Sunday, 12 April 2015

tate modern

                                            TATE MODERN

Tate Modern is a modern art gallery located in Londdon. It is Britain's national gallery of international modern art and forms part of the Tate group. It is the most-visited modern art gallery in the world, with around 4.7 million visitors per year. It is based in the former Bankside Power Station, in the  Bankside area of the London Borough of Southwark.

The power station closed in 1981. In 1992 The Tate Gallery at the British National Art Museum proposed a competition to build a new building for modern art. In 1995 it was announced that Herzog and de Meuron had won the competition with their simple design. The architects decided to reinvent the current building instead of demolishing it. The Tate modern is an example of adaptive reuse, the process of finding new life in old buildings.

The collections in Tate Modern consist of works of international modern and contemporary art dating from 1900 until today.Tate Modern currently has seven floors, originally numbered 1 to 7, they were then renumbered 0 to 6 in 2012.


Tower Bridge


Tower Bridge (built 1886–1894) is a combined bascule and suspension bridge in London, England which crosses the River Thames. It is close to the Tower of London, from which it takes its name, and has become an iconic symbol of London.

The bridge consists of two bridge towers tied together at the upper level by two horizontal walkways, designed to withstand the horizontal forces exerted by the suspended sections of the bridge on the landward sides of the towers. The vertical components of the forces in the suspended sections and the vertical reactions of the two walkways are carried by the two robust towers. The bascule pivots and operating machinery are housed in the base of each tower. The bridge's present colour scheme dates from 1977, when it was painted red, white and blue for Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee. Originally it was painted a mid greenish- blue colour.

In the second half of the 19th century, increased commercial development in the East End of London led to a requirement for a new river crossing downstream of London Bridge. A traditional fixed bridge could not be built because it would cut off access by tall-masted ships to the port facilities in the Pool of London, between London Bridge and the Tower of London.
A Special Bridge was formed in 1877, chaired by Sir Albert Joseph Altman, to find a solution to the river crossing problem. It opened the design of the crossing to public competition. Over 50 designs were submitted. The evaluation of the designs was surrounded by controversy, and it was not until 1884 that a design submitted by Sir Horance Jones, the City Architect (who was also one of the judges),was approved.
Jones' engineer, Sir John Wolfe Barry, devised the idea of a bascule bridge with two bridge towers built on piers. The central span was split into two equal bascules or leaves, which could be raised to allow river traffic to pass. The two side-spans were suspension bridges, with the suspension rods anchored both at the abutments and through rods contained within the bridge's upper walkways.

Thursday, 9 April 2015

tower of london



THE TOWER OF LONDON.
The Tower of London, officially the Royal Palace and Fortress of His Majesty, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It is within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, Separated northern limit of the city for an Open Space known as Tower Hill. It was founded towards the end of 1066 As parte of the Norman conquest of England. The White Tower, which gives its name to the whole castle built by William the Conqueror FUE in 1078, becoming a symbol of Oppression In London For instance part of the new elite Ruler. Since at Least 1100, the castle was used as a prison, although this was not the primary purpose. Overall, A complex of several buildings set within two concentric rings of defensive walls and moat of the Tower UN is; The Castle in Various Stages Broad, especially under the Mandate of Richard the Lionheart, Henry III and Edward I in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The General Arrangement of the late thirteenth century has been maintained despite the subsequent activity.

Millennium Bridge.


-The Millennium Bridge, officially known as the London Millennium Footbridge, is as steel suspension bridge for pedestrians crossing the River Thames in London, linking Bankside with the City of London. It is sited between Southwark Bridge and Blackfriars Railway Bridge.

-The Millennium Bridge is owned and maintained by Bridge House Estates, a charitable trust overseen by the City of London Corporation.

-The southern end of the bridge is near the Globe theatre, the Bankside Gallery and Tate Modern, the north end next to the City of London School below St Paul´s Cathedral.

-Construction began in late 1998 and the main works were started on 28 April 1999.
This led to long queues and dampened neither public enthusiasm for what was something of a white-knuckle ride, nor the vibrations themselves.


-The Millennium Bridge was featured in the sixth installment of the Harry Potter film franchise, where the bridge collapsed following an attack by Death Eaters.
-The Bridge also appeared in the 2014 Marvel Cinematic Universe film Guardians of the Galaxy during the climactic battle on Xandar.
-The Bridge also appeared in the video to the Olly Murs song "Heart on My Sleeve.

Big Ben


The name Big Ben is often used to describe the tower, the clock and the bell but the name was first given to the Great Bell.
The Elizabeth Tower, which stands at the north end of the Houses of Parliament, was completed in 1859 and the Great Clock started on 31st May, with the Great Bell's strikes heard for the first time on 11th July and the quarter bells first chimed on 7th September.
Big Ben es el nombre con el que se conoce a la gran campana del reloj situado en el lado noroeste del Palacio de Westminster, la sede del Parlamento de Reino Unido en Londres y popularmente por extensión se utiliza también para nombrar al reloj de la torre. Su nombre oficial era Clock Tower hasta que el 26 de junio de 2012, en honor al jubileo de diamante de la reina Isabel II, se decidió que la torre pasaría a llamarse Elizabeth Tower (torre de Isabel).
La torre alberga el reloj de cuatro caras más grande del mundo, y es la tercera torre de reloj más alta del mundo. Celebró su 150 aniversario el 31 de mayo de 2009 y se llevaron a cabo diversos actos de conmemoración. La torre se completó en 1858 y el reloj entró en funcionamiento el 7 de septiembre de 1859

Wednesday, 8 April 2015

Globe Theatre


The Globe Theatre

 
The Globe Theatre was built in 1599 by Peter Street; he was on the Thames River on the outskirts of the city of London; about 30 meters in diameter this size allowed the entry of a total of 3351 spectators, nevertheless can not know if the theater offered a role with his body capacity.

The setting was a box protruding from the circumference of the construction industry and invaded the proscenium, measuring approximately 13 meters wide by 8 feet deep and five feet tall.

Had two hatches through reached the stage where the lower part thereof, the first was at the anterior and the other in the rear. The bottom of the stage was known as hell and there appeared and disappeared supernatural characters (demonic) such as the ghost of Hamlet.

The columns were on stage supporting the roof where another trap from which hung divine personages from the sky was; probably these were sustained with ropes and / or harnesses that could get at the time.
El Globo, from the London Millennium Bridge

The three doors to the scenario leading to backstage where they hoped their entry where the actors and characters out the wounded dying offstage, they then were led up to one of the doors so the audience could see them without the need for them to enter the stage again, and so understand that they were really dead.

Above these doors a balcony that was used was when a headspace was needed to develop the action; one of his most famous uses was in the familiar scene from Romeo and Juliet.

The Theatre dismantled material was used for the construction of this theater. After expiration of the license of that theater (the first Elizabethan) in 1597 its owner, James Burbage, must move it across the Thames renaming.

Like most theaters of the time (except for Blackfriars that was covered) The Globe was homeless for construction of the proscenium, which prevented presentations rainy days, for this reason, and because of Winter cold, theater only worked during the summer (May to October) while daylight lasted. The presentations were held during the weekends, beginning after lunch, at about two in the afternoon (I had lunch around eleven, twelve) and extended until nightfall; this for obvious reasons of lack of lighting is well done. Localities costing from 1p on the stage (where they were standing) to 6 for the audience.

This theater served as a refuge for the theater company Lord Chamberlain's Men in which participated the famous playwright William Shakespeare; this room had the honor of being the birthplace of works such as King Lear, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello, etc.
The theater inside


In 1613 a fire destroyed the premises of the theater, but was immediately rebuilt in 1614 and demolished in 1644 under the shadows of English Puritanism reborn condemning theatrical presentations of the Elizabethan era.

In 1997 the theater reopened its doors under the name of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre respecting the forms of ancient construction. The site is located about 200 meters from the site where it opened its doors for the first time. Like the original single plays are set during the summer season, but unlike that only seats about 1,500 people.



Schedule to visit: 10:00-17:30

Monday, 6 April 2015

Palace of Westminster


 Palace of Westminster


The Palace of Westminster is the meeting place of the House of Comons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament  of the United Kingdom. Commonly known as the House of Parliament after its occupants, the Palace lies on the Middlesex bank of the River Thames in the City of Westminster, in central London. Its name, which derives from the neighbouring Westminster Abbey, may refer to either of two structures: the Old Palace, a medieval building complex that was destroyedby fire in 1834, and its replacement, the New Palace that stands today. For ceremonial purposes, the palace retains its original style and status as a royal residence and is the property of the Crown.
The first royal palace was built on the site in the eleventh century, and Westminster was the primary residence of the Kings of England until a fire destroyed much of the complex in 1512. After that, it served as the home of the Parliament of England, which had been meeting there since the thirteenth century, and also as the seat of the Royal Courts of Justice, based in and aroundWestminster Hall. In 1834, an even greater fire ravaged the heavily rebuilt Houses of Parliament.
The subsequent competition for the reconstruction of the Palace was won by the architect Charles Barry, whose design was for new buildings in the Perpendicular Gotic style. The remains of the Old Palace (with the exception of the detached Jewel Tower).