I wandered along to the Political Cartoon Gallery – which is just off Tottenham Court Road – on Saturday for a look at an exhibition which was due to finish that day. I was actually planning to go there the previous week, but an email warned me that the owner was on holiday, so I had to pop along on the last day of the show.

Alas, most of the exhibition, on the satirical cartoons of the Conservative Party had already been taken down, but all was not lost as a new exhibition on Gordon Brown as Prime Minister was just being laid out.

The gallery is quite small, and at the time of visiting, a bit messy, probably due to the changeover of the displays, so forgiveable – but they only ask for a single shiny pound coin to have a look, and as I was there for probably half an hour, it is pretty good value for money.

I am quite a fan of political cartoons, as I find that they often give you a more interesting take on how the media is thinking about a news story – in a way which is not always clear from the headlines which just reflect the story, and not the social impact of the issues.

I think a good example of this was on the day after the 9/11  attacks in New York – where the cartoons were particularly sombre, and conveyed a message of grief and sorrow which the news headlines – focusing on the facts of the events – failed to really deliver.

Another interesting aspect which made me ponder a while was one specific cartoon laying out the woes of the current government, and one of them was QinetiQ – a privatisation scandal, which occurred so long ago that has I been asked, I would have presumed it was a Tory sell-off. Nope, it was actually an early sale by the current government.

Sometimes it really was difficult to tell the difference between the two main parties!

I also picked up a book accompanying the earlier Tory cartoons exhibition – which is only sold in the gallery, along with a book which covers how the media have covered the Labour Party in cartoon form. A book on the Liberal Party/LibDems is apparently being considered.

If you liked Spitting Image, then you’ll enjoy visiting this gallery.

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I was with a couple of friends (several others didn’t turn up – glares!), and I took them to the nearby Building Center which they had never been to, and we spent a while gazing at the huge 3D map of London – and doing the usual thing of pointing out all the bits we could recognise.

Earlier this year I attended a breakfast lecture at the Building Centre on the topic of Crossrail, hosted by David Anderson, the Engineering Director of Crossrail.

You might be interested to know that they are hosting a second lecture – this time next month on Thur 6th Nov.

Having been before, I wont go a second time – but you might be interested in booking a free ticket if you want.

http://www.buildingcentre.co.uk/events/event_diary_details.asp?id=401

Was back at the Building Centre in central London this morning for the final of their breakfast talks on subterranean London as part of their current exhibition. This morning’s talk was hosted by Andrew Smith from Subterranea Britannica (sub-brit), an organisation I am also a member of, and was a basic overview of what lies under London.

Despite being aimed at the “layman”, it was still interesting for me to attend, as it reminded me of things I have meant to visit but keep forgetting – especially a bunker in the basement of a block of flats in Crystal Palace. There is a disused tunnel in the vicinity and sold old railway remains I want to look for – so it is planned for a nice day out with the maps.

He spent a fair bit of time talking about the old Royal Observer Corps (ROC) bunkers which are dotted all over the country – and showed some details of one that is inside Heathrow airport itself. These tiny bunkers, just one room in size were designed to house three volunteers who would then report on where nuclear bombs were going off in time of war so that local governments could plan their emergency aid.

There is a fantastic restored central command centre at York – which was recently saved and a team from the ROC carried out one of their test drills and the base is now left exactly as they had it for the test. Unfortunately, as the bunker is not in the town centre, you do need to book to make a visit as they have to send someone down from English Heritage to open it up – but it is worth a visit.

As I said, the lecture was the last in the current series at the Building Centre, and the exhibition itself closes this weekend.

Out of the series of talks, I managed to get to the talk on Crossrail, and an excellent evening talk on methods of Cooling the London Underground.

There will be another few exhibitions this year which have caught my eye – one on how to cram more housing into London – and a very interesting one, on London’s Bridges.

Oh, if you want a 2.6 metre scale model of the cutting head from a TBM – they have one from the exhibition and need to dispose of it. I would have loved to have it – but the spare room is shortly to be sublet to a flatmate. Oh well.

The ever wonderful Building Centre in London will be setting out a new exhibition from the end of next week all about “London’s Hidden Infrastructure”.

28 FEBRUARY – 19 APRIL 2008

As London’s skyline becomes ever more clustered with new developments and tall buildings adding to the historic landscape, it is easy to forget the complex underground infrastructure necessary to service this increasingly crowded over ground. This latest exhibition by The Building Centre will expose London’s inner workings and demonstrate that without a successful underground, what is built on top cannot function.

http://www.newlondonarchitecture.org/talks_series.php?id=7

There are also some breakfast lectures and I can be found attending the Crossrail lecture on 5th March and the Underground lecture on 16th April.

Say “hi” if you are going and see me there.