London's tallest door – in the Elms Lester Malrooms, Flitcroft Street
Knock. Who 's there? Doors. They range from a great Egyptian entrance in Mornington Crescent to the highest door in London in the west end. Portals great and modest, including Street Art-Emblazoned examples in Camden Town, an old gate in Clerkenwell and entrances used by literati and glitterati, are proud in a abundantly illustrated book.
Doors from London: Stiles, Stories, Art and Architectural Teams A lively switch of photographs of Kathetten Harries with a fascinating text by the House historian Melanie Backe-Hansen, who was a research consultant for TV series A through time.
The photographer Cath says that her “obsession” started taking pictures of doors of doors – she made more than 3,000 a.m. – in 2010. She photographed for a London Pub leader and looked at doors to walk between pubs.
The former King -Cross -Cath -cath -Cath's Cathe to review: “I thought it was an interesting project to capture the diversity of the doors in London -quirky, great, old, modern, art -deco, which are covered with street art, stage doors, doors in film and television and famous authors of the authors, just a few.”
Each chapter focuses on another part of the capital. According to Melanie, the short stories in every area provide a context that has developed over time, which affected the door types found there.
People who went through the doors bring them to life. Imagine the late artist and writer Sebastian Horsley, an extravagant dandy who was wearing a brand -shaped stove -shaped hat that appeared out of his house in the Meard Street in Soho. Until recently, the front door had a sign with reading: “This is not a brothel. There are no prostitutes at this address.”
Cath Harries
Horsley, whose apartment housed a collection of human skulls, was subjected to a “crucifixion” in the Philippines to prepare for a number of paintings on this topic.
A Georgian door crowned by a fanlight (fan -shaped window) leads to the former house of Eric Blair, better known as George Orwell, on the Canonbury Square. He started writing there for nineteen fours.
Imagine he takes a break and may have made himself a drink in the Fitzroy Tavern, Fitzrovia, where he and Dylan Thomas Gönner were. It is one of the various pubs, including the Hawley Arms in Camden Town, where Amy Winehouse stormed behind the bar and pulled a few pints.
Charles Dickens' door in the Doughty Street, Holborn and Virginia Woolf in Fitzroy Square, Bloomsbury, with gene over the authors.
Secret plans were hatched by the Special Operations Executive behind the imposing entrance to Montagu Mansions Marybone in World War II.
The doors on TV include a modest one in the North Gower Street, which is in Sherlock 221b Baker Street with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. Florin Court in Farringdons Charterhouse Square cut a dashboard as a home of Detective Hercule Poirot, played by David Suchet.
Cath said it was “a surprise” to get over the highest door in London in the Elms Lester -Malrooms in the Flitcroft Street. This oversized door in a building that was completed in 1904 for the production of stage landscapes made it possible to put huge theatrical backdrops on and off.
Anyone who tried to get a piece of furniture through their door could feel a museum for Sir John Soane, the collector, whose house on Lincoln's Inn Fields, with a neolömic portal.
Melanie Backe-Hansen
When soane bought a massive stone sarcophagus, he had to knock a hole into the back wall to bring it to his house.
The old Egypt influenced the design of the former Carreras Cigarette Factory in Mornington Crescent. Two huge bronze cats guard the door of the building, which were built in the 1920s, when Egyptian topics became popular after the discovery of Tutankhamun's grave.
Only a few inputs can have changed more than the goal of which the priority of Clerkenwell in St. John's Lane, which was founded in the 1140s. Later it was a coffee house – led by Richard Hogarth, the father of the artist – a print plant and a tavern that was frequented by artists and writers like Charles Dickens.
Some of the lively Street Art Camden Town Street Art, including a large survival chimpanzees by the street artist Gnasher, and a surrealistic mural by the Spanish artist Tony Boy, has now been painted.
There are a number of door buttons, handles, mailboxes and door crowns with designs such as Shakespeare's head, lion heads, wreaths and hands.
It is easy to imagine that the fingers rattle down over the age groups, and past figures with the iron lights and boot scraps through noble entrances.
Do the authors have a favorite door?
Cath said: “I am a big fan of Art -deco and my favorites are the doors of the Trinity Court -a Art -deco Parliament Block on Gray's Inn Road and also a wonderful glass door in the Starburst in Forest Gate, which belonged to my friends David and Barbara.”
Melanie's favorite inputs can be found in Queen Anne's Gate, Westminster, where several decorated door roofs and portals in Georgian and rainy style in Marylebone with elaborate fanlights and door borders contain.
She said she lives in an apartment with a “fairly inconspicuous door” that she cannot change.
Cath, who lives in a Victorian terrace house with a bright orange door, said: “The book inspired me to exchange my simple round door knocker for a friendly brass school.”
• Doors of London: styles, stories, art and architecture. By Cath Harries and Melanie Backe-Hansen, Sheldrake Press, £ 25