Crawford Street – derrickjknight

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This morning I scanned another dozen colour slides from the Streets of London series. These were produced in July 2004.

On this corner of Riding House Street W1 stands the landmark Arts & Crafts home of T.J. Boulting & Sons, manufacturers of heating equipment. Adopting the name in 2011, a contemporary art gallery, T.J. Boulting, was established in the building.

The address of the Crown & Sceptre pub, seen here in Foley Street W1, is actually 88 Great Titchfield Street. They currently advertise watching the Six Nations rugby with specially chosen beers. Like many of our historic public lavatories, the one outside the building has been chained shut.

Zoopla currently quotes the average price of a property in Mansfield Mews W1 as £1,703,118. Note the tall chimneys and television aerials reflected in the upper window. What a pity that a splendid stained glass window has made way for an extractor fan.

A similar value is place on properties in Molyneux Street W1.

I was only beginning my photography of public places at this time. I do wish I had had the confidence to ask this group alongside Ossington Buildings W1 what they were up to. But, I didn’t. Now I have learned that most people are only to willing to talk, and often to pose.

This church seen from Crawford Street W1, is St Mary’s Bryanston Square, an active element of the evangelical wing of the Church of England. Designed by Robert Smirke, it dates from 1824. A young lady on a bench made herself comfortable in the sunshine.

In Wyndham Place opposite, the Duke of Wellington, tankard in hand, possibly wondering how long he would be there, gazes from a side window of his eponymous pub. Built in 1812 in Crawford Street this establishment closed last year.

Warrington Gardens W9 is in Little Venice, close to Warwick Avenue tube station. Does the little girl here have a brother or sister in the buggy pushed by her mother, and does she have a doll in her own? I guess I’ll never know.

Wikipedia tells us that

‘St Augustine’s Church of England High School is a Voluntary Aided Church of England comprehensive school in the West London borough of Westminster, Kilburn. The school is also a Science College and has a sixth form. St Augustine of Canterbury is the patron saint of the school. It is located adjacent to its affiliated primary school and parish church St Augustine’s Church.’ It dates from 1870, when it was opened with 7 pupils.

Garfield the Movie was released in 2004. It is a spin-off from the famous cartoons featuring Garfield the cat created by America’s Jim Davis in 1978. This style of telephone box is a more recent version of the iconic red telephone boxes. I wonder if it is still in use, especially as I doubt that there is a single pupil without a mobile phone.

For many years I ran or walked from Little Venice to lunch with Norman at his home in Harlesden. Ridley Road NW10 was on one of my routes. This corner pillar had obvious got in the way of a stray vehicle. Or maybe the young lady gave it a passing kick.

Oldfield Road NW10 has brought us into graffiti land. A far cry from where we began in Fitzrovia. Norman lived in this road, which was around the corner from

Ashdon Road NW1, the walls of which also suffered desecration, and where robbers and Dumpers were also warned off.

This afternoon I watched a very keen Six Nations rugby contest between France and Scotland in Paris, screened by the BBC.

The evening we dined on second helpings of yesterday’s tasty casserole, with potatoes sauteed with garlic and herbs, and carrots vying with curly Kale for brightness of colour and flavour. Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I drank Cimarosa Limited Edition Shiraz 2014.

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:

Scaffolding in Wyndham Place, off Crawford Street, W1,

and in Duke Street;

roadworks in Devonshire Place, W1;

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Tag: Crawford Street

A Far Cry From Fitzrovia

There’s Always Work Going On