Stratton Street dragons

Stratton Street runs round the back of Green Park Station. At the far left/northern corner, high up on the on No.15 there is a hopper that I have always admired that takes the form of a grotesque bird. See here – a screen grab from that link here: 

It's a pretty impressive and unusual bit of metalwork.

But, until last week, I had never before noticed that much the metalwork that runs in front of the windows on No.17, which sits at right angles to No.15, is made up from little dragons' heads.

I need to use a better camera for things like this, sorry, but you get the gist!

It's a residential block. Whats all that about then?

More architectural dragons for your delectation here

Park Lane and Park Street discoveries

This is about when you are looking for one thing and you happen upon other delightful stuff along the way.

Wandering the streets of Mayfair, planning a route for an Art Deco tour I was in Park Street musing that the houses along here would have followed the edge of the park, hence the name. As I reached the impressive wazzbaffle at the corner of Culross Street I realised that, even though I had written about this building on my Substack here I hadn't at that time noticed these large metal gate posts:

Probably because this was something I only became aware of months later after noticing a lonely post in Notting Hill and then other similar examples near Regents Park here. 

I wandered down Culross Street for a detour to admire the Georgian houses that face Hyde Park just north of Grosvenor House, Hotel and Ballroom:

I noticed some bollards in front of the houses. On closer inspection saw that they bear the name of Sugg, a company that features on my gaslamps walks being as Thomas Sugg create some of the first lanterns for the first gas-lit streets c1807, though he and others would have been making lanterns before that, just not for gas-powered lighting.

I've not seen bollards with the Sugg name on before, though there must be many. This is probably because these bollards at first glance don't look that interesting – they don't appear to be repurposed cannons and there's no date at high level, as per the ones in my last post about Chelsea.

As if this and the filigree gateposts wasn't exciting enough, as I walked across the cobbles I spotted a cover plate, approx the size of a coal hole cover but I cant conclude that was indeed its purpose, set right in the middle in front of 97... and it is mostly still infilled with woodblocks. 

Nice!

See the A-Z of Woodblocks here and let me know if you can add to it.

Chelsea distractions - welcome to my world

Here is a glimpse into my head which might help to explain why I am often asking for multiple parallel universes. One to walk and wander, one to write and research, one to read all the books and watch all the old movies, one to sit and just be. 

I take a lot of photos as I wander London's streets and you only get to see a teeny tiny selection of them. I wander and wonder. When I wander I discover things that intrigue me. I wonder what/why. I take a few snaps to remind me to look into it later. I turn a corner and find something else of interest. I take more photos. I turn a third corner and notice some unusual railings or coal hole covers with designs I haven't seen before, or an unusually impressive building, or a faded sign or a bizarre sculpture... and my phone becomes filled with 100s of 'ideas' that hardly ever bubble to the surface because there aren't enough hours in the day, days in the week etc. 

The photos take a matter of seconds to snap but the re-naming, filing, tagging takes ages. Add to that, the time taken doing research to find out more about what I have just seen or discovered, such that one quick photograph can end up taking me down a vortex and what I thought would be 5-minutes of goggling becomes a 2-day investigation. It's often the case that my most recent discoveries take precedent over the half-completed stuff which then gets swamped in one of my ever-expanding 'To Do' folders. 

Welcome to my world

To give an example of how this happens, this whole blog post/article/whatever you want to call it has taken me over 5hrs to pull together, and it doesn't even contain any decent research, just observations and musings, and a couple of links. Read on...

Last Friday 6th Feb I attended a talk at The Army Museum. I travelled there by tube to Sloane Square and managed to keep my phone in my pocket until I reached the hexagonal acanthus leafed post box near Bram Stoker's blue plaque on Leonard's Terrace. I took this quick snap with the intention to check if I'd already added a red dot on my wall map at home.   

At the museum I used the facilities, and took a pic of the saluting figures on the signs so as to add them to the interesting toilet signs I've spotted that might one day appear as a collections (a subfolder in To Do). Despite a voice in my head saying telling me to go home and get things done, that I could be back by 2pm and have three good hours at my desk, I let myself wander about the exhibits. I love the quality of uniforms and all the hand stitching on the older pieces. I find it amazing how they spent so much time and effort making such lovely items of clothing for people to die in. An hour flew by. My tummy rumbled. I went to the nearby Tesco and got a 3-part snack deal.

Wandering along Smith Street munching on my crisps, I noticed that two of the coal hole covers bore addresses in nearby Kings Road. I took snaps just I case I hadn't already added these to my A-Z database of ironmongers.

On the other side of the road, I glanced across at 17-18 Smith Street and wondered why/how this was rebuilt taller than everything else in the terrace. It looks to be residential. Note that this is a portrait shaped photo here to get the whole thing in. I prefer to take square shape. 

Just before King's Road there is a gated court yard called Court Yard. Cool huh. 

Opposite is a blue plaque to PL Travers, the lady that have us Mary Poppins. It says she lived here until 1962 and I wondered if she ever associated with Agatha Christie who lived a stone's throw away during the same era.

On the other side of King's Road a plaque for Mary Quant, the pic taken from the below the cow's head that protrudes form the corner of what was once Wright's Dairy when this was a genteel Victorian suburb.

From the same viewpoint, there's the old Markham Arms with its curved street level windows and, on the southern side, the bizarre bit of bonkers Egyptianesque PoMo that sits above Holland & Barratt

On the diagonally opposite corner to Wright's there is a 1960s building containing a shop at street level that offers bland beige and grey clothing. Many other shops along Kings Rd today also sell similar stuff – it's a far cry from the colourful world of Mary Quant. 

I stood there for a while drinking in the patchwork of architecture all around me and, raher than head towards the station, I crossed over to check on the sculpture at the corner to see if anyone has seen fit to add any kind of information plaque since I last wrote about it back in 2015. 

Nope. Nada. Nothing. FYI, as per the info in that link above the pics, This is 'Bronze man and Eagle' by Richard Bentley Claughton for Barclays Bank, unveiled in April 1966.

I wandered past the bronze man and around Markham Square, a cul-de-sac. At the far left corner I noticed a stump of churchiness, possibly a gate post. Hmmm. The houses must abut or replace a churchyard, hence a road to nowhere. However, the houses at the end could have been built at a later date in the same style. More below.

I found nothing similar in the other corner, so I look a pic of the entrance to the private gardens and headed back to Kings Road. Paul's patisserie at the corner of of Bywater Street retains some lovely brass ventilation grilles at low level. I wondered what type of shop this was originally. 

I let myself be tempted around exterior of the shop into what is yet another cul-de-sac. 

Pretty pastel coloured houses on three sides. The two at the end are surely as old as the rest of the street and I guess that this development must have also backed onto the churchyard, but today there's a huge C20th construction looming over their back gardens.

Turning back towards King's Rd I was amazed to discover an Art Deco style property in the middle of the west terrace. 

What on earth is going on here?! Perhaps this was originally a gap between the houses that was later infilled? However, the satellite view does not appear to back up that theory. But why employ such a modern style so different to the rest of the houses here? Is it just the façade or the whole building? Whilst it's a delight to me now, many of the residents in this street must surely have been furious at the time of construction.

Back to King's Rd. Almost opposite, on the south side, is Wellington Square, another cul-de-sac: 

 

Belts and braces. Metal bollards and stone bollards too. I headed up the right side and came back down the left side and found a few coal holes covers of interest.

I am often confused and bemused why circles contain seven segments. I mean, why make it so difficult when 360 is easily divisible by every other number 2-12 excluding seven. Eh? (I did say welcome to my world!)

There are a few more King’s Road ironmongers plates along here, set within lovely York stone and looking good in the rain. I also found a design I have never seen before where rings of ellipses form a nice concentric pattern.

Now where? Should I head to the station and home or investigate the streets beyond Markham Square and Bywater Street to check out the church hunch? A no brainer! 

I headed down cute little Tryon Street and turned left into Elstan Place. Passing Ranelagh House (wowzer – a development that needs a separate investigation) and the 1950's elegance of Thackery House and a cottage named after one of history's most oft-mentioned characters.

Only last week, a friend and I were debating who has more places named after them, Ms Gwynne or Mr Dickens? Many of the connections are spurious or vague.

Between some cottages, very similar in design to those in Markham Square and Bywater Street, there's the remains of a gateway to the church. 

Aha!  OK, so I've googled... here's a pic that shows that the church's entrance was at the end of Markham Square, demolished in 1953. 

At Markham Street there is a tall bollard that surely is an original upcycled cannon but there is so much paint on it that the information panel is impossible to read.

Nearby, on the western end of the triangle, another cannon-shaped bollard is dated 1820

I took a quick snap of the oil jars on the exterior of the dry cleaners at the corner of Godfrey Street and, managing to resist the temptation to wander around the large blocks that comprise Sutton Dwellings, I instead headed up Whitehead's Grove, passing one of the entrances to The Gateways a gorgeous 1934 red brick development that has that out of town vibe.  

As I approached the larger 1930s buildings along Sloane Avenue it occurred to me that years ago I had promised to offer an Art Deco Chelsea walking tour of this area. Whoops! I'd started the idea but had realised the route needed more R&D. I will return to this. I will. I will. I will...!

Here's young Nell again – see her above the entrance, here paired with Sloane Avenue Mansions.

Into Draycott Avenue, passing a Guinness social housing building and well-to do mansions block, and into the little streets that connect Draycott St to King's Rd.

 

A house in Coulson Street is painted a shocking pink. Yes, quite shocking. As Loyd Grossman would have said, who lives in a house like this?

And so to Sloane Square – note Nell Gwynne on the fountain. A couple of snaps of the old public conveniences to update another sub-folder in the To Dos. I wonder if there are plans to turn this subterranean space into anything as per  other repurposed sites (a blog post collection on lost and converted loos is still in the making). A mini paddling pool on the roof.

Then Sloane Square station to Finsbury Park, exiting onto Goodwin Street, wondering what will become of the Post Office building and surrounding site that has been saved from demolition but has sat empty for a long time.

People are often heard saying "you should get out more" LOL! 

Back in 2020 when most people were 'trapped' and bored' I was outdoors in my element, wandering the empty streets and investigating alleyways, taking thousands more photos when, perhaps I could have been using the time to chip away at an already huge backlog. Instead, I added to the problem! 

Until mind-melding becomes a thing such that we can think a thought into our hand-held devices and it will research and write all up for us, I'm going to be playing catch-up for a long time yet!

How long did writing this take? 

A couple of hours of wandering about, following my nose, taking photos, making notes, then an hour of picture editing the ones I wanted to use here. Note that these are only approx 40% of the total pics I took on this particular day, a day when I was actually being frugal with the idea to write this thing as a stream of succinct consciousness (well, that didn't happen!). 

Other pics taken on the same day will, hopefully, rise to the top at some point as separate blog posts in their own right. 

I started writing at 10.05am. It never ceases to amaze me how long these things take me to produce and, as mentioned above, I have not on this occasion done any proper research into the things mentioned, except to refer to an A-Z at my left elbow, a bit of google streetviewing, and to decipher the scribbled notes I made on the day. 

I actually set myself a deadline for this – when I sat down I said spend two hours max on it. At 1.29pm I decided I was finished and gave the whole thing a read-through and made some text edits. It is now 2.06pm and I am still sat here. Aaargh! I will stop now. I'm done. I'm hungry. I need to get out and about before the sun goes down!

I'm not sure how I can work any faster. Special mention to two people who never cease to amaze me – David who produces A London Inheritance and M@ Londonist – they each compile weekly missives packed to the gills with facts. These men, I conclude, simply do not sleep or they have access to the parallel universes that I so dearly require. 

A private tour inside Lambeth Fire Station, London Fire Brigade's Art Deco HQ

A few years back I was lucky to be invited inside the former London Fire Brigade HQ on Albert Embankment designed by EP Wheeler, embellished with works by Bayes and Babb. 

This opportunity had come about during a Zoom chat after my online talk about demolished London Art Deco buildings when Peter Rickard, a fireman at LFB who was sometimes stationed at the Lambeth building, asked me if I'd like to visit the interior. Er... yes please!

I apologise for taking so long to write this up, my excuse being that I wanted to tie it in with any news about the building going forward. I simply let the idea slip until now because the LFB recently announced that their museum will be reinstated at Lambeth. Phew! Ian wrote about it here. However, I am still unaware what will happen to the upper floors.

On 9th March 2021 I arrived at this Grade II listed building camera in hand to meet Peter. I think he was concerned about what was going happen to this magnificent building and was pleased to find a kindred spirit. I'd only once before ever been inside, restricted to the gorgeous foyer area to see the sculptural pieces, memorials and suchlike during what I guess what an Open House Weekend many moons ago. Though I do recall a small museum and information panels in that space. 

Peter led me at first across the floor where the fire engines are kept, stopping to say hello to the working staff, past staircases with marvellous Art Deco railings to another set of stairs and up to the areas used as offices and for recreation.

The octagonal shaped room is on the rear of the building overlooking the car park and inside it has the feel of being on a boat or, due to those tropical plants and linear balconies, at a run down Mediterranean holiday hotel.

A test dummy on the floor below made it look as if someone didn't enjoy their holiday!

The building is huge and contains many rooms but at the time of visiting only a small percentage were in active use as offices. Narrow corridors on the eight levels lead to what were offices, living spaces, shower rooms, and communal/recreation rooms with fabulous views across and along the Thames.

I now cannot recall if Peter said that firemen ever stay overnight now, but there is evidence that this was the case in years gone by, just check out one of the groovy bathrooms. What was that beige colour called?

Much of the building, especially on the upper floors, was clearly suffering from damp and water ingress, and many window frames were rusty. It's clear the utilities are mostly out of date, ditto the sanitaryware. Old coloured bathroom suites sell for decent money on eBay and reclamation sites like these days, so I hope when they do start renovations that the don't just dump it all.

A later extension at the rear (1980s?) – the interior looked like a film crew had just left the building. 

I wonder what's to become of all the empty and unused rooms? 

This facility had previously housed hundreds firemen and many more vehicles but today is only partly in use with many areas, especially on the upper floors, in dire need of more than a little love and affection.  There's a lot of general wear and tear to attend to, let along an upgrade of necessities.

What do you do with a building this size? 

It could be converted into a hotel or a hostel perhaps, but the amount of renovation and repairs needed to make it fit for purpose would be restrictive to say the least.

Any news/updates most welcome.

I'll write about the exterior separately another day but it might take me 5 years to get there!

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Dr Johnson's Apostrophes or Apost'rophes

Dr Johnson's House in Gough Square sits within one of a handful of old Georgian courtyards north of Fleet Street. It saddens me that many of the old alleys I recall from as recently as the 1990s have been bulldozed and redeveloped, replaced with high rise office developments. Gough Square is only one of a few tiny spaces that still hint at this area's rich history, and it's thanks to Samuel Johnson. 

The great lexicographer spent many years of his life producing a dictionary in which the phonetic pronunciations were also supplied but, whenever I pop in to attend events and talks, I cannot fathom why the curators have created these curious information boards, headed up with words that contain rogue apostrophes:

The apostrophes here serve no purpose as they are not inserted between the cojoined words and neither do they demote missing letters. As the explanation for Be'dchamber says, it is a conjunction of Bed and Chamber, so why put that apostrophe after the first E unless the original words had been Bedded or Bend or Behead?

Ah, the Withdra Wing Room, or perhaps this denotes that it used to be the Withdra Owing Room. Then we have the Pa'rlour which I like to pronounce Pah-relour, often spoken out loud, with confused looks from anyone else in the room even when I point to the sign. Pah-relour sounds like a card game in the round that you might play in the parlour. Or perhaps the Pa'rlour here was used only by Sam's Pa and his mother used the Ma'rlour...?!

The nonsense continues below ground...

Why not L'oo? (the ooh). They could also added LAVAT'ORY, DU'NNY and RE'STROOM...?

To my mind, these additional marks are unhelpful, meaningless, and at totally at odds with what Dr Johnson was trying to achieve. Does anyone know the thinking behind this nonsense? I have asked a couple of people who help out there but no one has a decent explanation. All I get in return are pleasant shrugs. 

If Samuel was to time-travel to today and pop in and see these signs I wonder what he'd have to say. He'd probably turn tail and head to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese for a pint of ale and a chinwag with his mates though I think they'd be sorely displeased that they can't spark up a tobacco pipe in there any more. It's far too clean and sanitised these days, such that it looks more like a pastiche/recreation of an oldey worldey pubbe. To my mind, there should be a rule in this particular pub that at least one person on every table should be filling the place with smoke in order to constantly evoke the atmosphere of Dr Johnson's era.

Incidentally, if you haven't already noticed it, look out for this protective metalwork low down on the Fleet Street side of the pub which bears the initials of the pub, YOCC:

 

Two queens, two phoenixes and a couple of castles

Earlier this week I alluded to the re-naming of streets, something that became necessary as London expanded, such that a rendezvous arranged in Church Street could mean one person waiting in Hackney whilst the other was stood checking their fob watch in Soho.

This Georgian map illustrates my point. I had taken a quick snap during a visit to The London Archives merely as reference, hence the shadow coming in from the left. Apologies, but I forgot to note the cartographer and the exact year. 

When I viewed on a larger screen I spotted Phenix Street at the middle left exactly where I'd expect it to be – today we have the Phoenix Theatre there backing on to Phoenix Gardens (Hog Lane later covered by Charing Cross Road): 

But, confusingly, there's another Phenix Street north of St Giles Church and these two streets don't look like they would have ever been connected:

Either side of the northern Phenix Street you'll see Church Street, an extension of Church Lane, and Castle Street which has a twin at the bottom of the map, though I am not sure which castle these alluded to. I then started noticing other doubles.

To make it clearer, I've added some colour-coded rings:

In addition to this, the map shows King Street (today Neal Street) which had a counterpart northeast of this area, near Bloomsbury Square (off the map, today approx Southampton Row). There's another King Street still in existence adjacent to Covent Garden market. 

Many of these streets were less than 5mins walk apart. It suggests to me that the people who lived north of St Giles's church rarely ventured south and vice-versa.

A quick glance at today's A-Z shows we now have only x12 King Streets in Greater London and just x6 Queen Streets. There are x18 Church Streets (a mere x3 Chapel Streets) and only two Castle Streets but neither of those is in the central zone. As for Phenix Street, one one remains and it's the one shown above off CharX Rd, albeit alternatively-spelled.