Name That Skyline - Picture Game

[bracconiere]

Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canadia. Brac, you got it partially right, like all government seats, it is a damned good source of entertainment.

ahh, so no mickey mouse and goofy costumes?

 

[tracer bullet]

Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canadia.

Fast! I figured people would bounce around Europe for a while first. Nice job. You are up.

 

[bracconiere]

Fast! I figured people would bounce around Europe for a while first. Nice job. You are up.

i wouldn't see why, it screams fairy princess fictional world all over it? got the clock tower to watch to know when she reverts back to a goat or something that the handsome prince needs to kiss! lol

 

[bruce_the_loon]

Fast! I figured people would bounce around Europe for a while first. Nice job. You are up.

The flag gave it away.

Here's mine.

 

[bracconiere]

this is another one imediatly for fun, Fort Knox? lol now the hunt begins....

edit: definatly a miss with fort knox...

 

[Northern_Brewer]

The cranes imply a port.
The belltower looks very Nordic - so we're in a Scandinavian port?

The big white building is very reminiscent of the South Bank in London, it's got that same 1950s municipal feel to it - or something like a UN building. But those lumps look like they must be the fly tower for a theatre?

So - a theatre in a Scandinavian port, designed in the 1950s?

 

[bruce_the_loon]

The cranes imply a port.
The belltower looks very Nordic - so we're in a Scandinavian port?

The big white building is very reminiscent of the South Bank in London, it's got that same 1950s municipal feel to it - or something like a UN building. But those lumps look like they must be the fly tower for a theatre?

So - a theatre in a Scandinavian port, designed in the 1950s?

Extremely close, but can't give it. 1950's is out, too early. Partying primes come to mind.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

I take it that last sentence is a reference to Finland, so we're in Helsinki, which must mean the Finlandia Hall. Design started in 1959 so I'll take that - that wrap-around balcony is so South-Bankish.

"The Finlandia Hall and its Congress wing was the only part of a plan for a grand new monumental centre for Helsinki around the Töölö Bay area, designed by Alvar Aalto from 1959 to 1976, to actually be built.....The designs were completed in 1962, with building taking place between 1967 and 1971. The Congress Wing was designed in 1970 and built in 1973–1975. In 2011, the building was expanded with new exhibition and meeting facilities. Finlandia Hall is known as the venue for the OSCE Summit (Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe) held in August 1975, attended by 35 world leaders, including the leader of the Soviet Union, Leonid Brezhnev, and the President of the United States, Gerald Ford."

 

[bruce_the_loon]

I take it that last sentence is a reference to Finland, so we're in Helsinki, which must mean the Finlandia Hall. Design started in 1959 so I'll take that - that wrap-around balcony is so South-Bankish.

"The Finlandia Hall and its Congress wing was the only part of a plan for a grand new monumental centre for Helsinki around the Töölö Bay area, designed by Alvar Aalto from 1959 to 1976, to actually be built.....The designs were completed in 1962, with building taking place between 1967 and 1971. The Congress Wing was designed in 1970 and built in 1973–1975. In 2011, the building was expanded with new exhibition and meeting facilities. Finlandia Hall is known as the venue for the OSCE Summit (Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe) held in August 1975, attended by 35 world leaders, including the leader of the Soviet Union, Leonid Brezhnev, and the President of the United States, Gerald Ford."

Ding. Ding. Ding.

All correct, including the clue about Sanna Marin.

You're up. Bonus internet points up for grabs for the link to tracer bullet's post.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Here in Britain we're kinda bored of the whole partying PM thing TBH.... Is it an CSCE thing, one of the successor conferences was held in Ottawa in 1985?

This isn't a great photo, but it gets you a skyline - I may have to post a closeup of a building with an interesting history.

 

[duncan.brown]

The landscaping and the architecture of the modern houses at top right make it look like somewhere in the UK. Zooming in on the houses in the middle, the bay windows on the terraced housing are very English. Possibly a university or a military college? Could also be an old industrial building converted to flats, judging by the skylights.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Yep, you're getting pretty warm with all that. Here's another pic from the other side. There is a topical musical connection for me choosing this particular building but it's so obscure that it probably doesn't help you to know that's why I picked it...

 

[duncan.brown]

Well the van is from an lift company (elevator service company) based in Enfield, so I'm guessing this is somewhere in Norf Landin, but I haven't figured it out yet...

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Good spot. Yep, it's in north London. Yep, it's a building that's been converted to flats from a previous use.

You were in the right area with your previous thoughts - in its previous existence it wasn't operated by the military, but it did make a notable contribution to the war effort in WWII.

 

[tracer bullet]

I keep thinking about codebreaking now, and "The Imitation Game". Looks like that work was done at Bletchley Park, and this is not it. Thought I would have it!

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Well now you're getting very close, although Turing didn't have much to do with this side of things so according to the Imitation Game it never happened...

 

[duncan.brown]

I'm failing spectacularly here... worst thing is, I know that I know this place...

 

[Northern_Brewer]

There's not much I can do by way of further clues, North London with links to WWII codebreaking is pretty much a unique combination.

The indirect musical link to another aspect of what happened there is that it would have been Joe Strummer's 70th birthday on the day that I posted it, but I'm not sure that helps too much - think song titles.

 

[tracer bullet]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Songs_written_by_Joe_Strummer
Not helping me, but maybe someone else.

https://www.theweek.co.uk/104105/gchq-reveals-five-secret-wwii-code-breaking-sites
"Chesterfield Street in Mayfair, London" looks promising but I'm not seeing this building and so I think it's wrong.

Tough one!

 

[InspectorJon]

Dollis Hill, Former Post Office Research Station, now Chartwell Court flats

 

[duncan.brown]

I knew I knew it... there's an underground bunker there built in WWII that was slated to be used as alternate offices for the Cabinet. I saw it on Underground Britain.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Dollis Hill, Former Post Office Research Station, now Chartwell Court flats

Exactly - the Post Office Research Station was the British equivalent of Bell Labs and was based here in the otherwise unremarkable suburb of Dollis Hill from 1921 until it moved out of town to Martlesham Heath 50 eyars ago where it's now the British Telecom labs. This PhD thesis goes into more detail of the history :
https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/files/205624795/FULL_TEXT.PDF
It's most famous for Tommy Flowers creating Colossus, arguably the world's first programmable computer used for breaking codes, in particular the Lorenz/"Tunny" code. It sounds like boffins on both sides of the Atlantic had struggled to automate codebreaking, and it took someone with deep practical knowledge of phone exchange hardware to make the breakthrough. The road from which the second photo was taken is now known as Flowers Close.

Dollis Hill also saw the development of the wireless technology that allowed the first transatlantic phone call on 7 January 1927 at $25/minute, the equivalent of $425/minute adjusted for inflation. Which enabled London calling the US, something you might want to do on Joe Strummer's birthday.

Honourable mention to duncan.brown for getting so close, but @InspectorJon, you're up.

 

[InspectorJon]

This is probably pretty obscure but I'll run with it.

 

[bracconiere]

could have sworn i saw that before, motorcycle and all? but that's happened before to me....

 

[InspectorJon]

I just took that picture maybe a month ago in a city I have never visited before.

 

[InspectorJon]

Double post

 

[InspectorJon]

A bit of a wider view.

 

[bracconiere]

you'd think with that emblem it'd be easy....

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Trees feel somewhat tropical.

That numberplate format is fairly rare, I've not looked exhaustively but it's certainly used in Macedonia and Indonesia, so I'll say Jakarta?

 

[bracconiere]

so we're closer to malaysia?