Friday, February 15, 2008

My Favourite London Building

A week spent in London has kept me away not just from home but also the blog. I took this while walking back to my friend's home where I was staying. For me this is one of London's most beautiful buildings. I love it's Art Deco lines and sense of place. It's just a pity that the BBC seem to be losing sight of their sense of place.

5 comments:

Ellee Seymour said...

Richard, I hope you had a successful week. And I agree, it is a stunning building, who is the statue of on the front?

Richard Havers said...

Thanks Ellee, all went well.

I found this on the web site below.

Prospero and Ariel, by Eric Gill. Prospero, a ten-foot symbol of wisdom and benevolence, is sending the seven foot young boy, Ariel, out into the world. The boy Ariel is holding a pipe in his right hand, and is naked. This caused a little bit of a stir at the time, and the story goes that Ariel's "manhood" was thought to be rather large and Gill had to cut it back - whether this is true or not, I have no idea.

http://tinyurl.com/2mpr96

Anonymous said...

Having read the biography of Eric Gill, this doesn't surprise me!

Richard, I heard a hilarious (and true) tale concerning Broadcasting House recently. Apparently a few years ago King Harald V of Norway arrived at Broadcasting House where he was due to be interviewed on BBC Radio 4's 'Today' programme. He gave his name to the Cockney gentleman on the front desk who said he would telephone upstairs and have someone come down to escort the King to his interview.
After a couple of moments speaking on the phone, the receptionist held his hand over the phone and said 'Er, excuse me, mate, but where did you say you was the king of?"

jams o donnell said...

Nice choice of favourites. It is a marvellous building

Richard Havers said...

Yes Jams, but it's a crap photo - camera phone I'm afraid.

Rich, that's a brilliant story. I love it!