More things that don't add up – John Marshall and Emily Davison in Newcomen Street

The Kings Arms in Newcomen Street, one of many excellent pubs in the little side streets off Borough High Street, sports a colourful depiction of the lion and the unicorn above its door. Nice. The pub has been painted a bright shade of green since I took the pic below back in March 2025. 

On the opposite side of the street there are two large buildings that are boarded up, waiting to be renovated*. These buildings or, rather, the information on them, intrigues me.

Above the entrance to number 66 there is the name John Marshall with two dates given in Roman numerals:

The date on the right side is 1853. But I'm struggling with the date on the left which looks like MDCFFOII, from which I deduce is 17th century but I cannot tie it up with either the date he died or the  the date his church was constructed, more of which you can read here. Eight distinctly different faces adorn the building either side of the four street level windows. I am not sure who they depict, if anyone specific at all.  

To the left of this building is Emily Davison House, a terrace of 5 houses. A plaque on it tells us it was  'purchased by Guys Hospital in 1959 as a bequest by Mrs Emily Davison' which, in most places I have looked, is attributed to Emily Wilding Davison, the Suffragette who died at the Epsom Derby in 1913. This would mean that she made a very forward-thinking bequest for some time in the distant future. 

It's worth noting that the lady on the plaque is a Mrs, yet the Suffragette never married. Also, EWD did not die at Guys Hospital, but near the incident at Epsom. I am still trying to fully find out if/how the two ladies are connected. Any additional info is more than welcome. 

*often referred to as 'gentrification' – a word that makes no sense these days. I very much doubt that any lords and ladies or members of the landed gentry will be in need of a tahn harse here. 

Take a tour and find out about the development plans for the Earls Court exhibition site

Playing catch-up again... I've just rediscovered the photos I took back in mid-February when I attended a tour of the Earl's Court site. I had booked the ticket back in Summer 2024. The tour starts at The Earls Court Development Company's offices at the end of Empress Place here, where information is freely available to anyone who wanders in.

On the day of the tour the weather was dull and overcast which I found quite apt seeing as I find it so sad that Howard Crane's truly unique Art Deco era exhibition hall was demolished before a definite plan was agreed about what was to replace it. 

This is the header pic from my Deco Demolished presentation that I was hosted through Lockdown and still continue to deliver as an in-person talk for history associations and the like*

But this the wide-open space that exists there now:

The tour is really good – the people leading it are the actual people working on the project and, as such, they can answer lots of questions about what's planned, the existing and new buildings, and how the area will be regenerated. 

The next few pics clearly show how vast the site is. The information boards are really helpful.

I left the site feeling less anxious about the future of this huge development, though it's going to be decades before it is anywhere near finished and many more before it feels established. As per Canary Wharf, I wonder if it will be just a live/work zone that's busy Mon-Fri and dead at the weekends. There will be shops and entertainment facilities etc but, as I have noticed at Battersea, there's barely anyone there most of the time. It's a tall order. Also, will the people who live in the surrounding streets of Fulham and Hamersmith make use of this new environment and how will that impact on the gg-to zones we have already, such as Westfield at ShepBush, Hammersmith and, don't froget, the new re-development currently taking shape at Olympia..?

The scale of how this Earls Court site will look is hard to imagine when you are looking at a wide open space – so, what is it actually going to look like? Well – part of the tour is a visit to a space within the old Met Police office that houses a scale model showing how a good percentage of the new build is being designed to echo the style of existing buildings in the area, and that the street pattern will not be a simple grid. 

The model is fab and it's a shame that this facility is only accessible when on a tour. I suggested that it ought to be open to the public perhaps one morning a week. However, I understand that they will open the facility for group visits on request.

I do think they've missed a trick as regards pulling in little more of the natural environment, specifically a hint to Counters Creek, the river that once ran through here, later replaced by a canal and then filled in to create the Overground line all the way to Chelsea Harbour as Chelsea Creek. Surely a raised rill or similar could have been installed above the tracks below...?

Also in this zone –  the houses on the right/East side of Empress Place are currently home to a variety of talented artists as Empress Studios with open days one weekend  a month

Book your own tour of the Earls Court site here

* This talk comprises over 60 slides, mostly my own photos, of this site and other interwar gems such as The Firestone Building, The Gainsborough, the ABC bakery and The Essoldo cinema on Bethnal Green.  The pic is an adapted uncredited illustration that I found in an old guide book of London.  

Update on the horrid revamp of Willen House, Bath Street, Moorfields, EC1– a unique example of architecture from the 1940s

Almost two and a half years ago I wrote this piece about the proposals for the overhaul of Willen House, an unusual 'art Deco' style building in Moorfields. Since then I often take a detour if I am in the area to see what's happening, approaching the building with trepidation, scared at what I might find. With so much time having elapsed, I wondered if, perhaps, the plans had changed.

Here's the building looking fab on Google Streetview in August 2022:

And here's mosaic of some of my photos showing how marvellous it looks when the sun is shing

Earlier this week, I wandered eastwards from Central Street along Lever Street towards Bath Street. The rear of Willen House appeared to be as was (phew!) and the Lever Street side seemed OK:

But, as I turned the corner into Bath Street, I was horrified to see that they've hacked away at the tiles on the corner, for what purpose I do not know. The commemorative plaque stating that this building was opened in 1948 surely meaning very little to today's property developers (see more about this further down). I hope they, at least, keep the plaque in situ.

Moving round into Bath Street, scaffolding was being erected on the Galway Street side: 

I noticed that the interiors were gutted and the ugly secondary glazing has already been removed. Sections of tiles have been chipped away in strips along the front of the building. I wondered why. But what I couldn't find a board or panel showing the plans and contact details for the contractors and architects as is normal in situations like this. 

A bit of sleuthing online and I discover that tp bennett architects is no longer listing this as a project on their site. Instead, Infrasture Investments has instructed Beachrock to create a 208-bedroom scheme at a cost of £60million, due to be completed in 2025 – a scheme that could have been slightly cheaper had they not budgeted so much money on unnecessary paint. A brochure here tells the full story. Whilst I am all for a much-needed upgrade of the interior spaces, I cannot fathom how and why Islington Council's planning department approved the alterations to the main façade.  

I am upset, disappointed, bordering on furious, at the rape of this very unusual building, constructed in the 1940s, a decade when barely anything interesting was built, let alone something of this quality, due to austerity after after WW2. Indeed, I am only aware of a couple of other developments that were constructed in the 1940s, also special in their own way:

1940 – The Coronet PH, Holloway Road, N7, was originally opened as The Savoy Cinema. Stayed open during WW2. The date 1940 can also be seen on the hoppers on Senate House (on the Russell Square side), but these are later additions being as the building was completed in 1937.

1941 – I'm pretty sure that Russell Square House, at the corner of Woburn Place, was completed in 1941. These government offices were under construction when WW2 broke out. There are some interesting ventilation grilles at low level that, to me, look like Union Jack flags.

1942–1945 – I am not aware of any buildings constructed in these years. However, in 1943, the County Plan For London was implemented.

1946 – The New River Company's Claremont Close housing development, Islington, accessed from Claremont Square.

1947 – Wall Court, Stroud Green Road, N4. This well-designed housing development was quickly followed by similar schemes in 1948 at nearby Lawson Court, Wiltshire Court and Marquis Court as well as houses in Osbourne Rd.   

1949–1950 – Nothing in my files. But, surely, there must be other residential schemes in other parts of London that I am not aware of, as well as municipal buildings, such as school, libraries, police stations and town halls...? Hmm, I wonder if they were all too busy planning exciting things for 1951's Festival of Britain. 

I am struggling to find any other examples from this decade. Please do let me know if you can add to the list. 

As I have said before, if Willen House had been constructed for/by a well-known name such as M&S there would have been a public outcry, as per the proposals that were overturned in Oxford Street. 

Let me know your thoughts.

Loss of old tiled interior at 274 St Pauls Rd, Islington

Last year I wrote about some remnants of tiles and signage along a stretch of the eastern end of St Paul's Rd, Islington

One shop I talked about was No.274 where a business had just moved out and the interior was bare within lovely old white and green tiled walls showing its past history as a United Dairies shop. As seen on Google Streetview from August 2022. 

Well, walking past it this morning, I was disappointed to see it now looks like this:

The exterior looks welcoming, but to me, and anyone who knows what's been lost here, it is a big loss. The tiled walls are nowhere to be seen. I was in a hurry and didn't properly check to see if they have been simply covered or painted. But why do people do this? Especially when this is clearly a cafe/food outlet and they probably even have milky drinks on the menu. Tiles are easy to clean. 

Boo hoo.

I have been told when similar things have happened elsewhere that old tiles had to be covered for health and safety reasons. Really? I find that doubtful, seeing as there are still many places that have retained them such as pie and eel restaurants, old pubs, and shops which have listed interiors due to the tiles and fittings. 

This is how the shop looked in August 2022 c/o Google Streetview: 

There are more overpainted Premier/Unigate tiles at The Old Dairy, Stroud Green. I have written this up separately here. 

Criminal damage at Gilray House, 146-150 City Road

Earlier this year I wrote about the vile plans for Willen House in Bath Street, Moorfields, and how a horrible coating of dull grey paint will soon be covering a truly unique 20th Century building. 

Well, just around the corner, in an area that forms part of a conservation area, there is another building that earlier this year succumbed to the slate grey treatment. I had noticed that scaffolding had been erected around it last year and I simply thought it was being cleaned. It used to look like this (pics from Google streetview): 

But no, today it looks like this:

I have often wondered if the name of the building is in some way related to the clever Georgian artist and satirsist James Gilray. I hope not, because this is no laughing matter. The delicate details are now hard to see. It has been sloshed over with what looks like a layer of thick soot, slathered across the whole building all the way up to the top where only the new addition on the roof, which looks like a spaceship, is a unpainted. 

I am saddeneed at the grey-washing of the 'deco-esque' upperfloors which continues across the elegant metal windows, previously highlighted in Barclays Bank blue which sang out against the pure white walls and contrasted with the creamy-coloured faeince tiles of the streetlevel banking hall. The whole clearly showed how the architecture in the 1920s morphed from pretty decorative styles into the simplicity of the Bauhaus. The building not only housed Barclays Bank for almost a century, but it was also originally a Post Office with offices above for Royal Mail employees.  

About 8 years ago, the building was renovated and cleaned and I understood at that time that an application had previously been made to add anther storey or two to the top and this had been rejected due to this being in the Moorfields conservation area, although they did allow another floor to be added, but it was not visible from street level – notice how the buildings on this West side of City Road are all relatively low level in comparison to the high rise modern monoliths on the other side that, incidentally, have generated a nasty wind tunnel, especially problematical as you approach Old Street from East Road. I wonder if the energy created by these manmade howling gales here, and elsewhere where other ridiculously tall buildings have been constructed, could somehow be harnessed to exacerbate the forthcoming fuel bills. And what happened to that idea about gym running machines as generators? Anyway, I digress...

Conservation areas are clearly pointless. They do little protect the buildings from greedy developers keen to cut corners and make a quick buck. But I notice here at Gilray House that the horrid light-absorbing shades of dullsville on this East-facing site has done little to tempt in new leasehoolders – most, if not all of the building, is standing empty. A big shame all round.

This building and Willen House feature on my Art Deco Shoreditch walking tour.  

 

An update on the renovation of Hornsey Town Hall and the surrounding site

Yesterday I went up to Hornsey Town Hall to see what's happening at the Town Hall site adjacent to Crouch End Broadway. As you can see, there's still a fair bit to do but the future looks good.

I met up with the lovely ladies at the marketing suite, which is housed within the old electricity showrooms building on the left as you face the town hall, and they talked me through what's happening with the 1930s buildings and, after studying a marvellous 3D map of the area (ooh don't you just love a scale model?!), we went for a nose about at the new builds at the rear, accessible via Weston Park.

A collection of residential blocks is being constructed, each named after the architects and sculptors who designed the Town Hall and the gas and electricy showrooms. This space had orginally beein designed for car parking and tradesmen but over the past few decades had become a wasteland littlered with broken deckchairs and the like. 

I was shown a 2-bed flat and a one-bed flat and they are lovely. In fact, if I didn't have so much stuff, such as books, furniture and other guff, I would be rather tempted to move there myself. I only took one pic from the lounge of the 2-bed flat, which faces the town hall, see below

As regards the town hall building itself, I am told it's being renovated to a high standard; cleaning up and restoring the existing parts as much as possible, and replacing with like-for-like where necessary. For instance, the metal window frames throughout have been stripped back and repainted and the glass within them replaced. It's looking great and I can't wait to see the end result. I will be going back for another visit once the construction company says it's safe to do so.

Find out more about Uren's municipal buildings and Arthur Ayres' sculptural pieced here.  

Some of my cards and prints feature Crouch End – a guided walk visiting many of the places in the photographed, plus lots of other interesting items of inderest, will be available soon – pleaese keep an eye on my walking tours here.

Remembering Romford market in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s

In 1964, when I was two years old, we moved from Dad's family home in Becontree, into a house in Albert Road, Romford, Essex, 17 miles east of central London, in the London Borough Havering. 

During my school years this was a part of Outer London Education Authority (OLEA). Today I notice that Romford is classed as London. It seems that these days anywhere within Transport for London's travel zones is considered to be part of London. But when I was at school, we never thought of Romford as was London. We lived in Essex. We went to London. Catching a train to go into the big city was something you did occasionally for a special day out with the family or friends.

Elderly members of Mum's family told us about when they were young children in the 1900s and the town was little more than a cattle market town surrounded by fields. There followed a fair bit of expansion and new build in the 1930s but that was just a few shopping arcades and terraces here and there, a couple of cinemas etc. The pic below is from a book that used to be my granddad's, but it's not dated or credited. I think it could be late 1930s as it does show some buildings of that era. 

 

It shows North Street at the top and South Street continuing from it, cutting a diagonal from top left to bottom right, with St Edward's church at the north side of the market, just above centre. The area shown below the market and the church, was later demolished when an area twice what's shown here, was flattened and replaced in the 1960s. A few decades later, most of the buildings to the left side would also be demolished, including those that made up the Ind Coope brewery.  

As a young child in the late 1960s, I recall mum being really disappointed about the ring road that was built to be around the central shopping zone. Many buildings were subsequently demolished in the name of progress. Mum, then approaching 30 years old, had lived in the area since a child herself and was saddened at the scale of the redevelopment. It was out with the old and in with the new; a bulldozer approach. She often commented that Romford had lost almost all its history with no attractive memorial, markers or statues. And, for some inexplicable reason, despite being a well-known stop on a Roman Road, a busy market town, the town wasn't even listed in the Domesday Book.  

This 13-minute [silent] video from The London Film Archives clearly shows the extent of the changes that were made at that time.

The major problem was traffic flow. By the 1960s the town had expanded from a rural cattle market to a major shopping town and the narrow streets could no longer cope with the congestion, especially at the junction of North St, South St and the High Street when buses could barely turn the corner, as this film shows. Traffic could no longer drive straight through the market to continue through into Main Road and this caused a bottleneck at the centre.

As a schoolchild, I actually remember the new shopping precinct being constructed, especially at the side and rear of M&S. A carousel was installed, probably to keep the punters distracted and happy during the mess.

The new ringroad effectively took the soul and vibrancy out of the town, making the area within a kind of dead zone after the shops closed in the evening. Only a handful of old pubs, St Edwards church and the cobbled market area remained to hint at its bygone bustling and vibrant past. This fate was to befall many of London's satellite towns during the 1960s.

The new shopping centre called The Liberty, recalling a large house that it replaced, was a success and Romford continued be the best shopping destination in Essex with the added bonus of the huge market on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, offering superb diversity and quality of produce – a real go-to place. 

A strange modern fountain was installed in at the centre, a tall structure in shades of blue above three octagonal pools, that I later used as unconscious inspiration for an art project. In later years, the structure was painted brown – they said to be reminiscent of old market crates (eh?!) but it always looked to me like a defunct outdoor swimming pool that had been transformed in a hurry. 

I must admit that, as a teenager, I used to think the naming of High Street was odd. I thought it was an odd road to nowhere with strange shops at the far end near the roundabout on the ringroad – it just didn't' occur to me that it had previously been the main thoroughfare in the past. To my mind, the main road was South Street because that's where the big shops and the station was sited. Hindsight eh?! 

By October 1980 I had a job in Covent Garden and was travelling back and forth into London five days a week. I loved working in central London; the history, the bustle, the shops, the mix of everything, the opportunities. In 1985 I was earning enough to buy myself a little starter home near Harold Wood Station, two stops further out from Romford, and I only went into Romford town centre on occasional Saturdays or before or after visiting Mum and my sister. 

Then, in 1988, I moved to Holloway, north London, to be even closer to work and my social life, returning to Romford only to visit Mum until she died in the late 1990s. I have kept in touch with a few school friends, but Romford has rarely been the place to meet.

In 2005, after visiting a friend in Gidea Park, I went for a nose about around the shops for old times' sake. Oh dear. I walked about with my mouth open, aghast at how so much further change had taken place. Mum would have been even more disgusted. I walked through to where the brewery used to be, shops arranged around a huge car park – the likes of Next, Boots and TKMaxx. It looked more like an out-of-town industrial park. My facial expression obviously gave me away because three different ladies stopped to ask if I was OK/lost!!

That wasn't a market day, and I made a mental note to return to see if the once jam-packed bustling market that I remember from my schooldays was still anywhere near as vibrant. For inspiration, I hunted online and found there's lots of pictoral and video reference to be found including these short films about the market on YouTube. This inspired me to recall the stalls I remember in the years up to about 1985. 

Starting from the High Street end and making our way to to the ring road at the junction with the library at town hall:

There was a brilliant record stall on the right, just before the Quadrant Arcade, cheaper than the aforementioned Downtown Records, WHSmiths, or Woolworths. My handsome friend Vince used to work there. Opposite, on the left side, two rows of stalls included an excellent stall for knitters offering all sorts of well-priced yarns (I was prolific and knitted back and forth to work on the train, making mohair and aran-style jumpers for friends!), a housewares stall (one of mum's favourites, tho I think she fancied one of the fellas there), a brilliant stall with knock-off 'branded' logo sweatshirts and T-shirts, etc. I particularly recall my JPS one which I said was Jane Parker Special, and the black one with a Guinness roundel.This was before I'd ever had a sip of the marvellous black stuff – I wore that sweatshirt to take my driving test, which I passed first time.

Just past St Edward's church and Wykeham Hall (marvellous jumble sales) there was a men's clothing stall aimed at the belcher chain wearing 'casuals' and I recall hearing a young geezer, in a pale blue jumper and beige slacks, ask the stall holder if he had "any of those Perry Car Din jumpers". In this zone and all the way up to the Rumford Shopping Hall on the left there were three lanes of stalls piled high with fruit and veg, and many more on the opposite side outside Littlewoods, Coles and Habitat. It was so colourful. The calls from the traders was marvellous. Free furra pahnd etc. Think of that "Morny Stannit" sketch by the Two Ronnies (which doesn't seem to be available online or I'd include it here).

Outside Debenhams, which I recall as a small child being Stones, there was a broken biscuit stall and one of the best material/fabric stalls in the market stocking fab end-of-line cut-price suitings and linens. I made lots of my own clothes back then, including lined jackets and trousers – why oh why did I not take photos of my creations and what did I do with those pieces? Then, continuing along the Debenhams side, all the way up to almost the end of the market by the Rossi's ice cream van (yummy!) there was an excellent selection of shoe stalls. 

Oh, and I now remember Kiddie City the toy shop at the end of the entrance to the precinct – much earlier, when I was about five years old this was a cycle shop and Dad took me here to buy my first bike, a big blue tricycle with an open compartment at the rear. I cycled it all the way home, partly along Mercury Gardens which was then just a country lane/track. Today, that lane is a dual carriageway forming part of the ring road. And I have vague memories of walking past old houses at the top end of the market that then linked to little paths at the side of the Town Hall enabling us to cut through to the streets that led to grandma and granddad's house in Dorset Ave

Back to the market area. The Rumford Shopping Hall behind the fruit stalls contained many more good haberdashers and material stalls plus second hand and antique stalls. And then, within the widest section at the far end on the left adjacent to the bus stops, there were four rows of stalls offering a wide variety of things. When I was a small child, I remember seeing animals/pets for sale here; puppies, rabbits, birds, small reptiles, etc, but by the 80s these were long gone. The end of the market today looks like this but this pastiche construction was not there when I lived in the area. I recall large wooden construction with ads pasted onto it. I am sure it was a sort of muddy green/khaki colour framed in white – it doubled up as sheds for the traders' stall frames.

Well, it's taken about 17 years to get around to another visit, specifically on a market day. This was brought about by one of my online talks via Zoom which is about street markets in central London and how they have diminished, adapted, or disappeared completely as our shopping habits have changed. Conversations after that talk have provoked discussions about markets on the periphery of London and how Romford was one of the best. On Saturday 14th August I made the pilgrimage. I met up with a couple of ladies who have attended my talks (nice to finally meet them in the flesh!) and we were joined by one of my schoolfriends who lives in Rush Green.

Here goes... Actually, no... I've changed my mind... I keep remembering more things... this is already too long and I have lots of pics to sort out that I took on the day. I do the 2021 update in a separate post.

 

Holloway Odeon update (part2) – new renovation revealed in all its slap-dash glory

Earlier this year I wrote a post about how I was far from happy with the new logo and its placement on Holloway Odeon, my local cinema, a building which has been undergoing renovations this past year or so.
On Thursday I was walking up Holloway Road and, as I turned into Tufnell Park Road, I looked up and and exclaimed "Wow" out loud as I saw the gleaming façade finally revealed.

Holloway Odeon, 2020 renovation, main tower and entrance on the Tufnell Park Road side

A man heard me and stopped and stared at me, grinning. I thought that he thought the 'wow' was directed at him, but no. I spoke to him and he introduced himself as David Latter, the architect of the building. I wondered if Howard Crane the actual architect of the building back in 1938 would have been pleased to hear someone taking the credit, but nevertheless engaged David in conversation and we chatted about the renovation which he was clearly very pleased about. I commended him on the removal of the blue paint on the metal windows which have been stripped and painted black and the reinstatement of the restaurant area there. I made mention of my knowledge of the history of the building and I also made comment about those nasty logo panels, but it was clear from his expression he didn't really get my point. He told me his company works on lots of revamped cinemas round the country and he gave me his business card. I also briefly met his assistant who was unchaining his bike from a nearby lamp post. David urged me to go inside to view the interior.
I crossed the road to take a closer look. I couldn't get inside as it's not yet open to the public, but the interior does indeed look better designed. That can wait for another day. Instead I wandered around the outside at studied the renovation at street level.
Oh dear, what a disappointment.
From a distance it looks marvellous, but get up close and it's slapdash, shoddy workmanship. I cannnot believe with all the products and processes available today that better results cannot have been achieved. Most of the lovely original faience tiles have been painted. I think on the upper sections shown above that a layer of varnish has been added as no way way was it ever that shiny before. However, other areas at ground level have been overpainted in a strange yellow tone that is not the same as the pale terracotta originals that have stood the test of time for over 80 years. That might have been Ok had the paintwork not been so messy – wires have been painted over without any idea of realigning them, edges are not straight, there are patches of overpainting, holes and defects have not been repaired. Yet the original tiles are still filthy, hinting that this new paint has been applied over years of dirt. New additions such as the canopy are mis-aligned and far from curved with cut and breaks and gaps where they bend and abut other areas.
Basically, if they could achieve an impressive, or even just adequate, standard of workmanship in the 1930s, why is it not possible today? Quality control or pride in one's work does not seem to be important these days.
See the evidence below.

The new window frames look marvellous but the black-edged canopy above street level has frilled edges

More views of the canopy along the Tufnell park Road side – juddery curves and wobbly straights

Silky reflective paintwork over the tiles along the TufPkRd side already has has patches of repair. And under the canopy by the main door at the corner a strip has been cut to go round old wires that feed through an air brick. These wires are probably not even functional any longer. Note also how the thin strip veers away from the wall and has been snipped to make it bend back again. Was this really the most effective way to do this?!

Canopy at the corner over the main entrance. The two curved sections have a gap between them and where the white ceiling panels meet the wall they are not cut at the correct angle, leaving thin triangular holes. Also note other bits of wire that could have been tidied up, plus dodgy curved [black] edges and filthy original tiles etc.

Canopy at main door. The curve on the underneath is not a curve – surely there are products available that can achieve a soft arc? Are there no artisans who can produce better quality results with the materials at hand? And, on the front on the right hand side of the main canopy, there is vertical gap, though strangely not parallel, where the panels do not meet. And again, more of those snips in the curves. Is this a literal/visual example of "cutting corners"?

Along the Holloway Road side it appears the renovation proper ends as all that is is in evidence is a bit of shoddily applied paint at ground level and some new panels that I had assumed were temporary but now fear are permanent seeing as the cinema opens up next week. Couldn't they at least have cleaned the original tiles and sympathetically repaired all the damage caused by previous panels and fixings? 

The northern section of the building on Holloway Road. Some bits painted, some bits not, more painted wires, more dirty tiles and unrepaired defects, ends of bits of newly-applied wood, and at the very end, a horrible patchwork corner. This side of the building was originally designed as shops interspersed with doors that provided access to cinema waiting areas below. This negated people having to queue in the rain and reduced congestion on the busy pavement. The area above the green line was a terrace that provided alfreco seating for the restaurant. It really seems like this part of the building has been deemed by Odeon to be of little imporatnce, yet it is a long swathe facing an important A-road – now the messiest part of the building is seen by the most people.

Odeon Holloway – update on renovations (part1)

The Odeon Holloway is being renovated.
The info boards around the hoardings show that they are reinstating much of the original Art Deco colour sceme and re-opening the restaurant area on the frst floor behind the big tall windows.
That's great.
I was hoping that they'd out up free-standing letters on the exterior as per when it was a Gaumont cinema (see below). Or some big neon letters would be nice.
But, recently, the new street-facing signage was revealed:

Odeon Holloway Road, N7, January 2020

Oh how disappointing. An opportunity missed. How is this signage in-keeping with the Art Deco style of the building?!
These days, we have laser cutting and digital technology, LCD screens and lighting, and moving graphics, so couldn't something more evocative have been installed here?
Odeon's designers have simply (by which I mean 'lazily') repurposed a big flat space that, in the early days of the cinema, was used to advertise films or events that were showing or coming soon. This would have involved men climbing up and down ladders; something that is not possible in these days of health and safety.
OK, reinventing the space is fine, but this big bland blue panel is, for me, a wasted opportunity. Note that the inside of the building as still going to be predominantly Odeon blue which is so not how the building looked in the late 1930s and totally at odds with the company's suggestion of a return to the sumptuous surroundings of the past.
Odeon's brand lock-up is here slapped in the middle of the blue panel but it is restricted in size by the height of the panel. And, as such, lacking in impact. There's more blue than brand. More laminate than logo.
This is a horrid, unbalanced, 'logo' anyway – the LUXE section and rules take up more space than the company name – that's just plain silly. It looks like the design project was given to a junior or someone on work experience. The 'designers' do not look to have actually considered how this logo device would work when placed on different shapes and formats. It's fairly normal practice to consider the options and create a few versions of a brand to allow for the various places where it might be applied. This lazy, one size fits all, approach is sure to be happening on Odeon's other sites too.
Going past another Odeon Luxe in Putney recently, I noticed the design and layout of the elements there is different – there are no horizontal lines. Therefore, Odeon don't appear to have a standard logo/lock-up usage guidelines which is poor in itself but means there is not excuse for this half-arsed Holloway layout. 
I have been working on signage projects for years, polishing many turds over the decades, and could have made this look so much better. Every time I walk past this building, and that's almost daily, I mentally rearrange the logo elements to create a better layout. I'd have created an alternatve, better-balanced, lock-up by making the ODEON letters almost twice the size with LUXE* slipped in underneath (at this size) but with rules either side rather than above and below.

 

UPDATE (part2): the building has had a facelift – oh dear – see more here

Anyway, enough of the disappointment... below is a pic of how the cinema looked in the year it first opened.
And lots more pics here:

1938

*Luxe – I assume this means luxury with those big sofa-style chairs with receptacles for drinks etc. Call me old-fashioned, but prefer I like to sit properly on seats/chairs. I find the new seating uncomfortable, too deep back to front. I have been known to take a cushion with me to support my lower back! And don't get me started on popcorn and all that noisy munching and slurping....!

Hanging on in there in York Way

Just north of the railway line at 186 York Way, over the road from what used to be Maiden Lane railway station, just one old Victorian building remains squished in amongst the new builds.
How very strange.
And it's sort of ironic that it's home to an estate agent.

This district has seen big changes and lots of redevelopment in the past few decades. It used to be a very smelly area known as Belle Isle – a rather misleading name considering the stinky, noxious, businesses that were – most of the companies here were linked in some way to the nearby Caledonian meat market.
My old directories show me that for at least the period 1895–1915 this particular building was occupied by Harris, Barber & Son, horse slaughters. And to the rear there was 'Pleasant Grove'. There's still Vale Royal just down the hill. Maiden Lane, the earlier name of York Way/Rd, was actually a ref to 'midden' meaning a rubbish heap.

Façadism: calm down dear – it's happening everywhere!

Façadism – keeping an original street-facing part of a building but removing and replacing everything behind it and then adding a new building behind it. 
Recently people have been up in arms about this citing examples such as the Mallet, Porter & Dowd building in Caledonian Rd and the rear of the hospital building in Artillery Row as examples of how bad this is. The Gentle Author/SpitalfieldsLife is one such person who is getting rather angsty about it and uses words like outrage, plague, folly – he is currently asking people to help him crowd fund a book on the subject.
Well, like Michael Winner, I say, calm down dear! Put you handbags down! What are you upset about exactly? Can we please put this into perspective...
Is the stress caused by loss of the old building? Or the building of the new one? Would the 'Façamoaners' rather the whole thing had been demolished? Does keeping only the front-facing section make them sad, like recalling a dead relative?
Yes, I am also disappointed at the amount of glass that is quickly replacing the old buildings, especially in the Square Mile during the last 15 years, but I am aware that 'progress' means moving with the times. Deals are not made in coffee houses these days.
Are the Façamoaners suggesting that we keep everything that has ever been built? We can't save everything! What do they think was there before? Consider that the coffee houses replaced Tudor buildings which were built on Roman dwellings etc – should we build on levels until we reach the sky?

Mallet, Porter & Dowd, Caledonian Rd

Regarding the two examples I give at the top of this post, in my humble pragmatic opinion, having studied both of those sites I have come to the conclusion that they have been well-considered, and keeping an attractive part of an old building helps a passer-by who is not that up on local history to question an area's heritage. Surely that's not a bad thing?
The MP&D/Costa CallyRd site (pic right) is often criticised because the old and new windows do not align. I agree that it does look odd at first glance. But, look closer to see that the old and new front walls are approx one metre apart – to align the windows would minimise light into the building, especially on an east-facing site. This design allows light to enter the building from many angles. The façade was the most interesting and attractive part of the building – as a warehouse only the front of would have had any embellishment. It's amazing that it's been retained at all. Again, would the façamoaners prefer to have this part also removed and we just see a flat wall of glass and clip-together panels, as per the rest of the terrace going south (left in the pic)? The new glass building will not last as long as the 1874 brickwork – there will be further developments here I am sure. My own problem with the renovation is the loss of the 99% of an original doorway of which only a tiny triangle remains at the extreme left.

Sussex Way, Holloway N7. Built 1870s.

A lot Holloway, N7, was built in the 1870s including the residential streets where I live. Façadism is in action here too but it's not so obvious; not so clearly defined. I reckon that less than 10% of the houses here will have interiors that resemble original 1870s floor plans. As I write this three houses a stone's throw away are being gutted and extended backwards and upwards – I expect bi-fold doors and pedestal kitchen units to arrive in the next few weeks.
In the case of Niclar House on Shoreditch High Street a bit of façadism would have been welcome.
Food for though eh.
That'll do.
Thanks for reading this.

The pillars of NYT

The building that is home to the National Youth Theatre, 443-5 Holloway Rd, N7, was originally built as Holloway Hall in 1865 and used for meetings, events and shows including, in 1873, 'Aborigine travelling minstrels' and a baby elephant (not on stage at the same time!)
NYT have plans in place to make some clever architectural changes to the building and I recently went inside during one of their open evenings to see how the spaces will be revamped.
The large area at the rear of the ground floor, which 150 years ago was the  auditorium, is today used to create stage sets and I noticed that many of the columns within are 'decorated' with interesting paint patterns and graffiti.

I understand that these columns will be removed one renovations are complete to create an open, even more useable, unimpeded space.
Keep your eye on local press for updates about NYT's improvements.

Update on Toby Ale signage

Almost two years ago I wrote about the renovation of an old Charringtons pub in Swinton Street, Kings Cross, WC1, and its lovely old Toby Ale tiled motifs.
Well I am happy to report that the new owners of The Kings Cross Arms which is now a hotel and restaurant have given the place a wash and brush up and the panels are still perfectly intact. Each is flanked by some of those ubiquitous filament lamps though the shadows/ghosts of older lamps looks to have proved hard to remove. It is now called The House of Toby – named after the plaque – how lovely – phew!
The other news on this subject is that I now do not have all the original images of the montage that I put together in that last piece on the subject. I lost most of this collection when my AppleMac crashed last year – I had collected my labelled photos into a folder on my desktop and had neglected to copy it over elsewhere to an external HD, a USB stick or to my web archive.
Tomorrow, tomorrow etc.
Another annoying thing is that I hadn't even captioned the 12 images in that montage so I now can't identify/remember the locations (d'oh!).
It wasn't the only collection to bite the dust – I also lost Woolworths stores, David Greig shops, Burtons Deco motifs, an A-Z of ghostsigns across London (by street), ditto pubs signs and the like. Oh, and ditto lots of written research that I had compiled for my guided walks etc. And archive images, and boot scrapers and coal hole covers and date stamps and and
Oh well; live and learn. None has died. In a way it all felt quite cathartic.
Shall I start again? Nah!