We went to Sainsbury’s today as usual to do our week’s shopping. We had a relatively short shopping list this week. Why? For a reason that I will explain later.

Today’s shopping run was like every other Sunday shopping run, without any novelties to make headlines. I will therefore just show you the photos I took along the way. Nothing new there, either.

Baron Street

Another cloudy day but no rain, according to the Met Office but are they right? Time will tell…

The Farmers’ Market

The Farmers’s Market always takes place on Sundays (outside of pandemics, of course) but its appearance is nonetheless reassuring.

Sainsbury’s

The only novelty at Sainsbury’s was the complete absence of trolleys, the first time that has happened. It doesn’t surprise me hugely though as this branch is bad at opening on time and keeping stock on the shelves. Or are all Sainsbury’s branches as bad as this one? I eventually managed to find a trolley in the car park.

The Checkout

We chose a checkout where most customers ahead of us had baskets rather than trolleys. In addition, as this was a short shop for us, we were soon done.

Luggage and household goods

I hurried through the market with the cup holder. (Yes, I didn’t leave it trapped in the returned trolley as I did last week, leading to scalded hands on the way home.) I did pause briefly, however, to bring you a photo of the market.

Mercer’s for coffee

I went to Mercer’s for our coffee. They were not busy and so that job too was quickly done.

Serving through the window

I saw that they also serve customers through the window in fine weather. Should I have tried this? Well, maybe, one day.

Through the window at Mercer’s

If I had ordered at the window, I wouldn’t have been able to bring you this photo of “the world seen from Mercer’s window”. Would you have missed it? Probably not 🙂

Tigger has put the shopping away and is having a little rest. In a while we will have lunch and then venture forth again. I will no doubt have some more pictures for you then.

Myddelton Square

The weather forecast this morning was cool with rain to come and the photo above will give you some idea of it. We decided to take a local walk, ready to scoot home if the skies opened.

Cat glimpsed
Photo by Tigger

We walked round Myddelton Square and Tigger’s sharp eyes spotted one of the cats that we always look out for here. I had to peer hard before I could see it. Cat score = 1 🙂

A table under the awning

At Myddelton’s deli, we found a table free. It was under the shop’s awning but this wouldn’t have offered much protection from the weather. Fortunately the rain held off.

Lloyd Square and BT Tower

After coffee, we went for a walk. It was rather like “old times” (the pandemic lockdown), when we stayed local and in consequence learned to know the neighbourhood ever greater detail, something I shall always be grateful for.

Palladian pediments

Our neighbourhood is characterised by squares, often with a central garden. Even so, they vary greatly in design. Lloyd Square, with its still private garden, is notable for its pleasantly styled houses that are grouped in pairs by Palladian-inspired triangular pediments.

Palladian pediment

Like other Georgian and early Victorian houses, these have larger windows on the ground floor and smaller on the upper floors. They also have the basement “area” which, in affluent households, would be used by servants.

An ivy “coiffure”

In Wharton Street, I stopped to photograph this house in the corner of Cumberland Gardens. Spring and summer have provided it with a luxuriant “coiffure” of ivy. I imagine that a little judicious pruning may be required to keep the upper windows clear.

Front garden flowers

Flowers in close-up
Photo by Tigger

Many of the houses in Wharton Street have well tended front gardens which have bloomed luxuriantly during the summer.

Orange-coloured fly

Gardens, of course, provide a habitat for the smaller denizens of the neighbourhood, like this orange-coloured fly going about its own mysterious business.

Patiently waiting

Where these small creatures are, you also expect to find spiders. This one, having expended its energy on constructing a web, is now resting and patiently waiting for lunch to arrive.

Spiders are – for me, at any rate – symbols of the conundrum facing the lover of nature and animals: the fact that some of the animals that we love and admire prey on and kill other animals that we love and admire. Balancing these contrary feelings is not always easy.

Prideaux Place

We walked along the short Prideaux Place, once part of the New River Estate and named after Arthur Prideaux, a director of the company, that combines Georgian-style houses with a 1930s apartment block. This leads to Percy Circus, another variation on the theme of Islington squares.

Bartlett, surgeon and accoucheur

In Percy Circus, we stopped to check on this old doctor’s sign. (Not that we expected it to have disappeared but its continued presence is somehow reassuring.) How long ago was it that Dr Bartlett exercised his skills, I wonder, and since the term “accoucheur” has dropped out of use?

The path beside Bevin Court

We took the path leading from Percy Circus and up beside the Bevin Court estate. If it has a name, I have yet to discover it.

Holford Gardens

We took a turn round the small but pleasant park called Holford Gardens. A number of streets and a square once bore the name of Peter Holford, in 1770 governor of the New River Company. Holford Square once boasted a bowling green but was so damaged in World War Two that it was demolished to become the site of Bevin Court.

Flowers, Holford Gardens

As well as a large grassy area, the garden has trees and flower beds which make a colourful display at present.

Bee at work
Photo by Tigger

Where there are flowers, we expect to see insects such as this bee, photographed by Tigger.

Trying to escape!

The park is surrounded by a fence but some of the inhabitants seem to be intent on creeping through and escaping!

The leaning tree

The leaning tree always claims my attention because of the unusually acute angle at which it leans. I find myself wondering whether it will eventually fall over or whether it can maintain its curious posture.

Glancing back down the path

Paths, like all good things, must eventually come to an end. In this case, our path ended in the streets that we crossed to return home as the promised raindrops began to fall.

This afternoon’s jaunt took us into prison, Holloway Prison for women, to be precise.

The Smith & Sons Clock

We went to the bus stop at the clock tower and…

Aboard the 43

…caught a number 43 bus to Holloway. (There’s a clue there!)

Holloway Road

We left the bus in Holloway Road and walked the rest of the way to our destination.

The entrance

Our destination was HM Holloway Prison, for many years the best known prison for women. It has now been closed and, to the joy of many and the regret of some, will be razed to the ground and replaced with housing. I won’t bore you with further details of its history and fate but, if you are interested, you can find more information here.

We gathered here

We were going to be taken in a tour of the site but first, we had to “sing for our supper” by attending a discussion group to elicit ideas on possible ways of memorialising the prison in the new incarnation. I won’t bore any further with with that, either.

We gathered in the yard just inside the entrance. The ground of the site slopes down and where we were standing is actually below the ground floor of the main prison building. The black “bridge” you see in the picture is a corridor on the prison’s ground floor.

The main park

Passing through the gateway in the previous photo leads into a fairly large area of trees and plants that is the main park. One of the surprising things sbout this prison is the number of gardens within its walls, once well kept but now becoming overgrown.

The “Gym Tree”

Further along, we came to another green space whose main inhabitant is a huge London plane tree called the “gym tree” because it is within sight of the gymnasium. If you love and admire trees as I do, you will be glad to know that this fine specimen will be retained.

A cell block

This is one of the cell blocks. The windows are at normal height so that the inmates can look out easily but the windows are, of course, protected by stout bars.

Old exercise yard and chapel

This photo shows a now overgrown area that was once an exercise yard. The building at the far side is the chapel but as filming was in progress there, we could not visit it.

The Art Room

This large room was the art room which was in the education block. In later times, emphasis was placed on providing facilities to qualify inmates for jobs on their release.

The Library

This room, now empty and echoing, was the library, described by some inmates as a “quiet oasis”. (Prisons tend to be noisy places.)

The Swimming Bath

The impressively large swimming bath was originally for use by both inmates and staff but, unfortunately, after a number of escapes, was restricted to staff use.

The showers

Like all swimming baths, this one was accompanied by showers and…

Changing cubicles

…cubicles in which to change. The cubicles have curtains but no doors.

Corridor with painted wndows

We walked along this corridor with painted windows.

Cell for women with babies

We looked in these rooms which are of course cells. The big difference between men’s and women’s prisons is that women may have babies to care for or even give birth in prison. These cells are for women with babies.

Association area

What were called “exercise yards” tend to be called “association areas” now. This fairly pleasant space was for women with babies. It looks at first sight as though it is out in the open but…

No exit

…is in fact enclosed by stout wire netting.

Dormitories for inmates with medical needs

A series of cells containing two or more beds were for inmates with medical problems. Note that the beds bolted to the floor and the lockers for personal property under each bed.

The trees remain

The prison is closed and both inmates and staff have departed, never to return, but the trees remain. What is their fate? Some of the gardens will remain but I do not know if all will. I keep my fingers crossed for the lovely trees.

A glimpse of freedom

We gathered in the yard within sight of the entrance. I wondered how many generations of inmates have cast envious glances at these gates over months and years.

Freedom!

Was I exaggerating to feel relief at leaving those dark rooms and corridors behind and step out into the freedom of the busy street?

A backward glance

We looked back but the building was already hard to see behind the trees, with just a hint of brick and unnaturally narrow windows to remind us of the prison we had visited and – thankfully – left.

Coffee at Costa

A stiff walk brought us down Holloway Road to near the tube station and to a branch of Costa there where we ordered coffee and sank into the cushions of one of their settees.

Back on the 43

Coffee-refreshed, we crossed the road to a nearby bus stop and caught a 43 bus back to the Angel.

If I have been quiet for a few days it is because Tigger has to work 4 days this week and I have lacked motivation to go out and about.

The Angel crossroads

I did go out briefly yesterday as I needed to buy stamps and post a letter. I also needed a couple of items from the shops.

A strange tableau

To buy stamps I usually go to Paperchase in the Angel Central shopping centre. As I entered the centre I came upon this strange tableau. Foxes, a deer and a badger peer out from a woodland scene. The wording on the display is “WE ARE ANGEL”, a nonsensical statement that seems to have no purpose.

All seats taken

I looked around for somewhere to sit while I stuck the stamps in the envelope. The artificial lawn that had been empty when I passed this way last week was today crowded. All the benches were occupied.

Islington Green

I ended up sitting on the only free bench in Islington Green. Then I set about tackling the shops.

Bellanger’s

Continuing on my way, I stopped to take note that Bellanger’s was up and running. Bellanger’s is a pseudo-French restaurant and a favourite of ours for an occasional dinner out as a treat. During the pandemic, they announced that they were closing down but later changed their minds and made a comeback. À bientôt, Bellanger’s!

Myddelton Square

Today, Tigger has a day off, hurrah! We want to make the most of it, of course, and started in our traditional way with coffee at Myddelton’s deli. On the way there, we walked round the square, another action that has become traditional as a result of the pandemic. (We saw no cats 😦 )

Sitting outside the deli

We took our coffee sitting outside the deli, watching the activity in Amwell Street. From the beginning of September, Tigger will be returning to work full-time, that is, Monday to Friday. Perhaps understandably, as I sat outside the deli with Tigger this morning, I had the same sort of feeling I had as a child as the end of the summer holidays loomed near, implying the end of the fun times.

A sunny moment

Just for a moment the sun broke through the clouds and, on what promises to be a cloudy, dull day, that moment of brightness seemed to deserve to be photographed.

Placing the ticket

Today’s moment of drama – for there can be drama in Amwell Street, if only occasionally – came after we had watched a traffic warden – an unusual sight in these parts – taking an interest in the parked cars. The climax came when he ticketed one of the cars and duly photographed his handiwork, as they now do. The photo shows him actually placing the ticket.

Duly ticketed

The first time I saw a traffic warden photographing his handiwork was some years ago in a small town in Sussex. Since then, the habit has spread and these days it is the norm. As that Sussex traffic warden explained to me, motorists are not above complaining about being ticketed, even to the extent of claiming they were not even in town on that day. A photo, bearing the date and time, cannot be argued with.

Myddelton Square Garden

On the way home for lunch, we passed through Myddelton Square Garden. You can perhaps see, from the marks in the grass, that the mower has recently passed this way, leaving the scent of cut grass in the air. We had come with food for the squirrels but neither squirrels nor pigeons were ready to put in an appearance, perhaps out of dislike of the noisy mower. Another day, perhaps.

This was not the end of today’s activities, of course, and we have plans for this afternoon but more of that anon.

This afternoon we skipped lunch and made first for a familiar resting place.

Blue sky, white clouds

The heat wave (“heat wave” in British terms, at any rate) has returned but for how long?

Sitting outside Myddelton’s

The above mentioned familiar place was of course Myddelton’s deli, where we took coffee to prepare for what came next.

Myddelton Square Garden

We next sat for a while in Myddelton Square Garden where Tigger hoped to entered into negotiations with one or more squirrels. However, the fluffy-tailed folk were not forthcoming, perhaps because there was a “Family Event” in progress in the garden which may have put them off leaving the shelter of their trees.

Aboard a 43

Next, we took a number 43 bus.

London Bridge Station

We left the bus at its terminus at London Bridge Station and passed under the new (well, only a few years old) railway bridge with Southwark Cathedral peeping over it.

Heading towards Borough Market

Then we found ourselves going towards another bridge en route for the famous Borough Market. Unfortunately, this meant we were heading into crowds of people, one of my pet hates.

Southwark Cathedral

We passed by Southwark Cathedral. This is an interesting historic building, well worth a visit (though perhaps not on a Sunday). Another time, perhaps.

Replica Golden Hind

Next on our route was the replica of Sir Francis Drake’s ship, the Golden Hind. It can usually be visited but at present is being refurbished and is therefore closed to visitors.

Remains of the Bishop’s Palace

Here too we find what remains of the palace of the Bishop of Winchester, built in the 13th century. The wall with the rose window, empty of glass, is about all that is still visible. The Bishop owned the land hereabouts and was also its lawgiver, with his own dungeon in the palace cellars. That dungeon eventually developed into the notorious Clink prison, today a museum.

Street art by Jimmy C

Continuing on, we photographed this picture of William Shakespeare by street artist Jimmy C.

The Anchor

We reached the Thames where this riverside inn called the Anchor stands close by Southwark Bridge.

Looking under Southwark Bridge

This view looks downriver along the Thames under several bridges.

The Globe Theatre

Along here too is the famous replica of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. (And no, I have never been inside it.)

Historic houses

I am much more intrigued by these houses nearby. It is said that queen-to-be Catherine of Aragon spent the night here when she first landed from Spain. Also, Sir Christopher Wren, so it is said, lodged here while building St Paul’s Cathedral.

Millennium Bridge and St Paul’s Cathedral

We passed under the Millennium Bridge (no jokes about wobbly bridges, please) which, if nothing else, provides a convenient route between St Paul’s and the Tate Modern gallery.

The Tate Modern

The Tate Modern, as you no doubt know, resides in what was a big old power station, hence the enormous chimney. Sorry – not a good photo, because the sun was behind the building.

Crowds

Crowds are my least favourite environment and we found ourselves among crowds for much of this walk along the Thames.

Yard and art fair entrance

We were here in the arcade under the OXO tower and behind it is this yard, which no doubt has a name though I don’t know what it is. Here was the entrance to an art fair that Tigger wanted to see. The building with the remain of wording on it is called Barge House.

Entrance

To be precise, it was called “Roy’s Art Fair”, in case you want to look it up. No, I don’t know who Roy is, either.

General view

The fair extended over several floors and rooms and there was too much to give a meaningful account of it so the above general view will have to do.

Caffè Nero

We took a welcome pause and rest in a nearby branch of Caffè Nero. There were surprisingly few customers despite the crowds passing the door.

“Façadism”

We set out for a bus stop whose whereabouts were known to Tigger, on the way passing this egregious and controversial example of “façadism” (the barbarous destruction of a fine old building with a token nod to conservation by retaining part of the original façade). The remains belonged to the old Nautical School.

Christ Church Southwark

We passed Christ Church Southwark. The original was built in the 17th century but destroyed in World War II. It was wisely decided to built the replacement to a new design rather than attempt to imitate the original. The result seems to me utilitarian rather than beautiful but others may opine differently.

Drinking fountain

My attention was caught by this drinking fountain standing nearby. Unfortunately, there is no inscription indicating its date of installation but I would guess middle to late Victorian era, though I could of course be wrong. In case you are wondering: my photo isn’t crooked, the fountain is.

Absurd modern architecture

We found Tigger’s bus stop. Nearby was this absurd piece of modern architecture, looking more than anything like a coffin standing on end. Who designs this stuff, and worse still, who accepts these designs and commissions them to be built?

Aboard the 63

We boarded a number 63 bus to start our journey home. In the picture, we are passing a pub beside Blackfriars Bridge, now called simply Doggett’s but originally called Doggett’s Coat and Badge in honour of actor-manager Thomas Doggett who in 1715 instituted an annual watermans’ rowing race, the prize being a coat and a badge. The race is still run today and you will find more about it here.

Mount Pleasant Post and Sorting Office

We changed buses near the famous Mount Pleasant postal sorting office. A number 38 bus carried us the rest of the way to the Angel.

At home we caught up with our missed lunch and settled in for a pleasant evening at home.