Rowley Gallery Blog
Christopher Corr painted this picture to celebrate the opening of the Shard, London’s newest, tallest building. For the past few years we’ve watched it grow from viewpoints all around the city. The inexorable rise of this arrogant and aggressive spike was impossible to ignore. Now it’s here it has quickly become another iconic landmark on the London skyline. A spire with a view – click to ascend and there’s a great view of it from the river here.
After seeing the final episode of Waldemar Januszczak’s Baroque!-From St Peter’s to St Paul’s, in which he singled out the Queen’s House as possibly the most important little building in the whole of British architecture, we felt inspired to visit this previously overlooked prime site. Continue reading “The Queen’s House”
The William Morris Gallery is at Water House in Lloyd Park, Forest Road, Walthamstow. William Morris was fourteen when his family moved here in 1848. They had downsized from Woodford Hall where William’s playground had been Epping Forest. At Water House he played in the grounds, particularly the moated island where he imagined there be dragons. Continue reading “William Morris Gallery”
In February 1990, I took a plane from the beautiful and vibrant crazy beach city of Rio de Janeiro via Sao Paulo to the futuristic capital city Brasilia. Located in the savannah, centrally placed in the country, the shape of the new city is designed to look like an aeroplane. It was laid out by Lucio Costa, the father of modern Brazilian architecture who in turn chose Oscar Niemeyer to realise the poetry and optimism of the new Brazil. Continue reading “For Oscar Niemeyer”
Whilst I was admiring the walls of Toledo, Dominic was getting up close and personal with the walls of Battersea Power Station, and encouraging lots of donations for the Stroke Association. Continue reading “A Wall In Battersea”
Lottie said, ‘I don’t know why you’re wasting your time photographing autumn leaves, the story of Toledo is in its walls’. So, never one to ignore an idea for a blog post, and because there are few trees in Toledo, I began collecting images of the casco murallas. Continue reading “The Walls Of Toledo”
I love this picture. It reminds me of a ‘fayr feeld ful of folk’ from Piers Plowman. Christopher Corr made it for a client from London now living in Washington. The brief was to paint the view from Parliament Hill with all London’s landmark buildings plus Gospel Oak lido and running track. He cleverly reversed the viewpoint so we’re looking back down on this earthly paradise. Click on the image to enlarge it and explore it in detail. The painting measures 106 x 74 cms. Continue reading “Corr Blimey!”
This is Claes Visscher’s Panorama of London in 1616. Click on the image to enlarge. It is a rare hand-coloured Victorian facsimile of the original engraving and is over two metres long. It is shown here courtesy of Peter Harrington Rare Books. I discovered it via Peter Berthoud.
Christopher Corr painted this picture for Dominic. Unfortunately whenever he looks at it Dominic feels sick. Hopefully he’ll get over it, or at least down the side of it. He is planning to throw himself off the top of it on Sunday. Please offer your support and words of encouragement here.
They seem to be mostly larch. This intricate timber frame construction is made from 17 cubic metres of larch. It stands on a traffic island by St Botolph’s church at the start of the A11, the road from London to Norwich, and it marks the place where the Aldgate once stood. Continue reading “The Trees Of Aldgate”