Today was warm (20°C) and sunny, inviting us to a good walk. We accepted the invitation!

The first situation we encountered was that the police had taped off part of Pentonville Road.

Hotel taped off

The tape, strung between police cars and lamp posts, isolates the hotel and closes off Baron Street. There was no obvious reason for this except that we noticed what appeared to be a pair of shoes onm the road, suggesting an accident of some sort.

Update: The police cordoned off the area because of a fatal accident between a car and a moped. Report here.

Old Nurses’ Home

In Moreland Street we noticed this building. A curious feature is that what was obviously intended to be the entrance is now closed off with iron railings. The plaque over the door provides a clue as to the purpose of the building.

Griffon
Photo by Tigger

The beast appears to be a griffon or a winged lion. Underneath is an inscription that I could not read. Tigger was able to decipher it as indicating St Mark’s Hospital Nurses’ Home.

I can find no reference to St Mark’s Hospital in Moreland Street. It seems this building is now a clinic of UCLH (University College London Hospital). I assume that the old nurses’ home no longer exists as such.

Yellow lamp post

Another curiosity in this street is that two of these very tall lamp posts were painted bright yellow whereas all the others were black. Why are these two different?

Underground ventilation

There used to be a tube station here (I don’t know its name) whose use was discontinued. It remained closed for a number of years, presumably because the shaft was needed for ventilation of the Underground system. More recently, the old building has been demolished and replaced with this structure enclosed in “cheese grater” metal walls.

A plaque explains that it now serves a double purpose. It helps ventilate the Underground and remove excess heat (a perennial problem afflicting the Underground) and recycling this heat as heating for the local community. A neat plan and I hope it is successful.

Decorated with art works

The lower part if the structure is decorated with panels arranged in what seems a random pattern. Each is a composition of square blocks arranged in some way that is no doubt meaningful to the artist.

Close-up of art work

This is a close-up of one of the compositions to give you an idea of how they are made.

One of London’s excessively tall buildings

There used to be a limit on the height of buildings in London but, regretfully, this has been removed, resulting in the erection of ridiculously tall building that are not only a blot on the landcape but shut out the sky and turn the streets into windy canyons. This is just another wretched example.

At its base, however, we discovered something special.

Opening the lock

It is a sculpture by Ian Rank-Broadley entitled Opening the lock. It shows two men pushing one of the levers to open a gate of a lock on the nearby Regent’s Canal. One pushes with his hands while the other is literally “putting his back into it”. Their dog is paying close attention to their activity.

Decorative metal flanges

We decided to return the way we had come rather than along the busy City Road. I don’t know what the above structure is meant to be or even whether this is its final form but I liked the cheerful colours if the metal flanges decorating the outside.

Pollution measure

We came across this curious object affixed to a lamp post. Tigger asked me whether I knew what it was. I did not but Tigger knew: it is a device for collecting particulates in order to identify pollution in the local atmosphere.

As I tried to find a good angle for the photograph, two cyclists rode past. One was so curious about what I was doing that he watched me instead of the road and nearly fell off his bike!

Lunching pigeons

We continued back to the Angel by walking along Goswell Road. Near a small food store is an open area where someone had left pieces of bread. This group of pigeons was enthusiastically lunching on the bread. They looked happy and that made me feel happy too!

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p align=”left”>We called in at Jusaka for our coffee and found that, in line with the latest guidelines, they had reinstalled some of their tables and seating. They suggested we drink our coffee there. I didn’t feel quite ready for this, being used to taking it home. Perhaps next time.

Jean de la Fontaine 1621–1695

Fables

As the weather today is rather grey and miserable, we did not wander far but went more or less straight to Myddelton’s and back.

It was Tigger’s turn to notice one of those little details that escape your attention, remaining hidden in plain sight, until you notice them for some reason. They are then so obvious that you wonder how you ever failed to spot them.

Number 80 or ?

What caught her attention was this door or rather the fanlight or, in fact, both!

Does this close-up of the fanlight help to see what I’m wittering about?

Fanlight of number 80 or ?

The number on the door is 80 and that is consistent with the numbers of the other houses in the row. If you look at the central round pane in the close-up of the fanlight, however, you may be able to make out, faintly, the number 35.

When these houses were built (or, at least, when the fanlight was installed), this house was number 35, not number 80. At some point, the houses were renumbered and the old number in the fanlight was scratched out, though not without leaving a visible trace. We looked at the other fanlights in the row but in none of them could we see a ghost number. Either the householders made a better job of removing them or the glass had been renewed – quite likely, given the age of the houses.

When were the houses renumbered? I have no idea. I will try to find out but do not give much for my chances. (See Update below.)

We immediately noticed an important change in Amwell Street. The hitherto quiet street was showing signs of unaccustomed animation.

The pub is open

The George and Monkey pub has been opening lately for take-away service only but today, for the first time since lockdown was imposed, pubs may now open for trade as normal. A glimpse inside showed plenty of customers enjoying the new freedom as well as those sitting outside.

Pennies Vintage

The pub was not alone in its venture into the brave new world: Andrea Hawkes’ designer wedding dress shop on the corner was entertaining a customer and Pennies Vintage had its door invitingly open.

Gents Barbers
Photo by Tigger

Gents Barbers was open and serving customers and so was ELP Barbers at the top of the street. In both, the officiants were wearing transparent visors which extended around their faces.

Perhaps we should be thinking of checking out our cheapie barber in White Lion Street with a view to having our own overgrown locks shorn!

The new dispensation provided a lively topic for discussion when we called in at Myddelton’s for our daily ration of caffeine. As the country takes its new and faltering steps back towards some sort of normality, let’s hope there are no serious stumbles along the way.

Update: I learn from the excellent Streets with a Story by Eric A. Willats F.L.A., that what is now the lower end of Amwell Street was once known as Upper Rosoman Street. In 1936, this was incorporated into Amwell Street. As this was the end of Amwell Street where numbering began, all the houses in the now extended Amwell Street had to be renumbered. I assume that that was when number 35 became number 80.

Tigger proposed for today’s outing to take the bus to Hoxton Street. As we had already been on one bus ride (see Bus to Tottenham Court Road), I couldn’t see any reason to object.

First, though, we took our reusable cups to Jusaka and left them there, pending our return, to save carrying them everywhere with us.

Window repaired

While we there we saw that their broken window has been repaired at last.

Aboard the 294

We crossed City Road and caught a 394 bus. These buses are single deck and have only one door for both entry and exit, making them shorter than most buses. As the journey proceeds, you soon discover why this is: the bus follows a tortuous route around the back streets, turning sharp corners and travelling along narrow roads. A “normal” bus would find this impossible to do.

Cafe life in Hoxton

We disembarked in Hoxton Street and found it quite busy. Many shops were open and cafes and other suppliers of food and drink were operating take-away service or allowing people to sit at tables outside.

Hoxton Street takes its name from the district of Hoxton through which it runs. Previously considered a typical “East End” street, its character is fading under the onslaught of “gentrification”.

Melons and other fruit

This fruiterer’s shop had a fine display of fruit outside and there were plenty of customers.

Poundland

Tigger had some purchases to make in Poundland. We had worn masks on the bus, as required, but taken them off in the street. We put them on again to go into the shop, though whether this is useful to do, I do not know. The shop was quite busy and maintaining a one-metre distance from other people was at times impossible.

Workhouse cupola

In Hoxton Street is the Hoxton Trust Community Garden. In it, visible from the street, is what looks like a clock tower, albeit with a rather small clock. It is in fact the cupola from the old Workhouse (of which more anon).

Howl at the Moon

This pub has a rather unusual name, Howl at the Moon. This, as you can imagine, is not its original name. The pub exists from no later than 1797 and was known by the more conventional name of The Queen’s Head. Its new name dates from 2010.

The Unicorn

This is another vestige of the past: a pub called The Unicorn. It has existed from at least 1811 but, sadly, is no longer a pub. It has as least been spared the indignity of a silly new name.

St Leonard’s Workhouse

This building, inscribed, somewhat euphemistically, with the phrase “Offices for the relief of the poor”, was actually the workhouse. Whether those forced to throw themselves upon its severe mercy felt any relief is a moot point. It bears the date 1863 which was when it was built, replacing its predecessor of 1777.

St Leonard’s Church

From Hoxton Street, we walked along Nuttall Street to Kingsland Road. There we caught the 394 going back to Angel. The stop is opposite the great mass of St Leonard’s, the Shoreditch parish church. The original church on the site was medieval and the current one dates from 1740. It is cited in the nursery rhyme Oranges and Lemons in the line “When I grow rich, say the bells of Shoreditch”.

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p align=”left”>Our bus carried us through the maze of small streets back to the Angel. There we left it and crossed the road to Jusaka where we recuperated our cups – duly filled – and then returned home. Mission accomplished!

Today is a day of mixed weather: clouds, rain and sunny intervals. We managed a short walk between showers. We didn’t go anywhere new but walked around some oft-visited streets.

Percy Circus Garden

This is the central garden in Percy Circus, looking rather dull compared with its brighter aspect on our last visit.

I noticed something about these houses that I hadn’t noticed before:

Curved façade

I saw that the facade is curved to fit the curvature of the Circus. I wonder whether this curvature affects the shape of the room within.

My next thought was a question as to whether all the houses in the Circus had curved fronts. One way to answer that was to photograph some of them!

Curvature of Percy Circus

The houses in the above photo certainly follow the curvature of the Circus but I find it hard to tell whether the individual façades are curved or not. The third one (where the first whilte car is parked) seems to show some curvature but the others look straight. What do you think?

I shall have to go back for another look!

From Percy Circus, we passed along Prideaux Place where I photographed this house.

Smallest in the street

It is by far the smallest building in the street, a fact that makes it stand out. Was it designed small to fit a specific site or did the owners-to-be ask for a small house? Either way, it’s very attractive and I can’t help thinking that it would meet our requirements with room to spare. We could at last unpack all these boxes for whose contents we have no space!

These street lamps caught my eye because the decorations around the widest part of the lantern were sparkling in the sun. The design is modern but reflects that of the old gas lights.

The sun came out during the last part of our walk and this, together with the moisture from the earlier rain, seems to have attracted the insects. I tried photographing some of them but it’s quite hard to do with the iPhone camera. One of the problems is that of focus: when there are insects among the plants, the camera doesn’t know to focus on them and instead focuses on the plants so that the insects are blurred, out of focus.

This is a case where Tigger managed better than I did so all the following photos are edited from photos she kindly let me use.

Unknown insects on a poppy
Photo by Tigger

I don’t know what these two insects are (maybe hoverflies?) but they seem to have alighted on this poppy flower to take a drink from the raindrops on it.

Ants on flower buds
Photo by Tigger

Ants had climber all the way up to these flower buds to do whatever ants do on flower buds.

The most interesting are perhaps the bees. We found a lavender bush on which several bees were busily visiting the flowers. They move very fast and are therefore difficult to photograph. There were several sorts of bees, not just honey bees but I am not knowledgeable enough to identify the different types.

Bees
Photos by Tigger

I must ask Tigger to give me a tutorial on photographing bees (and practically everything else, for that matter!).

You can guess what comes next: yes, a call in at Myddelton’s for our daily coffee and a quick walk home to enjoy it!