Showing posts with label milk. Show all posts
Showing posts with label milk. Show all posts

21 March 2017

Butter Fingers at The Old Dairy, Crouch Hill

Last week I was chatting to Jason at the Oxfam Books & Music shop at Crouch End as I assessed my card stock there. As I added some more of the Old Dairy at Stroud Green he asked if had noticed that one person depicted on the sgraffito panels had something extra.
Intrigued, I walked back down the hill to take another look.
Cards
I have studied these panels many times but although I had noticed that the people aren't what you'd call beautiful and are mostly out of proportion with the other characters and objects around them, I hadn't spotted that one of the butter-making girls has an extra finger.


27 October 2015

Friern Manor Limited, Dairy Farm Buildings, Crouch Hill


This wonderfully decorated group of buildings in Stroud Green was once one of Friern Manor's farms and dates from approx 1890 (the date in the pic above refers to the company, not the building).
A cobbled courtyard at the rear was accessed through a large gate in Hanley Road. The corner of the building once housed an ornate shop where farm produce and bread was sold. Traces of the old shop fittings can be seen inside today. A faded sign adverting Hovis can still be seen.
The seven large sgraffito panels are so unusual as there are not many other examples of this illustrative technique in London. The YMCA in in Carter Lane is the only other one that springs to mind.

'Country Delivery', 'Old Style Delivery' and, what used to read 'Present Day Deliverer' until someone amended it
Some close ups of the illustrations

In the 1990s the whole complex was cleverly converted into a pub and restaurant with the courtyard being covered over and turned into the main bar area and the smaller rooms and outbuildings becoming rooms for drinking or dining.