Edinburgh City Part 5: The Hub and its Spire

This really is a fabulous building. I was walking up the hill to the castle and could not help but be stopped, transfixed in awe at it. I was already running behind schedule for the day (with my mission being photographing the castle thoroughly to produce a display for the school) but still had to stop and take pictures. 

I have a fondness for setting spires diagonally.

When I went on the ::history:: page of The Hub's ::website::, and read that it was a collaboration between James Gillespie Graham (who designed St, Mary's Catholic Cathedral, featured yesterday) and the famous Augustus Welby Pugin (Think 'Palace of Westminster') and I was both delighted and not entirely surprised. Everything about this building is wondrous, and the more recent conversion and restoration have been done most tastefully and include the work of a lot of modern crafters of great skill. 

A sense of verticality.
Photo taken after castle visit, hence duller sky.

It's dominating spire and wonderfully vertical architecture draws one to look upwards to he heavens and even on a cloudy, awful and drizzly day like the day I was there, it is beautiful. The page says the spire is the highest point in central Edinbugh, but after walking uphill into the castle and looking up at some of its towers, they certainly seem higher up, even if they are shorter towers. I am not a surveyor, though, and appearances can be deceiving. 

The sky was white with cloud, but weirdly bright.

The Hub is currently a venue associated with the Edinbugh International Festival (an arts festival) and includes a cafe. When I was there, the entrance was lit by flaming torches flickering in the wind (it certainly gets breezy on that hill, even if all the buildings make it look less exposed) and a piper was standing by the door. The next time I go to Edinburgh, it will certainly be somewhere I will have to visit the interior of, rather than just walk past.

At least the clouds were vaguely interesting here.

I'd like to visit this building again when the weather is more conducive to good photographs. The skies are dull and white here because they were dull and greying white with cloud on the day. It was also a rather windswept day. A calmer day with more varied and interesting clouds would be preferable. 

Spires, Skies and Shadows

More From The High Church Graveyard

I keep going back there, and each time I spot something else that intrigues me, something I did not capture the previous time. It seems that whenever I think I have exhausted it of material worth photographing, that something else catches my eye. Today was a trip out with the "proper camera", which is a Canon 300D, and Suzy of ::Suzy Bugs:: let me borrow some of her lenses, for a bit more experimentation. 

Shiny different lens to play with meant that I could take pictures of details up on the roof of the neighbouring church, which as they are rather pretty (especially the spire) became the focus of my little expedition. I did not actually take that many pictures of the graveyard itself. 

If Vertical Was Going To Be Impossible,
Diagonal Would Have To Do!

The spire is reasonably high on the Free Church North (at some point I will have to find out exactly how high, but it is definitely one of the taller spires in the area) and getting a shot in full of it with the lenses to hand was going to be impossible. (I have taken a photograph encompassing the whole church,  but on a different day, with a different lens) so I decided to focus on various points that interested me. 

Dramatic Clouds

Sometimes it is more the clouds than the architecture, or the combination of clouds and architecture. I think a plain blue sky is, while sunny, quite dull, and much prefer some interest in the form of clouds to balance out the image. Today it was blue skies and patchy white clouds, and these provided a lovely sky and a lot of nice shadows from the bright sunshine, which on the spire really gives a sense of the various facets of the octagonal roof. I love the pinnacles. 

Clouds Don't Always Appear When I Need Them

Clouds don't always appear where and when I need them, though! I took this photograph from reasonably close to the base of the steeple, but far enough back to get enough of a diagonal to have some sense of perspective. I tried taking a photograph really close to the base, but it did not really have the same effect. I really wanted to portray how high and imposing and solid the steeple is. As it does rise a way above the church, and is thin in relation to its height, it can seem rather elegant from a distance, but up close it is very solidly built, and for this picture I wanted to show some of that. 

Pinnacle or Steeple

This mini-steeple or pinnacle is part of some adjoining ecclesiastical buildings. It is much smaller than the steeple with spire (and for that matter, the spire) on the church itself, and I presume it is technically a pinnacle rather than a steeple, but I always think of pinnacles as the miniature spires decorating a full-sized spire, atop a steeple. If it protruded from a wall, I would call it a turret. At some point I will have to rat out that book of architectural terms that did rather well on historic architecture, but I think it is back in England, somewhere in my father's loft. Regardless of what it is, I love the details of the false slit windows and the arches that elaborate them. It is reminiscent of the towers on the spire, which also have arches and false-slit windows. I'm getting lost in pedantry. Whatever it is, I think it looks nice, which is why I took the photograph. 

A Rather Fancy Vent

This photograph was taken to capture the texture of the tiles and the lichen growing on them. I heard that lichen grows best in clean air, which is good news for the city of Inverness as the roof is covered with the stuff! I think the little white "light house" is actually a rather fancy cover for a vent. I love it when mundane things are made needlessly ornate, because why shouldn't functional things be beautiful too? If it were up to me, everything would be designed to be at least as beautiful as functional. Things need to be fully functional, of course, but beauty can still exceed that! 

Finally!

I managed to finally get a photograph of the roof of the Catholic church across the river that I actually like. The spire is quite short, wooden and painted red - rather different to the other buildings in the area. The ornate front door of the Catholic church faces away from the afternoon and evening sun, and with mountains behind, it is soon in rather dark shadow, which means it is usually rather awkward to photograph. Sometime in the near future I will have to visit during morning hours to get a good photograph of the front of the building because it is really quite something. 

You Can See Tiles!

This is the steeple on what is now the funeral home opposite the High Church on the other side of the river. I love the conical roof and the open columns. Unlike most of the other churchy buildings in the area, this one is not in the least bit Gothic in terms of architecture, but it is still rather fabulous. It is far more austere, which is quite fitting for a funeral home. I wonder if it was purpose built as such, or is a re-purposed church. 

Cobwebs!

I also got to play with Suzy's macro lens while she was busy using the other lens to photograph a rather large rabbit. It is these sorts of decorative details on the monuments that I love, especially when they are still crisp centuries later. 

The First Five Tries Weren't Even Sharp...

Tomorrow (Saturday) I will be at the Northern Meeting Park in Inverness, which is across the road from Eden Court, for the Inverness Highland Games  & Armed Forces Day. I will be there with owls and raptors. I will also have the point-and-shoot camera with me, so hopefully next week's photography slot will be themed on that building - quite a modern departure from this week's! 

Graveyards, Churches and Dramatic Skies

Firstly a big thank-you to my first 50 followers! I feel honoured that you think my blog is interesting enough to follow. 

Secondly, more photographs from Inverness city. I went back and took more, and this time I will post colour photographs as well as black and white ones. While black and white does suit the greyscale aesthetic of my blog better, some places just look better in colour. I'm still not much of a photographer, but I adore this sort of architecture, and I am trying to improve my photography skills too. 

I have a love of intersecting lines

This is looking up towards the spire of the Free North Church which is by the river on the southern bank of the Ness, in Inverness city. The Church is actually reddish brown and is late Victorian, built in a Gothic Revival style. I have photographed it before, and there are more pictures of it in the previous photographic post.Dr. Alexander Ross and has a capacity of 1800. Dr. Ross was also the architect of Inverness Cathedral, which I have not photographed yet, but which I will do as soon as the renovation works are finished. While the church is very definitely Gothic Revival, there are hints of Neo-Classical architecture, but they form a cohesive whole. There are several beautiful churches along the banks of the Ness, including the Cathedral. At some point I would like to photograph ALL of the churches in the city as they are architecturally beautiful. Inverness also has several architecturally impressive civic buildings and hotels, and private buildings that may have once been civic buildings or hotels. I need to enquire further. 

Egads! I'm using warm tones.
Perhaps I'm turning Steampunk in my old age? 

These are the columns at the front of the Free North Church - I think this church is currently one of my favourite buildings in the city, and is at least probably one of the buildings I have most photographed, even if not all of the photographs make the cut to be posted on my blog. I try to only post my best work to avoid picture spamming too much. It may not be amazing photography (I always feel terribly inferior when I look at my partner's work!) but I am a novice and I do try my best, and also try my best to learn and improve. I feel that I should have taken another step to the left to improve the composition, as the slight gaps between the columns possibly diminish it. To me the interest lies in how the red stone and wooden panels are contrasting textures but harmonising colours. 

Sturdy buttressing by the alleyway - well lit at night.

This is some pretty hefty buttressing!  There is an alleyway that runs between the graveyard for the Old High Church and the Free North Church. You can look upwards to the graveyard from it, as either the path was cut in, or the Old High Church on raised land. I think there are lights set into the alleyway paving (disks in the photo above) that light up the wall, but I've never been there at night to find out. I liked the sense of perspective and how the alleyway seems all crowded by the huge building. It is a very historical part of the city. The cobbles look gorgeous, but they're cobbles, so wear stiletto heels over them at your peril. 

There are lots of beautiful things in Inverness.

I spotted this in the above mentioned alleyway and felt compelled to try and photograph it in a flattering and interesting manner - I don't think I quite achieved that! Oh well, as I take more photographs I shall improve. I love Victorian street furniture, it is often very ornate, beautiful and has a good amount of attention to detail. Remember that Inverness was not a city when the Church was built, nor when this fancy lamp bracket fitted, and it is a small city now, even if it is the capitol of the Highlands, but even still the architecture is first rate and the city full of fabulous things and it is small (ok, this is quite a big and heavy cast iron bracket) details like this that really remind me of how nice things can be, and that beautiful things are not only for big, important cities like Edinburgh, London or Bristol (or Paris or Prague) but for every place. 

I love the texture of the old stone walls.

There's a lovely arch in the wall leading to the path up into the graveyard of the Old High church. I tried to take a photo that avoided including too much random modernity, and had lots of weathered stone texture. One of the benefits of the pebble-dashed wall behind is that in being white it shows off the gate which has pretty wrought iron swirls. 

This is a Goth blog, there had to be a graveyard.

This is an older photograph of the other side of the Old High Church - I took this photograph back in September or October, and it had been raining, so everything glistened and shone. It was late in the day, so everything had long shadows too. It's not an amazing photo from a technical perspective (there are lots of things wrong with it) but I do like the effect. I especially like how the damp edges of the path glistened, and how the marble (?) grave markers caught the light. 

Atmospheric clouds

This is the Old High Church. I took a similar photograph before, which I have posted in my previous post of architectural and monumental photography, and posted to the right of this paragraph for comparative purposes. I think the previous shot was far more atmospheric due to having two sorts of sky - brooding and cloudy above the church, wispy and bright above the trees. The more recent photograph certainly has a more interesting sky, in terms of having varied clouds right across, but I am not sure if this is quite as atmospheric. I also took the second photograph from much closer to the building, and so the perspective is different and the composition is different. I don't think it is a terrible photograph, but I also don't think it is an improvement on the previous version. I was trying to go for something where there was more a quality of the building looming than in the previous photograph, where it was more a contrast between angular architecture and dramatic sky. Either way, if anyone has any constructive criticism, I would gladly hear it! 

Last but not least, a chapel of rest on the far side of the river, part of a funeral home. This was taken the same day as the last batch of photographs from Inverness, but I wasn't sure about including coloured photographs into the post as I thought it might clash with the otherwise grey-scale aesthetic. Anyway, this building is built in a broadly Neo-Classical style, not sure entirely what the school of architecture is called. Compared to the churches in the area, especially the Catholic church on the same bank as this one, this building is a very imposing building. The Gothic churches are large stone-built buildings too, but something about the arches and detail makes them seem more elegant, and the Free North Church is positively airy by comparison. I think it is the severe lines of the chapel of rest. Either way, even were it a church and nothing funereal, it would still seem a cold building by comparison. This is not to say I dislike it, but it is a very different sort of building to the others here. 

I hope this latest collection of architectural photographs are enjoyed. Even if you never come to Inverness and never take photographs of the architecture here, I hope you at least have a look around your own area for buildings that may seem familiar and everyday at first, but on a second look are far more impressive. I walk past these churches whenever I am in the city, and most people go past them without a second glance. I try to take lots of photographs of the buildings and other things in the city both as a way to learn to take better photographs, and as a way to keep my eyes open for beauty around me, and to avoid familiarity dulling my perception of what is around me.