Nellie

This stone elephant is one of a pair that stand either side of the doorway of a restaurant that has recently starred on television. Ooo, I know, lets have a little competition! Name the restaurant and the TV program and win a Cheltenham postcard. Exciting! Answer and more revealed on Monday.

All Saints Church

As I mentioned yesterday, today it is more of All Saints Church. The Catholic church on All Saints Road has some wonderful carved details and lots of interesting pitched roofs. Instead of trying to choose one photo today I thought I'd treat you to four! The first photo is of the stone detail above what was once the main door to the church, it is now sectioned of with railings, I guess to preserve it.

All Saints was established in 1868 by a group of local people keen to create a style of worship not generally found in Cheltenham, that followed the 19th century Oxford Movement.

The church itself was designed by John Middleton. Middleton's original design included a tower with a large spire, but although building and decoration of the interior continued for many years, the gable roof to the bell-tower was not completed until 1992, but without the spire the architect designed over 100 years earlier.

And finally the Crucifix in full that I showed you part of yesterday. Impressive.

Jesus Christ

This imposing carved statue of Jesus Christ stands on the corner of All Saints Church. This is just a taster of the amazing stone work on and around the building. More tomorrow. But for now...

A follow up to yesterdays post...

Its amazing what you can find out if you ask a question. Yesterdays mystery musical instruments are an Indonesian Gamelan, as many of you said. Knowing this, I found out the following from the Cheltenham Festivals website.

"A gamelan (translated as ‘hit with a hammer’) is an ensemble of percussion instruments on which the traditional music of Java and Bali is played. It usually consists of metallophones (xylophones) and gongs, the best ones made of bronze, and mounted on beautifully carved and painted wooden frames. It has a distinctive and melodic sound and accompanies dances and all-night shadow-puppet plays in Indonesia.

The Cheltenham Gamelan was made in the foundries outside the Royal City of Surakarta (Solo) in central Java, Indonesia. The lovely white roses carved on the wooden frames were designed specifically to complement the Pittville Pump Room, although one of the wood carvers was apparently somewhat baffled as to why anyone would want what he took to be cabbages on their gamelan!

Many aspects of playing the gamelan match targets within the music curriculum, the most obvious being playing by ear and from memory, learning about pitch, dynamics and tempo, and taking part in group performances. As a result the Cheltenham Gamelan is becoming an increasingly popular resource for all key stages in schools.

As well as a thriving schedule of schools’ workshops, the community gamelan players meet regularly to develop their interest in this beautiful music. It enhances other skills such as listening to others and working as a team, and is therefore ideal for corporate functions, team-building exercises and parties. With no previous experience participants can, within a short time, play a real Javanese composition and have a lot of fun along the way."

So now we all know!

In

Yesterdays cobbles lead up to Cheltenham Town Hall! I've posted a lot on this building in the past, but this is a different view. I think all of us have revisited places and buildings while blogging. To find out more about the Town Hall click on the label below.

How Old?!

Lots of buildings, old and new, in and around Cheltenham have the date of construction on the front. Some are just a date carved into a brick but some, like this one, are very grand. The details on this one are extra special. You can see that the house was built in 1897 but its the carved flowers underneath that caught my eye. Each one is different but just as intricate as the next. Nice touch.

Monkeying Around

Just a quickie today. While stood in the queue waiting to see the Banksy exhibition in Bristol I had time ( a lot of time!) to look at the surrounding buildings. There was a row of Gothic looking buildings, some houses, some now offices, and they all had interesting animal cravings above the windows. My favourite one was this odd monkey one. Its all a bit sinister looking and reminds me of something but I can't quite remember what! Any thoughts?

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Town Hall Detail

This photo may look familiar to some of you. Its a close up of this photo from last Tuesday. The Town hall is covered in carved detail like this, but its not until you look for it that you really see it. As you can see the photo is in black and white (nothing like pointing out the blatantly obvious!) but I took it using the dreaded manual settings! I'm getting there slowly! Anyway, that's it. Got to get some more photos today, I have nothing to show you tomorrow. Nothing!

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Old Tree

Just on the outskirts of the town centre is Clarence Square - a little square of grass, fenced of from the world and accessed by a wrought iron gate. It's surrounded by the Regency town houses that Cheltenham is famous for. As I wandered through the small park I spotted this tree, or rather what is left of this tree. At first I thought it was just a carved sculpture, then I realised its a carved sculpture created from a tree that is still rooted. Tree conservationists in Cheltenham aren't in the habit of letting trees be carved up. I guess the tree was in need of felling and someone with a creative mind came up with this. It looks good, better than it being chipped or used as firewood, and it felt so smooth.

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Fancy Bank

I've shown you parts of the fancy HSBC building before (here and here) but here it is in all its glory. Standing at the corner of the Promenade and the High Street it is one of the town centres oldest and most ornate buildings. The higher up the building you look the more detail you see. I wonder why that is? Maybe its to do with presenting to Heaven. Who knows.

Don't forget its CDPB Theme Day tomorrow. The theme is Yellow and you don't have to sign up to join in, just copy the code into your post, so there are no excuses!

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Two Things Challenge - Window / View

Its Sunday and its time for Two Things Challenge. As with my other posts over the past few days this post too is appearing by blogger magic. It continues my series of photos I took at Nature In Art last weekend.

The building had loads of windows, like the one above, and if I could have taken photos inside the building the shot below shows you the view I would have seen!

How does the artist go about carving a piece like this?!

If you want to join in with the Two Things Challenge, or to see who else is taking part this week, head over to the Two Things Challenge site.

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Two Things Challenge - Corner / Door

I was hoping to find a door on a corner but it didn't happen! Instead I've got a photo that will make you wonder what is round the corner (no, I don't know!) and below a door that will make you wonder how long did it take to carve that (my guess - a long time!)


To see what others have come up with for this weeks challenge head over to Two Things Challenge.
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Oriel Lodge

Just look at all that detail. Spikes, turrets, arches, gargoyles and other things with architectural names that I don't know! This is Oriel Lodge on Oriel Road, just off of Bath Road. This amazing looking building sits between two rather modern, unattractive cubes and the Lodge just puts them to shame. I can't tell you much about the place other than it houses lots of different office based companies including accountants, web developers and recruitment agencies. It must be quite old as I found a reference on the net to some bloke called William Nicolay dying there on May 3rd 1842. I'm just a fountain of knowledge today!

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A Pizza Church

Last night Phoebe and I went to one of our favourite restaurants for something to eat, to celebrate the start of our week off of work (Yay!) This is Zizzi's, an Italian restaurant now taking up residence in a former church, which the new owners restored the interior of, keeping nearly all of the original features of this fantastic Gothic Revival style building. The top photo shows the open kitchen, with pizza oven, in the area that was once the altar. As you can see, the place is beautifully lit at night which enhances all of the stone work. The photo below shows the balcony, which is where you'll find the bar. Last night there was someone playing the piano, you can see the lid of the grand piano in the bottom of the photo. Hopefully you'll be able to make out the wooden ceiling with its carved features. If you want to see the outside of the building then check out a previous post here.

Both of these photos were taken with my camera phone, hence the quality.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Bethesda Choir

One thing that photos can't capture is sound. And this photo doesn't convey the lovely sound coming through the open doors. As I walked up Great Norwood Street I could here singing and as I got near to Bethesda Methodist Church I discovered the source - choir practise. I stopped for a bit and had a listen, pretending to fiddle with my camera, and the singers were really good. I'm sure if I had been brave enough to go in they wouldn't have minded, it wouldn't have been very religious if they'd said no! If you click to enlarge the photo you can just see the singers in full swing and also get a better look at the carving round the door.

Church Carving

This is one picture that you must click on to enlarge, the detailed carving is amazing. It adorns the doorway of St Gregory's Catholic Church, in St James' Square. Up until 1810 the Roman Catholics in Cheltenham used hired rooms for their services, until a small purpose built chapel was erected on the Churches present site. St Gregory's was then built in stages between 1854 and 1876, following the design of architect Charles Hansom. The Grade 2 listed building now has a weekend congregation of around 1000, with about 70 people attending the daily Mass. Its good to see that this church is used regularly, unlike some of the towns others. It really is a lovely looking building, so I'll show some more of it another time.

Looking Up

Ornate features like this one are just waiting to be seen. The problem is that most of the detail on buildings is above eye level, and my problem is I never look up. Until now. Taking my lead from other CDPB, I looked skywards and saw all sorts of interesting things. This narrow bay window is up on the side of the building used by HSBC bank. The building dates from 1890 and is on the Colonnade, at the top of the Promenade. The building is awash with relief carvings and balustrades, its a fine example of the architecture of the time.

For those that are interested the motto underneath the window, Cum Prudentia Sedulus, means Diligent With Prudence.

(I know I've shown pigeons several times before, but the ones in this photo are an added bonus!)

Its A Restaurant!

Yes, the carved stone head on the church with a difference, from yesterdays post, is on the front of a restaurant!

Zizzi's is a great Italian restaurant that took over the building about five years ago. Before that the former church, which was de-consecrated in 1974, was used as the Church Hall for St Philip and St James Church based in nearby Leckhampton. The church, once St James', is in Suffolk Square and is built in the Gothic Revival style. It was built in 1825-30 on land sold by the Earl of Suffolk's daughter, and was designed by local architect Edward Jenkins. It was, and still is, the impressive focal point of the upmarket Suffolk Square. Inside all of the original stone carvings, pillars and balconies still exist; with the open kitchen under the magnificent stained glass window, in the area of the former altar. It is stunning inside and next time I eat there I will take some photos. As a bonus the food is great too!

There was no outright winner from yesterdays quiz. The nearest guess was Vanky, but they have no link to their profile, so I can't give a link to their blog. Therefore the honour of a link goes to Jackie in Glasgow, who came second. Check out her great blog at Glasgow Daily Photo.

Heads Up

Now this carved stone head is on the outside of a church with a difference. As its Bank Holiday Monday today its time for a guessing game! Contain your excitement! So the question is - Why is this church something different? No prizes, just the honour of getting it right and a link to your blog. What more could you want?!

Check back tomorrow for the big reveal! Oooohhh!