For someone like me who finds the cold hard to bear, the present weather is rather trying. We waited until lunchtime before venturing out, by which time, according to the Met Office, the temperature had risen to 3°C, the best we could expect today.

City Road

Tigger proposed that we take a stroll along Duncan Terrace with a view to photographing Christmas wreaths on front doors as she was sure we would find a good selection there.

First, though, we dropped off our cups at Jusaka to be picked up on our return.

The way to Duncan Terrace is to turn off to the left at the bus stop near the top of City Road. The above photo may perhaps give some idea of the cold and dull conditions.

Duncan Terrace

The first part of Duncan Terrace, as you may recall, has a single row of houses facing a central park or garden which results from the covering over of this section of the New River. I imagine that it must be a pleasant area in which to live. The dwellings are three-storey Georgian style houses built in stages from 1791.

Our first wreath

The houses, as is typical of Georgian and early Victorian housing developments, differ very slightly from one another in small details, such as the railings and gateways, tiling on the front path and around the doorway or ironwork around the windows. Some of these details have been lost owing to repairs and alterations but some still can still be made out – such as this gateway arch. The gate, though, is no longer extant.

“Wreath” of lights

I was amused to see that the front door wreath above was echoed by a “wreath” of lights in the basement next door.

I described these houses above as having three storeys whereas I suppose that, technically, they have four stories if we count the basements. Originally, the basement would have been the kitchen and food storage area looked after by the servants. The servants are of course long gone and many of the houses have been divided into flats with the basement now being an independent apartment. (That is not quite as claustrophobic as you might think as the basement stretches right through the house and has a window into the back garden.)

Hanging on the doorknob

Wreaths are attached to doors by various means. Here, they have simply hung it on the central doorknob. That’s quite sensible as it avoids damaging the door with some other sort of attachment.

You may wonder why nearly all the houses have front doors painted black. This is because many of them have listed status which requires that they be kept in their original condition and this implies that the doors be painted black.

Stars in the windows

In addition to a wreath on the door, this house has bold red stars in the windows. I like to see people exercising their imaginations creating their own schemes of decorations.

A scarlet bow

This wreath doesn’t show up well against the black door except for the scarlet bow which certainly does stand out.

Incidentally, you may notice that the front doors are not always exactly rectangular and set straight. This is because in London the ground is liable to subsidence, a fact that was not always sufficiently appreciated by 18th and early 19th-century builders. Houses often sagged unevenly and have been patched up in various ways. (Building regulations today require very deep foundations to prevent such subsidence.)

Looking along Duncan Street

We crossed the end of Duncan Street which provides handy access from Duncan Terrace to the shops and restaurants of Upper Street yet is long enough to insulate it from that noisy area.

Red berries

In a previous post, I said that fir cones and pine cones seemed to be an essential ingredient of Christmas wreaths. Those of Duncan Terrace have shown that that was a hasty judgement. The wreaths here show a wide variety of composition, both natural (such as these berries) and artificial (such as bows and trinkets).

Mixed composition

Wreaths also vary in size and complexity from the small and neat to the large, like this one that has more than a touch of the wild wood about it!

Hiding the letterbox

This one is also hanging from the doorknob and is exactly the right size to obstruct the letterbox. Let’s hope the postman is the understanding kind!

Colebrooke Row

We didn’t explore all of Duncan Terrace but crossed over the covered river into Colebrooke Row. This is even older than Duncan Terrace, having been built from 1768. The houses here are a little larger than those opposite and we expected rich pickings. In that, we were disappointed. We “scored” only one, that shown above.

A glimpse of the canal

Making our way back to City Road, we had this glimpse of the Regent’s Canal. At this point (under where I am standing), the canal enters the Islington Tunnel and re-emerges near King’s Cross.

Tigger drew my attention to a strong smell if woodsmoke in the air. We concluded that the source of it was the barges moored along the canal which use wood-fired stoves for heating.

Elia Street

We crossed Elia Street which provided a slightly ghostly view of some of the tall buildings of the City of London. Elia Street, built in mid-Victorian times takes its name from a nom de plume of writer and essayist Charles Lamb who lived hereabouts.

Ho ho ho!

In a block of flats, I saw these Christmas decorations. As I took a photo, the lights, which had been off, suddenly lit up. I have no idea whether this was by sheer chance or whether the owner, seeing me taking the photo, decided to improve the picture by switching on the lights! Your guess is as good as mine 🙂

A stench pipe

As we crossed the pedestrian area between City Road and Goswell Road, I noticed something that I hadn’t spotted previously though I should perhaps have done. Looking a little like a street lamp that has lost its top, it is in fact a stench pipe. (But see update in On the brink of Tier 3.) These were built mostly during the Victorian period as their design suggests. Their role was to prevent a build-up of unpleasantly odoriferous gases in Sir Joseph Bazalgette’s new system of sewers by venting them to street level, at a height sufficient, so it was hoped, to avoid incommoding passers-by. They are still performing their duties as originally specified! You will find a more detailed explanation here.

Inside Jusaka

And so we arrived at Jusaka where we reclaimed our cups, appropriately filled with hot coffee. Under Tier 2 rules, we could have consumed our coffee on the premises but as they keep their street door open and have minimal heating, it was too cold for me, so we sped home and drank it, garnished with Kit Kat, in the warm!

A pleasant conclusion to our outing.