UK Devolution
Not to get too political for a website dedicated to things from above, but today I’d like to look into the United Kingdom’s devolved assemblies, if you’ll join me…
Back in 1999, after a couple of referendums, the UK government established devolved assemblies in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to make key decisions affecting the lives of local people.
Northern Ireland’s home rule was originally established at Stormont in 1920 until 1974, so in 1999 they already had a suitable building to use. Although, the assembly has been under suspension since 2003 so the building is probably not seeing much use at the moment.
The Welsh Senedd is located in the capital of Cardiff. Designed by British architect Richard Rogers it cost £67 million and was opened March 1, 2006.
Unfortunately Google Earth’s aerial photography was taken sometime before that date and the assembly is seen as just a large building site.
In comparison the Scottish Parliament (designed by the late Catalan architect Enric Miralles), was finished two years earlier than the Welsh assembly, but cost an estimated 431 million pounds.
Despite the staggering cost, in March 2006 the building began falling apart when a roof beam slipped from its hinges during a debate…
Wikipedia: Devolution, Northern Ireland Assembly, National Assembly for Wales, Scottish Parliament
Thanks: AndrewAnorak & Myself
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What is this area just about 120m NNW of the scottish parliament building?
It looks too orderless to be a cemetary. Those rectangular structures could be ruins of houses – is this a disaster site left like that as a memorial? I googled for Calton Road in Edinburgh but couldn’t find any details about it.
It is the ruined Holyrood Abbey is it not?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holyrood_Abbey
Very slightly to the east of the Welsh Senedd in Cardif, is the Millennium Centre and Roald Dahl Plass, prominent fixtures in the newish Doctor Who spinoff Torchwood.
I think Flumo was reffering to this area here:
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
which I’m pretty sure is just a cemetery.
cookie monster was referring to Holyrood Abbey, which is beside the Palace:
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
The Scottish parliament building is cool – I want one as my house (but I don’t have 430 million)
James: Yes, that’s what I meant. I thought “NNW” would be clear enough
And you are right. I finally found it [URL=http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/0_MAPS/0_map_edinburgh_1870_large.jpg]on this map[/URL].
To me, it looks too strange to be a simple cemetery, there are some pretty big structures. Is this some sort of “buriyng ground for important people”?
Damn, sorry for the mess in the comment above.
Alex: A link to a page explaining the syntax for comment formatting would be nice.
OK Flümo , I’ll add that to my to do list!
Just use HTML instead of BB code, dork.
Thanks for your nice and kind words, Chris.
As I do not frequent too many webforums or blogs I didn’t expect HTML to work here. There’s BBcode, textpattern and whatnot. I even googled for wordpress’ comment syntax, but there are several, depending on the plugin used on the server.
Since HTML (without the proper server-side processing) can even be harmful and there is no preview available here, I just tried to give it a shot with what I considered to be the most probable syntax. And failed. Sorry for that. No need to be rude though.
The building in Senedd is finished in the updated imagery
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth