Central Warsaw, evening rush hour

Half past five, I've just left the office en route for W-wa Śródmieście station and a train to Jeziorki. Below: ul. Nowogrodzka, looking towards Marszałkowska.

Below: as I approach the station, looming out of the evening mist, the Palace of Culture.


Left: any decent horror film from Rosemary's Baby to The Shining must have its spine-tingling setting - The Dakota building or the Timberline Lodge, and with its current trendy lavender colour scheme, the Palace of Culture looks Gothically grim on a misty night, rimmed by the skeletal fingers of leafless trees.

The horrors of Stalinism return to haunt Warsaw. But few commuters seem to notice, everyone's in a rush to get home.

Right: view of the Palace from the south, approaching W-wa Śródmieście station. The contrasting sodium lighting of the colonnades makes them look like the gaping, salivating maw of a gigantic, ravenous creature, snapping at the passers-by.

On a clear day, the Palace looks less foreboding as it is ringing by an increasing number of skyscrapers. But tonight they are lost in the mist, and once more, as in the mid-1950s, the Palace is the only high-rise building visible in Central Warsaw.

Below: down the steps from the piazza at the south side of the Palace, to W-wa Śródmieście station. It looks nearly empty from this angle, but then few passengers enter the station from here. The platforms, in contrast, are packed with office workers waiting for their trains home.

This time last year:
Cold and getting colder

This time three years ago:
Uwaga! Sople!

This time four years ago:
Ul. Poloneza at its worst