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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.

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Greys Court

For Christmas 2022 I got a National Trust membership. It’s being a few years since I was last a member, but now looking forward to visiting new places and going back to places we have been to before.

Back in 2016 I did start to keep a note of how much we saved with the membership, but looking back over the blog, I never kept up to date with that, but with this membership I am intending to blog about the visits we do this year and the savings we made. Over the last year I blogged about all the different places I visited and how much money I saved by being a member.

I was recently reviewing some photographs from May 2023, and I realised I hadn’t blogged about my visit to Greys Court.

Greys Court

An intimate family home and peaceful estate set in the rolling hills of the Chilterns. This picturesque 16th-century mansion and tranquil gardens were home to the Brunner family until recent years. The house exudes a welcoming atmosphere with a well-stocked kitchen and homely living rooms. The series of walled gardens is a colourful patchwork of interest set amid medieval ruins.

Current saving £283.35

Adult Ticket £14.00

Total saving £14.00

Cumulative saving £417.15

Membership cost £133.80

Net cumulative saving £297.35

When I posted about my final visit to Tyntesfield, I really did feel I got my money’s worth from the membership, this extra saving just reinforces that.

I walked to the house from the car park and after scanning my membership card. Continue reading “Greys Court”

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Then and Now Take Two – Kings College Chapel

This is a regular series of blogs about photographs of the same place taken years apart. 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. Now this has come to my attention I have started to intentionally take photographs of the same place.

On a recent visit to Cambridge in December 2023 I took an intentional photograph of Kings College Chapel as I had taken two other similar photographs of the chapel unintentionally.

I had also taken an intentional similar shot when I was in Cambridge in April 2023. Then it had more scaffolding, and the tree in front had some spring leaves on it.

On a visit to Cambridge,  I had taken this photograph of Kings College Chapel in July 2022.

I had been looking at posts on this blog with the cambridge tag when I noticed that back in January 2020 (pre-pandemic) I had taken a virtually identical photograph of Kings College Chapel.

Kings College Chapel