London Transport Museum, Acton Depot

Yesterday I spent a lovely afternoon wandering around the London Transport Museum's second site at Acton.
The first time I went there was almost ten years ago when I took part in a scavenger hunt thing.
And last month, I went there for a specialist tour about the posters, art and advertising – on that occasion I was so engrossed in the poster room that I was hoping I might be able to get accidentally locked in there because there is too much to take in – it's jam-packed with marvellous stuff. I really thought I had written about that last visit on here. But no. Suffice to say the LT posters are similar to the tram ones here.
Here are some snaps from yesterday:

I just love a bit of rusty paint and a clever bit of textile design and a palimpsest of posters and, oh look, there's those funny faces on the switch board again.

Map-tastic. These are all from full sized versions that would have been fixed up on ticket hall walls or on the platforms. A couple of them are enamel. Note how these are pre- Harry Beck – they are not the stylised graphic we have become used to. Also note how the colours for thine tube lines changed over time – see especially the Central and Piccadilly lines. Sorry, but I forgot to make a note of the dates.  

These are models and they're looking good.
Piccadilly Circus, Oxford Circus, a strange training model (that they are keen to find more info about) and the Waterloo to City line at Bank (Queen Victoria Street)

I joined a tour led by Eric, one of the volunteers, in fact the very same fab chap who I met when he was leading the 'hidden' tube tunnels tour underneath Euston Station*. He gave us a short taster-tour that included some really interesting work by Edward Johnston when he was designing LT's iconic typeface. Ooh, I'd love to spend more in those rooms.
If you are into tubes, trains, buses and trains or just have fondness for the fab old vehicles or an interest in the signage then it's well worth a visit – check here for details.

*I really thought I'd written about that tour too, but no, having checked I find the photos are lurking in my 'to do' folder. In a nutshell: fascinating but overpriced. 

St Mary's Church, Hornsey Rise / Ashley Road, N19

Whilst sorting out a backlog of photos last week I found a few I took back in May of the stone faces around the doors and windows of St Mary's church, just off Hornsey Rise in N19.
The faces are set at shoulder level and this has tempted some creative soul(s) to add some colourful enhancements:

The faces might have all been scrubbed been clean by now; I will check next time I am passing as I am sure you will be asking for updates (yeah, right).

Accentuate the positive – three more nice things along the No.19 bus route

 Faces in Clerkenwell Road

 George at St George's, Bloomsbury

Screens on Battersea Bridge

Three nice things – a series by Jane's London

Are these connected?

On the top deck of a bus going along Piccadilly recently I noticed this building:

So I pondered if it is in some way connected to a similar building in Upper Street, N1, which also features faces within roundels that are extremely similar:

The building also includes a portrait of Hugh Myddleton, the driving force behind The New River. 

Perhaps it was designed by the same architect or, more likely seeing as there are many terracotta buildings across London, it was just a standard style and these portrait reliefs, roundels and and other stick-on details were readily available to buy off-the-shelf from the local architectural mouldings emporium...?

African Galleries at the British Museum

Beneath the Living and Dying exhibits, in Room 24 at the back of the British Museum's courtyard, are two flights of stairs that lead down to the African Galleries.
I can't believe I had never found these fabulous treasures until earlier this year – and what a find!
Three rooms contain some absolutely gorgeous hand-crafted pieces including masks, bronzeworks, carvings and even a hat made out of spiders' webs.
Beautiful and inspiring.

World Shakespeare Festival

An international festival starts today to celebrate the Bard.
It's his birthday you know. He's 448 today.
You might have read about him or heard about one of his plays. He wrote quite a few of them.
For those who have never heard of him (!!!) it's all in the link above or here.
Below are some of my Shakespeare-related images. The top row shows a pub, a theatre, a house and another pub. Perhaps you might know where they are?
The next two rows hint at Shakespeare plays – "prizes" to those who can identify the plays and/or the locations shown.

Grow a moustache for cancer awareness

It's Movember again.

Movember is the month for growing a moustache.

Start the month clean shaven and see what you can achieve.

Take part and register here.

be inspired by these beauties on The Drill Hall in Chenies Street:

Faces in places

I am always seeing faces in things.

In fact my avatar on Flickr is even a found face.

There quite a few 'face' groups on Flickr, and blog sites too. One of them is Faces in Places, by Jody Smith and he has brought out a book of some of the best ones. My copy arrived this week – I've got three pics in it, none of which are shown below. I am amazed he didn't ask for my all-time favourite of the Greggs scary muffin man!

It just occurred to me that none of my chosen book pics are taken on the streets of London, as per the ones below. Find all of these and more here.

The Chap Olympiad in Bedford Square

Taking place in Bedford Square this Saturday is the 6th Chap Olympiad.

So curl your hair or wax your moustache, dress up in something dapper and go put on a damn fine show. What?!

Top row: LRT Acton Depot, Clerkenwell Road, Belgravia, Holloway Road.

Middle row: Chenies Street, Curzon Street, Olympic Park, Bedford Square [c]space pavilion.

Bottom row: New Oxford Street, Bedford Square, Jermyn Street x2.

Less traffic lights in London

Due to the successful removal of traffic lights and pedestrian/pelican crossings in Wilts, overseas and at some junctions in Ealing there are now plans to extend the 'project' to other areas in London and re-introduce roundabouts.

It's been proven that far from causing accidents pedestrians and drivers are forced to be more vigilant and think for themselves rather than waiting for a light to tell them what to do.

I think it's a great idea – we've all sat and drummed on the steering wheel waiting for traffic lights to change when we can see that the way ahead is clear, especially late at night, so getting people to be responsible for their own actions; to use their brains and stop blaming everyone and everything else can only be a good thing.

Red: Acanthus pillarbox, Highbury Park; Holloway Road door; Rotherhithe bridge, Red Lion, Camberwell; Victorian pllarbox.

Amber: Entrance to Alexandra Park; Kentish Town graffiti; Shoreditch garage door; Fulham parish boundary marker; Sweetings kickplate.

Green: Shepherd and Flock, Goldhawk Road; Lock & Co, St James's Street; Kennington gasometer; Store Street shop; greengrocers' Askew Road.

Matt Monro, Born Free, in Shoreditch

Yesterday morning Matt Monro's daughter Michele was on BBC Breakfast talking about the book she has written about her father.

Matt Monro had the most amazing singing voice; apparently Frank Sinatra said of him, “If I had to choose three of the finest male vocalists in the singing business, Matt would be one of them”.
But Sian Williams likened him to Michael Bublé. That'll be Bublé as in bubble; as in full of air.
Silly woman; has she got something wrong with her ears?

Matt was born in Shoreditch in 1930 as Terence Edward Parsons, so here's a Shoreditch montage.

The lion cub isn't in Shoreditch; it's in N4. It's a ref to Born Free.

Seeing is Believing

Have you seen the latest Specsaver ad to commemorate the company's 25th anniversary? Their ads used to be good. This one featuring a lost sperm one is just plain silly.
Anyway, seeing it (geddit?!) gave me the idea for a small group of pictures on the theme of eyes and opticians.

Shown clockwise from top left: clock, New Kings Road; ripped poster, Covent Garden; opticians sign, Fleet Street; skull face in the peeling paint, Mount Pleasant; spectacles motif, Lower Marsh; plastic doobrey, Holloway Road – lots more found faces here.

Homeward Bound

Here we go again, the Christmas party season is upon us and the streets will be littered with vile drunken bodies and pavement pizzas. Then again, perhaps I might get some good shots of the latter for my Flickr set Textures and Patterns or be able to do an alternative set of these.

Anyway, what I want to say is, please make sure you get home safely. If you can't get a tube, bus, train or official black cab don't be tempted to get into an illegal minicab solicited by someone on the street or accept a lift from a kerb crawler. Only ever get in a mini cab if you or your company ordered it beforehand from a recognised company.

To emphasise my point TFL have released this rather unnerving video (for the over-15s only):

More info about the Cabwise service here.

Happy holidays!!

Top row: Old, now disused, entrance to Highbury and Islington tube station; taxis outside Tate Britain; Bakerloo line seats; taxi lantern, Millbank.

Middle row: Charing Cross connection tunnel; taxi cab hut, Temple; Kings Cross platform; bus stop road markings.

Bottom row: Bus on London Bridge; Holloway Road, Picadilly line tube station; Liverpool Street staion roof; 38 stock tube train, Acton depot.

I'm in Smoke!

The latest issue of the wonderful Smoke magazine came out this week, albeit two months late.

If you haven't yet picked up a copy, then you really should get with the programme, if only to read Matt Haynes's lunatic musings. Anyway, this issue has four, yes four things, contributed by moi. As well as a whole page of coal hole covers, the three photos shown here have also been found fit for inclusion; a monkey in Holloway, a Kensington lion rampant, and Normas Snorks who I am reliably informed is AKA a docker's mistress.

Zodiac signs

Here's my alternative take on the 12 zodiac signs:

Aries: Upper Street, N1; Taurus: Butcher's sign, Jonathan Street, SE11; Gemini: Pair of identical boot scrapers, Whitehall, SW1; Cancer: Face of a Hammersmith & Fulham cigarette butt receptacle; Leo: The Drill Hall, Chenies Street, WC1; Virgo: Art Deco relief, John Street, WC1; Libra: Thames House, Millbank, SW1; Scorpio: Scorpion Shoes, Camden High Street, NW1; Sagittarius: Connolly's, Chiswick High Road, W4; Capricorn: The Goat, Knightsbridge, SW1; Aquarius: Fountain at The Long Water, W2; Pisces: 452 Holloway Road, N7.