Thursday Doors – United Reformed Church, Nuneaton

img_5077My Thursday Door this week comes from a small Midlands town called Nuneaton. It’s a town I’ve been to many times – it has an excellent market and, when I was a child, Saturdays usually included a visit there. When I was three, I was even briefly lost at the market – I remember standing between two stalls and a tall young policeman bending down to talk to me. He asked my name and address, then took my hand. He bought me an icecream before my mother, who had been looking for me, found us, and apparently the following week at the market I kept running off in an effort to get lost again, hoping for another ice cream.

img_5074This past week I took my own daughter there. She’s older than three and capable of asking for her own ice cream, so I didn’t worry too much that she’d run off. We did some shopping and had lunch, and it was a very pleasant day. On the way through I spotted this rather lovely old building. I especially liked the doors – wooden doors like these are my favourite types, especially with the big ornate hinges.

img_5075This is the United Reformed Church. There has been a church here since 1714, but the present building was built in 1903. Designed by Birmingham architects Ingall & Son, it cost around £8000, or £8,000,000 in today’s money! The building has some lovely architectural features, including carving around the doors and windows, as well as leaded stained glass. I didn’t get to see inside, sadly, but apparently all the period features are still there, which is nice to know.

img_5083This was my response to this week’s Thursday Doors Challenge, courtesy of Norm 2.0. For more doors, or to add one of your own, visit Norm’s site and click the link.

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Thursday Doors – Casa Mila, Barcelona

A quick Thursday Doors post today – this week my door comes from Barcelona, and Antoni Gaudi’s Casa Mila apartment building. The rope and signs get in the way a little bit, but I think you can see what an impressive feature this door is. And it’s only a side door!

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Casa Mila is built of undulating white stone, and features some of Gaudi’s famous chimney pots poking out over the roofline, as well as extraordinary balcony rails made of sinuous metal twists. My construction engineer husband shook his head as we stood outside, thinking about how it would have been to have to manage such a complex build.

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And yet it was managed and stands as a testament to Gaudi’s genius – he is one of my favourite architects and it was a thrill to experience his work in real life. I can only dream of actually living in one of the apartments…

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