This week my sister is off doing her work experience at The British Museum and I've got the week off work to keep her company.
While she's off cataloging, I've tasked myself with having a whirlwind museum/gallery tour as well as taking in some of the typographic delights that London has to offer. I will point out now that I had originally started putting this post together in August (the last time we visited the city) but I never got around to actually writing about it. So just in case anyone is wondering why the weather looks bizarrely wonderful for December, I'll be including some photos from last time of things that I found to be inspiring and generally rather interesting.
First on my list for the type safari is the beautiful ironwork on the entry to the British Library. I never got a particularly decent photograph back in August, mainly because I wanted to cram in so much into the three short days we were around that I didn't plan for going back and taking another shot...
Designed by the British stonecutter and typeface designer David Kindersley, I love the way the type goes from light to ultra heavy (top to bottom) forming a pattern that echoes traditional iron gates, and the way that light falls through the each letterform and the spaces between them. I'm also reliably informed by a member of staff at the library that the font starring in the ironwork gate is Octavian, which Kindersley worked on in 1961 for Monotype. To me it looks like a slight variation though because the serifs are a bit stubby, but this may be to do with it being translated into use at such a large scale. Come to think of it the sharp serifs would be a health and safety nightmare in such a public space!
Next up is a trek over to Blackfriars for a visit to the Blackfriar pub and its gorgeous tiled signage (and maybe a cheeky pint or two).
Built in about 1875, The Black Friar was remodelled in server all stages starting in 1903, then 1914 and 1925 by the architect Herbert Fuller-Clark, the exterior jade-green tiling and contrasting gold lettering clearly reflects the Arts and Crafts movement of the early 1900s. Much of the internal decoration was done by the artist Henry Poole, featuring sculptures and relief work relating to the history of the friary that once stood in its place.
And for the final part of day one, which turned out to be a bit of a shit day weather-wise, a short walk over to Southbank for the OXO Tower:
Originally constructed as a power station to supply electricity to the Royal Mail post office, it was built towards the end of the 19th century roughly, and was later acquired by the Liebig Extract of Meat Company in the 1920s, they are the manufacturers of Oxo beef stock cubes, for conversion into a cold store.
The building was largely rebuilt to an Art Deco design by company architect Albert Moore between 1928 and 1929. Much of the original power station was demolished, but the river facing facade was retained and extended. Liebig wanted to include a tower featuring illuminated signs advertising the name of their product. When permission for the advertisements was refused, the tower was built with four sets of three vertically-aligned windows, each of which just so happened to be in the shapes of a circle, a cross and a circle. This was very significant because Skyline advertising at the time was banned along Southbank. Despite these windows being the building’s architectural focal point, the tower is sadly not accessible by the general public. Granted access is only given to those who maintain the tower, like electricians.
*I realise I'm hideously late posting these, but life has gotten in the way a little bit...