Holloway Road Then and Now (3)

Today's post concerns two major junctions in central Holloway.

The pair of images above shows the change at the southern corner of Parkhurst Road at the Nags Head junction. The black and white image of the old market arcade is from the mid-1970s. When I moved to Holloway in the late 80s the market building was mostly boarded up and it continued to sit empty and semi-derelict for years until it was demolished in the 1990s to make way for a [carpet] shop with student accommodation above. This replacement building with its bright machined bricks has a half-hearted attempt at architectural detailing including a raised band above the 4th floor and semi-circular shapes at the very top, perhaps a vague attempt at echoing the high window arches that were a feature of the old Holloway Arcade(?).

Look at the difference almost a century has made to the southern corner of Tufnell Park Road (opposite the Odeon). In Edwardian times Holloway Road, specifically the Nags Head area, was in its heyday with shops all along the eastern side and houses along the western side running all the way down to Holloway Road station. Now most of this stretch has also been replaced by shops and cafes as shown on the right.

Cock-a-doodle-doo!

The fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square will change again this summer.
After the success of Antony Gormley's 'One and Another' when members of the public had one hour slots on the plinth, followed by the well-received of 'Nelson's Ship in a Bottle by Shinko Yinobare', 6 options were proposed for the plinth and the winner was chosen by votes – a boy on a rocking horse. I wasn't impressed.
But I wasn't very moved by with any of the 6 choices, each one having, to my mind, something 'wrong' with it. I thought (and still do) that he boy on the rocking horse looked plastic and half-finished; the battenburg cake bricks were the wrong proportion; the musical cash machine also sat oddly on the plinth, and the UK land mass looked like a half-cocked (!) attempt at a reasonably good idea. But the over-decorated statue of  Field Marshall Sir George White does intrigue me as I would have liked to have seen how all that embellishment would have been achieved at actual size.
And now we are to get the runner-up – a big blue cock!
Katharina Fritsch's cockerel is supposed to represent regeneration, awakening and strength. Er... how? Can somebody please explain how a noisy farmyard bird represents regeneration any more than, say, an egg? And how does it tie in with London and, specifically, Trafalgar Square? Answers please.
Here are some more cocks in and on various erections in London:

That's the way to do it!

This Sunday I will be going to the 38th Covent Garden May Fayre and Puppet Festival in the beautiful gardens of St Paul's churchyard.
Situated in the shadow of Inigo Jones' Church (also known as the Actor's Church because it is favoured as a memorial and resting place for those in the acting profession) there will be a one day event with stalls and entertainment.
This event takes always place on or near to Punch's "birthday"; the date Samuel Pepys first saw Mr Punch in England on May 9th 1662 and recorded in his diary. It's also why the nearby pub is so-named.
The day will start at 10.30am with a Grand Procession at 11am led by The Superior Brass Band. This is followed by a church service at noon and then the afternoon will be all about puppetry. In addition to Punch and Judy performances, there will be puppet shows of all kinds and you will be able to learn the art of puppetry from the experts. The event is free.
The church and its gardens are well worth a visit in themselves... be sure to check out the interior of the church and marvel at Grinling Gibbon's amazingly intricate wood carvings.
Hope to see you there... There will also be a small craft market there so do come find me at my stall (perhaps I should have made a clay pipe puppet?).

Happy 5th birthday Jane's London

It's five years since my first posting here... wow. How?
Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to look in every now and then, and a big thanks to those of you who have contacted me with ideas of things to do and places to see – especially those of you who offer me freebies ;-)
I don't post regularly like other similar sites, sometimes only once a week, and this is because a) I don't have the time (the mosaic photo collections take quite a while to put together) and b) as a reader I don't like being bombarded by emails or updates every day. Therefore, I like do to as I would be done by, hoping my sporadic approach is more likely to invoke an "ooh" rather than "oh gawd another missive from Jane".
I get a lot of emails from people asking if I allow guest posts. The answer to that is easy "no" – it's all in the title – Jane's London, which is about my thoughts, my ideas, my observations and my photographs, not those of other people. It's me me me!
Five Years... now I am singing the David Bowie song. Excellent.
Here are some nice London 5s:

Learn to swim in a tanked tent

I thought this was a joke when someone told me about it – a temporary 12m swimming pool will be in Euston/Camden from Monday 29th April until Thursday July 11th.
Total Swimming's aim is to teach 1,200 people how to swim through community swimming programmes. Lessons are free of charge, but tickets are, of course, limited. Please see the website for more info.
Additionally (something I noticed in this week's Time Out), the pool is available outside lesson time during the evenings and at weekends for just £2 entrance fee, though you still need to book.
Next stop Southwark.

Top: Hornsey Rd, Kentish Town, Haymarket, Holborn

Middle: Tufnell Pk, Westminster x3

Bottom: Holloway, Parliament Hill, Hoxton, Kentish Town

Get Britain Writing

Most days I am sat at a computer typing on a keyboard. When I do pick up a pen to write something down in my diary or on a scrap of paper as a note to self it's more often than not a scrawl that I cannot understand when I look at it days later. At school we were taught how to write neatly, with fountain pens using joined up letters. Oh dear. It seems practice really does make perfect. I am sure I am not alone here.
These days it's all texting and touch screens. So I was pleased to read that the art of handwriting is being promoted to coincide with National Stationery Week (April 22 to 28) – Sheaffer, the official partner of NSW, is inviting handwriting enthusiasts in the UK to pen a page of their own longhand which will be analysed by Sheaffer's expert graphologists as part of the campaign to ‘Get Britain Writing’.
Each article of handwriting submitted to Sheaffer will immediately be in with a chance of winning a luxury calligraphy set. 
To enter Sheaffer’s handwriting assignment, simply drop a note in the post to Sheaffer Handwriting Assignment, Creative Industries Centre, Wolverhampton, WV10 9TG. For more information visit www.sheaffer.com
National Stationery Week is in conjunction with the National Literacy Trust which carries out a great deal of good work in schools and families across the UK.
Here are some nice pieces of scripts and hand lettering I have discovered in London:

Top: Victoria, Camden, Kings Cross, Covent Garden
Middle: Islington, Leyton, Caledonian Rd, Archway
Bottom: Borough, St Martin's, Charterhouse, Stoke Newington

Camden's getting crafty

This Friday sees the first of We Make London's twice a month appearances at Camden Lock Market where 30 designer-makers will be selling all sorts of wonderful one-off handmade items including homewares, ceramics, accessories, prints and jewellery.
This hub of creativity can be found in the Middle Yard every first and third Friday from April 5th.
There will also be a farmers market where you can get some great food direct from the makers, plus all the diverse shops and bars in the area. What's not to like?
Hope to see you there (I will be trading myself... plug, plug!).
More info here.
Below is a collection of my photos of details found in and around Camden Lock Market featuring, in particular, Camden High Street and Chalk Farm Road.

Holloway Road then and now (2)

Continuing from my recent post about Pugh Bros, this entry looks at the changes to the buildings to the left of it in the Victorian parade that links two pubs; The Bailey and The Wig & Gown.

In 2008 I started taking photos along the Holloway Road – the architectural details that no one seems to notice or appreciate; the kind of things that get overlooked or ripped out in the name of 'progress'. 

The image below, top left was taken at that time and shows most of the old windows with their original multi-panes contrasted with the modern cheaper, kind. But, returning to this image today, I now cannot work out which street numbers those windows belonged to. Five years and so much has changed.    

As you can see by the google streetview, top right (which also shows that almost all of the bricks in this terrace have now been coated in render and/or painted over) most of the windows have been replaced with modern versions. 

Whilst I can understand the need for better insulation and double glazing, especially when living on a busy main road, I think it's a crime to put in replacements that quite evidently are not suitable or sympathetic, especially as there are very good wood or UPVC equivalents available these days. I know, because I had my own victorian sashes replaced; they weren't expensive and they look great. 

The three images on the bottom row, above, further highlight what I mean here – the new windows are mostly just plain glass. A hint to the correct style has been made in some cases by introducing fake divisions, but scant thought has gone into this as they have too many sections (try comparing the old with the new). And notice how a lot of the pediments and architraves have been removed. It all makes for a very dull and uninteresting façade.

The pics above, from the mid-1970s, show how the original Victorian sashes were still in place (though probably draughty!). Note the lovely old signage on the three shops: No.87's hand-painted lettering (with ‘groceries’ squashed in at the end), Shing Lee’s then modern sign (the nasty shape of things to come) with an earlier hand-painted advertisement on the wall above which reads (something like): 'Builder, decorator (xxxx?) and plumbing in all branches', and Grossman’s music and radio shop with its deep windows and lovely old signs for HMV, Decca and Ever Ready.

On the subject of bad window replacements, further along the Holloway Road, on the rounded corner above no 201, there are some that are so bad they actually bring a smile to my face. 

Lies, lies, damned lies

For those of you who like a guided walking tour with a twist, I'd recommend Liars' Tours.
Actual facts and are mixed up with total fabrications and it's up to the crowd to work out which ones to believe* – with so many barely conceivable stories about London it's often really hard to decide – truth is often stranger than fiction.
I am booked up for the Vauxhall tour, so perhaps I will see you there.
There are lies to be found all over London, as shown below, so keep your wits about you.

 * 'believe' contains a lie too. Is that ironic?

Wholesale electrical components, fluorescent lamps and switchgear

In June 2008 a friend alerted me to the unveiling of some lovely old hand-painted shop signs on 136 Grays Inn Road. The shop was being renovated and the plain wooden fascias that had been in place for decades had been removed to reveal some lovely lettering showing that in an earlier life the shop had been home to an electrical components retailer (see below, top left and top middle).
Later that same year I took some more photos when all the signs were more visible. Crackled paint, drop shadows. Lovely.
We hoped that these old signs would continue to be visible in the future but they were covered up again. I think they were initially covered with more boards. I think the site became a cafe. (Peter, please correct me here if I am wrong please!)
Two months ago I was in Grays Inn Road again. I stopped in my tracks when I saw what it looks like now – the shop is up for sale/rent, having spent a while as a hairdressers. White gloss has been applied straight over the top of the lovely old lettering and, at certain angles, the words can be seen ghosting through the paint. The bottom right image shows the 'components/switchgear' panel.
Is this progress?
I am sad. Very sad. :-(

Now, this is street art

On a street off Essex Road, Islington, I noticed that a cut down tree has been subtlely transformed into a nature-meets-geometrical-form thingummybob. It's signed TWRJ.I just did a bit of googling and found this video on YouTube about its creation.
Nice. More please.

Holloway then and now

This is the first of a series that I will be posting about Holloway Road, my local high street.
In the Edwardian period, the days of Mr Pooter, the road was lined with beautiful shops packed and covered with items for sale. Many of these were ironmongers' shops (where Mr Pooter may have bought the red enamel for his washstand and bath) but they also sold all kinds of everything, as these two pictures of Pugh Bros at No. 95-97 clearly show. I am not sure which of the two old pictures is older, there may only be a year between them but, even so, the signs indicate that you could buy all sorts of everything at Pugh's – it was like a mini B&Q – gas fittings, lanterns, ladders, lamps, tyres, wheels and more. You could even get your bicycle repaired there.
Below you can see the huge change today – The Wig and Gown pub now occupies the same space.

Colourful London

February... and it's all a bit grey and gloomy and cold and dull out there.
So cheer yourself up with this palette of London jewels.

Top: Fitzrovia, Hoxton, Fulham, Holborn
Middle: Wapping, Bow, Old St, Camden, 
Bottom: Spitalfields, Vauxhall, Kilburn, Covent Gdn
All taken from my Flickr Photostream

Woolwich past and present

My recent to the Cinema Museum reminded me that last summer I was in Woolwich admiring the wonderful façades of the old cinemas there.

Woolwich town centre is a mix of all sorts of everything. People are not going to the cinema so much these days, so the lovely old picture palaces are being now used for other things. As far as I can ascertain The Grand, converted from the ABC Regal on the site of the old Hippodrome, has been revamped into an arts venue. The Grade II Listed Granada with its gothic interior has was converted into a bingo clu b(it still says GALA BINGO on the tower) but it is now home to a church. The gorgeous Art Deco Coronet/Odeon (built 1937 and also Grade II Listed) with its curved tiled frontage is now known as Gateway House and home to The New Wine Church (do they worship the grape?)

The Empire is now long gone, having been demolished. 

More info and some great archive images about these cinemas here. See also The Theatres Trust. 

Below are some of the photos I took last summer, which include two of the above- mentioned cinemas mixed in with shots of other interesting architectural features which can be found close by. The northern end of Powis Street contains some lovely buildings including a ornate terracotta fronted theatre and what I think was a department store that resembled cinema architecture (middle and top left). This area is under renovation at the moment; the scaffolding is up and there are signs alluding to new shopping malls. I hope the plans enhance rather than destroy all of this fabulous history. 

The Cinema Museum

Tucked away in what's left of Lambeth's Old Workhouse is an Aladdin's cave of pre digital film and picture palace ephemera called The Cinema Museum.
This private, not for profit, charitable museum is the on-going life's work of Ronald Grant, ably assisted by Martin Humphries.
Ronald's passion for all things cinematic began when he was a child and, just like the boy in Cinema Paradiso, he sat with his local projectionist, gradually picking up the tricks of the trade that would form the first part of his working life at cinemas in his native Aberdeen. Over the decades he has collected all sorts of wonderful cinematic items, thus saving them from destruction or landfill. I was shocked to learn that it was actually Odeon's policy when selling their lovely old buildings not to allow items to be taken or resold for salvage; eveything was destroyed. It hardly bears thinking about. I think that's worse than the wanton vandalism that took place inside Islington's Carlton Cinema a few years back. AlthoughI ham heartened by this information about a project for renovation in conjunction with a proposed new glass building at the rear (oh gawd, here we go again).
Where was I?
Ronald and Martin have managed to salvage a lot of wonderful gems from the much-missed cinema palaces of yesteryear. You'll find posters, projectors, lenses, cannisters, signage, textiles, uniforms and more. They also show films in the mini cinema. On Saturday we were treated to four gems including 'The Last Tram', a film about, you've guessed it; London's last tram ride (excerpt here). I thought it was a rather poignant choice seeing as we were watching it via a process that isn't used any more (film) in a museum dedicated to an old way of life that is also practically deceased.
Picture palaces used to employ a large uniformed staff and be packed full all day, with more people queuing round the block. Then, once inside, they'd join a film perhaps half way through, not really understanding what was going on until the film came back on again hours later!  
The museum also contains three rooms packed to the ceiling with books, papers, magazines, photos and prints, plus another room stuffed full of filing cabinets containing The Ronald Grant Archive, which helps to fund the museum collection.
At the centre of the building is the old workhouse chapel with its very high ceiling which now used as a cafe and display area. This large space is available to hire for events. Looking up, I noticed a wonderful coincidence – the original roof trusses contain a circular motifs that look just like film cannisters!
Thanks to Caroline for inviting me along. An afternoon well spent.