M F Tarling/C&S Electrical, 48 Blackstock Road – Old shop sign reveal

These photos taken earlier this month (5th August) show the burnt old shop header panels for "M F Tarling" and, underneath on the windows, the gold lettering for C&S, Electrical Fittings & Installations.
if I was a proper sleuth I would have found out what Tarlings sold. But I am lazy and just wanted to share the observation.
I very much doubt this is still there – these things get covered or painted over fairly quickly.

Jane's Advent Calendar – 16th December

Vitreous enamel hydrant maker showing distance to the access point.

Dalston, London E8.

Most of these are diamond-shape, except when they wrap around a corner in which case they are square. 

I have only ever spotted one oval-shaped specimen in Sclater Street, E1:

Bloomsbury Festival, 22–25 October 2015

A creative explosion of performance, arts, music and heritage events held in the streets, parks, museums, galleries, laboratories and public and private buildings of one of London’s most vibrant cultural quarters. 
Read all about it here.
On Friday 23 October, Store Street will be taken over by artists and pyrotechnic gurus pa-BOOM for a spectacular launch evening*. I notice that the image on the page that talks about this particular event looks to be by the same artists who filled the garden in front of Tate Modern as part of the Thames Festival back 2009 (when it used to be good):

Pics: Jane Amelia Parker 2009

*It seems odd to me that the launch evening is happening on what appears top be the second day, but what do I know...?!  

Ding dong merrily on high

In heaven the bells are ringing

Take part in a virtual orchestra

There's another great show on at the Science Museum...
The Universe of Sound, a virtual Philharmonic Orchestra, has been created by a very clever digital installation which allows visitors to take on the role of a musician, conductor, arranger or even composer. 
Coincidentally, I am having trouble composing this blog post ... so please rearrange the following to create a coherent paragraph, by adding punctuation and words like 'and': 10 separate rooms / music / Gustav Holst / interactive / digital technology... 

Luckily for me, Esa-Pekka Salonen, the Philharmonia Orchestra’s Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor, puts it like this, “This project offers everyone, from the very young to the very old, from the absolute novice to the experienced musician, the chance to step right into the heart of one of the world’s finest symphony orchestras. Our world is by turns preposterously loud, pin-drop quiet, highly-charged, intense and frequently overwhelming. Come and join us – you won’t be disappointed.”

For more info click here.

Stuff that affects our ears

The Art of Walking

Last Saturday I went on one of Fox&Squirrel's walks. F&S offer 'lifestyle walks' all over London themed around fashion, architecture, food etc.

This one was an art walk in Peckham, an area of London that is now bursting with creative talent, no doubt brought on by cheap rent and available space.

Our guide was Natasha, a very erudite and knowledgeable young lady, who met us outside the award-winning Peckham Library. First we visited Peckham Space, opposite the library and then she walked us up the road (passing a relevant bit of cement graffiti) to the lovely Passmore Edwards South London Art Gallery – a free purpose-built gallery space built by the great philanthropist. I was much more interested in the building than the art inside it. I loved the As and Hs on the sign on the front of the building, and found the old Pugin-esque floor tiles, the painted sockets and the old sign board in the back courtyard way more inspiring than what was on show.

Then we walked down Lyndhurst Way and stopped to look at the cleaned-up house that was once a famous squat for artists. Around the corner I noticed a stink pipe. Relevant? Then to a space functioning as both a home and a gallery where we watched two looped films of images of cars and lorries going down the freeway but manipulated into endless tunnels. It was mesmerising. But again, free, though the fella had opened the door especially for our group as it wasn't normally open on Saturdays.

Bells were ringing in my head about whether this 2 hour walk was good value (I spotted an old alarm bell casing showing the old Bishopsgate telephone code!) – after all nothing had an entrance fee, and using a South London Art Map this would cost nothing at all. But I was having a nice time with nice people...

And so to the Hannah Barry Gallery, almost buried amongst a sea of semi-derelict buildings in an old industrial estate. The highlight of my day was meeting the wonderful Hannah Barry herself. Diminutive Hannah belies her size and age – she is a powerhouse of ideas and enthusiasm. She talked eloquently and sensibly about art and galleries. And I loved the metal sculptures there by James Capper.

Then to a bar in one of the arches under Peckham Rye Station for art chat.

A nice afternoon. Thanks.

Gutted in Tottenham

The streets of North London were witness to some awful scenes this weekend when a peaceful protest turned nasty. Angry disenfranchised people rioted; setting fire to and looting shops all in the name of 'justice'.

I can never understand how 'pissing in your own back yard' helps anything. Shop owners and businesses along High Road, Tottenham, should not have to pay the price for this. Areas of what was once a beautiful Edwardian high street have been reduced to burnt out shells. They are gutted. I am gutted. And not just for the buildings.

Then last night, Tottenham Hale retail park was targeted and people caused damaged and stole goods there too. I am not sure if they stole food or electrical goods...

What a horrible coincidence that my last post was about fire insurance markers.

High Road, Tottenham: the old 1930s London Cooperative Society Building (top left) was completely gutted by fire on Saturday night. I am, so far, unsure whether Criterion Parade (with eagle) and Windsor Parade, 1907 (top right), have suffered in the same way.

Fire insurance plaques

Back in the early 18th century there was no public fire brigade. Home owners would insure against fires by paying private companies who employed their own fire-fighting teams. Badges made from lead or copper displaying the relevant company logo and reference number were affixed to on the front of houses (usually at first floor level) to prove that fees had been paid. In the case of a fire, these companies would only put out the flames of those houses bearing the correct badge.

This caused all sorts of problems, especially if the fire had started in a non-insured property and spread into the insured house next door, so in January 1833 The London Fire Engine Establishment was formed. In 1865 the Metropolitan Fire Brigade Act was passed and by 1904 London had what we now call the London Fire Brigade.

Below are some of the various fire insurance plaques I have spotted in London.

And many more here.

Update 2022: There are hopes and plans to open an Insurance Museum in London – find out more at the organisers' Facebook page here

Old London telephone exchanges

I have quite a few photos of old fire alarm bells. I was initially interested in the logos and typography, and the texture of the rusty old boxes. But just recently I noticed that a lot of them have pre-1966 telephone letter exchange codes on them.

These old codes worked such that the first 3 letters of an area were used for that exchange, for instance, BIS 1234 = BIShopsgate 1234. You have probably heard a someone with clipped vowels in a 1940s film saying, "Mayfair 2121" or similar.

I posted my most recent fire alarm pic to GWL and the interest was enough to set up a group to 'collect' images of these codes having realised that I had snapped many more of these myself within pics of old shops signs etc.

There were 263 London codes so I doubt we'll find existing examples of them all.

Many have unusual names such as TER for Kings Cross, referencing the railway TERminus.

If you have seen any yourself, do let me know or add them to the group.

Below are some of the one I have found myself:

Top row: Nags Head, Tower Bridge Road, Chatsworth Road, Roman Road

Middle row: Earlham Street, Wandsworth Road, Whitfield Street, Marylebone Lane

Bottom row: Curtain Road, Weston Park, Thornhill Road, Holloway Road

Fireworks, wire works, iron works etc

I love love love a fireworks display – did you see the one at the end of the Thames Festival earlier this year? – wow!

But gone are the glory days of Highbury Fields on Friday followed by Primrose Hill on Saturday, because fewer boroughs are putting on fireworks displays these days due to the costs. And a bit of H&S probably creeps in too. Those that are going ahead may have a nominal entrance fee – something like a £1 – which is fantastic value, especially when you consider that councils have been burning our money like this for years! I wonder what else it could have been better spent on...

Here's a list of organised displays in and around London this month.

ooh... aah... wooo... wow!

Top row: Vauxhall, Hornsey, Homerton, Walthamstow

Middle row: Walthamstow, Brixton, Paddington, Bermondsey

Bottom row: Southwark, Bermondsey, Finsbury, Kensington

Eastenders

I accidentally caught 10 minutes of the omnibus edition of Eastenders on Sunday; a programme I haven't watched in a long time. For those of you who aren't aware of this programme, it's a soap opera on BBC1 about the people who live in and around a make-believe square in London's East End. It's been going since February 1985.

Anyway, as I tuned in just The Vic (pub) had burned down and it was the following day...

Peggy went into the burnt-out Vic in a white jacket. She touched and stroked blackened objects and walls. She even sat on the stairs. Yet she left with clean hands and only a tiny smudge on her shoulder.

Crackhead Phil went out onto the street. His face and clothes were covered in soot. Billy, also filthy, told him to go back to bed. Have these people not heard of baths or showers?

After 10 minutes I changed channels.

Then on Tuesday I went to my local cafe for lunch and found a copy of The Sun to read. (It's been a really high-brow few days!). In his TV column Ally Ross had written a long piece on Eastenders and it seems had I tuned in earlier on Sunday I'd have seen a few other gems. Such as, when the fire started, Dot was told to go home and call the fire brigade, as if no one had heard of mobile phones. And Phil had been boarded up behind an inward-opening door!

Add to this why no-one ever works outside the square, owns a washing machine, and much more... it's no wonder the pedant in me doesn't usually watch it.

Top row: Queensway, Victoria Palace, King Street, Tottenham High Road.

Middle row: Holloway, South Tottenham, Highgate, Whitechapel.

Bottom row: The real East end; Mile End Road, Hackney and Stepney

Art Art Art... Private Views at C&G of London Art School Degree Show 2010 and PayneShurvell

My talented sister has just finished her 3 year degree course in stone and wood carving at C&G Art School. I went along yesterday for the awards and presentations and had a quick look round at the diverse degree show which is just as good as last year with exhibits covering all bases; fine art painting and sculpture, conservation, installations etc.

I will be back there for the Private View on Thursday evening, and at some point over the weekend too, so why don't you come along and find me?!

Why they call these things Private Views is beyond me, seeing as anyone can stroll in!

Which reminds me that a couple of weeks ago I spent a very pleasant evening with a friend going from PV to PV in the Hoxton/Shoreditch area. The best show that night was the opening eve for PayneShurvell who have pulled together a really eclectic mix of artists for their show 'A Bright and Guilty Place'. I liked quite a lot of the work there esp Dan Hay's revised repetitive A-Z map of London and Anka Dabrowska's line drawings and her little 3D shops and houses which displayed a lot of love and care and attention. As regards work exhibited there, I was impressed that, even if I didn't like the finished product, I could see why it was created and how it had come about. It was a lovely contrast to an earlier show we saw that evening where an 'artist' had created large colourful ill-conceived and badly-executed canvasses obviously with an eye on the 'art as investment' market. Indeed, one man there told us that he already owned two other pieces by the artist's but he didn't really like them much and hoped they would make him some money. Oh dear. It's so wrong.

ART ART ART:

Top row: St MARTin's Lane, BARTon Street, BARTholomew Road, ChARTerhouse Square.

Middle row: DARTmouth Park, HARTley's jam factory, BARTon Street, CARTer Lane.

Bottom row: St BART's church, MARTello Street, White HART Lane, Brown HART Gardens

All of these can be found within my Flickr photostream

Fire!!!!

I have just realised that in amongst my photos of London's interesting metal things there are quite a few that are to do with fire, such as badges, bells and hydrant markers.

See these on Flickr