Tales of the Unconnected

Behind The Galleries:

Blog Archive posts #4 down to #1:

Kingsland Bridge, Shrewsbury: did you know...?; Guerrillero Heroico: the World's Most Famous Photograph?; Race into the Sky: the Feud that built The World's Tallest Building; Shrewsbury: St Mary's Church and Robert Cadman, steeplejack and stuntman.

18 September 2020

#4 Kingsland Bridge, Shrewsbury: did you know...?

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The Kingsland Bridge was opened in 1882 (contrary to its plaque, which reads 1881) and was built by the Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company, based in Darlington, England.

The Company was also involved in these landmark bridge-building projects:

The Victoria Falls Bridge, built in Great Britain and assembled in Victoria Falls. Construction only took 14 months and was completed in 1905.

The construction of the Forth Road Bridge, carried out by Britain’s three largest construction engineering firms – Sir William Arrol & Company, The Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company and Dorman Long (Bridge & Engineering) Ltd. It was opened by Her Majesty The Queen on September 4, 1964.

The suspension bridge over the Yangtze River in Jiangsu, China. It ranks amongst the ten longest bridge spans in the world. It was opened on September 28, 1997.

Astonishing Acrobatics

In mid July 1918, the Germans launched their last major offensive of the First World War, with a two-pronged attack upon Reims in France. The Allies had been anticipating this and lay in wait. The offensive was crushed by the French. The next day, the Allies began a counter-offensive and the tide of the war started to turn, leading to the ultimate defeat of the Germans in November.

Meanwhile, a long way away in peaceful Shrewsbury, an old Salopian named Captain Collett landed his biplane on the cricket pitch at Shrewsbury School one July morning in 1918. Rumours soon began circulating that something spectacular was planned for the afternoon down by the Kingsland Bridge. A throng of spectators lined the riverbank in keen anticipation. After lunch, the airman took off once again and the crowd were transfixed by the spectacle of Captain Collett flying underneath the Kingsland Bridge, not just once, but nine or ten times, for their delight. Through good fortune, his acrobatics were recorded that afternoon and this photograph has survived to this day, to pay testament to the Captain's showmanship and courage.

The Lingering Past

Before the Kingsland Bridge was built, the only way to cross the river at this point was via the Quarry Ferry (see above.) The post in the foreground, bottom right, still stands (see below) and can be found at the end of Gloucester Avenue, the avenue of lime trees running from Quarry Place down to the river. On the opposite bank, you will come upon the ferry's old winching mechanism (below), to the right of the Shrewsbury School boathouse.

Despite the opening of the Kingsland Bridge in 1882, designed to serve the newly opened Shrewsbury School, the Quarry Ferry remained in operation until 1939, when it was still popular, not least because it remained significantly cheaper than crossing via the bridge.

Orphans to students....

The main school building at Shrewsbury School started life as a Foundling Hospital (see above.) The term ‘Foundling’ applied to children, usually babies, that had been abandoned by parents and discovered and cared for by others. The hospital was established in 1739 by philanthropist Thomas Coram; his charity lives on to this day.

At one time there were more than 400 orphans over six years of age in the Foundling Hospital under the care of the Governor, Matron, Chaplain and Schoolmaster. The Foundling Hospital provided for their maintenance and education. Child labour was the norm in England at this time, so the children were expected to work.

Government funding was withdrawn in 1760 and the hospital was run down until its closure in 1772.

The building was subsequently occupied by Baker's woollen manufactory and was also used to house foreign prisoners. In 1784, the parishes of Shrewsbury bought the premises for the knock-down sum of £6,080 for use as a 'House of Industry' or workhouse. Inmates had to work from 6am to 6pm, 6 days a week.

In 1871, the site was acquired by Shrewsbury School and in 1882, under the auspices of headmaster Henry Whitehead Moss, the school was moved from the site now housing the Town Library to its new location in Kingsland.

Once more, the building was devoted to the care of children, but this time they were expected to study and learn, not manufacture carpets!

Hard cash

Cost of crossing...

...and who crossed... in the 1880's.

9 September 2020

#3 Guerrillero Heroico: the World's Most Famous Photograph?

Dominating the featureless grey monolith of the Ministry of the Interior in Havana’s Plaza de la Revolución is a five storey high steel memorial of an instantly recognisable figure, known around the globe as a symbol of rebellion, revolution and change. He gazes out implacably across the barren stretches of the square, at once melancholy and defiant. Underneath the iconic portrait is the legend ‘Hasta la victoria, siempre’ (‘Onwards towards victory, always.’) This image has been reproduced millions of times on everything from T shirts, flags, posters and album covers to underwear, condoms and soft drinks since it was captured in March 1960.

Here are just a few examples:

‘The World’s Most Famous Photograph’, as it came to be known, was taken by erstwhile fashion photographer Alberto Korda at a memorial service for victims of the La Coubre disaster, when a French freighter exploded in the harbour of Havana killing at least 100 and injuring many more. Fidel Castro angrily accused the United States of an act of sabotage, but they strongly denied any involvement.

Korda, a lifelong communist and supporter of the Cuban Revolution and now Castro's official photographer, only took two frames of Che Guevara at the service, when the fighter appeared briefly from out of the crowd.

"Suddenly, through the 90mm lens, Che emerged above me," Korda recalled later. "I was surprised by his gaze. By sheer reflex I shot twice, horizontal and vertical. I didn’t have time to take a third photo, as Che stepped back discreetly into the second row…. It all happened in half a minute.”

Korda offered the photograph to the newspaper La Revolución, but they only took his pictures of others present at the event: famous French existentialist philosophers Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir and the firebrand Castro himself.

"I realised that the image of him was almost a portrait, with the clear sky behind him,” said Korda and as he thought it was a powerful study of the man, he hung this cropped version on his wall, where it remained for years, unseen by the world.

In pursuit of his lifelong struggle against imperialism, Guevara left Cuba in 1965 to help organise guerrilla operations elsewhere, first in Africa in the Congo, and later in Latin America. In October 1967, Guevara was captured in the eastern Bolivia where he was part of the armed struggle against the military ruler, General René Barrientos. He was tracked down with help from a Cuban exile working for the CIA and executed by U.S.-trained soldiers.

1968 stylized image created by Jim Fitzpatrick.

Gerry Malanga (for Andy Warhol): Che Guevara, 1968

The image of Che Guevara exploded on to the international scene at a very specific moment, when the new wave of Pop Art and student protest was sweeping through the western world. The yellow star on Che's beret ranked alongside "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", and, before long, Andy Warhol's silk-screen images of Marilyn Monroe and Mao Zedong were adapted to include him.

Neither Korda nor the Guevara family has earned anything from the billions of reproductions of the image. It was not protected by copyright and the only time Korda sought to control its use was when Smirnoff tried to use it to promote their entry into the 'alcopops' market (left or above.) Korda sued Smirnoff in 2000, saying, "I am categorically against the exploitation of Che’s image for the promotion of products such as alcohol, or for any purpose that denigrates the reputation of Che.” Korda received an out-of-court settlement of $50,000, which he gave to the Cuban healthcare system.

With the diminution of Communism as a world force, the significance of Korda's iconic image has diminished too. Today, few people who have items emblazoned with his image really know who he was. Yet Che’s daughter Aleida has said that despite the “ubiquitous exploitation” of the image as a fashion statement, it would have made her revolutionary father happy. “He probably would have been delighted to see his face on the breasts of so many beautiful women,” she said.

And as for the man who captured that image in a fleeting moment, Albert Korda died of a heart attack in 2001 while installing an exhibition in Paris. He is buried in Havana. He outlived his subject by 34 years.

4th September, 2020

#2. Race into the Sky: the Feud that built The World's Tallest Building

How far would you go to get your revenge on someone? What heights would you scale? Would you risk a 27 ton steel spire hurtling down 860 feet at innocent passers-by in the streets below, for example?

William Van Alen did.

His long friendship with his partner at Severance and Van Alen, Architects, H. Craig Severance, (left or below) had turned sour; now the only link between them was a bitter feud, sparked by professional jealousy. Their practice had been hugely successful in the ten years up to 1924, but Van Alen was the designer and Severance essentially the salesman. Thus it was Van Alen who increasingly earned more of the plaudits for their achievements. Severance resented him for it. By 1924, Van Alen could bear the rancour no longer and walked away from their close association and friendship forever.

Van Alen subsequently took on smaller commissions in New York City to sustain his livelihood until, in 1927, he was hired by William H. Reynolds, the owner of ‘Dreamland’ (left or above), a $3.5 million dollar amusement park at Coney Island. Reynolds asked him to design a forty-storey building on a large plot of land at the corner of Lexington Avenue and 42nd Street. Van Alen worked on the project for two long years. At its most ambitious stage, Reynold’s skyscraper would have risen to 808 feet with 67 floors. These plans were approved in June 1928. However, Van Alen eventually realised that Reynolds had no intention of constructing the building. He simply wanted to drive up the value of the lease and make a profit on its sale. Van Alen was crushed.

The fate of what was to become New York’s Art Deco masterpiece was ultimately redeemed when Reynolds sold the plot, lease, plans, and architect's services to automobile magnate Walter P. Chrysler (above) for $2 million on October 15, 1928.

Chrysler kept Van Alen on and worked with him on a more progressive design for a building he funded with his own income from his car company.

As well as embellishing the building with architectural details such as flying radiator caps, gargoyles and eagles to represent unique Chrysler design and the miracle of the machine age, Walter Chrysler's deepest desire was for the building to climb higher than the Eiffel Tower. For the time being, he and Van Alen settled on a 67-storey, 809-foot skyscraper.

Mary Bourke White photographing an eagle gargoyle at the top of the Chrysler Building in 1935.

Excavation of the Chrysler Building's 69-foot-deep foundation began in mid-November 1928, while construction of the building proper began in January, 1929. The design was released to the public in March 1929.

And that is when it came to the attention of Van Alen’s erstwhile partner turned bitterest rival, H. Craig Severance. He had been commissioned to design a tower on Wall Street for the Bank of Manhattan Company, 80 blocks to the south at 40 Wall Street. One of the bank’s investors was insistent that the building should become the World’s Tallest.

‘The Race into the Sky’, as it was dubbed in New York’s press, was now on.

Severance’s design was also for a 67 storey skyscraper, but he added a copper pyramid and a mast to his, increasing it to a height of 857 feet, forty eight feet higher than his rival’s. A further revision the same month of April 1929, which included five more storeys and a flagpole, took it to a height of 927 feet.

Surely Van Alen couldn’t match that.

Construction of the Bank of Manhattan Tower began in May 1929. To keep costs down, the building was to be completed within 12 months: a heart-stopping, breakneck speed.

Meanwhile, uptown, Chrysler and Van Alen took up the challenge. Van Alen added ten more storeys to the tower and another arch to its glittering dome. Chrysler announced that the tower would top out at somewhere between 840 and 850 feet. But he and his architect had a killer secret, hidden within the tower itself.

The Bank of Manhattan tower was officially opened on 26 May 1930. It had only taken a year to build, as planned: a staggering achievement. It was immediately hailed as the World’s Tallest Building. Severance had won. Or so he thought.

On October 23rd, 1929, one day before the catastrophic Wall Street Crash of 1929 began, Van Alen and Chrysler had watched from street level, their blood pounding in their ears, as a 185 stainless spire was lifted into position from its secret location inside the seven-arched dome. They didn’t know whether the derrick could support its 27 ton weight. They didn’t know whether the wind might blow it off course and send it plummeting to earth below. But within 90 minutes, the gleaming spire had been riveted into position. Van Alen compared the experience to watching a butterfly leaving its cocoon.

Unbeknownst to Severance, the Chrysler Building had stolen the crown for the World’s Tallest Building, reaching a height of 1,046 feet. It took almost a month for the official measurements to be announced. Severance was devastated - and enraged. After all, the Chrysler was only taller due to its spire, and this wasn’t habitable space. But no-one listened to his protests and Van Alen remained the victor.

Van Alen's triumph was tainted, however. He had failed to enter into a contract with Walter Chrysler when he received the Chrysler Building commission. After the building was completed, Van Alen requested payment of 6 percent of the building's construction budget ($14 million), a figure that was the standard fee of the time. After Chrysler refused payment, Van Alen sued him and won, eventually receiving the fee. The lawsuit significantly diminished his reputation as an employable architect. His career was effectively ruined by it and, following the Great Depression, Van Alen focused his attention on teaching sculpture.

He died in 1954, outliving his rival Severance by 13 years. But his legacy - one of the most beautiful and iconic buildings in the world, loved by millions - lives on.

26 July, 2020

#1. Shrewsbury: St Mary's Church and Robert Cadman, steeplejack and stuntman

In 1739, Britain was still in the grip of 'The Little Ice Age' and its severe winters gave rise to provincial festivals known as 'Frost Fairs'. One such festival took place that year in Shrewsbury. The River Severn, which loops around the town, froze to such a depth that it could support the weight of a printing press and a giant spit for roasting sheep. In the engraving below, you can see ice skaters, promenaders, ice-bound sailing barges, figures carrying home large branches for fuel and even a rider leading a horse across the frozen water.

An engraving by an anonymous artist entitled ‘A Prospect of the Town of Shrewsbury taken as it appear’d in the Great Frost 1739’. (Image supplied by Shropshire Council, Shropshire Museums.)

Into this glacial scene stepped the wiry, muscular figure of Robert Cadman, a 28 year old steeplejack and tightrope walker. He had been commissioned to repair the weathercock on the top of St Mary's Church which had been damaged in high winds. But when his work was done, he seized the opportunity to indulge his true passion: entertaining the public by cheating death. He was a showman, the Evil Knievel of his day. His plan was to walk a rope to the summit of St Mary's Church, 220 feet above the ground, performing all manner of stunts on the way up and then fly down across the River Severn to the rope's anchor on the other side, in a field later to become the Gay Meadow, the former home of Shrewsbury Town FC.

The path of Cadman's rope, from St Mary's Church spire on the left, across the Severn, coming to earth well beyond the trees on the right.

Cadman took about an hour to make the ascent, hanging upside down, suspended by his feet, chin or toes, lying on his back, folding his arms and sitting down, pretending to tumble - anything to elicit gasps of dread and delight from his audience.

For the second part of his performance, having reached the top, Cadman strapped on a wooden breastplate of his own design, with a deep groove chiselled out down the middle. The rope would slot into this groove and the intrepid Cadman would launch himself into space, hurtling headfirst towards the river, arms outspread, signalling his take-off by blowing a trumpet as he flew.

All was set for Cadman's heart-stopping flight. Yet as he tested the tautness of the rope, he could feel it needed slackening and signalled to his accomplices to let it out. There was a tragic misunderstanding. They pulled it tighter instead. As Cadman pitched himself down the rope, it snapped after just a few feet and he plunged to his death in front of a huge crowd of onlookers; ‘the Rope failing he fell in St. Mary’s fryers, & Dash’d to Pieces.’ As the ground was as hard as iron, it was recorded that his body ‘after reaching the earth, rebounded upwards several feet’. Cadman's wife, who was passing amongst the crowd collecting money for her husband's feat, could only look on in grief and horror as her husband's mangled frame came to rest.

A plaque commemorating Robert Cadman at the entrance to St Mary's Church.

Thus Robert Cadman's career as stuntman, entertainer and local celebrity came to its untimely end. If you pay a visit to St Mary's Church today, you will find this plaque dedicated to the man, buried in the churchyard where his exploits are still recorded and remembered, at the very place he fell.