Our second pass. Last week was a bit dispiriting.

I actually like this. The faded paint gives it a certain look we associate with old buildings that aged well into the end days of their century.

Subsequent. Alas.

Ach, it gets worse.

Big stompy block descends and pounds its legs into the earth with petulant fury

The Chronos School of Architecture.

Ah! Yes! And also, NO

Impressive old pile, and it looks as if it got a 50s renovation that was later carved up to modern tastes. The disconnect is regrettable.

Well, someone’s doing work, so I guess . . . that’s nice

That is a serious, strenuous rehab, and I’d bet it was for a men’s store. You walked in, you smelled leather polish and Brut.

It has a condition now.

Gee, you wonder if they’ll ever take it off and show us what was beneath.

OMG

That's incredible. Also, my God, that stupid door.

Diana. A women’s store, once. Long ago. No more. Not ever again.

The building on the right makes you cock an eyebrow: okay obviously the ground floor was rehabbed, but what’s going on with the top? The arches, the oculi.

The Oddfellows really wanted the ground floor to accommodate stilt-walkers, didn’t they?

HOLY JEEZUM CROW

Those windows are waaaaay too jittery, but that’s okay.

That string course on the first floor looks like 1910, which is too early for the windows. So it got an overhaul in the 30s, I'd say. Or guess.

Okay, it’s not the most elegant extension, but it’s consistent.

1911. Ornate and confident and good.

Another fine Roman embassy.

Looks like it's being seiged by an alien race of trash-bin Daleks.

Once upon a time.

Still here as a reminder, or remonstration.

A reminder that a slavish adherence to tradition can still result in a misfire.

But a charming one, in its own, earnest and slightly inept way.

Finally: Oh, the galas that must have played out on the top floor, with the glories of Petersburg glittering below beyond the windows.

The Petersburg Hotel, built in 1915, when the best was still ahead. And, of course, the worst.