LONDON - BRITTANY - MISCELLANEOUS HISTORY
The sound of fairground organs , still heard on 'galloper' carousels, is distinctive and evocative - but less known is that much of it comes from an unassuming building in Clerkenwell. Chiappa Ltd are, the sign tells us, organ builders. That short description hardly conveys the range of instruments created by Chiappa, or the changes its business has undergone since its founding in 1864. Giuseppi…
It's hard to believe that this blog is over 17 years old. That does mean it's always fun to look back over past posts, and the new year is a good time to find out which were most popular - of this year's new pieces, and of all time. Click on their titles to read more. 2025 PostBoxTree - a quirky blend of nature and street furniture in Chelsea Railway stations! - introduction to a fantastic new…
Merry Christmas - with a little glimpse of one of Paris's beautiful arcades, the Galerie Vivienne.
The Albert Bridge is perhaps London's prettiest Thames bridge, and certainly its most fragile. Right from the start, there were issues: in the 1880s, Joseph Bazalgette had to add suspension bridge elements to Roland Mason Ordish's original 1873 construction. Concrete piers were added in 1973. Despite all the changes, it is not structurally strong and traffic has to be carefully restricted. Image…
This milestone is in Haworth, Yorkshire, whose most famous residents were the Bronte sisters. The small town has lost its industrial atmosphere since Charlotte, Anne and Emily wrote their novels, but you can still visit their parsonage home . Best of all, you can arrive by steam train on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway - although it's a steep walk from station to town.
... But can you guess where I was? (I'm sure that 1/4 makes all the difference!)
When he won the Battle of Hastings. William the Conqueror had Battle Abbey built at the site. It was completed in 1094, although of course there have been many additions and alterations in the near-millennium since. One could tell many stories about it - most obviously the tales of its extraordinary power and privilege, its near-destruction in the Reformation, and its after-lives as country house,…
Closed for over three decades, and only attracting 650 passengers a day even when it was open, Aldwych Station seems like an odd relic. Its disused platforms welcome tours and film crews, but they hardly point to future innovation. Or do they? In fact, this station - like the disused platforms of Charing Cross - has been a handy place to test new ideas. And traces of some of them are visible to…
Before reading on, take a moment to think where this fine building entrance might be found, and its likely age. If you don't already know St Mary Redcliffe, you might not have guessed that this is the entrance to a parish church in Bristol - or that it dates to 1325. It leads into the hexagonal outer north porch, which leads in turn to an even older inner porch built at the turn of the thirteenth…
The underground station at Aldwych was always a bit of an anomaly: a single-stop stub of the Piccadilly Line from Holborn. There were various plans to extend the line, but they never came to fruition. The station thus remained one terminus on an infrequent shuttle between two stations a ten-minute walk apart. Its eventual closure in 1994 was hardly a surprise. Various parts of the station were…
Britain is in the midst of Railway 200 celebrations, but it's not alone in its affection for rail travel and infrastructure. There's a fantastic website celebrating 100 European railway stations. United Stations of Europe is centred on a map highlighting the continent's finest, 'selected by railway experts and enthusiasts for their geographic importance and architectural significance'. It…
Here's a fun London curiosity: a postbox which has become part of a plane tree. The postbox bears the cipher of Edward VII, so it was placed here in Drayton Gardens between 1901 and 1910. That has given it well over a century to get closer than intended to the tree behind it. The postbox is a bit rusty but still operational. Royal Mail have obviously accepted the inevitable, since the postbox is…
At the eastern end of Shepherd's Bush Green, near a pedestrian crossing, is a mysterious ventilation pipe. It's shorter than a sewer stinkpipe; and there are no obvious underground places requiring ventilation (although there's a tube station nearby and apparently there used to be toilets somewhere around here). All I've found online is some speculation - but does anyone know what the pipe was…
Between a terrace of houses and a traditional English church in Mortlake, West London is a surprising mausoleum . Not only is it much larger than might be expected in such a churchyard; it is shaped like a Bedouin tent. This is the last resting place of Sir Richard and Lady Isabel Burton, Victorian explorers and authors. Richard died first, in 1890, and Isabel commissioned the strange structure.…
If you haven't tried the quiz, have a look here first ! If you have, the answers are below. 1. The football and initials are a clue: AC for Arsenal Club. This is at the entrance to their former Highbury ground, now converted into flats. 2. This is the Ha'penny Hatch footbridge and (formerly lifting) rail bridge over Deptford Creek. 3: 'Locking piece' by Henry Moore, created in 1963-4, is in…
Five picture, five places. How many do you recognise? All are in London; none of these photos have featured on the blog before. 1: 2: 3: 4: This one really needs a clue! You'll find Emmeline Pankhurst nearby. 5: Answers will be posted next week (Monday 30 June).
Among and around all the shiny retail at Waterloo Station are endless interesting details. Most recently, I noticed this lion head decoration on platform 15. One reason for the richness of detail in the station is its rather piecemeal development over time. That's despite it having been rebuilt in the early twentieth century after the original station had become so confusing and complicated that…
Happening to be in Chester on 28 May, I was able to watch the unveiling of a new statue right in front of the railway station. It was an appropriate site, because the statue commemorates Thomas Brassey (1805-1870), railway builder. Brassey was born just outside Chester, the son of a farmer, and educated in the city. He began as a land surveyor, quickly becoming a partner of the firm in which he…
High on an Amsterdam street are these tiny characters, working hard at painting a replacement for a missing street sign. They are the work of Frankey , a prolific Amsterdam street artist. As he explain on his Instagram, the pair are on their second visit to Reguliersgragt. An earlier installation disappeared, so this version replaced them a couple of years ago. It's higher up than the first…
The paving in this small and charming Paris passageway is unremarkable at first glance. On closer inspection, it is actually a rare survival of a nearly forgotten feature of Paris and London: wood as a road surface. That might seem a strange choice, but it did make a certain sense. As the cities had moved to paved roads, one negative effect was hard to miss: the noise. The ceaseless sound of iron…
The Natural History Museum is as remarkable for its architecture as its exhibits. The whole building is a riot of decoration, featuring plants and animals galore. How many animals can you see on this section of the facade? As always, click the picture to enlarge it. And then, enjoy more plants and animals at the museum.
All but the most seasoned commuters depend on Green Park station's signs to the Piccadilly, Jubilee and Victoria lines; out to the park, Piccadilly or Buckingham Palace; or for lifts, tickets or the cash machine. But a Hidden London tour reveals that there are plenty more signs languishing in places now closed to passengers. These directions are not given in the now-familiar formats , with printed…
After a hiatus, new posts are coming! So it seemed like a good time for a new look and livelier layout. Do comment with your views on the new design.
Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE Crossness Pumping Station is one of those amazing places that are always worth revisiting . It looks pretty snazzy outside, but inside will consistently take your breath away. And it was designed to do so – even if its purpose was pumping sewage. Victorian London had a sewage problem. As the city and its population grew and grew, removing ‘night soil’…
A quick look at changing styles of street signs, all from a stroll along the main road from Dalston Junction to Stoke Newington stations. (It's the A10, although its name changes from Kingsland High Street to Stoke Newington Road and then Stoke Newington High Street.) They are a great example of how the materials, typography, and styles have evolved - but also look out for the changing local…