Monday 2 December 2019

Night time's the right time for snapping Warsaw in late autumn


Above: Rondo ONZ One, as seen from ulica Emilii Plater, looking down ul. Pańska, which runs all the way west to ul. Towarowa, and is truncated by the building you see in front of you. Incidentally, rare is the Polish street name that always uses first name and surname; it's usually surname only.

Below: The Palace of the Youth, on the north side of Stalin's Palace of Culture, facing ul. Świętokrzyska.


Below: my favourite stretch of Świętokrzyska, where the two competing shops, both selling kitchenware, compete for the same clients. If one hasn't got exactly what you're looking for, the other one well may have. And note the trees that now line the street; they were planted last autumn. Can you spot Ziggy Stardust? He's in several of my photos of this street...



I quite often see film shoots happening in central Warsaw; here's one on the corner of Świętokrzyska and Emilii Plater.


Left: lovely neon, marking the current location of the museum of modern art (Muzeum Sztuki Współczesnej). To the left, a sheet-metal fence marks the site of the old Emilia building, former home of the museum and before that the location of Stołeczne Przedsiębiorstwo Handlu Wewnętrznego 'Meble Emilia' (The Capital City Enterprise of Internal Trade 'Furniture Emilia')


Below: down underground, looking into the transversal railway tunnel. This is the main line tracks running east from Warsaw Central station (W-wa Centralna). In the distance an InterCity Pendolino train crosses over the points.


Below: also looking east along the transversal railway tunnel, but this is the suburban line. The long-distance tracks lie beyond the wall to the left. Photo taken from the end of platform 3, W-wa Śródmieście station.


Two London Stock Exchange FTSE 250-listed companies are present in the new Sezam building (opened June 2018). They are recruitment firm Hays, and Spaces, part of IWG (International Workplace Group, better known under its old brand, Regus). Between the footpath (foreground) and ul. Marszalkowska (beyond which is Sezam), there will soon appear a new 20-story office building, Central Point, right outside my office window (to the left of this frame). Fitting, as I spent years working at Centre Point in London.


If you think Warsaw looks good now - wait until the Christmas lights come on later this week!

Bonus shot: Three generations of Warsaw architecture



This time last year:
Autumnal travel woes

This time four years ago:
Thoughts on Polish hypochondria

This time seven years ago:
Blogging resumes as Orange gets its act together

This time eight years ago:
The meaning of Clarkson 

This time nine years ago: 
A bad day on the railway

This time ten years ago:
In which I walk to work

This time 12 years ago:
Act 1, Scene 1, a blasted heath

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Stunning, resonant, brooding photographs - stills from an urban epic. Wonderful intensity.


Frater T. Bickle