Vacation to London continues with Martin Pierce Custom Hardware

We bid a fond farewell to Bob and Carrie in Pembridge and travelled on to Leicester where we ditched the rental car and took the train into St. Pancras station.  We stayed in Russell Square at a reasonably priced and well run hotel overlooking Russell Square and the park. It has been many years since I  spent much time in London.  In my mid 20’s all my energy was spent either at my dark, light deprived office or on foot walking briskly to avoid the cold and rain.  This time we had lovely sunshine, good walking shoes and the “tube” ,or  underground, that we could use at non-peak times, allowing us to see a lot of the city.

On our first day we went in search of the Gherkin building.  We have seen pictures of this amazing building in magazines but really needed to see it in person and we found it to be an inspiring piece of contemporary architecture.  The Gherkin was built in 2004 and is an impressive 41 story  skyscraper.

We then headed to the south side of the Thames Rivers in search of the Shard building,  so nicknamed due to its unique shape, and was recently dubbed the tallest building in Europe.    We found it to be another inspiring piece of contemporary architecture.  We visited this building just a few days before Prince Andrew abseiled down the face of it to raise funds for Outward Bound Trust and the Royal Marines Charitable Trust.  You can read more about that story here.   

For more information on our products, view our complete line of custom hardware and get the latest news on what is happening at Martin Pierce, please visit us at www.martinpierce.com

Georgian Architecture: a design history lesson from Martin Pierce hardware

In the past couple of posts I have mentioned the beautiful and abundant Georgian architecture that can be found throughout England.  Examples of this included St. Mary's church in Ross-on-wye and also St. Anne's in our hometown of Worcester. The popularity of this architectural style spanned two centuries from the early eighteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century.  It is named after the first four British "Georges" i.e. George the first, George the second etc., etc.,  all monarchs from the House of Hanover who reigned from 1740 to 1830.   Characteristics of this very English architecture include:

• A centered paneled front door
• A simple box shape with either one or two stories
• Multi-paned windows
• Cornices with dentil work detailing
• Chimneys on both sides of the home
• Dormer windows on the upper floor
• Symmetrical arrangements of windows and doors

The old truly meets the new in this photo of the new Gherkin building in London fronted by ancient buildings in the foreground, some of which feature prime examples of Georgian architecture.

To view our complete line of hardware and get the latest news on what is happening at Martin Pierce, please visit us at www.martinpierce.com.