For once, the Bank Holiday weather was exactly as people wish Bank Holiday weather to be. The sun beamed kindly from a cloudless sky and the temperature hovered around the 25° C (77° F) mark. And all this without any hat-endangering wind 😉

We enjoyed a good walk, longer than usual, during which I took a lot of photos. A selection of them appears below.

The Gate, anciently the Clown

At 370 St John Street is the above establishment, presently home to a vegetarian/vegan restaurant called The Gate. A late 19th-century building, now Grade II listed, it is, as you may guess, an old pub. I am not sure what it was called but suspect it had many names in its time. It seems that before this one was built, the site was occupied by a pub called The Clown, supposedly in honour of Joseph Grimaldi who frequented the place after performing at the nearby Sadler’s Wells Theatre.

Part of St John Street

We continued in down St John Street, a section of which is shown above. It is quite a pleasant road, containing a number of interesting buildings, notably the local public library and the Dame Alice Owen pub mentioned previously (see Windy and cooler). It’s main claim to historical notoriety is that it used to be the last stage in the journey of cattle being driven to their gruesome fate in Smithfield Market.

Sparrow tree

Between houses nestles this tiny park or garden. I photographed the tree because it was alive with the singing and chirping of sparrows (though of course the photo doesn’t record the sound). As sparrows have become rare in towns these days, any sighting is welcome.

Once the King’s Arms

On the corner of Rawstorne Place and Rawstorne Street stands this building. We saw it the other day and speculated about its history. I thought it might have been a bank except that it is rather an out-of-the-way place for a bank. A more likely designation was that of a pub. Research today reveals that it was indeed a pub, existing from at least early Victorian times and called the King’s Arms. Its career as a pub ended in 2013 and it now seems to house offices.

Arms of the Brewers’ Company

In Brewers and hermits, I mentioned the Brewers’ Buildings, dwellings erected as a charitable works by the Brewers’ Company. We had another look at this installation today. The several buildings are all dated and cover the years of their construction between 1871 and 1882. The above photo shows the latter date together with a shield bearing the arms of the Company, sheaves of grain and barrels – suggestive of the brewing process.

Peregrine House

I photographed this residential block, called Peregrine House, simply because it is so uncommonly tall and sticks out like the proverbial sore thumb among its more normal neighbours. It also proved a challenge to photograph precisely because of its size. I should feel really uncomfortable living right at the top, given the fires that have occurred recently in high-rise blocks.

Fairy-tale door in a tree

On the corner of Hall Street, some inventive soul has installed a simulacrum of a front door in the base of a tree and some other furnishings to suggest a fairy-tale dwelling.

Hounds guarding the door

We made our way through back streets to emerge in City Road. The houses along here are all rather grand ones in the Georgian style typical of the area. They would once have been the town houses of affluent families but most are now divided into offices. Some retain vestiges of their past eminence such as this pair of hounds guarding a front entrance. One can imagine the affection in which the householder would have held them.

Missing house?

The gap in this row of houses seems anomalous. Elsewhere, the terrace is continuous. Why the sudden break here? It occurred to us that the width of the gap is the same as the width of each of the houses. Was there perhaps once a house here also? If so, why is it no longer there? One possible explanation is that it was badly damaged by bombs in WWII and the decision was taken to demolish it completely rather than attempt to rebuild it. Perhaps further research will uncover the answer.

We now continued up the road to Jusaka where we collected our daily ration of coffee before heading for home to muse on a our walk and our “catch” of photos.