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St. Botolph Building in London (2014)
Designed by Grimshaw Architects with lighting experts Speirs + Major, the Building is one of the largest office developments in the City of London. The interiors and the lighting concept made it impossible to tell where the light ends and the building begins, architects and lighting designers co-developed a textured cladding system with 2,500 seamlessly integrated LED lights.
The city of London from Hotel Saint. June 2023.
Fujifilm X-T20 with XF 18-55mm lens.
St. Botolph's Day
Happy St. Botolph's Day!!! June 17 is the feast day of Botolph, a 7th-century English monk. Actual historical details of Botolph are sketchy, but he had a lot of churches named after him and one church in Lincolnshire became the center of "Botolph's Town," shortened to Boston.
A lot of the Puritans who settled the Massachusetts Bay Colony were from the Boston, England area and named their new hometown after it, which is deeply ironic because the Puritan's were staunchly against "papist" practices like naming places after saints.
Today, June 17 is a legal holiday in Suffolk County, Massachusetts (my kids even got the day off from school until a few years ago) but not for any reason to do with Botolph. June 17, 1775 was the date of the Battle of Bunker Hill in Charlestown, MA and so the day is commemorated as Bunker Hill Day.
People also connect the date 6/17 to Boston because the city's area code is 617.
The Boston Celtics won their most recent NBA Championship on June 17, 2008 and if all goes well, they could win another championship tonight!
Church of Saint Botolph, Cambridge (ca. 1890)
In case anyone wondered, above Mary (left), it says “Sta. [sancta] Maria mater dolorosa”, meaning “St. Mary the grieving mother”, while above St. John (right), it says “Stus [sanctus] Johannes discipulus”, meaning “St. John the disciple”. Below the ‘pelican’ feeding its young with its own blood (an allegory for Christ), it reads “Jhesus Pellicanus noster”, meaning “Jesus our pelican”. On either side of the pelican, it reads, in English, “We adore Thee O Christ we bless Thee” and “for by thy Cross & passion thou hast redeemed the world”. Below this, also in English, it reads “Deliver us from our enemies O our God”, “By the power of thy Cross”, and “In honour of Christ crucified to the memory of Stephen Parkinsen D.D. late Fellow and Tutor of St. John’s College, Cambridge, who died Ian. [January] 2nd 1889. Elizabeth L[?], his widow dedicates this window 1890”. Above everything, two angels hold scrolls which both read “Tu es Rex Gloria”, meaning “You are the king of glory”.
- Historical accuracy: his hair is so blond, it’s almost green, 3 nails, INRI, can I reiterate how white he is?? Also he has a wound but his eyes are open so that makes no sense (2/10)
- Physical appearance: once you get past the blinding whiteness, you can see that JC is very muscular, though I think the artist was trying to go for some kind of perspective on the arms, which falls somewhat flat (4/10)
- Aesthetic appeal: it’s a bit over-the-top in the best way, I guess, all those Gothic architectural elements in the background, as well as Cambridge rooftops behind JC’s lower legs (6/10)
- Accessories: 3 nails, INRI, cruciform nimbus, crown of thorns, floating green loincloth (7/10)
- Cross: the cross itself is fairly plain and not given much consideration, but there also appears to be a frame of some kind behind JC’s upper three quarters (7/10)
- Emotional appearance: John looks really angry, like why Jesus, why must you upstage me every time, but Mary doesn’t really look that concerned either, so maybe they know something we don’t? (3/10)
Bonuses: Pelican mother and pelican babies +4
Total rating: 5.4/10
Note: people used to think that pelicans did actually pierce their breasts so that their babies could drink their blood (hardcore, right?), and this story is likened to JC dying to save us all, so that’s why pelicans are an attribute of Christ
Boston's Back Bay Brought...
...bookshops for bibliophiles
...Bostonian banter of "Mass Ave" and "the Pru"
...burgers of delicious proportion
...Beatles' conversations and listening
...bars brimming with beers
...Botolph--the little-known saint whose name christens a street
...bagels that needed to be Finagled
...bawdy humor between buddies
...Britain's wannabe streets and squares
...bangin' breakfast "eggwiches" from Blunch
...bridges with lovely views
...brightened perspectives and bigger pictures
Sylvia Plath's taste in men
"Plath wrote in her journal that she felt most British men were "pallid, neurotic homosexuals" whom she didn't find appealing. "
One night, she attended a party held to celebrate the launch of a new Cambridge literary magazine, St. Botolph's Review. Among the poetry she most admired in it was that of a poet named Ted Hughes. After arriving at the party quite drunk she gazed across the room at a "big, dark hunky boy, the only one... huge enough for me," and wanted to know who he was immediately.
Where's my big, dark hunky boy? D:
