Yesterday was a cool grey day and so it was a surprise to discover that today was sunny and hot. The forecast was promising a temperature of 27°C by mid-afternoon and so we preferred to make our move early.

Tigger had received information about a historic plaque outside an address in Exmouth Market which was therefore our target for today.

Crafts Council

Passing along Pentonville Road, I snapped the building that these days houses the Crafts Council but was originally built as the Claremont Chapel. It has recently undergone a period of building work and is looking very clean and bright in the sunshine.

As it was quite warm already, we took a slightly roundabout route in order to keep to the shade as much as possible.

Spa Green

We passed through Spa Green, a welcome green oasis, and sat for a while on a bench.

Pigeons feeding

Spa Green is home to a substantial colony of pigeons. The locals seem quite happy about this and people put food down for them. As a result, the pigeons are much less nervous of people than is usually the case. We passed quite close to these feeding pigeons and they barely took any notice of us.

Pigeon in the spotlight

The winged angel of peace on the war memorial is a favourite perch for the pigeons. (I find that poetically appropriate because the pigeons are also peaceful winged creatures.) One pigeon was perched on the angel and was caught in a ray of sunshine like an actor in the spotlight on a stage.

White turret, Finsbury Old Town Hall

We passed behind the old Finsbury Town Hall which looked very striking in the sunshine. I noticed the white turret illuminated by the sun and wondered what its purpose was. Did it once contain a bell or is it purely decorative?

Pediment, Finsbury Old Town Hall

I have often photographed the figures in relief at this end of the building and thought this time to photograph the pediment for a change. I had to do so from angle angle to avoid street furniture. These Classically inspired reliefs look very fine and I would like to have a closer view of them.

Exmouth Market

Here we are in Exmouth Market. Like Chapel Market, it is a street with shops and restaurants along both sides. The actual market runs from Monday to Saturday with stalls all along the centre. I don’t know why there were no stalls today although the shops were open.

Fast food stalls

These fast food stalls were in action so perhaps the rest of the stalls will come along later.

We looked for the plaque, both at the given address and all around but there was nothing to be seen. Maybe it has been removed.

The Exmouth Arms

Every market must have a pub (or several!) and this market has the Exmouth Arms. The pub is recorded from not later than 1822 but was rebuilt in its present form in 1915. With dark green tiling, it is typical of pubs of the Edwardian era.

Did the market take its name from the pub or the pub from the market? If, as I have read, the market dates from the 1890s, then the former would be the case.

Market Bar or Saloon Bar?

Traditionally, British pubs used to be divided into several separate rooms, divided from one another, but each with access to the bar. These rooms were each named, a typical pair being the Saloon Bar and the Public Bar. All were accessible to the public but different prices would be charged in each. This obviously class-conscious segregation of customers began to dissppear in, I think, the 1970s and pubs were altered to remove the divisions. That’s why, in many old pubs there are pillars or remainders of walls in the main bar room: they are necessary to support the building after removal of load-bearing walls!

The name of each bar would be indicated so that arriving customers could choose whichever they felt was appropriate. These names often remain even though the divisions no longer apply. This pub room has “Market Bar” in the glass of the door but “Saloon Bar” in the tiling. Presumably, the publican decided at some point to designate a bar for market traders to use, perhaps to save them the embarrassment of rubbing shoulders with the gentry!

Stepped access, Wilmington Square

We passed through Wilmington Square which has houses around a large central garden, open to the public. On three sides, the houses are separated from the gardens by the road but on the north side, only by a walkway.

The walkway

Legend has it that, having completed the roadway on three sides of the square, the developer ran out of money, preventing completion of the fourth roadway. I’m not sure I believe that story but it will have to do until I can discover a more likely one!

Fine stand of Georgian style houses

I have photographed these houses before but with the sun shining on them they looked particularly handsome today. I particularly like the Greek inspired triangular pediments and the porticoed entrance of the nearest house.

From here it was but a short distance to Myddelton’s where we acquired our usual coffee before returning home.

Gorilla and human

From a distance I spotted this tableau: Wild Kong and, beside him in a doorway, a human, forming a poetic composition. The picture is blurred because I took it from a distance and close-cropped it to show the subject. It’s as well I took it when I did because the lady soon disappeared inside before we had come much nearer.

We also now disappeared inside, to turn on the electric fans and hide away from the heat.

Often recently, when we have visited Jusaka for our takeaway coffee, they have invited us to sit in, that is, to drink our coffee on-site rather than taking it away.

Inside Jusaka
Photo by Tigger

Today we felt that the moment had come and so we sat in. There was plenty of space between the tables, with seats on just one side of each table to maintaun proper distancing.

After our coffee break, our next stop was at a certain emporium of pleasurable eating.

Hotel Chocolat

I refer to Hotel Chocolat (no accent), the chocolate specialists. This was not for ourselves of course (Of course not! Ed.) but for a colleague of Tigger’s whom we were meeting later and whose birthday present this was.

Upper Street is presenting a somewhat bedraggled appearance at the moment because a number of shops are still closed and not a few have closed permanently. Those that are open have instituted distancing by means of floor markings and notices advising customers to wait outside until called in by an assistant. All right and proper, of course, even if it does lend a rather surreal air to the proceedings.

Royal Agricultural Hall
now the Business Design Centre

En route to our next destination, we walked along Liverpool Road where I took a photo of what was established in 1862 as the Royal Agricultural Hall but has in more recent times been repurposed as the Business Design Centre.

Ladybird
Photo by Tigger

In Copenhagen Street, Tigger photographed a ladybird on a leaf. These bright and decorative creatures seem quite numerous this year, though I still remain uncertain as to which are the native ones and which the interloping Harlequins.

The American term for these colourful flying beetles, “ladybug”, always strikes as an ugly name for such a pretty creature. Best of all, I think (because they are after all, beetles and not birds), is the French term coccinelle, which is close to their Latin name.

Young Actors Theatre

In Barnsbury Road, we passed in front of the Young Actors Theatre (no apostrophe). This was apparently founded in 2005 but apart from that, I know nothing about this institution. Perhaps you can learn more by clicking on the link.

Barnard Park

Our destination was Barnard Park, a pleasant area of greenery and flowers with amenities, including tennis courts and children’s play areas. We were here to meet Tigger’s colleague and present him with his gift of chocolate.

Barnard Adventure Playground

The park also has an adventure playground but this has been fenced off for as long as I have lived in the area and, I suspect, long before that. These days it resembles a film set for an abandoned mining town from the days of the Gold Rush. (Update: according to an email received privately, the playground is still in use at certain times of day.)

Flower beds

As well as grass and trees, there are flower beds with a prolific mixture of plants, most of them flowering. And, of course, where there are flowers, there are bees. Tigger is the bee phtographer of the two and here are a couple of her snaps.

Bumblebee and honeybee

(The blurring is owing to me cropping the photos to show what are, after all, very small creatures.)

Two Sphinxes

Two Sphinxes…

Many Sphinxes

… many Sphinxes!

Sphinxes are not all that rare as decorative motifs but it is fairly rare, I think, to find so many of them gathered in such a relatively small area. A row of houses in Richmond Avenue each has a pair of Sphinxes flanking the steps leading to their front doors.

Chapel Market

My last photo of the outing was taken in Chapel Market. There were a number of stalls in operation though not as many as on the busiest days. I don’t know wheher this is “mid-week fatigue” or whether the pandemic is still affecting both shops and shoppers, leading to a decline in trade. We can only hope that better times lie ahead.

And Tigger’s colleague, was he pleased with his chocolate? As a chocolate fan, he certainly was!

Not being sure when Tigger would return, I prepared and ate lunch and then settled down to do a few things here are there.,

Then a text arrived. It was from Tigger. She was on the bus and proposed meeting me at the stop near our flat. That put me in a spin as I wasn’t expecting this and wasn’t ready. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I buzzed around like a bluebottle caught in a bottle and hurried to the bus stop. As it happened, I was in plenty of time.

Another text arrived, telling me which stop Tigger had reached, to give me an idea of how long she would be.

This caused me to reflect on the wonders of modern communications. I say “wonders” but do we wonder at them any longer? Surely, we now just take them for granted. I still remember a world in which mobile phones were not even a glint in someone’s eye; where “telephones” were attached to the wall with a yard of wire; and where Dick Tracey’s radio watch was dismissed as science fantasy, not something we would ever encounter in “real life”.¹

How did we arrange to meet people in those days and, more to the point, how did we let them know when we were going to be late or, worse, not even make the meeting at all? The answer, of course, is that we couldn’t do so. We would simply leave them hanging.

Computers and mobile phones have inserted themselves so firmly into our lives that they are virtually part of us, where we and they are in a symbiotic relationship in which each relies on and feeds the other and has no separate existence.

The bus arrives

The bus arrived; Tigger dismounted; we were together again. We made our way to Amwell Street, catching up with each other’s morning adventures.

I needed to visit the pharmacy and while I did so, Tigger bought the coffee at Myddelton’s. Then, coffee in hand, we hurried home. We have done what needed to be done and the rest of the day can take care of itself.

¹ I note, however, that in some circles, Dick Tracey is being credited as “the inventor of the smart watch”!

I mentioned yesterday that I was expectong a caller today. When the appointment was requested a few weeks ago, we thought about asking them to put it off for now but in the end, because the job has to be done within a time limit, and it causes minimal disruption, we decided to let it go ahead. And so the appointment was set for today.

As you will know – at least, if you are resident in the UK – every property has by law to have an annual gas inspection. It is the responsibility of the owner – in our case, the local council – to see that this is done. An engineer comes to inspect the gas boiler, the gas meter and any other gas appliances, to make sure they are safe and operating correctly. An inspection is due for our flat.

When arranging repairs, maintenance, gas inapections and so on, the council will never commit itself to a specific time of day. The best you can expect is a date and a choice of “morning” or “afternoon”. Our gas inspection this year, then, is set for July 15th (today) in the “morning”. In council terminology, “morning” is a period running from 8am to 1pm.

Accordingly, I rose from my bed at 6am so as to have all the chores done and myself washed and dressed by 8am. Not that I expect the engineer to ring the bell promptly at 8am but, on the other hand, that could happen and one must be ready in case.

Our flat is what a pushy property agent would describe as “a bijou apartment”. In common parlance, it is small. Very small. It can contain two people comfortably, leaving the enough room to dodge around one another but without much to spare. With three people, it begins to feel crowded.

Tigger therefore decided to absent herself until the job is done and normal occupancy levels restored. In the old times BC¹, on working days, Tigger was in the habit of going out early to have a cafe breakfast and to explore the city, taking photiographs. Today will be a happy reminder of those times with the added benefit of not having to go to work at the end of it! She is also hoping to have tea with a colleague. I will text her when the engineer has left.

It is now 8:13 and there has so far been no sign of the engineer. He will come – of that I am sure – but when is anybody’s guess.

———-

The doorbell rang just after 11am. I showed the engineer the gas boiler and explained where to find the gas meter (down in the basement “area” under the front steps). I also sent a text to Tigger to let her know.

I was hoping that the engineer would not be a short man. He seemed to me to be what is described as “average height” but that still wasn’t tall enough, apparently, tall enough, that is, to reach the top of the boiler.

This was confirmed by the request “Excuse me. Have you got something I could stand on?”

As it happens, we do have such a thing but it is a nuisance to get it out from behind the bedroom door and deploy it. Not to mention putting it away again. Hence my hope for a tall engineer. The only object in our possession that a man can safely stand on is an aluminium step ladder that we need when changing light bulbs in these high-ceilinged rooms.

I produced the ladder and left him to do whatever he needed to do with it. At 11:20, he announced that the job was done and all was well. I noted with approval that he had even put the step ladder away for me.

I sent Tigger a text to let her know that she could end her self-imposed exile whenever ready to do so.

Done and dusted until next year.

________

¹ “Before Covid”