A selection of photos from my Open House 2013

Battersea Power Station

Due for redevelopment shortly (this has been said many times in the past, but it appears, it's finally happening), this year was the first year BPS was included in Open House and its last. 

I joined the queue an hour early, and then queued some more for a chance to explore the old coal-fired power station. 

Battersea A Power Station was built in the 30s, the B side (identical to form the structure we know) in the 50s. Decommissioned fully in 1983, the building achieved Grade II listing in 1980 and is also the largest brick building in Europe. 

They had a marquee up inside part of the station which was annoying, it obscured the view of the north side and I think took away from the grand size of it all. Perhaps it was for safety though. 

Queuing sights

Entering via the North side

Looking to the South 

Turbine Hall B (I think) 

Peeking through a keyhole

Looking up at the South side

Taken from the bus enroute to my next Open House

Lambeth Palace

This is the official London home of the Archbishops of Canterbury and has been since the 13th Century. 

Lambeth Palace has been rebuilt in parts several times due to the Civil War and WWII. The Great Hall is home to the Library - Lambeth Palace has almost 200,000 printed books, many unique and 30,00 from before 1700. 

We weren't allowed to take photos during the guided tour inside but I got a couple of outside. 

Visit Lambeth Palace. 

Entrance to Great Hall/Library  

The Library/Great Hall 

Morton's Tower - built in 1490

Alexandra and Ainsworth Estate

Finished in 1968, this estate was designed by Neave Brown - Camden Council had appointed Sydney Cook as Borough Architect and Director of Housing who challenged the government's tendency for high rises. 

I went on a guided tour of one of the houses in the estate. Bought 3 years ago, the architects had turned the 4 bed house into a spacious 2 bed house. They wanted to echo some of the original designs in their restructuring (the original features had been pulled out) so installed plywood in the kitchen (see pic below). The house & cupboards all feature sliding doors (the house had the original sliding doors) to maximise space. 

The top floor remained pretty much the same - acting as lounge with a nice balcony. 

All the flats have balconies and they look onto each other 

None of the flats have radiators, but heated walls - these are the cooling towers for the estate 

Brutalist Wizard of Oz

Only two flats would share entrances  

Horniman Museum 

Victorian tea trader Frederick John Horniman began collecting objects from his travels and in 1901 opened the Horniman Museum to share them with the public. 

We went on a Behind the Scenes tour of the museum which even took us inside the clock tower. 

Visit the Horniman. 

Conservatory 

From inside the clock tower

Clock Tower

All photos my own

Theatre binge

A few years ago, I started going to the theatre a fair bit. It was part encouraged by discovering how to work the entry pass system - the first time I investigated the website, I found it too hard to decipher. The entry pass system sold cheap tickets to the theatre to those under 26, I started rounding up a few friends and soon we were booking for all sorts of things. Danny Boyle's Frankenstein, Grief and The Last of the Haussmans - all at The National plus front row tickets for The Old Vic where we saw Kevin Spacey as Richard III. Incredible.

I'm no longer under 26, but I've kept abreast of theatre goings on and regularly score affordable tickets to great plays. As you generally have to book the tickets a few months in advance, I often find myself with 3 shows in 2 weeks - this happened a few weeks back when I saw The Book of Mormon musical (alas no cheap tickets for this one), A Season in the Congo and Othello at The National. 

The Book of Mormon was extremely sharp, so effortlessly sharp that you didn't notice how expertly written the show was. It was very funny and I'd recommend but I couldn't help but think £75 for a ticket meant it was hard for it to compete against best play I've seen all year (Chimerica), tickets for which were £16. However, I do think you often put more weight on plays that deal with serious issues - not that Book of Mormon doesn't mention these, but it's done in a South Park way and not that Chimerica isn't funny, it is whilst blowing your mind about the world's power and money. 

Next up was Chiwetel Ejiofor in A Season in the Congo who plays Patrice Lumumba. Backstory fro The Telegraph: The play deals with the civil war that erupted out of Congo’s first stuttering weeks of independence from Belgium in 1960. Lumumba, who had risen from eloquent beer salesman to the country’s first prime minister of the new regime, attempted to introduce socialist ideas to Congo, but his efforts ended in military conflict and his own murder. In January 1961 he was shot by his Congolese enemies, or possibly by the Belgians supporting them, and later dismembered and dissolved in acid. The CIA and the British have been rumoured to have been involved in his assassination.

The play was directed by Joe Wright (who everyone loves and tends to work with Keira Knightley, ok, maybe just twice), I did think the stage direction was great - the use of puppets, and toy soldiers cascading onto the audience to mark the paratroopers entering the country. I thought Chiwetel was great too. 

To round up my theatre binge, was Othello played by Adrian Lester and Rory Kinnear as Iago. It was set in modern times but used Shakespeare's language obviously. I'd never seen Othello before, and thought it was a really good production. 

Chimerica still stands though.