Foxtrot

The Fiat Tagliero Building in Asmara, Eritrea, is a Futurist-style service station completed in 1938 and designed by the Italian engineer Giuseppe Pettazzi. Conceived as a simple petrol station, Pettazzi designed a building that resembles an aeroplane incorporating a central tower with office space, cashiers desk and shop — and supporting a pair of 15 meter cantilevered, reinforced concrete wings. The building remains structurally sound and has not been damaged during numerous conflicts affecting the Horn of Africa during the twentieth century.

Fonthill Abbey was the stuff of legend in its day and much admired by the great romantic painters Constable and Turner. Walled and girdled round and closed to visitors, it intrigued the regency public; so much so that when it was first put up for sale through Christie's in 1822, between 600 and 700 people a day traipsed through its soaring mock-medieval halls, gawping up to the plaster vaulting at the top of its wobbly tower. In all, at least 7,200 people paid a guinea each for a catalogue that gave admission to the abbey. It was the Disneyland of its day.