Tag Archives: buildings

Farnborough’s Older Buildings

In my days working in aerospace, I dealt with people at the RAE/DERA, but I never had any visits there. I went to the show, of course, and BAe moved the headquarters there and I spent plenty of time in those offices, but I never was on the government side of the site. Now it has been handed over to private developers, you can drive around the various buildings. Much of it is new development or refurbishment of old buildings.

There are some of the old facilities still there, though. A couple of wind tunnel buildings are in place – one of which has camouflage paint for some reason! There are plaques on the various buildings to give a bit of their history. I know of many test programmes that were undertaken in these facilities, and I believe they are still in use since some of the capabilities are still in high demand.

One smaller building is the remains of a water test tank. This was apparently shortened at some point and now the building still has the tank profile inside while the outside has the test rails but seems to have been filled in. It is good that so much of the original facilities is still there even as redevelopment has taken place. Sadly, I won’t get to experience what it was like when it was at its busiest.

Severn Valley Railway at Kidderminster

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2025 is the 200^th anniversary of the first passenger railways in the world and the UK is celebrating this throughout the year with the Rail200 events. Our company is supporting this at a few events including a weekend at the Severn Valley Railway in Kidderminster. I volunteered to take part in this event so spent a couple of days showing people around our hydrogen fuel cell demonstrator train. More of that in a separate post.

The Severn Valley station is alongside the mainline station in Kidderminster. I guess you had to walk between the two stations when this line was still a part of the national system. The mainline station is a modern looking affair, but the Severn Valley’s station has a far more period feel to it. Here are some images of the station itself. It will come as no surprise to find out that I shall have more posts to come from the weekend before too long.

A Brief Visit to Spokane

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The beginning of our vacation involved a decent drive, and our route took us right by Spokane. We may have lived here for over seven years, but we haven’t been to Spokane in that time. In fact, we have been there before but only to the airport which we staged through for a trip we made back when we lived in Chicago. A hotel airport doesn’t really count as visiting a city. Since we had built some time into our schedule, we made a diversion into the center of the city to have a look around.

I had heard about the falls in the middle of the city and that there was some nice development along the river, so we headed for that area. Turned out to be a really nice afternoon to be walking around the river so we had got quite lucky. There are some other parts of our visit that will justify their own posts in due course so I shall just start with some shots of the falls and some of the buildings in the areas that we saw. I shall add more of the sights in due course.

Some Downtown Buildings in Cleveland

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I had to go to Cleveland for a conference recently. I have been to the Cleveland area in recent years, but it had been a long time since I was last downtown. The center of the city was not overly busy but there was enough going on to keep us occupied when we weren’t busy with the reason for being there. However, I was impressed by some of the architecture. If I had been able to spend more time, I would have wandered around and taken more photos, but I only had occasional opportunities and the phone was all I had with me.

LA Architecture

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My work trips to LA were mainly spent in the office but we did go out sometimes to get some lunch. As we walked through the downtown, I got more of a look at this area than I have had before. The buildings in the heart of downtown are often quite old and have some nice architectural styles. Many have been either well maintained or refurbished more recently and they look very nice.

We went through an arcade of shops and food outlets when getting lunch one time. It had a lovely look to it. The architectural finishes on the outsides of buildings were good too. One of the buildings has been converted into an Apple Store. The inside of that was remarkably grand. I wonder how many people come in to buy products and how many are just checking the building out like us?

Unusual Shaped Buildings in Vancouver

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There area few buildings in Vancouver where the architects have been a little adventurous. Some of them are visible from the shore as you walk around Stanley Park and I grabbed some photos from a distance. There is one that is near the bridge as you drive towards Granville Island. You can see part of it from the Island but a good view is on the road as you drive by. I asked Nancy to try getting some shots as I was driving. The tapered edge makes the building feel like it is hanging over the road. Very interesting engineering!

Is Alresford Too Pretty To Be Real?

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A short distance from Winchester is the little town of Alresford. I had flown over it as a youngster but had never actually visited and, when our friends suggested it as a good place to meet up while we were visiting, we went with their suggestion. The center of the town is quite picturesque but some of the older parts of the town are just too like a postcard to be credible. The oldest buildings include some down by the river where the old mill was. As you walked along the path by the water, it was hard to believe that some of these buildings hadn’t been created by a set designer for a period drama. This was a theme for our whole visit with so many villages with postcard-like houses.

Tokyo Bay’s Industrial Background

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For those that haven’t visited Tokyo before (and maybe for some that have), the image of the city is a dense metropolitan space with high rise buildings and grand structures. There is also a lot of smaller building with offices and housing. However, the city is also pretty industrial. The bay has been a center for commerce for centuries and much heavy industry grew up along the waterfront and has continued to prosper. Haneda Airport is a short ride from Tokyo’s heart and is very convenient. It is also surrounded by industry. When in the terminal and looking across the airfield, you get a clear idea of the amount of industry so close to the city. This isn’t a one off either. Head south out of the city and you lots of similar industrial spaces.

Lavenham

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We went to a bunch of villages in East Anglia that were picturesque but one was almost too much to be real. I have been to Lavenham before – I went in the early 90s when visiting a friend who was living in the area at the time – but I have to admit I didn’t recall much about it and when we got there, I wondered how I could have forgotten. It seems that the entire village is made up of buildings that were constructed by a film set designer.

Half timbered building abound. They are all really old but well maintained. Multiple colors are used to decorate the walls which I assume are probably made of some vintage materials. Building construction in those days used to use a lot of straw mixed with “binding agents” of a less than delightful origin. You don’t know that once they are done and I assume any more modern repairs make use of more pleasant ingredients. The age of the buildings also shows in the way that there doesn’t appear to be a right angle in the place. Everything is at odd angles. It really is something special.

It is not hard to understand why tourists will visit the place. It is just what someone from overseas would imagine an English village to be. I certainly won’t so easily forget it this time. Not sure how I did before!

Inside Bodie Buildings

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While you are not allowed inside most of the buildings at Bodie, you can walk right up to the windows to take a look inside. This is one of those times when photography can really help. The windows are not cleaned so there is a layer of dust and grime on them. With bright sunlight above, it is hard to get a good view of the inside. However, a wide angle lens pressed right up against the glass, possibly including a spare hand to cover a particular reflection, means that you get a far clearer view. A little tweaking of the contrast in Lightroom and the interior shots look far better than what you recall seeing.

Consequently, I was able to see a lot more of what was inside some of the buildings when we got home. Whether it was disused beds decaying, ceilings coming apart or the interior of a schoolroom, you could see a lot of what was left behind. Some of the buildings showed a great deal of what had been there before. The dining and pool tables in the hotel, the exercise equipment at the Oddfellows Hall or the shelves in the shop all told a story of a life long gone.