The wonderful details on, around and above London's streets
There's always something new to discover in London, even if it takes over 45 years to find it... I'm sure that I have mentioned before that I am one of the small team of volunteer guides who leads tours in The Royal Parks, specifically in Kensington Gardens and St James's Park. See more here . We report to staff within the Learning Centre building in Hyde Park, AKA The Lookout. I'm mentioning this…
Let's try and keep this mostly pictoral. A tour of Harrow School buildings with The London Appreciation Society. Arrive Harrow-on-the-Hill station, turn right, buy a Tesco meal deal, pass 1970s shop with moulded cement brick façade on upper floor. There are few examples of these across London, such as in Portobello Road market which is now a Tesco store. Up Petersborough Rd. Literally 'up' – it's…
Let's cut the chase* – oh dear, it's as I feared. Here is an update about the renovation of this marvellous example of 1960's architecture. It used to look like this, giving luxury airport vibes: In my previous post I had written that I had been told that the orange letters (Eurostile/Microgramma with gilded outlines and recessed centres) would be reinstated. Er. No. A few weeks ago I noticed that…
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Montague Burton, the tailor of taste. But, imho, not so tasteful these days on Long Eaton High Street. I have just been alerted to the "restoration" of a Burton's store in Derbyshire . I know this isn't in London, but I fear this type of thing is likely to happen on similar sites here in the capital. Ugh – paint it black strikes again! I'm here stealing/copying the pics from the link above to show…
Yesterday evening I presented a talk for the Letter Exchange at The Artworkers Guild on Queen Square. The subject was The Signwriters of Old London and I shared with them my observations and research about some of the people and companies who created beautiful carved and gilded shop fascias or hand-painted ads on buildings. The Q&A after the talk was really good and one person asked about drop…
Within the entrance to Elgin Mews at the rear of The Elgin at 96 Ladbroke Grove which, btw, is an absolutely gorgeous example of a Victorian gin palace, there are some large letters painted on the wall. Here's a screenshot of the Google map of the area: Today there are residential properties along the mews, but up until the 1970s, there would have been small tradesmen here offering various…
St Martin’s-in-the-Fields continues to host “The Conversation” , an excellent series of interviews available in-person or from the comfort of your sofa on Tuesday evenings at 7pm through to the end of July. Some talks are within the church, some are in the crypt. I have, so far, attended three… I found Harriet Walter* to be amazingly engaging – she spoke about her relationship with Shakespeare’s…
A one of The Royal Park's volunteer guides, I will be leading some free tours on Saturday 6th June about The Great Exhibition site in Hyde Park. This is part of the Great Exhibition Road celebrations . Tours start at 2.30pm and 4.15pm, but group size is limited – simply show up on the day and register at our stall outside Imperial College. My colleague Elizabeth will leading the walks at the same…
Here are some pics from a few weeks ago when I walked from Whitechapel High Street to The Prospect of Whitby pub on the Thames Path. It's an area I like a lot and every time I pass through I spot something I hadn't noticed last time. Here goes. Heading first to Stepney Farm, I decided rather than walk via gorgeous Stepney Green, as is often my default route, that I'd use White Horse Lane. It's a…
The last three years I have visited Clerkenwell Design Week I've discovered new things and interacted with interesting people, as per my glowing reviews in 2023 and in 2025 . But not this year, because I found it has become more of more a hospitality event with unusual seating, rather than a showcase for design with occasional canapés. I visited for 3-4 hours on both Wednesday and Thursday…
Earlier this year I joined a group tour of the buildings and grounds that make up the Salvation Army training college opposite Denmark Hill station . For me, this visit was well overdue as I’ve been meaning to find out what’s beyond the impressive foyer for many years now. Whenever I’ve been in the vicinity before it’s been on days when the library and museum are closed to the public. I am…
Next time you are shopping in Holloway, look out for a series of hand-painted artworks between Boots and Lidl. I think I first spotted them in mid-2024, yet whenever I point them out to Holloway locals, whether friends, other shoppers or people at the bus stop, it is rare that they have ever noticed them before. I love the double trompe-l'oeil of the corner window with a view beyond. A lot of time…
The scaffold has been removed and Braidwood Passage is again available as a link between Aldersgate Street and Cloth Street . It's a delight – and really uplifting to see some attractive new architecture, employing unusual bespoke decorative elements. This teal blue tiled wall with splashes of colour beckoned me to investigate its full length. The V-shape or zig-zag tiles form a lattice effect and…
Here we go again. As I am often to be heard saying, nobody demolishes or changes something with the intent to upset us – they really do believe they are improving things. Bless em. But once it's gone, it's gone. I'm not asking that we keep everything, that would be daft, but when lovely hints of history that have hung on for over 100 years are suddenly removed and replaced with unsympathetic and…
Back in the day (as they say) I used to love popping into The Hunterian Museum at The Royal College of Surgeons in Lincoln's Inn Fields. I'd sometimes arrange to meet friends by Charles Byrne's very tall skeleton which formed a central focus to the exhibits that surrounded it. Here's how the main space looked back then, as shown in on this wikipedia page : Image: Paul Dean (StoneColdCrazy),…
Earlier this month I was busy googling info about St James's Square when this image on eBay cropped up in the search results. Here's a screen shot of that page in case the item is sold by the time you click on the link: The image is dated 1933 and shows at the eastern corner of St James's Square at its junction with Charles II Street here where today an [electric] lamp post stands, the same design…
I recently spotted that the old carved and gilded barbershop/hairdresser sign at 205 Kings Cross Road has been replaced with a modern plastic sign. I am disappointed to say the least. Here are two images showing how it used to look. First my photos from 2008 when the sign was surrounded in bright blue paint (apologies for the low-res image – I can’t access my originals right now) followed by a…
The Garrison Chapel is a Grade II listed 1852 church nestled between Pimlico Road and Chelsea Barracks. No longer a working church – it has been converted into an exhibition space for The King's Foundation . The exterior spaces around the chapel have been recently renovated and remodelled – the whole area is well worth a visit. The current show is Face2026 – ends 26th April – however, the guy on…
Those clever curators at Dulwich PG have done it again. This time, Kathleen Soriano (yes, it's that lady from Sky's Landscape/Portrait Artist of the Year shows) has curated a fabulous collection of Konrad Mägi's work , and I can see why she loves them! I was at the press view prior to the exhibition opening on 24th March and it was a delight seeing and hearing Kathleen enthuse about Konrad…
Re-watching this delightful film recently on Talking Pictures , I was convinced that I recognised the location of the shop where she pawns her harp as being in Camden Passage, Islington. Yep... here are a few snaps I took of how that junction looks these days: The corner shop has gone, I know not why, perhaps someone can explain that. I find it interesting that the pawn shop in the movie, selling…
I have this morning added some updates to these old posts – click the links above the pics to read the articles and see the pics at larger size: Scratched graffiti outside the Humanist Chapel in Rugby Street New life for Michli's old grocery store Loss of another ghostsign in Holloway Road Woodblock paving in Pentonville Road
On a recent visit to the Grade II listed RAF Club at 128 Piccadilly I was at first intrigued by a pair of narrow vertical windows either side of the door. Here's one of them viewed from inside the reception area – it's slathered in layers of paint and, as such, no longer functional. Viewed from the street , these little windows are very hard to notice being as they are hidden behind the pillars…
Palm Court at Alexandra Palace exhibition halls contains two fountains around which sit Egyptian sphinxes and obelisks. I stopped to admire them when I visited the excellent Fresh Art Fair a few weekends ago. As I was making my way out of the building I sat in this space to respond to some messages on my phone and happened to notice that an access plate near my feet had been mis-filled with tiles…
Stratton Street runs round the back of Green Park Station. At the far left/northern corner, high up on the on No.15 there is a hopper that I have always admired that takes the form of a grotesque bird. I often stop to admire it, but it appears I've never taken a decent photo of it, so here it is on streetview with a screen grab below from that link: It's a pretty impressive and unusual bit of…