Saturday 30 August 2008

Mock Tudor

The RCMP Vancouver headquarters was in this building for ages and it looks like Mountie stuff is still going on here. But the hush, hush stuff is probably taking place a few blocks south in an unphotographable building.

I could take a picture of it if I wanted to. No one would stop me. It's just that the building is so ugly it would be a waste of pixels.

Vancouver has it's own police force. The Mounties do other police stuff, like dealing with consulates and embassies, going in parades and posing for photos in red serge. They do other crime stuff too, but if I blabbed I'd be doing the Prison Daily Photo. 

My Googling has not unearthed any architectural information on the building. So I'll make something up. I suspect that although the building is cute it has no great architectural or historic significance. I've always found it fascinating.

3 comments :

Wayne said...

Re: The length of a city block. See Bonus Points.

Gerald, when someone says 'the size of 3 football fields' I haven't got a clue either.

It did occur to me that folks in the UK or Europe aren't going to think in terms of city blocks or maybe nowhere but North America for that matter.

Cities set up on a grid tend to have blocks that are fairly standard in size. Although a quick look at Google maps makes this sound like a fairly dumb statement.

These days we're supposed to think in terms of kilometers but my brain never really made the switch even though all distances are marked in kms. Growing up I was told there were 10 to 12 blocks per mile in Vancouver.

Two tests on Google Maps came up with 1 km for a 10 block distance and 1.5 km for a different 10 block distance. 1.6 km = 1 mi.

That's about 11 football fields.

Benjamin Madison said...

Prison Daily Photo - now that's an interesting idea. Let's hope there is some online convict out there who will take up the challenge. Does Okalla still exist? I still remember driving past its gloomy and impossibly high walls when I was a kid.

Wikipedia would describe this building as "Tudorbethan" (also called "Mock Tudor".)

Wayne said...

Benjamin, I think we have a winner with PDP.

Oakalla Prison Farm and the BC Penitentiary are long gone. Both are now residential developments. The main entrance to the BC Pen was preserved but, as far as I can see, there is no trace of Oakalla.

Oakalla was indeed a spooky looking place.