Category Archives: architecture

fixed it!

11 Monday Sep 2023

Posted by in architecture, history, sevilla

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balbuena huertas

Or rather, Paul fixed it for me. Remember my fabulous tasting menu at Balbuena y Huertas last week? I mentioned that the restaurant is housed in a rather splendid 5 Star GL boutique hotel (opening soon). However, when they renovated the building, which was built in 1924/25, they left up an antique ceramic tile ad that is, well, frankly racist. I always put a photo of the outside of bars and restaurants in my reviews but really didn’t want to lead with a pic of the offending tiles and so… Paul to the rescue.

In fact, Fiona and I had a talk with the chef about this after our meal the other day but he said that old tiles like this are protected and cannot be removed. And he’s right. But they can be covered up as long as the original tiles aren’t damaged (I’ve seen this done in various places around town). So we shall see.

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today’s grey with… pulleys?

12 Monday Dec 2022

Posted by in architecture, sevilla

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pulleys

Out for a walk this afternoon and noticed for the first time that the gables on one side of The House of My Dreams have these pulleys over the windows. It was suggested that they were used for lifting furniture up to the top floor, except you really couldn’t fit much through those windows. Also, although those rooms are clearly apartments now, back then they were probably used for storage (?) or servants quarters (??). This got me wondering about the history of this house, which is massive. Who was it built for? And most importantly, WHY did they install pulleys over those windows. Enquiring minds want to know.

gables

scandal in sevilla

30 Tuesday Aug 2022

Posted by in architecture, sevilla

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casa ruiz (1)

Koker is a chain of Spanish women’s clothing shops that has recently moved to Sevilla, and specifically into the old Casa Ruiz location in calle Sierpes, a jewellery shop that had been family-run for generations. Once Koker took over the premises they decided to paint over the marble and bronze façade, apparently without permission from the city council, resulting in a public outcry that spread across social media platforms and the press. The result was that the work was halted and the company was ordered to remove the paint. The photo above was taken this week and it’s not sure if this is the best that can be done as you can still see paint embedded in some of the cracks and pores of the marble. Also they have left the wood trim white, which is quite jarring. It’ll be interesting to see if the shop is successful.

casa ruiz (2)