Posts about History

  • Dalguise Viaduct

    This grade A listed railway viaduct, just north of Dunkeld near the A9 main road between Perth and Inverness, was designed by Joseph Mitchell to carry the Inverness and Perth Junction Railway across the River Tay and opened on 9 September 1863 at a cost of £20,395; it remains in use. It is of lattice

    Read more

  • Tay Bridge and west Dundee from The Law

    During a violent storm on the evening of 28 December 1879, the centre section of the first Tay Bridge, known as the “High Girders”, collapsed, taking with it a train that was running on its single track. Seventy-five lives were lost, including the son-in-law of design engineer Sir Thomas Bouch. The total number was only

    Read more

  • Battersea Power Station

    Battersea Power Station is the largest brick-built structure in Europe and is notable for its original and lavish Art Deco fittings and decor. The building is Grade II listed, and the condition was described as “very bad” by English Heritage, who have included it on their Buildings at Risk Register. Amongst other, numerous film and

    Read more

  • Whitewash and Brick

    This was the view from my hotel room in Victoria. As a Londoner (I was born in St. Thomas’ Hospital and brought up during the first six years of my life in south London), this view isn’t just a pile of bricks, but a reminder of a childhood home in the 70s, where whitewashed brick

    Read more

  • The View from Spiez Station

    The harbour area of Spiez, taken from the train station. Poet Josef Viktor Widmann (1842–1911) wrote in his book Spaziergänge in den Alpen (Strolls in the Alps) that “the view from Spiez Station is one of the most beautiful in the world“. I’d imagine that the foreground of this view was quite different at the

    Read more