1992 | >Re-PHOTO

Islington December 1992

Although these pictures are in my files for 1993, my rather limited diary tells me that they were taken in December 1992 when I made two walks in Islington, but gives no other informations about the actual pictures.

At the time I had no commercial outlet for my colour pictures which were very much personal projects, and one in which details such as location were of no importance.

Islington, 1993, 93c01-02-61 — *Islington, 1992, 93c01-02-61*

The rather strange shadow of a car on an unusual frontage

One of several themes that interested me was the popular representation of people – both men and women – in window displays such as these, painted signage and more.

I’ve arranged the pictures in the order they were taken and its clear that several were from the same shop window.

Creeping in at the bottom of the picture is ‘Shy Girl £65’.

After these pictures of shop windows – possibly on Essex Road – I moved on.

Playground, Islington, 1993, 93c01-02-52 — *Playground, Islington, 1992, 93c01-02-52*

This garden and playground is Tibby Place just off Essex Road on Greenman Street, and was the site of the Tibberton Baths. In 1894 a large house, Wontner’s Villa, on the west side of Tibberton Square was bought and demolished and Tibberton Baths built on its site, with mens and womens swimming baths and a laundry, opening in 1895.

The baths continued in use until the early 1980s and after they were closed and left empty a fire destroyed the main building. The baths were then demolished and these ornate Victorian iron arches which had spanned one of the rather narrow swimming pools were salvaged and erected in this small park on the west of the site which was given the name Tibby Place.

Mecca Bingo, Essex Rd, Islington, 1993, 93c01-02-54 — *Mecca Bingo, Essex Rd, Islington, 1992, 93c01-02-54*

Built and opened in 1930 as the Carlton Cinema this was one of noted cinema architect George Coles finest, and is Grade II* listed. You can read more details on the Cinema Treasures web site which states it was taken over by Associated British Cinemas Ltd in February 1935 but only renamed as the ABC Islington in 1962. It closed as a cinema in 1972 and was converted into a Bingo club, continuing in use until 2007, when apparently the government smoking ban in public places made it impossible to continue. It was then bought by a church who are slowly restoring and converting its interior and has been renamed Gracepoint.

Hairdresser, London, 93c01-02-44 — *Hairdresser, Islington, 93c01-02-44*

A good selection of hairbrushes, combs and other items in the window of this Islington hairdresser.

Service Dept, Islington, 1993, 93c01-02-43 — *Service Dept, Islington, 1992, 93c01-02-43*

I rather doubt that service was still available, and certainly not from this window.

Blue picture, Islington, 1993, 93c01-02-42 — *Blue picture, Islington, 1992, 93c01-02-42*

‘SYLA for prettier bathrooms’. A rather cheeky picture on public display, blue in two meanings.

‘BEST FOR MILES’ is the claim above the menu, but unfortunately I can read nothing below – it was winter and there was no lighting inside the cafe and the fast colour film I needed to use simply did not resolve enough, and there was a lot of colour noise.

You can see the rather basic Christmas decorations in this picture made shortly before or after Christmas.

I think my next post in this series will be pictures really taken in 1993.

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Arrival, Business, Alfredo’s and Paradise – 1992

Arrival, Business, Alfredo’s and Paradise: More colour pictures from my walk in Islington which although are in my January 1993 folder I now find were actually taken in mid-December 1992, but were only processed in the following month. The previous post which was from the beginning of my walk was wrongly titled Islington in Colour – January 1993.

It seemed more about departure than arrival for this closed shop, which was at 130 New North Road on the corner with Poole St. At left you can see the fairly distinctive bridge over the Regent’s Canal still there though this shop and the other buildings between it and the canal was replaced not long after with a large block whose ground floor is occupied by a Co-op food store.

My guess was that Arrival had been a café. I liked the faded canopies with a sun motive and the columns supported on square blocks, I think painted on or tiled over the brickwork as well as the graffiti tags and fly posting for the Dalston Lane Car Boot and Brixton Academy. The disused shop had been firmly sealed against squatters.

Business Design Centre, Upper St, Islington, 1993, 93c01-01-32 — *Business Design Centre, Upper St, Islington, 1992, 93c01-01-32*

The Business Design Centre opened in October 1986, built in the Grade II listed Royal Agricultural Hall built in 1861-2 to the design by Frederick Peck for agricultural shows and continued in use for these until 1938, also hosting other events such as the he Royal Tournament and the first Crufts dog show.

During the Second World War it was taken over by the military and after the Mount Pleasant sorting office was devastated by bombing became a Royal Mail parcels depot. After they moved out the large site remained empty until bought and converted by Sam Morris to an exhibition venue, conference centre, showrooms and offices as the Business Design Centre which opened in October 1986.

Business Design Centre, Upper St, Islington, 1993, 93c01-01-34 — *Business Design Centre, Upper St, Islington, 1992, 93c01-01-34*

I imagine that this sculpture showing two Sumo wrestlers holding up a shipping container was there in conjunction with an event taking place in the Business Design Centre and I have no idea how long it remained in place. Unfortunately none of the handful of frames I made in black and white and colour include enough of the board with text about the event.

The shipping container appears to be an actual used container, with clear signs of wear – and if it was a standard 20ft container will have weighed around 2,300kg – quite a weight for two wrestlers.

Alfredo’s is still there, though no longer a snack bar but a café and restaurant renamed Alfredo’s 1920. I photographed it again in 1986 and here is what I wrote when I posted this on Facebook:

“Established 1920 and with a fine frontage. Details of this still remain in its current use by bistro Meat People, although the central Alfredo’s Snack Bar is long gone and the panel it was on is now plain and rectangular and there is no drop shadow on the plain name MEAT PEOPLE. But at the top of the white vertical panel it now states ‘FORMERLY ALFREDO’S’ and at it’s base ‘ESTABLISHED 1920’ and has some of the same text as before, with the rest altered to reflect the current usage.”

Essex Rd, Islington, 1993, 93c01-01-25 — *Essex Rd, Islington, 1993, 92c01-01-25*

I’m unsure as to how I would categorise the shop with this window display, but I think it was probably run by an ex-boxer. I can’t read the small print under the photograph at top left but I think it is the American boxer Jack Dempsey, (1895 – 1983), “nicknamed Kid Blackie and The Manassa Mauler, was an American boxer who competed from 1914 to 1927, and was world heavyweight champion from 1919 to 1926.” He was best known for the two controversial fights he had with Gene Turney in 1926 and 1927, both of which he lost.

In the window along with the boxing pictures are WD-40, furniture and leather creams, brushes, a hammer, jugs, superglue, a rabbit and more.

Harley Davidson Power, Islington, 1993, 93c01-01-11 — *Harley Davidson Power, Islington, 1992, 93c01-01-11*

I now have no idea where this angry looking snake with the white strip with the messages ‘Harley Davidson’ and ‘Power’ was, or why, though perhaps it was a motorcycle dealer.

Sunflower on Wall, Islington, 1993, 93c01-02-72 — *Sunflower on Wall, Islington, 1992, 93c01-02-72*

For something very different I photographed this painted sunflower next to a door on the wall, presumable leading to two flats, though the number on it, ‘1 B C’ is rather odd. From the parking notice it would seem to be on a fairly busy road. There are two blind windows, probably from when the building was converted to flats.

The picture is very noisy, and although the plant has a shadow, this is painted and the plant pot floats oddly in space. I think the noise is because I under-exposed the negative, though it may also reflect a processing fault. It was taken on a dull December day and perhaps this particular corner was duller than most.

This building is still there but now residential and the metal shutter had been replaced by what looks like wood. The building is in the gap between two semi-detached houses on the street.

Angel's Paradise, Islington, 1993, 93c01-02-76 — *Angel’s Paradise, Islington, 1992, 93c01-02-76*

The rather strange colours in this picture are perhaps appropriate, though I think due to a processing fault. There was a legendary night club on Parkfield Street which was demolished in the late 1990s for the Angel Central shopping complex, but I’m unsure whether this was that venue or another perhaps earlier location – or a completely different Paradise. I’ve been unable to find other pictures which clearly show the Paradise club.

Here is my quick attempt to improve the colour – after having cropped the image to remove a damaged area at left.

More from December 1992 in Islington to come.

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Crackers & Paper Hats

Crackers & Paper Hats: A Happy Christmas to you all.

Perhaps this is not the most obvious of Christmas pictures, but if you’ve pulled a cracker and put on a paper hat you have enjoyed the legacy of Tom Smith, whose wife and company are remembered in this memorial.

*Martha Smith Memorial Water Fountain, Finsbury Square, Finsbury, Islington, 1992, 92-10e-33*

This water fountain states it was ‘Erected and presented to the Parish of St Luke by Thomas and Walter Smith (Tom Smith and Co) to commemorate the life of their mother, Martha Smith, 1826 – 1898.’

Thomas J Smith (1823-1869) invented the Christmas Cracker in 1847 and the company made enough from their sales and the paper crowns introduced into them by his son Walter to move to premises in Finsbury Square where they remained until 1953. The fountain dedicated to their mother was erected by Thomas’s sons Tom and Walter in 1898.

You can still buy Tom Smith crackers both in the UK and the USA and the company has “been the proud holder of a Royal Warrant to The Monarch since 1906” – including our current king, and you can view their catalogue online which also includes gift wrap, display units and tags, gift bags and cards. You can get some of them from various charities in boxes of six at around a pound a cracker as well as in various shops. However I suspect those they produce to be pulled around the royal Christmas dinner table are considerably more expensive.

On another site you can read a fairly detailed story of how the cracker came about – and my short summary based on this and Wikipedia.

Tom Smith began work as a small boy in a “a bakers and ornamental confectioners shop in London, selling sweets such as fondants, pralines and gum pastilles” and enjoyed making new “new, more exciting and less crude designs in his spare time.“

In his teens he set up his own shop in Goswell Road, Clerkenwell selling wedding cake ornaments and confectionery and on a trip to Paris in search of novel ideas in 1840 found the ‘bonbon‘, a sugared almond wrapper in a twist of tissue paper, and he began making and selling these in London. He had the idea of increasing sales by adding love messages in the wrappers.

Chemist Edward Charles Howard had discovered silver fulminate in 1800 and in 1802 Luigi Valentino Brugnatelli found a “a safe way of using it in amusements and for practical jokes.” I think schoolboys made use of it ever since (as I did) to put a trace on schoolmasters chalks to make a small explosion when they write on the board. I imagine whiteboard markers have made this obsolete.

Again according to Wikipedia, Smith bought the design and formula for the “snap” in his crackers from a chemist called Tom Brown who had worked for the Brocks Fireworks company. Smith added these to the now rather larger bonbons and sold them first as ‘Bangs of Expectation‘, later as “Cosaque (French for Cossack)”, but they became known popularly as ‘crackers’.

It was his son Walter, who took over the business after his father’s death in 1869 who first produced the cracker as we know it now, adding trinkets and paper hats, and these enjoyed a huge success, enabling him to move the business to much larger premises near this monument in Finsbury Square. In the 1890s it had 2000 employees and it remained there until 1953 when the company merged with Caley Crackers, then owned by toffee manufacturer John Mackintosh & Sons Ltd. The new joint company operated under the name of Tom Smith’s.

The picture to the memorial which celebrates both Walter’s mother and father is one of over 35,000 pictures, mainly of London, though also some of Paris, Hull and elsewhere. You can search the collection to find pictures of particular interest or browse the albums. As always, comments there are welcome on any of my pictures.

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Notting Hill 1992

We can’t go to carnival this year so I’m posting some pictures from previous years – today from 1992.

Notting Hill Carnival, 1992. Peter Marshall 92-8aa-12_2400

Notting Hill Carnival, 1982. Peter Marshall 92-8ab-15-16_2400

Notting Hill Carnival, 1992. Peter Marshall 92-8ac-55_2400

Notting Hill Carnival, 1992. Peter Marshall 92-8af-33_2400

Notting Hill Carnival, 1992. Peter Marshall 92-8ag-014_2400

Notting Hill Carnival, 1992. Peter Marshall 92-8ag-46_2400

Notting Hill Carnival, 1992. Peter Marshall 92-8ab-23_2400

Notting Hill Carnival, 1992. Peter Marshall 92-8ac-52_2400

I think all except one of these pictures were taken on Ladbroke Grove north of the station, the odd one out being the Kensington Food Centre a few yards away on the corner of Chesterton Rd and St Lawrence Terrace.

More pictures on Flickr in Notting Hill Carnival – the 1990s.

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.