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

Broad Street, Hereford

Broad Street, Hereford, features a number of interesting and distinctive buildings. Prominent in the view above is the Public Library, Museum and Art Gallery housed in a Venetian Gothic building of 1872-4 by F.R. Kempson. The adjacent buildings, with the exception of that on left, share nothing in common except the same gutter height which is enough to hold the composition together. The modern building with blue tinted glass is faced with a brown stone that helps it to sit fairly comfortably next to its venerable neighbour. Thereafter it is the pale colour that links a sequence of new and old buildings before the street view is "closed" by the medieval tower and spire of All Saints on the High Street.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon D5300

Library, Wells Cathedral

Dendrochronology dates the time of the cutting of the roof timbers of the library at Wells Cathedral at about 1450, so it is likely that the building was erected shortly afterwards. Like many such libraries had, and still have, a number of chained books that cannot be removed without being unlocked. This practice dates from the time when books were rare and expensive. One of the oldest volumes in the library is Pliny's "Natural History". It was printed in Venice in 1472 five years before Caxton printed the first book in England.

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

Georgian brickwork

The building shown above was built for the master of St Katharine's Hospital, Ledbury, in about 1488. A significant portion of this building exists inside (particularly its arch-braced roof and on the north elevation (timber framing). It was remodelled in 1588 with further extensive modernisation in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In recent years it has been sensitively restored and now holds the town library. The Georgian doorcase shown above marks the main entrance. Much of the brickwork in this south elevation dates from the eighteenth century and is laid, quite typically, in the Flemish bond (alternating headers and stretchers). The white pointing is probably lime mortar. It is a fine example of the Georgian bricklayer's art.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100