Showing posts with label Kings Road. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kings Road. Show all posts

4 January 2016

A walk along Kings Road (part 5) leapfrog and Peter Jones

Short and sweet is this section of the walk (see previous posts for parts 1-4)


Walking East, Allister Botwell's "Two Pupils" (2002) can be found in a pedestrian side turn off Kings Road that leads to the new Duke of York Square. The leapfrogging boy and the seated girl are a reference to the Royal Military Asylum which occupied the site 1803–1909 and was opened by the 'Grand Old' Duke of York (the same fella from the nursery rhyme).
And finally we arrive at Peter Jones. Turn into Cadogan Gardens just before the store and admire the gorgeous tiled floor in the entrance there. I suspect all the entrances once had the same or similar designs, only it seems odd for there to have only have ever been this one. The building is not a uniform shape – I love the soft curves, especially at the corner.
That'll do!

15 December 2015

A walk along Kings Road (part 4) Santander vs modern

And so the walk continues east.
See my previous posts for earlier sections of this road.

These days Kings Road have devolved into just another bland high street with all the same brands and labels as every other major shopping thoroughfare in the UK. 
But you can still spot hints of its past in the architecture.

Top: almost opposite Wrights Dairy is an ornate grade II listed Victorian building with a bowed window, an iron balcony above the ground floor, Corinthian columns and shell motifs. This used to be the Markham Arms public house. It closed down in the early 1990s and is now a branch of Santander. Compare this ornate structure with the blandness that is Kings Mall a hundred metres further on. Progress? I think not.
Middle: At no.72, in a prime position on the corner of Lincoln Street facing Duke of York Square, is the Grade II listed 19th Century building that used to be The Colville Tavern and Wine Stores. At the top of some of the dividing Doric pilasters there are male and female (royal?) faces. I seem to recall this being home to a clothes shop in the early 80's but I might be mistaken. It's certainly a clothes shop now.
Bottom: The Sidney Smith Buildings run from No.50 down to No. 34 on the corner of Cadogan Gardens. But who was Sidney Smith?!  Look up to see the lovely Victorian moulded date and street name sign signs at the very top.  
Lots more info about the changing face of the Kings Road can be found here.
And here (I particularly like this one)

17 November 2015

A walk along Kings Road (part 3) – A convoluted statue and Wright's Dairy

This continues on from here

Has anyone ever really taken a good look at that bizarre bit of street sculpture outside French Connection on the corner of Markham Square in Kings Road? I looked for an info plaque when I was there but couldn't find anything. 
This is what I see: A woman sitting back on one foot with one knee raised, with some kind of fish-shaped thing on her lap and a strange inverted L-shaped instrument over her right shoulder. Hmmm... let's think... is she playing a cello or some kind of musical instrument? 
I am stumped.  


I tried for 40 minutes to find some information about it, searching online using words such as sculpture, street art, public, French Connection, Kings Road, bronze, woman, kneeling, Markham Square, etc., and I have come up with nothing. If I knew the artist it might help. Other people are also intrigued.
UPDATE: I asked for ideas and thanks to some feedback in the comments section below I now know it to be 'Bronze man and Eagle' by Richard Bently Claughton, commissioned by Barclays Bank and unveiled in April 1966.

Diagonally opposite is the old Wright's Dairy building with its magnificent terracotta cow's head on the angled third floor corner. Archive pics* show that the Wrights were "cow keepers and dairy farmers" and "Acknowledged to be the Finest Dairy in the District". Nothing like a bit of self promo eh; they may well have been the only dairy in the area!
Old Church Street, Google Streetview, 20th July 2015.
Note also the painted tiles with rural depictions
But I think these pics show their extensive premises further west, in what is now Old Church Street where a subsequent owner used to keep 50 cows. The same cow's head can be seen on the front of the building (see pic right) and there is another one on the front of another building that faces the end of the alley where the red car is parked.
So, back to the building at the Sloane Street end of Kings Road shown in the pics above... having just spent the a further fruitless 25 minutes on this second research mission, I am again stumped. Without access to archive business listings for the street, and/or until someone tells me otherwise, I am going to make an educated guess and say that it was a shop selling the milk and dairy products that were produced at Wright's farm a mile way to the west in [Old] Church Street.
What do you think?
All feedback welcome.

*Credt archive pics: Exciting Postcards 

18 August 2015

A walk along Kings Road (part 2) – The Chelsea Potter, RSoles and The Pheasantry/PizzaExp

This continues from my post on July 24th


An Art Nouveau-esque typeface on the optician's sign uses a cut of Arnold Böcklin by Otto Weisert harking back to the 1960s when this kind of retro look was very 'in'. Think Biba.
Next, The Chelsea Potter's ornate railings and pub sign.
On the next row, hints of the road's distant history can be glimpsed when looking at the lovely old house, home to RSoles boots and shoe shop. Note the  quirky cyclist art for sale above the ground floor. Possibly sold by the time you read this as I took these pics in March.
And then we have the splendid Grade II listed Georgian frontage of The Pheasantry, so called because in and around 1865 George Samuel was breeding pheasants, cattle and foxes at this site. Three plaques on the building show that the site was occupied by Amédée Joubert & Sons (1880-1914) who seemed to be masters of a multitude of trades including upholstery, cabinet making, wood carving and gilding. They also manufactured bedding and furniture and imported and restored tapestries and carpets. It would have been during this period that the triumphural entrance, the courtyard and architectural mouldings and details were added. AJ&S produced and sold not only full size items but miniatures for dolls' houses.
After 1914 the building became the home of a dance studio/ ballet academy, and was used as studio space by artists. In the mid 1930s the basement was turned into The Pheasantry Club and for decades was a popular haunt of artists, actors, writers and the like. It closed in 1966; the basement became a nightclub and the upper floors were converted into apartments.
It has been a branch of Pizza Express for as long as I can recall (date to be checked).
I can't find any info as to who the two people depicted in the roundel on the main gate are (shown in the pics bottom right). Possibly it's Monsieur Joubert and his wife? ... any ideas?