Old pub advertisement

The Queen's Arms at Newhall Street, Birmingham, is a pub designed by the architect, Joseph D. Ward, who worked for the brewers, Mitchells & Butler. It dates from c.1870 and has been extensively modernised twice, the first occasion being in 1901 and the second in the late C20. The tiled advertisement on the corner of the pub must date from the 1901 remodelling and has suvived remarkably intact. It employs a cassical egg and dart border (awkwardly broken by the name at the top, a cartouche with gold medal awards from the C19 and a style of lettering frequently seen at the turn of the century.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon D5300

Cinema or gasholder?

I remember the evening I took this photograph. We had left St Thomas' Hospital in London and were walking to the Tube line that we needed. I hadn't thought we'd come upon the British Film Institute IMAX cinema. I had never seen its illuminated exterior before, but once seen I saw the potential for a shot or two. I posted what I considered to be my best shot on my PhotoReflect blog of the time: the one above is the second best. Looking at it again as I prepared it for posting it occurred to me that the cinema has the look of an illuminated gasholder, right down to the lattice-work supports.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Canon 5D2     2013

Peppers graffiti

Over the years I've come to mind graffiti rather less than I did. I still don't like it sprayed clandestinely on someone else's property. Or directly onto bricks or any other permanent surface. But, a nice piece on a painted wall, or a grotty corrugated steel fence, or on a surface provided for just that purpose, well, I find that inoffensive. And I certainly don't mind the owner of a property hiring someone to paint a graffiti style advertisement on their gated entrance to the back of their premises, as is the case at Peppers Cafe in Gloucester.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100