Photos of old industrial buildings.
I’ve had an idea for a set of ‘industrial’ photos floating around my head for a while now. Sometime last week, while on my way to Morrisons of all places, I had the opportunity I’d been waiting for. All of these photos were taken in a side street at the back of the modern Morrisons building, it’s a street that has small, scruffy industrial units that house plumbers, a garage and other assorted unglamorous businesss.
The picture at the top of the page is something that sits on top of a relatively new building, I'm not sure what it was but I suspect it was reclaimed from a former much older building.
The old red brick building is used as some sort of storage unit, it never did grace the streets of a wealthy residential area, it has always been a small industrial unit. That didn’t stop the builders using decorative white edging stones and flamboyant cast iron downpipes. I particularly like the roller mechanism that operates the huge sliding doors but, I've been trying to work out if these doors were a later addition. It could be that the space was originally bigger and intended for work horses and carts to pass through into a yard at the rear. I love the slightly different colours of the red bricks, a sign that they were hand made. 
I’ve no idea what the significance of 235 is, I don’t even know what the building is or was. It’s inaccessible; I took this picture using my zoom lens through some very old cast iron railings looking across the railway line. What ever it is, it’s on the other side of the railway line, almost built into the railway embankment. 
The next three photos; (in case you thought they were some sort of abstract art), are in fact close up shots of a door with badly peeling paint. And the last one is the same sort of thing but this time part of a tiled wall that was painted and is now shedding the paint. I liked the patterns this made. In fact taken out of their ordinary context they DO look like works of art. 
Makes me think it’s kinda sad that so may people take this short cut to Morrisons and see nothing except dirty unkempt buildings. 
The whole time I was looking at your photos, I was waiting for some graffiti No Banksy! I can't imagine seeing anything like these buildings without some form of graffiti. Old structures have so much more character than most of our modern architecture.
ReplyDeleteNow that you mention it, I guess graffiti isn't a huge problem around here. I love these old buildings, they have a sort of quiet unassuming quality. I think houses and important town buildings of this era can be TOO decorative for my taste but these old industrial buildings remain elegant but fairly simple.
Deletethese are really great Loretta
ReplyDeleteHi Kathy................thanks for stopping by, sorry I've not been around for so long, in the proces of doing a catch up now.
DeleteThose are wonderful photos. I love old buildings and you got a great one there and have picked some great parts of it to photograph. I really love the drain pipe, where you have gotten some great photos. The brackets are the beat. Keep up the good work
ReplyDeleteThanks Susan, I was quite taken with that drain pipe too. :-)
DeleteAn very interesting exploration of the industrial archeaology enhanced here by your acute attention to detail.
ReplyDeleteThe care and craftsmanship that went into producing buildings like these now overshadowed by the ubiquitous Morrisons is a joy to behold. Sometimes I look at the fabulous Victorian architecture of central Birmingham and think nobody could do that anymore, not only would it be too expensive, the skills just don't exist to create each unique building that wewre the testament to wealth that is no longer there. Earlier this week I was in London at the Royal College of Physicians which comprises a modern grade II listed building and the most stunning Georgian houses (now made into offices) facing Regents Park. An incredibly beautiful place. In a rather more humble way the red brick building you have photographed above speaks to us of the same things, wealth, empire, national pride and an interest in the quality of things....all now gone forever as history casts these islands in new roles, the sun has truly set on the British Empire. I wonder what impact independence would have on Scotland's built environment Loretta? Will we ever know? Or perhaps the anodyne austerity globalism typified by Morrisons means that as a member of NATO, the EU, the UN and all that this means, Scotland will look pretty much the way it did before and very much like England Ireland, Wales and the rest of Europe/World, a mishmash of concrete and glass and backstreet industrial estates where the "unglamourous" congregate to ply their various trades.
The studies of flaking paint are of course works of art in themselves... you should print them on canvas and sell them on Ebay I think Loretta, if I may make so bold as to suggest such a thing?
Thanks for the comments Aaron, my apologies for taking so long to get here. loving your idea for the flaking paint masquerading as works of art, actually I do intend to use these images in my art but I've not quite decided how. Scottish architecture does already posses quite distinctive features. There is an academic belief that both Robert Adam and Charles Rennie MacKintosh produced designs specific for either Scotland or England depending on who the client was and where the location was. There is a Mackintosh house in Northamptonshire that's fully restored and although distinctively Mackintosh; it's more English arts and crafts than Celtic revivalist. If you look at the Museum of Scotland building, or even the Scottish Parliament, I think these are modern buildings that are very 'Scottish' in appearance.
DeleteRe Royal College of Physicians London, couldn't help noticing the similarity between the old original John Nash building (1825) with the pediment and 6 columns and, The original Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh, by William Playfair (1832), also with pediment and 6 columns. both pretty spectacular buildings in my book. That was a very grand period in architecture, lovely to look at. I'm so glad we haven't demolished all of the old buildings.
Really excellent pictures and I too, love the detailing.
ReplyDeleteThanks Iri glad you like the pictures.
Delete