Frank's Cafe

Here are some pictures I took last night at Frank's Cafe on the roof of the multistory carpark in Peckham. Hanging around in a multistory car park at night isn't something I'd usually recommend, however...

The view from up there is great because you can see both West, the City and the Docklands all in one skyline. I was going to take three photos of the different parts of the skyline and then use my Photoshop wizardry to stitch them together into one beautiful panoramic triptych. After a few beers I forgot all about that idea. I did at least get the Docklands shot though...

As the next picture highlights, the drawback of holding an event in a dark carpark is that the whole place ends up being used as a toilet. There were portaloos there but the majority of people opted to find one of the many shadowy alcoves instead. By the end of the night there was a torrent of piss streaming down the ramps.

People were respectful of the installations at least.

Unfortunately, as is so often the case when I drink too much, the night ended on a rather sour note. I'm not referring to stuffing my face with junk food, although that is equally shameful (I'm so disappointed with myself *sob*, I was doing so well at eating healthy recently, and now *sob* it's all gone to shit. I might as well stuff my face for the rest of the week now).

No, the real silly moment came when myself and a friend of mine, Gavin, were leaving and, as is customary between real men, we had a little bit of a Greco Roman wrestling match. Alas, things got a bit heated and Gavin's glasses fell off, I seized the opportunity, picked them up and launched them right over a fence.

I have no idea why.

The thing is, these weren't those black rimmed glasses that hipsters wear to look nerdy, no, these were Gavin's real glasses, he needs them to fucking see.

After I did it we both looked at each other and realized how stupid it was. Well, I say we both looked at each other, not quite accurate, I was looking at Gav, he thought he was looking at me but was actually squinting at a lamp post.

We spent the next 40 minutes trying to find them. I climbed over a barbed wire fence and squeezed myself in a space no more than half a metre wide between the fence and a wall and then proceeded to rummage through rubbish and leaves. As you can probably imagine, we didn't find them, which was unfortunate because it meant I had to lead Gavin home like a Golden Retriever. Luckily he has a spare pair at home.

Strangely, I actually have a picture of the glasses in question. Strange, because it's not something I'd usually take a picture of. Perhaps I subconsciously plotted to do it all along?

Apologies to you once again Gavin. A good night though I think you'd have to agree.

Cliffhangers

Here's a selection of cliffside architecture photographs that I've collected over the years...

Ronda, Spain

Villa Malaparte, Punta Massullo, Isle of Capri, Italy

Vardzia, Georgia

Vacarisses, Barcelona

Tigers Nest, Bhutan

Swallows Nest Castle, Yalta, Ukraine

Predjama Castle, Slovenia

Oia, Santorini, Greece

Meteora, Greece

Lakefield, Ontario, Canada

Manarola, Italy

Kerala, India

Kanagawa, Japan

Gourdon, France

Dover Heights, Sydney Australia

Castellfollit de la Roca, Spain

Casa Iguana, Acapulco, Mexico

Caria, Kaunos, India

Bonifacio, Corsica

Bukit Peninsula, Bali

Al Hajjarah, Yemen

Unknown

Le Corbusier

I came across a box under the stairs the other day. It was full of some of my old toys. I’m glad my Dad didn’t throw them out, this one in particular…

I was going to buy it for my friends who are expecting a baby in the next couple of weeks but this is what it looks like now...

Lame. The term ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ springs to mind.

There’s something that has always appealed to me about that Fisher Price car park/garage. I won’t say that as a toddler I appreciated its architectural design (‘Hmmm, Mother dear women, wouldn’t you say that the supporting columns of this Fisher Price Garage are somewhat reminiscent of the Doric style of Ancient Greece?’) but looking at it now I can genuinely see something of Le Corbusier in it, the pioneer of modern high design...

It makes sense though, Le Corbusier being an urban planner/industrialist architect. You can’t get much more industrial than a car park.

Here are a few more of my favourite Le Corbusier designs...

Although I like the simplicity of Le Corbusier’s buildings I think, like many others before me, that his social housing projects are ‘fundamentally flawed’.

Utopian in theory, dystopian in practise.

Thankfully his ‘Plan Voisin’ was never fully adopted in Paris. ‘In it, he proposed to bulldoze most of central Paris north of the Seine, and replace it with his sixty-story cruciform towers… placed in an orthogonal street grid and park-like green space’

The ‘Plan Voisin’ model was however eventually adopted by many cities post-World War Two (albeit not as drastically as Le Corbusier had in mind), such as council estates all over Britain and housing projects in large American cities. Now most of them are being pulled down and declared ‘uninhabitable’.

Here's the mammoth Heygate Estate in Elephant & Castle which is now all boarded up and ready for demolition...

Jane Jacobs, in her work ‘The Death and Life of Great American Cities’, is critical of Le Corbusier’s urban designing... ‘The public housing projects influenced by his ideas have the effect of isolating poor communities in monolithic high-rises and breaking the social ties integral to a community's development.’

This is the notorious Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago...

Although I think that a lot of the criticism of high-rise housing is justified I expect that a lot of it comes from people who haven't ever even stepped foot inside a block of flats. I sometimes get the impression that it’s not realized or appreciated that there is often a greater sense of community in council housing than in an average suburban street, where people might say hello to their immediate neighbors but may never of even spoken to people who live only a few doors down. I can only speak about my personal experiences in London but I think that lack of community is not necessarily a problem of housing but rather a problem with people, regardless of class or creed.

Anyway, that Fisher Price Car park/garage is too good to throw away. My sister has set aside a little area of the garden to grow herbs in, I’m going to try and convince her to incorporate the garage into it. I think it will look good in a few years time with all the herbs growing in and around it. Like this Le Corbusier building in India…

Doubt she’ll have any of it though.