London Landscape Observer: Greenwich

Showing posts with label Greenwich. Show all posts

Friday, 25 January 2013

Les Miserables. The barricades of Paris and London

With the film of the stage Musical of Victor Hugo's Les Misérables -- the story and the geography of insurrectionary barricades have undergone repeated transformations....

Scenes of revolutionary barricades were actually shot in the far-from revolutionary surroundings of the Old Royal Naval College at Greenwich in London - the site of a secret nuclear reactor in the 70s and 80s - formerly a "Hospital" for elderly retired naval staff

original photo click on http://www.panoramio.com/photo/70798170
The stand-in for revolutionary Paris was actually the Old Royal Naval College - before then Hospital- at Greenwich, now Greenwich University

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A barricade of the Paris Commune,

on the rue des Amandiers, 1871.

Compare with the genuine article, a barricade of the Paris Commune,
on the rue des Amandiers, 1871. The air of determination and the seriousness of the business is evident

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Cumulative plan of barricades, after Philippe, S. (1989). Les Barricades. Architectural Review, 186 (1110, August), 84-86.

The sites of insurrectionary barricades were almost traditional as the memory of each revolutionary episode was not lost in Paris before the next was to be erected

Famously Baron Hausmann's design for boulevards was partly to divide communities as well as to allow army access to the heart of Paris to intervene

A more recent example of the continuity of the sites of barricades -- and human shields was that of the Battle of Cable Street in 1936 (where Fascists were prevented from marching in the east End of London) and the locations where the racist EDL were also prevented from demonstrating in Tower Hamlets in September 2011. On both occasions the slogan adopted by the locals (Jews, Irish Catholics and Bangladeshi Muslims alike) was "¡No pasarán!" They shall not pass (from the Spanish Civil War)

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Tuesday, 1 May 2012

Return to Greenwich...

Recent monitoring of work associated with the new Olympics equestrian venue allowed quite a few chances to ponder the London Landscape from a Greenwich perspective. Particularly during the wettest days of the year.

More photos Click Here

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More photos Click Here

Friday, 23 March 2012

Royal River, Power Pageantry Exhibition... or Spectacle and the Appropriation of Landscape

Canaletto, Greenwich Hospital from the North Bank of the Thames, c 1750–2 National Maritime Museum, London

Guy Debord's "The Society of the Spectacle" dealt with the commodification of experience in the modern world. But clearly, Spectacle was innate in the application of power in the ancient world, Middle Ages, and the Renaissance. This exhibition documents have appropriated the landscape of the Thames to create a linear theatre of pageantry, combining security for the elite with maximum exposure, broadcasting in an age before broadcasts

"From London’s birth, royalty have looked to the Thames to display their power, patronage and pageantry to a city and a people intimately and inextricably connected to the water."
Royal River explores the relationship between the monarch, the City and the people, as it was brought to life on the Thames – London’s greatest thoroughfare.

Don't miss

Taking in the palaces, processions, parties and promenades that made the London we know today, Royal River brings together paintings, manuscripts and rare and beautiful objects. Among the items are Handel’s autographed score for the Music for the Royal Fireworks, the magnificent stern carvings from the Royal Yacht Victoria and Albert III and a remarkable collection of artworks by Canaletto.