Fake 155

A bit of fake wall at Victoria Station, above the conveniences built under the western wall of the main concourse area. Roughly at the place where I remember there once being a modest but pleasant bar. So here at Victoria, from bar to conveniences, while back at Waterloo, behind Platform 1, the rather larger conveniences made the reverse journey to bar, stopping off on the way at a Paris style café chantant, a place which was rather dear but which I rather liked. It made a change.

Back at home, I was struck by the size of the Great Auditorium of the Great Hall of the Peoples in Peking, pictured in the Financial Times. From 19th century railway extravaganza to 20th century government extravaganza - with this hall seating 10,000 people at a time. One wonders what they do about feeding and watering such numbers: give them all a modest packed lunch, to be taken in the hall? What about caffeine, nicotine and alcohol, with the last two, if not all three, being popular in China? With this hall looking to be a smoke-free zone - at least for the purposes of this publicity shot.

I was impressed by the absence of supporting columns, but one of the pictures at reference 2 reveals a line of modest white pillars near the back of the dress circle.

The Great Hall as a whole was built in under a year, with lots of heritage presumably bulldozed to make way for it. I wonder how many facilities of this size we have here in the west, if any. And I associate to the mega churches in the bible belt of the US.

PS: I have yet to find any pictures of the construction, of all the concrete being poured. A pity.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/02/fake-154.html.

Reference 2: http://www.npc.gov.cn/zgrdw/englishnpc/GreatHall/node_3072.htm.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Hall_of_the_People.

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