At the southern end of Clarendon Road, a few minutes' walk from Holland Park station, I happened upon a strange gate post outside number 31.
The two pics above are screengrabs from Google's streeview facility – I forgot to take any wider shots at the time because I happened to get chatting to a man who was parking outside the property and I felt the need to explain to him why I was so interested in his neighbour's fancy gatepost. As you can see, it is unlike the two rendered brick posts next door. I have never seen the like of it before.
I took a photo of the maker's mark at the base of the post, which also seems to indicate a swing tab cover for a keyhole, and said I'd get back to him if and when I found out more info.
Yates, Haywood & Co., 95 Upper Thames St, London.
I wondered, being as it is openwork with fancy grilles on all four sides, if it was installed as ventilation for the coal bunker beneath the street. But, why would a coal bunker need to be ventilated?
Perhaps one of the names mentioned here lived at this address and this was some kind of test piece...?
This needed further investigation.
I first looked at Grace's Guide and discovered that YH&Co [sort of] dates back to 1823 as a foundry in Rotherham. They are mostly listed as making stoves grates etc for cooking. Hmm. How bizarre. I'd expected them to be ironmongers, or similar.
Here's an idea – perhaps this gate post acted as a flue for a stove below ground? The coal bunker might have been used as a boiler room to heat water for the whole house – could this be an early form of central heating...?
It is odd that the company's London address doesn't get a mention in the Grace's Guide listing until the 1920s. Yet, surely, this gatepost design is late Georgian/early Victorian, as per most of the houses along this part of Clarendon Rd...? The GG listing also includes a photo of a pair of almost identical gateposts in New South Wales, Australia(!) – if you zoom in on that pic you will see that they bear the same London address panel, but I think they are there merely decorative rather than functional.
Let's have a look at the old Kelly's directories... The company is clearly listed in 1899:
The main address is highlighted in pink, with other businesses in nearby streets shown in orange – Abchurch Yard and Laurence Poultney Hill are both a stone's throw from Upper Thames Street. I'm also wondering if the chimney builders in Bow were also part of the Yates family. However, I can't see any similar businesses purely in the name of Haywood.
Going further back, this is 1882:
In that same year, 1882, we find members of the Yates family at very nice addresses – John Yates at 37 Eardley Crescent, Earls Court (now a hotel) and Charles Francis Yates at 9 Provost St, Chalk Farm (a delightful street of paired Georgian cottages).
But, here is the gold dust – George Harris Haywood at 8 Clarendon Road:
Whoo hoo! This would have been the address of the house in question before the street was renumbered – today's No.15 would have been No.1 making the house with the fancy gate post the eighth house in the street (the slightly houses adjacent to/south of No.1 are set back from the terrace and would have had a different name).
This, in my mind, corroborates my idea that the gate post is part of a heating innovation installed at George's family home that perhaps was never rolled out for a wider market.
As to when the gatepost was installed, Kelly's 1952 London directory lists George Haywood (senior) at the Effingham Works (I don't have immediate access to the private addresses for that year) and I am not sure if any of the Yates addresses shown below, specifically George senior in Earls Court and Charles at Argyle St, Kings Cross, are linked to the company.
Having checked all these residential addresses via streetview (and the others mentioned previously) I cannot see any other similar gateposts so, for the time being, this is where my sleuthing ends. Any further info is most welcome.
UPDATE: I've since chanced upon more of the same design just short walk away, all along a west-facing terrace in Westbourne Grove between Elgin Crescent and Blenheim Crescent:
Returning to Clarendon Road, the houses that once formed numbers 1-3 have very wide steps (probably to allow for hooped skirts) which are flanked by wonderfully undulating metalwork and pairs of boot scrapers.
I continued my walk southwards towards Holland Park and stopped to take pics of this old shop sign, the history of which I will look into another day:
Then to the junction with Holland Park Avenue, where I admired the exterior of The Castle pub and searched in vain for a Doulton maker's mark.
On the side of the pub there is a remnant of a poster that itself looks like an artwork. It reads, I think, "Come out" in reverse, as if the glue was applied for that very purpose:
I then recalled that there is a fabulous old shop interior along this stretch – Lidgate the butcher. I had never been inside before. Wow. Do check it out if you are passing, or want to purchase quality meat from a well-established butcher with kudos. As I was making my way out a voice said 'hello' – it was the man I had met earlier parking his car in Clarendon Road!
Which is older – Lidstone or the gatepost?
Finally... the late afternoon sun softly illuminating the northern side of Holland Park Avenue that day was gorgeous. I wasn't the only one admiring and taking photos of the houses along there.
One of the houses sports a fire insurance marker in a design I can't quite make out, the camera on my old iPhone is not good enough to zoom in that far. Let me know if you can identify it as it doesn't look like any of these.
