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London, England
Everyone knows about it from the Queen of England to the hounds of hell
This slideshow starts where my trip did, in London, a month and a half after the Olympics (and two and a half months from right about now), just in time for this year's London Open House. This was the fourth time that I was in London for Open House Weekend and I've still only barely seen the sites of what's offered- building after building after building, all normally closed to the public, all open for one very, very busy weekend a year. What you see here is a picture is of St Paul's Cathedral (from its left side approach) from the brand new One New Change development designed by Jean Nouvel, an Open House London site although one that provides public access regardless. The building offers visitors some terrific amenities including wonderfully reflective views like this one, as well as retail and office space and all the things you would expect from a shiny glassy building so close to St Paul's. What you might not expect is its wonderful open roof terrace, a terrific, free public space six or seven stories above the street and right at dome level with St Paul's itself.
From St Paul's and One New Change it's an easy downhill walk to Norman Foster's Millennium Bridge across the Thames and right to the always interesting Tate Modern. What is different about this picture (or rather what is new in this picture) is the Shard, the tower at London Bridge Station, Renzo Piano's massive new building on the south side of the Thames and away from all of the action. The building (or rather its exterior) was finished in time for the games but its interior and its observation deck won't be open until next year. And while you can't see the view from up there (I imagine it's probably not all that amazing to be honest considering how far away it is from anything interesting), it's hard to miss the tower itself, visible from all of the expected (and a lot of the unexpected) places all over the city.
The lines at Open House London really weren't all that bad (with one notable exception, see below). They might look long but generally they moved fairly well. And the wait was always worth it- at the end of the line was always something special enough to make any time spent on line feel like it was not wasted. Even here at David Adjaye's wonderful Sunken House (on De Beauvoir Road north of The City near Kingsland), the forty five minute wait flew by. Before I knew it I was standing at the front door taking my shoes off, free to explore every room and every corner and every angle of some stranger's extraordinarily well designed home.
The jewel in the crown of Open House London this year was a self guided tour to the top of 30 St Mary's Axe (or the Gherkin as its known locally), the iconic tower designed by Norman Foster. The top of the tower is a (presumably) exclusive event space under a glassy dome, and a place so tempting and appealing to locals that the line to get up could best be described as outrageously long. I arrived before the site opened and knew I was in trouble when I got out of the Liverpool Street Tube Station and saw otherwise sane looking British people running toward the building. The line started on St Mary's Axe and then looped around on Leadenhall Street and Creechurch Lane all the way to Bury Street (where I joined in). After I got there the line got even worse, possibly doubling in size and tying up both pedestrian and car traffic in the area. Complicating things even further was the weather- an overcast day turned into light rain and then heavy rain and then heavy rain with an umbrella shredding wind. At first I welcomed the rain (I knew it would rain and came prepared), hoping that it would cause people to abandon their posts and cause the line to pick up speed. Sadly this did not happen (everyone always staying calm and carrying on I guess) and the line moved painfully slow for a (literally) numbing four and a half hours before I finally reached the security checkpoint and could slowly start to warm up.
Once inside, things started to pick up considerably. The top of the building was remarkable inside, an amazing space hovering over a rainy and hard to see city, a place that felt unreal for every imaginable reason. A place that somehow felt worth the four and a half hour wait in the cold, cold rain. A place that (after a four and a half hour wait) needs to be believed to be seen.
Directly on the Prime Meridian (it's just off to the left actually), this is the O2 Arena, the one time Millennium Dome designed by Richard Rogers. While the dome may be hard to miss, the reason that I came all the way out to North Greenwich was to tour the building on the right- Ravensbourne College designed by Foreign Office Architects. The building is an entire college campus on eight (or so) floors in one building, with classrooms for future architects, graphic designers and video producers arranged around common lounges and libraries. Inside it has some fairly nice spaces and often great views out through those port hole windows back through two hemispheres toward the dome and to the Thames.
