Author: jamesclay

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Then and Now – Grosvenor Hotel

This is a regular series of blogs about photographs of the same place taken years apart. I quite like those Then and Now comparison photographs that you see in books or on the Twitter or Facebook.  The first of the posts in this series was of a council building in Manchester.

I always thought I should give then and now photographs a go. However what I have started to notice is that I have been doing Then and Now photographs unintentionally over the years and have been taking photographs of the same thing or place from the same view or perspective years apart.

The Grosvenor Hotel in Redcliffe Bristol, which has been an eyesore for ages was demolished this week. I was looking through my photographs of the hotel and realised, I had taken some similar photographs of the ruined hotel.

This photograph was taken in June 2021.

This was a similar shot taken in February 2022.

Grosvenor Hotel

This photograph was taken in August 2023.

It was a pity it was left for so long, it was a really nice looking building.

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Walking around the West Wing

What’s next?

President Bartlett

The West Wing is one of my favourite TV shows. It was in my Televisual Advent Calendar.

Even though it is now twenty five years since the pilot was broadcast, I still enjoy watching it again.

One aspect that The West Wing was infamous for, was the walk and talk. This started off in the very first episode with Leo McGarry (the wonderful John Spencer) walking around the West Wing of the Whitehouse.

Recently watching a few episodes and I was intrigued about the layout of the set of the West Wing. They often appear to be taking the long way round the set when walking from one office to another.

I was pleased to see this video from The West Wing Weekly which shows not just the floor plan of the West Wing, but also has the video of Leo McGarry walking around and meeting all the lead characters. He even goes into the Oval Office, even though the President isn’t in the room.

You can see how the different rooms are connected to the corridors and to each other.

It was an amazing set and the physicality of the set made the whole place feel real.