Quite a feat of engineering

I took a trip into Oxford to meet my plein air friend for a coffee and a drawing session. We chose to head to the Natural History Museum and thankfully I got a park very close by. Unfortunately I didn't realise that there was a 2 hour limitation so paid for the full 2 hours (horrified it cost over £15) but needs must as I cannot walk far and had no time to make other plans.  We met up in the cafe and looked out at the expanse of the main hall from above.. looking up is my blip... what a feat of engineering it must have been. 
We had a good catch up over a luke warm coffee, delicious but never could be called hot.  So much nattering we never got our drawing stuff out.. oops! It happens! Very nice to see her and we have plans to meet up in the spring when we will paint!
The roof.. I had to look up the history of it.. the building opened in 1860 and a Coventry based metalworker called Francis Skidmore was asked to design the roof.  He apparently came up with two schemes.. one that followed the architects plan and one cheaper one that followed his ideas. It started to be built in 1857 and apparently by 1959 it had started to collapse as he had decided to use thicker glass!!  Oooops.. after some advice from an expert he installed some new uprights to help with the weight and hey presto it is still there!! It is extremely ornamental with beautiful leaves and vines and flowers decorating almost every space..  
'The majority of the spandrels depict trees. There are spandrels showing the leaves and fruit of Lime, Horse Chestnut, Sycamore, Oak and Pawpaw. There are also different types of Bananas and Palms included in the scheme, as well as Staghorn Fern and Coltsfoot.
The two-dimensional nature of the spandrels limited Skidmore's aims to show the decorative potential of metalwork and Ruskin was critical that the designs did not reflect the grouping and growth of the plants in nature' (source the NHM history page)
I was home by late lunchtime after enjoying my trip out.. the scenery there and back again was lovely in the mist and sunshine.. and now there is a thick fog settling in for the night. still.. at 4.40 it is still ight outside.. feels a little later than normal even with the fog. yippee!