Kensington Gore – hot and cold and nine miles from Hounslow

Lowther Lodge, is a lovely GII* red brick building at 1 Kensington Gore, facing Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens as seen here. The house was built in the 1870s for William Lowther, MP, designed by architect Richard Norman Shaw who is also responsible for the Bedford Park Estate adjacent to Turnham Green. 

In 1912, Lowther Lodge was sold to the Royal Geographical Society and, over subsequent decades, the property was extended to include a library, a lecture theatre, offices and other facilities. One distinctive addition is the hall/meeting room at the junction with the Exhibition Road which is adorned with many things that please me – a distance marker, a bench mark, two statues and some street names.  

First, the white metal sign, dated 1911, showing the distances East to Hyde Park Corner and West to Hounslow. This has always intrigued me because I doubted that Hyde Park was a full mile away, but having now checked using my trusty string and wall map I can confirm it as a fact. Similarly, the marker that sits further up the road outside The Milestone Hotel is definitely half a mile away. 

This heavy metal information post is quite amusing as regards its details which have been crudely enhanced in black paint, making the lion and the unicorn appear as comedy cartoon characters and the manicules look more like random blobs rather than elegant pointing hands.

Marks on the bricks indicate that it used to be attached to the wall. Indeed, the oblique view confirms that there is a 4"/10cm gap. 

To the right of the mile-marker (surely it's not a milestone if it's not made of stone?) there is a little vertical rectangle of verdigri'd metal. Look closely and see "OS, BM, 0931, S" and a 3-line motif:

This is an Ordinance Survey Bench Mark used by surveyors to calculate heights above sea level. More about these here. 

On the other side of the mile-marker there looms a marvellous statue of David Livingstone, explorer, missionary, writer and medic:

This is the work of Thomas Bayliss Huxley-Jones, a prolific and popular artist whose work adorns many public places in London, including the Joy of Life fountain across the road within Hyde Park. 

Mr Livingstone was unveiled on 23rd October 1953. It 'pairs' with the earlier statue of Sir Ernest Shackleton that was installed in 1932 on the East side of the building in Exhibition Road: 

Shackleton, complete with thick fluffy boots and mittens, is the work of Charles Sarjeant Jagger whose most famous work is probably the Royal Artillery Memorial (1935) at Hyde Park Corner (which we know is one mile away!).

Finally, the lovely carved street signs – I wonder if these also came from Jagger's studio:

I'm told that London cabbies call this location 'Hot & Cold' due to the climates that these two intrepid gentlemen explored..!