Yesterday's Open House tally was only three.
All three were hour-long tours of buildings.
Here's a quick summary.
• The one where I was nearly the only person on the tour but a latecomer scuppered that.
• The one where I was mighty relieved not to be the only person on the tour.
• The one where we were plied with free coffee, cake and nuts beforehand.
• The one filmed throughout by a proud relative which will have created a tediously unwatchable video.
• The one where we weren't supposed to be looking at the trains.
• The one where we went up on the roof in the dry.
• The one where we went up on the roof in the rain.
• The 'omigod look how high up we are' one.
• The two that burned and have been rebuilt.
The University of Greenwich proper sprawls, not just across Eltham and Woolwich but within the environs of Maritime Greenwich. As of last week there are also plans to tie-up with the University of Kent, roping in campuses in Medway and Canterbury to help prevent the latter institution going bust. This site visit was to a modern building in the town centre which was officially celebrating its 11th birthday yesterday, although I didn't see cake mainly because it was a Sunday and term hasn't started yet. Cue that Open House staple, the backroom/backstairs tour led by an employee with as many nips out onto the roof as possible.
The main building here houses the university library - three floorsworth of books shifted from less accessible shelves in the Old Royal Naval College. The building operates on a silence gradient with talking allowed on the lowest floors, quiet communication on 1 and 2 and total stumm up top. The central staircase has been made prominent (and the lifts hidden) to encourage walking up. There are hundreds of docking stations for laptops, be they hired or the students' own, but only a couple of tiny corners for printing. And if you have the right pass you can enter the backrooms where the books are sorted, the staff have desks and the walls aren't generally as nicely finished. The chief librarian's office has the best view, a fabulous panorama past St Alphege church towards Canary Wharf and the Cutty Sark.
Up top is "probably Europe’s largest teaching and learning green roof" but not all in one, instead divided up into fourteen separate landscaped chunks. Some are mostly paved, others considerably gardenier, the best of the colour having peaked because there's nobody up here to admire them in the summer. Back inside a single 20m² green wall brightens the wall of the architecture faculty, much admired but it'd be far too expensive to consider installing one elsewhere. And by the time the well-oiled tour's delivered you back to the foyer, the staff and student sides of the building rightly ticked, Open House has worked its magic and yet another building oft seen from the street is no longer such a mystery.
Just as there are multiple denominations of Christianity so there are many forms of Islam. The Ahmadi sect numbers over 20 million followers, believes Islam's purpose is to bring peace to the world and originated in the Punjab in 1889. Its founder broke with established beliefs by claiming he was the final prophet and has since been succeeded by five caliphs, the most recent of whom lives in a former boarding school in deepest Surrey. Construction of their first British mosque began in September 1925, just up the road in SW18, and this latest incarnation was opened in 1999 on a former Express Dairy site beside Morden South station. It's massive, supposedly the largest mosque in western Europe, and throws open its doors to all whenever Open House comes round.
The biggest building up front isn't the mosque, it's the admin and reception block, a multi-storey stack of function halls and offices. It isn't original, the previous admin block having been accidentally destroyed in 2015 by a 16 year-old worshipper who failed to realise he'd set the place on fire. Following much fundraising the loftier marble-fronted replacement opened in March 2023, an event coinciding with the 19th National UK Peace Symposium. Were you to head inside the updated version you might find a twin studio TV complex, a museum filled with prophet/caliph-related artefacts, a library that goes far beyond the Koran and a huge hall setting up for a gold-themed wedding. Daily worshippers are however more likely to walk round the side of the building up a long flower-bedecked covered walkway to reach the main mosque building round the back. Shoes off.
The mosque is very plainly decorated inside, a huge understated space with a few words in Arabic displayed around the interior of the central dome. Walls are white so as not to distract from the most important activity which is prayer. 6000 men can be accommodated on the expansive carpet, while women have a smaller room out of sight nearer the main car park. A separate balcony with seating provides somewhere for older worshippers to sit, and also provides a truly excellent view across the adjacent Northern line train depot but this of course is nobody's focus of attention. In a sad reflection of our times I saw multiple locations around the site with belt conveyers for security screening, although we only had to walk through a single scanning gate. And as we walked out, eyes opened, an ever-increasing stream of local men headed inside as the clock ticked round to midday prayers. A place of peace, not a place to fear, as an increasingly large proportion of the population might well need reminding.
BAC used to be Battersea Town Hall when that was a separate borough, but became an arts centre in 1974 after Wandsworth council decided they no longer needed it. The Grand Hall is particularly impressive, not least because it was destroyed by fire in March 2015 and has been rebuilt following a massive fundraising effort, now with a suitably charred aesthetic.
That's the two-sentence version for Battersea, sorry, it's been a long weekend and I'll write a fuller account shortly. In the meantime this year's Open House album on Flickr is now up to 25 photos, including shots of places I haven't described yet.
