the national gallery Exterior

 

an upclimb

I haven't been here in a very, very long time.

The last time I actually climbed up these steps, I was still wearing my dorky glasses and sporting short, short hair. *thanks, no thanks, school rules* There was never an opportunity for me to go in. See, to get past its doors you needed a purpose, and since I never got one, I never went in. And because I never went in, I never bothered to ascend the steps either.

Except for one time.

We were on a group excursion, all of us, kids 7 to 18 years old. I was one of the older ones. We were here because we wanted to see the City and because some of the younger ones didn't seem to get out of their own neighborhoods much. We didn't pass through those doors either back then but it didn't matter. Kids weren't allowed in anyway. What we did was to take a picture so somewhere there's a photograph of us kids standing and sitting on the steps smiling at the camera.

Today, the doors are open wide. Today anybody can enter. You no longer need to be of age. And even if you're of age, you no longer need a certain criteria to pass through those doors. There's no more need to be part of an exclusive clique to enter. 

I'm glad for the societal progression.

I'm gladder still that the façade looks the same.

Because whilst many a structure in this area has been torn down and nearly forgotten, with this structure, they took great pains to renovate it from inside out, so much so that at one time, standing at The Adelphi, I was able to look past the outside walls, perceive the cavernous space of its interior and even stare at the sky right through a hole in the roof made specially for the industrial crane.

There're the same windows, the same balconies, the same pillars, the same sculptures up on the roof. Here, right now, I'm feeling like time has stood still, whilst I'm also being very much aware that time has passed. It is like I'm drifting between two different eras, being here yet not being here. 

Very surreal, very magical, one that I can't well describe.
 

lines reflections lines

But it's there.

In the shadows that whisper so softly on the floors and the walls. In the geometric shapes that create patterns on the walls and shuttered windows.

Or maybe in the very fact that this Structure stands as a Symbol on her own, a monument of timelessness, a representation of international trade and global movement, a visible, tangible object of times past- in Europe, America and Singapore.  

You could place your hand on the stone and realize that the same type of stone could be in New York City or San Francisco. You could look up at the awnings and realize that you've seen it somewhere in the streets of New York City before. And it doesn't matter whether you're wearing a leather brogue or a casual flip flop.

It is still the same floor. It is still the same door. It is still the same stone.

 

the tiny opening at the end