Welcome to the Rudloe and environs website.
Here you will find news, articles and photos of an area that straddles the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in north-west Wiltshire.
Contributions in the form of articles or photos are welcome. Even those with completely contrary views to mine!
Thanks to the website builder 1&1 and Rob Brown for the original idea.
Rudloescene now, in January 2014, has a sister, academic rather than anarchic, website about Box history here: http://www.boxpeopleandplaces.co.uk/
It contains thoroughly professional, well-researched articles about Box and its people.
Contact rudloescene through the 'Contact' page.
One of the Barbican Estate's three 42-story towers from Cloth Fair
The Barbican 'complex' was built in the 60s/70s but was officially opened by Brenda in 1982 It has frequently won 'London's Ugliest Building' award. The following photographs not only illustrate aspects of the development itself but chronicle daily journeys between the complex and West Smithfield.
Originally built for London Corporation workers but since the 1980s and the deregulation of the banking system and the flooding of money into the Square Mile, apartments have been snapped up by City workers. A one-bedroom apartment here would cost £3/4 million, a three-bedroom up to £3 million and a penthouse apartment £4 million. Discover a little more about this 'Brutalist monument' here: The Barbican - a Brutalist Monument
Lauderdale Tower is one of three 42-story towers at the Barbican
Road markings in Little Britain (close to West Smithfield) completely mess up the street scene
The 'Butcher's Hook and Cleaver' in West Smithfield. Strangely (or perhaps not), all the pubs in this area are closed on Saturdays and Sundays
The south block of the Barbican complex with the tower of St Giles, Cripplegate peeking over the concrete to the east
The north block of the Barbican complex
View through Barbican concrete
Targetting the local audience in Newgate Street
The Hope at Smithfield; pie and mash (x3), a pint of Naked Ladies (Twickenham), a (double) gin and tonic and a (double) brandy and lemonade
Christchurch Greyfriars garden. The church was burned down in the Great Fire but rebuilt by Wren in 1704. However, someone up there was determined to see its end as it was again destroyed in the Blitz of 1940.
Originally the site of a Franciscan monastery whose monks were so devout that people believed that anyone buried in their grey robes would go straight to heaven (without passing through Purgatory or collecting £200).
The garden is said to be haunted by the ghost of Queen Isabella (seen here!) and it is advised not to visit after dark.
City of London emblem at the Barbican
Walking through the Barbican
The Barbican south block seen from one of its walkways (St Giles, Cripplegate now framed by concrete balcony and pillar)
Traversing a Barbican walkway towards the London Museum
The exception that proves the rule - there's no litter on the Barbican Estate
Map of the Barbican Estate
The atrium of St Bart's Hospital from the fourth floor
A blackened, pollarded lime and the School of Health Sciences from Long Lane
Cloth Fair, the start of the A1, contains the oldest residential dwelling in London
St Giles, Cripplegate at the Barbican Estate. Daniel Defoe (Robinson Crusoe, Moll Flanders etc) was born here in 1660.
One of the many 'spaces' at the Barbican Arts Centre
King Edgar, Devonshire Square, Devonshire Estate, EC2
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