My personal blog as a 'grown-up' Goth and Romantic living in the Highlands of Scotland. I write about the places I go, the things I see and my thoughts on life as a Goth and the subculture, and things in the broader realm of the Gothic and darkly Romantic. Sometimes I write about music I like and sometimes I review things. This blog often includes architectural photography, graveyards and other images from the darker side of life.

Goth is not just about imitating each other, it is a creative movement and subculture that grew out of post-punk and is based on seeing beauty in the dark places of the world, the expression of that in Goth rock. It looks back to the various ways throughout history in which people have confronted and explored the macabre, the dark and the taboo, and as such I'm going to post about more than the just the standards of the subculture (Siouxsie, Sisters of Mercy, Bauhaus, et al) and look at things by people who might not consider themselves anything to do with the subculture, but have eyes for the dark places. The Gothic should not be limited by what is already within it; inspiration comes from all places, the key is to look with open eyes, listen carefully and think with an open mind..

Sunday 5 October 2014

Edinburgh City Part 2: Hanover St. Bank


While Gothic and Gothic Revival styles are my favourite, I don't mind a bit of Neo-Classical architecture now and then. 



These photos happened because I had to sit around and wait on the Saturday. K. and her friend Clark had to get their student bus passes, and I wasn't feeling well, so didn't want to go indoors where it might be stuffy to wait with them. Edinburgh was a lot warmer than Inverness was when I left, and even having taken off my scarf and jacket I was over-heating, plus I did not realise just how crowded central Edinburgh would be on a Saturday afternoon - I am not used to big cities and masses of people, and do not cope well with crowds. I was feeling pressed in and getting faint with the stress and the heat, and had nearly fainted in a heap outside a fast food restaurant on Prince's Street! As such, while K. and Clark sorted there bus ticket, I parked myself under the grand facade of this bank. 




It's currently a bank and a branch of the TSB, but I do wonder what this building was built for. Its temple style make me wonder if it was a Neoclassical chapel of one of the Christian denominations that shied away from the Gothic style for their chapels, or whether it was always a bank and that the severe lines of the Ionic Order were a statement of security, stability and seriousness. Either way, while Neoclassical architecture is not my favourite style, I rather liked this building, and while I waited, took these photographs. 


As I was right up close to the building, sitting on a ledge and trying not move around too much, I have not got any photographs of the building as a whole, but the entire building seems to be of a design quite directly inspired by Classical temples, although the colonnade here is only a portico, rather than supporting a roof and arcade down the sides of the building. The next building down hill also had columns, hence the photographs taken looking down one set of columns to the next in different style. 


I know that usually my architectural photographs are in black and white, but with the stone of this building being such a pale grey anyway, I thought it would be better to take some colour pictures, that and I wanted to capture the fact that it was actually sunny in Scotland (just in case nobody believed me! :P ). The day after the weather went back to cloudy and dreary, so it was short lived, but it was actually sunny for a whole afternoon. 

6 comments:

  1. I love Edinburgh :) as a whole the architecture of the city is lovely. I visited last year to see emelie autumn play whilst crossing off a city in my list of desired travel destinations. It also happened to be the fringe festival so it was a little manic and stressful. We did however visit the museum at the surgeon's hall which I definitely recommend! I wish I had visited the gallery after your post about it!

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    1. The Surgeon's Hall museum is currently closed for renovations - I checked it out and got a (really awesomely Gothic, with a skeleton and spooky styling!) flyer from them to give to Raven. Hopefully it will re-open soon and I will get a chance to go to Edinburgh again when it's open. Raven works as an aux. nurse, wanting to one day be a surgical nurse, so he'd probably think it's AMAZING.

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  2. Yeah I would definitely go back for a visit, its pretty cool!

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    1. My "things to visit in Edinburgh' list is getting quite long! I'm going to be as busy as a bee darting around with the camera and visiting things!

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  3. Nice perspective on the building, nothing wrong with not seeing the whole thing, and I really like the shot with the colour showing through the window. PS It's sunny in Scotland at least 3 times a year :)

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    1. I wanted to show the whole thing so people could see how it's built on a Classical temple template. It's actually an open wooden door (that's pretty huge) in the railing picture :)

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