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 the boxy style that we see at Alpertont. 

I arrived from the North 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!

I'd made a special journey to Alperton because I had read that there's no escalators or lift access in place here, even though an up-only service 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, it was bricked up/enclosed behind a wall. Eh? really? This all sounded a bit strange to me. I mean, why/how etc? Is there a secret panel? Is it still accessible (to some)?  

Perhaps the people of Alperton had no need to travel and the cost of the maintenance outweighed the money that punters/passengers/clients spent on Travelcards, or whatever they were called back then. Perhaps enclosing the thing was the cheapest option?

Hearing that there are now plans to reinstate an escalator service here, I decided to go and investigate and see for myself how this thing had been bricked up.

The escalator surely must have been parallel to the stairs. I examined the walls adjacent to the platform and could see no obvious patches where an arch/access might have led from the top of the escalator to the trains. I dunno, perhaps brickies in the 1980s were better at patching-in than they they are these days as per the mess at the corner of Little Russell Street, here.

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

Ah here's a thought...  Being as the 1950's escalator was not installed within the 1930's station building, but around the outside to the rear – as seen via Google's globe view where the lower additions might be hiding our moving stairway. 

Wherever the old machinery is, the modern replacement will surely have be sited in more or less the same space. 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.

There's also the problem of installing a service for the other side of the tracks, something that I understand is problematical vis the lack of space at that side, the railway bridge itself and the interior foot tunnel (shown in the second pair of pics, above). I'd heard that installing a moving staircase on the westbound side might necessitate the loss of the shops around the exterior so I went to look at it.

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. The design, shape and style of these kiosks does not tally or line up with elements on the main station building, and the colour of the bricks is different.

Looking forward, the idea is to create a new/secondary entrance to the westbound side within these kiosks that allows access to an escalator, or perhaps a lift service. This would mean the barbershop, which has been there since 2019, is for the chop (see what I did there?!).

There's nothing much to see on the other side of the tracks, so I made my way back to 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 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, with their own 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 exterior and exterior of Alperton station 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.

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:

If the Search facility is not visible at top right...

...simply scroll to the bottom of your screen and click on 'View Web Version'

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.

More oddities and observations near the Britsh Museum

This is the third part of my wandering up and down the streets between the BM and Bloosmsbury Way, following on from my posts about what I think could be a very old coal hole cover and the Dairy Supply Co/Pizza Express building...

Leaving Museum Street, I wandered into  Gilbert Place and looked back towards Centrepoint – a wonderful patchwork of architecture through the ages. Halfway down the street at 8, 9 and 10, the windows are protected by some chunky yet fancy metal railings – is there a proper name for these things? Sunny reflections from the windows opposite.

Similar houses with these additions can be found backing onto these properties in Little Russell Street. At the end of the street at the junction with Bury Place there is, beneath the old Borough of Holborn street sign, a faded metal one that says 'formerly' at the top, but I cannot as yet make out the bottom section. The street is listed as Gilbert Place in 1882 but was simply Gilbert Street pre that, as shown on the map Charles Booth used for his poverty maps. Hardly seems worth the effort, especially as there weren’t lots of other Gilbert Streets in London at that time. 

Almost below this street sign two colourful doorways create a nice pattern at step level and nearby, in Bury Place, Bertand Russell, that very clever man, is commemorated with a blue plaque. 

But then thud – an eyesore! I noticed some dreadful repairs in the brickwork of Museum Chambers, an 1884 residential block:

Clearly no attempt has been made to match the existing mortar and I suspect that squirty mastic has instead been applied. No no no! It's a cowboy job. 

Good job I found Present & Correct, a delightful stationery shop across the road – wow, it's heaven in there. When I was a child, Rymans was my favourite shop – all those pens and erasers and bulldog clips and note pads and and and... I'd love to be able to time travel to a well-stocked Victorian stationery shop. 

Then to the London Review bookshop and through Pied Bull Yard, exiting into Bloomsbury Square and left into Gt Russell St, turning back into Museum Street where I wanted to take snaps of some mosaic thresholds all of which are damaged or dirty in some way even though the shops above sell food or art or other expensive goods. Eh?!

The four tiles making a dodgy diamond infill is at No.29, today a ramen restaurant. This probably covers or replaces an ED logo for Express Dairies, a company I wrote about in my last post and here. The black and white terrazzo and small mosaics were likely installed in the early 1920s, replacing an earlier floral design as seen to the right.

Back to Gt Russell Street. At the corner, at No.48, there is a large souvenir shop called Distinctive London within an impressively embellished late Georgian building that boasts the most amazing vermiculation, the burgundy paintwork in this instance highlighting its features.

The wide doorway also features two defunct doorbells, one each side, no doubt one for Visitors and one for Trade. A few doors along Jarndyce's shop shows hints of an earlier business. Beneath the thick paint a ghostsign for oriental (something) can be seen:

At street level in front of most of the buildings along Gt Russell Street there are chunky metal grilles allowing daylight into the basements below. Indeed, in most places, the below ground windows are visible but it doesn't look like any of these are inhabited, probably used for storage. It's more common to see metal grilles replaced by panels of pavement lights, such as the  ones made by Hayward Bros that allowed much more light into the basement spaces. However, in the years before these properties became shops, the grilles would have prohibited people from walking on them, therefore keeping the tourists slightly at bay. 

A couple of the grilles bear the name of the company that made them: G B Cooper, Drury Lane. Kelly's 1852 street directory shows George Binion Cooper, ironfounder, at 121 Drury Lane and the Trades section of that same year, as shown below, lists another shop in nearby Endell Street and premises in Lambeth which I suspect was the foundry as this is where many businesses of that ilk were located. He's clearly our our man, though I don't know when he started trading or when the grilles were made. 

Three decades later, Harold Cooper (probably his son) is continuing the business but has moved a few doors along to 118 Drury Lane, specifically to 3-6 Nags Head Court which backed onto the yards behind Kean Street. Both of the Drury Lane premises have since replaced by St. Clement Dane School. There were quite a few ironmongers and metal works in and around Drury Lane in the 1880s, including Hart & Son and Peard & Co both at 88-91 (4 shops wide) and Dickson at 157. These shops would have sold a variety of items, more like hardware and housewares stores, akin to the B&Qs and cheapo stores we have today, where you can buy everything from hooks and nails to curtain poles and ladders.

Back to Gt Russell Street, specifically to another souvenir shop on the BM side of the street, where two pairs of sturdy boot scrapers flank the door of No.91 but are often obscured by the merchandise. Four scrapers is a lot and this suggests the building had a lot of footfall. Above the door there is a group of busy cherubs – these probably allude to the wholesale perfumery business that was here in the name of Andrew and Francis Pears – yep, Pears' soap! 

There has also been at least one other company at this address, as is shown by hints of some removed letters on the glass. I can make out Canadian Works along the bottom edge. This is intriguing. Another work in progress.

Back into Coptic Street and left into Little Russell Street where, at No.27, there is a lovely 1879 parochial school building. 

The small plaque between the two skinny windows says, 'For the children of the schools of the united parishes of St. Giles in the Fields & St. George Bloomsbury in lieu of the original building in Museum Street'. Nice. 

Between the school building and the rear of St. George's church, I noticed a double man hole cover which got me thinking about ELO and, because it was such a gloriously sunny day, I wandered off singing Mr Blue Sky.