Contrasting styles of architecture

The church of St Francis Xavier (Roman Catholic) and the former Post Office, both on Broad Street, Hereford, make odd but striking neighbours. The church is by Charles Day, dates from 1837-9 and is in the Greek style with a portico featuring two giant Doric columns in antis. It is finished in a bright yellow stucco. The adoption of a pagan Greek style for a Christian church was not universally accepted at the time it was built. The adjacent Post Office of 1880-1 is by E.G. Rivers in the Jacobean style. It is faced with Portland ashlar and has the characteristic Gothic and Renaissance details, though leaning rather heavily to the former. Such building juxtapositions don't please everyone but I quite liked the pairing of the upper stories.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Artemis the Huntress - again

Seven and a half years ago I photographed this garden sculpture at Hellens Manor, Herefordshire for the first time. I was attending a wedding in January and came upon it as I ventured outside. What appealed to me then - and did so again recently - was the way lichen had colonized the surface of the figure. It gave what must be quite an aged piece a sense of age that it would not possess had it been regularly cleaned. For more about the sculpture, a second image and a few reflections, have a look at that first photograph here.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Garden statues

Leominster is known for the number of antique shops that have been established in the town. We recently spent a few hours looking around them, finding as much interest in the labyrinthine interiors of some of the Georgian houses in which they were based, as in the contents themselves. A couple of the shops had overflowed into garden outbuildings and even the garden itself. The two statues here were in one such garden, cast versions of ancient Greek models, designed for the shopper looking to give a focal point to their bit of greenery.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Faded elelgance, Wisbech

There's an attraction in faded elegance. Perhaps it's glimpsing and still enjoying something of what was in what is.This late Georgian (early 1800s) building in Hill Street, Wisbech, must have been a town house for a well-to-do family. It is tastefully composed, well-proportioned, and uses brick and stone dressing in a minimalist sort of way. In fact, theses features contribute most to the success of the facade. More money and more decoration was, quite appropriately, given to the entrance with its Doric columns and Greek key pattern. Gentle subsidence and desultory maintenance have left it looking somewhat neglected, but its style still manages to shine through.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10