A stinkpipe in Islington

Oh my god... how many time have I walked past this and never noticed it until last month?

Estimate = 825 times!

I am always banging on about how things are hiding in plain view, to look up, look down and around you,  yet here's me not noticing a stink pipe across the road from Essex Road Post Office. 

I happened to notice it when I had to side-step a woman who was texting and walking but not looking where she was going (grr!) and I was immediately confronted by the maker's name on the metalwork. I then looked down at the wide base and thought, ooh that looks very stinkpipey, and so I stepped back to take a better look. Yep!

Much of Ham Baker's Victorian metal street furniture, in the form of lamp posts and stink pipes, still lines our modern streets. Indeed the company is still trading.

Considering the amount of stink pipe pics I have taken over the years I am surprised I have posted more about them. Here's a post from back in 2010 which shows some with attractive crowns. 

Staying in Islington, earlier this year, I also [finally] noticed another stink pipe at the Holloway end of Liverpool Road on the triangle in front of the Baptist church – estimated previous walk-pasts = 384(!). And, near that, there's also another one on Holloway Road at the end of Eden Grove (which I had spotted ten years ago).  Closer to my home, there's one up near the railway line in Sussex Way, N19, at the corner of Hatchard Rd, and another on St John's Way, N19. I'm sure I will think of more once I hit the 'publish' button here, but hey, that'll do for now.

This Essex Rd pipe will now form part of my "The Only Way Is Essex Road" guided tour. Tho, it can't be the only one in the vicinity.

Vile re-tiling on The Queen's Head, Essex Rd

The exterior of the Queen's Head public house on Essex Road, Islington N1, has recently suffered a make-over.
It now looks like a pastiche of an inside out 1906 tube station interior by Leslie Green – created during his experimental period.

44 Essex Road, August 2019. 

FFS – there is a 17th century fireplace and ceiling inside – this site is slathered in +500years of history – what on earth were they thinking?
It looks like a theme park version of Yeee-ha Oldey Worldey Pubbey  
It's an abomination.
Future historians will surely not be writing about how lovely this was.
Even the Victorians, who quite liked a bit of a mash-up where tiles and typefaces were concerned, would find this confusing!

Holloway Road tube station interior. Architect/designer Leslie Green. Completed 1906