There’s Always Work Going On

Having, yesterday, mounted the Brick Path section in the first volume of garden album, I decided to leave the last four sheets blank for subsequent updates. Each of the previous sets of entries has been divided by a similar virgin page. Today I printed up the Phantom Path section with which to start volume two.

I then scanned another set of the Streets of London colour slides from April 2005.

It is not possible to walk these streets without some work going on. Examples of this include:

Wyndham Place/Crawford Street W1

Scaffolding in Wyndham Place, off Crawford Street, W1,

Duke Street W1

and in Duke Street;

Devonshire Place W1 roadworks in Devonshire Place, W1;

Euston Road NW1

and redevelopment of Warren Street Station subway on Euston Road NW1.

As far as I remember, that hole in the pavement remained for many months. I never saw anyone working on it. Similarly, I think Warren Street station users were actually inconvenienced for quite a while.

Cabbell Street NW1

Perhaps this rubbish on the corner of Cabbell Street, NW1 was left legitimately by Panini Sandwich Bar around the corner.

Duke of Wellington pub

On another corner of Wyndham Place stands the Duke of Wellington pub, with its eponym keeping watch from an upstairs window.

Soho mural

The Iron Duke is not exactly represented by a mural, but our capital does sport many, some commissioned, some not. The plaque affixed to the building in Noel Street, W1, informs us that Louise Vines painted its mural, ‘Ode to the West Wind’ on behalf of London Wall in 1980, when their phone number was still valid.

Street trader

This street trader in Stratford Place, on the corner of HMV in Oxford Street is one of many tucked into this major thoroughfare. Even ten years ago, the mobile phone was much in evidence.

Among this batch of slides were some of the shrubbery in Lindum House garden, from that same month.

Lindum House hrubbery 1

This one shows, on the left hand edge, the grid of a wooden arch I constructed with Mike Kindred, spanning the path through the orchard, seen her in full blossom. To the right is the roof of the bungalow John built himself on a plot of land that had once formed part of our garden. The story of how our neighbour saved our drawing room ceiling is told in ‘A Screwdriver Comes In Handy’.

This evening we enjoyed further helpings of the Hordle Chinese Take Away meal. Jackie drank Hoegaarden, and I drank sparkling water.

34 comments

  4. Didn’t you do any gardening? If you think work is slow in London, come here. Hole watching is a national sport; well at least the gangers and their navvies must think so.

    Reply

      1. I know how busy you are but from what I’ve seen, you are infinitely more productive than those people. Have a great weekend. It’s Friday again, already, again. x

        Reply

  10. We always seem to have work going on here. It’s very orderly. We are warned in advance. Road signs announce when the work will begin and when it will end, as well as alternate routes if needed. I cannot remember a time when the road works were not finished at stated time.
    2005… ten years ago, you remind me that mobile phones have been in existence for a long time. Phones from that era must look very different. 🙂

    Reply

      1. Mkay, so for my B.A., during the last two years, I was always bumping into construction projects, and the funny thing is the building that needed the construction the most was the building that I went to class to, yet I don’t think they did anything to that building yet. The campus always had Yellow police tape and orange traffic cones as far as the eye can see. It was getting to the point where they had to reroute both car and pedestrian traffic, and there was a sign saying, okay, here’s where you can and cannot walk. There was this one building area where the entire area was blocked off, where there used to be some grass and a dirt spot because people used to play sports for fun at that location, and now they cannot play there because that area is blocked off. Like, some construction work is okay, but too much really destroys the environment that I’m trying to live in.

        Reply

  12. Oh I hate construction work that spoils the beauty of a city. I was totally fed up in Doha for the smoke and sound these would generate, and they never seemed to be done with remodelling their city. Some repair jobs are essential though, like the road repairs here in Fallowfield; and how organised people are here. they work only at night, that too with an extra traffic light temporarily installed !!
    Funny how most of those horrendous traffic congestions in Calcutta are caused not because the roads are broken, but road work goes on, and on….

    Reply

  13. Enjoyed that look around your London streets Derrick, love the old buildings and their historical history.
    Now to test your memory, Gary Lyndhurst starred in the TV series Goodnight Sweetheart, think you might know it, what was the Lane called that he walked through to go back in time ?, I recall seeing it signposted once, also is it an actual Lane.
    Cheers mate.

    Reply

      2. Thanks for taking the time in tracking that down for me mate, maybe I missed something there, as a I do recall him looking up at the sign of the alley just after leaving the modern Constable Dedman, it’s bloody niggling at me Derrick.

        Reply

Leave a Reply