More Putney Coalholes

Bit of a rich vein of form in the Lower Richmond Road, Putney, but as these were all outside shops it's not surprising that many of them have been worn smooth over the decades. There must have been large numbers of manufacturers as many of them have local South London addresses. I'm not aware of any listings of manufacturers and I expect the easiest way of finding out about the companies involved would be through old trade directories.

Lower Richmond Road, Unknown manufacturer Take this one for example. Nice shape but not a hope of identifying who made it.


Lower Richmond Road, H. J. Shearn, 30 High Street, Putney
You can't really get more local than this example which would have been purchased about a quarter of a mile away


Lower Richmond Road, Hayward Brothers, 187 & 189 Union Street, Boro.
Similar design to the one above, but without the holes. Quite good condition though.

Lower Richmond Road, W.H. Stevens, 383 Brixton Road, SW
Apart from decorative purposes the coal holes needed engraved surfaces to prevent people slipping on them in the wet. This one should still do the job.

Lower Richmond Road, Unknown manufacturer
This one on the other hand has lost most of its surface and one of its glass lenses. I think you can just make out what looks like 'brothers' in the top right corner though.

Lower Richmond Road, M.C. Davis & Co.
It could be my imagination but I think I can make out 'Clapham' and 'Camberwell' around the edges. Could be a figment of my imagination though.
I must say that I'm finding these coal-holes intriguing. As there doesn't seem to be much on the web regarding manufacturers I'm tempted to start my own listing to see how many different
suppliers there are and if there's any logic to distribution. For example you'd expect a row of houses to have coal holes from the same supplier but this often does not seem to be the case.