The 50p Building

In stark contrast to the type of building I blogged about last time, the 50p Building (or to us it's official name 'No.1 Croydon'), is a bold 1970's skyscraper style building at the heart of Croydon. And, despite my love of Victorian, Regency and other traditional and classically beautiful styles of architecture, the 50p Building is one of my favourite landmarks.

I'm probably causing some controversy here, as it has been voted one of Britain's worst architectural eyesores, but thousands of people can be wrong. 

A little history for you: No.1 Croydon (formerly the Noble Lowndes Annuities or NLA Tower) sits right at the centre of Croydon, opposite East Croydon train station. It was designed by R. Seifert & Partners and completed in 1970. It has 24 stories and at 269 feet (82 m) high is Britain's 88th tallest tower. If someone was to convert this into flats, I'd be first in the queue (can you imagine? A lift at the centre, leading to each of the pentagon shaped flats? Genius.) Unfortunately, it is actually office space occupied by AIG (their UK headquarters), Directline Holidays, Pegasus and other companies.

The building was refurbished in 2007 including a cleaning of the exterior to rid the smog caused greyness and reveal a gleaming white. As it gets dark, it takes on a new feel - a multicoloured light display illuminates the building as people make their way home or are going out on the tiles.

And why do I like it so much? Ugly? Well, kinda - but it depends how you look at it. You can imagine this being the sign of the 'up-and coming commuter town', towering over the Borough. A time when a concrete tower was state of the art and an exciting sign of modernity. I love that, as it's nickname suggests, it really does look like a stack of 50p's left by a giant. It's a unique design, love it or hate it. I like seeing it on the horizon as I commute back from work, so I know I'm nearly home.

Whilst I do love the Gherkin, Battersea Power Station, and of course, the Eye, I'm happy for those to be everyone's favourites of landmarks of London, whilst the 50p building, is just one of mine.

(many thanks to the Wikipedia entry that educated me so much about this great building)

Welcome to Redcot

I have just returned from a weekend away with my girlfriends in Ramsgate. Yes, it was a random choice for a weekend away, but our location was dictated by the properties we could find (somewhere big enough for 10 of us), so we ended up in the seaside town on the Kent coast. And I'm glad for it too, as we had an amazing time in a place none of us had been to before, and best of all, we stayed in the most beautiful house named 'Redcot'.

Redcot is the house of my dreams; a Victorian red-brick detached house with 5 double bedrooms, two reception rooms, a conservatory and garden (where we had breakfast). It has amazing features - fireplaces in every room, an original monochrome tiled floor in the entrance hall, stained glass in the sash windows...I could go on....

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Me and the girls have decided that hiring a house for a weekend away is the way forward - especially if it's as gorgeous as Redcot. Seriously considering going back there for a winter break....just imagine lighting logs in those fireplaces! The nightlife in Ramsgate was a whole different story; stag parties attempting Michael Jackson moves? Middle aged couples licking each other's faces off? Maybe we'll just get some wine and stay in next time....

All the tools, but not a clue...yet

My clothes making course has now started and I'm really enjoying it. Having a sewing machine and all other bits and bobs for making clothes is all well and good, but seeing as though I haven't followed a sewing pattern since school (which is, shockingly, 12 years ago now...), I am definitely ripe for a few lessons to get me started.

Our first class was a good introduction and reminder of a lot of things I'd forgotten. It's a mixed ability class and there are 13 of us on the course this semester. The group is a good mix of ages and stages of ability and everyone is keen to get advice from our amazing teacher Sue who's been teaching since the sixties, and entertains us with her tales of the art scene in South London in the '60's (teaching David Bowie, working with Malcolm McLaren, hanging out with the Small Faces and The Who.....)

After the first class I was really excited, and armed with our list of essentials, went to the huge Wimbledon Sewing Machine centre to get my fabric and a pattern. I'd been a bit disheartened by some of the patterns I'd seen (why are they so crap?), but found these which I'm very excited about:

I bought two patterns by Cynthia Rowley at Simplicity; one that I would love to make (the dress on the right), and one I think I have a hope in hell of making (the tunic on the left), and I think it will look great in this lovely leopard print fabric:

So, I'll keep you posted with how I get one- hopefully I'll get a picture of me in the tunic on the blog soon...