Today is a Jusaka day, that is, today it is the turn of jusaka to supply our takeaway coffee. You may already have worked out that we go to Myddelton’s and Jusaka in turn on alternate days. This is because we like both and this seems the most equitable way of doing things.

Urban garden

These Georgian style houses have been here for up to 200 years and so have their front gardens, where these exist. In some streets there are no front gardens, and the properties are divided from the street by their front steps and the railings around the basement. In still other streets, the front gardens that once existed disappeared long ago, replaced be single-story shop fronts.

Where the gardens still exist, they are planted according to the likes and dislikes of the occupants. Some are carefully tended and others neglected. Quite often there are ancient trees at intervals along the street, providing shade and a home for the local squirrels.

Bicycle in waiting

When we made our first trip to Paris in 2008, we “discovered” the public bicycle hire scheme called Vélib’, (see Paris 2008, September 6th). To us at the time, this was a novelty but since then, we have seen a similar scheme set up in London with fixed cycle racks and now several schemes where bicycles can be left and picked up in any odd corner of the city. Some even have electric motors to help with the pedalling!

A view from St Mark’s Church

While cycling is good exercise and using bicycles instead of motor vehicles cuts down pollution, bicycles cause problems of their own. Any idiot can jump on a bike and, ignoring the rules of the road, constitute a risk not only to himself but also to other road users and, not least, to pedestrians. Though I was once a cyclist myself, I must say that these days I regard bicycles with a somewhat jaundiced eye.

Myddelton Square Gardens

There were relatively few people in Myddelton Square Gardens today but, then, it is a weekday. The Gardens form a pleasant shady place to sit on a hot day. People also walk their dogs here and it provides a relatively safe place for children to play.

And so to today’s special topic. One of the variable features of the Georgian houses is the fanlight over the front door. This feature is not merely decorative but provides a source of light for the entrance hall and staircase. This is less important in these days of universal electricity supply but would have been useful when the houses were first built.

While the original fanlights are all very similar, there are subtle and not so subtle differences between them. Here is a selection of those seen today.

Over the life time of these houses, some fanlight have been broken and repaired or even destroyed, perhaps by wartime bombing.

Where one has been destroyed, the replacement may be a replica of the original (making it difficult to tell that it has replaced) or a completely modern design which may, or may not, suit the style of the rest of the house.

If you are not particularly interested in architectual styles, the variation in fanlight design may not mean much to you but I find it fascinating, especially when taken in the context of the rest of the design. When you first see these 19th-century Georgian houses, they may look all alike but as you begin to look more closely, all kinds of surprising details appear.

And finally…

Blanked windows and clear windows

Here is an example of something I mentioned previously (see Convulvulus and blind windows): houses with blanked out windows. In this case, half the windows have been bricked up or, more probably, were never open to start with: the colour of the bricks and the style of brickwork suggests that they were built like this.

I would dearly like to see inside one of these houses to gain a better sense of how the different features fit together. For that, I shall have to wait at least until the wretched pandemic has been beaten.