tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3373165199675890724.post1343235754008459638..comments2023-10-15T00:20:43.111-07:00Comments on Sarah Maid of Albion: The Ruination of EnglandSarah Maid of Albionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11685494924450312124noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3373165199675890724.post-83849966269581584502011-09-28T03:54:57.564-07:002011-09-28T03:54:57.564-07:00England is a beautiful country with a lot of beaut...England is a beautiful country with a lot of beautiful landmarks. It is one of the must-visit destinations in the world. <br />I recommend to everyone to visit it.UK golf hotelhttp://www.hilton.co.uk/golfbreaksnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3373165199675890724.post-19073166270502731802011-08-06T15:43:41.387-07:002011-08-06T15:43:41.387-07:00While I am slightly perplexed by your insistence o...While I am slightly perplexed by your insistence on local councils being blamed for skyscrapers, etc., which are typically constructed for large corporations, there were some interesting points in here.<br /><br />I actually wanted to respond because I was visiting the Barbara Hepworth gallery in St Ives today, and it occurred to me that, at the time that she and Henry Moore were producing large-scale public sculptures, in a style that was quintessentially and idiosyncratically British, we were producing some of the dullest and ugliest architecture. Seeing as it relates to the issues you raise here, why do you think there was, and continues to be, so small a level of contact between the British art and British architecture of the time? After all, it's not as if we do not have the building techniques to take some of the Hepworth pieces (for example), and scale them up into quite beautiful buildings.<br /><br />Oh, and also, I may have to use this quote the next time people on here are talking about the 'endemic wickedness' of various non-White Britons:<br /><br />"<i>Most Young people do not misbehave out of endemic wickedness, but because they have been decultured. </i>"Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06284394077820988661noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3373165199675890724.post-37481012731392847512011-07-19T23:13:43.395-07:002011-07-19T23:13:43.395-07:00I was driving from central London into Essex past ...I was driving from central London into Essex past Canary Wharf which was all lit up at night.<br /><br />'Look at that' I said to my aunt from Texas, pointing to the cluster of skyscrapers, probably the most famous in Britain.<br /><br />'Could be anywhere', she said, barely giving it a glance.Vita Brevisnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3373165199675890724.post-27689106192552799772011-07-17T05:26:28.362-07:002011-07-17T05:26:28.362-07:00I visited Chester in the late 80's - is it sti...I visited Chester in the late 80's - is it still as unspoiled as then? I remember walking the city, its shops (with a second story), and the city wall. <br /><br />Even then, I thought London had lost any sense of being English; I saw mostly Indians or Pakistanis.thereIsaidithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18059484977744286134noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3373165199675890724.post-4842112146844073212011-07-16T01:56:17.343-07:002011-07-16T01:56:17.343-07:00I too grieve at the despoilation of our landscape....I too grieve at the despoilation of our landscape. Still, I can't forget a conversation I had with an urban planner. I lamented how what were once tidy and aesthetically appealing towns had become ugly, but he was having none of it. He sharply corrected me, reminding me that towns, if they exist at all, exist for purely commercial reasons. And though I'm horrified at his frankly mercenary outlook, I must concede that he has a point. But the exigencies of commerce can't alone explain why the urban fabric was once a coherent whole but is now an affront to the senses. You can still glimpse patches of what were once harmonious wholes in York or Chester, or even Bath, though in the case of the latter the architectonics is more a product of conceit than something that developed organically. Where there has been an effort to halt all development and preserve the landscape, such as in Bruges, the impression is overwhelming. One comes away shaking one's head at the human situation, since it is quite obvious that we are no longer capable of erecting buildings of such sublime beauty.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3373165199675890724.post-5746375768112830342011-07-16T01:17:38.586-07:002011-07-16T01:17:38.586-07:00@ Anon 9:11
Sad to say, but what you say about Ge...@ Anon 9:11<br /><br />Sad to say, but what you say about Germany is only partially true. Certainly Aachen is still a nice place. However, in other cities certain post-modern architects caused greater damage than Bomber Harris could ever dream of. <br /><br />The whole Ruhr region looks like a Calcutta sewer these days. Not only the architecture but the inhabitants as well. <br /><br />The only building activity that's going on there is the creation of new cubist office towers from where a rapidly growing bureaucracy gets to administer the squalor.<br /><br />Funny thing: The last time I was at the Ruhr (Dortmund), I paused at a building site to listen to the dialects spoken there. I only heard East Germans from Saxony and Poles. They have to ship these over to the Ruhr because in that area hardly anybody can be bothered to work anymore. Life on the dole is much to sweet for that.<br /><br />To think that only two generations prior they made steel there...Franznoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3373165199675890724.post-24874870720884028752011-07-15T21:44:15.359-07:002011-07-15T21:44:15.359-07:00Roger Daltrey of "THe Who" might agree w...Roger Daltrey of "THe Who" might agree with you?<br /><br />http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2014979/Roger-Daltrey-reveals-attitudes-marriage-vows-far-straightforward.htmlAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3373165199675890724.post-31551841235457713762011-07-15T14:37:59.153-07:002011-07-15T14:37:59.153-07:00I agree with Mr Fox. I'm sending this from a ...I agree with Mr Fox. I'm sending this from a guest house near Shepherd's Bush tube station. We had dinner this evening in the Westfield Mall, nice restaurant, nice meal but foreign-owned and staffed.<br /><br />Westfield Mall is a glass and steel horror story or jungle and on a Friday night, heaving, all noise and no noise - a continuous din (though quiet where we had dinner).<br /><br />The area, I must say, is about 60-70% non-white (50/50 black/Asian) and probably half the whites (about) are foreign whites i.e. EEuropean. The streets are filthy, not with refuse as such but horribly and I would guess indelibly stained. No police officers were visible.<br /><br />That said, it did not seem like a lawless area and the guest house is of high quality, run by a very helpful non-white gentleman.<br /><br />But this area isn't England, not any more, neither architecturally nor racially.<br /><br />I find that sad.alanoreihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12013953165470026155noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3373165199675890724.post-69770787714977557392011-07-15T13:03:03.284-07:002011-07-15T13:03:03.284-07:00It's a tough one. Britain has always tended to...It's a tough one. Britain has always tended to display a frustrated tension between twee, cake shop "historic" architecture and postmodern creativity. [It's foray into Modernism in the 1960's-1970's was notable only for its truly awful cubist, tower-block "communities in the sky".]<br /><br />Having "conserved" Scheduled buildings [most of which in their natural states were cold, jerry-built, unsanitary, sewage smelling, fire death traps hiding behind 22+ layers of paint - I know, I lived in one in the 1950's as a child] co-existing with Postmodern architects' fevered wet dreams is what is known in NZ as "putting a bob each way". To my mind, it's sign of wobbly self-confidence combined with local council idiosyncrasy.<br /><br />The solution is found in places like Germany. Declare Scheduled areas that preserve the historic architecture for the tourists and those locals who care. And let the balance be allowed to be rebuilt as developers choose subject to planning permission.The Watcher On The Wallnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3373165199675890724.post-18048419003419343042011-07-15T09:11:22.909-07:002011-07-15T09:11:22.909-07:00I couldn't agree with you more. I remember sta...I couldn't agree with you more. I remember standing in Bromly High Street and gazing at the long facade of Victorian shop fronts, but standing out like a sore thumb was one ugly square-shaped 1960's building which had been wedged in between two of the shops. It was probably built to replace bomb damage, but no effort had been made to blend it in with the rest of the surrounding architecture. That would never have happened in soemwhere like Germany, where their cities were rebuilt after the war to reflect what had been there before. I remember a guide telling me on visiting Aachen that they could have built Milton Keynes, but they chose not to.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com