The Hat & Feathers, Clerkenwell – another ghostsign deciphered

The Hat and Feathers, public house and restaurant, No2 Clerkenwell Road, at the junction with Goswell Road, has finally reopened after sitting empty (again) for many years. 

Here's a couple of pics from recent years c/o Google streetview:

In 1981 this architectural slice of iced celebration cake was awarded a Grade II listing by English Heritage. Since the 2010s it has rarely been open. In mid-2021 it was slathered in scaffolding and given a wash and brush up and a fresh lick of primrose yellow paint.

Walking past in April 2024 I crossed the junction to take a closer look (actually to peek inside the windows!) and, as I waited for the lights to change at the crossing, I noticed that the gilded glass signage had not yet been replaced such that some earlier hand-painted wooden signs were visible. I took a few photos with the intention to decipher the layered letters later that week. 

Er... sixteen months later and I've finally revisited those photos. As I always say, I need at least six parallel universes to accomplish all the things I want to do, the places I want to see, the things I want/need to research, all the food I need to buy, cook and eat, and then, of course there's sleeping and watching old movies and reading books and simply just looking at views, or wandering the streets as a Flaneuse de Londres ... and people often ask me why I don't write a book about all the stuff I talk about. Duh! Anyway, I digress (this also happens a lot!) – let's back to the uncovered signage.

Luckily, a google streetview from the great reveal in July 2024 is available:

It's interesting, not just in regard to the pub, but also that it allows us to compare the buildings around it – I always loved that ghostly staircase on a side wall at the rear which resembled a patchwork quilt, now replaced by a dull grey lump.

Here are my photos of the hand-painted signage that is now again hidden behind the reinstalled glass and gilded strips. These are supplied left to right as you read top to bottom: 

Look closely to see that there are two signs, one painted over the other. The more faded, possible newer sign, reads HARRY TAYLOR in a reddish tone, and the more discernible, smaller pale yellow letters announce TAYLOR'S CORNER. Note the drop shadows and the full point at the end.  

On the Goswell Road side there is another panel that is harder to read – SPIRIT MERCHANT:

This possibly suggests that Harry Taylor was so well-known and, this being a local landmark, the junction became known by his name. However, I cannot thus far find an era when any Taylor was charge at this pub, let along a Harry or Henry. 

There has been a Hat & Feathers pub at the junction with Goswell Road since the 1780s. In 1841, the proprietor was a Mrs Elizabeth Fuller* and the address is shown as 164 Goswell Street, it then being a continuation of Goswell Road, today known as the only 'road' in the City of London, an oft-asked question in London pub quizzes! 

In 1895 the proprietor/landlord/owner/manager is shown as George Ledson, followed in 1899 by Alfred Abbott. By1910 Alfred John Stevens is the man calling last orders, then Harry Chapman in 1915. I therefore think the signs are either slightly earlier, or they make reference to an earlier era, so let's go back a bit further to before the creation of Clerkenwell Rd in the 1870s, when the stretch of road from Goswell St/Rd to St John Street was called Wilderness Row – how evocative!

The 1841 and1852 directories both show James Taylor's birmingham warehouse at No.6 Wilderness row, Clerkenwell. Whilst it's commonplace to see lower case letters on the second part of a street name such as row, road or street, it's odd to see this lower case 'b' on a city name. It could, I suppose, denote a type of product rather than a warehouse full of little Birminghams. Or, perhaps, this warehouse contained products that came from or went to that city. Two doors along at No.8 there's another Taylor, a watchmaker.

Of the 38 properties listed for Wilderness Row in 1841, approx half of them are linked to the watchmaking, engraving or jewellery trades.  Checking back to the late Victorian directories for 1882 and 1899 I now see that a Mr James Taylor is listed as a 'foreign bead importer' at No 10 Clerkenwell Rd. With the renumbering of the streets this is likely to be the same location that was previously Wilderness Row. The word warehouse back then often doubled as store/shop. Perhaps Taylor sold semi-precious beads for the jewellery trade?  

But who was Harry Taylor and why was his name around the Hat & Feathers pub?  Until someone with better access to the archives can come a definitive explanation, my suggestion is that the Taylors of Wilderness Row might have snapped up property along the newly-built Clerkenwell Road and were behind the rebuild of the pub we see today – Harry might have been a father's or his son's name. If a member of the Taylor family was the landowner/freeholder here he would not be listed as such in the directories, the usual practice being to show the pub name and/or the manager/proprietor. Hence the lack of the pub's name in the 1882 directory which shows it simply as 'James Smith, coffee rooms' with 'Best & Co' at the Goswell Road side. 

Any further ideas are most welcome, either in the comments or via janeslondon@gmail.com 

* I wonder if Mrs Fuller is/was connected to Fullers Brewery which was founded in that same era...?

Bowling balls in Clerkenwell – a ghostsign with links to Putney and the West Indies

Earlier this year in May, walking eastward along Albermarle Way during Clerkenwell Design Week, I noticed that a the paint that covers 122 St John Street, (today Savills estate agent) was finally degrading some letters were visible at the very top edge. I have finally found the time to return to this to work out what this ghostsign can tell us.

The tall condensed sans serif letterform shows "TAYLOR ROLP..." – Taylor Rolph Co Ltd, bowling green bowl makers.

This screenshot from Google streetview 2015 shows the ghostsign was barely discernible back then

It appears that Taylor-Rolph (often, but not consistently, hyphenated) was here perhaps only ten years max. Kelly's Directory lists them in 1915, but not in 1910, and they are gone by the 1930s. Indeed, they appear to have moved from this site by 1922 as per this entry in  Graces Guide which shows them at Fitzgerald Works, Mortlake, that year, at a site which was also home to John Wisden's cricket equipment*. This suggests to me that the same factory was making both TR's woods (bowls) and JW's cricket balls. 

My search for more information led me to the marvellous Sport of Bowls site which includes images from TR's 1935 catalogue, their "Rytebias" bowling balls and this article about the heavy Lignum Vitae timber imported from the West Indies and Haiti, hence them being known as woods. There's also this article about testing the finished items and an ad for Taylor-Rolph's table bowls, promoted as "a scientific and interesting game" akin to the many forms of table-top billiards available at that time, but played without cues/sticks. 

In the 1939 Kelly's directory, TR is listed with a telephone number Prospect 2241 yet the Wisden company does not show one. Hmm, ponder ponder. 

It's strange to me that there is no mention of Taylor-Rolph within the Mortlake history site. The Fitzgerald Works was destroyed during a 1944 WWII bomb raid, yet the Graces Guide link above shows that TR was still in business in 1947 and continuing to exhibit at The British Industries Fair at Olympia. 

It's all a bit messy and inconclusive, but it's nice to have been able to decipher the ghostsign in St John Street.

Back in the period 2005-8, I used to bowl occasionally, randomly, half-heartedly, at the North London Bowling Club at Highgate which sits in a delightful location, surrounded by trees, looking very much like the setting for an Agatha Christie whodunnit. Here's one of the many photos I took for a leaflet I created for the club:

The sport is a delight and, to my puerile mind, rather amusing vis the terminology used, as it often includes some fnar fnar double-entendres – if you've ever bowled you'll know what I mean!

Here are some more pics I took of the Highgate Club in 2008 – I haven't visited in over 15 years, I hope it still looks like this:

*Incidentally, there is a lovely tiled memorial to John Wisden at Leicester Square station within the oxblood exterior of the 1906 street level building. Wisden lived and died in an upstairs flat above No.21 Cranbourn Street. 

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More things that don't add up – John Marshall and Emily Davison in Newcomen Street

The Kings Arms in Newcomen Street, one of many excellent pubs in the little side streets off Borough High Street, sports a colourful depiction of the lion and the unicorn above its door. Nice. The pub has been painted a bright shade of green since I took the pic below back in March 2025. 

On the opposite side of the street there are two large buildings that are boarded up, waiting to be renovated*. These buildings or, rather, the information on them, intrigues me.

Above the entrance to number 66 there is the name John Marshall with two dates given in Roman numerals:

The date on the right side is 1853. But I'm struggling with the date on the left which looks like MDCFFOII, from which I deduce is 17th century but I cannot tie it up with either the date he died or the  the date his church was constructed, more of which you can read here. Eight distinctly different faces adorn the building either side of the four street level windows. I am not sure who they depict, if anyone specific at all.  

To the left of this building is Emily Davison House, a terrace of 5 houses. A plaque on it tells us it was  'purchased by Guys Hospital in 1959 as a bequest by Mrs Emily Davison' which, in most places I have looked, is attributed to Emily Wilding Davison, the Suffragette who died at the Epsom Derby in 1913. This would mean that she made a very forward-thinking bequest for some time in the distant future. 

It's worth noting that the lady on the plaque is a Mrs, yet the Suffragette never married. Also, EWD did not die at Guys Hospital, but near the incident at Epsom. I am still trying to fully find out if/how the two ladies are connected. Any additional info is more than welcome. 

*often referred to as 'gentrification' – a word that makes no sense these days. I very much doubt that any lords and ladies or members of the landed gentry will be in need of a tahn harse here. 

Alperton station – no escalator, but a rather fine shopping arcade

A couple of months ago I went to investigate Alperton station, a Piccadilly Line stop along the Uxbridge branch. The outer reaches of this line, westwards from Acton Town and northeastwards from Finsbury Park, are all part of Frank Pick's 1930's 'Metroland' expansion, with most of the stations designed by Charles Holden in a variety of Art Deco styles. It's his boxy style that we see at Alperton. 

I'd made this special journey to Alperton because I had read that there is no escalator or lift access in place at this station. An up-only escalator had been installed in 1955 on this eastbound side, relocated from the 1951 Festival of Britain on the Southbank but, by the late 1980s due to lack of use, the moving staircase was bricked up/enclosed behind a wall. 

This all sounded a bit strange to me. I mean, why/how etc? Is is still partly visible? Is there a secret panel? Is it still accessible (to some)?  Hearing that there are now plans to install a new escalator service at Alperton I decided to go and investigate and see for myself how the old one had been bricked up. Perhaps the people of Alperton had less need for travel and the cost of the maintenance outweighed the money that punters/passengers/clients spent on tickets. Enclosing the thing was probably the cheapest option.

I arrived from the via the eastbound line and, as I glanced across the platform I couldn't help but think that the three electricity doodahs opposite, looked like little medieval metal soldiers standing guard!

The old escalator surely must have been parallel and to the left of the stairs that lead down from the eastbound platform to the ticket barriers. I examined the walls at platform level but could see no obvious patches where an arch/access might have been (perhaps brickies in the 1980s were better at patching-in than they they are these days as per the mess in Bloomsbury, here). 

At the bottom of the stairs I scanned the walls at the rear of the concourse and also found not a hint of repair work. The whole thing looks silky smooth and original 1930s to me.

Ah, here's a thought...  having just looked at via Google's globe view it's likely that the 1950's escalator was not installed within the 1930's station but around the outside to the rear – as is evident by some lower additions that hug the building – these might contain what's left of our moving stairway. The planned new escalator will likely be sited in more or less the same space. Any remnants of the dusty old one will have to be removed and replaced as it will be completely out of date, probably sporting those dangerous, albeit evocative, slatted wooden treads.

As regards a similar service for the other side of the tracks, it's problematical vis the lack of space, the railway bridge and the interior foot tunnel, shown in the top left above. I've heard a way around this might necessitate the loss of [some of] the shops at the front, so I went to investigate to understand for myself how that might be achieved. 

Here's the outside of the station, with curved glass kiosk windows in the foreground:

Here's a wider view. I love it, although I'm not convinced that these small shops that back onto the railway bridge were part of Holden's original station design. The shape and style does not tally or line up with elements on the main station building and the colour of the bricks is slightly different, hinting at it being a later development.

I understand that the idea here is to create a new/secondary entrance to the westbound side within/through these kiosks that will allow access to or space for an escalator, or perhaps a lift service. This would mean the current barbershop, which has been there since 2019, could be for the chop (see what I did there?!).

I had a peek at the other side of the bridge, but there's nothing much to see there, so I made my way back to the front of the station and, as I turned back (always check the opposite view because you might have missed something), I happened to notice a strange little lantern that looks out of place and, behind it, a metal ventilation strip running around the curve of the shop with some brass letters at the top right corner, so I took a closer look...

I love the way the o of Co sits within the C. 

This is the sort of thing that gets me excited!  E. Pollard & Co Ltd is a company I am a little bit obsessed and impressed by. Founded in 1895, the company at first offered window fittings and other items for shop display, and swiftly became one of London's most prestigious and well-respected shop-fitting and building companies, transforming not just shops and stations, but also libraries, banks and hotels. Pollard had impressive showrooms in Clerkenwell and at 299 Oxford Street (now Uniqlo). I have also written about the company's curved glass windows here.

Buoyed by this find, I then scanned the rest of the station's exterior and interior to see if if I could find any other similar marks, but no. I shall henceforth, yes, henceforth, be searching for the same or similar at other stations and on any façade that looks like it might be a Pollard's build. Please do let me know if you spot any yourself.

October 2025 - Pollard update – I've found more at other stations! I'll share my findings soon.

It was great to be part of the RA Summer Show 2025

This year's Summer Show at the Royal Academy closed its doors for the final time on the afternoon of Sunday 17th August. 

I was very chuffed to have my work 'Strictly Forbidden' selected for Room III, the largest space where they serve the drinks, and placed adjacent to many well-known Royal Academicians including Cornelia Parker who I met on Varnishing Day, 9th June. Hmmm... Parker. I wonder if we are both somehow related to Spiderman and Lady Penelope's chauffeur?

My work was a framed print of a part of one of archways that connects two of the rooms. It was lovely to hear all the positive feedback from friends and associates who either hunted for it having heard that it was there, or happened upon it by surprise. The whole experience has been a delight. 

The Summer Show was marvellously eclectic this year with different types of work intermingled, such that architectural models sat alongside abstract paintings and wooden mobiles were suspended above photographic prints. 

I visited he show eight or nine times and every time I found works that I was convinced weren't there before – it's so hard to take in more than 1750 artworks in one visit. Here are just some of the things that caught my eye:

Another elephant spotted in Camden... and a few other beasts too!

On Friday afternoon, after spending a pleasant hour or so at The Ben Uri Gallery looking at The Anthony Rudolf Collection, specifically his relationship with the marvellously talented Paula Rego (wow!), I headed north up Abbey Road and, as I approached the road bridge over the railway adjacent to Langtry Walk, South Hampstead, I noticed there are faded murals on either side and I wondered if the walls might also be a form of advertising as per the Guinness mural just east of here in Southampton Road.

The artwork here is actually difficult to see when you are up close or walking past – probably best viewed from the top deck of a bus or, if on foot, from the middle of the road, which isn't really possible as regards the traffic, and the railings rather obscure the view from either side. 

Here is the West side as I approached:

And this is the East side as viewed from more-or-less the same spot:

The paintwork is rather splishy-sploshy and in many places very faded or obscured by graffiti and I was half way along this west side before I noticed anything discernible – a spotty yellow beast caught my eye, followed by a few bizarre 'humans' and then something that looked like a dinosaur and a date of Summer '78, indicating that it's been here 47 years! 

So out came the camera and I started taking pics along the whole wall, finding it was easier to view the illustrations on a small screen. There are no references to any alcoholic beverages, instead we have a series of loosely-painted figures and animals. I am at a loss as to whether there is a theme here and I wonder if the things depicted relate in some way to this part of Camden. 

Returning to beginning, here's the wall from the left/south end heading northwards. The first figure is a dark-skinned lady with wings in a white dress and white shoes next to a pale-skinned brunette in a pink dress who appears to be inside a room/turret. Perhaps they are characters from fairytales? I can't decide if the yellow spotty beast is a horse or a leopard. The big peach-coloured creature is either a cat or a dog wearing glasses. 

I now see that I forgot to take the pics of the section between the ladies and the spotty beast, but by zooming in on the wide shot below and looking at google streetview I can make out a figure in yellow, lots of flowers and shrubs, and a small child in blue that looks to be balancing an octopus on its head.

 

After the dog/cat, there's a pointy-eared, masked and muscly, superhero character who is waving his pointy brown hand at us. He is either wearing something striped or is a zebraman hybrid.

The fella next to the zebraman could be wearing a crown, or perhaps he's a strongman as it looks like he's holding a bar at chest height that has pendulous phallic things at each end. The last one of these three gentlemen also looks to be wearing a crown enhanced with rubies, or perhaps that's a shock of blond hair. He's very happy about his diagonally-striped jumper. 

There follows a huge bit of tagging where 'DOGGS' has covered quite a lot of the artwork (not shown here) after which the mural is signed and dated but the powers that be have seen fit to slap a Danger sign across the wording. 

I can make out D S….NTING, Summer '78 on a banner which is supported on the right side by a dark haired man in a blue stripey jumper. Next to him we have the little stick man from The Saint TV programme that starred Roger Moore the titular role (eh? why?) and then that aforementioned dinosaur which, I didn’t realise until I started pulling this together, better resembles The Gruffalo. 

But it can't be The Gruffalo because that didn’t appear in print until 1999, seventeen years after this mural was painted, so perhaps it’s supposed to be one of the monsters from Where The Wild Things Are which was published in 1963. After the horned beast there is an igloo beneath a night sky complete with crescent moon and two colourful men having a jig about near a forest of fir trees.

A tobogganist wearing a green roll-neck jumper, hat, scarf and goggles, then whizzes down the side of a snowy landscape that might be a nod to Parliament Hill Fields in the wintertime, and the whole thing ends with a mountain range which surely can't be Hampstead.

The eastern side of the road starts at the northern end with a double decker London bus. Across its advertising space it bears the the name of the people who made this mural in Summer 1973. Unfortunately this has been tagged and the original hand-painted lettering has been partially obscured making it rather hard to discern. 

I suspect it’s a local school. Two words beginning K... R...?

After the bus there is a large head and shoulders of a green-skinned man with black hair and beard. There are lots of people behind him, and similar crowds continue for half the mural because, as we see, as they have come to see a parade. 

It starts with a zebra pulling circus cage that contains a tiger. Then we see a moustachioed policeman and a fella that resembles either Elvis or The Fonz. Then a man running followed by a man wearing a red coat and striped trousers who, on close inspection, is playing a trumpet. Aha, the band has arrived!

Then more members of the brass band – two trumpeters and a man playing the symbols – who are wearing a slightly different uniform. 

And here comes the elephant with another ill-positioned warning sign has been slapped over its eye and ear.

A tall tree or post begins a new section with a large area of black paint behind what I think is a either sea lion (part of the circus) or a short-legged grey dog within a bucolic scene which includes a colourful butterfly, a fox, and a small animal or bird hiding in a hollow in a tree. 

A wooden fence around a lake (not shown here) could be one of the ponds on Hampstead Heath. 

This is followed by some kind of strange tall striped thing. At first I wondered if this depicted a firework display and/or a bonfire referencing local events but, having again looked at the google streetview, I now believe it's a Punch and Judy tent. This wall ends with a raven haired lady in a red coat carrying a large yellow sack decorated with blue spots.  

Intriguing eh? If this is 47 years old, then there must surely be come ex-Camden schoolkids still around who remember this being installed, or even helped to paint it. Any additional info most welcome.