Progress In Front Of Moorgate Station – 7th August 2023
The pedestrian area in front of the Elizabeth Line entrance at Moorgate station is progressing and I took these pictures this morning.
Note.
- The tree-like sculpture is Manifold (Major Third) 5:4, is by Conrad Shawcross, which I showed being installed in An Art Installation In Front Of Moorgate Station.
- The pedestrian area will be protected by the City of London’s distinctive bollards.
- Only two of the bollards have been painted in their final colours.
- In No Budget; Employ Students, I talked about how the City of London has form in using art students to do decorative paintwork.
The UK is certainly going for appropriately-sized pedestrian areas in front of stations to allow travellers to get easily clear at busy times.
An Art Installation In Front Of Moorgate Station
Today, a new sculpture was installed in front of the new entrance to Moorgate station.
I took a few pictures.
Note.
- The sculpture, which is in bronze and entitled Manifold (Major Third) 5:4, is by Conrad Shawcross, who I talked about briefly in Job Done – I’ve Now Had My First Covid-19 Vaccination.
- Conrad is the guy in red t-shirt, who can be seen in several images.
- I’ve never seen a large sculpture installed before and everything went smoothly!
I have some thoughts.
More On The Sculpture
This page on Art On The Underground is entitled Manifold (Major Third) 5:4, where this description is given.
Manifold (Major Third) 5:4 by British artist Conrad Shawcross RA will be found outside the western entrance to the Elizabeth line station at Liverpool Street later this year. The artwork is a vast bronze sculpture representing a chord falling into silence extrapolated from observations of a Victorian pendulum-driven drawing machine known as a harmonograph, which was instrumental in the birth of the science of synaesthesia. This sculpture is the physical incarnation of the mathematics within a chord.
Note that I am of Conrad’s father’s generation and had a large Meccano set, like many of that generation. I must have built four or five Meccanographs, which were a harmonograph, built out of Meccano.
Bronze
The sculpture is in bronze, which is mainly an alloy of copper and tin.
My uncle; Leslie was an artist, who had won a scholarship to the Slade before the Great War, although he earned his living as an engineer. I do have two of his drawings, of my mother and his wife.
But he was also a capable sculptor, and sculpted and cast a bronze of a Hanoverian horse, which would probably be, the family possession, that C and myself would have loved to have owned. It is now owned by his granddaughter, who was also one of our bridesmaids, when we got married in 1968.
I also have another link to bronze. My father was a letterpress printer and his largest customers was a company called Enfield Rolling Mills, who rolled copper and other non-ferrous metals including bronze into various shapes.
I don’t know whether they invented the process. but sometime around 1960,Enfield Rolling Mills started to continuous cast bronze. I seem to remember that their bronze tubes were used in the original UK nuclear power stations.
Because of my father’s long-established friendship with the owner of Enfield Rolling Mills, I used to earn money there for my studies.
3D Printing
Bronze, other metals and even concrete can now be 3D printed.
I suspect we’ll see 3D printed sculptures appearing with greater regularity.
Other Materials
These pictures show Conrad Shawcross’s sculpture outside the Crick Institute.
It appears to be made out of weathered steel, which is often seen used in railway bridges and other structures.
In Denmark Hill Station – 4th September 2021, I talk about how the roof at Denmark Hill station is made out of steel covered with solar panels.
Could outdoor sculptures be made with steel covered in solar panels?
Job Done – I’ve Now Had My First Covid-19 Vaccination
I arrived a few minutes early at the Francis Crick Institute, for my appointment to be vaccinated.
I had booked to be vaccinated there, as I wanted to have a look inside one of London’s new modern buildings.
Note.
- The multi-triangular steel sculpture in front of the building is by Conrad Shawcross, who is the son of the journalist, writer, and broadcaster; Sir William Shawcross and the historian, critic and writer; Dame Marina Warner.
- I am a great fan of large sculptures like these being displayed in full view in suitable public spaces, rather than hidden away in store-rooms or in the farthest toom of a gallery. I wrote about this in Is There Space On The Overground For Large Art?.
I was had been told to enter from the North side of the building.
As the pictures show there were no signs, but someone spotted me and gave me directions.
I was directed to stand in a particular place and then told to enter the building, by walking down a set of stairs to the basement.
- I think my temperature could have been automatically checked before entry, as it certainly wasn’t anywhere else, that I noticed.
- There was a stair-lift at the entrance, for those not able to manage the stairs.
- Not that I saw anybody walking with more than the aid of a stick!
Once in the basement, I was asked to sit on one of about ten socially-distanced chairs.
Registration
There were a group of about six young ladies and perhaps a couple of young men, who then registered all those who had come for vaccination.
This was done mainly using your NHS number, so make sure you bring it.
Interview
Once registered, I was moved to another set of socially-distanced chairs, each of which was outside a cubicle.
I was then called in to the cubicle and given an interview by a young doctor.
She asked general questions and some about the drugs I take, so make sure you know what drugs you’re taking.
But otherwise the questions were ones everybody should know about themselves.
Vaccination
Once interviewed, I was moved to another set of socially-distanced chairs, each of which was outside a cubicle.
After about five minutes, I was called into the cubicle to be vaccinated, by a young lady.
I was only asked one question and that was whether I was right-handed or left-handed.
I am complicated, as because my left arm was badly broken by the school bully and I am right-handed, I prefer to have injections in my dominant right arm.
I also told her, that my unusual skin, means I don’t bleed from injections and she wouldn’t need a plaster.
She then said, that very few need a plaster with this vaccine.
The injection was quick and one of the few where the vaccinator didn’t say something like “Sharp scratch!”
I held a small cotton wool pad over the spot for perhaps thirty seconds, but despite being on Warfarin, my skin did its usual good job of stopping any bleeding.
I declined the sticker saying I’d been vaccinated and before I left, I was told I’d had the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Timings
From the time I arrived until the time I left was about half-an-hour.
Professionalism
It was all very professional and well-organised.
I’ve worked in factories and it was arranged very much how some factories are arranged, where the product being built is moved from one work-station to another until they reach Despatch.
It was also very relaxed and unhurried with lots of extra young people directing the patients around the various seats and cubicles.
Throughput
I have done my share of time-and-motion studies in the past and I suspect that, as time progresses, that the number of patients handled by this facility could be increased.
On the other hand, it may be kept a bit below capacity to make sure the relaxed atmosphere is preserved.
A Thought On The Staff
I must admit, I didn’t see all of the staff, but of the ones I saw, only one wasn’t white and she was Chinese and called Ying. Incidentally, she registered me, when I arrived.
A Thought On The Patients
All of the patients were white and with the exception of one other and myself, they were all female. As the patients were mainly over sixty and had probably made a choice to be vaccinated at the Francis Crick Institute on their computer, I find the ethnic distribution of the patients curious.
A Thought On The AstraZeneca Vaccine
I have a regular B12 injection and a flu vaccination every year, so I’m used to injections. The practice nurse is very quick, but the lady, who vaccinated me today was exceptionally quick.
- She also had a couple of syringes ready-filled waiting for me and following patients.
- She was able to vaccinate me, without my taking off my short-sleeved shirt and thermal vest.
- I also hardly felt a thing.
- I didn’t need a plaster.
As a friend, who also had the AstraZeneca vaccine, also said he didn’t feel a thing, I wonder, if AstraZeneca have designed this vaccine and its delivery system, so that patients can be quickly vaccinated.
Imagine market day, in a very populous country like Brazil, India or Nigeria! Has this vaccine been designed to handle mass vaccinations in an environment like that?
It should be remembered that this is AstraZeneca’s first vaccine.
I have a feeling, that this vaccine could have been designed to a new set of rules, so that teams can vaccinate large numbers of people quickly.
The Anonymous Widower 