If you view my blog on a mobile phone, it may seem that the pictures are distorted. This is because they are squeezed horizontally so that a photo in landscape looks as if it is in portrait mode.

I have tried reducing the size of the pictures to cope with this but risk them ending up looking like postage stamps when viewed on the computer!

If you are limited to viewing on your mobile the following trick might help: rotate your phone 90 degrees to landscape mode and then reload the post. This works with my iPhone; I don’t whether it works on other devices.

If that doesn’t work on your device but you find a workaround, please explain it in a comment and I will add it to this post.

I would also be interested in knowing whether the photos display correctly on wider devices such as iPads and other tablets.

Today’s walk took us into Claremont Square. Unlike the archetypal “square”, it has houses on only two sides but resembles the others in having a central “feature”. This is not the usual garden though you might at a quick glance think that that is what it is. This panoramic photo by Tigger shows a view of it.

Claremont Square Reservoir

It is in fact a covered reservoir and still provides the neighbourhood with water. As you can see, the land around the built part has been allowed to grow wild and now boasts a fine display of trees, shrubs and grasses, some of them of a flowering kind.

As the reservoir is surrounded by a high metal railing, access is reserved to maintenance engineers who visit it only rarely. As a result it has come to serve the valuable secondary purpose of nature reserve. We have seen many kinds of birds inside, along with squirrels, and there are no doubt smaller creatures less easy to spot. One morning we saw a fox on top of the reservoir, silhouetted against the dawn sky.

In records dating from 1709 we learn that at that time the reservoir was an open body of water called Upper Pond but today no trace of it remains. Following the outbreak of cholera in 1846, the 1852 Metropolitan Water Act caused all open reservoirs in London to be covered and that is when this reservoir took its present shape.

Why a reservoir and why here? I have previously mentioned Hugh Myddelton and his New River (1608-13) which he buit to bring much needed water to the area. The river ends at River Head, further down the hill and is still an important component of London’s water supply. Water is pumped from that station down below to the reservoir. If you stand beside it on the main road, where you have a relatively clear view, you soon realize that this is the highest point in the district. From here, water is supplied to the whole community.

Because of its historical importance, the reservoir is now a Grade II listed building.

As usual (we missed yesterday, you may have noticed!) we paid a visit to our friends at Myddelton’s deli and bought takeaway coffees. They kindly gave a free extra: two slices of Victoria sponge!

It was a lovely warm and sunny day and in “normal” circumstances we would have been tempted to dawdle and perhaps go for a stroll in Myddelton Square garden but, things being as they are, and with coffee and cake to encourage us, we made our way home.

Tomorrow, as they say, is another day.