Iaido

It appears we have been in the news (for the eagle eyed there are a couple of quick shots of Mad Dog in Technicolor) -hopefully not with poor technique enshrined in celluloid (or whatever digimedia is) for posterity.

Parking Lot Observations

I drive to work and park in a lot across the street. Yesterday as I walked the 200-300 yards or so my place of employment I noted the following items on the ground (i) a dead rat -squashed flat (ii) a used condom (iii) a used syringe (no needle). Previously I've come across a 9mm cartridge* case. Two years ago there was the brick incident and all this is just five blocks south of Seattle's famous Pioneer Square. I'm re-considering my parking options...

* As an explanatory note for gun-free Brits who may not be familiar with such descriptions, this is the expended case of a fired bullet.

Independence Day 2008

Happy 4th July everyone! (and don't mention tea)

I'm off to do something frivolous....

What Manner of Bollockery is This...?

The grand front entrance of the Middlesex Hospital, sadly boarded up a year ago (picture from DerelictLondon).

Today happens to be the 31st anniversary of the start of my career as a professional scientist when I nervously began as a very wet-behind-the-ears postdoc at the Middlesex Hospital Medical School in London. It's really hard to believe I'm that old. But complaining about my decrepitude is not the purpose of this post. What is more shocking is the fate of the hospital itself. The Middlesex merged with the mighty UCL in the 1980s and despite some rationalization of services, the new entity continued to operate on both sites until relatively recently. However following the opening of the new UCL hospital on Euston Road a couple of years ago, the old Middlesex building was closed and put up for sale. Yesterday I was shocked to receive from reader Gilly (a friend and fellow inmate at the medical school all those years ago) these photographs:


The Woolavington Wing has gone as well as the little bridge to the Courtauld Institute in Riding House Street.


Apparently only the chapel from the hospital remains.


What marketing genius thought up this rubbish name?

At first I couldn't work out what was happening and then I realised that the old hospital has been demolished. What a shock; I thought it was a listed building. Even more shocking was image found at the nohosquare.com URL emblazoned on the fencing. Heaven help us -how could this lovely old building be razed and replaced by such an abomination?


The new development: is that a golf course on top?

Generally I like modern architecture but this thing looks like an egg carton on steroids. And what's that horrid green Astroturf toupée on the roof? I suppose I shouldn't expect too much from developers who describe this monstrosity as "a new way of living and working in central London" (what could that be I wonder -sleeping vertically in a closet, perhaps?) and that the new complex contains a "destination restaurant". Any firm that resorts to such stupid, hackneyed, marketeer cliches shouldn't be allowed control of a bricklaying trowel let alone a bulldozer...(2000 word diatribe deleted). Must go now, it's time for my medication!