venta

I do a lot of driving, almost always by myself. One of the ways I fill in long hours on motorways is by, er, looking at stuff. This tends to include other traffic, roadsigns, etc, but also anything interesting by the side of the road. And I can be interested by practically anything.

I drive from Reading to West London reasonably often, down the M4 and onto the North Circular. I like the view from the elevated section of the M4, there's a good variety of interesting and different buildings. The most notable is probably the peculiarly two-dimensional-looking building erected by GlaxoGlaxoSmithKleinBeechamDibble&Grubb. That's almost a difficult building to look at, the angles are so strange that at driving speed I can't properly take it in. I like it, though. Mind you, having driven past it a few times at sunset, I don't think covering a west-facing wall next to a motorway with mirrored glass was a particularly smart move.

There's a couple of buildings, whose character and antecedents I don't know, which remind me of stills I've seen from Metropolis (I've never seen the film). I've often thought that I'd like to photograph them in half-light, but I've never worked out where I'd stand to do so - I doubt enthusiastic amateur photography is a good enough reason for stopping on the hard shoulder.

There's also an awful lot of scruffy, graffiti'd brickwork, and some strangely lurid advertising hoardings, usually advertising fcuk or Les Miserables.

However. Dark days are upon us. The Lucozade sign is no more. The sign, showing an illuminated Lucozade bottle pouring into a glass (with flashing lights to mark the bubbles), was on the side of a very derelict building just at the turn off for the North Circular. It also included a display showing the time and, I think, the temperature, and served as a useful warning that it was time to hop off the M4 before perils like Hammersmith and congestion charges hove into view.

I've actually been surprised that, whenever I've mentioned it, people who drive along the M4 have said "what?" and "there is?" and things like that. A quick google confirms that it's not just me who loved it as a landmark. A rather gloomy piece from the Grauniad reports that it's gone to a museum - but that its likely fate is being broken up to exhibit its 1950's electronic components to the paying public. The BBC is rather more upbeat, and suggests that an advertising firm has applied for permission to erect a permanent replica of the sign. Hurrah for JC Decaux, I say.

In general, I like the fact that London is always changing. Unlike, say, Paris - a couple of hundred years ago the French said "right, that's finished", and haven't built much since. London's skyline is constantly evolving. And, if new things are to be built, I suppose old things have to go. I look forward to seeing what is built on the site of the derelict building once it's demolished.

I'm going to miss the Lucozade sign, though.