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8 May 2012

Listed buildings: from traffic signs to totems

As two 1960s petrol stations receive Grade II listed status, Channel 4 News looks at the UK’s most unusual listed objects.

Azi is one of the artists exhibiting in a show held by Freedom from Torture. All the artists are torture survivors.

Rape is also by Azi, who was tortured in Iran for her role in the Tehran women’s movement.

Hasan has been in the UK for three years, receiving therapy from Freedom from Torture since 2009.

‘Art isn’t magic, but sometimes it can be quite useful,’ says Hasan, who also painted this picture.

Siad arrived in the UK as a lone minor from Afghanistan in 2002. He says his pictures are a way of making sense of his traumatic journey.

Women Alone, another painting in the Thirty Six Pounds exhibition, is also by Siad, who is yet to be granted refugee status in the UK.

Uvindu, an award-winning journalist and freedom of expression activist in exile from Sri Lanka, finds art a form of therapy in the wake of Sri Lanka’s brutal civil war.

Uvindu has painted all his life. He says Freedom from Torture’s Open Art Studio is a ‘soft place to fall’ for torture survivors.

The storm, which could affect tens of millions of people in the eastern third of the US, is expected to bring days of rain, high winds and possibly heavy snow in parts of Ohio and West Virginia.

A couple kiss goodbye before the last train to Long Island departs Penn Station in New York, 28 October, 2012. (Reuters)

Marine One carrying US President Barack Obama takes off from the south lawn of the White House in Washington as the president departs for a campaign trip to Florida.

New York Army National Guard Soldiers assigned to the 206th Military Police Company prepare to move out. (Reuters)

Only a few bread items remain on the shelves at the Waldbaums grocery store as Hurricane Sandy approaches in Long Beach, New York. (Getty)

A boarded-up store remains open for business as the first signs of Hurricane Sandy approach in Fairfield, Connecticut. (Getty)

A sign on dispay in Grand Central Station in New York. The MTA has been began an orderly shutdown of commuter rail and subway services in preparation for Hurricane Sandy.

New York City police officers go door to door in a housing project to take note of which residents are ignoring the mandatory evacuation order in Queens. (Reuters)

Sandy, which has already claimed over 50 lives in the Caribbean, is predicted to bring heavy winds and floodwaters to the mid-Atlantic region. (Getty)

Obama called on Americans to take Hurricane Sandy

A man carries a case of water down Lexington Avenue in midtown in New York as stores begin to close down in preparation for Hurricane Sandy. (Getty)

A surfer rushes to board one of the final subway trains in New York. Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that New York City will close its bus, subway and commuter rail service Sunday evening. (Reuters)

Ross Vernal inherited a new shed overnight in his Scotstoun, Glasgow back garden.

Filibrilu in Glasgow woke up to a smashed car and chimney stack, but saw the lighter side.

Neil Moralee from Hemyock, Devon, wrote:

Greenleith took this picture in Pilrig, Edinburgh. Insurers have reported a 250 per cent increase in the number of claims made as the wind causes damage to homes and cars.

Sarey Poppins spotted this broken weathervane. Gusts will reach 60mph, occasionally as high as 70mph around exposed coasts tonight.

People stand next to a truck blown over in high winds on the A720 city bypass in Edinburgh. AA Insurance has reported 200 per cent more calls than would normally be expected at this time of year.

Waves crash against the harbour wall at Portstewart in northern Ireland. Some 60 locals braved the waters for a charity swim last week, but choppy waters mean it is too dangerous to do so today.

Everton’s goalkeeper Tim Howard scores a spectacular goal – aided by the windy conditions – against Bolton Wanderers during their fixture in Liverpool.

Roads become perilous in Scotland as strong gusts fell giant trees.

Mobil parasol canopies: Just off the A6 at Red Hill, Leicestershire, the circular Mobil canopies at this petrol station conjure up an era when motorways were full of futuristic glamour. They were designed by the American modernist architect, Elliot Noyes in the late 1960s.

Concrete canopy: Located on the A1 at Markham Moor in Nottinghamshire, this petrol station recreates the dramatic roof structure used most famously at the Sydney Opera House. It was designed by the British architect Sam Scorer in 1960/61.

This police box on Surrey Street, is one of 120 built throughout Sheffield in 1928 which were designed to allow police constables to work away from the police station during their beat.

World War II PoW camp: Harperley Working Camp at Craigside, County Durham is a very rare surviving example of a purpose-built camp for prisoners of war (PoWs). The camp was used for both Italian and German PoWs and contains original wall paintings and internal fittings.

It may be a humble traffic sign, but this post in Overstrand, Norfolk, is one of the only surviving traffic signs, known as

Margate’s dreamland: Built in 1920, the scenic railway at Dreamland, Margate is the oldest surviving roller coaster in Britain and the second oldest in Europe, following its restoration after fires in 1949 and 1957. (Copywright: Margate Museum)

Trio of totems: Built by William Mitchell for the University of Salford in 1966, these totems are preserved as an example of the commissioning of public artwork in the post-war period.

This lamp on Park Road, Whitley Bay, is one of ten surviving sewer gas lamps erected in the Whitley Bay and Monkseaton areas between 1900 and 1910.

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