The tower on the Municipal Buildings, Dale Street, Liverpool.

Another photograph taken on one of my lunchtime wanderings round Liverpool with my camera.  This one is of the  tower on the Municipal Buildings, Dale Street. The building was begun in 1860 by John Weightman and completed in 1866 by E.R. Robson. It’s Italian and French Renaissance influenced Northern Renaissance style are quite a contrast to the art deco structures of the Mersey Road Tunnel I posted last week. The central tower with balconies, clocks and five bells has a pyramidal spire. The spire has a wrought-iron balcony half-way down.

Above the main door into the Georges Dock Ventilation Tower and Central Station is this statue: Speed – the Modern Mercury.  The relief in Portland Stone (one of my favourite construction materials) is seven meters tall including the base.  It was designed by Herbert J. Rowse and the sculptor was Edmund C. Thompson assisted by George T. Capstick.

It is just one of the details on the art deco structures of the Mersey Road Tunnel that show the egyptian styling Sir Basil Mott, J. A. Brodie and Herbert J. Rowse included in the designs.  For example each of the ventilation shafts takes the form of a stylised obelisk.  The tunnel was constructed between 1925 and 1934 during the Egyptian craze following Howard Carter’s discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922.

I have an incomplete Planet of Danger short story Dirk Dangerous and the Mummy that features a climax in the tunnel.

This sign is on the boards which cover the ground floor of an empty building a short distance from where I work. Whenever I walk past it amuse me in the same way that a sign on the side entrance to Wollaton Park in Nottingham amused me in my youth. It read simply “Escaping Dear Please Close the Gate”.

The concrete mess on the front of Lime Street Station was one of the worst eyesores in the city. It was a badly executed, dreary, unimaginative waste of concrete that hadn’t aged well. Worse it was right in the heart of the city centre, covering up the face of one of the country’s great Victorian railway stations that is still a major gateway for visitors arriving in Liverpool. So when they finally started to pull it down I was really looking forward to seeing the new front.

I was however a little nervous.  The rebuilt slab square in my home town of Nottingham just makes me want to cry. It has been turned into a bland, featureless slab with an embarrassing water feature that almost seems to have the ambition of escaping from an episode of Ground Force. I’m sure it’s very good for events but as a public space the rest of the time I’d take the old, fussy square back and do up the disgusting public toilets.

The new Lime Street frontage didn’t have a bold feature like the new frontage to Sheffield Station with the magnificent with the water covered blade slicing across it.  Could this be just another dull square that would reveal the station but nothing more?

Well I’m pleased to say that its far more than just a dull piazza.  The front has curvaceous steps intercut by ramps that sweep across its front.  Some of the paving on the ramps have images cut into them and more images have been included in the new glass in the arches at the front of the station.  There are places to sit and watch the world go by and an area with trees that breaks up the slabbed space.  Even though its only been open a few days it was obvious that it has already become a place to have your lunch or to meet people in the city centre.

There is a stubby tower including a lift that allows access from the station to the street and down to the underground station.  Which could hardly have been made smaller and which provides a visual clue to where the doorway in is for the unfamiliar traveller.

The new front doesn’t just reveal the lost front of the station.  It opens up the view across Lime Street that I’ve never seen before.  The sweep of the front of St. George’s Hall is opened up to the eye.

The one major piece of work left to do in the area is someone to restore the art deco cinema.  Unless someone wants a big project and decided to do away with the St. John’s shopping complex but that might be a bit extreme and where would all the shops go?

I had hoped to post a gallery of Go Penguin photographs I took after work tonight in St George’s Hall Liverpool as sixty of them are displayed before being put up for auction later in the week.  Photoshop doesn’t seem to want to do the image processing automatically so I’ll have to go through them and do them one at a time myself.  If you’re in Liverpool Thursday 4th February they’ll be on display from 8:30AM to 8PM.  Well worth a visit to look at the hall (which I got some good photos of too) as well as the penguins.

I’ve been living in Liverpool since the early ’90s and I can’t remember snow this deep.  Certainly beats the light dusting of snow in December.

See also: Winter Wonderland – Snow Day and Snow day :).

Sherlock Holmes

Just back from seeing the latest take on Sherlock Holmes at FACT in Liverpool.  The city was very quiet tonigh with lots of restaurants shut and hardly anyone around the city centre.

This take on Sherlock Holmes is a little more spirited and while not overtly steam punk certainly has something of that genres sensibilities about it.

Robert Downey Jr. is an excellent choice to play the great detective. He manages to incorporate wit and confidence alongside despair and failings without getting lost in either side of Holmes.

Jude Law plays Dr. John Watson in many ways more closely to the original character than some of the older film incarnations.  Watson is an intelligent, resourceful character who isn’t averse to the application of violence to achieve his ends. The two actors have a good degree of on-screen chemistry with a definite spark to their verbal sparing.

Rachel McAdams’ Irene Adler is good, Mark Strong’s Lord Blackwood is suitably villanous, Eddie Marsan’s Inspector Lestrade and Kelly Reilly’s Mary Morstan suitably an English rose with a bit of fight in her.  However they really don’t get a huge amount of screen time.

The adaption has a wit about it and keeps up a good pace.  Some reviews I’d read seem to have based their feeling about the pace on deadly 1960s TV versions and older film without bothering to reread the stories which frequently move along quite quickly once the game is afoot.  I’m not expert on martial arts but I had a feeling that Holmes was using Bartitsu which, if true, is an amusing historical detail.

The visuals are well assembled with something of the theatricality of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street without slipping into Sin City graphic novel style.  Guy Ritchie’s fast cutting style is well used to add to the feeling of pace.  The music complements the pace and style of the film.  The end title designs are pleasing and quite a few people stayed in their seats for them.

Some purists may not like this take on the Great Detective but I enjoyed it.  The film didn’t just hint at a sequel so much as lay out the protagonists on a plate.  If it’s as good as this version I’m looking forward to it.

First I knew of the latest snow in Liverpool was the announcement on the news that Liverpool Airport was closed.

A quick shot of the snow on the tree in my back garden taken from a window so I didn’t have to go out in it.  Taken without flash, camera clamped to the window frame and with a long exposure.  Click for a bigger version.

While doing a few bits odd an ends of Christmas shopping in Liverpool I did a bit of Go Penguin hunting. They’re sneaky and elusive creatures that like hiding in crowds of children. Here are the ones I managed to get shots of. The first few shots hint at the heavy snow that blanketed Liverpool briefly but had already vanished by the time I reached the city centre.

Oh dear looks like I need to get my grumpy hat out for both Il Forno and The Informant…

Went to Il Forno on Duke Street in Liverpool for dinner before going to see the early evening showing of The Informant at FACT.  Things started well with quick service and an excellent swordfish tart starter (with a name far too long to remember).  Unfortunately this is the point at which I have to become Mr Grumpy.  If a waiter announces that your pizzas are amongst the 10 best in the whole country they’d better be very good.  I’ve certainly had better pizzas from two other restaurants in Liverpool, two Liverpool takeaways, a restaurant in London and a takeaway in Sheffield.  Unfortunately both pizzas we ordered were described as bland so it wasn’t just me.   Personally I’d have prefered a more interesting pizza that was half the size.  To be fair I’ve had far worse ones in lots of places too.  Then I could have tried one of the deserts they offered us three times.  Overall opinion starter good, service OK and I’d try a different main course if I went again.

So on to the real main course of the evening as it were, the film The Informant picked largely because nothing else was on that appealed.  First could someone explain to me why Matt Damon was playing Mark Whitacre in the style of William H. Macy.  Did he have a bet with George Clooney, couldn’t they get William H. Macy himself or did someone decide that William H. Macy wasn’t a big enough name to star so cast Matt Damon to try and sell the film to audiences?

The story itself was a mess that every time it threatened to get interesting ran away from itself.  The meat was the technicality of the various crimes, deceptions and alleged crimes.  Each time they got close to one they brushed it out of sight as though it was scary stuff requiring a bit of (oh no!) thought and comprehension.  It was like watching a heist film in which showing a safe being cracked was technical and boring so lets not bother.  Hang on though did they really think this film was going to attract an audience who were looking for a no brainer action flick?

Then there was the really odd sound track and the 1970s retro font.  Fine except the film was set in the 1990s.  There were a large number of supporting characters who became interesting and then vanished.  Scott Bakula in particular was there and then suddenly gone treatment.  I’d make a Quantum Leap reference but it would be too easy a joke.  Now you may say this was based on a real life story but as they made clear before the film started they’d taken liberties with it.  So why not take the liberty needed to make it interesting?

The Informant just didn’t seem to know what it was: docudrama? docucomedy? In the end it was just docudisaster.  As it stands it’s a bad attempt at making a film in the style of a sprawling based on real life drama from the ’70s.  Maybe with William H. Macy and the Coen brothers directing possibly focusing on the investigation of what must have been an ever more bizarre situation it could have been a film worth seeing.  Personally I’d suggest saving your time and money.