I spotted this one when driving through Nairn. Has deco touches.:-

Earlier this year we attended a book launch event in Edinburgh at the headquarters of Historic Environment Scotland.

The book in question was Art Deco in Scotland, Design and Architecture in the Jazz Age written by Bruce Peter.

Laid out in the building’s rooms were various illustrations of Art Deco designs, models, architectural plans and magazine illustrations as well as a screened photomontage of reminders of Scotland’s Art Deco past, some of which are now sadly gone.

On Saturday last I finally got round to buying a copy of the book. (Who could resist a cover featuring the Tower of Empire from the Empire Exhibition 1938?)

Among many sumptuous photographs of cinemas, public, commercial and industrial buildings and fabric designs the book has a chapter dedicated to the Empire Exhibition.

I have not yet read the text but look forward to it.

We had an overnight stop at Wakefield on the way back up from Bath so that we could go to The Hepworth Wakefield. It was built in commemoration of artist/sculptor Barbara Hepworth who was born in the town. As well as many of her works it now houses the municipal art collection started in 1923.

The building stands by the River Calder and was designed by British architect David Chipperfield.

From over River Calder:-

From walkway over the river:-

Entrance and rear:-

I took a video of the weir from the main road bridge:-

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.

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.

For our trip to Belgium and the Netherlands we took the ferry from Hull across to Zeebrugge.

At Hull we got onto the ship, examined the cabin, no room to have a cat never mind swing one, then went up on deck.

Hull was surprisingly green but with some industry too.

Over the dockside rooftops I spotted what I thought might be a football ground with what appeared to be the word KCom on a stand. Was it the KCom stadium, the home of Hull City AFC (and Hull FC, one of the city’s two big Rugby League clubs) I wondered? But it looked too small.

It turns out that it was KCom I had spotted but it was KCom Craven Park, the home of the other Rugby League club, Hull Kingston Rovers.

In this zoom shot the end S of “Rovers” can be seen on the far stand’s seats.

Some modern architecture in Hull:-

First a word on pronunciation. You might think Groningen is enunciated as Grown-ing-en. It isn’t.

Since the letter g in Dutch (certainly at the start and end of a word) is pronounced more like the Scottish “ch” sound – as in loch – and the final n is not emphasised, the name actually sounds more like HHrrrown-ing-ih. (I assume Groninger – HHrrown-ing-er – is an adjectival form meaning “of Groningen.”)

Anyway the museum is one of those modern architecture buildings that seems to have bits sticking out everywhere. I liked it. It reminded me a bit of the Imperial War Museum North.

It’s prominent from the ring road.

We didn’t have enough time to go in as we were going on a boat trip round the canals that encircle the town centre. You can’t go to The Netherlands and not go on a canal. This is the museum from the boat jetty.

And this is from the canal as the boat comes back to its starting point. That colour scheme could make your eyes go funny.

Most of the buildings I featured in the two previous Modern Glasgow posts are lit up with coloured lights at night.

This is BBC Scotland from the North bank of the Clyde.

And its entrance on Pacific Quay.

Here’s Glasgow Science Centre (at dusk.)

The Hydro manages to look like a spaceship.