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Wandering London – The Odd and Overlooked

London

Nov 152023

November 2023

I am in London to enjoy the company of friends, see a few plays, eat some good food, and just enjoy the architecture and people of this wonderful city.

I am staying right on the Thames at Broken Wharf, looking down on a spot where I went mudlarking last year. It affords me a view of the Millennium Bridge from my window.

On the 13th of November, I did nothing but walk and walk and walk The City of London and the Southbank areas of London. This post is just a little of what I encountered.

Public Art

It is always fun to see what people are taking pictures of, most being selfies. So, as I was wandering, taking photos of this art on the bridge, I noticed that others had seen it too. These are itty bitty pieces of art that were once chewing gum. This is the work of Ben Wilson. For over ten years, he has been changing the chewing gum blobs you see on all the streets in the world, but in this case, London, into art. He uses a blowtorch, acrylic paint, and lacquer. Wilson has been arrested several times, but since he sticks to gum, he is not actually doing anything illegal. I was glad to grab these shots, as I have read the city plans on getting rid of them in a clean-up job next month. I doubt it will matter. I am sure Wilson will be back. He has a never-ending canvas.

On my very last day in London, I was looking out my window at the Millennium Bridge and saw what I thought might be the artist. I dashed over and, sure enough, was able to get a picture of the man in action.

The Seven Ages of Man

The Seven Ages of Man is a major piece of work by Richard Kindersley, who studied lettering and sculpture at Cambridge School of Art and in the workshop of his father, David Kindersley, who was also a noted stone carver.

Monument to the Unknown Artist

This is an animatronic man. Although the day I was there, he did not move. I have seen pictures of it in varying positions. Apparently, it will mimic someone standing and posing in front of it. The plinth reads, “Don’t Applause, Just throw Money”. The piece stands near the Tate Modern and is by the artist collective Greyworld.

Historical Tidbits

Memorial to Mahomet Weyonomon at Southwark Cathedral

The Southwark Cathedral, while easy to find, is tucked aside a considerable amount of construction, somewhat under the Southwark Bridge and behind the Borough Market.

The area has been a place of Christian worship for more than 1,000 years, but the cathedral dates to the creation of the Diocese of Southwark in 1905.

The shell above is a monument to Mahomet Weyonomon. (c. 1700 – 11 August 1736). He was a Native American tribal chieftain of the Mohegan tribe of Connecticut. He traveled to England in 1735 to petition King George II for better treatment of his people.

He contracted smallpox before ever being able to see the King. As a foreigner, he wasn’t able to be buried in the church, so he was quietly buried outside in the dead of night.

In November 2006, Queen Elizabeth II dedicated the memorial. The sculpture is by British artist Peter Randall-Page.

Southwark Cathedral is one of the starting points on the Pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral.

Seated on the bench behind the cross is a statue of William Shakespeare. There is also one inside of the church. Shakespeare was a member of the parish, and there is a celebration at the cathedral every year on his birthday.

The Ferryman’s Seat

Also in the area of the Southwark bridge is the last remaining of a boatman’s perch that apparently were all over the south bank of the Thames.

Before the London Bridge was built, the only way to cross was by “wherrymen”. They would perch on these stones, waiting for a passenger.

Aldgate Pump

We so often pass things like this in the streets of any city, and in truth, this pump has a bit of a macabre story attached. Water fountains like this can be found all over many cities in the world as a source of fresh water for the neighborhood. The Algate fountain was prized due to the fact that the water was rich in calcium. Unfortunately, after a period of time when people complained that the water tasted funny, they found that the river that fed the pump flowed right through a cemetery, picking up a lot more than the calcium from the bones. This is probably not as bad as the Cholera Pump in Broad Street that I visited last December, but stomach-churning nonetheless.

Lloyd’s Building by Richard Rogers in London

Not far from the Aldgate pump is this striking building. Arch Daily put it perfectly: Completed in 1986, the Lloyd’s building brought a high-tech architectural aesthetic to the medieval financial district of London.

Panyer Alley Boy

No one knows anything about this little sculpture, and yet it has pride of place. The plaque below was not part of the original. It is not where it originally started, where that was no one knows, and what he means and what he is doing is just as lost. Let me lift just one line from Hidden London’s explanation: What does the stone depict? Most authorities have been in no doubt that the boy is sitting on a bread pannier, but others have supposed it to be a fruit basket or a woolsack, while one commentator felt that it “resembles more a coil of rope.”

Parks

Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice in Postman’s Park

As in most big cities, the tiny parks that are scattered around are always a pleasure to find, if just to sit. Postman’s Park is exactly that. The plaque above sits near a long row of covered benches, a nice respite from the rain that was beginning to come down.

The plaque from 1900 was a project by George Frederic Watts honoring the bravery of ordinary people, policemen, and firemen who gave their lives to save others. Throughout the park, you will find individual plaques to the heroes themselves.

Goldsmith’s Garden

This gold leopard is the trademark of The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths. Not only are they the landowners of this public garden, but they are also one of the Twelve Great Livery Companies of the City of London.

Their guild was established in 1327 and was responsible for the inspection and branding of all precious metals within the realm of the ruling monarchs.

Goldsmiths Garden

While hard to tell, the garden is actually sunken. In the corner, you can see the sculpture “The Three Printers.” The piece was commissioned by the Westminster Press Group and is the work of Wilfred Dudeney. It depicts a trio of figures that represent the newspaper trade that was once prevalent along Fleet Street.

The Cornhill Devils

Waaay high up on a building on Cornhill are a series of terracotta devils. The building itself was designed by architect Ernest Augustus Runtz in 1893. It is said that the vicar of St Peter’s Cornhill was unhappy with the plans for this new terracotta structure as it strayed onto the church’s property. Runtz had to change his plans, incurring costs and frustration, and so he added the ornamentation to get back at the vicar.

The Philpot Lane Mice

Little things like this always intrigue me, and if I learn of one, I go track it down. Who really knows why these two mice are on the side of a building? But there is an adorable story of how they came to be, of course, most likely made up, but cute nonetheless.

It is said that in 1862, while the building was under construction, two workers started arguing over the whereabouts of their lunch. The argument eventually came to fisticuffs, with one man falling to his death. Only later was the lunch found with two mice eating away at it. To commemorate their fallen comrade, the workers added the sculpture.

London is a magical city, and the heart of it The City of London is a paradise for history lovers, architecture lovers, and the curious. I will never tire of wandering aimlessly through its streets.

Fun and Offbeat in London

London, United Kingdom

Jan 032023

December 2022

I took a Christmas-Food-themed walking tour put on by London Walks. When discussing Christmas geese, we were brought to this very interesting little spot in Leadenhall.

In the 1800s, Old Tom, a gander from Ostend, Belgium, became a fixture in the market. Somehow Tom never made it to anyone’s dinner table and became a regular fixture at the market. He lived to the age of 37 when he died of natural causes and was buried on the market site. He was so famous the Times ran his obituary on April 16th, 1835; it read:

‘This famous gander, while in stubble,
Fed freely, without care or trouble:
Grew fat with corn and sitting still,
And scarce could cross the barn-door sill:
And seldom waddled forth to cool
His belly in the neighbouring pool.
Transplanted to another scene,
He stalk’d in state o’er Calais-green,
With full five hundred geese behind,
To his superior care consign’d,
Whom readily he would engage
To lead in march ten miles a-stage.
Thus a decoy he lived and died,
The chief of geese, the poulterer’s pride.’

The crest of the Bakers Company London

When discussing pies and such, we stopped in front of the Bakers Company, which is essentially a bakers guild. The manager was locking up and invited us in for a history lesson. The chance stop was a delight and education into the livery system of London. The Bakers’ Company can trace its origins back to 1155 and is the City of London’s second oldest recorded guild.

Not far from the Bakers Company building is the monument to the 1666 London Fire.

The fire started in Pudding Lane shortly after midnight on Sunday, September 2nd, and spread rapidly.

The 1677 Monument to the Great Fire of London stands near London Bridge

Constructed between 1671 and 1677, ‘The Monument’ was built on the site of St Margaret – New Fish Street, the first church to be destroyed by the Great Fire.

It snowed about 2″ in London on the 12th

In honor of gay pride and the mass shooting at the Orlando Gay Club in the US, London has installed some fun and supportive pedestrian traffic signals. There are several iterations, here are just two I was able to snap a picture of.

Pelicans of St. James Park

It was just a fluke I caught this fellow and his heron friend. Due to the Avian Flu, all of the Pelicans of St. James Park have been rounded up and are being sequestered away from danger; I guess this guy didn’t get the memo. In 1664, pelicans were given to Charles II by a Russian Ambassador. Over the course of history, there have been forty pelicans at St. James; there are presently six at the park: Sun, Moon, Star, Tiffany, Isla, and Gargi (who is actually wild and the only one without his wings clipped).

There are so many statues around London, as there are with any city with this much history. It is worth admiring most of them, but hardly worth a discussion; these two are interesting for a story, and while not true, it is still fun.

Cromwell on the grounds of the House of Parliament

King Charles I over a door of St Margaret’s Church and across the street from Parliament

These two men as nemesis is a kind way of stating it. For those not up on British history, Cromwell was responsible for the execution of King Charles. So as Cromwell sits on Parliament grounds with his head bowed in thought and, some say, “avoiding the gaze from King Charles” across the street, one has to wonder upon their relationship.

The problem with the myth of the statues is that Cromwell’s statue was erected in 1899 to a design by Sir William Thornycroft, and the bust of King Charles I wasn’t donated to the Church by The Society of King Charles the Martyr until 1956.

Have you ever thought about how long history has had postmarks? Fascinating, isn’t it?

The Signs of Lombard Street

The grasshopper was the family sign of Thomas Gresham, who lived here in the 16th century. Gresham founded the Royal Exchange, inspired by Antwerp’s Bourse. London’s first central trading hub was opened by Queen Elizabeth I in 1571.

The first record of a shop under the cat-a-fiddling was back in the reign of Henry VI (1422-16, then 1470-71). It was a second-hand clothes shop.

In 1290 King Edward I ruled that all Jews should be expelled from The City. Soon The City of London began to fill with Italians from Lombardy. Lombard Street and its environs became home to small goldsmiths or family-run banks.

Not all Londoners could read, and street numbers were only sporadically used from the early 1700s. So a hanging sign was a way to draw business to your shop.

Over the years, the signs disappeared, but on the occasion of Edward VII’s coronation, some were brought back.

A little bit of background. The City of London is a mere 1.12 square miles and is widely referred to simply as the City (differentiated from the phrase “the city of London” by capitalizing City). The City is a major business and financial center, with the Bank of England headquartered here. The local authority for the City is the City of London Corporation, which is unique in the UK and has some unusual responsibilities, such as being the police authority. The corporation is headed by the Lord Mayor of the City of London (an office separate from, and much older than, the Mayor of London).

Soho

One of the Noses of Soho

In 1997, artist Rick Buckley decided to stage a protest against the appearance of CCTV cameras across the streets of London. And the concept of The Seven Noses of Soho was born. The artist did this all on the QT, so many were removed immediately by the authorities and the like, but several remained to the delight of people such as myself. Buckley came clean in 2011, and a hunt for the seven that remain is a fun way to pass the time. I want to thank my friend Susan for her patience in my search, and it was actually she who spotted this one on Great Windmill Street; we never did find the one on Marble Arch. Next visit, I hope to search for Tim Fishlock’s ears in his installation “The Walls Have Ears”.

I read the story of John Snow and the Cholera pump as a teen; I was rather thrilled to trip upon it in my wanderings of Soho.

The Cholera Pump of John Snow

In August 1854, Soho was struck with a severe cholera outbreak. A doctor in the area, John Snow, believed that sewage dumped into rivers and cesspools near town wells could contaminate water supplies and cause cholera outbreaks.

He suspected that the source of the outbreak was the public water pump on Broad Street. He used information from local hospitals and public records and specifically asked residents if they had drunk water from the pump.

“Within 250 yards of the spot where Cambridge Street joins Broad Street there were upwards of 500 fatal attacks of cholera in 10 days… As soon as I became acquainted with the situation and extent of this irruption (sic) of cholera, I suspected some contamination of the water of the much-frequented street-pump in Broad Street.”

On September 7^th,1854, Snow took his findings to local officials and convinced them to take the handle off the pump. It didn’t take long before the outbreak came to an end.

Researchers later discovered that the public well had been dug right next to a cesspit. A cloth diaper of a baby, who had contracted cholera from another source, was the source of the outbreak.

This has been a wonderful two months spent in the UK, with most of it centered in London. I always say it takes a lifetime to get to know great cities like London; I am glad to have had this time to explore and learn what I did, even if it leaves me wanting more.

Tangier: A city with a fascinating history

Tangier

Dec 152019

December 14, 2019

Tangier (French Tanger, Spanish Tánger, Arabic Ṭanjah) has an interesting connection with the United States. Morocco was the first country to recognize the USA as an independent state after the revolutionary war and since Tangier served as Morocco’s diplomatic headquarters the United States dedicated its first consulate here during the George Washington administration. In 1821, the Legation Building in Tangier became the first piece of property acquired abroad by the U.S. government—a gift to the U.S. from Sultan Moulay Suliman. The building housed the United States Legation and Consulate for 140 years, the longest period any building abroad has been occupied as a United States diplomatic post. In 1980 the building was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark (the only one in a foreign country). While the building is now a museum run by a foundation, it is still owned by the US government.

Thanks to the fact that Tangier is the entryway to the Mediterranean it was first settled as a trading base by the ancient Greeks and Phoenicians.

The Vandals attacked from Spain in AD 429 taking the town from the Romans. They were followed by the Byzantines, and then the Arabs, with Tangier being passed between various Arab factions. Then the Portuguese arrived, only to hand it to the British 200 years later as a wedding gift for Charles II. Morocco regained control of the city in 1679, destroying much of the city in the process. Tangier remained under Morocco until the mid 19th century.

While the rest of Morocco was divided between France and Spain, Tangier was turned into an “International Zone”. France, Spain, Britain, Portugal, Sweden, Holland, Belgium, Italy, and the USA all had a piece of the town. This lasted from 1912 until shortly after Moroccan independence in 1956, when the city was returned to the rest of the country. This period was temporarily interrupted on June 14, 1940, when Spain under the Franco dictatorship took advantage of the outbreak of World War II to occupy Tangier. All the existing institutions of the international zone were abolished and the city was annexed in full to the Spanish protectorate. This situation ended with the end of the war.

During this famous Interzone period, high brow and low brow expats flooded in, forming half the population, and a wild, anything-goes culture.

Tangier has always been very open to other religions as well. The first Jews migrated to Tangier after the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem, a second wave of immigration occurred from Iberia during the 1492 Alhambra Decree. By 1925 Jews were assigned three out of the twenty-six seats on the Legislative Assembly giving them significant political power. Most Jews were not affected by the war having been offered protection by Mohammed V who stated: “We have no Jews in Morocco, only Moroccan citizens.”

There is also a small Christian contingency in Tangier that worships at St. Andrews Church. In 1880, Hassan I of Morocco donated land to the British community to build a small Anglican church. The first was found insufficient to handle all of the parishioners with this new one being built in 1894 and consecrated in 1905. Interestingly it is dedicated to the Patron Saint of Scotland, rather than to Saint Cassius of Tangier.

The Lord’s Prayer in Arabic over the altar. As Terence MacCarthy said, “It would appear unlikely that the architect, building committee, priest or congregation, ever questioned the linguistic or theological propriety of this decorative identification of the Christan God of the New Testament who declared Christ to be his beloved Son with Koranic Allah, who castigates those who so testify as monstrous blasphemers.”

The interior is designed as a fusion of numerous styles, notably Moorish. The belltower, shaped like a minaret, overlooks the adjacent cemetery.

The minaret type bell tower peeking above the trees.

You enter the church grounds after bursting out of the insane hustle of the medina, through a small gate and into a quiet garden oasis. This oasis, is in fact, the graveyard. This is what I came to see.

Buried here, and adding to the stories of the time when Tangier was an anything-goes community are some interesting people. David Herbert a former Consular-Warden, referred to by Ian Fleming as ‘the Queen of Tangier, who was known for his vibrant personality, frequent lavish parties, good taste, and ruthless snobbery’. The manager of the parade bar, Jay Haselwood, who according to Truman Capote, “Served up the asses of Arab lads and lassies – without charge of course, just as a courtesy of the house”, and Colonel William Ellis, who is reputed to have poisoned both his wives.

The gravesite of Sir Harry MacLean (1848–1920). a Scottish soldier, and instructor to the Moroccan Army.

There are also a large number of more “socially acceptable” people buried in the cemetery. Such as Emily Keene, who introduced the cholera vaccine to Morocco. The journalist, explorer, and socialite Walter Harris. There is a memorial for Squadron Leader Thomas Kirby Green, one of the prisoners of war shot during the ‘Great Escape’. There is also a sobering section of war graves of entire downed aircrews, their headstones attached shoulder to shoulder.

Tangier had its heyday making its mark on literary history that will most likely never be seen again. William Burroughs, high on drugs, wrote Naked Lunch while living in Tangier. America writer Paul Bowles, whose first novel, The Sheltering Sky, about Tangier, lived here for over fifty years. Tennessee Williams, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Ibn Battuta, Samuel Pepys, Alexandre Dumas, Mark Twain, Edith Wharton, Walter Harris, Jean Genet, and Canadian writer Brion Gysin also called Tangier home at times.

Gran Teatro Cervantes was built in 1913 by the Spanish and dedicated to Miguel de Cervantes, is today most noted for its dilapidated Art Deco facade. The theatre was once considered one of the most prestigious in North Africa.

When the Interzone period ended, Tangier entered a long period of decline. The city was nothing more than a dreary port overrun with criminality. Even their King, Hassan II, hated it and refused to fund anything in Tangier. The remnants of this period abound in the older part of town.

Since 2007, however, Tangier has been the site of major development, most notably its new port, Tanger Med, and the high-speed TGV train line to Casablanca that I used to get here. This $320 million infrastructure program will, alas, benefit primarily the upscale and suburban neighborhoods of the city.

The TGV that presently goes from Casablanca to Tangier

The port sits well below the older part of town

Inside of the train station is a giant shopping mall with McDonald’s, Starbucks and high-end stores. It is 10 miles away from the old part of town. Serving the wealthier suburbs.

On the top of the hill, in the oldest part of Tangier, sits the Kasbah, surrounded, spilling down the hill by the medina. While poverty is quite obvious in these areas, the Kasbah holds several very high-end designer boutiques. Just outside are several more, while the government money does not appear to be entering this part of the town, quite obviously these artists and business owners believe there is a market here.

Here you will find Boutique Bab Kasbah showcasing the designs of Salima Abdel-Wahab, Topolina the Tangier shop of french designer Isabelle Topolina, Galerie Laure Welfling, and Au Fil de Tanger just to name a very few of the great spots I have tripped over.

There are also a couple of very chicly designed restaurants, even if the food doesn’t quite live up to the modern hip atmosphere.

Protecting Malta

Malta, Valletta

Nov 082019

Valetta, Malta
November 8, 2019

Protecting Valetta

A harbor tour is the best way to understand the massive undertaking humanity has done to protect the strategic islands of Malta.

Malta sits almost dead center in the Mediterranean Sea, making it a strategic point of interest, no matter what era you want to look at in history.

Fort Sant Angelo was the first fortress built, by the Knights of Malta, to protect the harbor and their establishment. This fort was also strategic during the second World War. When the British took over Malta the fort was first used as a Wireless Station. The British did not make any major modifications to the fort, although they converted No. 2 Battery into a casemated battery and built a cinema and a water distillation plant in the early 20th century.

During World War II, the fort again found itself under siege. In total, the fort suffered 69 direct hits between 1940 and 1943. When the Royal Navy left Malta in 1979 the Fort was handed to the Maltese government.

Lazzaretto Hospital

The Lazzaretto (Maltese: Lazzarett) saw a lot of use during the plague epidemic of 1813–14, the cholera epidemic of 1865 and the plague epidemic of 1937. It also served as a military hospital for British, French and Italian soldiers during the Crimean War. Several notable figures stayed in the Lazzaretto throughout its history, including Lord Byron, Sir Walter Scott, Horace Vernet, Benjamin Disraeli, and Alphonse de Lamartine.

Part of the Lazzaretto which was known as the Profumo Office was used to fumigate incoming mail. Disinfected mail was marked with red wax seals from around 1816 to 1844.

The Lazzaretto remained in use by the health authorities until 1939, when it was requisitioned by the Admiralty to be used for military purposes during World War II. Between 1941 and 1942, it was used as a submarine depot, and the buildings were bombed a number of times by Italian or German aircraft. Many buildings were destroyed by this aerial bombardment, and some other structures had to be demolished due to the damage they had sustained.

The Lazzaretto reopened as a hospital in 1949 and remained so until the departure of the Royal Navy from Malta in the 1970s.

Bighi Hospital

Bighi Hospital was a major naval hospital located in the small town of Kalkara. It was built on the site of the gardens of Palazzo Bichi. Bighi Hospital contributed to the nursing and medical care of casualties whenever hostilities occurred in the Mediterranean, making Malta “the nurse of the Mediterranean”.

The hospital’s first director (1827–1844) was Dr. John Liddell. He was later appointed director-general of the Royal Navy’s Medical Department, and during his office, Bighi nursed casualties from the Crimean War.

In 1863 the hospital looked after Queen Victoria’s son Prince Alfred who was ill for a month with Typhoid Fever while serving as an officer in the Royal Navy.

During the First World War, Bighi accommodated a very large number of casualties from the Dardanelles. During the Second World War, the Hospital was well within the target area of the heavy bombing since it was surrounded by military establishments. A number of its buildings were damaged or destroyed, including the x-ray theatre, the East and West Wings, the Villa and the Cot Lift from the Bighi Jetty to the Hospital.

Old Canons were used as mooring for British ships offloading patients at the Bighi Hospital

Fort Manoel

Fort Manoel is a star fort on Manoel Island in Gżira. It was built in the 18th century by the Order of Saint John, during the reign of Grand Master António Manoel de Vilhena, after whom it is named.

The fort first saw use during the French invasion of Malta in June 1798, in the French Revolutionary Wars. The fort surrendered after Grand Master Hompesch officially capitulated to Napoleon

The fort saw use again during World War II when a battery of 3.7-inch heavy anti-aircraft guns was deployed there. The guns were mounted in concrete gun emplacements and deployed in a semicircle in and around the fort. The fort suffered considerable damage to its ramparts, barracks, and chapel as a result of aerial bombing during the war. The fort was eventually decommissioned in 1964

A bastion at San Salvatore

Fort San Salvatore is a retrenched fort in Birgu built in 1724. It was used as a prisoner-of-war camp during the Greek War of Independence and World War I, and as an internment camp and kerosene depot in World War II. Notice the Eye and Ear. It is said that comes from an old Maltese proverb, the wind has eyes and the walls have ears.

The ditch of Valetta covers much of the island. Valletta’s ditch was cut across the Sceberras Peninsula after the Great Siege of 1565 to protect the city from a land invasion. The other main forts and harbor areas were extensively damaged after the siege, and, fearing further invasions, Pope Pius IV commissioned the renowned architect Francesco Laparelli to design and reinforce the defense of the islands.

These are just some of the fortifications around the harbor. Today, the architectural and historical value of Malta’s fortifications is widely acknowledged. All fortifications were included on the Antiquities List of 1925, and virtually all surviving Hospitaller fortifications are now listed on the National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands, Malta’s national heritage register. The fortified city of Valletta has been listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO since 1980.

Some other interesting sites in the harbor:

Saint John Paul II is a high-speed catamaran ferry owned and operated by Virtu Ferries. Built by Incat in 2017–18, the vessel entered service as a ferry between Malta and Sicily in March 2019. It is the largest vessel of its kind in the Mediterranean Sea, and the second-largest in the world.

The Black Pearl schooner was originally built in Sweden and called the Black Opal. She once carried merchandise in the Baltic and later was used as a luxury yacht. It entered Malta following an accident when its engines caught fire. Because of the expenses required to fix it, its owner abandoned it and eventually it sank down 70 feet at Marsamxett Harbour.

It was later used in various scenes for the Popeye movie starring Robin Williams and now serves as a restaurant.

These historic warehouses were originally built by Grand Master Pinto in 1752. Today they are stores and restaurants with their iconic doors being reinterpreted by artists. The colors of the doors represent what was once sold from them, blue for fish, green for produce, yellow for wheat and red for wine.

A new way to protect Malta is to be aware of climate change, this is an island. People protesting in old town Valetta.

Fortifications throughout Malta

Hamrija Tower near the archeological site Mnajdra

Towers like the Hamrija Tower encircle most of Malta and Gozo. They vary in construction and size, but the purpose was to function as a watchtower.

A map of the military airports that protected Malta and Gozo, especially during World War II

More of Montreal, its landscape and architecture.

Canada, Montreal

Sep 182016

September 17, 2016

Looking back into Dorchester Square

Montreal is laid out in an interesting pattern. Every fourth street was created wider in order to allow horse drawn drayage carts to turn around. There are public parks spread throughout and more common that in most towns, but not consistent such as you find in New Orleans.

One of the main squares downtown is Dorchester Square, once Dominion Square. It is especially interesting because it was once served not only as a park but much of it was used for the Catholic Sainte-Antoine Cemetery, a hastily arranged cemetery for the victims of the 1851 Cholera Epidemic.

Between 2009 and 2012 a $3.5 million renovation took place, headed by Montreal landscape architect Claude Cormier. It would have been impractical to remove the graves. The designers, instead, added soil and raised the height of the park in order to protect the graves underneath. There are crosses in the pavement as an homage to the cemetery. The crosses are stylized to match those often found on maps marking cemeteries.

The public restroom in Saint Louis Park

Another interesting park that represents the system is Square Saint-Louis. During the depression the mayor was Camillien Houde. He initiated a program similar to America’s WPA, thanks to his policies Montreal got her Botanical Garden, the chalets of Mount Royal and La Fontaine park, viaducts, and these public baths and public urinals. These bathroom facilities are now used for various purposes, in the case of Square Saint-Louis it is now a small coffee shop.

Square Saint-Louis was named by the Project for Public Spaces as “the closest thing to a European neighborhood square you’ll find this side of the Atlantic”, with its Victorian homes facing the park.

Saint Lawrence Boulevard or boulevard Saint-Laurent (its official name, in French) is a major street in Montreal. A commercial artery and cultural heritage site, the street runs north south through the near-center of city and is nicknamed The Main. This street is the heart of what once was the Jewish area. The street, and the Jewish section divides the Plateau district with the English speaking to the west and the French to the east.

At one time there were a very large number of synagogues, but as the area changed these were all either lost to progress or from the lack of members.

Interior of the Bagg Street Shul

The one synagogue that has survived is Temple Solomon or the Bagg Street Shul as it is locally called. Active since 1906 with no permanent rabbi, it has been lovingly cared for by volunteers throughout its life. It received a $350,000 grant from the Montreal Heritage Program in 1999 and the building was restored and shored up. Since then it has operated on donations and an all-volunteer staff.

The end of the Montreal Island, the borough Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, was developed during the 1800s. The area was industrial with primarily shoe factories. The last vestige of this period includes the house Chateau Dufresne.

The home was built and owned by two brothers Oscar, who ran the factory and Maurice, an architect and a utopian.

Just one of the many works by Guido Nincheri.

Built from 1915 to 1918, the mansion was designed in the Beaux-Arts Style by the Parisian architect Jules Renard and Dufresne brother, Marius. The architects based their plans on the Petit Trianon in Versailles, France. The building has forty rooms covering about 20,000 square feet. In the 20s and 30s the interior was decorated with paintings by Guido Nincheri. Nincheri was known for his piety and devout religious leanings, the secular subject matter of the Château Dufresne’s interior decor is an exception to the rest of his work. Alfred Faniel, a Belgian born artist, also decorated the house during this period.

This area was, with the exception of Chateau Dufresne, razed for the Olympic Village in 1976. An economic boondoggle for the city, as it was only paid off in 2006.

Designed by French architect Roger Taillibert, the Olympic Stadium’s design is meant to evoke gigantic hands with curved fingers, the 34 cantilever panels, with four shortened panels at the base of the Tower, determine the overall geometry of the Stadium. They support the technical ring, the roof and the electronic score boards. Sadly, although the roof, made of canvas, was supposed to be retractable into the Tower, it has never worked.

I will end with a very unique garden I tripped over. This is Park Gamelin. The idea for the park was to make a rough public spot more welcoming for all Montrealers and tourists, and yes it is pretty covered with homeless, but it is also an amazing space. Think Beer Garden with fun games, sun and art.

The park is named for Roman Catholic nun Émilie Gamelin, founder of the Sisters of Providence religious community, which had operated a convent on the property. Émilie Gamelin and her sisters were known for running a soup kitchen (l’Œuvre de la Soupe) for the homeless community, as well as other needy people, of Montreal.

There are games spread throughout

Saint Ifigenia Cemetery – Santiago de Cuba

Santiago de Cuba

Apr 202015

Created in 1868 to accommodate the victims of the War of Independence and a simultaneous yellow-fever outbreak, the Santa Ifigenia includes many great historical figures among its 8000-plus tombs, notably the mausoleum of José Martí.

When the cemetery was inaugurated in February 1868, it was in the form of a Roman cross, divided into courtyards. The main ones were used to bury those high up on the social ladder, and they move outward until arriving at the areas where those perishing from yellow fever and cholera epidemics were laid to rest.

Emilio Bacardí y Moreau (1844–1922) of the famous rum dynasty

Memorial to Marine Stevedores and Workers

The Altarpiece of the Heroes, the resting place of Generals Jose Maceo, Guillermon Moncada and Flor Crombet, who headed a legion of officers and soldiers in the two 19th-century independence wars in Cuba.

The highlight of the cemetery, for many, is the tomb of Cuba’s national hero, José Martí (1853–95). Erected in 1951 during the Batista era, the hexagonal structure is positioned so that Martí’s wooden casket receives daily shafts of sunlight. This is in response to a comment Martí made in one of his poems that he would like to die not as a traitor in darkness, but with his visage facing the sun.

Jose Marti’s Tomb

Marti’s coffin which holds his ashes

José Julián Martí Pérez (1853 – 1895) is a Cuban national hero and an important figure in Latin American literature. He was a poet, an essayist, a journalist, a revolutionary philosopher, a translator, a professor, a publisher, and a political theorist.

Born in Havana, Martí would travel extensively in Spain, Latin America, and the United States, raising awareness and support for the cause of Cuban independence. His unification of the Cuban émigré community, particularly in Florida, was crucial to the success of the Cuban War of Independence against Spain. He was a key figure in the planning and execution of this war, as well as the designer of the Cuban Revolutionary Party and its ideology. He died during the Battle of Dos Ríos on May 19, 1895.

Martí is considered one of the great turn-of-the-century Latin American intellectuals. His written works consist of a series of poems, essays, letters, lectures, a novel, and even a children’s magazine. He wrote for numerous Latin American and American newspapers; he also founded a number of newspapers himself. His newspaper Patria was a key instrument in his campaign for Cuban independence. After his death, one of his poems from the book, “Versos Sencillos” (Simple Verses) was adapted to the song “Guantanamera”, which has become the definitive patriotic song of Cuba.

An eternal flame at Jose Marti’s grave

A round-the-clock guard of the mausoleum is changed, amid much pomp and ceremony, every 30 minutes.

A round-the-clock guard of the tomb is changed, with much pomp and circumstance, every 30 minutes.

This is a very short video I shot, make sure your volume is on, the music is half the entertainment.

Chicago River Cruise

Chicago

Jun 162014

June 2014

There are several river cruises available to take in Chicago, and I highly recommend that you take at least one. While it is a touristy thing to do, it is also a great way to see the city, and can be a great place to cool off if your day gets too hot and muggy.

We chose to take the Chicago Architecture Foundation river cruise aboard “Chicago’s First Lady”. The tour is 90 minutes long and at this point – June 2014 – it cost $37.85/person plus tax, WHICH is 9.75% in Chicago.

We took the last tour of the day, which in June was 7:30 pm. This gave us the opportunity to leave in the day light and travel through the sunset arriving back at dark. It was a great time enjoy the sun setting on the city.

The boat takes off from the Southeast corner of Michigan and Wacker, so you are able to sit and enjoy the Wrigley building while waiting to take off.

When ground was broken for the Wrigley Building in 1920, there were no major office buildings north of the Chicago River and the Michigan Avenue Bridge, which spans the river just south of the building was still under construction. The land was selected by William Wrigley Jr. to headquarter his gum company. The building was designed by the architectural firm of Graham, Anderson, Probst & White using the shape of the Giralda tower of Seville’s Cathedral combined with French Renaissance details. The south tower was completed in April 1921 and the north tower in May 1924.

The building is clad in glazed terra-cotta. On occasion, the entire building is hand washed to preserve the terra cotta. The Wrigley Building was Chicago’s first air-conditioned office building.

This is 333 Wacker Drive. Designed by Kohn Pederson Fox, it sits on an awkward triangular site where the chicago river makes a sharp turn.

An interesting smaller structure on the river is the Union Station power plant building, which stands today at 301 S. Taylor Street. Built in 1931 and designed by architects Graham, Anderson, Probst and White, its construction was urged along, because its predecessor occupied the future site of the new Post Office. Construction on the Post Office could not be started until the old power plant was replaced and demolished.

You will pass the Old Main Post Office on the tour. It has been abandoned for now and is awaiting someone to grab it up for rehabilitation/reuse. There have been proposals, but it is a whopping 2.7 Million square feet, a project that could take decades if it gets under way.

This is the Spirit of Progress. She sits atop a tower, which is a part of the Montgomery Ward complex. Montgomery Ward was a large part of Chicago history, and now it is a large part of the adaptive re-use program along the river. You will see the buildings and learn a lot about the role of Mr Ward and historic preservation.

Speaking of progress…In earlier times the Chicago River was used to dump sewage, factory, and other wastes that badly polluted the river. The river was connected to Lake Michigan, the source of water for Chicago residents. When the Chicago River watershed became too big because of rain storms, the river overflowed into the lake. A particularly heavy rainstorm in 1885 caused sewage to be flushed into the lake beyond the clean water intakes. The resulting typhoid, cholera, and dysentery epidemics killed an estimated 12 percent of Chicago’s 750,000 residents, and raised a public outcry to find a permanent solution to the city’s water supply and sewage disposal crisis.

The city’s solution? Make the river run backwards via the Sanitary and Ship Canal, constructed in the 1920’s and 30’s at an estimated cost of over $70,000,000.

The reversal of the Chicago River was the largest municipal earth-moving project ever completed. Significant new excavation technology and techniques developed and perfected on the project contributed to the construction of the Panama Canal.

One of the turn around spots is Navy Pier. Navy Pier was planned and built to serve as a mixed-purpose piece of public infrastructure. Its primary purpose was as a cargo facility for lake freighters, and warehouses were built up and down the Pier. However, the Pier was also designed to provide docking space for passenger excursion steamers, and in the pre–air conditioning era parts of the Pier, especially its outermost tip, were designed to serve as cool places for public gathering and entertainment. I was surprised to learn that today, Navy Pier is Chicago’s number one tourist attraction

The Navy Pier Ferris Wheel opened on July 1, 1995. It operates year-round, weather permitting, and has 40 gondolas, each seating up to 6 passengers. Its 40 spokes, span a diameter of 140 feet.

Did you know there are 18 yep Eighteen, movable bridges on the loop? If you love bridges, or just want to learn a little bit more about the Chicago Loop Bridges check out this site.

Some of my favorite buildings in Chicago make up Marina City. Marina City is a complex of two 60-story towers built in 1964 by Bertrand Goldberg, a student of Mies van der Rohe. It consists of apartments, recreation facilities, offices, restaurants, banks, a theater and 18 stories of parking space.

The experimental complex was financed by unions who feared that the outflow of people from the cities in the early sixties would lead to a decrease in jobs.

The cylindrical shape was used to cut down on wind pressure. The architect chose reinforced concrete instead of steel as this was the only material in which he could create the petal shapes of the apartments. When finished, the two towers were both the tallest residential buildings and the tallest reinforced concrete structures in the world. It was also the first building in the United States to be erected with tower cranes.

Further down on the tour you will see River City II, also designed by Bertrand Goldberg. River City II represents the last of Goldbergs buildings in this style.

River City II was the one part of the larger River City plan that was constructed. It was a portion of the “snake” that was ultimately completed as River City II.

River City II was a mid-rise housing complex, containing 446 residences. Unlike Marina City, the units did not feature balconies, but did have clerestories on their “inner side” to gain light from the interior atrium. The curvilinear structure, eight to fifteen stories in height, featured a private interior passageway called “the River Road,” . The project was cast in place concrete, unusual for the time and the very large and long sklyight over River Road was made of glass block held in thin concrete ribbing. Originally designed as rental housing, the owners of the project later converted it to condominiums.

Trump Tower, designed by Skidmore Owens and Merrill includes, from the ground up, retail space, a parking garage, a 366 room hotel, and condominiums. The sign had just gone up the day before our tour, and is very controversial. I find it offensive, way out of scale with its surroundings, but Trump thinks it is d-i-v-i-n-e, and insists the world loves it. How he would know that, since it had only been installed a few days of this writing when the controversy began, is interesting.

Near Navy Pier is Lake Point Tower. The building was designed by John Heinrich and George Schipporeit, who were both students of Mies van der Rohe. The design was partially derived from a sketch Mies van der Rohe made in 1921. The original proposal made by the architects consisted of a building with 4 wings, but was ultimately replaced by a design which included only 3 wings due to cost. The advantages of the latter were a shorter construction time and a 120 degree angle between the wings, so that the apartments would not face each other.

235 West Van Buren by Perkins and Will

You will pass so many, many more beautiful sites along the cruise and learn about the architecture that formed and is still transforming Chicago. Enjoy!