The view from the MS Magellan’s bow in dock at St Petersburg. New building construction with bridge behind:

The view towards the city. Flats. We were told most Russians live in flats. All sorts of folks in similar flats in the same block. Only the insides would let you know how well off anyone is:-

Gazprom Tower:-

This breaks the height restriction on buidlngs in St Petersburg. They let it go because it was way out of town and, well, Gazprom. Closer view:-

Krestovsky Stadium, or Zenit Arena, home of Zenit St Petersburg FC. This was a venue for games at the 2018 Football World Cup. Modern bridge in front with cruise terminal building in foreground:-

This was the nearest thing I saw in St Petersburg to an Art Deco building:-

Peter the Great statue, photographed through coach windows so the statue is difficult to make out; a modern building behind.

Undoubtedly Art Deco, this is a restaurant called The Standard, on Havnegade, Copenhagen.

Definite deco lines plus rounded gables, not to mention the tower clock:-

Reverse view:-

Just by way of contrast. Elgiganten:-

Deco? There’s rule of three in the smaller windows certainly:-

As in the Netherlands there was a profusion of bikes. The photo also shows another picturesque lamp standard:-

This is clearly not a building from the 1920 or 1930s but it definitely has Deco style much like the MI5/MI6 building in London or the UCAS building in Cheltenham.

There is some modern architecture in Liverpool, especially the Museum of Liverpool, situated down towards the Mersey.

Museum (centre left) from Albert Dock:-

From plaza:-

Closer view:-

A very Chinese looking construction across a street entrance in Liverpool:-

A bit more traditional. Decorative tiles on a city centre building:-

We visited the new V&A, Dundee, last week where the first exhibition was on Ocean Liners, with the sub-heading Speed and Style:-

Exhibition Poster, V&A entrance behind:-

This post only scratches the surface of what is a sumptuous exhibition which is mainly a feast of Art Deco style reflecting the ocean liner’s inter-wars heyday.

Brochure for French shipping line:-

United States Lines Brochure:-

It’s not exclusively Art Deco, though. This is a Louis XIV style door from a pre World War 1 French liner:-

A similar Louis XIV style panel and chair:-

Wall panel from one of the Titanic’s sister ships, SS Olympic:-

The ultimate in streamlined ship design. Perhaps it was fortunate this was never built. Everything’s enclosed, there’s no deck where you could take the air. (It also looks a bit like a submarine):-

The new branch of the V&A Museum in Dundee, a museum of Scottish design and its impact on and from the world, opened to visitors today.

As we quite often visit or pass through Dundee this is a building I have seen growing from the waterfront over the past few years and it is a splendid piece of architecture.

It lies beside Discovery Point, latest (and last?) home of Scott’s and Shackleton’s research ship the RRS Discovery. There are hopes the V&A will do for Dundee in terms of tourism and raising the city’s profile what the Guggenheim did for Bilbao.

It’s exciting to think I’ll be able to visit it soon. We’re not going straight away as we expect it will be fairly busy. I believe entrance has to be booked for the first few weeks.

These photos were taken in February when the building was pretty well completed on the outside. We had been round the Discovery – itself well worth a visit – and the opportunity to take the photographs couldn’t be missed.

RRS Discovery and V&A Dundee:-

Part of the V&A looks like the prow of a ship. V&A from the stern of RSS Discovery (Tay Road Bridge in background):-

Stern sprit of RSS Discovery, V&A in background:-

In other aspects it resembles a cliff, the architect Kengo Kuma‘s inspiration. V&A from RRS Discovery:-

From plaza:-

From east northeast:-

The inside exhibits promise to be as distinctive as the outside.

A few buildings in Drachten I missed first time round.

Art Deco style brickwork on this:-

Typical old Dutch style:-

Modern bungalow type house but flat-roofed:-

Another more modern style house:-

I also spotted this neat multi-child trolley being trundlied across the town square:-

There’s something satisfying about a town which has water in or near its centre. It nearly always brightens the place up.

Sneek (it’s pronounced snake) is a town in Friesland, in the north of The Netherlands.

Like a lot of towns in Flanders and most in The Netherlands, Sneek is built around canals. This one was right beside the road leading into the town from the motorway. The town centre is just off to the right.

We parked by the side of this (different) canal:-

That was after having crossed this bridge to get to the canalside:-

And this canal is in the middle of a shopping street. Notice the “Christmas Light” style hangings over the canal:-

Along with more standard light fittings these also appeared over the “normal” streets:-

The design is in the shape of the Waterpoort, a prominent feature of Sneek’s townscape which I’ll post about later.

This is another beautiful, leafy canal in Sneek:-

A bit further along the same canal was this striking modern theatre:-

Thanks to Duncan for this one.

A short history with photographs of British Woolworth’s shop fronts, whose heyday was of course in the Art Deco 1930s.

As Duncan says, an old Woolies is almost instantly recognisable.