Tag: Photography

Buildings of King’s Lynn

Some of King’s Lynn’s most prominent buildings.

INTRODUCTION

This post was inspired by a comment posted on my ‘about aspiblog’ page by faradayscandle. I will be returning to this theme in future posts.

A SELECTION OF BUILDINGS

We will start with the most iconic building in King’s Lynn…

THE CUSTOM HOUSE

For more about the inside of the building visit this post. Here are two outside pictures both taken recently (the second of them today)…

KING’S LYNN MINSTER

This 12th century church, formlery known as St Margarets, has its own website where you can find out lots of information about it. Here a couple of pictures…

The frontage of this colossal edifice.
A closeup of the tide clock

THE OLD GAOL HOUSE

Still on the Saturday Market Place, this handsome building possesses one very interesting external feature. The building is currently closed, but will reopen as Stories of Lynn around Easter time. Meantime, here are two external pictures…

An interesting outdoor timepiece.

THE GUILDHALL

This remarkable building, right next door to the Old Gaol House, is chiefly known for its checkerboard frontage, but as this post shows, the inside is not too shabby either! Here are some pictures of the outside…

The remainder of the buildings will feature only single pictures. Having finished with the Saturday Market Place, we head towards the Tuesday Market Place, by way of King Street where we feature the Arts Centre…

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Frequently when featuring the Tuesday Market Place the Corn Exchange dominates, but I am featuring just one building, The Dukes Head Hotel, home to Philanthropic Lodge 107. Of greater significance at the moment, this building will be hosting a Positive Autism Awareness Conference, organised by NAS West Norfolk. Here is the outside of the building…

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ST ANN’S STREET

I am saving St Nicholas’ Chapel for another post, so I offer you St Ann’s House and the upstairs of the barber shop…

Our next brief port of call is…

THE RED MOUNT CHAPEL

This chapel, which is entirely surrounded by beautiful parkland always repays attention. here is a recent picture…

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From here we head down the Broad Walk to…

THE LIBRARY

This is the only building in this part of the post of which I am posting more than one image, and both were taken recently. This is one of three libraries that I use on a regular basis, the others being Fakenham and The Millennium Library, Norwich.

The whole building
The frontage

HILLINGTON SQUARE

On our way down to the river, where we will finish, we pass Hillington Square, where improvement work has stopped since the £10 million that was allowed for this project has all been spent. Here is a glimpse of one of the new blocks…

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SOMERFELD AND THOMAS

A disused warehouse, in need of renovation. The building is still fundamentally very attractive, and could be turned into something very good.

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Before heading towards Lower Purfleet and the end of this post, a little look upriver to…

PALM PAPER

The direction in which the smoke is travelling in this picture (straight towards town) provides one reason as to why we objected to the building of an incinerator there. What we knew of the company who would have built it had we not put a stop to the idea was all bad (no contracts for anything in their native land since 1995, banned outright from operating in 29 of the 5o states of that native land). Also, incinerators are not a good idea anyway (I, and I suspect a majority of the 65,000 of us who said no, did not think it should be built anywhere). The fact that we prevented this should provide encouragement to others faced with greedy politicians trying to force hare-brained schemes on them (see here for a classic example).

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MARRIOTT’S WAREHOUSE

A warehouse that has been given the necessary attention. As well as good cafe and restaurant this building houses a small exhibition of models of King’s Lynn buildings. From the outside this is what you see…

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THE BANK HOUSE

This hotel his some interesting stuff inside it, and from the outside looks like this:

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THE LOWER PURFLEET

We finish the post with a glimpse across the Lower Purfleet from The Bank House, where these buildings can be seen (a stone’s throw away is the Custom House where we started).

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ANTIQUES ROAD TRIP: BRAXTON VS ROSS

A brief account of yesterday;s episode of Antiques Road Trip, which featured both my home town and my employer. Also some photographs and some links.

INTRODUCTION

Although I do have a few other things to share this post is mainly concerned with yesterday’s episode of Antiques Road Trip, which happened to feature an auction at Fakenham Racecourse (which took place on April 29th 2015).

ANTIQUES ROAD TRIP

Here is a link to last night’s episode:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b07027st/antiques-road-trip-series-12-episode-21

For those who watch, I am the person in the red jacket sitting next to the auctioneer.

This was the start of a new week, so we were introduced to the two experts and shown the car that they would be using first. Then the buying part of the episode happened, which features some excellent footage of King’s Lynn among other places.

The episode concluded, as they all do, with the auction. While I do not know much about what happened to these items after the auction I can tell you that following a couple of other unsuccessful outings the baker’s scales are still on the James and Sons van.

The program was well made, and even though I of course already knew which items were destined to be bought for sale at that auction, nevertheless it held my attention all the way through.

A PICTORIAL INTERLUDE

I mentioned that there was some good footage from King’s Lynn on yesterday’s episode of Antiques Road Trip, and here some photos from King’s Lynn…

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St Nicholas Chapel, taken in August
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The Corn Exchange, also from August
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The Custom House, from August
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Taken yesterday
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Taken yesterday
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Taken yesterday
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One of three images of the flag flying above King’s Lynn station, all taken yesterday
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The Red Mount Chapel, taken yesterday

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Taken yesterday
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Taken yesterday
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It is not often that a poll produces this result! – the story was about a Tory lord who was claiming that their daily allowance was insufficient!
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The front of the Duke’s Head Hotel where the Positive Autism Awareness Conference will be happening on April 15th.

WWW.LONDONTU.BE

I conclude this post by sharing a few recent posts connected with my London transport themed website:

The Lost Property Office

Tube Strike over job cuts and ticket office closures – Vox Political

Tube strike over job cuts and ticket office closures – Guardian

My most recent original post – Chingford and Loughton

THE AUSTRALIAN OPEN PENULTIMATE DAY

An account of the penultimate day at the Australian Open accompanied by some pictures and some links.

INTRODUCTION

As well as my thoughts on the Australian Open I have some links and pictures to share. 

THE AUSTRALIAN OPEN

There is one day remaining of the Australian Open. Tomorrow morning our time Andrew Murray takes to the court to play Novak Djokovic in the final of the men’s singles. If he wins, it will be the first time in the open era that a pair of brothers have won the singles and doubles titles at the same grand slam event, since today’s amazing action concluded with Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares beating the uber-veterans (combined aged 80) Daniel Nestor and Radek Stepanek to claim the men’s doubles. Gordon Reid having already won the wheelchair singles finally ran out of steam in the closing stages of a very long wheelchair doubles final.

However, the main event of the day was the women’s singles final. Serena Williams started as a red hot favourite against Angeliqe Kerber of Germany who had ended the run of Johanna Konta in the semi-finals (in reaching that stage of the tournament Konta had done enough to guarantee that she will be seeded at the French Open, as it took her ranking into the top 30 and she will be playing tournaments that she was not in last year between now and Roland Garros).

However, in the event, Angelique Kerber did the highly improbable and beat Serena Williams in three sets. This was a truly superb match (I heard every shot of it on five live sports extra) and I end this section by stating something in bold capitals:
ANGELIQUE KERBER WON THIS MATCH – SERENA DID NOT LOSE IT

PICTURES FROM AROUND KINGS LYNN

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The front of the Duke’s Head Hotel where the Positive Autism Awareness Conference will be happening on April 15th.
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The rear of the Duke’s Head
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St Anne’s House
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Below this Tudor frontage is a hairdressers.

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LINKS

To open this section I mention a new find, dreambigdreamoften to whom I was introduced by Anna. My second encounter with DBDO came courtesy of Maria who signposted me towards this Meet and Greet post.

I also wish to share this from Ambitious About Autism.

My other links all relate to my London transport themed website, www.londontu.be:

Map

 

AUCTION AT THE MAIDS HEAD HOTEL

An account of Wednesday’s auction at the Maids Head Hotel, Norwich, with a few other bits and bobs, including another mention of the Positive Autism Awareness Conference.

INTRODUCTION

Although mainly concerned with the James and Sons auction that took place the day before yesterday, this post will also mention a few other things at the end.

THE AUCTION

This section divides into several subsections, starting with…

GETTING THERE

Given the early hour at which it was necessary for me to be at the venue and the fact that I was not returning straight to King’s Lynn but was instead going to my parents because we were going to a bridge evening at the Jolly Sailors I decided to aim to be on the 5:55AM X1 bus to Norwich, with the more circuitous X8/X29 route, the first of which departs at 6:10AM as back up.

I achieved my intended aim of being on the 5:55AM bus and this bus not only departed on time, it benefited from a clear run along the A47 to arrive at Norwich bus station precisely when it was supposed to. I then walked down to the Maids Head, picking up a few photos along the way as I was in plenty of time…

This map ios located near the Surrey Street entrance to Norwich Bus Station
This light show adorns the Castle Mall shopping centre
The Maids Head has a very old name sign worked into the building itself

THE SETUP

All the stuff for the auction had to unloaded from the van and set up in the room we were using (the Erpingham room) at The Maids Head, and a few things had to be moved around for the room to properly organised for our purposes. That and a few technical hitches notwithstanding (mere trifles such as initially having no internet connection!) all was ready by 9AM when the first viewers started to arrive.

THE AUCTION ITSELF

The auction started quietly, with only a few people present at the venue and no one bidding online on the early lots, but the internet bidding started at just after lot 100, and was very lively at certain points – lot 204 with an estimate of £50-60 went for £260, lots 283 and 286 both went for substantially above estimate, and a sequence of sets of penny reds with Great Western Railway perfins saw some spirited bidding involving a room and an internet bidder, with half a dozen lots estimated at 10-15 actually getting three figures a piece.

These are some of the penny reds which caused such excitement.

Lots 597 and 737 both sold very cheap to yours truly (even with buyers premium there was change from £15 for the two lots put together). Here they are…

Lot 737 – a nice piece of railwayana
Lot 597 – an added personal factor – Stroud happens to be my birthplace.

In connection with these pieces of railwayana, a quick reminder of my London transport themed website, www.londontu.be.

THE CLEAR UP

The last lot went under the hammer not very long after 2PM, after which everything that had not gone to people in the room had to be loaded back on to the van. Then my colleague Andrew and I travelled back to Fakenham in the van. My initial plan had been to get the 17:38 bus on from Fakenham to East Rudham, but because we were ahead of schedule, but not sufficiently so for there to be a likelihood of me catching the 15:38, and because the weather showed its teeth when we just east of Fakenham, Andrew very kindly gave me a lift to East Rudham. I worked out that I had handled some of these lots seven separate times (carrying them to my imaging area, carrying them to the storage area, carrying them down to the shop for viewing, carrying them the shop to the van, carrying them from the van to auction venue, carrying them from the auction venue to the van and finally carrying them from the van back to the shop).

POST AUCTION

My early arrival at East Rudham proved useful – my parents had unearthed some silver spoons which needed to photographed with a view to selling them. I have two picture galleries in this connection, both created from the same set of originals – the first using Microsoft’s own image editing software, and the second, which I unveil for the first time, using my own image editing software, which was designed specifically for use with Nikon Coolpix cameras…

This is the set of images created using Microsoft software…

This was the result when I edited the same photos using my own software.

The bridge went well after a poor start – I emerged plus 13 on the evening (65p at Jolly Sailors stakes).

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY/ CALENDAR

Monday 1st February: James and Sons feature on Antiques Road Trip – episode on air on BBC1 at 4:30PM (should be available on i-player by 6PM) – I am the guy in the red jacket sat next to the auctioneer.

Wednesday 24th February: James and Sons auction at Fakenham Racecourse, starts at 10AM. This auction features a wide variety of lots, beginning with bonds, passing through banknotes, coins, stuff from HMS Britannia, Ephemera and Militaria before finishing with Stamps.

Friday 15th April: Positive Autism Awareness Conference, the Dukes Head Hotel, King’s Lynn – for more information check out the following links:

Yesterday’s blog post dedicated to this event

West Norfolk NAS’s facebook page

The Facebook event listing

West Norfolk NAS’s website

 

CALLING ALL LONDONERS

I have shared some of London mayoral candidate Sian Berry’s transport related ideas on www.londontu.be:

London City Airport

Fair Fares

This is the official Fair Fares piece

Having provided these excellent suggestions Sian has turned her attention to London’s sky high rents, with this proposal for a London Renter’s Union

If you are eligible to vote in this election I urge you to vote for Sian Berry.

 

A Tough Day at Work

An account of today at work, and some images from this week.

INTRODUCTION

Although the text element of this post is about today specifically, the images I include come from several different days. Also, although the text refers to two auctions, the one coming up this Wednesday, a full catalogue for which can be viewed here, the images all relate to the February auction, which is nearly all done. 

AN EXHAUSTING DAY

Because Wednesday’s auction is at the Maids Head Hotel in Norwich, and we cannot have viewing days there it was necessary to lay entire auction out for viewing in the shop. There being exactly one person physically capable of doing so in attendance it was straightforward to establish whose task this would be.

This process required setting up a table at the back of the job (a couple of minutes), transferring the stock from where it was being stored (approximately an hour and a quarter all told) and then checking off each item to make sure all was present and correct (another hour and a half even at my work rate).

This task accomplished, and sandwiches consumed, it was time to get back to imaging items that will be going under the hammer on February 24th. This is a much more varied auction than this coming Wednesday’s specialised affair, featuring a full range of items, some of which I now display…

The above gallery shows the first 28 lots of the auction. My second gallery shows items from elsewhere in the auction…

 

TWO TRIUMPHS

Accounts of England’s triumph in South Africa and of a local fund-raising triumph for NAS West Norfolk.

INTRODUCTION

My title refers to one great sporting triumph and one fabulous fund-raising triumph, which I shall cover in that order.

SOUTH AFRICA SUCCUMB TO
STUART’S BRUTAL BROAD-SIDE

An extraordinary Test match at the Bull Ring in Johannesburg ended on the third day. South Africa batted first and reached 313 without anyone managing a half century. England gained a lead of 10 largely due to the batting of three people, Root (110), Stokes (58) and Bairstow (45). South Africa had a tiny bit of batting before lunch which they achieved without loss, before things started to happen immediately thereafter. Stuart Broad settled the match, the series and the destination of the Player of the Match award in 10 overs which brought him 6-17 (I heard the commentary on the first five, but had to leave with South Africa score 67-8, and by the time I was back from my engagement, the last two South African wickets had fallen and England had knocked off their victory target for the loss of three wickets).

FABULOUS FUNDRAISING SUCCESS
AT COSTA COFFEE (HARDWICK)

Molly, a barista at the Hardwick branch of Costa Coffee who has an autistic brother and whose mother is a former chair of NAS West Norfolk decided to do some fundraising on our behalf. She managed to raise £335.20 in cash which Costa will be matching with a direct payment into the NAS West Norfolk bank account, meaning that in total the organisation benefits to the tune of £670.40 from her endeavours.

We had arranged a presentation and photo-shoot at Costa Hardwick at 2:30PM today (not being clairvoyant I had not realized when I agreed to the arrangement that it would mean missing England sealing their series victory over South Africa).

Of course, it was not only at Costa itself that I got some photos…

The railway line viewed from Hardwick Bridge – this would be a suitable location for new station to serve the Hardwick Industrial Estate.
The solar system in mosaic form.

Now for the fundraising pictures…

Costa - Social Media Size
For reference NAS West Norfolk chair Karan McKerrow is the one in the middle, Molly the fundraiser is to her left as you look and the store manager is on the other side.

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A GREAT START TO THE NEW YEAR AT NAS WEST NORFOLK

An account of a talk given by Georgina Sait of Contact a Family to NAS West Norfolk at the scout hut on Beulah Street.

INTRODUCTION

I attended my first NAS West Norfolk event of 2016 today, a talk given by Georgina Sait of Contact a Family, a charity which exists specifically to help families with disabled children. As so often with NAS West Norfolk meetings the venue was the scout hut on Beulah Street.

GETTING THERE

Refusing to be daunted by a day so foul it simply did not appear ever to get light I walked, up to the Tuesday Market Place, out to the town end of Bawsey Drain, along to Lynn Sport and thence round to the scout hut, picking up a few pictures along the way…

THE MEETING ITSELF

The talk was done as a slide show, and the slides were very well produced, containing enough information to enable one to follow the talk but not so much as to cause sensory overload (I have seen many talks accompanied by slide shows but few where the slide show element meets with my unqualified approval). I will provide pictures of some of the slides, and also a few important bits of paperwork…

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The title slide.
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Possibly the single most important slide of the show.

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A lot of the slides about specific benefits were colour coded like this to differentiate between fact and myth.

There were a couple of important print outs as well…

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Georgina herself.

MORE ABOUT CONTACT A FAMILY

I have contact details, including a picture, and also a location map showing where their London HQ is.

CONTACT DETAILS

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Contact Details page.
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Location map.

CATALOGUE FRONT COVER IMAGE

An account of the creation of the front cover image for James and Sons February auction catalogue, complete with images, and som,e bonus pictures of very old coins.

INTRODUCTION

The most important thing I did at work today was create an image for use on the front cover of the catalogue for James and Sons general sale on February 24th (we having a First Day Covers sale tomorrow, and a Postal History/ Stamps sale on January 27th as well).

DECIDING ON THE IMAGE

My employer wanted a collection of weapons (museum pieces just to be clear) to feature on the cover, so the plan was to take one image of the whole collection if this could be managed. Thus, to prepare for taking the image, I cleared a table in the shop downstairs on which the items could be posed, reversed the display cloth on said table so that the plain side rather than the red provided a background that could not interfere with the image and set the items out. The lot numbers were 535 through 546, so I posed numbers 536-544 vertically, numbers 545-46 horizontally next to them and lot 535 horizontally either beneath or above the rest of the display depending on which angle one prefers (I have three complete images). Finally, to get sufficient elevation to get everything in a single shot I had position a chair adjacent to the centre of the table so that I could stand on it to take the picture.

THE IMAGES

I emerged with three complete pictures, a close up of lot 535 (which I subsequently augmented with an even closer shot of the maker’s name), a shot of the other bladed weapons and a shot of lots 545 and 546…

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With the sword at the bottom
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With the sword at the top
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One more for luck.

Bayonets (536-544 inclusive)545-6

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The image of lot 535 extracted from the composite image
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535 imaged on its own
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The Makers Mark.

BONUS PICTURES

Of course I have done a lot of other imaging for this auction as well, and the items that particularly took my fancy were these very old coins (lots 101-14 inclusive), which I imaged a few days ago with the aid of the scanner…

110 cropped but not edited
110 over-edited
110 sharpened but not edited.
114 cropped but unedited
114 over-edited
114 sharpened but not otherwise edited.

A MIXED BAG

Some social housing related links, pointers to some stuff on http://www.londontu.be and a couple of extra pictures.

INTRODUCTION

This post has two main strands, pointing you in the direction of items on my website, www.londontu.be and also sharing links to some excellent articles on social housing in the wake of Cameron’s announcement regarding “sink estates” this weekend.

SOCIAL HOUSING ARTICLES

The social housing situation in West Norfolk, where I have lived since December 2005, is such that I was unable to find social housing for myself, and was only ultimately able to move into a place of my own by renting privately. Thus, my first concern with the Cameron plan as announced is that we have not been told what effect it will have on the overall availability of social housing (though we can all guess, given the Tory record on this issue, and Mr Cameron’s steadfast refusal to give a straight answer when questioned). The second and more serious concern is the laughable inadequacy of the £140 million figure quoted by Cameron if the intention was actually to improve the situation, rather than opening up another front in the Tories ongoing war on social housing. A housing estate a stone’s throw from my own flat in King’s Lynn has recently seen a redevelopment project stutter to a halt because £10 million proved insufficient for the purpose. More detail on the Hillington Square project is available on their official website.

That is enough of me on social housing, now for some links:

SOME HIGHLIGHTS FROM WWW.LONDONTU.BE

The Natural History Museum at South Kensington has a new exhibition coming up which is featured in this youtube clip, which I pressed on to my own website earlier today.

Also, nicely combining public transport and responsible shopping practices, here is a post about my latest London Underground themed purchase.

Finally, I have made use of the fact that the Dafabet Masters, one of Snooker’s triple crown (along with the UK and World championships), is now under way at Alexandra Palace by putting up an appropriate post.

Alexandra Palace

This picture came via google: https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-rVSI8L_R9pw/AAAAAAAAAAI/AAAAAAAAAOQ/iOf_mQ2ABr8/s0-c-k-no-ns/photo.jpg

A COUPLE OF PHOTOS TO FINISH

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A Patum Peperium lid with a classic picture.
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A Caspian Gull (?) in central King’s Lynn.

 

New Glasses and Other Stuff

The story of a failed pair of spectacles, plus a few other bits.

INTRODUCTION

This post covers the new glasses in the title, a day at the races and a new badge.

THE GLASSES

This is a story that spans some months. First one arm came off the frame (and as the picture at the end of this section will show, refixing it properly was an impossibility). Then the second arm detached itself in the same way. I visited the Eye Man, an independent optician in Fakenham, to see what he could do, and as a proper repair job was impossible he did a band-aid job for which he did not charge.

That band-aid job then ceased to function properly, so eight days ago I obtained my prescription from Specsavers and took it to the Eye Man to have a new pair made. The Eye Man had an unexpected delay receiving a delivery, so it was only yesterday that I was able to pick up the new glasses, which by the way are a great success. In the mean time, the old frame developed one final problem at the tail-end of its working life – the frame had slightly warped, so that the left lens was no longer tightly held – and fell out several times.

I conclude this section with a picture of the defunct pair of glasses…

Specsavers

A DAY AT THE RACES

New Year’s Day was a race-day at Fakenham. I was staying at East Rudham, there being no buses, and attended along with several other family members. My mother had two huge wins, which between them left her some £200 in credit for the day (even though she paid for day memberships for all five of us), and all of us save one had a win somewhere along the way. I have some pictures from the day…

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The Prince of Wales Suite (rather more crowded than for a James & Sons auction) and Tote tower.
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A packed house in the grandstand (we were watching from the other side of the course, having crossed early to save a bit of time getting out)
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Fakenham church tower in the distance.

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That evening my nephew set off some sparklers in the courtyard…

THE BADGE

Yesterday was my first day at work in 2016, and a colleague gave me an old badge (I had earlier given him one of my calendars) which he had got hold of. As a public transport user and proud supporter of Bring Back British Rail I was delighted with this…

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