Monday morning I had to head in to London to catch a train to Cambridge where I had a meeting that afternoon. I took the opportunity to go and see "Maman", the Louise Bourgeois sculpture of a 30 foot tall spider protecting her eggs, which is currently on display outside the Tate Modern. I saw her inside the Tate Modern many years ago but now outside she looks even more amazing. In fact at some angles she looks like she is about to eat St Paul's Cathedral. I walked back along the south bank to Waterloo and took the underground to Kings Cross/St Pancras stations.
Waterloo is the former departure point of the Eurostar, with it's trains heading through the channel tunnel to Paris, Brussels and beyond, but after an £800M restoration, the home of Eurostar moved to St Pancras Station last week! I wanted to see it's new home too. Something that has had £800M spent on it must be worth seeing! And it was - much to do with the fantastic engineering of the original building: St Pancras was first completed in 1868 and the Barlow Shed, that forms the main body of the station, was 689ft long and rose in a majestic arch to almost 100ft, containing over 10000 panes of glass (all of which have been replaced) and at the time of construction was the largest enclosed space in the world. It is still a remarkable feat of engineering, now bright and gleaming after years of dereliction.
Can you see Platform nine and three-quarters?? They have one in Kings Cross Station with a trolley sticking out of the wall so you can pretend to be off to Hogwarts!!
8 comments:
Definitely from that 2nd angle you took, the spider looks like its about to attack St Paul's.
That's so funny that they've made a platform nine and three quarters! Happy Potter has taken over the world.
oh- love those photos- arches and pilings/supports and the glistening bridge with, what? Westminster in the background? that photo should be framed.
and the giant spider- also an engineer, which brings me to the article you linked- so great! I saved it and have sent to one person already. you write the most fascinating posts.
in that article, I enjoyed the remark about engineer and how architects steal all the glory nowadays- funny! the writer of that article is very good, made the subject interesting, I'm sure, to those not fascinated by engineering- though I am. so I'm guessing.
Fabulous photo montage!
.... if you have a moment sometime, please could you share how you did that .... was it flickr or just a clever trick on your computer?
Hello! I love all your photos and projects! Thanks for stopping by my blog :) I am bookmarking yours so I can come back and read your older posts!
That spider really is impressive! So did you go to Hogwarts or did you just go to Cambridge? ;-)
Thanks for the field trip once again! Love your pics and posts as always. Hope you are staying warm up there!!!
I saw the spider inside, too, years ago. I bet it's amazing outside. You make me want to go to London now!
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