My London Olympic Games 2012 - continued

After my commercial/design-orientated post yesterday, here comes a bit of culture. At the weekend I paid a visit to Aldgate High Street.

Starting at the Whitechapel Gallery I focused on its facade. This is first permanent public commission of British artist Rachel Whiteread. It draws on Arts and Crafts' Tree of Life that believed that arts can enhance and better social issues. Whiteread revealed clusters of golden leaves and branches over the frieze and the towers of the Gallery. Picking on the existing elements, Whiteread definitely added life and chic to the already stylish piece of architecture.

Walking down the high street I soon spotted my next point of interest, the 'Paleys upon Pilers' (Palace on Pillars).

Inspired by two poems by Chaucer (The House of Fame & The Parliament of Fowls) that describe dream-like temples, Studio Weave came up with this 'timber embroidery'.

Located at the spot where Chaucer lived at 14th Century it also marks the beginning of Aldgate High Street and is on the way from The City to the Olympic Park.


Below are few more images showing the complexity and beauty of the craftsmanship.

A little walk from here and I found myself in Tower Hill. Yes, the place of the famous prison and the unique bridge.

It is the bridge that holds the Olympic rings. Finally, with the Olympics half way in progress I have seen them too. So big, so colourful. What a better place to display such a symbol than the Tower Bridge.

When walking across the Bridge, I glanced towards the City Hall. There were so many people there. With a large screen in the small park nearby the atmosphere there was so powerful, so friendly.

Indeed, along the south bank all the way towards Westminster there was so much life. Activities, stalls and a lot of smily faces. I have not seen this for a long time (apart from the Jubilee celebrations and perhaps around Christmas but not on such scale).

Among all this excitement is a little island of a thoughtful silence. 'Perspective' is a photo exhibition of Tom Stoddart, a photojournalist who captured moments in human history that certainly put things in perspective.

Suddenly I realised that no matter how bad thing might appear here we are still lucky to have somewhere to sleep, something to eat. We have nothing to complain about in comparison.

In this post, I have tried to capture another aspect that goes hand in hand with the Olympic Games, the culture. There was much more to see and I have shared with you just a snipped of it all. However, I still hope that this brings at least some of the feel closer to you. Kx