Saturday, May 29, 2004
Revelations, (I)
Today, I learnt :
that it takes an hour to walk from St Paul's cathedral to the Houses of Parliament, andantissimo.
that immediately adjacent to Guy's hospital, on one of the corrugated sheet-metal slats boxing in several adapted containers, and presumably a construction site, is a small rectangular hole labelled "PoST BoX -->"
that the bridge beyond the Houses of Parliament is called "Lambeth Bridge", and that there is a large boat garishly labelled in fluorescent pink, garish new-york red-light-district lettering, "Cuthbert Castle". Or something like that.
that slightly beyond this is the National Maritime Organisation, with a huge, bizarre sculture of Albert (who?) standing on the foredeck of a titanic-lookalike ship, and several doors down is the London Fire Brigade HQ.
that the South Bank Thames Path ends abruptly thanks to the MI5 building hogging a large swath of riverbank all to itself. There are apparently more television cameras on that building than there are stars in the night sky. And it is located next to somewhere called "Vauxhall". (where?) Furthermore, if James Bond had really driven his Aston Martin off the top of MI5, he would have wound up a rather messy, smoking heap amidst the numerous greek pillars and fountains in the expansive concrete garden below, strangely missing from my recollection of the movie?
also that the walk from St Paul's to Vauxhall takes approximately two hours. And that ducks don't so much swim down the Thames as get swept down it, bewilderedly flailing ineffectively with their feet as they go.
*****
Echoes
Did you know that Big Ben, in the fle... uh metal, sounds exactly the way you hear it, on BBC radio? Sitting across the Thames watching nothing in particular, and everything in general today my eyes drifted over the masonary that surrounds and adjoins it (Big Ben is actually the name of the bell within the clocktower) and it hit me then (call me slow) that that is where parliament actually takes place. In the Houses of Parliament.
How apt. So grand and imposing; so rich. A relic from the days when leaders governed, instead of merely administrating. Constructed, from the ground up, to be remarkable. Gilt lined minarettes, and a huge gold-leaf clockface. Walls seeped with the memories of powerful Men, and ingrained with the echoes of powerful Words. A reminder to the fading leaders of today (read : Mr Blair) that government is more... than making yourself look good in public.
And then I had to wonder. Raffles... and Farquhar after him. Where did they govern from? Where has our past gone?
Today, the national library, tomorrow the museum. Why are we so eager to terraform our past, and transform it into cold, metal-and-glass visions of the future - are they so repulsive to us?
As I watched the oaken panelled doors of the London Fire Brigade HQ (with intricate metal inlays) automatically, and noiselessly concertina-ing closed today, I thought : these people have it right. They remember. And preserve. And when they need to, they update... while preserving the significances. Or semblances of, at any rate. Reconstruction? There has to be a better way.
that it takes an hour to walk from St Paul's cathedral to the Houses of Parliament, andantissimo.
that immediately adjacent to Guy's hospital, on one of the corrugated sheet-metal slats boxing in several adapted containers, and presumably a construction site, is a small rectangular hole labelled "PoST BoX -->"
that the bridge beyond the Houses of Parliament is called "Lambeth Bridge", and that there is a large boat garishly labelled in fluorescent pink, garish new-york red-light-district lettering, "Cuthbert Castle". Or something like that.
that slightly beyond this is the National Maritime Organisation, with a huge, bizarre sculture of Albert (who?) standing on the foredeck of a titanic-lookalike ship, and several doors down is the London Fire Brigade HQ.
that the South Bank Thames Path ends abruptly thanks to the MI5 building hogging a large swath of riverbank all to itself. There are apparently more television cameras on that building than there are stars in the night sky. And it is located next to somewhere called "Vauxhall". (where?) Furthermore, if James Bond had really driven his Aston Martin off the top of MI5, he would have wound up a rather messy, smoking heap amidst the numerous greek pillars and fountains in the expansive concrete garden below, strangely missing from my recollection of the movie?
also that the walk from St Paul's to Vauxhall takes approximately two hours. And that ducks don't so much swim down the Thames as get swept down it, bewilderedly flailing ineffectively with their feet as they go.
*****
Echoes
Did you know that Big Ben, in the fle... uh metal, sounds exactly the way you hear it, on BBC radio? Sitting across the Thames watching nothing in particular, and everything in general today my eyes drifted over the masonary that surrounds and adjoins it (Big Ben is actually the name of the bell within the clocktower) and it hit me then (call me slow) that that is where parliament actually takes place. In the Houses of Parliament.
How apt. So grand and imposing; so rich. A relic from the days when leaders governed, instead of merely administrating. Constructed, from the ground up, to be remarkable. Gilt lined minarettes, and a huge gold-leaf clockface. Walls seeped with the memories of powerful Men, and ingrained with the echoes of powerful Words. A reminder to the fading leaders of today (read : Mr Blair) that government is more... than making yourself look good in public.
And then I had to wonder. Raffles... and Farquhar after him. Where did they govern from? Where has our past gone?
Today, the national library, tomorrow the museum. Why are we so eager to terraform our past, and transform it into cold, metal-and-glass visions of the future - are they so repulsive to us?
As I watched the oaken panelled doors of the London Fire Brigade HQ (with intricate metal inlays) automatically, and noiselessly concertina-ing closed today, I thought : these people have it right. They remember. And preserve. And when they need to, they update... while preserving the significances. Or semblances of, at any rate. Reconstruction? There has to be a better way.
