London
NewYork Vs
Table of Contents Table of contents
London Eye . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Victoria Palace Theatre . . . . . . . . Red telephone box . . . . . . . . . . . Kensington High Street . . . . . . . . Chrysler Building . . . . . . . . . . . New York red cube . . . . . . . . . . Fire escape . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2
3 3 5 6 9 10 10
London London Eye
Victoria Palace Theatre
The Merlin Entertainments London Eye (commonly the London Eye, or Millennium Wheel) is an extremely large passenger-carrying Ferris wheel situated on the banks of the River Thames in Central London in the United Kingdom.
It is the largest Ferris wheel in Europe, and has become the most popular paid tourist attraction in the United Kingdom, visited by over three million people in one year.[1] At the time it was erected, in 1999, it was the tallest Ferris wheel in the world, until it was surpassed by the Star of Nanchang (160 metres (524 ft 11 in)) in May 2006, and then the Singapore Flyer (165 metres (541 ft 4 in)) on 11 February 2008. However, it is still described by its operators as ”the world’s tallest cantilevered observation wheel” (as the entire structure is supported by an Aframe on one side only).[2]
The London Eye is located at the western end of Jubilee Gardens, on the South Bank of the River Thames in the London Borough of Lambeth in England, between Westminster Bridge and Hungerford Bridge. The site is adjacent to that of the former Dome of Discovery, which was built for the Festival of Britain in 1951.
3
The Victoria Palace Theatre is a West End theatre in Victoria Street, in the City of Westminster, opposite Victoria Station.
Origins
The theatre began life as a small concert room above the stables of the Royal Standard Hotel, a small hotel and tavern built in 1832 at what was then 522 Stockbridge Terrace, on the site of the present theatre – not, as sometimes stated, on land where the train station now stands. The proprietor, John Moy, enlarged the building, and by 1850 it became known as Moy’s Music Hall. Alfred Brown took it over in 1863, refurbished it, and renamed it the Royal Standard Music Hall. The hotel was demolished in 1886, by which time the main line terminus, Victoria Station and its new Grosvenor Hotel, had transformed the area into a major transport hub. The railways were at this time building grand hotel structures at their termini, and Victoria was one of the first. Added to this was the integration of the electric underground system and the building of Victoria Street. The owner of the music hall, Thomas Dickey, had it rebuilt along more ambitious lines in 1886 by Richard Wake, retaining the name Royal Standard Music Hall.
Matcham’s theatre
Notable productions 1930 1934 1937 1945 1947 1962 1974 1978 1982 1982 1986 1987 1989 1995
The Royal Standard, was demolished in 1910, and in its place was built, at a cost of 12,000, the current theatre, The Victoria Palace. It was designed by prolific theatre architect Frank Matcham, and opened November 6, 1911. The original design featured a sliding roof that helped cool the auditorium during intervals in the summer months.
The Chelsea Follies Young England Me and My Girl Variety The Crazy Gang The Black and White Minstrel Show Carry On London Annie Windy City The Little Foxes Charlie Girl High Society Buddy - The Buddy Holly Story Jolson
Recent productions ÖÖ Fame - The Musical (3 October 2000 - 8 September 2001) by Jacques Levy and Steve Margoshes ÖÖ Kiss Me, Kate (30 August 2001 - 24 August 2002) ÖÖ Grease (2 October 2002 - 6 September 2003) starring Ben Richards and Lee Latchford-Evans ÖÖ Tonight’s the Night (7 November 2003 - 9 October 2004) ÖÖ Billy Elliot the Musical (11 May 2005 - present) by Lee Hall, starring Tim Healy and Sally Dexter.
Under impresario Alfred Butt, the Victoria Palace Theatre continued the musical theatre tradition by presenting mainly varieties, and under later managements, repertory and revues, [1]. Perhaps because of its music hall linkage, the plays were not always taken seriously. In 1934, the theatre presented Young England, a patriotic play written by the Rev. Walter Reynolds, then 83. It received such amusingly bad reviews that it became a cult hit and played to full houses for 278 performances before transferring to two other West End theatres.
4
Red telephone box The red telephone box, a public telephone kiosk designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, is a familiar sight on the streets of the United Kingdom, Malta, Bermuda and Gibraltar, and despite a reduction in their numbers in recent years, red boxes can still be seen in many places and current or ex-British Colonies around the world. The colour red was chosen to make them easy to spot.
Design history The first standard public telephone kiosk introduced by the United Kingdom Post Office was produced in concrete in 1920 and was designated K1 (Kiosk No.1). The red telephone box was the result of a competition in 1924 to design a kiosk that would be acceptable to the London Metropolitan Boroughs which had hitherto resisted the Post Office’s effort to erect K1 kiosks on their streets.
Crown In 1952 the new Queen, Elizabeth II, decided to depart from the practice of using the purely symbolic ’Tudor Crown’ as the symbol of her government, and instead use a representation of the actual crown generally used for British coronations, the St Edward’s Crown. This new symbol therefore began to appear on the fascias of K6 kiosks. In Scotland, the Post Office opted to use a representation of the actual Crown of Scotland, in line with the new practice for other parts of the Government.
Number of red telephone boxes The K6 was the most prolific kiosk in the UK and its growth, from 1935, can be seen from the BT archives: 1925 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,000 1930 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8,000 1935 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19,000 1940 . . . . . . . . . . . . 35,000 1950 . . . . . . . . . . . . 44,000 1960 . . . . . . . . . . . . 65,000 1970 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70,000 1980 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73,000
(K1 Only) (K2 & K3 added) (K6 introduced)
(K8 introduced in 1968)
5
Prior to these changes, the Tudor Crown had been used in all parts of the United Kingdom, and the British Empire. To accommodate the two different Crowns on the K6 kiosks, the fascia sections were henceforth cast with a slot in them, into which a plate bearing the appropriate crown was inserted before the roof section was fitted. (This change hapened in 1955 and is a very useful way of dating K6 boxes manufactured thereafter.)
Kensington High Street
Kiosks installed in Kingston upon Hull were not fitted with a crown as those kiosks were installed by the Hull Corporation (later Hull City Council, then Kingston Communications). All boxes in Hull were also painted in cream.
British Telecom (BT), the KX100, a more utilitarian design, began to replace most of the existing boxes. Some 2000 boxes were given listed status and several thousand others were left on low-revenue mostly rural sites but many thousands of recovered K2 and K6 boxes were sold off. Some kiosks have been converted to be used as shower cubicles in private homes. In In 1959 architect Neville Conder Kingston upon Thames a number was commissioned to design a new of old K6 boxes have been utilised box. The K7 design went no further to form a work of art resembling than the prototype stage. K8 ina row of fallen dominoes.[citation troduced in 1968 was designed by needed] The KX100 PLUS, introBruce Martin. It was used primarily duced in 1996 featured a domed for new sites, around 11000 were roof reminiscent of the familiar K2 installed, replacing earlier models and K6. Subsequent designs have only when they needed relocating departed significantly from the or had been damaged beyond old style red telephone boxes. repair. The K8 retained a red colour scheme, but it was a different shade of red. A slightly brighter ’Poppy Red’, this went on to be the standard colour across all kiosks.
Kensington High Street is the main shopping street in Kensington, west London. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.[1] Kensington High Street is the continuation of Kensington Road and part of the A315. It starts by the entrance to Kensington Palace and runs westward through central Kensington. Near Kensington (Olympia) station, where the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea ends and Hammersmith begins, it ends and becomes Hammersmith Road.
Modernisation
The street is served by High Street Kensington underground station.
Only 12 remain — most having been replaced with the KX100 making the K8 as rare as the K3.
Privatisation Upon the privatisation of Post Office Telephone’s successor,
6
New York Grand Central Station
Grand Central Terminal
Between 1899 and 1900, the head house was essentially demolished. It was expanded from three to six stories and an entirely new facade put on it, on plans drawn by railroad architect Bradford Gilbert. The train shed was kept. The tracks that had previously continued south of 42nd Street were removed and the train yard reconfigured in an effort to reduce congestion and turn-around time for trains. The reconstructed building was renamed Grand Central Station.
Four-sided clock inside New York City’s Grand Central Terminal
Three buildings serving essentially the same function have stood on this site. The original large and imposing scale was intended by the New York Central Railroad to enhance competition and compare favorably in the public eye with the archrival Pennsylvania Railroad and smaller lines. Grand Central Depot Grand Central Depot was designed to bring the trains of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, the New York and Harlem Railroad, and the New York and New Haven Railroad together in one large station. The station was opened in October 1871. The original plan was for the Harlem Railroad to start using it on October 9, 1871 (moving from their 27th Street depot), the New Haven Railroad on October 16, and the Hudson River Railroad on October 23, with the staggering done to minimize confusion. However, the Hudson River Railroad did not move to it until November 1, which puts the other two dates in doubt. The headhouse building containing passenger service areas and railroad offices was an ”L” shape with a short leg running east-west on 42nd Street and a long leg running north-south on Vanderbilt Avenue. The train shed, north and east of the head house, had two innovations in U.S. practice: the platforms were elevated to the height of the cars, and the roof was a balloon shed with a clear span over all of the tracks.
Grand Central Terminal
7
Between 1903 and 1913, the entire building was torn down in phases and replaced by the current Grand Central Terminal, which was designed by the architectural firms of Reed and Stem and Warren and Wetmore, who entered an agreement to act as the associated architects of Grand Central Terminal in February 1904. Reed & Stem were responsible for the overall design of the station, Warren and Wetmore added architectural details and the Beaux-Arts style. Charles Reed was appointed the chief executive for the collaboration between the two firms, and promptly appointed Alfred T. Fellheimer as head
of the combined design team. This work was accompanied by the
electrification of the three railroads using the station and the burial of the approach in the Park Avenue tunnel. The result of this was the creation of several blocks worth of prime real estate in Manhattan, which were then sold for a large sum of money. The new terminal opened on February 2, 1913.[10] French sculptor Jules-Alexis Coutan created what was at the time of its unveiling (1914) considered to be the largest sculptural group in the world. It was 48 feet (15 m) high,
Arriving trains would go underground under Park Avenue, and proceed to an upper-level incoming station if they were mainline trains, or to a lower-level platform if they were suburban trains. In addition, turning loops within the station itself obviated complicated switching moves to bring back the trains to the coach yards for servicing. Departing mainline trains reversed into upper-level platforms in the conventional way.
the clock in the center having a circumference of 13 feet (4.0 m). It
The terminal also did away with bifurcating Park Avenue by introducing a ”circumferential elevated driveway” that allowed Park Avenue traffic to traverse around the building and over 42nd Street without encumbering nearby streets. The building was also designed to be able to eventually reconnect both segments of 43rd Street by going through the concourse if the City of New York demanded it.
depicted Mercury flanked by Hercules and Minerva and was carved by the John Donnelly Company.
Covering Park Avenue In order to accommodate evergrowing rail traffic into the restricted Midtown area, William J. Wilgus, chief engineer of the New York Central Railroad took advantage of the recent electrification technology to propose a novel scheme: a bi-level station below ground.
Terminal City
8
The construction of Grand Central created a mini-city within New York, including the Commodore Hotel and various office buildings. It spurred construction throughout
the neighborhood in the 1920s including the Chrysler Building. In 1928, the New York Central built its headquarters in a 34-story building (now called the Helmsley Building) straddling Park Avenue on the north side of the Terminal. There is a secret platform, number 61, under the station.[11] This was used to convey President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his limousine directly into the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, in order to hide from the public and press his disability, caused by polio. This platform was part of the original design of the Waldorf Astoria. It was mentioned in the New York Times in 1929 but was first used by General Pershing in 1938.[12]
Grand Central Art Galleries Grand Central Art Galleries reception for the dance troupe of Uday Shankar at the January 31, 1934, opening of ”The Races of Man.” From left: Timir Baran, Shirali, Simkie, Walter Leighton Clark, Kanak-Lata, artist Malvina Hoffman, Uday Shankar, and Erwin S. Barrie.
From 1922 to 1958 Grand Central Terminal was the home of the Grand Central Art Galleries, which were established by John Singer Sargent, Edmund Greacen, Walter Leighton Clark, and others.[13] The founders had sought a location in Manhattan that was central and easily accessible, and through the support of Alfred Holland Smith, president of the New York Central Railroad, the top of the terminal was made available. A 10-year lease[14] was signed, and the galleries, together with the railroad company, invested more than $100,000 in preparing the space.[15] The architect was William Adams Delano, best known for designing Yale Divinity School’s Sterling Quadrangle.
wing of the terminal. The school was directed by Sargent and Daniel Chester French; its first year teachers included painters Jonas Lie and Nicolai Fechin; sculptor Chester Beach; illustrator Dean Cornwell; costume designer Helen Dryden; and muralist Ezra Winter.[17][18] The Grand Central Art Galleries remained in the terminal until 1958, when they moved to the Biltmore Hotel. When the Biltmore was demolished in 1981 they relocated to 24 West 57th Street.[19] They ceased operations in 1994.
Chrysler Building The Chrysler Building is an Art Deco skyscraper in New York City, located on the east side of Manhattan in the Turtle Bay area at the intersection of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue. Standing at 319 metres (1,047 ft),[4][5] it was the world’s tallest building for 11 months before it was surpassed by the Empire State Building in 1931. After the destruction of the World Trade Center, it was again the second-tallest building in New York City until December 2007, when the spire was raised on the 365.8-metre (1,200 ft) Bank of America Tower, pushing the Chrysler Building into third position. In addition, The New York Times Building which opened in 2007, is exactly level with the Chrysler Building in height.[6]
At their opening the galleries extended over most of the terminal’s sixth floor, 15,000 square feet (1,400 m2), and offered eight main exhibition rooms, a foyer gallery, and a reception area.[16] A total of 20 display rooms were to be created for what was intended to be ”the largest sales gallery of art in the world.”[15] The official opening was March 22, 1923[16], and featured paintings by Sargent, Charles W. Hawthorne, Cecilia Beaux, Wayman Adams, and Ernest Ipsen. Sculptors included Daniel Chester French, Herbert Adams, Robert Aitken, Gutzon Borglum, and Frederic MacMonnies. The event attracted 5,000 people and received a glowing review from the New York Times. A year after their opening the galleries established the Grand Central School of Art, which occupied 7,000 square feet (650 m2) on the seventh floor of the east
The Chrysler Building is a classic example of Art Deco architecture and considered by many contemporary architects to be one of the finest buildings in New York City. In 2007, it was ranked ninth on the List of America’s Favorite Architecture by the American Institute of Architects.[7]
9
New York red cube Fire escape By Isamu Noguchi
Bank,
Cube stands out in strong contrast to the blacks, browns, and whites of the buildings and sidewalks around the sculpture. Located to one side of a small plaza in front of the HSBC (previously the Marine Midland Bank) building on Broadway, Red Cube is surrounded on three sides by skyscrapers, the height of which draw a viewer’s eye upwards. The sculpture itself Red adds to this upward pull, Cub e at Mid land as it balances on one corner, the opposite corner reaching towards the sky. Despite its title, the sculpture is not actually a cube, but instead seems as though it has been stretched along its vertical axis.
option for existing buildings prior to the post-world war II period.
One of the first fire escapes of any type was invented in 18th-century England. In 1784, Daniel Maseres, of England, invented a machine called a fire escape, which, being fastened to the window, would enable anyone to descend to the street witout injury. By 1888 the US had granted 1,099 patents on fire escapes of ”many forms, and of every possible material”. [2]
ork , New Y adway
140 Bro
As building codes became more common in countries around the turn of the 20th century, fire safety became an important concern for new construction. Building owners were increasingly required to provide adequate escape routes, and at the time, fire escapes seemed the best option available. Not only could they be included in new construction at a low cost, but they could be very easily added to existing construction. As building codes evolved and more safety concerns addressed over subsequent editions, all constrution above a certain number of stories was required to have a second means of egress, and external fire escapes were allowed as a retrofit
10
NewV York
London s