Streets of London – derrickjknight

Tyburnia And Other Parts of West London

With today’s incessant steady rain pattering overhead I scanned another set of recently discovered colour slides. These form another batch for my Streets of London series – I think from May 2008.

There are always building works going on somewhere in the capital. These were in Craven Hill Gardens W2, not far from my flat in Sutherland Place.

Similarly roadworks are ubiquitous, as in Gloucester Terrace.

Unfortunately I cannot decipher the street name, too far back in this typical W2 scene.

The area contains many Mews, such as Conduit,

Chilworth,

and Smallbrook.

As suggested in https://derrickjknight.com/2017/09/04/remembering-hyde-park-square/ a mews was a small yard containing stables which have, with one exception, now been converted into upmarket residences.

Right Move quotes current average prices for Conduit, £2,087,500 and Chilworth, £1,200,000.

For £3,500,000 you could splash out for a modernised four bedroomed property complete with roof terrace in Smallbrook.

Marks & Spencer has a branch in Notting Hill Gate, W11.

Nearby, the Art Shop in Pembridge Road was my regular supplier of materials.

‘Notting Hill, an affluent district of West London, England,^[1] in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Notting Hill is known for being a cosmopolitan and multicultural neighbourhood, hosting the annual Notting Hill Carnival and Portobello RoadMarket.^[2] From around 1870, Notting Hill had an association with artists.^[3]

For much of the 20th century, the large houses were subdivided into multi-occupancy rentals. Caribbean immigrants were drawn to the area in the 1950s, partly because of the cheap rents, but were exploited by slum landlords like Peter Rachman and also became the target of white Teddy Boys in the 1958 Notting Hill race riots.

Then known for its slum housing, in the early 21st century, after decades of gentrification, Notting Hill has a reputation as an affluent and fashionable area,^[4] known for attractive terraces of large Victorian townhouses and high-end shopping and restaurants (particularly around Westbourne Grove and Clarendon Cross). A Daily Telegraph article in 2004 used the phrase “the Notting Hill Set“^[5] to refer to a group of emerging Conservative politicians, such as David Cameron and George Osborne, who would become respectively Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer and were once based in Notting Hill. North Kensington is also home to the Grenfell Tower, which burnt down in 2017.’ (Wikipedia)

‘A turnpike gate was constructed at the foot of the hill on the main road from London to Uxbridge, now Oxford Street, Bayswater Road and Holland Park Avenue along this part of its route. The point at which the turnpike gate stood was known as Notting Hill Gate. The gate was there to stop people passing along the road without paying. The proceeds were applied towards the maintenance of this important road. The gate was removed in the 19th century and the high road was widened and straightened in the 1960s, involving the demolition of many buildings, the linking of two separate tube stations and the construction of two tower blocks.’ (Wikipedia)

I featured the Carnival in https://derrickjknight.com/2021/01/14/notting-hill-carnival/

Spring Street W2 is in the area of Paddington known as Tyburnia, ‘a part of Paddington created to an 1824 masterplan by Samuel Pepys Cockerell to redevelop the historic lands of the Bishop of London, known as the Tyburn Estate, into a residential area to rival Belgravia.’ (Wikipedia).

Here is an extract from https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol9/pp190-198#p1

‘Tyburnia

Tyburnia was a name used in the early 19th century for the south-eastern corner of the parish, the first part of the Paddington Estate to be built up. (fn. 1) It was adopted presumably because ‘Tyburn’ was already well known, as a reference to the gallows at Tyburn tree. (fn. 2) The old name of the execution site was itself misplaced since the Tyburn, teo or ‘boundary’ stream, (fn. 3) ran much farther east, from Hampstead across Marylebone to Oxford Street. The Marylebone manor of Lisson lay west of the stream, along Edgware Road, and that of Tyburn to the east. (fn. 4)Paddington’s Tyburnia, in the angle between Edgware and Bayswater roads, stretched westward from the former gallows to merge with Bayswater. In the 1870s the name was confined to a fashionable area, bounded on the west by Westbourne and Gloucester terraces, north of Lancaster Gate. (fn. 5) The area described below extends westward only to Eastbourne Terrace and the southern end of Westbourne Terrace (fn. 6) but northward to the industrial belt beyond Praed Street, as far as the canal basin. It covers Hyde Park ward and a southerly part of Church ward, as created in 1901, and also includes St. George’s burial ground. (fn. 7)

The execution site (fn. 8) was chosen presumably because there was a prominent group of trees at the parting of two main roads out of London. Some medieval references to ‘the elms’ may have been to those at Smithfield, but it was at Tyburn that William FitzOsbert was hanged in 1196 and at the elms there that Roger Mortimer, earl of March, died in 1330. From the 14th century many political executions took place at Tyburn, where the trees probably made way for temporary gallows before a permanent triangular frame was set up in 1571. The frame was depicted by Hogarth, (fn. 9) in whose day it was known as Tyburn tree and served as London’s chief place of public execution, where 21 victims could be hanged simultaneously. Often there were triumphant processions and huge crowds, an estimated 200,000 attending the death of Jack Sheppard in 1724. A grandstand on the west side of Edgware Road was sometimes used, (fn. 10) before and after the triangular frame was replaced by a movable gallows in 1759, until criticism led to the choice of a new site outside Newgate gaol in 1783.

The triangular gallows stood in the centre of the wide southern extremity of Edgware Road until the building of the Uxbridge road tollhouse in 1759. The approximate site has been marked by successive plaques: against the railings of Hyde Park, in 1909 in Edgware Road, and in 1964, after road widening, on a traffic island at the junction with Bayswater Road. The position of the later movable gallows was c. 50 yards farther north in Edgware Road and was thought in the 1870s to have been that of a house at the south-east corner of Connaught Square (formerly no. 49), (fn. 11) although several sites close by have been suggested.

Burials of corpses from Tyburn were recorded from 1689 and brought profit to the minister and churchwardens of Paddington in the late 17th and the 18th century, (fn. 12) when execution days came to be known as ‘Paddington fair’. (fn. 13) Remains were also buried under the scaffold and unearthed when the area came to be built up. Among them were the presumed bones of Oliver Cromwell and fellow regicides, whose posthumous consignment to a pit at the gallows’ foot in 1661 probably gave rise to William Blake’s allusion to ‘mournful ever-weeping Paddington’. (fn. 14)‘

The Craven Hill Gardens W2 sign hangs on the railings of one of the two communal residential gardens typical of Victorian Bayswater estates.

The green hut in the centre of Kensington Park Road opposite Ladbroke Road W11 is explained in https://derrickjknight.com/2018/01/15/up-west/ which features another Cabmen’s Shelter.

Jackie received her vaccination invitation this afternoon and was able to make an appointment for 5th February.

This evening we dined on succulent roast pork; sage and onion stuffing; crisp potatoes, including the sweet variety, and well frosted parsnips, roasted in jalfrezi-flavoured oil; crunchy carrots and cauliflower; tender runner beans, and tasty gravy, with which Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I finished the Comté Tolosan Rouge.

Polski Sklep

Unless I happen across any more in the depths of my photographic archives these are the last eight of my colour slides of the Streets of London, produced in September 2008. I scanned them today.

At the corner of Chepstow Villas and Ledbury Road, new road surfacing was being carried out.

Major renewal of Water works was being carried out in and around Bayswater at this time. Here, Westbourne Grove, at the corner of Garway Road W2, was barred to traffic. Shops were intent on continuing their businesses for several months.

‘In England and Wales, the emergence of the first private water companies dates back to the 17th century. In 1820, six private water companies operated in London. However, the market share of private water companies in London declined from 40% in 1860 to 10% in 1900. In the 1980s, their share all over England and Wales was about 25%.^[9] The tide turned completely in 1989 when the conservative government of Margaret Thatcher privatized all public water and sewer companies in England and Wales. In Scotland local governments dominated by the Labour party kept water systems in public hands.’ (Wikipedia)

On the barrier in the Garway Road picture, a notice urges cyclists to dismount. The owner of this one chained his steed to the railings in Kensington Gardens Square beside a restaurant in the above-mentioned Westbourne Grove.

‘Pickering Mews is part of Westminster City Council’s Bayswater Conservation Area. Developed over the space of about 70 years, the townscape is uniform despite being composed of several distinct areas and is made up of a regular composition of streets and squares in an Italianate style. An important aspect of the street pattern are the several mews, some quite intimate and others so large that they appear to be a development of their own. The contrast of scale provided by these mews is a crucial aspect of the overall area’s character.

The Mews has painted and rendered brickwork, one and two storey buildings with a mixture of flat, parapet and gable roof styles. The garages present are intact and surrounded by a cobbled road surface.’ https://everchangingmews.com/mews/pickering-mews/

Rede Place, W2 is tucked away behind Chepstow Road.

This corner of Notting Hill’s Pembridge Square W2 gives a whole new meaning to refuse collection.

This corner of Chesterfield Hill and Hay’s Mews lies in the heart of Mayfair. You don’t want to know what this house would cost to buy.

Polly Food and Wine, on another rather less salubrious corner plot – that shared by Meyrick Road and Willesden High Road NW10 – may be rather more affordable. Polski Sklep which translates as Polish Shop is defined by https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=polski%20sklep

as ‘[a] store selling exclusively Polish products, mostly food but can also include newspapers, magazines, seasonal goods. These have sprung up all over the UK in recent years with the huge influx of Poles, even in those areas where they are outnumbered by other ethnic communities, (such as Tooting in London).

They all mostly stock the same sort of products, which unfortunately means that the more businessmen get in on the act the smaller the profits. Well known products include polish bread, pierogi, danio yogurts, kielbasa, sauerkraut, pickled cucumbers to name a few.

As well as being frequented by Poles, there are a fair share of British consumers who venture into a Polski Sklep.”God, I can’t believe yet another polski sklep has opened on Tooting high street, theres already one about 10 metres down the road”

“Kumpilam te wysmienite ogorki w polskim sklepie na ealingu”#polska #polski #pierog #pierogi #polskisklepby Morela April 26, 2008′

We swapped Ian for Jacqueline at our dinner table this evening. Becky’s husband returned to Emsworth just for one night, and my sister stayed with us after having visited Mum in her care home. Our meal consisted of Jackie’s splendid beef in red wine; creamy mashed potatoes; crunchy carrots and cauliflower; and tender green beans. I drank more of the Fleurie; Jackie and Jacqueline drank Casillero del Diablo Reserva Sauvignon Blanc 2017.

Mostly Around Notting Hill

For this post I have reverted to the tried, tested, and trusted editorial facility.
I have almost come to the end of my Streets of London series of colour slides produced in the first decade of this century. Today I scanned a few from May 2008.

Crossing the Hammersmith & City Underground Railway line near Westbourne Park, Golborne Road W11 runs east from Portobello Road to Kensal Road. Situated at the northern end of Portobello Market It has a plethora of restaurants and antique shops.

‘This area of Notting Hill‘s northern corner has changed dramatically over its history. The area was part of the Great Forest of Middlesex; in 1543 the land was seized by Henry VIII and by the 18th century Golborne was farmland.

Golborne Road was named after Dean Golbourne, at one time vicar of St. John’s Church in Paddington. Until the middle of the 19th century it was no more than a country footpath crossing the fields of Portobello Farm, but in 1870 the road was widened, shops were built and the road was extended over the railway.
The Golborne Road area is sometimes known as “Little Morocco” due to the number of Moroccan restaurants and shops selling Maghrebian products located along the road.^[1] The road also has renown in the Portuguese community for the two Portuguese pâtisseries at one end, Cafe d’Oporto and Lisboa Patisserie.’ (Wikipedia)

The story of the appearance of this sample of the work of Banksy on a wall in Acklam Road W10 is related in ‘Walls’.

Yeah Man in Lancaster Road W11 now appears to be Jay Dee’s. The spicy Caribbean takeaway remains highly acclaimed.

Also in this area of Notting Hill, St Luke’s Mews is where TV presenter Paula Yates lived and died of an accidental drug overdose in September 2000.

I have to rely almost entirely on my memory for the next two locations because the street names are somewhat indistinct. I can say that they were all photographed at the top end of Highgate High Street during one of my trips to Highgate Cemetery to make the illustrations to ‘The Magnificent Seven’. Perhaps my next archived series could be the pictures for that book.

The Angel Inn stands on the corner of that High Street and a square I cannot identify. Clearly the owners are somewhat biased, but their website boasts:

‘Discreetly stylish, authentically British – comfort and elegance combined
Perched above Highgate Village, one of London’s most distinguished suburbs, and just a stone’s throw from Hampstead Heath, The Angel Inn is an iconic London pub, ahead of the game in providing the perfect setting for a truly memorable drinking and dining experience.
Whether it’s a relaxed lunch, sumptuous Sunday roast, indulgent dinner or lazy brunch you’re looking for, we offer an enticing range of flavoursome dishes incorporating classic British ingredients with a creative twist, all accompanied by our exceptional range of cask ales, craft beers, fine wines and artisan spirits.
Classic with a bohemian edge, The Angel Inn combines traditional wood-panelling, period features and contemporary touches, boasting an open fire for those chillier months. Fostering a relaxed yet refined atmosphere, this convivial pub has the spirit of the great British local at heart; our dedicated team are committed to first class service and look forward to welcoming you and helping you unwind…’

This elegant little square is around there somewhere.

Also close to Highgate High Street, Castle Yard N6, with its intriguing little terrace, links North Road with Southwood Lane.

I can neither pinpoint this section of Marylebone’s York St W1, nor identify the church tower in the background. Perhaps a reader will be able to.

Baker Street and Gloucester Place (shown on this corner) are linked by Bickenhall Street W1.

Bartholomew Malthus, a character in Robert Louis Stevenson’s story ‘The Suicide Club’ resided at 16 Chepstow Place, W2.

This evening we dined on Jackie’s splendid savoury egg fried rice; spare ribs in barbecue sauce; mini spring rolls and prawn toasts with which I drank more of the Madiran.
P.S. Please refer to Lwbut’s comments below, for the answers to all my questions

A Generation Gap

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I expected to run out of data this morning, so simply scanned a handful of photographs from the Little Venice Canal Cavalcade of May 2009. This is an annual event taking place in the canal basin within sight of Beauchamp Lodge, where I rented my counselling room.

This couple of women I found intriguing. The older lady carefully concentrating, swathed in black robes, a ring on her wedding finger; the younger in colourful T-shirt and skirt, wrists sporting a variety of bangles, a ring on her thumb. It was the younger person whose face was concealed from my view. Was this a generation gap? Were they related? How did they respond to each other’s appearance?

The two sides of the bank are spanned by an arched blue bridge, under which I have run many a time on a trip of several miles into west London along the towpath and back. Narrowboats are crammed into all the available mooring space.

The level bridge spans Warwick Crescent. Teeming crowds line both sides of the basin;

many souvenirs are on sale; someone has been busy with helium.

As they do at the nearby Notting Hill Carnival in August, drafted police officers enter into the spirit of the event as the Waterways Recovery service give them a ride.

For good measure I have added a Streets of London image of Powis Square W11 which had found its way into the same box of slides. This street is one of those accommodating the aforementioned Notting Hill Carnival.

I did, of course, run out of data, and am posting this in The Royal Oak. This is unfortunate because it means I have had to drink a pint of Razor Back. It would have been rude not to. I am now waiting to be joined by Jackie and Elizabeth for dinner here. Jacqueline will arrive a little later and stay for a couple of nights.

Rambling Round Chelsea And Pimlico

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Today I scanned a dozen colour slides dated May 2008 from my Streets of London series.

Wikipedia has these snippets to offer on Pelham Place SW7:

Pelham Place is a street of Grade II* listed Georgian terraced houses in South Kensington, London, England.
Pelham Place runs north to south from Pelham Place to Pelham Crescent.
2-14 is a circa 1825 terrace.^[1] 1-29 is an 1833 terrace, designed by the architect George Basevi.^[2] 1-29 is similarly grade II listed.^[3]
In 1950, the British-born American winemaker Peter Newton met his future wife, Anne St. Aubyn at a party in his house in Pelham Place.^[4]
Mel Brooks briefly lived in Pelham Place in the 1950s, while working at the BBC on the Sid Caesar show.^[5]
In 1967, Cecil Beaton photographed the model Twiggy wearing a yellow velvet dress by John Bates for Jean Varon^[6] in the residence of 8 Pelham Place, for an editorial for Vogue^[7]

A couple of years after I photographed this Chanel Store in Pelham Street, the Swedish fashion store rejoicing in the delightful name of Acne moved in next door. And Chanel is still there!

Kenzo, on the other hand, no longer seems to be resident in Ixworth Place, SW3. Perhaps the scaffolding drove them away.

Strong sunshine has burnt out the name of the street sharing this corner of King’s Road, Chelsea, where the mens’s and women’s clothing chain was having a sale.

You would need a few million pounds to buy one of these houses in Durham Place SW3.

Wikipedia tells us that ‘The Royal Hospital Chelsea is a retirement home and nursing home for some 300 veterans of the British Army. It is a 66-acre site located on Royal Hospital Roadin Chelsea, London. It is an independent charity and relies partly upon donations to cover day-to-day running costs to provide care and accommodation for veterans.
Any man or woman who is over the age of 65 and served as a regular soldier may apply to become a Chelsea Pensioner (i.e. a resident), on the basis they have found themselves in a time of need and are “of good character”. They must not, however, have any dependent spouse or family and former Officers must have served at least 12 years in the ranks before receiving a commission.’

Across the River Thames from Chelsea Embankment lies Battersea Park in which stands the Peace Pagoda. http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/london/hi/people_and_places/religion_and_ethics/newsid_8091000/8091765.stm contains this information:

‘At a time when the Cold War and the fear of a nuclear attack were escalating the offer of a Peace Pagoda to promote world harmony seemed appropriate.
It was offered to the people of London by the Nipponzan Myohoji Buddhist Order as part of the 1984 Greater London Council (GLC) Peace Year.
Nipponzan Myohoji is a religious movement that emerged from the Nichiren sect of Japanese Buddhism.

They have been constructing Peace Pagodas, as the spiritual focus to unify the movement for peace, since 1947 and they exist all around the world including Europe, Asia and the United States.
The pagoda in Battersea was built by monks, nuns and followers of Nipponzan Myohoji at the behest of The Venerable Nichidatsu Fujii (1885-1985), founder of the organisation.’

Turpentine Lane and Peabody Avenue SW1 lie in the Peabody Trust’s Pimlico Estate.

The Trust’s website, detailing all the estates describes Pimlico thus:

Pimlico is one of our oldest estates. The first 26 blocks date from 1876 – and we can learn about the early tenants from the national census taken every 10 years. In 1881 around 2,000 people lived there, many of them working in the nearby Chelsea Barracks. There were also lamplighters, messengers, charwomen, policemen and plumbers, while Charles Sutton, who lived in C Block, was employed as a porter at Buckingham Palace.
Pimlico is one of four of our estates to have a plaque commemorating those who died on active service in the First World War. In November 2005 a Channel 4 TV series, entitled Not Forgotten, featured the war memorial. Presenter Ian Hislop interviewed the granddaughter of William Buckland, the first man on the estate to be killed.
During the Second World War, the estate received a visit from Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who came to see the damage caused by an air raid.
New blocks were built on the Pimlico estate in 2011. They were officially opened by HRH the Duke of York in November 2012.’

‘The White Ferry House brings a traditional country pub vibe to the centre of London. The venue is housed in a stunning Victorian ‘flat-iron’ building and comes steeped in history, with a network of passages historically used to smuggle baccy, rum and gunpowder to the river buried below its foundations.’ It stands on the corner of Sutherland Street and Westmoreland Terrace SW1.

the iconic Battersea Power Station, visible across the river from Ebury Bridge SW1, now has a quite different purpose than originally envisaged.

Buckingham Palace Road SW1 runs from the South side of Buckingham Palace towards Chelsea.

This evening we dined on Jackie’s tender heart casserole topped with sauté potatoes; creamy mashed potato; sage and onion stuffing; roasted butternut squash, yellow peppers, and vary-coloured carrots; with crisp cabbage. The Culinary Queen drank Hoegaarden and Elizabeth and I drank more of the Rioja.

Samuel Beckett Defaced

Knowing we were in for heavy rain this afternoon, Jackie ventured out on this drizzly morning to tackle the storm damage. The idea was that she would free what she could from the entanglements of the fallen tree, then call me to lift it. She seemed to be taking quite a long time, so I wandered out to join her.

She had freed the baskets from beneath the tree which she had hoisted out of the West Bed, and unravelled the still rooted solanum from the trunk

which she had dragged onto the back drive path.

The wicker owl, sans nose, perched on a low stump,

and the hanging baskets found a temporary home on a brick pillar in the recently thinned out Weeping Birch Bed.

The fallen hydrangea terra cotta pot had been righted.

While I surveyed the Head Gardener’s efforts, she furnished the owl with a new beak.

Elizabeth soon came out to lend a hand, which was used to retie the rose Summer Wine.

Jackie had gathered up many fallen branches to add to the few I plucked yesterday. My sister continued until lunchtime when she dripped indoors having cleared the rest.
As the rain hammered down this afternoon, I took a virtual reality tour of the Streets of London, scanning a baker’s dozen of images from colour slides of May 2008.

St Mary’s Hospital in Praed Street, W2 is where, a little over a year later, I would be given a replacement left hip.

Was this a group of student medics? If so, were any of them in attendance at my surgery?

Architectural reflections may be viewed in Bayswater’s Cleveland Terrace W2

The hollyhocks in this garden on the corner of Scarsdale Villas and Earls Court Road W8 suggest that this slide is an interloper and must have been taken a month or two later. I wasn’t cataloguing quite so carefully during this period of one of life’s hiccups. The road mending sign blends nicely with the vibrant blooms.

Nahals Newsagent stands near Westbourne Park Tube Station at 114 Talbot Road on the corner of Powis Mews W11;

Powis Square is not far away;

nor is Westbourne Park Road W11. I wonder whether this fascinating kneeler still stands on the first floor ledge we see.

Nu-Line Builders’ Merchants have produced very professional tromp l’oeil users of their products to mask their windows on the corner of Kensington Park Road W11.

Elgin Mews W11, in a right angled bend, links this road with Ladbroke Grove,

off which we find Bassett Road W10, where there seems to be pruning of plane trees under way;

Faraday Road W10 with its very modern Fire Station;

and St Charles Square W10, on the corner of which someone appears to be in trouble.

Sadly, Samuel Becket had recently been defaced in Blenheim Crescent W11 at its junction with Portobello Road. This 2006 work by Alex Martinez was based on a photograph produced by Jane Bown in 1976. It has now been painted over.

Jackie normally labels pre-cooked meals that she stores in the freezer. When she produced tonight’s protein item she had been distracted from doing so. The crunchy carrots and cauliflower; tender spring greens; rich red cabbage were served with fish, not cottage pie. The meal was, nevertheless, most enjoyable. The Culinary Queen had prepared her splendid beef gravy, but refused to give it to us. She drank Hoegaarden while Elizabeth and I drank Casillero del Diablo Reserva 2016.

I Couldn’t Give It Away

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Steady heavy rain fell all morning, so I delved into my photographic archives and scanned another batch of Streets of London colour slides made in May 2008.

Earls Court Road runs from Old Brompton Road in SW5

to Kensington High Street in W8.

The Blackbird pub, almost opposite Earls Court Underground station, was previously a branch of the Midland Bank. Currently closed for refurbishment, it was converted to a Fuller’s Ale and Pie house in 1994. It would be fun to speculate on the conversation taking place outside.

The Hansom Cab, now specialising in craft beer, has been operating on this site since 1827.

A little further along, on the corner of Pembroke Square W8 lies Rassell’s up-market garden centre, which has rather mixed reviews.

Immediately opposite Pembroke Square lies Scarsdale Villas W8.

Trebovir Road SW5 is very close to Earls Court Underground Station. Nando’s, started in South Africa, in 1987, now operates 1,000 outlets in 30 countries. Its speciality is peri-peri chicken.

Cumberland Terrace

and Cornwall Terrace NW1 both lie alongside The Outer Circle of Regents Park.

Transept Street NW1 crosses Chapel Street beside Edgware Road tube station.

Just off Camden High Street NW1 the bustling Camden Market has over 1000 shops and stalls selling fashion, music, art and food next to Camden Lock;

Inverness Street Market NW1, a more quintessentially English example, established around 1900, is tucked away from the high street.

This afternoon we visited New Milton to collect items from the dry cleaners, and to deliver more kitchenalia to the Oakhaven Hospice Shop. They had been unable to take my Epson printer, complete with spare, unused ink cartridges, but suggested that the Mind shop might, because they had a tester. They couldn’t. There was no alternative but to offer it to the sales area in the local dump, now known as a recycling centre. They were not allowed to receive the printer, but could accept the inks. I was directed to carry the machine over to the container dedicated to such goods. The man in charge of this spoke of the culture of fear of legislation which now dominates us. While we were conversing, a woman brought a pair of pristine looking crutches she had not been allowed to return to an NHS hospital.

My printer was about seven years old. It had been used once or twice only; its last six years having been spent in bubble wrap in a cupboard. I do all my printing on the Canon A3+ model, but, had I been so inclined, I could have printed all today’s images on the device I could not give away.

Our next stop was Otter Nursery where we collected a flat-packed wooden arch for Aaron to assemble on Sunday.

Elizabeth was out this evening. Jackie and I dined on Mrs Knight’s hot and spicy pasta arrabbiata, with which she drank more of the Chardonnay and I finished the Malbec.

Setting Up The Barricades

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Today having been one of continuous gale-force winds and intermittent heavy rains, the garden was delighted, and regular readers will know that for me that meant a forage in my archives.

I scanned a baker’s dozen of the Streets of London series from July 2007.

Porchester Gardens,

Queensborough Passage,

and Queensborough Mews are all in Bayswater’s W2 district,

as is Porchester Terrace.

The Catholic Church of St Mary of the Angels in Moorhouse Road is also visible from the corner of Head’s Mews.

Fulton Mews demands various viewpoints.

Over at the Notting Hill area Westbourne Grove, W11,

Westbourne Grove Mews,

and Ledbury Road were all preparing for the Notting Hill Carnival. All the shops put up barricades against the inevitable damage, including the use of wialls and doorways as urinals.

This post has been completed in the Royal Oak because we cannot access the internet. Elizabeth, Jacki, and I are now returning home where Danni and Andy are dining with us on Jackie’s delicious sausage casserole.

London War Memorials

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Paul Clarke will tell you that my Streets of London series appears on a rainy day. It has surprised us all that today is one such. The garden, after such a long heatwave, has enjoyed the heavy rain we have received, but not the 50 m.p.h. winds.

Here is the view from the kitchen window this morning. Pauline’s light catcher did its job with what little there was.

Now to the Streets of London. Normally I scan the slides a dozen at a time. There are only eleven today because I thought I had lost those from after these of July 2005. Happily, afterwards, I remembered where the rest would be. They were among quite a number I had not yet put into storage files when Jackie came back into my life 10 years ago. The ex-librarian labelled their small processor’s boxes and I put them in a safe place. And we all know what happens to items that are put in a safe place.

My friends who lived in Islington’s Mountfort Crescent, told me that the shaded area at the pivotal point on this private drive concealed a medieval plague pit.

Barnsbury Park N1 contains a number of interesting architectural features, like the entrance porch in the first picture and the elegant doorway on the corner with Thornhill Road. You’d need upwards of £3,000,000 to buy a complete house in this area.

Belitha Villas is equally up-market.

Parliament Street SW1

leads to Parliament Square.

The Red Lion’s own website gives the following information: ‘The Red Lion stands on the site of a medieval tavern – known in 1434 as the Hopping Hall. The tavern passed through various hands and traded under many names in its early years, before it was bought by the Crown in 1531.

Centuries later, with the inn trading as The Red Lion, a young Charles Dickens became a regular visitor. Dickens’ noted that the pub’s landlady was a kind-hearted soul, whose attitude towards him was ‘admiring as well as compassionate’.

Standing so close to Downing Street and the Houses of Parliament, The Red Lion also became a popular haunt for British Prime Ministers. Indeed, the pub served every British Prime Minister up until Edward Heath in the 1970s – welcoming the likes of Sir Winston Churchill and Clement Atlee for a drink.

Situated between 10 Downing Street and the Houses of Parliament, the Red Lion is probably the best pub in the city for lovers of political history. There’s every chance you’ll catch a glimpse of some of our Government’s elite in the bar, too.’

‘This pub was established in around 1749 and rebuilt in 1899. ** It stands on the east side of Parliament Street, at the junction with Derby Gate (formerly Derby Street). The original pub is the one where 12-year old Charles Dickens asked for “a glass of your very best ale” – an incident immortalised in “David Copperfield”. The pulling-down of the old pub was widely regretted in the press, because of the Dickensian associations, and a bust of the author was placed above the second-floor bay window in the new building.’ (https://pubshistory.com/LondonPubs/WestminsterStMargaret/RedLion.shtml)

Downing Street needs no introduction from me. Our Prime Minister resides at No 10, while the Chancellor of the Exchequer occupies No 11, next door.

Further along Whitehall ‘The Monument to the Women of World War II is a British national war memorial situated on Whitehall in London, to the north of the Cenotaph. It was sculpted by John W. Mills, unveiled by Queen Elizabeth II and dedicated by Baroness Boothroyd in July 2005.’ There is much more information about the creation of this memorial on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monument_to_the_Women_of_World_War_II

Around the corner in Whitehall Court we find the Royal Tank Regiment’s memorial bearing on the base their motto ‘From Mud, Through Blood, To The Green Fields Beyond’.

I am indebted to the post of Sura Ark on Flickr for the following information: ‘The Royal Tank Regiment Memorial Statue was unveiled by their Colonel In Chief, the Queen herself, on 13 June 2000. Created by sculptor George Henry Paulin it features the five crew members of a Comet tank, the model introduced towards the end of World War II and which saw service right through until 1958. The Regiment itself was formed in 1917 – this fact is acknowledged in a small plaque that sits at the base of the statue depicting the Mark V tank which was used on the battlefields of Flers, the Somme. Amiens and elsewhere.’

This evening the three of us dined on Jackie’s excellent cottage pie; crunchy carrots, cauliflower and broccoli; and fresh runner beans. Jackie drank Hoegaarden and Elizabeth and I enjoyed Camiono del Angel Cabernet Sauvignon 2016.

Chapel Market

Here are the pictures that I scanned yesterday from my Streets of London series of July 2005:

Percy Circus WC1 remains a tribute to 19th Century town planning and 20th Century restoration.

https://www.locallocalhistory.co.uk/municipal-housing/percy/index.htm offers this description: ‘The whole area was set out on a south-facing hillside, in classical layouts; a Circus, Squares and numerous Rectangles. It was a planned as a Classical estate layout, designed to be near the City of London but away from its old crowded houses. It could have come directly from some 18^th Century architect’s notebook when he returned from the Grand Tour. It was completely different from the traditional City of London layout. There the streets were narrow lanes. Here roads wer generously wide and laid out as vistas. Houses were large and impressive, not the narrow fronted, tall houses squeezed upwards by the old City walls.

The people who first moved into these houses had ‘arrived’. They were the successful ones and could now enjoy the new, spacious houses. It was exactly like the contrast between the tenements of Old Edinburgh and Edinburgh New Town, laid out on its Classical grid.

The air was better in Percy Circus than in the City of London, but it was near King’s Cross and Euston and would not be free of soot for another century and the Clean Air Acts of 1956, 1968 and 1990.

The houses were built as separate properties and some remained like this, but soon many were divided into floors and even separate rooms. Decades before 1939 and the Second World War, in it had become a densely packed area, full of bed-sitting rooms and single women. Their potential husbands had been killed in the First World War. The most relevant novel seems to me to be Riceyman Steps by Arnold Bennett, which is set nearby.’

This very informative site provides historic maps and photographic descriptions of the restoration carried out following the destruction brought about by numerous bombings in the second world war.

Down the hill we arrive at Vernon Square, the early residents of which would be amazed at the traffic congestion encountered on Penton Rise,

which joins Kings Cross Road. Following the BBC television series ‘The Urban Chef’ of 2006, The Prince Albert, at the corner of Acton Street, has become a thriving gastropub.

Frederick Street WC1 lies parallel to Acton Street. You could buy one of these houses for £2.5 million give or take a grand or two.

On a level with Percy Circus stands Lloyd Street, part of the Lloyd Baker estate where I once lived and which has featured a number of times in this series.

Islington’s Chapel Market N1 is still a bustling, colourful, source of stall-holders’ produce. Fosby’s Café, on the corner of White Conduit Street, was a popular eating place. It seems now to be no longer in business.

In Grant Street a fruiterer sets out his oranges over which are suspended string bags of garlic.

Clothes and books are on offer in North West Place.

The fruit on the Baron Street stall remains as fresh as it was when sampled yesterday. As far as I can tell, the bar with the beautiful floral display is the Alma which has been recently updated.

Tolpuddle Street N1 lies parallel to Chapel Street. The Angelic, with its address in Liverpool Road, is a popular gastro-pub.

Hemingford Road N1 is situated between Caledonian Road and Liverpool Road,

to the east of which, Moon Street is an attractive little cul-de-sac.

In a short while Jackie will be driving me to New Hall Hospital for my first post-discharge physiotherapy session. I will report on that tomorrow.