Bouncers at Bounce

I went in to London today to enjoy my annual visit to "Open House", when buildings and locations not normally open to the public can be visited free of charge.  The festival is intended to allow people to appreciate different types of architecture. 

My first visit was to a courtyard house built into a space at the back of an office block.  Highly imaginative design, with a large living area, surrounded at first floor level by bedrooms and shower rooms, and a small terrace roof area at second floor level.  One of the key features was that the roof of the living area was all glass - making the place very light, and even more spectacular, the whole glass ceiling retracts when the weather is suitable (as it was today) so it is like living in an outdoor space.  A remarkable dwelling just moments from Farringdon station.

My second visit was an architectural tour of the newly re-opened National Portrait Gallery which has been significantly remodelled over the last few years. A very good guided tour. To be honest, I enjoyed the architecture rather more than many of the old portraits on display - although I do enjoy some of the contemporary work - and, of course, the photographic portraits.

In between these two visits, I did my normal random walkabout, again finding streets that I have never visited before.  At one point I arrived at Holborn where, near its junction with Hatton Garden, I found the brightly decorated entrance to what looked like a night club, called "Bounce".  One of the bouncers on the door spotted my camera and started chatting. It turned out that he was an enthusiast for street photography. He explained to me that the venue was a table tennis (or "ping pong") club and invited me to go down the entrance stairs to take some photographs inside.  I can never refuse an invitation like that. It was indeed a venue dedicated to table tennis, with multiple tables - plus a bar selling drinks and food.  It is the kind of place that caters for parties and corporate events.  The subtle lighting did make it difficult to photograph the games.  Even at 16000 ISO the shutter speed wasn't fast enough to freeze the movement of the balls.

On my way out I chatted to the bouncers again, and took their photograph before I left.

Another enjoyable day - and it stayed dry and warm for me all day (whereas it poured down at home!).