Gunwharf Quays

[squirmelia]

Spinnaker Tower

At Gunwharf Quays, a group of strangers yearn for the sky to be blue. They clutch cameras, hoping to recognise each other from the description of their bags and the murmurs of mispronounced user names. Chairs are pushed across the cafe and the group that has gathered sip coffee and wait to ascend the tower.

They are led to the podium level of the tower and it is windy there, amongst the strange angles of the building that looms above them. The group crane their necks to look at the architecture and to watch the figures above them, who look almost as if they are in water, floating. Some people lie down to get a better view, but others continue to look out to sea, at the Christmas tree attached to the stern of a boat and at the water, as grey as the sky.

My hair drifts with the wind, tangled, and I can't quite see what I am taking photos of.

I take the lift to the second floor and from there, I can see islands, grey buildings and a funfair, that seems to provide the only colour of the place, but it is almost too bright and gaudy.

I throw my shoes behind me and tentatively step onto the glass, looking down past my purple-socked feet at the struts and the vast drop below me. I am afraid for a few seconds, when I first peer at what is underneath.

Outside again, the group of Flickr users, the photographers, meander towards Spice Island, stopping every few minutes to notice the scenery. There is a photogenic cormorant at the dockyard; rusted posts; a Round Tower further on from that; a cannon; doorways; splashing waves.

After the sun has just about set, the sky is bluer, and they rest their cameras against posts and random poles, to try to steady their view of the Spinnaker Tower. Then they leave, taking the images they captured that day with them, some of which they will show to people and some perhaps they will not.

Comments

[killalla]

Being a ship geek, I am quite familiar with Gunwharf Quays - having eaten, shopped, and watched movies while we were moored there for the Brig Match Race and such. But I'd never been up the tower, or considered the aesthetic of it at all.