in the arcade
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 2 July 2024].
In May 2012, I flew to Budapest to meet with my parents, who were travelling through Europe.
We stayed in a small hotel, the Leo Panzió, on Ferenciek tere, near the metro station of the same name, not far from Erzsébet híd (Elizabeth Bridge).
On our first full day exploring the city, we started out slowly, each capturing the street and architecture near our hotel with our cameras.
Soon after venturing out, a fellow approached my dad, seeing the three of us with our cameras in hand and furiously snapping away.
I still don't know if the fellow was homeless or just a random passerby. I didn't speak to him much myself until the end of our 'tour' and, as we followed him into the building, I won't lie: alarm bells were quietly going off in my head for us as three non-Hungarian tourists, including two women, following some random guy into a building.
Maybe it was all my parents' teachings about "stranger danger" coming up from childhood, the knowledge that many tourists are scammed while travelling, or simply being a woman and aware that following strange men into unfamiliar places is not recommended.
Nevertheless, my dad was less cautious. And I will always be thankful for his trust in this fellow and what the fellow showed us that we would otherwise likely never have discovered.
We had been photographing the exterior of what had been known as Brudern-ház (Brudern House). It was rebuilt as the headquarters of the Belvárosi Takarékpénztár (the Downtown Savings Bank) starting in 1909 and contains the Párizsi udvar ('Parisi udvar' according to the signage on the building).
Google translates 'Párisi udvar' to 'Parisian courtyard', but 'Párizsi udvar' translates to 'Paris Court' and seems more commonly used. Based on the place and information from Wikipedia, the arcade was modelled on Parisian arcades, specifically, the Passage des Panoramas, and it incorporates Indian, Islamic and Moorish elements.
The building's architect, Henrik Schmahl, died in 1912 while undergoing intestinal surgery before the building's completion. Pál Lipták, the building's construction manager, oversaw the completion of the building.
When we followed the fellow through the fancy entrance with MCMIX written above it, we found ourselves in a mostly vacant, partially derelict but extravagantly beautiful former shopping arcade.
Signage told us the arcade used to house a store selling fine carpets. Another store sold leather goods, and another sold gold jewellery.
However, in May 2012, the arcade housed very little for sale.
It did, however, house a grand interior replete with lifts, telephone booths, ornate staircases, a magnificent ceiling, mosaic flooring, and classic shopfronts facing into the arcade and onto the street.
There were broken glass panels and some graffiti, but most of the arcade still seemed to be in a relatively good state. Little visible to us appeared to be unsafe.
The blue modern payphones were incongruous in their booths. But time had marched on in Budapest, and time had since continued its forward march beyond the usefulness of public telephones with the prevalence of mobile phones.
Despite still feeling a little nervous about whether we had walked into a trap for tourists, I snapped away in every direction, in thrall with my surroundings.
After we had seen and photographed our fill and my dad had tipped our impromptu tour guide for his advice, we moved on. But the place stayed in my mind.
So much so that, a couple of years later, watching an episode of Penny Dreadful, I was overcome by déja vu as Vanessa Ives entered a shop in an arcade. It took me mere moments to realise where the scene was filmed.
It was lovely to see the arcade appear lovingly restored and close to the appropriate period (the opening narrative of Penny Dreadful takes place in 1891, and the building was completed in 1913).
Over the years, I've spoken with friends about it and discussed the place and the circumstances of our visit there with my dad.
A while back, I went to seek the building out on Google Street View and discovered the building had been restored and is now a five-star Hyatt hotel.
As much as perhaps that isn't my ideal outcome for its restoration, they've retained much of the arcade's glory in the refurbishment, and I'm pleased to see it's found a new lease on life.
Despite knowing the arcade's name for all this time, I only translated it as part of composing this post. In doing so, I was reminded of the writings of a German philosopher, Walter Benjamin, about Parisian arcades, Arcades Project, which I read about in a book titled Psychogeography that my friend, Phil, gifted me.
I thought it interesting that Henrik Schmahl, a German-born architect living in Hungary, decided to 'import' a Parisian arcade to Budapest.
Hopefully, one day, I'll return to Budapest to lounge in the hotel foyer with a cocktail and admire the work done to restore a gorgeous interior.
Perhaps one day, I'll also have the funds to stay in one of the rooms in the hotel to get the complete experience.
Either way, it was a highly fortuitous and unforgettable experience during our holiday.
I thank whoever that fellow was who saw us and wanted to share his knowledge of his city with us avid photographers. I will forever be grateful that, despite my initial reservations, my dad followed a random man into a seemingly abandoned building. I hope that fellow will understand and forgive my hesitation.
parisi udvar
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 15 May 2024].
In May 2012, visiting Budapest with my parents, we ventured from our hotel for our first full day in the city.
Just on our doorstep was this beauty, containing the Parisi Udvar arcade, though its full beauty hadn't yet revealed itself when I started photographing the building's exterior.
I'll write a piece about it and our experience when I share the second of three instalments of photographs.
radio city 96.7
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 2 May 2024].
I visited Liverpool from Sunday to Tuesday to support an event for my day job on Sunday and Monday.
I took advantage of my day off in lieu earned through that to stay an extra day in the city to see more of it.
The one time I visited the city for an extended period was on New Year's Eve 1999 for Cream 2000.
However, my time there during that visit was predominantly spent in a tent designed to accommodate 26,000 ravers, where the focus was music, dancing and welcoming in the new millennium, not the city itself.
I wrote a short piece about that visit on my Instagram earlier in the week when I posted a photo of Pier Head I took with my phone camera on Tuesday during my two-ish hour photo walk.
I snuck a short photowalk in on Sunday evening en route to get supplies from a supermarket. But, both that walk and the one on Tuesday predominantly focused on the waterfront area, with my walk on Tuesday extending into Matthew Street (where The Cavern Club is) and up to Lime Street, from where I caught the train back to London.
Unfortunately, due to the weight of my rucksack, I didn't manage to revisit places I'd passed that caught my eye en route to my accommodation on Sunday with my D700.
I could have left my bag behind reception in my accommodation after checkout and returned for it. But the hotel was about a 23-minute walk from the station, so it would have involved me walking there and back to retrieve it on top of my photo walk when my intended route took me close to the station anyway.
Liverpool is, understandably, littered with tributes to the Fab Four, The Beatles. And, while I have some photos from my visit that relate to them that I'm pleased with and will share in future, I wanted to avoid the Liverpool cliches for my first post of one of my D700 photos from the city.
So, instead, here's a music-related photograph of St Johns Beacon, the former revolving restaurant that became the home of Radio City 96.7 in July 2000.
Radio City's stations rebranded to Hits Radio on my birthday this year. Unfortunately, they've announced they'll rebrand the tower with their new logo, which I don't think will work as well on a structure of that era, so I'm glad I captured it when I did.
I hope to arrange to sit Sir Peter and his peacock friends in Delamere again for a longer stretch. If I can, I'll take advantage of the proximity to pop over to Liverpool again for a day or two or three to explore more of the city with my camera and to visit Tate Liverpool, the Open Eye Gallery, the various museums along the waterfront and more.
pay here
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 6 March 2024].
owt wet
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 27 February 2024].
cafe inside
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 9 February 2024].
looking up, going down
east briscoe
resident of the month
Week two of the December project I'm doing with friends, Phil, Christina and Charlotte.
No theme, just a photo a week of whatever catches our eye.
butchery
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 29 November 2023].
When travelling, my camera is probably pointed equally at the sublime and the mundane. Whatever catches my eye.
In this case, a former butchery in West Ulverstone, Tasmania, caught my eye as Victoria drove me from our delicious brunch at Hey Buddy to West Ulverstone beach for a wander (albeit relatively brief as the weather turned wet and windy soon after).
We'd only driven about 160m when the shopfront caught my eye, and I asked Victoria to stop so I could take some photos.
I can't explain why I was drawn to it. Maybe it was the eggshell blue tiles. Maybe it was the faded signage. Maybe a combination of the two.
I don't recall if I registered the logo design fully in the moment, but that is definitely a reason I should have been drawn to it. I've included a crop of the detail of the logo (albeit not the best quality at that size) to explain why it was 100% worth stopping, in my opinion.
the old contemptibles
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 21 November 2023].
taste and see that the lord is good
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 29 October 2023].
new lipchis way
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 16 December 2022].
A marker in Itchenor for the New Lipchis Way, a walking trail linking Liphook and Chichester Harbour.
there will be comedy (loading only)
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 6 December 2022].
I took this photograph of the Futurist Theatre in February 2012 while visiting Scarborough with an ex-partner, Kyle, using The Old Chapel in Baldersdale as our base.
I finally edited this photo a couple of weeks ago and looked up which road it was on in Scarborough. That was when I discovered the theatre closed in January 2014 and was demolished in August 2018.
I have to admit I gasped in shock, horror and sadness.
The place seemed somewhat comical when I photographed it.
Most British seaside towns - especially their esplanades (even if called something else) - elicit a strange combination of amusement (especially if there's a 'Pleasure Beach'), nostalgia, curiosity, wonderment and sadness for me. Maybe there's a longer piece to be written about that.
But, given its history (both iconic and terrible), it seemed shocking to have been knocked down.
And from what I can tell, the site hasn't been developed further since (which is possibly even sadder).
For a time, the Futurist Theatre had the ignominious heritage of being owned by the Black and White Minstrel Show's producer. They staged the show there many times.
But The Beatles also performed there during their Beatlemania period in 1963 and 1964.
Aside from the architecture, history, irony and nostalgia, I photographed the theatre because The Muppets was showing.
Man or Muppet became our shared earworm during that holiday. It played regularly on the northern radio stations we listened to in the rental car during our time in the region.
Despite its cheesiness, there's a snippet of the film's dialogue in the video clip for the song that got me every time. It still does.
this road floods each tide
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 30 September 2022].
It's been a while (like, over a year) since I created and shared a new digital collage for my lost in her own world series.
So here's one I created this evening using a photograph I took in Bosham a little over a year ago.
#FridayFeels
It's also been over a year since I wrote an instalment of my postcards from another's life series. But I've had some ideas gestating the past couple of days inspired by a couple of podcasts I listened to earlier in the week. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to write those soon.
I hope you have good things planned for the weekend x
public footpath
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 23 August 2022].
For those who aren't aware, England, Scotland, and Wales have a system of public footpaths and bridleways collectively recognised as rights of way.
They allow folk to travel across private land without fear of a charge of trespassing. Or threat or reprisal from landowners.
In rural areas, they can make getting from Point A to Point B on foot a much quicker journey than if you had to stick to the footpaths alongside roads. They also make for interesting routes for those of us inclined to photo walks.
The entrance to this public footpath can be found north of Cotton End.
I didn't take it while I was cat-sitting for Jo and Becky this time, but hopefully, if I have the chance to cat-sit Meg and Mog again, I will be able to explore it further.
Or, at least, others not far away which lead to places that seem enticing to my photographic eye.
If you want to see how extensive the right-of-way system is in the UK, check out the Footpath Map.
neon chicks
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 23 June 2022].
keep away from edge
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 30 April 2022].
s.p.q.b.
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 22 April 2022].
'Senatus Populus Que Brugensis' means 'the Senate and the people of Bruges'.
It can be found on the Bruges coat of arms and an ornate water pump featuring a swan in Bruges, as I found in 2014 during my time there.