the architecture

Back in myyyy day, I was the ever goody-goody two shoes who always volunteered to relinquish my weekends to help out on our school opening days. I would play in the school orchestra to ear-bash visitors wanting to see how cultured we were, show off the library's newly laminated books which would only ever be read by the most enthusiastic nerdish-types (read: me), reverently pause by the chapel and point out the marble alter and take my ever-increasingly bored tour group to a football demonstration as if they had never seen a match in their lives.

So the shoe was on the other foot last weekend when London held its annual "open weekends" where hundreds of buildings in London would open their doors to the public for free - to take a gander/stickybeak/whatever form of bird you wanted to see. The criteria for buildings being on this list was that it needed to be of architectural significance, whether that be historical or just in terms of sheer beauty. Many buildings on show were winners of the British Architecture awards, but there were also schools, places of worship, office buildings and the odd government building that had put its best foot forward for the day.

My attempt to get up early to beat the crowds was thwarted with me taking my sweet time eating a bowl of cereal. By the time I managed to haul myself out of the house, I found myself joining an hour-long queue to get into the Bank of England. The Bank of England was a lovely old building and we got to see the nondescript Governor's office. At the end of the tour there was a gold bar on display which you could stick one hand into the glass case to try and lift up the bar. It was the closest I had ever got to a gold bar in my life - and later I had to make do with the chocolate coins from the gift shop.

The next building required another hour wait in the line where I munched on a toblerone block to pass the time. I do not know why I mentioned that, as it has absolutely no consequence at all to this blog. Except I feel I am breaking out in zits now. The Lloyds Bank building is what they call London's answer to the Pompidou Centre in Paris. Both are hideously stunning buildings on the outside - in the Lloyds' building's case - of steel and pipes and just general ugliness. Inside however, was a different tune altogether. The open plan trading floors are impossible to describe - I heard many people comment on the fact that they would love to be there on a working day to feel the buzz. The central feature of the building is that the core of the building leads up to a magnificent glass atrium - and when you take the stomach-churningly fast elevator to the top of the building, you can see down into all the trading floor spaces below. It is a crazy building, but not as crazy as 30 St Mary's Axe, which is more commonly known as the Gherkin.

I didn't get into the Gherkin as pre-booked entry tickets had been snapped up months before. It is a major landmark on the London skyline, and in the sunlight, another shimmering building with the most sexy voluptuous curves. Crudely putting it, the building is sex on wheels. And not because people have described the building as something else on that line. Check out my pictures on my facebook page and you'll see what I mean.

From the City of London borough, I ventured back to more familiar territory in the City of Westminster. I checked out the Foreign and Commonwealth Office building which was surprisingly creaky and decrepit inside, save for the rather glamourous official rooms which had been restored to its full we-will-colonise-you-whether-you-like-it-or-not-and-don't-you-dare-resist glory. But it was Portcullis House, the building situated directly across the Houses of Parliament which was my favourite. Portcullis House, which houses Parliamentary staff, is not a particularly good looking building, but isn't it all about "personality" nowadays? Inside was a surprisingly bright, sunny, open space which housed a large atrium (seems to be a common theme here), and shiny new offices for Members of Parliament, and Parliamentary committee rooms. There were some fabulous photos and artwork on display too. My favourite paintings consisted of a sitting of the House of Commons in 1986, Margaret Thatcher sitting at the Prime Minister's chair, resplendent in pale blue within a sea of gray suits. The artist clearly had a sense of humour, for observing from the visitor's gallery were former Prime Ministers Churchill and Gladstone. My next favourite portraits were of Tony Blair, William Hague and Charles Kennedy - leaders of their respective parties at the last general election. What I liked about these side-by-side portraits was that the width of each canvas was in direct proportion to the number of votes that each party won at the election.

Having had enough of central government, my next stop was the visually appealing Channel 4 offices with more glass and more sharp edges. By then, I was getting tired, but felt somewhat obligated to visit the Royal Courts of Justice as a Ministry of Justice employee. I made the mistake of getting roped into a tour, and left it after 5 minutes when the tour leader turned out to be so dull that his group dwindled to less than 5 people after 30 seconds of his spiel. Even so, the care factor rating had dropped into the ether, and I left very soon after making some half-hearted attempts to look around the building. Walking back to the Tube along the Thames, I came across another "open house" - this time, the ship which housed the some mariners association. While there were some interesting snippets, my internal whingeing was getting louder, so the moment our guide turned around to point out something, I managed to duck out of the ship - but only after enduring 45 minutes of listening to a rant about boats whilst wistfully looking across at the Thames Festival that was occuring on the other side of the river.

The next day I got my wish. With a chat to my friends on skype back home in the mornin', I was off to Southbank to check out the Thames Festival and City Hall. The Thames Festival wasn't particularly interesting, but I did enjoy visiting City Hall where the spiralling staircase wrapped around the inside allowed you to view right down into the City Hall chamber. There were some glorious views of the London skyline from the building, and I was very jealous of the people who could work in such a nice building.

I ducked back home, where for the first time since arriving in London, I had an afternoon nap. As I sunk into my bed with the London sunshine streaming in, I remembered that I was meant to meet my mate Rob later that night to check out the Thames Festival's fireworks. I overslept, woke up groggy, managed to find something to eat, and then managed to be late meeting Rob.

The fireworks were well worth it. They were quite possibly the most spectacular fireworks I have seen in my life - and I couldn't even begin to imagine what their New Year's fireworks would be like.

Just imagine.