Castle Aching

[Joseph_Pestell]

8 hours ago, runs as required said:

This was exactly the reason for the York Seminar.

Our speaker: the chief planner for Paris, had just completed the masterplan for La Defense (as one of Pres. Mitterand’s ? Grands Projets). 

High rise was the controversial big question of the early 1980s and how it would impact on big European cities. Here planners were in favour of low rise/high density e.g. Alexandria Road terraced housing alongside the line out of Euston.

Paris, after erecting the Montparnasse slab, had given its thumbs down to further building high over rail terminals in central Paris.  So La Defense was conceived as extending the Grand Axis across the Seine to a spectacular Financial skyscraper cluster viewed against the sunset on the old Oak Common railyards . The La Defense monument itself is maybe a cliché concrete picture frame you look through within which a swing is suspended – because markets swing up & down (Geddit?).

 

London pursued a rather weaker policy of concentrating serious high rise in Docklands and (apart from the 1960s high rises at Centrepoint and the rail termini) tried to protect key views of St Pauls from high spots like Sydenham, Richmond Park and Hampstead.

During Johnson’s Mayorship high-rise competition was encouraged to let rip between the City, Docklands, and wherever Developers sensed ‘a rabbit could run away’.

 

Of course the Americans meanwhile have been plugging “New Urbanism”: (conceptually a revival of Edwardian boulevard) building along railtracks. Hence we currently have the Oxbridge railine being developed as a spine of free market development. We may expect a lot more of this - especially along Northern intercity desire lines ...

dh

PS

Despite using the words Edwardian, Euston and rail tracks I hereby apologise for this being the most boring post on James's CA thread,  

 

La Defense was conceived well before Mitterand came to power. Probably the fault of Pompidou.

[Edwardian]

5 hours ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

 

La Defense was conceived well before Mitterand came to power. Probably the fault of Pompidou.

 

So, already a pipeline project?

 

[runs as required]

6 hours ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

La Defense was conceived well before Mitterand came to power. Probably the fault of Pompidou.

Possibly true in terms of deciding upon the re-use of the railway land and the general radiating layout. I've just googled Paris Grands Projets and got this which refers to the competition for the actual monument

The Wiki page includes this image - which looks to be taken from the top of the Arc de Triomphe 

We must have been messing about trying to decide what to do with Docklands throughout the late1970s until Heseltine came up with Enterprise zones in the early 1980s and Canada Wharf tower got going .

 

The daftest of all the Grands Projets was the new National library - an upturned table of a building with the bookstacks frying in 4 vast glass towers. Our re-use of the St Pancras Somers Town Goods depot site for the British Library  was so much 'cooler'.

dh

 

 

Edited November 10, 2019 by runs as required
fat fingered typos

[Joseph_Pestell]

1 hour ago, runs as required said:

 

The daftest of all the Grands Projets was the new National library - an upturned table of a building with the bookstacks frying in 4 vast glass towers.

 

 

 

The Library was Mitterand.

[Martin S-C]

Just in case anyone planned to start any long books, do not bother, the world will come to a horrible end (or at least Woking, Byfleet, Chobham and other parts of the stockbroker belt will) shortly after 9:00pm on Sunday 17th November.

https://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2019-11-08/the-war-of-the-worlds-spoiler-free-preview-a-solid-and-interesting-adaptation/

[brianusa]

7 minutes ago, Martin S-C said:

Just in case anyone planned to start any long books, do not bother, the world will come to a horrible end (or at least Woking, Byfleet, Chobham and other parts of the stockbroker belt will) shortly after 9:00pm on Sunday 17th November.

https://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2019-11-08/the-war-of-the-worlds-spoiler-free-preview-a-solid-and-interesting-adaptation/

 

That should solve a few problems then!

The only version of this tale that made a lasting impression upon me was the BBC radio broadcast of years ago which used Mars from Holst's Planets suite.  Scary stuff which beat out all the later TV and movie versions, CGI and all!

      Brian.

[Skinnylinny]

56 minutes ago, Martin S-C said:

Just in case anyone planned to start any long books, do not bother, the world will come to a horrible end (or at least Woking, Byfleet, Chobham and other parts of the stockbroker belt will) shortly after 9:00pm on Sunday 17th November.

https://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2019-11-08/the-war-of-the-worlds-spoiler-free-preview-a-solid-and-interesting-adaptation/

 

I say, that's awfully close to Linton - barely five miles from Linton to Maybury... Maybe I'd better have a battered tripod painted on the backscene. After all, 1900 (the start of when Linton's to be set) is just after the last years of the nineteenth century...

Edited November 10, 2019 by Skinnylinny

[Regularity]

I saw a trailer. I must say that Horsell Common was somewhat hillier, verging on mountainous, than 20 years ago when I lived and worked in the area...

 

Must have been the result of all that new-town type planning they did around Woking in the 70s...

[sem34090]

So, do we reckon the railway bits (if there are any? Surely there must be some - there are enough in the novel!) will be up to much or will it be a case of a BR Standard on a MK1 set trying to play at being pre-grouping?  

 

That said... without resorting to CGI they'd be hard pushed to find real vehicles enough to make complete trains of LSWR, SER, LNWR, MR and GNR stock these days. I don't know of any recent MHR filming though so it probably wasn't there (not that we have any appropriate stock) so if they did bother to film any real railway scenes then I imagine it fell to the Bluebell to provide those. If they filmed it early enough this year then they might have managed a period loco and coach in the correct livery for the LSWR (488 and the LSWR Brake 3rd).

Edited November 11, 2019 by sem34090

[Malcolm 0-6-0]

7 hours ago, Martin S-C said:

Just in case anyone planned to start any long books, do not bother, the world will come to a horrible end (or at least Woking, Byfleet, Chobham and other parts of the stockbroker belt will) shortly after 9:00pm on Sunday 17th November.

https://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2019-11-08/the-war-of-the-worlds-spoiler-free-preview-a-solid-and-interesting-adaptation/

 

Call that a war - just wait'll the BBC does The War of the Gauges. See the horrifying depiction of Isambard Kingdom Brunel transformed into a death ray dealing monster with three, yes count them, three legs as he smites the proponents of standard gauge with jets of super heated steam and cigar smoke. See England's green and pleasant land terrorised by giant clones of the Lord of the Isles as it's great wheels crush helpless women and children and hapless British Tommys. 

 

And coming next year from the BBC an even more epic drama Nationalisation and the ruthless rise to power of British Rail.

 

And wait to you see their reality TV show Which is better OO or O?

 

..... I could go on but I won't.     

[Hroth]

7 hours ago, Regularity said:

I saw a trailer. I must say that Horsell Common was somewhat hillier, verging on mountainous, than 20 years ago when I lived and worked in the area... 

 

Must have been the result of all that new-town type planning they did around Woking in the 70s...

 

Mainly because the scenes set on the common and woodlands thereabouts were filmed at Ainsdale sand dunes and Delamere Forest.  Liverpool stands in for London and for some reason, Great Budworth near Northwich is a typical town in South East England.... 

 

Personally they should have updated the whole lot and set the Martians to carving up Canary Wharf!

[RedGemAlchemist]

1 hour ago, Malcolm 0-6-0 said:

Call that a war - just wait'll the BBC does The War of the Gauges. See the horrifying depiction of Isambard Kingdom Brunel transformed into a death ray dealing monster with three, yes count them, three legs as he smites the proponents of standard gauge with jets of super heated steam and cigar smoke. See England's green and pleasant land terrorised by giant clones of the Lord of the Isles as it's great wheels crush helpless women and children and hapless British Tommys. 

This just reminds me of the Mortal Engines reference Frankie Boyle made in that one Mock the Week episode. 

https://youtu.be/ADhcy2BiTwg

[Annie]

2 hours ago, Malcolm 0-6-0 said:

 

Call that a war - just wait'll the BBC does The War of the Gauges. See the horrifying depiction of Isambard Kingdom Brunel transformed into a death ray dealing monster with three, yes count them, three legs as he smites the proponents of standard gauge with jets of super heated steam and cigar smoke. See England's green and pleasant land terrorised by giant clones of the Lord of the Isles as it's great wheels crush helpless women and children and hapless British Tommys. 

 

And coming next year from the BBC an even more epic drama Nationalisation and the ruthless rise to power of British Rail.

 

And wait to you see their reality TV show Which is better OO or O?

 

..... I could go on but I won't.     

Yes that Stephensons Gauge lot could have done with a spot of smiting .

[Hroth]

9 minutes ago, Annie said:

Yes that Stephensons Gauge lot could have done with a spot of smiting .

 

Smitings too good for them, they're all very naughty boys!!!

 

The best bit is when IKBs Topper is revealed as a multi-heatray turret, spinnning about and, yes, smiting, several targets almost simultaneously...

 

Kaboom!!!

 

[Compound2632]

5 minutes ago, Annie said:

Yes that Stephensons Gauge lot could have done with a spot of smiting .

 

Am I going to have to go through vertical and transverse forces again? J.E. McConnell understood those arguments back in the 1840s.

 

Fictional warefare seems to have surfaced in time for Armistice Day. I've just finished re-reading The Lord of the Rings - for which I blame you lot, some dozens of pages back. For balance, I've been looking up some of the the Lego animations that my children introduced me to when at peak Lego a few years ago. This is one of the best.

[Annie]

2 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Am I going to have to go through vertical and transverse forces again? J.E. McConnell understood those arguments back in the 1840s.

 

 

You're going to use logic and reasoned arguement aren't you.  My doctor warned me about that and said it was much better for me to indulge in rosy tinted fantasies as it would be much better for my blood pressure and general state of health.

 

[RedGemAlchemist]

2 minutes ago, Annie said:

My doctor warned me about that and said it was much better for me to indulge in rosy tinted fantasies as it would be much better for my blood pressure and general state of health.

 

John Lennon's ghost called, he wants his glasses back. 

[Hroth]

Just now, Annie said:

You're going to use logic and reasoned arguement aren't you.  My doctor warned me about that and said it was much better for me to indulge in rosy tinted fantasies as it would be much better for my blood pressure and general state of health.

 

 

He does it all the time.

Just don't mention 9th May,1904....

 

[Compound2632]

5 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

Just don't mention 9th May,1904....

 

 

I've got a worksheet on that, used on my Year 8s when they were doing distance-time and velocity-time graphs.

[Edwardian]

17 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Am I going to have to go through vertical and transverse forces again? J.E. McConnell understood those arguments back in the 1840s.

 

Fictional warefare seems to have surfaced in time for Armistice Day. I've just finished re-reading The Lord of the Rings - for which I blame you lot, some dozens of pages back. For balance, I've been looking up some of the the Lego animations that my children introduced me to when at peak Lego a few years ago. This is one of the best.

 

Great sequel - For Jerry!

 

 

[Edwardian]

20 minutes ago, Annie said:

You're going to use logic and reasoned arguement aren't you.  My doctor warned me about that and said it was much better for me to indulge in rosy tinted fantasies as it would be much better for my blood pressure and general state of health.

 

 

Speaking of rose tinted fantasies, I'm going to stay in the Castle Aching of 1905 because, that way, I don't have to fear all probable outcomes of a General Election!

 

 

[Annie]

21 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

He does it all the time.

Just don't mention 9th May,1904....

 

Oh that, - just keep quiet about it.  I find it difficult to believe that a Stephenson's gauge engine could go that fast anyway.  It wasn't until later when they had to use enormous long boilers and more wheels to carry it all around as well as add in extra cylinders that they finally could do it.

 

I think it does no harm at all if an elderly lady might hold close a small fantasy that the world would be a better place if the Broad Gauge had continued.

[Annie]

29 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

 

Speaking of rose tinted fantasies, I'm going to stay in the Castle Aching of 1905 because, that way, I don't have to fear all probable outcomes of a General Election!

 

 

You will have to explain that map a little James.  For those of us who live in far distant lands who have naught to fear but militant sheep it is a mite incomprehensible.

[Regularity]

On 10/11/2019 at 06:55, Joseph_Pestell said:

La Defense was conceived well before Mitterand came to power.

Of course, the main building is called La Grand Arche.

Which is an unfortunate homophone for a German word...

[Hroth]

48 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

 

Speaking of rose tinted fantasies, I'm going to stay in the Castle Aching of 1905 because, that way, I don't have to fear all probable outcomes of a General Election!

 

 

 

I don't think the Liberals are going to do as well this December....