At last, a return to a warmer climate and a reflection on our family holiday to Umbria last year. I had set out to spend the week beside the pool, with a glass of wine to hand admiring the views, but when you are surrounded by hilltop cities, towns and villages, it is very difficult not to venture out and explore. My head says relax, but my heart says discover, and my heart won out.
This was a day trip we took to Assisi, a place that I have visited many times before, but each time I make new discoveries, and walk different routes. It is a beautiful town and fortunately most of the visitors stick to the lower end where the Basilica of St Frances is located. There is no theme to the doors this week, although the theme of Assisi doors would appear to be enough.
Today is a very important day in British politics, as well as American history. To the Brits I say don’t forget to vote and remember your photo ID and to our cousins across the pond I wish you a joyful Independence Day.
Here are some doors:
Temple of Minerva with central door, Assisi, Umbria, Italy, July 2023Iron archway door, Assisi, Umbria, Italy, July 2023A well lived door, Assisi, Umbria, Italy, July 2023Church door, Assisi, Umbria, Italy, July 2023Fine arch surround and wooden door, Assisi, Umbria, Italy, July 2023Door within a large door, Assisi, Umbria, Italy, July 2023Arch surround and crest, with fan light and wooden door, Assisi, Umbria, Italy, July 2023Archway and shrine, Assisi, Umbria, Italy, July 2023
Next time I will have some more doors from Assisi. Until then may I wish you a happy weekend.
If you have made it this far, you probably like doors, and you really ought to take a look at the No Facilities blog by Dan Anton who has taken over the hosting of Thursday Doors from Norm 2.0 blog. Links to more doorscursions can be found in the comments section of Dan Anton’s Thursday Doors post.
Doors 269 – Doors from Cheltenham, July 2023 (Part III)
Good morning from Bristol, where the mood has been lifted by a couple of wonderful warm days, although the clouds today probably signify the end of our summer! This week I bring you the final selection of doors from a visit I made to Cheltenham last July to experience the Cheltenham Paint Festival. There is not too much to say about these doors other than they are a random selection from my wanderings, I hope you enjoy them.
Double doors, one without door furniture, Cheltenham, July 2023Typical Cheltenham door with ironwork awning, Cheltenham, July 2023A new door with ironwork awning, Cheltenham, July 2023Cherrington Chambers double doors, Cheltenham, July 2023Grand entrance, door and fanlight window, Cheltenham, July 2023Green door, steps and wonderful fanlight window, Cheltenham, July 2023Door with graffiti and ‘Apache attack helicopter’ stencils, Cheltenham, July 2023
I have a busy day ahead, so that’s it I’m afraid for another week. Next time I am thinking a return to Umbria in Italy is on the cards, see you then.
If you have made it this far, you probably like doors, and you really ought to take a look at the No Facilities blog by Dan Anton who has taken over the hosting of Thursday Doors from Norm 2.0 blog. Links to more doorscursions can be found in the comments section of Dan Anton’s Thursday Doors post.
Doors 268 – Street art and graffiti doors of Bristol (and Weston-super-Mare)
I have been away from Bristol a bit this week, and not had any time to prepare my final part of Cheltenham doors, which I will share in my next Thursday doors post. When this happens, I tend to recycle some existing photographs that I have taken for my graffiti and street art blog posts. gather them together and post them as a doors collection. It is a pragmatic solution to a diminishing time resource window (any more corporate speak welcome at this point).
These doors (and I use the term as loosely as possible) were originally posted in March, April and May 2023, but may have been photographed before that. I hope you enjoy them. Normal service should resume next time.
Alex Lucas, Montpelier, Bristol, February 2023Conrico, Boswell Street, Bristol, April 2023Zase, Cottrell Road, Bristol, April 2023
I cheated a little with this one, but there is a door behind the wall.
Maybe, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, May 2023
Is a hatch a door?
Maybe, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, May 2023Aspire, Weston wallz, Weston-super-Mare, May 2023
Do car doors count?
That’s it for this week.
If you have made it this far, you probably like doors, and you really ought to take a look at the No Facilities blog by Dan Anton who has taken over the hosting of Thursday Doors from Norm 2.0 blog. Links to more doorscursions can be found in the comments section of Dan Anton’s Thursday Doors post.
This piece by Zoe Power would be equally at home in my street art posts or as part of the Thursday doors series (watch this space, because it will eventually appear in the latter). Zoe Power is a successful artist i Bristol, whose commissions can be found on walls all over the city. Her style is clear and simple and overtones of the Fauvist school of art which was known for its bold use of colours and expressive brushwork. Henri Matisse, I am convinced, is an inspiration behind some of Zoe Power’s work.
Zoe Power, Wilder Street, Bristol, May 2024
This door is an absolute beauty which blends colours and shapes seamlessly. There are plenty of recognisable icons and motifs, such as an eye, a pencil, a mouth, a heart and a plant all presented in an abstract format. The colour palette works well and the door is surely one of the prettiest in the area. A fine commission from Zoe Power.
Doors 266 – Doors from Cheltenham, July 2023 (Part I)
Last July, I made my annual pilgrimage to Cheltenham for the Cheltenham Paint Festival, which thanks to the tireless efforts of the organiser Andy Davies (Dice 67) is going from strength to strength. Of course, I took the opportunity (not for the first time) to photograph some doors while I was there. Cheltenham is a funny place in that it has some expensive and exclusive properties cheek by jowl with what we call these days ‘affordable housing’ (none of which is particularly affordable, but that discussion is for another day). The result is an eclectic mix of doors and periods – here is a taster for my first of three collections from last year’s visit:
Yellow door with an oval window, Cheltenham, July 2023Door with a flat-roofed awning, Cheltenham, July 2023Former Beatrice von Tresckow design shop font, Cheltenham, July 2023Door to Former Beatrice von Tresckow design shop font, Cheltenham, July 2023Blue door, Ionic columns and an ornate veranda, Cheltenham, July 2023Black door and ornate veranda, Cheltenham, July 2023Black door and steps, Cheltenham, July 2023Double doors with one sealed up, Cheltenham, July 2023
I recall that I posted this last door once before in September 2019, although it looked quite different then. It is interesting how a lick of paint can completely transform the look of a building, and the impression it gives.
Pity about the scaffolding! Cheltenham, September 2019
That just about wraps it up for this week, and I hope it serves as a taster for the next two Thursday Doors I’ll be posting. May I wish you a pleasant weekend.
If you have made it this far, you probably like doors, and you really ought to take a look at the No Facilities blog by Dan Anton who has taken over the hosting of Thursday Doors from Norm 2.0 blog. Links to more doorscursions can be found in the comments section of Dan Anton’s Thursday Doors post.
Doors 265 – Doors from Highgate, London, November 2023 (Part V)
Forgive me if I appear a little distracted this morning, but I am still processing yesterday’s announcement by Rishi Sunak our Prime Minister, that we will be having a general election on 4 July (a special day on both sides of the pond), which is a little earlier than most were expecting. I’ll say no more about it, as Thursday Doors is a refuge from such matters, and instead focus on the final set of doors from a trip to Highgate in North London in November 2023, where I had lived for the majority of my teenage years.
I have also included a picture of the urinals in the public gents loo in Pond Square, simply because in spite of their function, they are elegant – they don’t make them like that any more (the old man in me says).
Most of these doors are from the Pond Square area, which is at the heart of Highgate ‘village’. When I was growing up, it was a place where teenagers would congregate to chat and make plans for which pubs they would try to get served in. It was also the focal point for the Pond Square Punks – it was the punk era, after all. I hope you enjoy the doors.
Blue doors of the Highgate URC Church, Highgate, London, November 2023
Pond Square public convenience and green door, Highgate, London, November 2023
Black and white doors with flat-roofed awnings, Highgate, London, November 2023
Yellow door with flat-roofed awning, Highgate, London, November 2023
Cream and blue doors with flat-roofed awnings, Highgate, London, November 2023
Had there once been a wider door to Burlington Court? Highgate, London, November 2023
Unpainted door and an autumn feel, Highgate, London, November 2023
So that rounds things off nicely for this trip down memory lane, which I have really enjoyed sharing on Thursday doors. I have a great many folders of doors waiting in the wings but will keep my plans for next time as a surprise (mainly because I haven’t decided yet).
Have a great weekend, and if you live in the UK, batten down the hatches for six weeks of relentless electioneering.
If you have made it this far, you probably like doors, and you really ought to take a look at the No Facilities blog by Dan Anton who has taken over the hosting of Thursday Doors from Norm 2.0 blog. Links to more doorscursions can be found in the comments section of Dan Anton’s Thursday Doors post.
Doors 264 – Doors from Highgate, London, November 2023 (Part IV)
This week I am incredibly pressed for time, so this will be a very short entry. My late afternoon doorscursion back in November 2023 through my old ‘manor’, Highgate village, continues in this penultimate collection from North London.
I really wanted to talk about all the pubs in Highgate, because when I was a teenager, all the talk was that Highgate had more pubs on the main street than anywhere else in the country. I have no idea if this was true, but the following is a list of them (all within a few hundred yards), starting halfway down Highgate Hill:
Brendan the Navigator, used to be called The Old Crown Inn – it has obviously gone up-market.
The Duke’s Head
The Angel
The Prince of Wales
The Crown
The Gatehouse (featured below)
The Flask (featured below)
The Red Lion and Sun
The Wrestlers
The Bull
I hope you enjoy this week’s selection:
The Gatehouse entrance door and lamp, Highgate , London, November 2023
The Flask entrance (please use other door), Highgate , London, November 2023
Blue door with fine columns and portico, Highgate, London, November 2023
Triple panelled black door, Highgate, London, November 2023
Chesterfield door and fine scalloped awning, Highgate, London, November 2023
The Old Hall gate and door, Highgate, London, November 2023
If you have made it this far, you probably like doors, and you really ought to take a look at the No Facilities blog by Dan Anton who has taken over the hosting of Thursday Doors from Norm 2.0 blog. Links to more doorscursions can be found in the comments section of Dan Anton’s Thursday Doors post.
Doors 264 – Doors from Highgate, London, November 2023 (Part III)
I went to a private (public) school in London, Highgate School, which was regarded in those days as a ‘second division’ public school for boys. In fairness, it has changed immeasurably since I was there. Then, it was a hotbed of white male privilege, and an anachronistic hangover from our colonialist days as a nation.
I received a very good education there and made a select few lifelong friends, but I frequently reflect on my time with some regret, that I was, and by inference am, a product of a system that has resulted in so many things that are bad about our country today. Misogyny, arrogance, inflated confidence, entitlement, racism, hierarchy and many other aspects of a social and financial elitism were nurtured in the public school environments of the 1970s.
We see in the current (and previous) Conservative Government the outcome of a dysfunctional and utterly unfair and unbalanced educational (and class) system. So many of our decision makers have enormous ‘blind spots’ where their position and status have been forged by their privileged experiences and selfish desires, without even a cursory glance at the wider society they serve.
Make no mistake, the private educational system in our country perpetuates the class and social divides and in my view should be abolished. A good education and educational assets should be the right of every child in the country, without exception, irrespective of background or ability to pay. Raise the bar for everyone, and if we have to pay more taxes to get it, then so be it. Those paying £30,000 per year (or term in some places) would be able to divert their savings into the public purse and feel the warm glow of helping the nation rather than themselves.
It is clear from the last 14 years, that our Eton-educated leaders have absolutely ruined our country, not because of the quality of their education, but because of their prejudices and ideology nurtured on the playing fields of British public schools.
OK, so I have got that off my chest. There are some parts of my school days that I do look upon fondly. My friends, some of the teachers (the Zoological Society – see last week’s post), the access to sport and the buildings were positive aspects, and through the years I had something of a love/hate relationship with the school. I worked hard, was never particularly academic, and was generally well-behaved. My reward eventually was to be made a school Prefect and head of my house (Eastgate), I say this to put into context the final photograph in this week’s selection where I am sitting to the left of the Housemaster (right as you look at it).
As you might have gathered, this week’s doors are all from the buildings of Highgate School, photographed on my visit there last November. Definitely mixed feelings when I saw the old place. I hope you enjoy the doors.
Doors in the entrance to the ‘modern’ Dyne House, Highgate School, Highgate, London, November 2023
Austere door that was never used as I recall, Highgate School, Highgate, London, November 2023
Fancy glass door on a building that wasn’t there in my day, Highgate School, Highgate, London, November 2023
The main entrance gate and doorway, Highgate School, Highgate, London, November 2023
Doors and steps to the school chapel, Highgate School, Highgate, London, November 2023
Gate to the quadrangle (I think that is what it was called), Highgate School, Highgate, London, November 2023
Door and stairs to the main school hall, Highgate School, Highgate, London, November 2023
Eastgate house photograph circa. 1980/81 in front of the school hall door, Highgate School, Highgate, London, November 2023
I am sure that is it the same for many of us that our school days contribute immeasurably to who we become. I have spend many of my adult years gently unpicking and scrutinising my time at Highgate School, and think I now have a much healthier relationship with the place and circumstance I found myself in, and have challenged the attitudes and prejudices that surrounded me. I am content with it.
More of an essay than a Thursday doors – I promise to revert back to concentrating on doors next week, when I will feature some more Highgate doors.
If you have made it this far, you probably like doors, and you really ought to take a look at the No Facilities blog by Dan Anton who has taken over the hosting of Thursday Doors from Norm 2.0 blog. Links to more doorscursions can be found in the comments section of Dan Anton’s Thursday Doors post.
Doors 263 – Doors from Highgate, London, November 2023 (Part II)
The trip to my old stomping ground of Highgate Village in November last year, where I spent my teenage years, was both surprising and nostalgic. Naturally in my youth one door seemed to be much the same as another, and I never looked beyond their functionality, so ‘discovering’ these Highgate doors as an older and wiser person was more than a passing pleasure.
This second selection of doors hints at the time of day, early afternoon, as the low autumn sun was casting shadows, and the light was fading. There is no theme to the doors this week, just another eclectic display captured during an hour-long walk. I sound the whole thing a slightly ‘out of body’ experience, struggling to get to grips with the fact that I walked these streets most days of my life to and from school.
I hope you enjoy this week’s doors as much as I did.
There is a bonus story about the Highgate Pantry, which used to be Wylies Bakers Shop, when I lived there. A school friend and I used to run the school Zoological Society, which was a very grand name for a brick out building where we used to house small pets, such as rabbits, mice, gerbils, rats and an Axolotl called Wobert. We looked after school pupil’s pets during the holidays too sometimes.
Feeding the animals was always a bit difficult and supplies would run low, so we hatched the idea of asking Wylies bakery if they had any leftover food which we could use to feed the pets. To our utter surprise, they were more than happy to give us ‘stale’ bread, buns, pastries and the like at the end of the day in a large brown paper sack. So roughly twice a week we’d collect our sack to feed the animals. Naturally, being teenage boys with a creative streak, we’d select out the best buns for ourselves, which we’d eat and share with school friends, the rest went to the small mammals. For a couple of years, the Zoological Society became very popular indeed.
Pink doors of the Highgate Pantry (formerly Wylies Bakery), Highgate, London, November 2023
Prince of Wales pub and doors, Highgate, London, November 2023
Woolaston and Pauncefort Almshouses doors, Highgate, London, November 2023
Yellow door, black door, green door, Highgate, London, November 2023
Two black doors, Highgate, London, November 2023
Red panelled door and fanlight, Highgate, London, November 2023
Fine blue door, fanlight and portico, Highgate, London, November 2023
Modern door, Highgate, London, November 2023
Another week draws to an end. More to come from Highgate next time.
If you have made it this far, you probably like doors, and you really ought to take a look at the No Facilities blog by Dan Anton who has taken over the hosting of Thursday Doors from Norm 2.0 blog. Links to more doorscursions can be found in the comments section of Dan Anton’s Thursday Doors post.
Doors 261 – Doors of Nottingham, November 2023 (Part III)
I am writing this post yesterday on a rather nice LNER train travelling from Peterborough, via London, to Bristol. Of course, I took the opportunity during an overnight stay to find some doors and street art while in Peterborough, but that is not important right now (Police Squad reference).
This is the third and final part of doors from a Nottingham doorscursion I made in November last year. There will be a follow-up series of posts from Nottingham following a visit I made earlier this spring, but I’ll post those in due course.
There are quite a few doors this week, another rather eclectic mix, but that is what happens when you wander aimlessly through a place. I hope you enjoy them.
Huge depot hinged doors, Nottingham, November 2023
High door with the steps mysteriously missing, Nottingham, November 2023
Old door in an old wall, Nottingham, November 2023
Door with floral gateway, Nottingham, November 2023
Panelled arch doors, Nottingham, November 2023
Vibrant blue door, Nottingham, November 2023
A touch of Art Nouveau in these doors, Nottingham, November 2023
Notts Bank Chamber doors, Nottingham, November 2023
Recessed door up steps, with fine entrance, Nottingham, November 2023
Peeled paint on a door creating a patina effect, Nottingham, November 2023
Old building, with a single door (established 1643), Nottingham, November 2023
Farewell then Nottingham for a little while at least, it has been fun. I haven’t yet decided which collection from my files to share next, suffice it to say, I have tons. May I wish you a happy weekend.
If you have made it this far, you probably like doors, and you really ought to take a look at the No Facilities blog by Dan Anton who has taken over the hosting of Thursday Doors from Norm 2.0 blog. Links to more doorscursions can be found in the comments section of Dan Anton’s Thursday Doors post.
Natural adventures 