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)

I love U's

I think this collection makes up for the fact that, as a child, I'd always be disappointed that I couldn't buy those really tacky 'personalised' name stationary that you'd always find in gift shops and the like. There was always a 'Sarah' pencil case or a 'Rebecca' ruler. There was no 'Ugochi' anything. Unsurprisngly....So I've started collecting the letter 'U'. I didn't realise I had started doing this until The Boy pointed out that I had several scattered around my flat.

I have letter press blocks (found going for a song in Snoopers Paradise, an amazing treasure trove of vintage, collectables and antiques in Brighton)

A letter from an old shop sign from eBay (another bargain - I like to think because no-one else likes 'U's)

And my latest buy is a wooden letter that can be painted and decorated as I so wish (from the lovely Supernice shop on Columbia Road, London).

I don't know anything about typography, I just know I like it. And maybe I should learn some more about it, as I apparently have another obsession in the making.

There's an old office building on my way to work that looks like it has lay empty for years, but I noticed this week that builders are on the site and  some rennovations are taking place...surely they wont want the old 80's signeage currently languishing on the front...?! I think I may have to have words with them - there's a letter U there with my name on it....

P.S - I once told a stationery supplier for the company I worked for of my childhood plight - and they did this for me

Nice!