Modernist Delights

Rear elevation, Royal Mail Sorting Office, Brighton, 2025

A plain concrete building featuring 7 sets of thin-framed windows with a concrete column inbetween each, except the 8th, which is a little further away with no column (and a passageway underneath). The lower part of the building has been painted white, although this is quite faded and irregular.

A front-on shot of a concrete building. The lower half of the building features a passageway, with a somewhat art deco canopy and column. Just above it is some graffiti, and a thin-framed window panelled window.

“Should I post the Brighton sorting office, or something from Manchester today?” I ask.

“I don’t think you could fit the whole Brighton sorting office in a postbox,” my boyfriend helpfully suggests.

Chorlton Street Car Park, Manchester, 2025

A multistorey car park above a gay pub. There are 4 storeys at the front, with a ramp up to 3 storeys at the back. There's a spiral entrance ramp mostly out of shot to the left. The columns are NCP yellow.

Buoyed by the consulate renewing my passport in 5 minutes flat, and with the sun out, I set off to take some photos today… until the heavens opened 😣

View from Farringdon Station, London, 2025

A view of the backs of various London buildings, with a Tube line with a modern Tube train running on it. At the back, centre-left, two of the Barbican towers are visible.

Check the two Barbican towers centre left – which I obviously didn’t spot until posting this picture.

Boarded-up building, Shoreditch, London, 2025

Brick building with a concrete brick and window facade. The first floor features grates, as if for a semi-underground car park. All windows on the floor above are boarded up. Windows on the higher floors are not boarded up, but are largely graffitied.

Multistorey car fortress, Shoreditch, London, 2025

Various road traffic lights in the foreground, followed by a spring-green tree, then right in the centre of the image a narrow, graffitied multistorey carpark, with various glass London skyscrapers in the background.

Close up shot of graffitied multistorey carpark, taken at ground level. It fills almost the whole picture, with only a little bit of a skyscraper and the dark blue spring afternoon sky in the background.

Side of multistorey carpark, taken from ground level. The side of the concrete is made out of concrete panels, and the top part of it is graffitied. Below that, a rusty sign which reads: CAR PARK P_TRO_ - Meyers Bros Parking System. The rest of the image features the graffitied tiers and stairway of the car park, with the dark blue late afternoon sky in the background.

Courtesy of this Flickr comment thread, which incredibly includes the niece of one of the Meyers Bros referenced by the sign, the Meyers Bros Parking System was ramp-less, instead operated by lifts which brought the cars up and down the storeys of the car park.

London College of Fashion, Shoreditch, 2025

A building with a single square-ish mass, three storeys, and an additional smaller mass featuring a door and stairwall just out of shot to the right. The building is made out of London brick, with large thin-framed windows on the upper two storeys. The lower storey has windows, shutters, and graffiti. On the lower two storeys, the frontage is covered in large cream tiles, with a light-blue border around that and the front door.

New and old on Regent’s Canal, Islington, London, 2025

Sunny day on the Regent's Canal, taken from on the water. The foreground features a large, lush green tree. In the middle, there are some 19th century buildings, including a mill and cottage. In the background there is a 1960's mid-rise housing block, all set against a clear blue sky.

I’m not turning this blog into Riparian Delights, I promise. This counts as a Modernist Delight because the housing block in the back is Jessop Court, built 1969. Diespeker Wharf, a Victorian former timber mill & terrazzo and marble manufacturer, and an early 19th century wharf-keeper’s cottage.