While we were out walking today we saw a notice that amused us and provided a title for this post.

Sneeze like a vampire

It conveys, in a striking and humourous way, the message that the government has given in more sobre terms to confine your sneeze to your sleeve so as to avoid infecting those around you. I’m sure children in particular will respond to this.

Arms of the Metropolitan Water Board

We passed by the New River Head site which has been restyled as residential accommodation and gardens. On one of the buildings there is still the coat of arms of the old Metropolitan Water Board. They took over the motto and part of the arms of the New River Company. You can compare this picture with that in Wells and a river. In 1974, the Metropolitan Water Board was itself replaced, its duties and properties being taken over by Thames Water.

(The photo is a distance shot greatly expanded, hence the fuzziness.)

The gardens

The gardens are extensive and well kept. At this time of year, the flowers are blooming, making a fine display. There is also a fountain but it has not been working recently, perhaps to save water.

Beyond the gardens you can see another building that belonged to the MWB, presumably as offices, and which has now been put to other uses.

Doorway, MWB building

This is the entrance of the above mentioned building. The foundation stone was laid in 1915. You might be able to make out the MWB monogram at the top of the circular ornament above the door. The same monogram is worked into the drainpipes on the sides of the building.

Front of the building

This is a partial view of the front of the building. The front door is usually open during the day, offering a tantalising partial view of the interior. We would very much like to take a look inside. Maybe one day we will feel bold enough to ask for permission!

Finsbury Town Hall

This fine building in Rosebery Avenue is Finsbury Town Hall. It was opened in 1895 for use by the then Borough of Finsbury. This was absorbed into the new London Borough of Islington in the restructuring of boroughs in 1965. I believe it still belongs to the Council but no longer serves as the town hall. Because of its historic and architectural interest, it is Grade II* listed.

Canopy, Finsbury Town Hall

At the front entrance is a canopy which extends from the door to the kerb. This would enable people arriving by carriage to alight and enter the building protected from rain or snow. The canopy has the words “FINSBURY TOWN HALL” in red glass set in a crazy-paving-style glass surround. Two sets of lanterns would have provided useful illumination for people arriving at night.

Sculpted frieze

The building is almost triangular in shape (a design necessitated by the site) and at the far end there is a rounded bay with a fine sculpted frieze. Unfortunately, it is badly in need of cleaning and the dirt makes it hard to pick out the details in a photograph.

Reclining figure

The figures are naturalistic even though they have a slightly hieratic air about them. I find them very attratcive, especially this figure that has modern, rather than classical, features. It is probably recorded somewhere what these figures represent but there is no clue to this on the frieze itself.

Flowers and grafitti

Walking through one of the housing estates, where some of the buildings were looking rather shabby, we saw this thicket of flowers accompanied by grafitti, symbols perhaps of two different worlds.

Dancers on a pillar

On passing through Michael Cliffe House we saw these modernistic dancers on the supporting pillars. I don’t know who the artist is.

Horse chestnut in flower

In Spa Green Park this horse chestnut tree was in bloom, making a pretty sight. I remember being told as a chuild that this tree, known to botanists as Aesculus hippocastanum (note the hippo, from the Greek word for “horse”), owes its name to the scar left when a leaf detaches itself from a branch. The scar is indeed in the shape of a horseshoe, and even has seven marks around the edge recalling the nail holes is a real horseshoe. Apparrently, too, the nuts, called “conkers” by children, used to be ground up to make a medicine to relieve coughing in horses. Unlike the edible chestnuts that can be roasted and eaten, known as Castanea sativa, horse chestnuts are poisonous to humans.

Horse chestnut blossoms

I just hope this tree will not be damaged, as so many are, later in the year by children harvesting “conkers”. If you wait long enough, the conkers fall out of the tree of their own accord, but conkers players are often too impatient to wait!