Imperial College: Farmers' Market

Taller in large ("L").

This is Queen's Tower at Imperial College. I've blipped it once before (here) and wrote (briefly) about its history. It is a handsome tower, and looks very striking standing alone on Queen's Lawn. It was previously part of the larger Imperial Institute, but when the institute was condemned to demolition (starting in 1957) John Betjeman, who was then the poet laureate and was also a passionate defender of Victorian architecture, led a public campaign for the tower, at least, to be saved. Victorian architecture had become unpopular, but he argued that the total demolition of the institute would be unforgivable. So, this tower was previously part of a larger building (it was actually the central tower of the institute), and as such it required extensive modification in order to be a free-standing tower: this work was completed in 1966 with its foundations improved to allow it to stand unsupported by any other structures.

I visited Imperial at lunchtime as there was a farmers' market taking place next to Queen's Lawn: I found it disappointing as there were too many stalls selling "street food" and very few selling fresh (or interesting) produce to take away... This seems to be a trend: Borough Market also seems to be becoming more and more about ready-prepared food. I'm sure that it appeals more to tourists, but presumably they were originally attracted to the market as a venue for the sale of high quality produce direct from the growers, and this adaptation of the markets to selling more and more street food seems to undermine that premise. Oh well, the few stalls that did sell wonderful-looking fruit and vegetables (&c.) were selling them at rather inflated South Kensington prices, so I left with photos and a coffee from the student café rather than any market goods... Perhaps I went with unrealistic expectations!