MY FAVORITE JIGSAW PUZZLES are cities from the air. Assembling one is like making a walking tour of neighborhoods with occasional familiar sites. The Guardian recently reminded me of this in publishing “1930s England from the Air — in Pictures,” October 3, 2024. This, commemorating Historic England’s release of images “revealing 1930s England from the air taken by pioneering aerial photographer Arthur William Hobart, on its website. Hobart started in the young aerial photography industry in about 1920. This way of capturing the new developments and industry of the time provides a fascinating and informative insight into a changing country.”
Here are tidbits gleaned from this article together with others from my usual Internet sleuthing. Indeed, the latter includes “Lofty London—1930” here at SimanaitisSays.
Crystal Palace, London. As noted in an earlier piece in The Guardian, September 16, 2024, “Solved: the Mystery of How Victorians Built Crystal Palace in Just 190 Days.”
Crystal Palace’s nearly 1 million sq. ft. of exhibition space was built in Hyde Park for London’s 1851 Great Exhibition. “Now,” The Guardian reports, “newly analysed evidence suggests the pioneering building could not have been built without cutting-edge Victorian technology: interchangeable nuts and bolts that were made on machines to match one standardised size across the industry.”
Crystal Palace, in its second location, Sydenham Hill, south-east London. This and other images from The Historic England Archive via The Guardian.
The Guardian continues, “Approximately 30,000 nuts and bolts connected the 3,300 cast-iron columns of the palace, which was relocated to south London in 1852 and destroyed in a fire in 1936.”
Smith’s Docks, North Shields, North Tyneside. North Shields is to the east of Newcastle, some 280 miles north of London. The Guardian recounts, “The shipbuilding company William Smith & Co opened its docks at North Shields in 1851. The design for the Royal Navy’s Flower-class corvette, for convoy escort during the second world war, was prepared here.”
Smith’s Docks, North Shields. Dry-dock construction of large ships can be seen. It’s clear that space is at a carefully designed premium.
St. Paul’s Cathedral, London. Oft photographed (including famously during the Nazi blitz), St. Paul’s dominated its Ludgate Hill neighborhood of London.
St. Paul’s, London.
The tallest building in London from 1710 to 1963, it’s now dwarfed by BT Tower in 1964 and, since 2012, by The Shard at London Bridge (this current bridge built in 1973, not to be confused with “London Bridge—Falling to Lake Havasu City.”
Tower Bridge, London. Not yet sold to big-bucks foreigners, Tower Bridge remains a London landmark. The Guardian recounts, “Unsurprisingly, Hobart photographed several well-known landmarks in the capital. This view of Tower Bridge shows the Thames as a busy commercial waterway. Traffic on the bridge reveals how road transport at the time was a mix of motorised and horse-drawn vehicles.”
Tower Bridge, London.
Tower Bridge is also renowned to Microsoft Flight Simulation daredevils.
Whew. Note St. Paul’s to the right rear.
The Pavilion, Sandbanks, Poole, Dorset. Poole, Dorset, is on the English Channel/La Manche, about 115 miles southwest of London. The Guardian describes, “The construction of a road after the first world war made Sandbanks an accessible destination. The Pavilion was built in 1928 at a cost of nearly £10,000, providing visitors with a sun deck and shelters.”
The Pavilion, Sandbanks, Poole, Dorset.
Never the tourist attraction of “Georgian Digs, Part III: The Royal Pavilion at Brighton,” some 100 miles to the east of Poole, I know the latter for its activities during England’s heyday of BOAC flying boats. Indeed, Poole is mentioned in Paul Temple’s Sullivan Mystery. See also, “Scripts Redux Part 2.” ds
© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2024