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At the end of the eighteenth century in Paris, a new architectural form was developed. Glass-roofed pedestrian passageways lined with shops, known variously as arcades, passages, galeries and gallerie, quickly became associated with European modernity, with their use of innovative engineering and materials, as well as the display of luxurious, exotic and modern wares. While often associated with Paris and London, where they had their beginnings, these architectural forms spread throughout Europe and the world during the course of the nineteenth century—including to Australia—where they were adopted as symbols of urban sophistication in the settler colonial cities and towns.

As the recipient of a Norman Macgeorge travelling scholarship in 2016, Nicole undertook site visits to these spaces throughout Europe, in order to develop a greater understanding of their role within the urban environment and contribute towards her PhD project on the Australian arcades. This illustrated talk takes a…

After nearly six years of construction and over a decade-long tug-of-war with various authorities, on February 18, 1902 Berlin´s first electric and predominantly elevated city railway opened for service.

The construction of Stammstrecke, or “Core/Stem Line” connecting Warschauer Brücke with Zoologischer Garten – two important railway junctions in the east and the west of the city (or, rather, cities since Charlottenburg and Schöneberg, which were to profit from the connection, were independent cities then), made its architects and engineers involved in the project face completely new challenges.

They also had to face a particularly strong wave of scepticism, bordering on hostility. Everybody wanted to get connected but nobody wanted either to see or to hear the trains dashing through their streets along steel viaducts. Not to mention the fact that their level of enthusiasm for the viaducts themselves was, to put it mildly, negligible.

Excavated U-Bahn tunnel in Charlottenburg…

Two hundred years ago today, Charles-François Daubigny was born in Paris. My previous article traced his career up to 1863, and showed a small selection of his paintings. This article concludes that account.

In 1865, Daubigny visited London, where he had lunch with Whistler. Back in France, he continued painting his superb and highly innovative river landscapes in the Île de France, the countryside around Paris, which he knew from his childhood.

Charles-François Daubigny (1817–1878), Boats on the Oise (1865), oil on panel, 36 x 67 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris. Wikimedia Commons.

Working on the bank or in his floating studio, paintings such as his Boats on the Oise (1865) were generally well-received, although there were still critics who complained about his lack of Salon finish.

Charles-François Daubigny (1817–1878), Les péniches (Barges) (1865), oil on panel, 38 × 67 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris. Wikimedia Commons.

Les péniches (Barges)…