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garrowed.bsky.social
Gearóid | Garrowed
@garrowed.bsky.social
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Mostly photos of buildings, art, and assorted oddities from a designer with notions. ¶ Alt text always, usually with additional information. ¶ http://garrowed.co.uk
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garrowed.bsky.social
51.45871, -0.97309

Night Version

#UrbanGaze #Art #PublicArt #StreetArt #Mural #KevMundy #PaddingtonBear #ReadingUK #RDGUK #RailwayStations #Photography
A exterior night scene with two people climbing steps beside an extra-large illuminated mural. The 51-metre long artwork outside Reading railway station is full of references to the people, landmarks, and associated creations of the town — most notably in this section, Banksy's "Create Escape" from the wall of Reading Prison and Michael Bond's Paddington Bear. "Rivers, Ruins & Regency" [2024] by Kev Mundy, in collaboration with sculptor Stuart Melrose. Station Hill, Reading, Berkshire, UK. Photo by Gearóid Burke.
November 27, 2025 at 7:30 AM
garrowed.bsky.social
51.45432, -0.97643

Inside a brutalist cast-concrete car park and looking out.

#WindowsOnWednesday #Architecture #Brutalism #Concrete #ReadingUK #RDGUK #Photography
A monochrome photograph in which a wintery urban landscape is seen through irregular-octagon-shaped openings in a wall. Two horizontal metal bars of a barrier cross the lower portion of the image. These are the unglazed windows of a cast-concrete parking structure. I've posted a few photos of the exterior, for example https://bsky.app/profile/garrowed.bsky.social/post/3m5syscce722r. Broad Street Mall, Düsseldorf Way, Reading, Berkshire. Photo by Gearóid Burke.
November 26, 2025 at 10:04 AM
garrowed.bsky.social
51.38672, -2.36040

#Signage #Signs #BathUK #Typography #Architecture #GeorgianArchitecture #Photography
A photograph of a two-storey Georgian building in a terrace. At the centre, there is a doorway with a Tudor arch and "sunken spandrels." Above the vertical-panelled door is a wonderful carved stone scroll with the word "SCHOOLS" in blackletter type. Less nice is the bright yellow, hexagonal alarm box centred above it. The Schoolhouse (now the Bath Preservation Trust Planning & Campaigning Office), Countess of Huntingdon’s Chapel, The Paragon, Bath, UK. Unfiltered and unedited photo by Gearóid Burke—the colour is a little exaggerated in this shot, but this is exactly what the lens picked up. A close-up of the subject of the previous photo: a carved stone scroll with the word "SCHOOLS" in blackletter type. Lovely bit of craftsmanship! The Schoolhouse (now the Bath Preservation Trust Planning & Campaigning Office), Countess of Huntingdon’s Chapel, The Paragon, Bath, UK. Photo by Gearóid Burke.
November 25, 2025 at 4:49 PM
garrowed.bsky.social
#Photography #Light #Blinds #Angles #Stripes #Interiors
Sunlight, filtered through Venetian blinds, forms patterns of lines, stripes and dots on an interior wall. The shadow of window handle disrupts the sequence. Photo by Gearóid Burke.
November 25, 2025 at 6:18 AM
garrowed.bsky.social
51.45827, -0.97386

#BlueSkyMonday #Art #PublicArt #StreetArt #Sculpture #ReadingUK #RDGUK #Photography
A nocturnal scene with a deep blue sky. A paved plaza hosts a tall, thin illuminated sculpture which has a straight profile on the left and undulating on the right. In the background is a modern glass-and-steel building with a distinctive slope (Reading railway station). "Pivotal" is a kinetic artwork by Mark Nixon and Viliina Koivisto, composed of 73 colourful and flapping fins. Station Hill, Reading, Berkshire, UK. Photo by Gearóid Burke.
November 24, 2025 at 12:08 PM
garrowed.bsky.social
51.45432, -0.97643

#Signage #Signs #Parking #StreetArt #ReadingUK #RDGUK #Photography
A pictogram of a human figure walking in profile, painted in bright yellow on a green background. There are yellow stripes along the side, with a red-painted surface on one side, and bare concrete on the other. "Fire exit" is written in two lines underneath the figure. The front of a pink vehicle, a red wall, and yellow safety barriers can also be seen, plus actual people walking in the distance. Except they're upside down, because I rotated the image 180˚ for some reason. This is the wayfinding system painted on the floor of a multi-storey car park. Broad Street Mall, Düsseldorf Way, Reading, Berkshire. Photo by Gearóid Burke.
November 23, 2025 at 12:44 PM
garrowed.bsky.social
51.45826, -0.97385

#Scape #Cityscape #PublicArt #Sculpture #Architecture #ReadingUK #RDGUK #Photography
A dark evening scene featuring new mid-rise apartment buildings. People walk through a paved pedestrian plaza with a tall, bright yellow sculpture at its center. "Seed" by artists Rachael Champion and Jonathan Trayte was inspired by the horticultural history of Sutton’s Seeds in 19th-century Reading. Station Hill Square, Reading, Berkshire, UK. Photo by Gearóid Burke.
November 21, 2025 at 5:45 PM
garrowed.bsky.social
51.75176, -1.26414

#Scape #Cityscape #BWFri #Oxford #Castle #Prison #Photography
A dark city scene under patchy cirrocumulus clouds. A pedestrian crosses a bridge. A car approaches a junction. The morning sun appears over a redbrick house and creates a flare pattern. And a terrace of five gable-fronted modern townhouses stand beside a big, boxy brick building. The Saxon St. George’s Tower of Oxford Castle was originally built in the 12th century and served as a prison for over 800 years. Quaking Bridge, Oxford, UK. Photo by Gearóid Burke.
November 21, 2025 at 8:05 AM
garrowed.bsky.social
51.45873, -0.97342

At night, it comes alive.

#UrbanGaze #Art #PublicArt #StreetArt #KevMundy #ReadingUK #RDGUK #RailwayStations #RickyGervais #Photography
At the top, plate glass windows of the railway station, reflecting the office towers opposite. In the middle, various levels of walls and wall coverings (stainless steel cladding, brickwork, render). At the bottom a small section of a large figurative piece of art. The 51-metre long artwork outside the Reading railway station is full of references to the people (such as Ricky Gervais, centre) and landmarks of the town. Art by Kev Mundy, in collaboration with sculptor Stuart Melrose. Station Hill, Reading, Berkshire, UK. Photo by Gearóid Burke.
November 20, 2025 at 10:52 AM
garrowed.bsky.social
51.38680, -2.36000

#WindowsOnWednesday: marvel at these quatrefoils and ogee arches.

#Windows #BathUK #Architecture #GothicRevival #Museums #Photography
A photograph of a one-storey wing of a grand, Bath stone building. Below a battlemented roofline are two doors, one at ground level (possibly a later addition), and a larger double door, reached by six steps. A pair of simple, clover-like, four-pane quatrefoil windows sit above two ogee-arched transom lights. The Countess of Huntingdon’s Chapel (now the Museum of Bath Architecture), The Paragon, Bath, UK. Photo by Gearóid Burke.
November 19, 2025 at 8:10 AM
garrowed.bsky.social
52.82479, 1.53172

#Signage #Blackletter #Typography #Happisburgh #Photography
A painted panel of plywood, now aged and faded. The words "The Hill" have been cut out of the board. The counter of the "e" and space between the two "l"s are missing. Another piece of (untreated) wood can be seen through the apertures, and weeds are growing in the gap. The wording is in blackletter type and the letterforms were extracted with the aid of drilled "pilot holes" for a jigsaw blade. Presumably, the removed letters were used elsewhere, and somebody realised that the panel was still readable and could be used as a sign in itself. The Hill, Happisburgh, Norfolk, UK. Photo by Gearóid Burke, 2020.
November 18, 2025 at 8:41 AM
garrowed.bsky.social
51.45406, -0.97691

Unloved by many: Brutalist buildings.
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekUforUnloved

#Architecture #Brutalism #ReadingUK #RDGUK #Photography
A monotone photograph that can be divided into three horizontal bands. At the top, an overcast sky (with some bare branches in the left corner). At the bottom, a redbrick wall with contrasting mortar. And in the middle, the cast concrete walls of a parking structure. These walls feature abstract vertical cutouts allowing light into the building. I love it! Düsseldorf Way, Reading, Berkshire. Photo by Gearóid Burke.
November 17, 2025 at 10:20 AM
garrowed.bsky.social
51.38055, -2.36149 | 51.38341, -2.35961

St Michael's Within and St Michael's Without.
One was inside the city walls, the other was just beyond.

#ChurchOnSunday #Churches #Spire #BathUK #Architecture #GeorgianArchitecture #Photography
The side of a building with four bays—one with a panelled door, the other three feature large stained glass windows. At the top of each bay is a round window with a central oculus surrounded by six smaller circular openings. This chapel for St John's Foundation was built in 1717, and was the first Georgian chapel in Bath. There was a close association with the nearby parish church, the original St Michael’s Within, and when the latter was demolished, it adopted the name. Hetling Court, Bath, UK. Photo by Gearóid Burke. An opulent Gothic Revival church stands on a sharp corner. Its extra-tall three panel window is topped by a rose window and an octagonal spire. St Michael's Church, known as St Michael's Without, was completed in 1837 to replace an earlier church, and its spire is a landmark in the city. Broad Street, Bath, UK. Photo by Gearóid Burke.
November 16, 2025 at 1:37 PM
garrowed.bsky.social
51.38282, -2.36038

#Cityscape #Scape #BathUK #Shopfronts #Windows #StreetPhotography #Photography
A narrow pedestrian side street, lined with shopfronts. The laneway continues downhill, and a cyclist in a navy business suit and black helmet passes by. Colourful bunting and string lights zigzag across the thoroughfare and the pavement is a hodgepodge of red and grey paving slabs, red bricks, and pavement lights—glass lenses set into precast concrete to allow natural light into the space below. Outdoor tables and chairs are stacked to the side, soon to be deployed for a bakery's clientele. A woman in the window looks towards the camera. In the distance, the trees of Beechen Cliff are turning from green to red. New Bond Street Place (yes, that's the name), Bath, UK. Photo by Gearóid Burke.
November 14, 2025 at 10:35 AM
garrowed.bsky.social
51.45680, -0.97150

Shopping mall, 1930s style.

#WindowsOnWednesday #Windows #ReadingUK #RDGUK #Shopfronts #Retail #Photography
Looking down a corridor of an old-fashioned retail arcade. There are wooden shopfronts on both sides, with plate glass windows on the left and bow-fronted, multi-panelled glazing on the right. The pavement is terrazzo with inlayed black borders and the ceiling has a large skylight with blue and yellow accents. Harris Arcade is a 1930s Art Deco gem, now home to independent and specialist shops, from a milliner to a comic specialist, vinyl record shop to a tobacconist. Harris Arcade, Friar Street, Reading, Berkshire, UK. Photo by Gearóid Burke.
November 12, 2025 at 7:48 PM
garrowed.bsky.social
41.89629, -87.63567

Seeing that Chicago just had its first snowfall of the season reminded me of this shot, which I took on this day 12 years ago.

#Chicago #Snow #Cityscape #Trains #Tracks #Photography
A monotone snowy cityscape with elevated train tracks in an S-curve, as seen from above through the wire mesh of security glass. The CTA's Chicago & Franklin Brown Line stop was just below my former workplace, and I took this photo to capture the first snowfall of the 2013/14 winter. North Franklin Street, Chicago, Illinois, USA. Photo by Gearóid Burke, 2013.
November 11, 2025 at 7:41 AM
garrowed.bsky.social
#BlueSkyMonday #Windows #Photography
A wide-angle shot looking out from a window to an urban English back garden enclosed by wood panels. The sky above has cirrocumulus clouds and floating in front of them is a semi-transparent blue shape with 50 circular holes in it (48 of one size, two of a larger aperture). I had just peeled the protective film from a new stainless steel coffee machine drip tray cover and stuck it to the window, then photographed the result. Photography awards to Gearóid Burke, care of garrowed.bsky.social.
November 10, 2025 at 8:09 AM
garrowed.bsky.social
Fauré's Requiem. Tomorrow at the University of Chicago. events.uchicago.edu/event/253471.... Here's the poster that I designed for the concert. Photo by Annie Spratt, via unsplash.com.

#Music #Concert #Design #Posters #PosterDesign #Chicago #UChicago #RockefellerChapel
A layout for a poster promoting a classical music concert. At the centre of a plain pink background are the words Fauré and Requiem, one vertical, the other horizontal, centred on the common U. Behind the words is an outlined photo of two lilies. Photo by Annie Spratt, via unsplash.com. Design by Gearóid Burke.
November 5, 2025 at 12:38 PM
garrowed.bsky.social
Live from our kitchen countertop …

#Alphabetchallenge #WeekSForShadows #Baking #StillLife #Photography
An overhead shot of numerous small, pale spheres on a striped grey cloth, with daylight coming from the right and shadows on the left. Ceramic pie weights (AKA baking beans) drying after a post-use wash. Photo by Gearóid Burke.
November 5, 2025 at 11:03 AM
garrowed.bsky.social
Making typographic animations with spacetypegenerator.com/flash is an excellent way to procrastinate when there is actual work to be done. Here's a quote from Edgar Allan Poe.
November 3, 2025 at 11:19 AM
garrowed.bsky.social
51.456163, -0.97843

#BlueSkyMonday #LookUp #Architecture #Windows #ReadingUK #RDG #Photography
A wide-angle photograph of contemporary apartment buildings reaching up into a deep blue sky. The structures' facades are a mix of wide grey metallic cladding panels and plain white render. Some of windows have brightly-painted architraves. The Honister, Hunsaker, and Hewitt buildings, Chatham Street, Reading, Berkshire, UK. Photo by Gearóid Burke.
November 3, 2025 at 9:16 AM
garrowed.bsky.social
Cheesy #pareidolia shot.

#cheese #photography @pareidolia.bsky.social
A slice of Emmental cheese on a white plate. Three holes have formed in this cross-sectioned piece of curdled bovine milk product and seem to form a face. These cheese holes are called eyes, so it's not actually that much of a stretch to point out the apparent pareidolia here. The plate also features a crumb of cheese and three salt crystals. The background is a scratched stainless-steel tabletop which is reflecting the red of the smartphone used to capture this image and the hands of the photographer. Photo by Gearóid Burke.
October 30, 2025 at 8:32 PM
garrowed.bsky.social
52.15666, -10.46015

Clogher Beach⁩, ⁨Kerry⁩, ⁨Ireland⁩, August 2022.

#WeekRforRock #Cairn #Kerry #Ireland #Beach #Atlantic #Photography #SpeirGorm
Rocks and stones, stacked to form a cairn on a beach, with peninsulas, an island, and the Atlantic Ocean in the background. ‎⁨Clogher Beach⁩, ⁨Dún Urlann⁩, Kerry⁩, ⁨Ireland⁩. Photo by Gearóid Burke.
October 29, 2025 at 8:45 AM
garrowed.bsky.social
51.37910, -2.36023

SL | ⅃Ƨ
AB | ᗺA

#TagTuesday #StreetArt #Graffiti #BathUK #Photography
A yellow-hued stone wall is splattered with bird excreta and has faded red stains in places (after graffiti removal, perhaps). A steel checker-plate ramp leads to a loading bay door which had once been painted blue, but is now mostly bare, weathered metal. A large, four-letter tag has been spray-painted on the rolling shutter, spelling SL on the top line, and AB below. These are bold, white, rounded letterforms, outlined in black. To the right is a standard security door in bright blue, extensively covered in various smaller tags. Both doors have large outdoor lights above them and wire cabling between them. The plastic of the light-fittings have aged poorly, and are now a murky, translucent yellow. The image has been mirrored and its colours inverted, just because I like the shades of blue that the oolitic limestone makes when in negative. Wine Street, Bath, UK. Photo by Gearóid Burke.
October 28, 2025 at 7:20 AM
garrowed.bsky.social
51.75031, -1.26110

#BlueSkyMonday #Oxford #Landscape #Cityscape #Churches #Spire #Photography
A partial skyline of a low-density city with four spires in the distance. The view is framed by a blank grey wall on the left and diagonal lines of an open-air escalator's handrail on the right. The sky is bright blue and features a line of stratocumulus clouds. Westgate Shopping Centre, Oxford, Oxfordshire, UK. Photo by Gearóid Burke.
October 27, 2025 at 10:05 AM