1: Buildings

摘要

'To determine the time from the clocktower, is a task beyond human power. When it strikes quarter to, On the side facing you, On the other it points to the hour.' This third place effort in a 1926 limerick competition held at Radley College, was penned by a baffled pupil who couldn't understand why the school's 1847 hor-ological centrepiece had only two clock faces, only one of which might be telling the right time. Although its diagonal stepped buttress- es were added only 10 years after it was built (for playing 'Fives', don't ya' know?), it would be a century before it got (synchronised!) dials on all four sides, but the story embodies a process of evolution characterising much of this month's offering. The accretion of buildings over time, allowing them a function never considered in the original scheme, remains a romantic and compelling notion.