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Climbing Great Buildings

Architecture on Television – BBC 2 TV Series, Britain

8 Sep 2010

Climbing Buildings

Architecture TV series airing on BBC2 in the UK

photo from ITN

‘Climbing Great Buildings’ is showing every night for the next couple of weeks, BBC2 at 6.30pm. Architectural historian Dr Jonathan Foyle (Chief Executive, World Monuments Fund) was a novice climber before he was shown the ropes by Britain’s top female climber, Lucy Creamer. Using industrial rope access techniques they explore British icons like the Lloyds building, Glasgow School of Art, St Pancras and Coventry Cathedral.

images from ITN

From St Paul’s Cathedral to Caernarfon Castle, the series had unprecedented access to the finest buildings in the UK. Remarkably, each agreed to take part, even though many were very fragile structures in poor condition. The riggers (industrial rope access firm Wallwalkers) had their work cut out ensuring the climbing team didn’t damage irreplaceable 500-year-old terracotta on a Tudor building or knock bits off gothic sculptures 240ft up Lincoln Cathedral’s central tower.

images from ITN

The challenge for each programme was to climb to places and positions unreachable by any other means. From a postman’s walk 100ft above the nave of Durham Cathedral to inspect the ribbed vault, to a zip line from the top of the Lloyds building 300ft above the city, the climbs never fail to excite, revealing the hidden glories of the buildings from a unique perspective.

images from ITN

Climbing Great Buildings video from YouTube with an interview with Ian Burton, the camera operator who climbed with Lucy and Jonathan. Ian’s background is in adventure filming:
Climbing Great Buildings video

Link to the Climbing Great Buildings show on iplayer:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00ts2sg

images from ITN