Tea Time on The Sea Shore.

Tags

Beach, black and white, dechchairs, Ephemera, hats, old photographs, pebbles, Photography, Seaside., seaweed, stones, tea., teapot, vintage fashion

I don’t know where this photograph was taken, I can’t even remember where I bought it, but I love of the idea of taking the teapot and the best teacups down to the seashore for a brew in the fresh air!

The lady on the left seems to be enjoying her tea the most or is she smiling at the sea view or the gentleman wearing the peaked cap? She is certainly not looking at the camera, unlike the lady in the stripy hat on the left, next to the young lady pouring the tea. The lady in the middle appears to be being annoyed by some sort of flying inspect.

The beach doesn’t look that exciting, with its stones and seaweed, but that could be because I’m use to the sandy beaches of the East coast. Can you make out the three chaps walking along what must be a promenade or seawall in the background? I wonder where they’re going? So many questions!

Does anybody have any answers?

“Everything is Possible”, Former-Central Library, Paradise Forum, Chamberlain Square, Birmingham, 25/04/15.

Tags

architecture, birds, Birmingham, black and white, Brutalism, Brutalist architecture, Chamberlain Square Birmingham, concrete, Everything is possible, John Madin, libraries, library, Lucy Mclaunchlan, Quotes, textures, Todo es posible

The Central Library designed by Birmingham born architect John Madin.

I didn’t have time to find the relatively new Library of Birmingham, designed by Dutch architect Francine Houben, but I did rediscover the former-Central Library on my walk up to the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery on Chamberlain Square. As you can see, the ground floor has been largely boarded up, but you can still see the birds painted by Lucy McLaunchlan on the side of John Madin’s Brutalist construction.

Todo es posible or “Everything is possible”.

I don’t speak Spanish, in fact I don’t have a second language, so I photographed the motto “Todo es posible” with a view to looking up what it meant at a later date. A certain on-line encyclopaedia informs be that the library is due to be demolished in the July of this year, so the next time I visit Birmingham this heart warming message might well be a heap of rubble or a void where a building use to be, which is rather sad. Then again, “Everything is possible”…

Photo Archive: Poster, Leeds, c.2005.

Tags

black and white, blue eyes, fringe, Leeds, portrait, poster, shadows, Street Art

X is for X-Ray, Sheffield, 07/03/15.

Tags

black and white, brain, brickwork, halo, light, Pattern, portrait, profile, rose window, Sheffield, skeleton, Street Art, x ray

“The Beard Garden”, “The Great Gatsby”, 73-75 Division Street, Sheffield, 19/03/15.

Tags

beard, Beard Garden, beer garden, black and white, cocktail bar, cocktails, Food and Drink, moustache, pipe, pipe smoking, Sheffield, smoking, Street Art, The Great Gatsby, The Great Gatsby Sheffield

Souvenirs: Postcard, “Terence Donovan: The Eye That Never Sleeps”, Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield, 2002.

Tags

Art, Art Galleries., black and white, exhibition, fashion photography, photographers, Photography, Postcard, Sheffield, Souvenirs, Ted, Terence Donovan, Terence Donovan: The Eye That Never Sleeps, The Graves Art Gallery Sheffield, Thermodynamic

I can’t recall if I read about this exhibition in BBC History Magazine, set my heart on going and then went to Sheffield to see it or if I visited in my free time during a college outing to Sheffield Hallam University, which is only a short walk from the Graves. Perhaps I read about it and then used the college trip as a pretext to get to Sheffield and see it [I certainly had no intention of enrolling at Sheffield Hallam or any other university at that time of my life]. Either way, it was the first exhibition I ever planned to visit and subsequently visited.

The post card features one of Terence Donovan’s iconic photographs, “Thermodynamic“, which is one of my favourites.

Photo Archive: Charlie Chaplin, Gloucester Road, Cheltenham, c.2009.

Tags

Art, black and white, bowler hat, Charlie Chaplin, Cheltenham, Cheltenham Spa, Gloucestershire Echo, Mural, paint, painting, Stephen Cowlishaw, Street Art, The Little Tramp

The Little Tramp.

The Gloucestershire Echo informs me that this portrait of Charlie Chaplin, which is part of a larger mural, was the work of community art teacher Stephen Cowlishaw and some local school children and dates from 1994. It appears to have fallen into disrepair since I photographed it in 2009 and the local newspapers seem to indicate that the mural is either in a worst state than it was then or restored to its former glory or it has been replaced with something completely different! The link to the Gloucestershire Echo above, which is from the 16th September 2014, is the latest reference to the mural I can find. I wonder if any decision has been made yet?

Photo Archive: “Mind The Gap”, Saltaire, 17/05/14.

Tags

architecture, black and white, Mind the gap, Public Transport, Saltaire, Train stations, Trains., Victorian., Victoriana, World Heritage Site

Dr. Livingstone (I presume), National Library of Scotland, George VI Bridge, Edinburgh, 22/03/14.

Tags

Africa, black and white, blue, Dr David Livingstone, Edinburgh, explorers, exploring, illustration, National Library of Scotland, Victorian., Victoriana

I wonder if the front of the National Library of Scotland is still boarded up? The blue hoarding, which must have been obscuring some sort of building work, was decorated with illustrations, like this one, depicting the famous Scottish explorer and missionary Dr. David Livingstone.