mtb


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## Tim Hall (16 Dec 2012)

"Get your Colnago off my lawn"


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## ianmac62 (17 Dec 2012)

User13710 said:


> Marxist-Leninist-Stalinists may pause for hand-outs from the state, but Trotskyists will just cycle off in a state of permanent revolution.


 
There is good evidence that Lenin, rather than Trotsky, was for many years a cycling enthusiast. According to Robert Service in "Lenin: A Biography" (2000):

- Lenin learned to ride a bike through being taught by his younger brother, Dmitri, when he visited his family in their summerhouse at Lyublino near a railway station south of Moscow (p100).

- In 1904, while cycling in Geneva, Lenin ran into the back of a tramcar, badly gashing his face. He wore bandages for weeks (p163).

- In 1907, back in Geneva again, Lenin frequently took Nadezhda (his wife) and Maria (his sister) on rides into the mountains at weekends. He was physically fit at this period and, when the women flagged, he would ride in turn alongside each of them and cajole them to keep going. Cycling in the Alps was a growing pastime for tourists and Lenin noted that the Germans and French took things easy when the gradient became steep and often hired horses, tethered their bicycles behind them and rode gently uphill by means of equine power. The British had nothing to do with this namby-pamby method and Lenin, so often a Germanophile, admired the British on this point. Holidays were not holidays unless he could push himself hard (p188).

- When he lived in Paris, Lenin cycled daily to the Bibliothèque Nationale. One day his beloved bike was stolen. When he remonstrated with the concierge, she boldly retorted that his ten centimes fee only covered permission to park and did not constitute a guarantee of security. For once he had met his match and did not get his money (or his bike) back (p188).

- Lenin bought a new bike but, in December 1909, returning from an aeroplane show a dozen miles from central Paris at Juvisy-sur-Orge, he was knocked from the saddle by a motor-car and badly bruised. The bike lay in a tangled mess at the roadside. Fortunately there were witnesses and Lenin (a typical bourgeois in this respect) successfully went to law for financial compensation. Service notes that his Marxist zeal was aroused when he found out the motorist was a viscount and so Lenin, himself a hereditary nobleman, showed no sense of class solidarity (pp188-9).


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## dellzeqq (17 Dec 2012)

Lenin, a bicycle and Henri Labrouste! Can it get any better?


----------



## Andrij (17 Dec 2012)

dellzeqq said:


> Lenin, a bicycle and Henri Labrouste! Can it get any better?



A listing of Leninist-Stalinist crimes against their people?


----------



## ianmac62 (17 Dec 2012)

Andrij said:


> A listing of Leninist-Stalinist crimes against their people?


Yep, one has to wonder, in a non-Marxist way, how different Russia, the world and the twentieth century would have been if either of the bike crashes - in Geneva or in Paris - had proved fatal for Lenin.

In the cemetery at the bottom of my street is the grave of Violet Gibson, "the woman who shot Mussolini". At point-blank range, she grazed the bridge of his nose. Would Italy etc ... have been different if the bullet had been an inch nearer?


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## Recycle (17 Dec 2012)

ianmac62 said:


> Would Italy etc ... have been different if the bullet had been an inch nearer?


Does that qualify as a miss or a close pass?


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## dellzeqq (17 Dec 2012)

A friend of Tim H
Abbe M
Adam B
Adrian C
Alice L
Amelia D
Andrew Br
Andrij B
Anne H
Brian L
Cate R
Charlie B
Charlotte B
Chris B
Chris By
Clive B
Dan P
David M
Davy S
Diana
Eddie C
Els V
Gail G
Geraldine M
Grace W
Grahame D
Helen S
Iain C
Ian McS
Ian S
Jenny M
Joan A
Jocelyn C S
John B
John G
Julia B
Julia R
Julian N
Julie G
Katharina S
Kilian F
Kim T
Liz Bt
Louise M
Marc C
Marilyn B
Mark G
Mark P
Martin B
Martin S
Martin T
Martin W
Michael A
Mick D
Miki Y
Miranda S
Moses A
Olaf S
Pamela W
Paul R
Paul Rb
Peter L
Peter M
Philip K
Rebecca O-B
Rebecca T
Ronald R
Ross C
Ruth L
Sandra S
Sig E
Sonia W
Stephen O
Stephen T
Steve W
Stuart A
Stuart G
Susie F
Tacey L
Tilman B
Tim H
Titus H
TJ A
Tom B
Veronique F
Xi C

now closed..........


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## mmmmartin (17 Dec 2012)

ianmac62 said:


> In the cemetery at the bottom of my street is the grave of Violet Gibson, "the woman who shot Mussolini".


I'm not sure I ought to come on this ride. I am actually a bit of a thicko.


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## subaqua (17 Dec 2012)

mmmmartin said:


> I'm not sure I ought to come on this ride. I am actually a bit of a thicko.


 So am I , so don't worry.


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## Recycle (17 Dec 2012)

mmmmartin said:


> I'm not sure I ought to come on this ride. I am actually a bit of a thicko.


+1
They can speak slower for us.


----------



## dellzeqq (20 Dec 2012)




----------



## slowmotion (20 Dec 2012)

You need at least an MA to understand the previous post.


----------



## User10571 (20 Dec 2012)

What's the problem?
It makes perfect sense.....


----------



## mmmmartin (20 Dec 2012)

I see we won't have to stare in disbelief at the grade one listed health centre that looks like an abandoned warehouse. Does Helen know we'll be peering at her undershaft? (fnaar fnaar)


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## ianmac62 (20 Dec 2012)

Just come across a reference to Lenin cycling in London. On September 24th 1902 he wrote from his lodgings near King's Cross Road to his mother in Russia, "The weather has been surprisingly good ... Nadya and I have cycled round a fair number of neighbouring districts and found very fine places." (Andrew Rothstein, Lenin in Britain, 1970, p15)


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## clarion (20 Dec 2012)

On the subject of DETH, I see that this exhibition:
http://www.wellcomecollection.org/whats-on/exhibitions/death-a-self-portrait.aspx
is on till 24 February at the Wellcome Collection on Euston Road. Next associated event is a full day of feature films about Death on 19 January.


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## dellzeqq (21 Dec 2012)

mmmmartin said:


> I see we won't have to stare in disbelief at the grade one listed health centre that looks like an abandoned warehouse. Does Helen know we'll be peering at her undershaft? (fnaar fnaar)


I gather the Finsbury Health Centre didn't do it for you? 

Actually, if you look at it through half-closed eyes it does have some charm. It's just an unpalatable fact that flat roofed, white rendered buildings with steel windows go off a bit after a while. And that, for whatever reason, the tiling is and was always rubbish. And sitting at the front desk was like being in an oven.


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## ianmac62 (21 Dec 2012)

dellzeqq said:


> It's just an unpalatable fact that flat roofed, white rendered buildings with steel windows go off a bit after a while.


 
Here's one I snapped while pedalling around Germany this summer:


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## subaqua (22 Dec 2012)

dellzeqq said:


> I gather the Finsbury Health Centre didn't do it for you?
> 
> Actually, if you look at it through half-closed eyes it does have some charm. It's just an unpalatable fact that flat roofed, white rendered buildings with steel windows go off a bit after a while. And that, for whatever reason, the tiling is and was always rubbish. And sitting at the front desk was like being in an oven.


 
another of Tectons wasn't it? despite looking gash he had a social vision for housing . something that current developers should look upon IMVHO


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## dellzeqq (22 Dec 2012)

ianmac62 said:


> Here's one I snapped while pedalling around Germany this summer:
> 
> View attachment 16525


A long time ago I went to the Villa Savioe. The space underneath was used for storing..............





cans of white paint. Hundreds of them.

Yes indeed - Tecton. Spa Green (Grade 2 listed), just round the corner from the Health Centre has just been refurbished at a cost of some millions. Those who had taken bought in to the estate as leaseholders were given bills of up to £40,000. When I masterminded the refurbishment of a traditional brick and concrete floor block, built in the same year as Spa Green it cost the leaseholders £9,000 each and every penny they spent increased the value of their flats twice over.


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## srw (22 Dec 2012)

Ah yes. Contemporary (almost exactly) with another white-painted house.
http://www.e-architect.co.uk/england/high_and_over_house.htm


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## subaqua (22 Dec 2012)

dellzeqq said:


> A long time ago I went to the Villa Savioe. The space underneath was used for storing..............
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 
I worked on the refurb it was 2006. did the new lateral mains and the kitchen and bathroom ugrades as part of the Decent Homes scheme . the architect in charge was a good guy Paul Tobin from LB Islington. every single kitchen was bespoke and it was a nightmare installing the lateral mains as we had such little space inside the landlords areas to install new equipment. a lot of leaseholders across the whole of LBI had massive bills.


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## User10571 (22 Dec 2012)

dellzeqq said:


> A long time ago I went to the Villa Savioe. The space underneath was used for storing..............
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 
Lovely.
That building is the future I was promised as a pre-teenager.
How did we get it so badly wrong?
Barrats?
Meh.
And Merde.


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## ianmac62 (22 Dec 2012)

ianmac62 said:


> Here's one I snapped while pedalling around Germany this summer


 
My snap was of the Kandinsky / Klee Haus, one of the Meisterhäuser a few minutes pedalling from the Bauhaus building in Dessau (in Sachsen-Anhalt in the former DDR). The East German regime didn't know what to make of Bauhaus and it all became a little run-down. It looks good now because it's been restored since the events of Die Wende. The foundation which restored it is working on the other häuser in the same street. This is the Moholy-Nagy / Feininger Haus under restoration this year:





Outside Dessau I found The Törten, a 1920s housing estate which Gropius and others designed. I was fortunate in that one of my two companions was a member of The Twentieth Century Society and he'd packed a English-language guidebook in his panniers.


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## mmmmartin (22 Dec 2012)

ianmac62 said:


> I was fortunate in that one of my two companions was a member of The Twentieth Century Society


Such exalted companions you travel with, I hope this ride will not be a complete letdown when I turn up.....

on the other hand


ianmac62 said:


> guidebook in his panniers.


Panniers? panniers? Does Dell know you consort with such people?


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## srw (22 Dec 2012)

srw said:


> Ah yes. Contemporary (almost exactly) with another white-painted house.
> http://www.e-architect.co.uk/england/high_and_over_house.htm








I know I keep coming back to this, but the more I read about it the more extraordinary it seems. You've got several Le Corbusier houses in the mid 1920s, built for avant-garde Parisians by a middle-aged radical. You've got several Bauhaus houses about the same time, built for the architects themselves, all of whom were part of the interwar German/Austrian renaissance that also saw Mahler and Klimt.

Then you've got this. Built by a 20-something New Zealander straight out of university in Italy. Built for an art historian specialising in the scuplture of ancient Greece who would later take charge of the British Museum. Built in a Buckinghamshire backwater as a country house. Unlike all the contemporary houses in Europe, it makes best use of its steeply sloping site by being built in the shape of a Y, with the arms open to embrace the sun to the south (everything else is basically a variation on a cuboid).

That Y-house must have come from somewhere, but I can't for the life of me think where.


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## srw (22 Dec 2012)

User10571 said:


> Lovely.
> That building is the future I was promised as a pre-teenager.
> How did we get it so badly wrong?
> Barrats?
> ...







The early 1930s - houses built on spec by a private developer.




The late 1930s - houses built on spec by a private developer.

About 12 years ago, a detached three bedroom example of each was on sale for the same price. We didn't investigate the early 1930s one very hard when we realised an architect with more money than us was in the running. Getting the late 1930s house up to the state where it will last another 60 years without major work (and refitting the interior, and building a new kitchen) has cost about the same as the equivalent work on the older house would have cost.


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## clarion (22 Dec 2012)

Anyone putting a flat roof on a house in the UK is an idiot.


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## dellzeqq (22 Dec 2012)

clarion said:


> Anyone putting a flat roof on a house in the UK is an idiot.


the trick is to make it a flat roof that isn't a flat roof. But, yes, water's been coming out of the sky for a long time, and the clever thing to do is to get it off the edge of the building as soon as you can.


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## clarion (22 Dec 2012)

Yes, I suppose you are right. There are many ways to make a 'flat roof' unflat. I wish that more architects realised it.

I have to confess that I have loved buildings such as the Villa Savoie and High-and-Over (though I'd not seen that one before) for many years. Indeed, I used to doodle houses on pillars (and bermed houses, but that's another story, and CAT's fault) when I should have been paying attention in various lessons at school.


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## User10571 (23 Dec 2012)

In which case, I give you this little gem.
Stillness in Sundridge Park...






The entire swimming pool uses a hydraulic mechanism to drop by four inches, and then slides on linear bearings to one side to reveal a sub-terranian rocket launch pad, teh original owners of this property having long since eschewed the hovercraft as a means of everyday transport.
Which is precisely how the future should've turned out, and not the anaesthetised, sterile, risk-assessed-to-within-an-inch-of-its-life world we find ourselves in.


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## srw (23 Dec 2012)

srw said:


> That Y-house must have come from somewhere, but I can't for the life of me think where.


Yes I can.





The house I grew up in was built in the late 1920s (at the same time as High & Over) in the grounds of what had been Abingdon workhouse. And down in the town was an arts and sports centre that had been converted from a prison built by, and to house, Napoleonic POWs. It's now been converted into luxury flats.





You have to envy someone with the imagination to turn a penal ground plan into a luxury house, and the chutzpah to sell it to a client.


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## mmmmartin (23 Dec 2012)

mmmmartin said:


> I'm not sure I ought to come on this ride. I am actually a bit of a thicko.


Just popping into town to buy a notebook so I can record the pearls of wisdom I will hear on this ride and drop them into conversations at later times.


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## ianmac62 (23 Dec 2012)

mmmmartin said:


> Just popping into town to buy a notebook so I can record the pearls of wisdom I will hear on this ride ...


Surely you won't need a notebook. Just keep all the handouts.


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## CharlieB (23 Dec 2012)

Two things: 
Dropping out of this ride. Things aren't healing as fast as I'd hoped they would. Very sad - it was a fab ride last year.
High And Over; I was at school with someone whose architect father owned it in the 1970s, and spent many a wasted evening in its cavernous interior. Alas, invariably too stoned to fully appreciate its architectural nuances. I did know the roof leaked to buggery, tho' but.


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## dellzeqq (24 Dec 2012)

the Millbank Estate, to the rear of the Tate Britain, follows the same radial pattern as the Millbank Prison that preceded it. Happy thought!

Went to All Bar One today - they're putting an extra couple of people on the bar, and getting some extra tables outside but under cover


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## subaqua (24 Dec 2012)

dellzeqq said:


> the Millbank Estate, to the rear of the Tate Britain, follows the same radial pattern as the Millbank Prison that preceded it. Happy thought!
> 
> Went to All Bar One today - they're putting an extra couple of people on the bar, and getting some extra tables outside but under cover


 
I watched a time team special or something along them lines about the millbank prison. it was very very good. am looking forward to this immensely


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## ianrauk (24 Dec 2012)

@ dellzeqq What time you expecting to arrive at All Bar One?


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## Flying Dodo (24 Dec 2012)

dellzeqq said:


> Went to All Bar One today - they're putting an extra couple of people on the bar, and getting some extra tables outside but under cover


 
Excellent! Did you also suggest to them that they might like to consider numbering the tables, or at least noting what table people are sitting at when they order food, so that they don't repeat the shambles last year when people at one end of the bar were devouring food ordered at the other end. I heard the phrase "piss-up in a brewery" being muttered on a few tables........


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## dellzeqq (26 Dec 2012)

Flying Dodo said:


> Excellent! Did you also suggest to them that they might like to consider numbering the tables, or at least noting what table people are sitting at when they order food, so that they don't repeat the shambles last year when people at one end of the bar were devouring food ordered at the other end. I heard the phrase "****-up in a brewery" being muttered on a few tables........


i think we could help there. I'll be pressing people to order drinks first and to go back for food - and it will save time if we keep the food orders simple. As in chips.


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## wanda2010 (26 Dec 2012)

If we keep the food orders simple, how will management know if/how their staff can cope under extreme circumstances or whether their risk assessment re large crowds needs tweaking? Surely it would be remiss of us not to help them out, sending written feedback to HO? 

I'll want more than chips.......


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## ChrisBailey (26 Dec 2012)

dellzeqq said:


> and it will save time if we keep the food orders simple. As in chips.


 
Last year I ordered burger and chips, the issue was no order number, so they walked around asking if anyone ordered a burger and chips? managed to get (what I think was) mine but clearly set up for chaos.


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## StuAff (26 Dec 2012)

ChrisBailey said:


> Last year I ordered burger and chips, the issue was no order number, so they walked around asking if anyone ordered a burger and chips? managed to get (what I think was) mine but clearly set up for chaos.


+1. Honestly can't remember if I waited for long, but keeping it simple clearly didn't help then....


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## dellzeqq (27 Dec 2012)

a few withdrawals after the closing date, but still over 80! Eek!

A friend of Tim H
Abbe M
Adam B
Adrian C
Alice L
Amelia D
Andrew Br
Andrij B
Andy A
Anne H
Brian L
Cate R
Charlotte B
Chris B
Chris By
Clive B
Dan P
Davy S
Diana
Eddie C
Els V
Evey A
Gail G
Geraldine M
Grace W
Grahame D
Helen S
Iain C
Ian McS
Ian S
Jenny M
Joan A
Jocelyn C S
John B
John G
Julia B
Julia R
Julian N
Julie G
Katharina S
Kilian F
Kim T
Liz Bt
Louise M
Marilyn B
Mark G
Mark P
Martin B
Martin S
Martin T
Martin W
Michael A
Mick D
Miki Y
Miranda S
Moses A
Olaf S
Pamela W
Paul R
Peter L
Peter M
Philip K
Rebecca O-B
Rebecca T
Ronald R
Ross C
Ruth L
Sandra S
Sig E
Sonia W
Stephen O
Stephen T
Steve W
Stuart A
Stuart G
Susie F
Tacey L
Tilman B
Tim H
Titus H
TJ A
Tom B
Veronique F
Xi C

I'm going to have another word with All Bar One, and might pre-order some food.


----------



## ianmac62 (27 Dec 2012)

dellzeqq said:


> a few withdrawals after the closing date, but still over 80! ...



Handouts one between two then.


----------



## dellzeqq (27 Dec 2012)

2222368 said:


> I can see a business opportunity here. The punter pays their money and gets emailed a GPX for a route round town and mp3 files to download to their smartphone. They then undock a Boris Bike/unfold their Brompton and off they go


it's been done. I can't find the link, but somebody will sell you a ten mile tour with architectural titbits for about twenty five quid. Lambeth Cyclists do it the old-fashioned way, and for free, though.


----------



## CharlieB (27 Dec 2012)

2222441 said:


> Oh well, I'll think of something else then.


How about setting up a fast food van outside All Bar One on Saturday afternoon?


----------



## iLB (27 Dec 2012)

i seem to remember hitting the local kebab shop with walnuts last time out...


----------



## AnythingButVanilla (27 Dec 2012)

A kebab in exchange for walnuts? Sounds like a bargain.


----------



## ianmac62 (27 Dec 2012)

iLB said:


> i seem to remember hitting the local kebab shop with walnuts last time out...


As in Dieppe, so in London.


----------



## mmmmartin (27 Dec 2012)

2222651 said:


> I have been round a factory where donner kebabs are made.


Each time I return to this forum I feel more inadequate. I know nothing of Leninist linoleum, 1930s white houses with flat roofs, or kebab factories. But I have eaten polar bear meat. And hitchhiked to Australia. And been to Timbuctoo. Does that count? Please?


----------



## Tim Hall (27 Dec 2012)

I know a joke about Timbuctoo, if that's any help.


----------



## Tim Hall (27 Dec 2012)

And in other news those coming from Sarf of the river on Her Majesty's Railways should note that there are engineering works between Battersea Park and Streatham Hill/Streatham Common. Trains are running, but are a bit all over the shop. And slower.

Details here


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## style over speed (28 Dec 2012)

Is there a rough idea what time you'll all be at the pub after, I'd like to make it along for a drink if possible?


----------



## PaulRide (28 Dec 2012)

Email sent to DZ: both of us are ill, one more so than the other. 
(I was not green, I was white, I'm told)


----------



## frank9755 (28 Dec 2012)

Also email sent to DZ: may I join you or am I too late?


----------



## StuAff (28 Dec 2012)

2224218 said:


> You should have studied the lists and then turned up as someone who has pulled out.


Yes, Frank could use a buff as a disguise.


----------



## StuAff (28 Dec 2012)

2224245 said:


> Wouldn't that be like Spiderman disguising himself as Spiderman?


True...


----------



## mmmmartin (28 Dec 2012)

2224218 said:


> You should have studied the lists and then turned up as someone who has pulled out.


Of course, no one would smell a rat when Frank pretended he was Charlie, they look identical. Apart from Charlie never wearing a buff, that is


----------



## dellzeqq (28 Dec 2012)

frank9755 said:


> Also email sent to DZ: may I join you or am I too late?


yhm


----------



## ttcycle (29 Dec 2012)

emailed you Dell but I don't have a direct rail to Victoria tomorrow, my sleep pattern is buggered and with the weather, I'll see you at AB1 instead tomorrow! Weather keeps deferring all these rides!


----------



## ttcycle (29 Dec 2012)

What is your ETA 2pm or later?


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## clarion (29 Dec 2012)

Sounds quite blowy outside. Three hours to the morning alarm.

Be rayt.


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## Andrew Br (29 Dec 2012)

We're going to be very wet before we get to the station.

.


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## Andrij (29 Dec 2012)

Aargh! Back is giving me grief so looking doubtful. I will try to make it to AB1 if I'm feeling better. Sorry to miss yet another ride.

Have fun, peeps!


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## ianmac62 (29 Dec 2012)

Wettish on the way to Northampton station (Scotch mist). London Midland twitter feed suggested no problems. Station announcement gave apologies for staff shortages (an ongoing LM problem) and wind damage to overhead lines south of Birmingham. My train from Birmingham was delayed. Heart sank.

Discovered that I was able to catch an earlier train, starting from Northampton, that appears to be punctual. Heart rose again. Cheers to the station staff who unlocked the doors.

Windows, death and Leninist linoleum here I come!


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## AnythingButVanilla (29 Dec 2012)

If it's any help, the weather was supposed to be utter gash yesterday but was dry all day, if a bit windy. Perhaps today's forecast will be similar.


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## wanda2010 (29 Dec 2012)

See you all at AB1. Running very late.


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## mmmmartin (29 Dec 2012)

A superb day, I am home but expect others are still downing the refreshment I missed by leaving early. It was surprisingly dry, given the weather forecast, and rained for a few minutes enough for me to don my £9 Argos yellow plastic cape but then it stopped. It was great to see old chums again, and even better to hear Frank, Els and Andy tell me to enter LEL because after all, what could possibly go wrong? Andy pointed out that his first 200k was actually the first 200k of the LEL route. So that's all right then. Special thanks to Simon as always for organising, standing on a plastic beer crate and telling us why an unprepossessing building was actually really interesting, and to Tim H for a rather nice second half pint of beer I wasn't going to have but succumbed to temptation and his Timbuctoo joke. Most especially, many thanks to Ian for the hand-out and short talk on Lenin in London, riding a bike, taking a bus, and Stalin in London. How different the world might be if Litvonov had not intervened in that fight with East End dockers. And finally, it is possible to do a FNRttC ride and not be utterly shattered afterwards..... great day. I commend it to The House.

Edit
I don't feel such a thicko any more. But am carrying the hand-out, just in case......


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## clarion (29 Dec 2012)

A fine ride. In good company. And even _I_ learned something new about socialist history!

Oh - and I got to play at filthy stoker-swapping with some wonderful ladies


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## Charlotte (29 Dec 2012)

A splendid day out with some excellent socialist soapbox Grolsch crate action by SImon 




















































(moar here)


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## StuAff (29 Dec 2012)

Top-notch day out, weather rather less dreadful than feared but even if it was, wouldn't have spoiled it. I may just have forgotten from my own extensive readings on the man, but I honestly couldn't remember Stalin spent any time in London before. So thanks to Ian for that (and interesting hand out, shared with the lovely Julian). Much of the rest was I think the same as last year, but no less fun for that. And of course great to spend time with so many friends. See you in a few weeks!


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## Little yellow Brompton (29 Dec 2012)

Just walked in through the door, great day out, great company, must do again soon.

Ooohh" and I almost got into 3 of the photos!


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## ianrauk (29 Dec 2012)

Just got home, after dropping off ilb's in a black cab. 

Couldn't make the ride today due to injury but so nice to see various peeps in the pub for a beverage or six. 

Left at the end was myself, Pippa, TTCycle, TimO and ilbs's to sup booze before making our way home.

So great to see everybody, and honest peeps, I haven't lost any more weight. It just makes a change you seeing me in civvies.


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## subaqua (29 Dec 2012)

sounds like i missed a good ride out. Bumholes!! family stuff came 1st tho as it always should.


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## ttcycle (29 Dec 2012)

You're a drainpipe Ian!

Fabulous to see you all! I am sad and crap re riding. That must change!


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## StuAff (29 Dec 2012)

ttcycle said:


> You're a drainpipe Ian!
> 
> Fabulous to see you all! I am sad and crap currently out of condition re riding. That must will change!


 
FTFY  Any and all assistance I am able to offer in achieving this is naturally yours.
And it was of course, fabulous to see your good self too!


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## theclaud (30 Dec 2012)

Wonderful photos, Charlotte. I missed the ride, and have a broken heart. x


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## wanda2010 (30 Dec 2012)

Claud, you were missed. Teef too.


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## The Jogger (30 Dec 2012)

clarion said:


> A fine ride. In good company. And even _I_ learned something new about socialist history!



You little socialist you.....

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Clarion_Cycling_Club


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## clarion (30 Dec 2012)

It's not a secret.


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## dellzeqq (30 Dec 2012)

highlight of the day! Slo'mo' giving us his news! Lowlight of the day! Slo'mo' showing us his scar!

Anybody who disses the NHS is going to have to see me outside......


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## subaqua (30 Dec 2012)

dellzeqq said:


> highlight of the day! Slo'mo' giving us his news! Lowlight of the day! Slo'mo' showing us his scar!
> 
> *Anybody who disses the NHS is going to have to see me outside*......


 
I had strong words with my BIL about this a few days ago. he lives in the states . nuff said


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## slowmotion (30 Dec 2012)

What a jolly time we had. Thank you to Simon and crew for all the hard work. The beef and camembert burger at AB1 was really good.
Next time we meet, I'll show you all the 26 inch scar on my leg where they " went harvesting"....


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## frank9755 (30 Dec 2012)

slowmotion said:


> Next time we meet, I'll show you all the 26 inch scar on my leg where they " went harvesting"....


 
Wow, a mountain bike inner tube out of your leg: how clever!
I suppose it's good to know it can be done, if ever you have a bad puncture in the middle of nowhere...


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## ttcycle (30 Dec 2012)

Ouch, slowmo...that sounds painful!


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## frank9755 (30 Dec 2012)

2226057 said:


> I know that it is more Vernon's obsession than yours Frank but Pi?


 
Adrian, I know you take things very literally, but it was a joke, not intended as a serious bike-fixing suggestion!


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## slowmotion (30 Dec 2012)

User13710 said:


> Just heard your dramatic news Martin - you've made a great recovery by the sound of it. Are you sure you should be eating beef and camembert though?


 Yes! Next...


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## Mice (30 Dec 2012)

The list of peeps signing up for this ride was brill! Even the rubbish weather forecasts didn't stop Andrew Br and Helen S from getting up at 5.20am  to be in London for the 10.30am start. And unlike LonJoG we were joined by Diana on two wheels too!  Excellent! We did note that some peeps were missing  - TC, Evey Allsopp, GregCollins, RB58, RichP to name a few and so we made up for it later on by raising a glass or six to them at All Bar One...!!   

The ride a year ago involved minimum miles - about five, so I didnt bother with cleats or Lycra as I knew there would be more learning, looking and laughter than pedalling! DZ and Agent Hilda had done the same and RebeccaOlds was wearing DM's! I was so blase about the cycling that I turned up at HPC with a Cappuccino (decaf of course)! Definitely not an FNRttC attitude!

The London Met were doing some more of their marvellous Bike Marking as arranged by AKA Bob, DZ had an empty Grolsch Crate to create a transportable Stage and Agent Hilda was doing the Roll Call!  DW was the All Up Man (excellent) and after much chatting around the Arch we made our way down Constitution Hill to Buckingham Palace, down Birdcage Walk and then into a street for Window Education. Mid speak DZ's mobile went off, he handed it to Mark Grant who shot off down a street, DZ's phone in hand, to track down Charlotte and Julian who were nearby somewhere.

As we headed towards Channel 4/Five Adrian, Charlotte and Julian swept in duly reunited with the rest of us. Excellent! We weaved our way through London,Lambeth Bridge, Westminster Bridge, east to the Savoy, into a car park, up a hill (!) and around to the Aldwich where the rain splattered for a moment or so. On to Clerkenwell where our Guest Speaker - none other than Ian MacS - to hear that The Crown Pub is not where Stalin met Lenin - they met in Norway nowhere near here! We were also given a very helpful history handout. Thank you!

At some point, Charlotte and Butterfly swapped bikes so Charlotte was a pillion on the Tandem and Butterfly was on a Brompton! On to the City to look at clever buildings full of fools and foolish buildings full of cleverdicks (sort of thing!)  and then over London Bridge to All Bar One where we had been given an entire area! Fab! Great to catch up with peeps, to meet a new pilot on the Pino (Tim's sister who was over from Sydney), to sit and laugh and not see DZ fall asleep!! I met a father and son team from Hamburg and it was the son's first ever visit to London. (So sorry I just cant remember your names - D'oh). Their persistence in finding a way to join a CTC affiliation to enable them to do the ride was remarkable.

We were joined by Ianrauk, IlB, ttcycle, User10571, PippaG, Jane, TimO and the party just went on. I tried to persuade Redfalo to believe that my bike is not crappy (Rude Git!) but not sure I convinced him and it was good to see Mrs Redfalo - I recommended a cycle ride to Schalke!

The news of Slowmotions recent health issues was somewhat hard to absorb - I couldnt compute it at all but what a fantastic result. How scary that must have been for all concerned. Ruddy fantastic to see you back on a bike - and so soon. A reminder how lucky we are to be healthy enough to do these rides and in turn how important it is to continue to do so. Even, Redfalo, on a crappy bike...!! Chapeau to you Slomo, Chapeau.

The beersies flowed - large glasses of Perroni - the burgers were bought and brought and the afternoon flew by. Soon it was 7.30pm and I took my leave, went outside and there was the floodlit Tower Bridge and a silvery moon. A true FNRttC sky at the end of a great Saturday spent with Super Fridays and CC peeps. 


Thank you Your Leggships, the magic of these rides no matter how long, is something I am extremely lucky to be part of.


Happy 2013 everyone. 

M 

Oh - and some snaps are here! https://picasaweb.google.com/108733...&authkey=Gv1sRgCIz_lpS0qb6FSA&feat=directlink


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## ceepeebee (30 Dec 2012)

Rather gutted to miss this but I'd been feeling rough with a chest infection all over Christmas, then to put the tin lid in it, a migraine started on Friday night which is only just subsiding now, never known the like. 

Here's to a new year with a lot more (very sociable) riding in it.


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## redflightuk (30 Dec 2012)

Fab photos Charlotte. Glad you all had a great day and hope you've all had a lovely Christmas. 
Looking forward to an even better Fridays new year. see you all soon.


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## Little yellow Brompton (30 Dec 2012)

User13710 said:


> Just heard your dramatic news Martin - you've made a great recovery by the sound of it. Are you sure you should be eating beef and camembert though?


I think Martin had the same idea as I , that it would be easier to find who ordered the Beef and Camembert in amongst all of the beefburgers. Not helped by me ordering the same, at the same time, on the same table.


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## CharlieB (30 Dec 2012)

Great pix, Charlotte and Miranda!
Evidently I missed a grand day out.
Best wishes to all and a Happy New Year.


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## slowmotion (30 Dec 2012)

Little yellow Brompton said:


> I think Martin had the same idea as I , that it would be easier to find who ordered the Beef and Camembert in amongst all of the beefburgers. Not helped by me ordering the same, at the same time, on the same table.


 Excellent choice. It did taste simply *clogtastic*, didn't it?


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## clarion (30 Dec 2012)

Finally got round to uploading some photos


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## clarion (30 Dec 2012)

More here:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v326/ado15/Fridays Christmas 2012/


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## Mice (30 Dec 2012)

Fab photos Clarion! I wondered if we could add this to the album - my how the Met Police have moved forward, way ahead of The West Midlands Police!! 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-20717022

So sorry you couldnt be there CharlieB - you were definitely on the list of peeps who was missed (and not just by those who were Pi&&ed!)

Happy New Year to you 

Mice


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## mmmmartin (30 Dec 2012)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-20717022

is that a young dellzeqq on the right in tha first photograph?


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## ianmac62 (1 Jan 2013)

Sorry it has taken me so long to get around to expressing my appreciation of Saturday's ride. Many thanks to DZ!

Now there's a silly footnote and a serious footnote. First the silly one: when the Marx Memorial Library was short of cash, it sold key-rings:






And mugs:






and, of course, busts:


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## slowmotion (1 Jan 2013)

Were the mugs as boldly-priced as the hallowed lino? OK, He didn't bring them to his lips but I'll bet they didn't come cheap.


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## ianmac62 (1 Jan 2013)

Footnote 2 is slightly more serious in that the Marx Memorial Library and Philip Webb's terraced workshops and dwellings in Worship Street are closely connected through a bust:

This is a bust of William Morris which is in the William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow:






Morris was the close friend of Webb. Compare Webb's work at Worship Street and Red House (Morris's first house with Jane Burden after their marriage):




and






Now, when Lenin sought the Twentieth Century Press's help in printing Iskra, that Press - an offshoot of the Social Democratic Federation - had rented 37a Clerkenwell Green (now the Marx Memorial Library) and William Morris had stood as guarantor!

One more connection: the motto of the Clarion Cycling Club - "Fellowship Is Life" - is another of William Morris's declarations!


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## ianmac62 (1 Jan 2013)

slowmotion said:


> Were the mugs as boldly-priced as the hallowed lino? OK, He didn't bring them to his lips but I'll bet they didn't come cheap.


 
You wouldn't expect a Marxist to drink out of anything less than bone china, would you? So I paid £8.95 for mine back in 1998 or 1999.

If you thought the frontage of the Library looking remarkably well preserved, then you should know that it was restored with lottery/millennium funding.


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## Little yellow Brompton (1 Jan 2013)

ianmac62 said:


> You wouldn't expect a Marxist to drink out of anything less than bone china, would you? So I paid £8.95 for mine back in 1998 or 1999.
> 
> If you thought the frontage of the Library looking remarkably well preserved, then you should know that it was restored with lottery/millennium funding.


The linoleum funding wore out quickly?


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## slowmotion (1 Jan 2013)

ianmac62 said:


> You wouldn't expect a Marxist to drink out of anything less than bone china, would you? So I paid £8.95 for mine back in 1998 or 1999.
> 
> If you thought the frontage of the Library looking remarkably well preserved, then you should know that it was restored with lottery/millennium funding.


 I'm surprised they didn't flog Lenin champagne flutes....


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## dellzeqq (1 Jan 2013)

Worship Street and the Red House are acknowledged by Architects with a capital A to be a step along the road from the formality of the late Baroque to Modernism. What they don't always acknowledge is that they are a significant step along the road to the dominant building type in modern day London - the three bedroom semi.


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## mmmmartin (2 Jan 2013)

Will this constant stream of Architectural Information continue as we pedal around Normandy in June? I do hope so.


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## Davywalnuts (2 Jan 2013)

Some great photos from that day, I dont even remember posing for them... 

But yes, nice lil ride and catch up with everyone and so thank you Dell & IanMac for the tour and info and everyone for the great company. 

And am now on a diet and the way I am looking in photos is shocking! I swear my bikes look tiny when am on them.. Am only little you know..


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## martint235 (2 Jan 2013)

2231144 said:


> As in like a little gorilla?


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## clarion (2 Jan 2013)

Tis true! Davy is a skinny little fella. You have no idea how long I had to spend with Photoshop...


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## Davywalnuts (2 Jan 2013)

2231144 said:


> As in like a little gorilla?


 
A Gorilla is better than a Baboon, so I thank you there..


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## martint235 (2 Jan 2013)

Davywalnuts said:


> A Gorilla is better than a Baboon, so I thank you there..


 Better than a baboon at what?


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## Davywalnuts (2 Jan 2013)

[QUOTE 2231251, member: 1314"]Little as in...[/quote]

My legs are defo better..


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## Davywalnuts (2 Jan 2013)

martint235 said:


> Better than a baboon at what?


 
Personal preference Dear Sir.


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## Andrew Br (2 Jan 2013)

I'm a little late in replying to this thread so apologies for that.
We had a great day out and thanks are due to Simon for the usual excellent organisation and the interesting destinations and talks. Colour co-ordinating pull-over and Grohlsch crate was an inspired touch.
Thanks also to Ian for his contribution and to the way-markers for guiding the ride seamlessly; we'd wondered in advance how it would work and it was perfect.

Contrary to what I originally thought while I was looking out of the window, we didn't get too wet on the way into town and we'd certainly dried off by the time we reached Euston. The train was 20 minutes late because someone had pulled the emergency stop so we only arrived minutes before the departure.

All Bar One did well considering the size of our group although they should put numbers on the tables if that's what's needed to order food.

I'd have liked to stay longer but I preferred to get back to Euston in plenty of time since I wasn't exactly sure of the route. Riding and navigating after a few more beers would probably have been a mistake.
As it was, we got there in good style although we did get drenched and we managed to find the worst pub in London.
No cask beer. What's that all about ?
The only other event of note on the journey home was a front puncture on Helen's bike. It was quickly repaired with a Decathlon foam aerosol thingy and the tyre is still holding air today.

One of the best parts of the day was meeting up again with loads of CCers and yACFers and it was particularly good to see Diane on her bike !

The funniest part of the day was AH's comment when the ride was cut short because of Simon's recently discovered concern about us getting wet: "He's never farking cared before".

.


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## Wobblers (2 Jan 2013)

Davywalnuts said:


> My legs are defo better..


 
Yebbut your moustache is worse...


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## ceepeebee (3 Jan 2013)

ianmac62 said:


> You wouldn't expect a Marxist to drink out of anything less than bone china, would you? So I paid £8.95 for mine back in 1998 or 1999.
> 
> If you thought the frontage of the Library looking remarkably well preserved, then you should know that it was restored with lottery/millennium funding.


So long as you only drink herbal tea out of it, for as any fule kno, all proper tea is theft.


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## ceepeebee (3 Jan 2013)

Andrew Br said:


> As it was, we got there in good style although we did get drenched and we managed to find the worst pub in London.
> No cask beer. What's that all about ?
> .


Oh no, which one? There's a couple of crackers round there, theveuston tap in the grounds for one, which has a tremendous stock list


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## clarion (3 Jan 2013)

Steady! Marx split from Proudhon in 1847 (with the publication of 'The Poverty of Philosophy', critiquing Proudhon's 'The Philosophy of Poverty'), which led ultimately to the Red-Black split in the First International at the Hague Congress of 1872.

Just sayin'


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## clarion (3 Jan 2013)

Claud, i just gotta love a place where I'm not the only socialist history pedant


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## ceepeebee (3 Jan 2013)

Unless I was making a comment on the lack of workers cooperatives in mainstream tea production?


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## ianmac62 (3 Jan 2013)

ceepeebee said:


> So long as you only drink herbal tea out of it, for as any fule kno, all proper tea is theft.



Brilliant! I love it!

But that was Proudhon, about whom Marx wrote, "In France, he has the right to be a bad economist because he is reputed to be a good German philosopher. In Germany, he has the right to be a bad philosopher because he is reputed to be a good French economist. As I am a German and an economist at the same time, I protest against his double error."


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## dellzeqq (3 Jan 2013)

Ian's sent me the handout, and I hope to send it on tomorrow......


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## ianmac62 (3 Jan 2013)

clarion said:


> Steady! Marx split from Proudhon in 1847 (with the publication of 'The Poverty of Philosophy' ...



And The Poverty of Philosophy was his first statement on the materialist foundation of history.

I've put the mug back into everyday use!


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## Tim Hall (3 Jan 2013)

So...

That was extremely good fun. Thanks one and all. My sister enjoyed it too, despite freezing and putting on all the clothes we'd brought. She lives in Sydney, where it's a bit warmer I believe. Anyhow, I was at my grate frend Frank's house this evening and was filling him with tales of architects, bike rides, arts and crafts and so on. And he pointed out that Philip Webb, of Worship Street fame, lived a stone's throw from where we were sitting, in a house called Caxtons. We've even cycled past it, on the gentle way up to Turners Hill. Linky to Google Maps Street View. You can see the Blue plaque.


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## dellzeqq (3 Jan 2013)

ianmac62 said:


> And The Poverty of Philosophy was his first statement on the materialist foundation of history.
> 
> I've put the mug back into everyday use!


not the Paris Manuscripts?


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## Little yellow Brompton (4 Jan 2013)

Tim Hall said:


> So...
> 
> That was extremely good fun. Thanks one and all. My sister enjoyed it too, despite freezing and putting on all the clothes we'd brought. She lives in Sydney, where it's a bit warmer I believe. Anyhow, I was at my grate frend Frank's house this evening and was filling him with tales of architects, bike rides, arts and crafts and so on. And he pointed out that Philip Webb, of Worship Street fame, lived a stone's throw from where we were sitting, in a house called Caxtons. We've even cycled past it, on the gentle way up to Turners Hill. Linky to Google Maps Street View. You can see the Blue plaque.


 

I've just had a terrifying thought... Is this going to start a new tradition where the "locals" for each ride have to bone up on all the local history? I can do Ewenny ( Cap Goch), Lynnette White ( she was murdered near the start of Cardiff-Swansea),"Rosebud" at St Donat's and the World's first railway at Mumbles, but after that I'm stumped.


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## dellzeqq (4 Jan 2013)

Little yellow Brompton said:


> I've just had a terrifying thought... Is this going to start a new tradition where the "locals" for each ride have to bone up on all the local history? I can do Ewenny ( Cap Goch), Lynnette White ( she was murdered near the start of Cardiff-Swansea),"Rosebud" at St Donat's and the World's first railway at Mumbles, but after that I'm stumped.


we can all do the Mumbles Railway after five pints at the Pilot........


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## ianmac62 (4 Jan 2013)

dellzeqq said:


> not the Paris Manuscripts?


 
Should I have said - first published statement?


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## swarm_catcher (4 Jan 2013)

Thanks to Simon, Ian and the Fridays for a great day out.

The most enlightening spot for me was Worship Mews:







MyBlog
MyPhotos


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## User10571 (4 Jan 2013)

Wonderful pics, Els.


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## Andrew Br (4 Jan 2013)

ceepeebee said:


> Oh no, which one? There's a couple of crackers round there, theveuston tap in the grounds for one, which has a tremendous stock list


It was The Rocket on Euston Road.
We'd tried the Euston Tap but it was closed and the other pubs I knew didn't have suitable bike parking (ie we couldn't see them when we were inside).
Since it was pouring down, we just piled into the 1st suitable place.
It was a place but, ultimately, it wasn't suitable.


.


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## ChrisBailey (4 Jan 2013)

swarm_catcher said:


> Thanks to Simon, Ian and the Fridays for a great day out.
> 
> The most enlightening spot for me was Worship Mews:
> 
> ...


 
Great photos Els, maybe you don't need an S95


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## ianmac62 (4 Jan 2013)

dellzeqq said:


> Ian - I'm decoding a 'lost' novel by Ilf and Petrov. It would appear that this very linoleum was used to conceal the Zinoviev Shopping List ....


DZ - I've just bought tickets for a production of Gogol's "Marriage" at The Belgrade in Coventry. Turns out that this is "referenced" (as I think people say these days) in Ilf and Petrov's "Twelve Chairs".


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## Recycle (5 Jan 2013)

Little yellow Brompton said:


> I've just had a terrifying thought... Is this going to start a new tradition where the "locals" for each ride have to bone up on all the local history?


That's even more terrifying for me. For Caterham the first source of reference that jumps to mind is Clarkson.


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## Tim Hall (5 Jan 2013)

Recycle said:


> That's even more terrifying for me. For Caterham the first source of reference that jumps to mind is Clarkson.


Hmm. the first name that springs to my mind when I think of Caterham is Ann Summers. Must have differently wired brains I suppose.


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## subaqua (5 Jan 2013)

2236994 said:


> That is more Whyteleaf really.


 I would have thought more fig leaf


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## Tim Hall (29 Jan 2013)

That nice (FSVO nice) Mr. Portaloo has just been on BBC4 talking about the London Necropolis Railway. Not a patch on dellz obviously, but interesting enough. On an iplayer near you soon. Look for Great British Railway Journeys.


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## Andrew Br (29 Jan 2013)

Dan Snow mentioned it last week as well.
These TV presenters know a bandwagon (railway wagon ?) when they see one.

.


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## ianmac62 (29 Jan 2013)

Tim Hall said:


> That nice (FSVO nice) Mr. Portaloo has just been on BBC4 talking about the London Necropolis Railway. Not a patch on dellz obviously, but interesting enough. On an iplayer near you soon. Look for Great British Railway Journeys.


That's been on before - several times. And, as Tim says, intetesting enough.

Much more interesting is to attend a lecture by Prof Hilary Grainger. She's the current Chair of the Victorian Society and is giving lectures up and down the country on "Victorian Cemeteries and Crematoria". She is the world's leading expert on Victorian crematoria (she's pretty good on cemeteries too). Canada, Australia & NZ too. Coming to a lecture room near you!


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## ianmac62 (6 Feb 2013)

During these dull days between the ride of 29th December and the reunion of 1st March, I return to white flat-roofed houses. And, for your delectation, the story of Peter Behrens (Head of the School of Modern Architecture in Vienna) and "New Ways", a house in Wellingborough Road, Northampton.

The driving force was a man called W J (Wenman Joseph) Bassett-Lowke who built up a business in model engineering. His model railways, mostly in "0" gauge (compared to Frank Hornby's "00" or Dublo gauge), were produced from the 1920s to the 1960s.

Thanks to the work of a local trust, WJ's house at 78 Derngate, Northampton, is well known as the only house in England whose interior was largely designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Closed to visitors in the winter months, this is the outside which gives only a little hint, in the style of the door, of the treasures within. So far, so well known.

Bassett-Lowke had hired Rennie Mackintosh in 1916 but, when the war was over, WJ decided to build himself a new house in a completely modern style. This house, because it is still privately owned, is little known beyond a black-and-white photo and a description by Pevsner in his volume for Northamptonshire (1961, rev 1973). It also appears dwarfed by its later neighbours.

Through the Werkbund Jahrbuch, WJ knew of the factories and other buildings in Berlin, Dusseldorf and Frankfurt designed before the war by Peter Behrens. He wrote to Behrens in Vienna and they agreed to meet in Paris. WJ took his builder with him to the meeting as Behrens made clear he would not visit Northampton.

By 1926 the house was built. Here is a view of the front, or entrance, side. The photographer for the Pevsner volume must have stood on the same spot on the pavement. Here is a detail of the front side, the triangular projecting staircase window. Pevsner described this as "a completely new style of architecture then entirely untried in Britain ... How revolutionary this style must have appeared at the time ..." So far, so Google Street View.

Pevsner goes on to say that "how prophetic it was of the future ... can only be seen from the garden side." He didn't include a photograph of this facade. But the garden does back on to Abington Park. Strolling through the park with my bicycle did not offer a promising view. The fences and vegetation are high. An old bicycle, however, can double as a ladder.

One is rewarded with a view of the garden side, a "two-storied facade ... divided into three parts, with the centre recessed."

Peter Behrens provided decorative schemes for the lounge and the dining room, although the dining table and chairs came from 78 Derngate, as did the furniture, also designed by Mackintosh, for the study and the main bedroom. The two blended well, noted Pevsner, owing to the remarkable fact that Mackintosh had turned quite independently from his exquisite Art Nouveau to a private Expressionism. The whole was featured in an article in "The Architectural Review" in 1926 and again in "Decoration of the House Beautiful" in 1932.

Pevsner concludes, "One does not know what to admire more, Mr Bassett-Lowke's discrimination in engaging Mackintosh ... or his courage in engaging Behrens."


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## clarion (6 Feb 2013)

Interesting, thanks.


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## User10571 (6 Feb 2013)

Nice.


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## subaqua (6 Feb 2013)

Going back to 78 Derngate, I remeber watching a programme ( series) about restoring the house to its CRM heyday. was brilliant . wahey- found a mention of the programme http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/78_Derngate


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## mmmmartin (7 Feb 2013)

am feeling a bit of a thicko, once again. ian has this effect on me, obviously


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## ianmac62 (10 Feb 2013)

I need help with this next architectural observation! Returning to Northampton town centre down Towcester Road after a ride today (we cycled up this road at the start of Adam's first Northampton-to-London ride), I stopped to photograph two houses which a friend who grew up in the area told me were the only houses built in a proposed Northampton Garden Suburb. Presumably this was in the 1920s? They looked to me like William Morris’s Red House arrived in Northampton, perhaps via Philip Webb’s Worship Mews. Here’s the most striking bit of their Arts & Crafts inheritance:









with a detail



and here is its next door neighbour:



Anybody help me out? Pevsner doesn't mention them at all. Google provides no clues. I have added "visit the Local Studies Collection at the town centre library" to my task list.


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## ianmac62 (11 Feb 2013)

I have discovered that these two houses were part of a "Delapre Garden Village" proposed by Thomas Adams, the first paid British planning official as Secretary of the Garden City Association. From 1902 to 1905 he was the Manager of the first British Garden City in Letchworth. In 1906 he became closely involved in the establishment of town planning and by 1914 he was regarded as the head of the planning profession in Britain. His papers, including a photocopy of the map of the proposed garden village in Northampton, are held by the University of Liverpool.


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## slowmotion (1 Mar 2013)

ianmac62 said:


> I need help with this next architectural observation! Returning to Northampton town centre down Towcester Road after a ride today (we cycled up this road at the start of Adam's first Northampton-to-London ride), I stopped to photograph two houses which a friend who grew up in the area told me were the only houses built in a proposed Northampton Garden Suburb. Presumably this was in the 1920s? They looked to me like William Morris’s Red House arrived in Northampton, perhaps via Philip Webb’s Worship Mews. Here’s the most striking bit of their Arts & Crafts inheritance:
> 
> View attachment 18788
> 
> ...


 
They did magic things with the roof tiles, didn't they? Like pulling a hat down on your head against the rain.


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## ianmac62 (19 Mar 2013)

Something for some of us tomorrow morning on Radio 4: "Lenin in Letchworth" 11.00 a.m. The programme picks up on the rumour that, while in London for the 1907 Conference, Vladimir paid a visit to the garden city.


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