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Williamson Power Station, Lancaster, 2025

Large, abandoned red-brick industrial building with tall cylindrical smokestack, surrounded by fences and overgrown grass. The sky is partly cloudy with golden sunlight breaking through. Foreground shows a cracked, empty road and construction signs near the fence.

Now derelict Williamson Power Station, Lancaster. Once used to supply power to the city’s linoleum factory, it has more recently been used for illegally storing compacted waste, which set alight in December 2023. Following the days-long fire and the operation to extinguish it, it now stands mostly empty, fire-damaged but no less immense.

More information and pictures available on the Lancaster Civic Vision website, for those interested.

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Lloyds Bank, Lancaster, 2024

A three-story, gray stone building with six windows above a green sign that reads LLOYDS BANK. The bank entrance is lit and features glass doors. An ATM is on the left side beside the doors. The sidewalk is empty, and dusk light is visible.

About as well photographed as possible, after orthodontic treatment, and with a bag of apples in my hand.

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On The First Issue Of Vogue Polska

For something a bit different today: the cover of the first issue of Vogue Polska. The Palace of Culture and Science is just completely arresting to see in real life, originally an unwanted Soviet gift, it somehow has a might incomparable to more modern skyscrapers. I love this moody cover which features it front-and-centre.

Two women in stylish black coats and high heels pose confidently by a vintage black car, with one leg forward. They stand in front of the towering Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw on a gray, snowy day. The words “VOGUE Polska” are at the top.
Juergen Teller, 2018.

I also can’t resist quoting this section from its’ Wikipedia article:

A number of nicknames have been used to refer to the palace, notably Pekin (“Beijing”, because of its abbreviated name PKiN), Pajac (“clown”, a word that sounds close to Pałac), and the “Drunk Confectioner’s Nightmarish Dream” (koszmarny sen pijanego cukiernika), attributed to poet Władysław Broniewski. Other nicknames include the “Syringe” (strzykawka), the “Elephant in Lacy Underwear” (słoń w koronowych gatkach), the “Russian Wedding Cake” (ruski tort) and “Stalin’s rocket” (rakieta Stalina), as well as more pejorative appelations like “Stalin’s dick” (chuj Stalina).

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Hard to photograph Superdrug, Cantenbury, 2023

This hard to photograph Superdrug on a sloping street isn’t going to win any awards for photography, but the zig-zag roof and first-floor glazing are architecturally excellent.

A modern Superdrug store with large windows and a zigzag roof sits on a quiet city street. People walk past, and a bicycle is parked nearby. The sky is partly cloudy, and adjacent buildings have concrete and brick exteriors.
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