Tigger was feeling a little unwell on Sunday (no, not you-know-what: the symptoms didn’t fit) and so we did not venture forth, not even for the coffee that we promised ourselves yesterday.

On Monday, Tigger was still feeling under the weather and so we stayed at home. In other circumstances, she would have gone to Sainsbury’s for the weekly shopping but instead we fired up the Chop Chop app and did the shopping by remote control (see A warm day and shopping online.)

Although the app carried a warning that the service was busy and delivery times might be longer, the goods arrived promptly. This time no items were missing. Quite an impressive service.

Today, I’m glad to say, Tigger was feeling much better and ready for a walk as usual. It had been raining and there was still moisture in the air. Cloud cover made for a dull scene. Suddenly, the clouds were whisked away and the sun shone down unimpeded. According to the forecast, the temperature should have been 21°C (70°F) but it felt much warmer than that.

Quite near us is a rather exclusive residential street called Claremont Place. Despite its proximity, we had never ventured within and today we decided to take a look. If you look at it on the map, you will see that the road performs a loop, with a single entry/exit.

New River Company ownership plaque

At the entrance, I photographed this plaque. It is somewhat worn but you can make out that it was affixed by the New River Company to indicate that beyond this point the land falls under its ownership. Who owns it now I do not know, unless it was inherited along with the rest of the land by Thames Water.

Claremont Square and its garden

The low-rise blocks of flats are arranged in a circle around a central garden. There are also gardens behind the flats. The whole estate looks clean and tidy and the central garden is well kept. This makes me suspect that these are privately owned properties, not Council run, but I am not absolutely certain of this.

Central garden
Photo by Tigger

This photo by Tigger shows the garden. In the middle stands a curious object that we think must have once held a sculpture or a sun dial or some other ornament that is now missing.

According to histories of the area, Claremont Place was first developed in the early 1800s and was much more extensive. I think that a large part of it was lost to the newly developed highway today known as Pentonville Road. The present buildings too, are obviously 20th-century and not 19th-century.

A candelabrum

Passing through Myddelton Square, I spied this curious object hanging down into a basement area. It is badly rusted but still bears some delicately wrought decorations. As far as I can see, this is not a light fitting adapted for electric bulbs but an actual candelabrum. The chain is too long for it to have hung in the rooms of these houses, so I wonder where it has come from and why it is languishing here. Silly of me perhaps but I feel rather sorry for it!

Mature ivy on a brick wall

As I have remarked before, you can pass the same way again and again and still find new things to attract your attention. We went through Myddelton Passage, where the police badge numbers are engraved in the ancient brick wall (see 1850 – a good year for PCs). One part of it is covered with ivy but I had taken no particular notice of it until today when Tigger pointed out how thick and robust the branches had become – as you can see by looking in the centre of the photo. The ivy has lived and thrived here for a very long time.

And for another curiosity, we saw that in spaces between the growths of ivy, the wall is marked with groups of white dots.

Groups of white dots

You gardeners and botanists probably know what these dots are but to us it was a new discovery: they appear where the ivy has previously anchored itself to the brickwork and in many cases, bits of old tendril were still adhering within the dots. Live and learn!

Making a loop, we made our way to Myddelton’s, arriving this time before they closed! Coffee in hand, we made speedily for home.