Posts Tagged ‘dogs’

Finsbury 1988 (Part 1)

Monday, November 1st, 2021

Ropemaker St, Islington, 1988 88-5m-14-positive_2400
Ropemaker St, Islington, 1988 88-5m-14

At the end of May 1988 I went to Finsbury on the northern edge of the City of London – not to be confused with Finsbury Park a couple of miles further north. I think I might have been visiting an exhibition at the Barbican Gallery which has its main street entrance in Silk Street, just a few yards from the border with Finsbury, part of the London Borough of Islington.

Ropemaker St, Islington, 198888-5n-61-positive_2400
Ropemaker St, Islington, 1988 88-5n-61
Ropemaker St, Islington, 1988 88-5n-62-positive_2400
Ropemaker St, Islington, 1988 88-5n-62
Finsbury St, Islington,1988 88-5n-64-positive_2400
Finsbury St, Islington,1988 88-5n-64

Or it could be that I was simply visiting some of my favourite new buildings in London, in Ropemaker St, some now demolished and replaced. Those balconies – perhaps from the 1950s – are still there but the more recent building on the other side of Chiswell Street has been replaced by something bigger and blander.

Honourable Artillery Company, Gates, Finsbury St, Islington,1988 88-5n-63-positive_2400

Honourable Artillery Company, Gates, Finsbury St, Islington,1988 88-5n-63

I simply had to turn around to find my next subject, the gates of the Honourable Artillery Company, established by Royal Charter on 25th August 1537 and said to be the second-oldest military corps in the world. It actually traces its history back rather further to 21 years after the Norman invasion. The ‘Artillery’ for much of its history was the long bow and it originally had a field in Spitalfields where it could practice shooting arrows, and it only moved permanently here to the Artillery Garden in in 1658. As well as military practice the ground has also often been used for sporting and other events; cricket is said to have been played here as early as 1725 and the first balloon flight in England began was here by Vincenzo Lunardi in September 1784. THe HAC is still a part of the Army Reserve, the oldest regiment in the British Army.

Diana, sculpture, Chiswell St,  Finsbury St, Islington,1988 88-5n-52-positive_2400
Diana, sculpture, Chiswell St, Finsbury St, Islington,1988 88-5n-52

In front of one of the buildings on Chiswell St was a narrow garden with a few bushes and a sculpture of Diana the Huntress with two dogs. I don’t know what has happened to this.

Whitecross St,  Finsbury, Islington,198888-5n-55-positive_2400
Whitecross St, Finsbury, Islington,198888-5n-55

A tall warehouse on the corner of Errol St and Whitecross St has a sign for A J Brown Brough & Co Ltd, Paper and Packaging. The building is still there, now I think converted largely to residential use, with its main entrances in Dufferin St. But of more interest to many – and perhaps to me when I made the image – is the vintage Citroen in the foreground.

I’ll continue my walk around Finsbury in later posts. You can click on any of the pictures here to go to larger versions in my album 1988 London Photos.


Signs and Animals

Thursday, December 3rd, 2020
Gosheron Tapes, Kensington Church St, Kensington, Kensington & Chelsea 87-10c-14-positive_2400
Gosheron Tapes, Kensington Church St, Kensington, Kensington & Chelsea

I’m often surprised by people who look at some of my photographs and say to me “ I never notice that”, but I think it’s true of all of us that we walk around without really noticing things. Even buildings like Vicarage House, home of Gosheron Tapes, whose frontage screams out onto the street. But Gosheron’s days – at least at this address – had clearly passed, as an estate agent’s sign and flyposts on the windows clearly show, though they seem to have continued making packaging materials elsewhere until at least 2005.

The building now has antiques on the ground floor and serviced offices elsewhere, including the Nicaraguan Embassy. I’ve failed to find any information about its exact date – somewhere around 1900 – or the monogram which appears to be CS on its frontage. Information is welcome.

Godfrey's Model Bakery, Arlington Rd, Parkway, Camden, 1987 87-10b-66-positive_2400
Godfrey’s Model Bakery, Arlington Rd, Parkway, Camden, 1987

The ‘Tasty Corner’ on Arlington St and Parkway in Camden is now an estate agentss and its large sign with its baker for Godfrey’s Model Bakery has disappeared.

Palmers, Pet Stores, Parkway, Camden, 1987 87-10b-55a-positive_2400
Palmers Pet Stores, Parkway, Camden, 1987

Many passed Palmer’s Regent Pet Store on their way to and from London Zoo from Camden Town Station. It was established by Mrs Florence Palmer around 1918 but was run from 1924 by George Palmer, who built up the business and expanded into a second neighbouring shop in the late 1930s. Perhaps surprisingly this shop was listed Grade II in 2007, largely for its shop front which the listing text suggests dates from around 1940, though the houses containing the shop were built in the 1820s.

The shop, which had sold Winston Churchill his cat Orlando as a kitten which later moved into Downing St, and a couple of Abyssinian kittens to Charlie Chaplain, stopped selling animals around 2005 and moved across the road. After being empty for several years it became a tea room.

Clarence Cottage, Albany St, Regent's Park, Camden, 1987 87-10b-15-positive_2400
Clarence Cottage, Albany St, Regent’s Park, Camden, 1987

On their way to the Zoo walkers might have walked down Albany St, or at least past its corner close to this hous, Clarence Cottage, which stii has its row of ornaments with a rather weather-beaten lion at its centre. Previously called Glenhaven, it isn’t clear to me why the mid-19th century house was Grade II listed in 1974, though it’s a pleasant enough building of its age, only really distinguished by this extension with a Ionic pedimented doorway onto the pavement outside and the ornaments above it – including that lion.

It’s in a area of London that has many fine buildings from that era and earlier – much of which is probably also listed.

St George's Drive, Pimlico, Westminster, 1987 87-10a-42-positive_2400
Sussex St, Pimlico, Westminster, 1987

I came across two dogs in Westminster, looking to me rather snooty. But I’d failed to note down their exact location and it took me a long time to hunt them down again – but they are still there in Sussex St.

Romany Hotel, Longmore St, Guildhouse St, Pimlico, Westminster, 1987 87-10a-62-positive_2400
Romany Hotel, Longmore St, Guildhouse St, Pimlico, Westminster, 1987

Perhaps the most surprising thing about the Romany Hotel is that it is still there as the Romany Hotel, though the signage has changed and now includes an e-mail address and a fairly discrete extra floor has been added on top.

But in keeping with today’s theme is the bird in flight at the top left corner. Although I’m no ornithologist at first glance it looked like some bird of prey, but I think it is really just a pigeon doing a good impression.

1987 London Photos


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.