Open House

Juicelog Sat 160906: Off the record, there is an informal rule that dictates how cultural excursions should be conducted. If you haven’t had a chance to familiarise yourself with my handbook it clearly states that a 25% quorum of heterosexuals must be reached in order for the social outing to proceed. Alex A was our nominated tokenistic hetty who fulfilled this role today when we (Tom A, Bouncy Boy and myself) visited a few buildings today as part of the Open House weekend.

With coffee in hand, the first point of architectural interest for us was the Daily Express building on Fleet Street. Having already seen the art deco foyer previously it served as a nice refresher for me.

A couple of bus stops away we headed over to BBC Bush House (Aldwych). Jamie (a desiccated BBC press officer) was our designated tour guide who guffed on about the history of the building and a few of the cased artefacts. The BBC Worldwide service will lose this 1920’s building in 2010 so you’ve got four years to check it out before it is returned to the Japanese freeholder.

During our pizza lunch I quizzed Tom about whether Rachel (his mother) was aware of the existence of his blog. He confirmed that Rachel was a loyal reader of his fabulous blog and had even conversed with him about his postings. This type of liberalism totally rocks.

After lunch we toddled along to Banqueting House in Whitehall to practice our royal imitations.

Channel 4 in St. James Park was more to my liking. Whilst we were queuing outside this attractive curved glass building we communicated with the lift operator (Ricky) by means of hand waving and air kisses. Ricky misconstrued our friendliness as he pressed a note into my hand, as we were departing the building, which he had hurriedly scribbled his telephone number onto this tiny piece of paper. Not really wanting to indulge him too much I hauled the other three out of the steel entry atrium onto our final Saturday detsination.

C4 entrance:

Balcony roof:

Alex A. in the studio:

Tom A. & pink chair:

Bouncy Boy & (Randy) Ricky:

BBC Broadcasting House (Portland Place) was where we concluded today’s speck of educating enlightment. Conducting our tour was the Communications Director who was fantastically knowledgeable and knew what he was talking about. A flamboyant delivery ensured that he kept our attentions whilst providing us with mild amusement.