Those of you who used to subscribe by email to my other blog – SilverTiger – but unsubscribed when you received large numbers of back posts copied from this blog, may be glad to know that the catching up is now complete and so it’s safe to resubscribe.

The “deluge”, as some saw it, was the result of my wishing to complete the job as quickly as possible. As I had in fact announced closure of that blog, I did not think that there would still be people who subscribed to it. Perhaps that was naive of me and I am sorry for any upset caused.

Following complaints. I did moderate the flow to five catch-up posts a day. If even that number was too rich for your palate, then I am sorry but I wanted to complete the task within a reasonable time frame.

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The sky is more firmly grey today than yesterday and there was a scattering of fine drizzle. With the same temperature as yesterday, this made the atmosphere rather muggy.

We called first at Jusaka to leave with them the bag containing our takeaway cups for when we returned later.

Tigger is currently “collecting” old fire hydrants for an online site that she frequents with other enthusiasts of surviving antique street furniture.

Today we were hunting down an elusive prey in Spencer Street and, I’m glad to say, found it.

Old fire hydrant
Adapted from a photo by Tigger

The inscriptions on it were badly worn and it was impossible to read them but we guess it dates from the Victorian period. Despite no longer being in use, there remain quite a few of these hydrants in existence.

Goswell Road

As you can see from this photo of Goswell Road, it’s rather miserable day today, at least as far as the weather is concerned.

Old Gordon’s Gin factory

This was Gordon’s London Gin factory, built in 1957 on the site of their original early 19th-century factory. It ceased production, I beieve, in the 1980s and has been repurposed as offices, though the Gordons name is still visible.

Old Finsbury Mission

In Moreland Street is this interesting building. It helpfully displays a foundation stone:

Foundation stone, 1868

This stone, or rather, cement, is somewhat worn but one can make out a date of 1868 and, in rather florid mock-Gothic characters, the name “Spencer Place Baptist Chapel”. No doubt this site was once in Spencer Place but in 1937, the name ceased to exist, addressed in it being assigned to Goswell Road and Moreland Street.

Spencer Place, like Percival Street and Spencer Street (see above) was probably named after Perceval Spencer (note the different spellings of the name), Chancellor of the Exchequer 1807, Prime Minister 1809 and shot dead in the lobby of the House of Commons in 1812.

Moreland Street has had several names in its history, the last previous being Charles Street. I don’t know when it acquired the current one. There seem to be several possible candidates for the origin of the current name. A favourite is John Moreland, builder and bricklayer, whose business nearby in Goswell Road ran from about 1809 to 1843 or so.

The chapel later became known as the Finsbury Mission, under the non-conformist banner. When it ceased operating, I do not know. The building is now partly residential and partly offices. By a nice irony, the basement is occupied by the British Humanist Association.

Goswell Road at Rosebery Avenue

We now turned back up Goswell Road to claim our coffees from Jusaka. Here we are almost on a level with Rosebery Avenue and you can see that the weather is as damp and miserable as ever.

Not that we are down hearted, certainly not. We have enjoyed our walk and seen a few interesting sights and if going out is pleasant, so is returning home with our cargo of coffee!

The weather today was quite warm (19°C, 66°F) though cloudy but with intervals of sunshine. This tempted us to venture further afield than we have done recently with the sad result that we felt quite tired as a result – we are badly out of practice!

A sunny interval

This view from Mylne Street towards Myddelton Square shows the summery atmosphere when the sun shone. In between whiles, the clouds closed to dull the scene.

Ladybird larva

Passing through Myddelton Passage, I photographed this ladybird larva. To be honest, I don’t know whether it is a native or one of the invasive Harlequin Ladybirds that are causing havoc among the native population. I hope it’s one of the good ones.

Colourful sprout

On our way through Spa Green, my attention was caught by this twig sprouting low down an otherwise bare tree trunk. Its variegated colours were attractive in the sunlight. Why do twigs sometimes sprout in odd places like this?

City University College Building

This is a building belonging to City University in St John Street. I know, I’ve photographed it before but it’s a handsome piece of work and worth capturing again.

Northampton Square Gardens

The name Northampton is attached to a number of streets in Islington, along with the name Compton. The Comptons were from the 17th century landowners in the area who later became marquises of Northampton. In the middle of the square, as is usual, is a park or garden. This one boasts a bandstand though I doubt whether any bands play there these days.

No dogs

Humans are welcome to stroll or sit in the gardens but dog walkers are out of luck: no dogs allowed!

Early 19th-century shop and house

We were intrigued by this building in Tompion Street and we were right to be intrigued. It turns out that it is a Grade II listed building, originally a house and shop dating from 1815-18. For more details, check the link.

Tompion Street received its name only in the 1930s. Before that, it was called Smith Street after the Smith Company that, starting from about 1780, made clock glasses and glass shades here. The name Tompion, of course, refers to the 17th-century clockmaker, Thomas Tompion, whose clocks still command high prices from collectors.

Modern sculpture – artist not named

We found ourselves beside some more buildings of City University and here there was a modern sculpture. There was no ascription plate so I do not known the title, date or artist’s name.

Self portrait

I walked round the sculpture, looking for the best angle for a photo but the light wasn’t very good here so I made do with the first snap. But its reflective surface provided an opportunity for a self portrait!

Cafe – closed

Through the window could be seen a cafe, predumably for staff and students. Today it was closed and looking rather sad – a symbol of these troublous times.

Colourful canopy

We walked through a housing estate called Emberton Court and spotted this unusual colourful canopy at the entrance. Some of the walls were decorated with tile work and I particularly noticed this one:

Ship in tiles

At first sight you might think this represents a Viking ship but that cannot be so. The helmets of the crew are all the same and resemble those worn by the invading Norman forces. So does this represent William’s fleet sailing to conquer England?

The name Emberton probably refers to Joseph Emberton who designed residential tower blocks.

Pigeon – Spa Green

We started back now but by the time we reached Spa Green once more, we felt tired enough to have a rest on one of the benches. After all these weeks, we are sadly out of condition! While sitting there, I photographed one of the resident pigeons. Did I mention that I am fond of pigeons? Yes, probably, once or twice 🙂

I expect I don’t need to say that our next port of call on the way home was Myddelton’s deli.

Coffee and Portuguese custard tart

We bought our usual coffees and today an extra treat – a Portuguese custard tart each. Shameless luxury!

It’s not a very pleasant day today. It’s so cloudy that the sky has been as dark as evening all day and it is raining. It has to rain sometimes, of course, but it is not welcome when it comes. The temperature is cooler than yesterday (14°C, 57°F) but, curiously, it didn’t feel cold.

Islington High Street

This photo taken at the Angel crossroads shows how miserable the conditions are.

I wasn’t inspired, photographically speaking, and only took the above snap but here are a couple by Tigger.

Garden foliage
Photo by Tigger

This view of foliage and flowers in a garden that we passed could serve as a model for William Morris to design wallpaper. Strangely, the poor light had a quality that made the plants glow even more brightly and colourfully.

We are used to seeing squirrels in our streets but just lately we have seen a lot of small squirrels rushing about. Tigger captured this one jumping from a wall. (The blur is the squirrel!)

Squirrel jumps from the wall
Photo by Tigger

I think the reason for this might be that young squirrels born earlier in the year are now leaving the maternal nest and beginning to explore the world and make their lives in it.

In view of the conditions, we only made a dash to Jusaka for coffee and put off going for a “proper” walk till the weather improves. Let’s hope it will be fine tomorrow.

Today is a dreamy day for some reason. Perhaps I slept badly and that has left me feeling sleepy. The weather echoes my mood, being neither one thing nor the other: no rain but a cloudy sky with the occasional sunny interval; neither cold, nor hot (18°C, 64°F), so that you don’t whether to wear a coat or not.

Over the weekend I finished reading the philosophy book (see A book on Philosophy), yes, all 996 pages of it. This left me free to start on my next project which is to read and study Jane Bliss’s An Anglo-Norman Reader. This consists of a selection of texts written during the period (roughly 11th to 14th century) when French, or rather the dialect of it derived from Norman French that became known as Anglo-Norman or Anglo-French, was the language of the royal court and elite classes.

Contrary to what you might expect, some very interesting and entertaining works were written in this language, some of which came to form part of the cultural heritage of France. For example, the famous historical ballad La Chanson de Roland (The Song of Roland) was first written in England, not France (though later versions were edited there).

The book is not an easy read if you take it seriously because medieval French is as different from modern French as Middle English is from modern English. Added to this, one must take account of the various dialects in use at the time. The more you read, however, the more familiar you become with what are at first incomprehensible words and phrases. The selected passages are all translated into English but – unfortunately, in my view – the translations are literary rather than literal, leaving the reader with a lot of work to do if s/he wishes to get to grips with the grammar and syntax.

Shopping trolley in waiting

We went for our usual afternoon stroll, covering by now familiar ground. I photographed the shopping trolley which was lurking in more or less the same place as the “Bicycle in waiting” that I photographed in A stroll with fanlights. I could point out that whereas a hire bicycle can be put to use by anyone who needs it, that’s not true of shopping trolleys and that the people who take them and dump them are both selfish and irresponsible but, if I did, no one would take any notice of me and so I won’t bother 🙂

The only other photo I took today was of this tiled entrance to a house in Myddelton Square.

Tiled entrance

It is a fine piece of work, colourful but not garish, perfectly in keeping with the style of quiet elegance of these houses. I don’t know whether it is original or whether it has been repaired or is even a replacement of the original but it matches similar tiling elsewhere in the neighbourhood.

Several people liked the French poem I posted yesterday, which was by Guillaume Apollinaire, so I shall post some more from time to time. I will add translations in English though I don’t expect you need this 🙂 Translating poems poses its own problems and it is rather fun to do.