Under my feet : Principality Stadium

Rugby fans around the world will, I’m sure, be familiar with Cardiff’s Millennium – now Principality Stadium. Built in the late 1990s, after Wales had won the right to stage the 1999 Rugby World Cup, the stadium was constructed in the central city, a rugby ball’s throw from Cardiff Castle, adjacent to the still-extant Cardiff Arms Park, and on the site of the old Empire swimming pool.

But this post is not about the stadium itself (you can read more about that on its website). The stadium sits alongside the River Taff, and there is a riverside walkway that takes the pedestrian past one of the stadium’s entrances. There, under your feet, you can see a series of mosaic panels representing the nations that took part in the 1999 World Cup. 

The main countries have their own panels, with one that lumps together the ‘other nations’ – I’m not sure which they were. The panels show the flags of the various nations, together with symbols of those nations. 

The New Zealand panel shown here includes a sheep, a kiwi and what is probably meant to be a tuatara (the lizard-type creature); a dolphin and a whale; a silver fern, red pohutukawa flowers and what’s probably meant to be a fern (as we do not have coconut palms in New Zealand); a sailing ship, a Maori canoe and, presumably, the ceremonial gateway into a Maori pa; a koru (unfurling fern frond) and one other item (top left), which I haven’t yet figured out. 

The mosaics themselves are crude but I like the idea behind them and, twenty years on, they are still in reasonably good condition.

Under my feet : Victoria and Albert Museum

Looking ‘Under my feet’ began as a series of ‘shoe selfies’ (I detest having my photo taken so seldom take face selfies), taken on my phone (so the photos are not very good quality) for posting on my Instagram account. But, almost immediately, I began to see noteworthy things under my feet and to realise how often I look up and around but not down. 

I have now begun to appreciate much more what lies beneath my feet and will occasionally blog about what I photograph. The subjects will probably be varied and a little random but hopefully interesting.

This first series of three photos was taken during a three-night stay in London at the end of October, a stay which included my first ever visit to the Victoria and Albert Museum, a museum that had long been on my list of must-visit places. As we were on a mission to give an Australian friend a brief taste of London’s famous sites, we didn’t stay long at the V&A so I am already planning a return visit but, as well as all the incredible exhibits that constantly drew my eyes up and around, I did make a point of looking down and so I couldn’t help but notice the incredible mosaic floors.

For my first ‘shoe selfie’ the design (photo above left) was a simple one but, as we visited other rooms within the museum, the mosaic designs just kept getting better and better. And I’ve now discovered that they have their own story to tell, a fascinating story of female convicts.

This is from a blog on the V&A’s website:

Starting in 1869, women from Woking Prison were employed in gangs. Using fragments of refuse marble, which they chipped into suitable sized pieces, they assembled blocks or ‘tiles’ of mosaic. These were then rubbed down to a level surface using a piece of York stone. The result became known as Opus Criminale.

The ‘Opus criminale’ was made by the women prisoners between about 1869 and 1873, following a design by Francis Wollaston Moody (1824-1886). Apparently, the idea of using convict labour, which was approved by the Home Secretary, was proposed by one Captain Du Cane, then a prison official, who went on to become ‘surveyor-general of prisons, chairman of the convict prison directors and inspector-general of military prisons’.   

Not all the museum’s mosaic floors were produced using prison labour: Moody’s designs, which included masks, sea creatures (like the dolphins included in the corner panel above) and geometric patterns, had originally been created for a landing on the West or Ceramic Staircase (now identified as Staircase I), which was crafted by the famous firm of Minton, Hollins & Company.   

Once that section had been completed, the designs were extended and the women prisoners’ work used for the additional floors, for the corridor between the Cast Courts (which is where I took the photo of the bearded man – possibly Poseidon), the cloister beneath the Sheepshanks Gallery (now the Museum bookshop), the Science Schools (now the Henry Cole Wing), and also for part of the V&A Museum of Childhood, a separate museum located in Bethnal Green.

So, if you get the chance to visit the Victoria and Albert Museum, do try to tear your eyes away from the wealth of stunning designs all around you to take a few moments to appreciate these remarkable floors.

Morocco day 5: Fes

Fes is Morocco’s third largest city, with a population of about 1.2 million people, and is made up of three quite distinct areas. Fes el-Bali (the old Fes medina) is one of the largest living medieval cities in the world, a walled maze of 9400 streets within an area of about 280 hectares that was founded in the 9th century and is now a UNESCO World Heritage site. West of the medina is Fes el-Jdid (new Fes), an extension to the old medina built in the 13th century, and the third main area is the Ville Nouvelle, with wide boulevards full of shops, cafes and restaurants, built in the 1920s. You can move from an early medieval bazaar to an air-conditioned super-modern shopping mall is the blink of an Arab eye in Fes.

Though our hotel was in the Ville Nouvelle, we spent most of our time in Fes in the old medina, on a full-day walking tour. However, our tour started with our local guide, Fatimah, showing us the beautiful gates of the king’s local palace, then we boarded our trusty minibus to drive to a viewpoint high above the city, where we got a really good idea of how extensive the city is. It was an impressive sight, both for the 365 minarets within the old medina and for the sea of satellite dishes on every rooftop!

From there, we drove to a ceramics and tile factory, for a tour and shopping – this was definitely a day when you could have spent a small fortune on the most exquisite examples of local craftsmanship – how I resisted most temptations I still don’t know! At this first factory, we received a guided tour and explanation of how the goods were made, were able to photograph the skilled artisans at work, watch them chipping coloured tiles into the shapes required for intricate mosaic patterns or chipping away the fired colour to make relief patterns or painting complex designs onto ceramic wares. Exiting through the gift shop, I had a serious case of plate envy when Rhonda bought a beautiful blue and white and silver plate but the shipping cost as much as the plate and I certainly couldn’t have carried it around for the rest of this trip – so I resisted.

Next, our medina tour started for real. We were warned of two things before we started walking: first, keep up and keep an eye out for the other group members because if you got lost, you could be in serious trouble and, second, remember the word ‘ballac’ (not sure that’s the right spelling) – it means ‘get out of the way’ or ‘watch out’. The medina streets are so narrow that small wheeled carts and donkeys are the only way to transport goods in and out, and the donkey stops for no one!

We saw so many different sights during our walk that day that it’s hard to remember everything so here’s just a small selection …

We got a good view of the famous Fes tanneries from the top floor of a leather shop. The smell was quite powerful so we were all given a sprig of mint to wave under our noses while we shopped. From leather purses and handbags to slippers and jackets, the selection of colourful items on sale was enormous. I resisted!

At left, our guide Fatimah, with a couple of the group

At the lantern shop, there were lamps and lanterns of every conceivable shape and size, for use with electric light or candle power, and casting the most lovely shadow patterns on surrounding walls and ceiling. I resisted!

Left, peparing to dye the silk and, right, weaving it

The weavers’ workshop was interesting as they make fabric using strands of ‘silk’ beaten from the fibrous leaves of the agave plant. Here, we were all dressed up in head-gear for a fun group photo. Here, too, I resisted the bed linen and large throws but I did buy a couple of scarves – ‘small, easy to pack, always useful’, I told myself. I couldn't resist everything!

We also visited the Koranic university, saw the oldest minaret in the medina and the oldest mosque – currently being refurbished, and we stopped often at small shops along the way for explanations about the things we saw: the furniture used in wedding ceremonies, the use of henna to paint designs on hands and feet, for photos of camel heads at the butchers and sharks heads at the fishmongers, and much more besides.

Our guide Issam resting his weary feet while we looked around the university

The sights, sounds, smells, colours of that day were almost overwhelming – it was a fabulous insight into local life and into how that life had been lived for centuries past. A Fes of the heart!