The Hanging Cities of Kowloon

Of course, like most people, you've probably spent some time fantasising about what could have happened if the Hong Kong City council hadn't demolished the Kowloon Walled City but rather preserved it as a testament to the more extreme urban exploits of city dwellers. It's probably one of the most fascinating and enduring anomalies that I have come across, second only to the Pink Sparkle Odeon ident. 

But what if they had strapped a load of over sized F1 Rocket Engine to the base and fired them into lower orbit where they could ominously hang in the air in exactly the way bricks don't...

No Lomography

Elephant

I went to Elephant and Castle yesterday to see some friends and on the way I did a bit of documenting the shopping centre and surrounding area before it's all demolished next year. I thought I'd post them on here...

Blackpool

I’ve wanted to visit Blackpool for about a year but had struggled to find anyone willing to come with me and, not being a lone wolf kind of guy, it wasn’t until my big brother agreed to go that I was finally able to see Fabulous Las Blackpool. It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly why I wanted to go, it stems from the notion of wanting to visit somewhere completely off the “alternative” radar, unlike Brighton or Brick Lane. I mean how cool do you sound if a friend rings you and you can say; “yeah, sorry I can’t, I’m in… Blackpool??”

My head was filled with romantic images of a desolate seaside town complete with fading ballrooms, peeling shop fronts and empty amusement arcades, all swathing in the smell of stale batter. In a perpetual cloud of drizzly gloom, a relic of the great British Summer, dissolving into the Irish Sea. Unfortunately my visions were severely hampered, as they so often are, by a lack or proper research. It turns out millions still visit Blackpool and, according to an unreliable source, has more hotel beds than the whole of Portugal. So with the combination of it being the hottest October on record, a big football match taking place and the illuminations kicking off, it was actually rather hard to find somewhere to stay.

We eventually managed to check into the Fairway Lodge, a typical Blackpool hotel nestled in the warren of B&Bs that run behind the promenade and only a saveloy’s throw from the tower. The hotel has a bit of Tardis thing going on, from the outside it only looks like a double fronted end of terrace, but inside there are staircases flying in every direction with bars and breakfast rooms and small corridors winding their way to even more suites. After dropping our bags off in our room somewhere deep in the bowels of the hotel, we headed down to the esplanade.

Walking down the high street we were flanked by platoons of uniformed stag nighters and hen partiers. The centre of the town was overrun with arguing families packed into cafes whilst rude staff shovelled cold tea and musty battered cod at them. However, it wasn’t until sunset that the magic truly began to happen. The illuminations, billed as the “Greatest Free Light Show on Earth”, manages to hit an offbeat lameness that I don’t think I’ve ever seen anywhere else. Despite being tacky, at least things like the Bellagio fountains or the Hong Kong laser show are technically challenging to compose. The illuminations are just millions of 70s Christmas decorations taped together. They’re not really a spectacle at all but a thinly veiled excuse so people can justify a trip to Blackpool to get pissed.

Not feeling 100% and with the seaside air not really helping I spent most of the evening being mesmerised by those 2p sliding arcade machines inside an amusement arcade perched on the end of a pier. The next morning I was well enough to partake in the ritual of the full English breakfast, flung at us across the dining room. Walking around the town on a damp Sunday morning I was able to grab a glimpse of the idealised Blackpool I had formed in my head. In retrospect, I think the future for the town is promising. Despite falling visitor numbers, it has an eccentricity that won’t fade and a hidden quirkiness that more and more people will start to notice, so in about 10 years Blackpool will also be too mainstream to be seen in, so it’s off to Skegness next!

Travel Maps

Now that I'm back I've had time to properly photograph some of my map booklets. There were 7 in total and were an invaluable, if expensive resource for the road trip.

LA

There is no other choice but to submit to the all-out total metropolis of Los Angeles. It’s not surprising that countless artists, photographers and directors have treated LA not as a typical city but as a secondary artificial landscape. The folded up, spray-can-paint splattered concrete canvas of the urban terrain is a fertile playground of opportunity for people to investigate and exploit. The stretches of empty grey sidewalks and gridlocked 9-lane freeways are a test bed for architectural and artistic experiments; there seems to be free reign and an endless supply of blank wall or vacant lots to be used as proving grounds for any manner of creative undertaking.

The highlights and lowlights of this experimentation include the well-documented Case Study House program. Most are off limits to the public but fortunately the most successful one, #8 by Charles and Ray Eames, is easily accessible through appointment. The anomaly known as the Watts Towers which seem to twist up and tear through the concrete bedrock of the city are pretty much the only site worth visiting in most of South Central LA. Visiting the Bradbury Building and Ennis House shows how well Ridley Scott can use a bit of smoke and mirrors to create the post apocalyptic feel of Bladerunner

Past all the repetitive and over-used pop street art of East Los Angeles and up in the hills not too far from the Hollywood Sign is the sprawling Getty Centre, designed by Richard Meier. Whilst being efficient at holding and displaying its collection of 19^th Century art, its white sterile design feels more like an industrial scale euthanasia clinic, very calming. Over in Downtown, The Caltrans HQ designed by Morphosis wins the “Worst Building of the Road Trip” award. The oversized street number doesn’t redeem the hideousness of its oppressive cliff like steel walls that bear down on pedestrians and makes Gehry’s Disney concert hall almost bearable.

Other urban peculiarities that inevitably occur in a city of 18 million people include the LA River, made famous by the race scene in Grease as well as many other movies, this wide concrete channel tears through the city and creates a very dystopic post industrial landscape. There is an abandoned zoo up in the hills with animal cages and habitats still intact that satisfied my hunger for derelict attractions. The refurbished Queen Mary sits uncomfortably between the oil refineries of Long Beach, the reason exactly why it’s here or why anyone would want to stay inside eludes me. Floating above the Staples Centre is the iconic Goodyear blimp filled with low-pressure helium so that it doesn’t deflate despite being shot at 50 times a day.

4 days is nowhere near enough time to do this mammoth city justice but our plane is waiting. So after 8652 miles, 21 States and about 45 cities, I’m sitting in the departure lounge of LAX writing this epilogue. I can’t say I’m particularly keen to leave the USA and its infectious opportunistic, ambitious mindset, its amiable people and the free Diet Coke refills, but I can’t imagine it’ll be very long before I’m back.

California

Following our midnight drive through Death Valley, we awoke in the town of Lone Pine and found ourselves surrounded by the Sierra Nevada Mountain range including Mt. Whitney, the highest mountain in the contiguous United States. At the base of this mountain range lies the Alabama hills, a collection of ochre coloured Moore-esque rock formations that contrast with the snow peaked landscape backdrop.

We made our way up the valley, stopping off at the Owens Valley Radio Telescope facility. Similar to the VLA back in New Mexico, the facility consists of many moveable dishes that can be configured in several ways. The cover provided by the mountains on either side reduces wave interference from the nearby cities.  Further on is Yosemite, where kilometre high walls of rock rise from the valleys and waterfalls cascade from the mountaintops. A patina of sun-weathered stone has built up on the surface of the rock face, where the age and the history of the landscape can be read so easily.

After picking up our first speeding ticket we drove up past lake Tahoe and stopped off in Reno to visit the Landscape Futures exhibition at the Nevada museum of Art. The show includes a mechanical landscape representing the hydrological cycle and speculative proposals for bird sanctuaries sited on permafrost. We then crossed California to the large metropolitan area built around San Francisco Bay. A patina has formed on the clean grid structure of San Francisco as well. Areas of rich character such as Castro and China Town have been built up over many years and turn the city into a colourful hub that is a welcome break from the monotony of the cities of the Southwest. Highlights included seeing the skyline appear out of the fog as we arrived by crossing the Golden Gate Bridge and the de Young museum designed by Herzog de Meuron was another example of the cultural investment made by the city.

After a few days in SF we set off south on the final leg of our journey, down the Pacific Coastal Highway or route 1. 6 weeks after leaving the Atlantic and 8000 miles later, we finally set our eyes on the Pacific Ocean. Sites along the way include the Jamesburg Earth Station, the Vandenburg Air Force Base, the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power plant and lots of oil fields. After dipping in the ocean for a quick paddle we drove on, stopping for dinner in the very Californian city of Santa Barbara, before preparing to immerse ourselves in the urban endlessness of Los Angeles.