New York City Pt 2

Our travelling companions for most of the past 6 weeks have now left for home (bon voyage Jenny and Gillian) and we're now mooching around NYC with our next visitors David and Catherine. The weather has been unbelievably hot over the past few days (up to 38C) but recently, thankfully, it has been more normal! Here are some pics....

Times Square wasn't quite as awful as it usually is, because there were fewer people in the extreme heat! But it didn't stop the guy in the full King Kong suit...

This is a photo from a book I have that illustrates how the streets of the Upper West Side (like ours), Upper East Side and Harlem were all developed in one step from farmland in the late 1800's...

On the hottest day we spent time in museums. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is enormous and can easily absorb time! I really enjoyed a big special exhibition on John Singer Sergeant in Paris. I also saw an exhibition on 'Dandyism' - the sharp dressing of African Americans in history. This large white on white painting was a tour de force...

Similarly, this red on red of a prominent Paris surgeon was striking...

1940's jive talk dictionary...

I loved this seal skin top hat from the early 1800's....

This is a row of houses in our street in the morning sun. One was built at the end of the 1800's by Henry Goldman, who subsequently took over the banking firm his father established and ran it with his brother-in-law, Samuel Sachs. His house was converted to apartments in 1958, then re-converted back into a house and sold in 2009, for $19.5m...

Central Park view - there's no people picnicking or sunbathing, because the lawn wasn't open yet...

We did a great walking tour of the Upper East Side from a couple of my guidebooks. There are churches across the city. The walking tour suggested we go into this one...

This is a side street on the Upper East Side - the copper window bays are fantastic. The shop below had all manner of outrageously expensive and odd objets d'art for the elite clientele of the area....

There remain some old carriage houses on the Upper East Side. They are now homes. Unlike London, they aren't behind the main building - but nearby on a side street. Some are quite elaborate. They transitioned to holding the 'big house' cars, but ultimately were too much of an extravagance, particularly as the elite moved to apartment living rather than maintaining mansions with staff. These days, there are countless large black 'Suburbans' (big SUVs) with drivers parked on the streets waiting for their employers to shop/eat etc - so maybe things haven't changed that much!...

Next to this carriage house are some remnants of very old early 1800's housing in what was Yorkville - further up the now Upper East Side (then a separate town)....

This is an art dealer's gallery 'Gorgosian' that is so posh and huge, it can mount its own free exhibitions. This was a very large and impressive Picasso exhibition we really enjoyed...

Amazingly, the four large clumps of stone on the front facade of the Met are leftover, unfinished sculptures. When the 'new' facade was built in the mid-late 1800's, they were meant to be carved to represent different types of art, but budgetary constraints and arguments about what was 'modern' art prevented implementation. Apparently, there are no current plans to complete them...

We took a cruise on the East River and Hudson Rivers. It was meant to be an 'around' Manhattan trip, but a swing bridge was closed by the rail authority due to the heat. So we went about 3/4 of the way before backtracking. It was part of the Open House New York scheme (which is held in October), so the narration focussed on how the city functions and was very interesting. This is a view from the Hudson River back toward Midtown...

View from Hudson River straight onto Downtown...

Northern view of Downtown - almost at the lowest end of Manhattan. They are building sea walls to prevent damage from storm events (such as was caused by Hurricane Sandy)...

View south to Manhattan down the East River (adjacent to the Bronx). Note the rail bridge that influenced the design of the Sydney Harbour Bridge...

Industrial archeology on one of the many islands further up the East River...

View from the East River of Downtown...

View from the Hudson River toward Hudson Yards and Chelsea...

We also did a different walk around Brooklyn Heights - such an interesting area. This is the Brooklyn Historical Society - a fabulous terracotta building from 1881...

A mansion in Brooklyn from 1888, subsequently used as a hotel, brothel, Franciscan Monk residence hall and now apartments...

This is all one mansion house - the original gas lamps burn all day...

David (sitting) perusing Downtown Manhattan from the Brooklyn Promenade....

Shingles on the facade of a Federal Style house dating from 1830 - I think the owner's driver might have been waiting out the front...

Along Middagh Street are several very early houses - the one on the right being the oldest house in Brooklyn Heights from 1824. After the 'Great Fire' of New York in 1835 there were laws prohibiting wooden construction - so there aren't many. This street is elevated but close to the harbour, where the ferry from Manhattan docked (before bridges)...