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Regents Park & Beckton Alp – 2008

Regents Park & Beckton Alp – 2008: On Wednesday 30 January 2008 I took two walks in London. The first took me to Regents Park around noon, but I can remember nothing about it – all I have are the pictures that I took with their EXIF time stamps. But I was soon the Tube and the DLR, taking some pictures on my way to Beckton, a visit I wrote about on My London Diary and I’ll reproduce that account below. But first some pictures from Regents Park.

Regents Park, Park Square & Park Crescent

*The gardens in Park Square are private, but it isn’t far to go to walk in Regents Park.*

More pictures at Regents Park, Park Square & Park Crescent.

Beckton Alp and DLR Beckton Branch

Beckton, Newham

So on Jan 30 as it was a rather nice day I took a walk in the alps, or rather the singular alp that London has on offer, at Beckton. Theoretically there are two, but the other is more of a pimple, while the northern alp is 36 metres high.

*A strikingly decorated shed at Gallions Reach*

The gasworks started by Simon Adam Beck on agricultural land in 1868 became the largest in Europe, but closed down in 1967. The LDDC bulldozed all of the rubbish from the site into the two mounds, put a 2m capping, mainly of clay on top, and the larger one became a dry ski slope in 1989.

*The London Eye is one of many London buildings easily seen from the slopes of the Beckton Alp*

Despite the odd landslide the ski slope continued in use until 2001, and there were then plans for a ‘Snowdome’ with real snow on the site. But the developer went bust, leaving the site in a dangerous condition with some exposed waste – which includes various nasty chemicals – acids, volatile hydrocarbons – including carcinogens such as benzene, cyanides.

*From the Beckton Alp, looking roughly east with the flood barrier on Barking Creek at left of picture. The gasholders are from the old Beckton works*

Meanwhile the LDDC had faded away, having done its job of diverting large amounts of public wealth into private pockets, and had handed its problems to the local authority – in this instance, Newham, although the ski slope area is owned by Cresney who have had various ideas, including a possible hotel development on part of the site. It was also one of the shortlisted sites for a large scale artwork in the Channel 4 Big Art project to be shown in April 2008. [Antony Gormley’s plan for the site was never realised.]

*The retail park, with East Beckton and the University of East London*

Although there is still access to the public open space around the alp, the ski slope site and the top of the alp is surrounded by a large fence. However there was a rather convenient hole in this, and since there was no notice telling me to keep out – and a very well-worn path on the other side I went through it.

I carefully made my way to the summit to enjoy the views, before continuing my walk along the northern outfall sewer and then down along various paths through East Beckton to Manor Way and the Gallions Roundabout, where I took my life into my hands to dash across Royal Docks Way to the DLR station

[You can read more detail about the Beckton Alp in a 2023 post ‘What’s in the Beckton Alp‘ on the Reimagining Waste Landscapes site.]

More pictures on My London Diary at Beckton Alp and DLR.

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Kings Army, Clowns & Chinese New Year – 2006

Kings Army, Clowns & Chinese New Year: Three things I photographed on Sunday 29th January 2006 – and what I wrote back then – with the usual corrections and a few comments.

The King’s Army Whitehall Parade

Whitehall

The King’s Army Annual Commemorative Parade is a colourful but little-known London event [though since 2006 mobile phones and social media have raised its profile] marking the execution of our reigning monarch during the English Revolution, arguably the last time we behaved sensibly towards royalty.

My forebears, being strongly non-comformist, would doubtless have been on the opposite side to the regiments that gather here (and yes, there is a Roundhead Association also a part of the English Civil War Society). But for most of those taking part, the event isn’t about the issues of the day but simply a matter of re-enactment, of trying to look and act the part of those soldiers and ancillaries from the seventeenth century.

*A little weapons training at the start of the parade*

The march starts around St James’s Palace, forming up in the Mall for the march to the Banqueting House where Charles 1 was beheaded on 30 January 1649.

It is an event that seems to receive little official recognition or support, but which has now taken place every year for the last 30 or so years. It is an unusual event in that the regiments are allowed to bear arms in one of the most sensitive parts of the city and when they march through Horse Guards Arch they are apparently saluted by the guards on duty as if they were still a part of the army.

At the Banqueting House there was a short service with a real vicar, as well as the presentation of various commissions and awards. [But diappointingly no beheading.] Then the army marched away to be dismissed and we took the opportunity to beat them to the pub, which was shortly after filled with people in seventeenth century dress, and, because this is London after all, some of our pearly kings and queens who were up west for the Chinese New Year.

Many more pictures start here on My London Diary.

Rebel Clowns not demonstrating?

Trafalgar Square

As we came into Trafalgar Square we met some ‘rebel clowns’ protesting against the Serious Organised Crime And Police Act 2005, which was designed to get rid of Brian Haw from Parliament Square. Unfortunately those actually drafting the bill decided it should not be made retrospective, and the government to their amazement found that Brian’s protest wasn’t covered by it. (and yes, he’s still there – and I went along to have a short word with him.) [Later the courts decided that despite what the law said, the government had meant it to apply to Brian, so it did, and he could only protest on the pavement.]

However the rest of us have lost our democratic right to “demonstrate without authorisation” within 1km of parliament. Three days earlier they had demonstrated with this same banner in Parliament Square. The police had come up to talk to the clowns, and had then gone away confused without making an arrest.
[No more pictures.]

Chinese New Year of the Dog

Soho

Across the road in Trafalgar Square and beyond through most of Soho, the Chinese New Year of the Dog was being celebrated. I took a few pictures of the lions performing, but the crowds were pretty dense and I soon gave up and went home.

*Dragons and performers in Trafalgar Square*

*Stalls in Wardour St, Soho, sell paper dragons*

More pictures start here on My London Diary.

[As you can see I actually made quite a few pictures despite my comment in 2006, and when working in the crowded streets used a fisheye lens. This meant I could get really close to the people (and lions) I was photographing so there wasn’t room for people to easily walk between me and the subject. If I stood at all back, others simply got in front of me.]

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DLR – Bow Creek and Poplar Panoramas 1994

Bow Creek and Poplar Panoramas: It was before Christmas that I posted the previous set of panoramic images I made in July 1994 along the DLR between Poplar and Beckton, DLR – Connaught Rd & Bow Creek 1994. Here is the final set I made then.

*Bow Creek, Wharfside Rd, Canning Town, Tower Hamlets, Newham, 1994, 94-720-11*

Another picture taken from the East India Dock Road, looking down at Wharfside Road and the sawmills with their address on Barking Road. The road layouts here have changed with the building of Newham Way flyover and I think Barking Road which earlier began at the ‘Iron Bridge’ over Bow Creek now only starts at the roundabout about 250 yards or so to the east.

As the noticeboard states the entrance to the site is from Wharfside Road on the opposite side of the road, and any driver unfortunate to read the sign would be faced with a long detour to reach it.

M&J Reuben Ltd was founded in 1895 and seems to have moved from the area in 2004 when the then managing director David Reuben retired. London Sawmills Ltd also had timber sheds at Hercules Wharf in Orchard Place closer to the mouth of Bow Creek.

Bow Creek appears on both sides of this roughly 130 degree view, upstream at right, flowing under the bridges and in a long loop and coming up at the left past Pura Foods where London City Island now is, before turning round the other side of Pura foods to flow down to the Thames.

*Bow Creek, East India Dock Rd, Canning Town, Tower Hamlets, Newham, 1994, 94-720-12*

Moving a few yards to the west along East India Dock Road I made this picture standing on the bridge. The Iron Bridge, built in 1810, was the first road bridge to use cast-iron columns and made a new lower route across Bow Creek. It has now been replaced and the current bridge is concrete.

On the left of the river is Essex Wharf, with the sawmills out of picture to the left. The first bridge on the river, a pipe bridge for a large gas pipe, was demolished soon after, but its brick piers remain. The second bridge is now the ‘Blue Bridge’ though in my picture it is grey. A third, a disused single track rail bridge, is hidden by those in front.

*Construction work, South Bromley, Tower Hamlets, 1994, 94-721-62*

A little further on but I think still on or close to the East India Dock Road I made this picture looking across a construction site, the DLR, Bow Creek and Pura Foods. I think that the tunnel which connects East India Dock Road to Aspen Way is under the site here.

Aspen Way, East India DLR, South Bromley, Tower Hamlets, 1994, 94-720-51 — *Aspen Way, East India DLR,* South Bromley, Tower Hamlets, 1994, 94-720-51

East India Dock Station on Aspen Way, looking west. At left is the Telehouse South and the Blackwall Tunnel ventilation shafts. Then along the horizon some 1930s council flats and buildings aroudn Canary Wharf including the tower. On the other side of the DLR viaduct is the Grade II listed former hydraulic pumping station in Naval Row and over the dock wall the ugly 1990s buildings on the former East India Dock.

*DLR, Poplar, Tower Hamlets, 1994, 94-721-11*

Finally a view through the rear window of a DLR train on its way from Poplar to Canary Wharf. Poplar Station can just be seen under the long footbridge across the DLR and the Wes India Dock Road. At left is the DLR line towards Tower Gateway.

The next post in this series of my colour pictures will feature pictures made in July 1994 here and elsewhere using a normal camera.

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Kung Hei Fat Choi & Regicide – 2004

Kung Hei Fat Choi & Regicide: On 25th January 2004 I went with many thousands to celebrate the Chinese New Year in Trafalgar Square and Chinatown. In 2001 I had commented on My London Diary “there are too many people and too many photographers at the Chinese New Year celebrations in Soho, but somehow I keep on going” but for various reasons I think the next time I photographed it was in 2004. I was back again in 2005, 2006, 2007 and in 2008 for I think the last time.

Several things finally decided me to give the celebrations a miss. First was simply the crowds with more and more people coming to watch the event which made it difficult or impossible to move around and take pictures.

Then more and more people were photographing – mainly with their phones – and largely lacking any courtesy in doing so, coming to stand in front of me as I was trying to take pictures.

And, like many events, it had become more and more organised, with crowds being controlled and held behind barriers for the more official parts of the celebration.

But I suppose the main reasons were that my interests had changed and that I thought I had done enough on this event; my pictures each year were looking increasingly the same and I needed to do something different.

Also taking place on 25th January 2004 was a parade by reenactors of the execution of King Charles I. While I’m not a puritan (as I think many of my ancestors were) I am increasingly a Republican and while I might not be calling for the public execution of our current monarchy, I do think it is well past time we got rid of them and their privilege – as well as the rest of the aristocracy.

Of course it isn’t just the monarchy I would like to see go, but our whole class system of which they are the leading edge. Its real basis is the seizure of land following the Norman conquest in 1066 and my revolution would call for land reform, with the complete ending of private ownership of land (and water) which would become community resources, with no land ownership but instead could be held in trust to the community. But of course it’s a utopia which won’t happen.

Here’s the short text – with minor corrections – which I wrote in 2004.

The Chinese New Year was celebrated in Westminster on 25th Jan, with speeches in Trafalgar Square, fireworks in Leicester Square and immense crowding in and around Soho’s Chinatown, especially where the police sealed off some of the streets.

Fortunately the speeches were short, and the main point of most was to say ‘kung hei fat choi’, with various degrees of ethnic feel.

Also on the 25th, was a parade commemorating the execution of King Charles 1, who went from St James Palace to the Banqueting House in Whitehall to be beheaded on 30th Jan 1649. It’s an event that brings out the Republican in me!

It was a rather mournful procession, drab and silent, in complete contrast to the lively scenes a few yards to the north.

A few more pictures from the day on My London Diary begin here.

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Factories, Flats, Wesley & The Kinks – 1990

Factories, Flats, Wesley & The Kinks: More from my walk on Sunday February 25th 1990 which began with Around Finsbury Park – 1990. The previous post was More Kentish Town – 1990.

*Flats, Elsfield, Highgate Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2i-61*

When the London Borough of Camden was formed in 1965 its architects department was set up headed by Sydney Cook and included many of the leading architects of the day, working for a council that was determined to build better homes for those living in the borough. Over the next 15 or so years they produced a huge number of well-designed and architecturally significant buildings until government cuts brought an end to what has been described as “their golden age of social housing.”

As well as large estates such as Neave Brown’s Alexandra Road, there were also a number of smaller sites such as Elsfield, designed by Bill Forest and built in 1966-70. Most of Camden’s schemes were built “in-house” which had the advantage of better quality work than many private contractors but sometimes led to lengthy delays and cost overruns.

*Flats, Elsfield, Highgate Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2i-36*

Later in the day I walked back past these flats and made another picture which shows the whole frontage on Highgate Road with its stepped back profile and prominent painted railings. The wall in front gives ground-floor residents privacy.

*Linton House, Carkers Lane, Highgate Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2i-62*

Once Carkers Lane was just “a footpath across fields and watercress beds and a farm belonging to Mr Corker“. Much of those fields became tracks and engine sheds for the Midland Railway, leaving just a short section of the path to become Carkers Lane.

In 1881 Thomas William Read and John Walter Read bought land here and began bottling spirits and beer; by 1906 they were “the largest buyer and bottler of Bass Ale in the world.” The ‘Dog’s Head Bottling’ adopted its famous Bull Dog trademark as its Company Logo. All this bottled beer was for export, mainly to “Australia, New Zealand, France, the West Indies and South Africa.” The company amalgamated with Kings Cross brewers Robert Porter in 1938 as Export Bottlers Ltd.

The building at the left of my picture on the corner of Highgate Road, then called Linton House (with parking for Norman Linton Only) was built around 1900 as a factory for furniture makers Maple & Co, suppliers of furniture to the royal family, palaces and expensive hotels worldwide as well as selling to the wealthy public through their Tottenham Court Road shop and in Paris and elsewhere. After they moved it it became home to a number of smaller companies, mainly as offices. Developers The Linton Group acquired it and converted it into 50 luxury flats and seven penthouses they lanched on the market in 2016 as Maple House.

Wallpaper manufacturer Shand Kydd moved to the site in 1906 to mass produce their wallpapers and around 1920 Sanderson’s wallpaper joined them. Both had moved out by around 1960.

The estate also became home in 1973 to the International Oriental Carpet Centre, formed by Oriental rug dealers who had previously been in the Cutler Street warehouse complex owned by Port of London Authority but were given notice to quit when the PLA decided to sell this for redevelopment. The IOCC lease expired in 1994 and most of the dealers left.

Carkers Lane is now home to Highgate Studios, a huge largely office development and the Highgate Business Centre.

*Factory, Carkers Lane, Highgate Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2i-33*

Again as I walked back past Carkers Lane later in the day I made another picture

*Houses, Little Green St, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2i-66*

Little Green Street is a short street between Highgate Road and College Lane which takes you back to the 1780s. The ten Georgian houses here were seen even in the 1890s as “old-fashioned cottages” by Charles Booth in his Life and Labour of the People in London. The street provided the background for The Kinks dressed as old-fashioned undertakers carrying a coffin in the 1966 official music video for Dead End Street, one of the earliest music videos.

The wooden post at left has gone and the cobbled area at its left is now a walled garden for the house on the corner of the street.

*Houses, Little Green St, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2i-53*

These Grade II listed cottages were in something of a dead end street, leading only to College Lane, on the other side of which was the Staff Hotel for the London Midland and Scottish Railway until this was replaced by Camden Council’s Ingestre Road Estate, designed by John Green for Camden Architects’ Department and built in 1967–71, a small part of which you can see at the left edge of this picture.

*Tyre swing, Highgate Rd, Dartmouth Park, Camden, 1990, 90-2i-55*

At the end of Little Green Street I think I turned left and walked along under the railway bridge which also features in The Kinks video to Denyer House, a large 1930s London County Council block set back from Highgate Road. The tree is still there but the swing is long gone.

*Wesleyan Place, Gospel Oak, Camden, 1990, 90-2i-45*

Crossing Highgate Road I went down Wesleyan Place. This street was laid out in 1810 and was the site of a Wesleyan Methodist chapel in a converted farm building from Richard Mortimer’s farm here. The Methodists moved out in 1864 to a new chapel in Bassett Street.

This early/mid nineteenth century terrace of four houses was Grade II listed in 1974. The street leads to Mortimer Terrace.

I’ll write and post the final part of this walk shortly.

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More Kentish Town – 1990

More Kentish Town: More from my walk on Sunday February 25th 1990 which began at Around Finsbury Park – 1990. The previous post was Tufnell Park and Kentish Town – 1990

*Raveley St, Fortess Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2h-31*

This substantial house on the corner of Raveley St and Fortess Road is at 112 (and 114) Fortess Road, with a shop on the corner and behind this in Raveley Street a rather grand doorway to the housing (now flats) above, with a rear extension being 1 Raveley Street.

It appeared to have been an antique shop and although it looks as if it had shut down and its name was no longer legible had the rather strange almost circus-like construction and what appeared to be a stained glass panel above the window on the corner, with some of its stock visible inside. All of this is long gone, with the corner being rebuilt with a plainer frontage. For some years it was the Café de la Paix, and then became the Cinnamon Village café.

*Doorway, 10, Lady Somerset Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2h-34*

A short distance down Lady Somerset Rd, on the west corner with Oakford Road is this doorway up a few step from the street with at left a strangely grinning ghoul-like face rather at odds with the more delicate decoration. The house and the door are still there, with a railing now on top of the concrete beside the steps, but the face has gone.

*Fortess Grove, Fortess Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2h-24*

I went back to Fortess Road. As I walked I thought again about one of the pictures I had taken in Fortess Grove. Of course I was shooting on film so had no way of actually reviewing the image, but I didn’t feel happy about an image I had taken of a house there with two artificial birds, so I went back to retake it. Unusually I took another four frames until I was satisfied, with that row of white fence posts against the black background creating an optical tension.

Shops, Fortress Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2h-13 — *Shops, Fortess Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2h-13*

I liked the unusual roof line above these shops at 14-18 Fortess Rd. These were described on the draft local list as a “Terrace of four late 19th century houses with shops at ground floor and a gated carriage entrance at the end” and it mentions the “Unusual architectural approach with the restrained elevations separated by terracotta pilasters, and a tall roof parapet surmounted by two broken pediments located on the party wall line between the pairs“. The “historic shop front” at No 14, now the NW5 Theatre School, is still in place.

*Kentish Town Parish Church, Highgate Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2h-14*

At the end of Fortess Road I turned sharp right up Highgate Road to photograph the Grade II listed Kentish Town Parish Church of St John the Baptist at 23 Highgate Road. The Kentish Town Chapel, a small chapel-of-ease dating from 1449, was pulled down to built a new church to the designs of James Wyatt in 1783. That in turn went, though some of its walls were retained when the church was rebuilt and extended by J H Hakewill in 1843-5.

It’s always seemed a little threatening and spiky to me, slightly sinister. Three years after I made this picture the churchby then in poor condition, was declared redundant and stood empty for some months, apart from being used for occasional all-night raves. In 1994 it was bought by the Nigerian-based Christ Apostolic Church UK who continue to worship there.

*Town & Country Club, Highgate Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2h-15*

Immediately south of the church in 1990 was the Town & Country Club, now the O2 Forum Kentish Town.

This was built as a cinema, The Kentish Town Forum Theatre, designed by John Stanley Beard & Alfred Douglas Clare and opened at the end of 1934 but months later was taken over by Associated British Cinemas, though it was only in 1963 it took the ABC name. It had a single screen and seating for over 2,000. In 1970 it closed to become a bingo hall, and later it was a ballroom and a concert hall/theatre named the Town & Country Club, This closed in 1993 and it became the Forum Theatre again and later it was yet again renamed as the O2 Forum Kentish Town. The building was Grade II listed a couple of months after I took this picture.

My walk continued – another post shortly.

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Tufnell Park and Kentish Town – 1990

Tufnell Park and Kentish Town: More from my walk on Sunday February 25th 1990 which began at Around Finsbury Park – 1990. The previous post was Toys, Taverns, Timber & More – 1990.

*Flats, Pemberton Gardens, Archway, Islington, 1990, 90-2h-64*

This long run of flats – numbered 1-64 is St John’s Park Mansions.

Sir James Pemberton was a goldsmith and Lord Mayor of London in 1611, and was one of the eight freeholders of the Manor of Highbury. The street was developed around 1870 on land owned by the Corporation of the Sons of the Clergy, a charity set up in 1655 by merchants of the City of London and priests of the Church of England to support clergy who had lost their livings thanks to Oliver Cromwell – and which still (now as the Clergy Support Trust) supports Anglican clergy and they named it after him. The street was renamed Pemberton Gardens in 1895.

These flats were built in 1899-1900 and have nine blocks extending out to the rear to accommodate 32 flats as well as the 32 in those in the buildings on the street.

*House, Cathcart Hill, Tufnell Park, Islington, 1990, 90-2h-66*

I continued my walk down Junction Road, turning briefly into Cathcart Hill to photograph this house where considerable building work was taking place. The house probably dates from the 1860s and I think is 1 Cathcart Hill. Although the web page for the Cathcart Hill Historical Society is dedicated to the history of numbers 1-16 Cathcart Hill, it has as yet no information about No.1.

Boston Arms, pub, Junction Rd, Tufnell Park, Islington, 1990, 90-2h-54 — *Boston Arms, pub, 178 Junction Rd, Tufnell Park, Islington, 1990, 90-2h-54*

This pub designed by Thorpe and Furniss was built in 1899 for Bass & Co Ltd replacing an earlier earlier building, there in 1860, the Boston Arms Tavern on the corner with Dartmouth Park Hill. A few years later it changed its name to simply ‘The Boston’ and this was the name when it was rebuilt, though it is now ‘Boston Arms. It was Grade II listed in 1994 and remains in use.

*Boston Arms, pub, Junction Rd, Tufnell Park, Islington, 1990, 90-2h-56*

Attached to the pub – but not in my pictures – is the Boston Music Room, also Grade II listed. It was built in 1884 with a ground floor 60ft swimming bath and above this an assembly hall. In 1909 the swimming bath was converted into a second assembly hall and used as a cinema, called the Electric Theatre, later the Stanley Theatre. After this closed in 1916 it became the Tufnell Park Palais, used for wrestling and concerts.

It reopened in 1981 as an independent music venue, with the upstairs called The Dome and downstairs The Boston Music Room. Among those appearing there have been Coldplay, Bring Me the Horizon, Blur, Primal Scream, Noel Gallagher,Madness, The White Stripes, U2, Florence & The Machine, and Cradle of Filth.

*Surroundings Ltd, Burghley Rd, Tufnell Park, Camden, 1990, 90-2h-55*

Opposite the west side of the pub on Dartmouth Hill Road (and so in the London Borough of Camden) is Burghley Road where a few yards down at No 118 I photographed Surroundings Ltd, a company which appears to have disappeared without trace. The building is now residential.

*Montrose Products, Fortess Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2h-44*

Turning back to Dartmouth Hill Road I walked the few yards down to the junction and then continued down Fortess Road to photograph Montrose Products at Nokeener House, No. 28-34. This private limited company, L.& M.(MONTROSE PRODUCTS)LIMITED was incorporated in 1954, moved its registered office from here in July 1990 and was finally dissolved in 2024. A mail order company it occupied the first floor while at street level was Everbond Limited, who I can find nothing about. More recently the ground floor was occupied by Major Travel.

This was built as a factory for piano makers T & G Payne who began here in 1891 and it has has some interesting decorative detail. In 2012 permission was granted for its conversion into luxury flats as The Piano Works, retaining most of its external features.

*Fortess Grove, Fortess Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2h-45*

Fortess Grove is at the north side of the old piano factory and twists here around the side of the Fortess Works, then occupied by L C Bennett (Mechanical Handling) Ltd. Later it became home to vehicle repair shop M. & A. Coachworks but since the end of 2015 has been transformed into “a modern, flexible, and contemporary work environment” called Fortess Grove and some housing.

The street still continues past it more or less as in my photograph, a charming little curved cul-de-sac of early Victorian (or possibly late Georgian?) small houses.

This walk continues in later posts.

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Along Hornsey Road, Holloway 1990

Along Hornsey Road, Holloway 1990: More from my walk on Sunday February 25th 1990 which began with Around Finsbury Park – 1990. The previous post on this walk was Houses, a Club, Ghost Sign, Blouses and Baths – 1990.

DON'T BE SCARED OF FREEDOM, Andover Medical Center, Hornsey Rd, Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2g-65 — *DON’T BE SCARED OF FREEDOM, Andover Medical Center, Hornsey Rd, Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2g-65*

The Andover Medical Centre is at 270-282 Hornsey Road a short distance north from the Hornsey Road Baths and I made my picture from the corner of Hornsey Road and Newington Barrow Way which leads to the Andover Estate, a large council estate begun in 1938 but greatly enlarged in 1973-9.

The graffiti ‘DON’T BE SCARED OF FREEDOM’ which attracted my attention is of course long gone. So too is the sprawling bush and there are no some car parking spaces in its place.

Bavaria Rd, Hornsea Rd, Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2g-66 — *Bavaria Rd, Hornsey Rd, Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2g-66*

I continued walking up Hornsey Road for well over a quarter of a mile before making my next picture looking across the road and down Bavaria Road. Here a sign high on the wall at 395 Hornsey Road announces the Alexandra Coffee Tavern and above the modern street sign is the former name of the street, Blenheim Road. Before becoming a temperance tavern this had been a pub, the Blenheim Arms, opened (and built) probably in 1869, but by 1881 it was the Alexandra Coffee Tavern, part of a then growing temperance movement.

The name Alexandra probably came from Princess Alexandra of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg who married the son and heir of Queen Victoria in 1863 and became a popular royal very much involved in charity work as Princess of Wales until 1901 when she became queen.

I was also attracted by the signage for the locksmiths then in the former pub, particualr the four different types of keys shown above the shop at right. The Victorian building had been incorporated into a more modern structure both on Hornsey Road and Bavaria Rd. Since 1990 an extra storey has been added to the building which now houses The Pelvic Academy offering Physiotherapy and Wellness.

*Replica House, 37, Bavaria Rd, Upper Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2g-51*

I walked a short distance down Bavaria Road to photograph Replica House, built in 1883 as a chapel to seat 450 on what was then Blenheim Road to the designs of architects Lander & Bedells, possibly replacing an earlier chapel here. By 1916 it was known as Blenheim Congregational Mission Hall. According to British History Online it had closed by 1954. The street had become Bavaria Road in 1938.

Replicards Limited who occupied it at the time of my picture had renamed the building Replica House. They were a graphics design studio incorporated in 1967. At the right of their sign are the letters ‘Exhibitic’, perhaps where the end of the sign had been at some time truncated with that ‘c’ really being part of an ‘o’. Had it been moved from a slightly wider building where it had once said ‘Exhibitions’?

*Hanley Arms, Hornsey Rd, Upper Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2g-52*

Back on Hornsey Road I photographed a long terrace of shops with The Hanley Arms pub at the left, roughly opposite Bavaria Road looking to the south. This Grade II listed pub was apparently in place here by 1827 although the ground floor frontage dates from around 1900. It closed as a pub around 2007 and 440 Hornsey Road is now an Islamic mosque, Masjid-e-Yusuf.

*Marlborough Rd, Upper Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2g-54*

I continued up Hornsey Road to Marlborough Road where I made this picture close to the corner, but I think this building with its flower motifs above the doorway has been demolished.

*Crash Repairs, Marlborough Rd, Upper Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2g-43*

Marlborough Service Station, Marlborough Rd, Upper Holloway, — *Marlborough Service Station,* *Marlborough Rd, Upper Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2g-54*

A little further down is a splendid garage building I think from the 1920s or 30s, Marlborough Service Station, still there and very much in business in 2025.

*Megatron Photometers, Marlborough Rd, Upper Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2g-45*

The building at 165 Marlborough Rd is still there and has been sympathetically remodelled on the ground floor with a extra door and two new windows in what was then a blank area of brick.

Megatron was a company that I had some dealings with, as from 1984 until the company was liquidated in 2010 they made – among many other products – the legendary Weston Master photographic exposure meters. When I broke the very thin glass over the needle on mine I sent it back to Megatron for repair. It wasn’t cheap, and when I broke it again I decided instead to replace the glass with a thin sheet of acrylic, superglued in place.

As well as still photographs, many professional movies were shot with the aid of a Weston light meter in various models since the 1930s. Later models came with a white plastic ‘Invercone‘, an inverted cone which fitted over the metering cell to allow accurate measurement of incident light – the light falling onto a scene – as well as the more normal reflected light measurement. The Weston meters have a large selenium cell which generates an electric current when light falls on it and do not need batteries.

*Car Breakers, Grenville Rd, Upper Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2g-46*

Grenville Road is a turning on the east side of Hornsey Road a short distance north from Marlborough Road, just before the bridge over what is now the Suffragette Line of the Overground, then known as the Gospel Oak to Barking or Goblin line. I’m unsure exactly where on the road Astoria Auto Breakers was, but I liked the skeletal nature of the racked cars and the leafless tree.

Houses, a Club, Ghost Sign, Blouses and Baths – 1990

More from my walk on Sunday February 25th 1990 continuing from Around Finsbury Park – 1990.

*Houses, Prah Rd, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1990, 90-2f-22*

A long terrace of three-storey houses on Prah Rd built in 1876-1878 – and there are others in a similar style on nearby Romilly Rd. There is a long and detailed section on Prah Road and its early occupants cited in an essay by John Bold and Charlotte Bradbeer; Booth’s investigators described these and neighbouring streets as having a higher class of occupant: ‘clerks, city men, some mechanics and a great many railwaymen of the better sort, head ticket collectors etc‘.

*Doorway, 1, Prah Rd, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1990, 90-2f-24*

The Finsbury Park Conservative Club opened at 1 Prah Road in 1886 but there was little to show its presence when I photographed its decorative entrance. Later it had a Carlsburg sign added above the doorway, still there though faded although the club closed in 2015. The building was sold in 2016 for over 1.65 million, but completion was delayed as the building was squatted. It is now residential.

*Shops, Berriman Rd, Seven Sisters Rd, Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2f-25*

I walked north towards Finsbury Park Station and then turned left down Seven Sisters Road towards Holloway, taking few photographs as I had walked this way before. FINSBURY PARK was then fairly clear at the top of the ‘ghost sign’ on the Berriman Road side of 158 Seven Sisters Road, but I cannot make out the rest of the wording, though the next line could be GENERAL.

*Fosby, Blouses, Works, Thane Villas, Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2f-26*

Fosby Of London Ltd were at 3-5 Thane Villas, a few yards down the next turning south off Seven Sisters Road after Berriman Road. The company, established in 1977, made luxury high quality ladies blouses and shirts with “a feminine, elegant feel” which still sell on vintage clothing sites, but the building is now student accomodation.

*Fosby, Blouses, Works, Thane Villas, Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2f-13*

A closer view shows some of the fine detailing on the Grade II listed building built in a Queen Anne style in 1909 as factory, offices and wholesale showroom for manufacturing pharmaceutical chemists Fletcher, Fletcher and Company Ltd. Grace’s Guide lists their specialities: ‘”Vibrona” the Ideal Tonic Wine, of which they are the proprietors; is largely prescribed by the medical profession as a Tonic Restorative. ” Bronamalt,” an Ideal Tonic Food for delicate Children and Invalids. Also proprietors of Fletchers’ Syrups of the Hydrobro mates and Fletchers’ Concentrated Liquors, all of proved value. Are the patentees of Fletchers’ Thermo-Hydrometer and Fletchers’ Autometric Stopper, also of Endolytic Tubes for Clinical Diagnosis.

Other products included Effico tonic, Flexaphyll deodorant tablets, Aperigran laxative granules and Rubelix cough syrup. They called the buildings Vibrona House and remaines there until the 1960s when it was bought by Vortex Jersey Ltd.

The building was only listed in 2007, and the listing text comments: “The building has been little altered and retains several features of note including panelling, a glazed partition, a fireplace and rare historic automatic door, an unusual feature in commercial buildings of the era. The difference between the manufacturing and commercial spaces is clearly marked by two staircases which are both of special interest: the utilitarian stone staircase with metal balusters providing access to the factory and the grand timber Jacobean staircase serving the offices and commercial areas.“

*Hornsey Rd Baths, Laundry, Hornsey Rd, Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2f-14*

At the next crossroads I turned north up Hornsey Road and photographed the Hornsey Road Baths – Grade II listed in 1994. Another Queen Anne style building, this was built in 1891-2, designed by architect Alfred Hessell Tiltman (1854-1910).

When opened it had two pools for men and one for women, but such was demand that the baths were enlarged in 1894 and a second women’s bath was added in 1900. The listing text concludes by mentioning the “remarkable neon Diving Lady on the South flank elevation, one of 12 such illuminated features placed on swimming pools and lidos in London in the 1930’s and now believed to be the only survivor.”

*Hornsey Rd Baths, Laundry, Hornsey Rd, Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2f-16*

The frontage of the baths has the text ‘PUBLIC BATHS AND WASH HOUSES’ incised across it. The wash houses or laundry were added in 1894 and had a large drying room; they became self-service in 1965. The baths were refurbished at a cost of £1.5 million in 1985 and as the board shows were still in use for swimming, warm baths and a sauna when I took these pictures. But lack of funds led to the closing of the baths and laundry the following year.

From 2002-9 the baths were redeveloped, retaining the listed entrance block on Hornsey Road and the chimney but providing 200 apartments, some at affordable rent and others for private sale, an office building for Islington Council and a Sure Start Centre for parents and children.