Winter solstice on the Thames
Cats: politics, travels|After the whirl on the London Eye, my little family of typists took a walk along the Thames River on the shortest day of the year.
By mid afternoon the air was darkening and the sky began to ripen into a rich crimson that cast a reddish glow over everything and turned objects into silhouettes.
The large building is Battersea Power Station, an art-deco designed coal-fired generator which is no longer in use. Only in a nation of designers do you find a disused art deco power station that is a Grade II-listed heritage building.
You may recall Battersea Power Station from the Beatles 1965 movie Help! or, as I do, on the cover of Pink Floyd’s Animals album. Remember the inflato-pig that rose up between the smoke stacks? I saw the documentary. It wasn’t Photoshopped. It was real.
Just a short set here. There is also a silhouette of a London double-decker bus and a lovely red sky over the river. The building looks as though it has a fire on the lower floors but it’s the low sun hitting it horizontally and reflecting back on the Thames.
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January 8th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
I saw the Battersea Power Station during my 1992 trip to the U.K. Lovely shot!
January 8th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Love the 1 st shot of the power station – isn’t it used as part of the Tate or Cirque du Soleil now?
January 8th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
Beth, thanks, the building really is beautiful I think, but then I’m the daughter of an civil engineer who built coal-fired power plants for a living.
TB, thanks. The Tate Modern is in the (I think) Bankside power station which is further east on the Thames. It’s also enormous – walking into the front hall is breathtaking.
January 8th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
You’ve been TAGGED!
And I work for an electric utility (well, a support org for electric membership cooperatives! We’re nearly cousins.
January 9th, 2008 at 5:02 am
The shot of the bus is a bit mad! love the first shot though.
January 9th, 2008 at 9:58 am
Electric co-operatives – now there’s an interesting concept, something part of the world could use.
Rowan, the double deckers are icons of London.
January 9th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
I am gobsmacked. I really must get myself to London. And learn how to take decent photos.
January 9th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
Do get yourself there, BB. It’s a great city and I mean “great” in the old fashioned sense of the word.
January 10th, 2008 at 3:54 am
G My uncle drives the DDs around London, he loves it!
January 10th, 2008 at 8:54 am
GT, the photos are great! Your mad dashes through traffic that day (mmm, Westminster Bridge, Embankment, Picadilly, Haymarket etc…) for the right vantage from which to shoot seem worth it NOW!!!!! … and to think YOU think a BMW motorcycle would be dangerous?!?!?!
January 10th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Row, maybe your uncle was driving the DD bus in the picture
Tonardo, they weren’t mad dashes, they were spontaneous journey’s in pursuit of beauty… Beemer motorcyle – I think TagBagger’s got to you with all that silly talk!