Summer in the City: Gherkin and Churchin'

It's been a while since I've posted any of my photos up here, hasn't it? That's a problem I can solve very simply, by starting a new occasional photo series. (Yes, occasional as in "may vanish without trace", I'm afraid. This isn't the return of Picture of the Week, and won't be unless you really want to see a slightly different photo of the inside of an office every Sunday.)

The series is called "Summer in the City", and as the name suggests, it'll be about London. The reason is that, as I mentioned a couple of posts ago, I'm new to this city, so it makes sense that as I discover new bits of it, so can you. The "summer" bit is so that it doesn't go on too long and bore you all senseless. (You can just imagine it..."look, here's what Tower Bridge looks like in October!")


The first photo in the series is one that I took last Monday. I very much doubt that I need to tell you the name of this building, but just in case you're completely unfamiliar with London, that's the Gherkin on the left. It's the 6th tallest building in London and the second tallest in the financial district (or "The City", as it's somewhat arrogantly called), and I think it's incredibly beautiful. Weird, certainly, but as a piece of engineering and as an icon it's pretty much without parallel, at least inside London.

Particularly poignant about this building is that it's on the site of the Baltic Exchange building, a Grade-II listed piece of architecture that was damaged beyond repair in a bomb attack by the Provisional IRA in 1992. Just to its right in the photo is the church of St Andrew Undershaft, a 500-year old construction that has survived Puritan rioting, the World War II bombings, and yes, the 1992 Provisional IRA bomb. Both buildings are extremely attractive in their own way, and their history suggests facing down destruction and violence in different ways – the church has pushed through and survives, battered but still standing, while the Gherkin has risen from almost complete destruction to something tall, glittering and innovative.

Oh, and they both look awesome at dusk.