Rowers and swans

It's not unusual to find rowing clubs and swans co-existing on a river. Rowers seem to want want deepish, clear water with a spot for a club house and boat store, in a location near the centre of a settlement. Swans (invariably mute swans) also like a location frequented by people because that is somewhere they can guarantee being fed! Of course conflicts can arise when the fast, sleek boats meet the slow, stately swans. But, with good will, they usually co-exist. One such location is the centre of the city of Worcester. These rowers stopped rowing and gently glided into the flock of swans that is usually found here. On the day I took this photograph the number of swans on this stretch of the River Severn was about four times the number seen in my shot.

photos © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Worcester Guildhall and Queen Anne

Pevsner describes the Guildhall at Worcester (1721-4) as "splendid as any of the C18 in England". It is a large, imposing building of brick with stone details and may be by the architect Thomas White. Much of the fine detailing is on the upper part of the main facade. Here we see statues of Peace, Justice and Plenty above the large segmental pediment. This is filled with trophies of war that are painted and gilded. Below, framed by giant Corinthian pilasters is a niche with a statue of Queen Anne (formerly free standing). below is a broken-backed triangular pediment, above the main entrance, that features the city's coat of arms. The windows have segmental tops with keystone heads and aprons below. Statues of Queen Anne are not too common in Britain despite a style of architecture being named after her.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

A chimneypiece at Worcester Guildhall

Worcester's Guildhall is a Grade 1 building that dates from 1721. The exterior exhibits many features characteristic of the Queen Anne and early Georgian periods. Moreover, it is still a functioning civic building with rooms of varying sizes including a large and imposing assembly room on the first floor. On a recent visit I was particularly drawn to the two large chimneypieces of the assembly room that are clearly of a later date than the setting. Are they part of the remodelling of 1791 by George Byfield? Clearly not. They probably date from the restoration by Henry Rowe and George Gilbert Scott in 1877-80. The wooden surround is topped by a swan-neck pediment and a shield with the city's coat of arms. Within is marble edging and tiles. The tiles to left and right of the fireplace are pictorial. On the left are poppies and a butterfly with, on the right, irises and a dragonfly. These have an oriental feel more in keeping with a later C19 date. The whole of the chimneypiece may be the work of the sculptor William Forsyth (1833–1915).

Narrowboat, Worcester

The Worcester & Birmingham Canal flows through the city of Worcester until it joins England's longest river, the Severn. From what I can see it is mainly the haunt of narrowboats, recreational vessels based on the design of eighteenth and nineteenth century work barges that carried goods around Britain on the canal network. Narrowboats are built to the following dimensions to enable them to navigate through locks - width no more than 7 feet (2.13m), length no more than 72 feet (21.95m). Many of the vessels are painted with traditional colours and designs, are named, and often display the place of their home berth. We came upon this ncely painted example as it passed a berthed boat and approached a lock.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Worcester umbrellas

Its quite common to see shopping centres and streets decked out with colourful hangings across the summer months. Whether it is lights, pennants, flags, flip flops (yes I've seen those) they all have the same purpose - to brighten up the area and raise the spirits of the buying public. This year Friar Street in Worcester went for umbrellas, a relatively inexpensive and very eye-catching hanging. (Yes I've seen umbrellas before too.)

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Marina reflections, Worcester

A relatively calm and sunny day found us walking through the cathedral city of Worcester near the Diglis Marina and the canal. I've photographed there before, trying to make something of the narrow boats, refurbished warehouses and the new flats that are meant to echo and complement the old buildings.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

The Eagle Vaults pub

click photo to enlarge

I've photographed the Eagle Vaults pub in Worcester before, focussing on the details of the colourful glazed tilework that covers the exterior of the ground floor. On a recent visit to the city the light was right for a shot of the whole of the street elevation. Brightly coloured umbrellas that hung along Friar Street crept into the shot too.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Pigeon shower

Feral pigeons successfully maintain urban populations in Britain because they find all they need in our towns and cities. Food is plentiful, whether discarded by people or deliberately bought and fed to them in the form of corn and specially prepared feed. Our buildings effectively mimic the cliffs that the ancestor of the feral pigeons (the rock dove) favoured for nest sites and safe refuge. And, as we discovered in Worcester recently, they even have showers provided by thoughtful urban planners, places where they can keep cool, have a drink and make themselves look their best!

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

The balloon seller

Helium is the second most common element in the universe but on earth is relatively rare. It occurs in natural gas deposits and is gathered as a by-product of that industry. It used to be known as the filling of airships but today it has many uses including in the manufacture of semi-conductors and as an essential in MRI scanners. It is a finite product on earth, found in a few concentrated pockets. When it is released it is one of the few elements that escapes from the earth's atmosphere. One day it will all be gone and our descendants will be incredulous at some of the trivial uses to which it was put in the twentieth and twenty first centuries. Giving people funny, squeaky voices and filling party balloons with it will be viewed as scandalous.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon D5300

The Hive, Worcester

The Hive is a building by the architects Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios. It opened in 2012 and is the UK's first joint-use library building, housing both the University of Worcester library and Worcester County Library. It also accommodates the county archive, a local history centre, the county archaeologist's team and a multi-agency customer service centre. It has a distinctive seven part roof design clad in a scale-like covering of copper alloy. I don't know what the concrete block houses but it does have seating and trees on top. The landscaping is subtle to the point of being barely noticeable. Perhaps it is clearer when the plants are in flower.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon D5300

Underneath the arches

Railway viaducts are constructions of great interest and attraction built to takes a line over a lower area, and consequently they begin and end at points of approximately equal height. The city of Worcester has such a viaduct that starts at Foregate Street Station and extends to the bridge over the River Severn. It was completed in 1859, is built of bricks and has no less than 65 arches (each numbered). In many cities railway arches were utilised as cheap workshop areas, and many are still used this way. Recently some of the Worcester arches have been developed as studios for creatives, and these in the photograph are awaiting their first tenants.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

16:9 aspect ratio

During my first decades of photography I invariably found myself working with 135mm film i.e. film negatives or transparencies measuring 36mm x 24mm, with an aspect ratio of 3:2 and now badly named "full frame". When digital came along, after using a few cameras with small 3:2 sensors, I adopted the Four Thirds system with the sensor aspect ratio of 4:3. I was never entirely comfortable with 3:2, particularly in portrait format, and found 4:3 smuch better in this respect. But, over the years I've used cameras that offer both 3:2 and 4:3. In more recent times, following the widespread adoption of High Definition screens on TVs and monitors, and the fact that many images are now viewed only on such screens, I've become comfortable with the 16:9 aspect ratio. These three ratios (with an occasional 1:1) meet all my needs.

Compositions where the interest is concentrated in a wide, narrow area (such as horizons, streets etc) are particularly suited to 16:9, as are these shots of a canal basin in Worcester.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Tiled pub facade

What is now the Eagle Vaults pub in Worcester was built as a private house around 1740. It was bought in 1764 and in 1779 was converted into a pub known as Young's Mug House. From 1814-1817 it was known as the Volunteer pub and subsequently the Plummer's (sic) Arms. In 1859 it became The Friar Street Vaults. Some time around 1890-1900 it had the decorative and lettering tiles applied to the ground floor of the facade and its name at that time (as now) was the Eagle Vaults. The tiles have lasted very well and the whole scheme looks almost as good today as when it was first installed over a century ago.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Watery reflections, ducks and swans

I think we all, photographer or not, like to see reflections in water. Non-photographers seem to prefer the most perfect reflections, but photographers have just as strong a liking for the less mirror-like effects. This is partly because the camera can freeze the moving water and allow us to see what we can't with the naked eye, something that was most forcefully brought home to me when I reviewed a photograph of a swan on the River Witham in the middle of Lincoln. It appeared to be swimming through paint! To the naked eye the reflection was just a background swirl of colour. I recently posted a photograph of a duck "smearing" a reflection and here is another one of a pair of ducks on the canal in Worcester doing just the same but to more spectacular effect.

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

Landscape gardening

One of Britain's contributions to gardening is the "landscape garden". This eighteenth century development is best summarised by that era's succinct description of it as "nature improved". The example in the photograph is a part of a landscape at the stately home of Croome Court, Worcestershire, which was first worked over in this fashion by Lancelot "Capability" Brown. Neither the lake or the plantings are original to the site - it was described as a "morass". Nor are the stone grotto, bridges, sculptures, tiny classical pavilion, large stone, brick and glass orangery or massive "eye-catcher" rotunda. The parkland is currently being restored by the National Trust.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Swans and floods

The rainfall of October and November produced a few episodes of flooding of the rivers Wye and Severn. Thinking that the most recent flood would have subsided we went to Worcester for the day and found it otherwise. Water from the Severn blocked part of the car park that we used and when we set off to walk to the cathedral along the riverside path we soon found it was under water and impassable. The mute swans that congregate on the river seemed to pay the flood water no mind, and they simply extended their domain to the previously dry areas where people were happy to feed them.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Reredos and vaulting, Worcester Cathedral

In the 1870s George Gilbert Scott undertook a major restoration of Worcester Cathedral. This included the reredos and vaulting seen in today's photograph. It is customary in larger English churches for the amount of decoration in the choir to increase until it reaches a climax at the high altar. Scott's work reflects this tradition with the massed angels of the vaulting above the altar replacing the delicate foliage scrolls and roundels with saints elsewhere.

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

Eagle Vaults pub ornament

Britain's Victorian public houses come in many shapes and sizes. As far as decorative embellishments go they range from the sparse to the exuberant. The Eagle Vaults pub in Worcester falls into the latter category. The ground floor is faced with reddish-brown high gloss tiles with areas displaying iridescent highlights. The inspiration is classical architecture but overlaid with hints of Art Nouveau and music hall fancifulness - what in the 1890s-1900s was described as Mannerist. Tile lettering proclaims its name and the range of drinks on offer. Too often such facades have been modernised, but sufficiently frequently they have been valued for the brightness they bring to the streetscape and remain undisturbed.

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

Boathouse, Worcester

Over the years I've seen quite a few buildings that have drawn their inspiration from boats and ships. For example, the Boathouse Business Centre in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, draws its form, and that of its setting from its location next to a river marina. The architects of The King's School boat house by the River Severn in Worcester seem to have had the sleek sculling boats that it houses in mind when they designed its shape, with the "prow" or "bridge" projecting out over the main doors.

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

Boathouse shadows

Not so much shadows of the boathouse as a shadow on the boathouse. This building by the River Severn in Worcester is a modern structure faced in brick, timber and glass, the shape of which is clearly intended to reflect the forms of the rowing boats that it houses. None of its sharply pointed "prow" can be seen in this photograph: for that you'll need to look at the next post.

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