Mosque in the Sun
I remember the Regent’s Park Mosque being built in the seventies, the first in London. Fascinatingly, it was almost eighty years in the arriving. From wht it feels like, the sun has been away that long, too.
(isn’t it odd how the days when blogger screws up the posting coincide with those I am too busy to check up?)
Visit the Markfield Beam Engine
As mentioned last Sunday, it is time to have a look at the Markfield Beam Engine and Museum, which is open today as part of regular openings on the second Sunday of each month. The engine, in Markfield Park, Harringey was once used to move sewage from Tottenham into the London system for treatment at the Beckton sewage works. 
The 100 horsepower beam pumping engine, built in 1886 by Wood Brothers, is housed in an original Grade II listed Engine House in the former sewage treatment works for Tottenham which have now become part of Markfield Park. The Engine operated from 1886 until 1905 continuously, and carried on service on standby operation until 1964 when sewers were diverted to the extended East Middlesex Works at Deephams. The engine has recently been restored and can be seen operating under steam on designated days. Meanwhile, the museum is open on the second Sunday of each month from 11am until 4pm. For more information, see http://www.mbeam.org/
The Beat Generation
Brewer Street in Soho plays host to the Vintage Magazine Shop, a fantastic, eclectic collection of stuff that reminds you of another age not so long ago. Always worth remembering if you are looking for a hard-to-choose-present.
Goodness Gracious, Great Balls of Scaffolding!
The Spitalfields complex has been sprouting bits of art lately, like this. No information around it, and while it does depend on the fascinating way straight lines can turn into curves, it seems to me to be sub-Quantum Cloud. Still, a bit of fun. My favourite of the Spitalfields crop tomorrow.
On holiday – back soon.
Refined Lions
The lions to the rear of the British Museum always struck me as being particularly refined, snooty almost, but I like them. Dignified.
Checkout Londonist’s Leonine London series if you want to find out more about London’s pride of lions.
More Goth than Gothic?
Gothic perpendicular, It’s a fantastic building, with gargoyles vying with cctv cameras for the high ground, the Prudential Building always seems as if it is newer than it is (late 19th century) while it is trying to be older than it is (14th Century) but I’d dare day everyone who knows it is fond of it. And, it has special relevance to London Daily Photo – more tomorrow.
Gee, it’s a big one…
From the sheer size of this drinking trough you could guess that it is in Smithfield. Very difficult to imagine what the city of London must have looked like at the time, to need a trough this big, and I’m sure they had to queue to get there. There’s another large one at Mornington Crescent, but I’m not aware of any other giant ones – anyone?
On holiday – back soon.
London’s Changing Scene
These days the Intrepid Fox is a posh burger bar with flats above, it used to be one of the oldest pubs in London. At the bottom end of Wardour Street, the clientelle used to be eclectic – film workers, office workers, market workers, sex workers, rock’nroll workers, even people that didn’t have to work. Read the story from the Beeb here.
The Arcade Less Travelled
Full points if you recognise this place which may look like other arcades, but I’d be surprised if very many of you have been here. It’s Royal Opera Arcade, just behind Pall Mall and not somewhere you are likely to end up by accident. Some interesting shops and galleries there, most notably Stephen Wiltshire. No, the name won’t be familiar, but if you saw him in 1987 on the BBC program “The Foolish Wise Ones”, you won’t have forgotten him. Autistic, at 13, he could draw perfectly detailed architectural drawings from memory. He still can.
Larger Than Life
This huge, spangly shoe certainly grabs your attention, it is advertising the musical Priscilla Queen of the Desert. While it is popular and no doubt entertaining, it’s one of those shows lower on my list to visit, given there is so much on the London stage at the moment.
