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1 January 2010

Happy New Year

Here's to a great 2010. And here's to a more prosperous year.
And here are some lovely date stamps on buildings in London.
I have limited this collection to the 1800s. At a later date(!) I will put together a collection of the best ones I have for the 1900s.
I seem to have 'collected' more 1888 date stamps than any others, though this is probably because it really lends itself to a bit of creative typography. Or, coincidentally, perhaps that was a particularly productive year? But I have only shown two of the ones I have here.
Actually, I now think the latter statement is true, as a quick double-check shows that I have just as many for 1898 as for the previous year, and four of those are shown here.
I especially like the one here top left which is part of a fan light over a door; the date is 1898/9. And top right is also great with the word 'built' also with intertwined characters.
Oh, and the backwards 4, bottom right, is a nice touch.

Top row: 1898/9 Wigmore Street, 1894 Austin Friars, 1878 Blackstock Road, 1873 Seymour Place, 1898 Ferme Park Road.
Middle row: 1861 Clapham Road, 1899 High Street Acton, 1898 Charterhouse Street, 1888 Lower Clapton Road, 1884 Southwark Bridge Road.
Bottom Row: 1806 upper Street, 1888 Kings Cross Road, 1893 Holloway Road, 1898 Wardour Street, 1884 Fleet Street.

6 comments:

  1. Happy New Year Jane! Hope you had a lovely Christmas and New Year
    See you soon xxx

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  2. Lovely! I have a collection of these, too, with 1898 the winner. (Brittany seems better than London for the 1700s, perhaps because there's so much granite.)

    Happy new year!

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  3. Very nice, but bottom right, surely ?

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  4. Thanks Anon, I have amended it.

    Happy New Year all... I am back in London now but I don't remember ordering this horrible cold weather... perhaps I should have stayed away a bit longer... brrrr!

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  5. I've actually done a statistical survey of these in London, using several hundred stones; they rise steadily until about 1900, then fall away very sharply with WW1. I found 1897-98 to be the peak years.

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  6. Conrad; and there was I think I was the only nerd in town!
    I was thinking of making a chronological collection... watch this space; it make take a while but I will get there some day, even if it's one decade at a time...

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Thanks, Jane