For Lovers Of Bollards and Lightwells ...

A nice example of a Hayward's Pattern 51 Design F

I'm sure I'm not the only one whose heart quickens at the sight of an intriguing new lightwell, or who has an irresistible urge to gentle caress the cool, worn top of a nicely rounded bollard. Well more 'hoping' than 'sure', but here's some exciting news for those of us already salivating at the prospect of some new, fresh titillation for our jaded palettes.

The first item is from Ian Macky in far-off California. Ian has his own website devoted to glass in all it's many forms and uses and I first came across it when I was looking for some information about the Hayward Brothers of Borough. I was after information on coalholes, but Ian's interest lay mainly with the glass prisms in the lightwells and when I had a look at his site it was obvious I was in the presence of a master. Not only did he have an entire transcription of the history of Hayward Brothers but the levels of detail he was prepared to go to and the fact that I ended up spending ages ferreting around finding out loads of interesting stuff about a subject new to me confirmed Glassian as a top-notch resource. So when he dropped me a line the other week I knew it would be good...

Hi Yelfy, I thought you would be interested to know I've scanned/transcribed my Hayward Brothers pavement lights catalogue and posted it to Glassian. It's here:

It identifies some of your unidentified lights, for example, the last photo of the tile/glass light is HAYWARD'S TILE AND LENS LIGHT pattern #51 (design F), as shown on page 34 (Nice piece! I'm surprised to see one still in such good shape); the one above it with the hexagonal lights appears to be their #3 "Edinburgh" pattern light (see page 16).

There's also a 300DPI scan of the entire catalogue, 150MB in total, as a tarball here:

A Haywards 'Edinburgh' pattern lightwell

A Pavement Lights Catalogue? How good is that? Apart from wondering where on earth you find such a document it opens up whole new layers of possible conversational gambits whilst strolling with friends through town! Many thanks for that Ian. Even if you're not interested in lightwells per se (hard to believe but I'm sure there's a few out there) it's still an interesting read and the Galssian site is well worth a browse on its own.

A Westminster bollard. One of Scott's maybe?

On then to bollards. I put together a posting on bollards over a year ago because I'd noticed a couple of older looking specimens in the Putney/Roehampton area and they reminded me of the old 'cannon' designs you still see now and then. Finding old bollards proved to be a bit of a challenge but I was quite impressed by the quality and styling of the more modern versions so I was pleased to receive an email from Scott Chafer giving some more background detail on both old bollards and the newer types his company manufactures. He also included a number of interesting links to a number of sites dealing with various aspects of foundry work and casting and to cap it all his letter has an excellent opening line...

I stumbled accross your blog whilst perusing the world of street furniture on the Web.

My company manufactures traditional cast iron street furniture, we have been going since 1907 on a site that has a rich history of casting way before this. Records from 1860 show a foundry on this site and indicate that it was far from new even then.

We hold patterns for many of Britains traditional style bollards, the Oxford, City of London, Exeter, Manchester, Blackpool, Liverpool - the list goes on into the hundreds.

We still cast these bollards including a few versions of your beloved Cannon! - Not made from old cannons unfortunately but not too many were, they were mainly cast to look like they were.

Nowadays, all our castings are from 100% recycled materials but we still stick to the high standards of design and quality of the past. As you probably know, much of the modern versions of the traditional street furniture items are imported from China and other such places, whilst there is nothing particularly wrong with these products they can be of questionable quality at times and environmentally are not great - I also consider them to be a bit soul-less.

The importing of Iron from China is quite interesting. Granted, there are comparatively few foundries left in the UK but they are far from rare. (There are 3 within a 25 mile radius of our own - but we are in the industrial North!). People can save money importing their iron but there is so much lost in the process. It is fine if somebody wants 10,000 bollards that all look the same but who wants to live in a world like that?

We like to make things that WILL be there in 100 years (there are some of our bollards around that are that old). There is a good feeling when a post or bollard is supplied and you know that it's really going to last - unless of course an Articulated Truck ploughs it over, but then it has done its job (better the bollard than the human) and that's also the modern world.

It is good to stumble accross people who have a passion for street furniture and traditional products. We still cast everything the old way here - sand mould, made on site and poured as airset castings on the foundry floor. We manufacture modern items too (we are a business after all) but our passion is for cast iron and traditional values.

Please feel free to follow these links - they may be of a little interest:

www.castironbollards.co.uk - our site dedicated to cast iron bollards

www.asfco.co.uk - our main street furniture site

www.wbwhitefoundry.co.uk - just so you can visit our Foundry!

All the best, Scott Chafer

With an attitude to quality like that I can see future bloggers eagerly snapping photos of Scott's bollards in the next century! Good luck to him and his company and long may they prosper.

London Bridge to Rotherhithe, Old Kent Road and Borough (part 2)

This is the second part of my amble around South East London. After a lively start between London and Tower Bridge and an interesting stroll through the derricks and gentrified warehouses on the waterfront, I emerged back onto Jamaica Road to carry on in a generally easterly direction. I've tried to plot my route here on Google maps but picking out exactly which side roads I went down is a bit tricky, so you'll have to take this part as an approximation. Anyway, the first thing that caught my eye on Jamaica Road was a sizeable sewer ventilation outlet

Ham Baker - Sewer Ventilation Pipe
Ham Baker are still in existence and based in the Midlands. They seem to specialise in water flow management systems (I think that probably means sewers) so it shows a continuity at least. Although the firm are now based in the Midlands they seem to have either started or had a branch, in Westminster. These listed examples in Wolverhampton certainly bore that address. Jamaica Road seemed to have very little of it's Victorian buildings left and looks mainly to comprise of 50s and 60s low rise housing. I kept glancing down roads off to the left which were nearer the waterfront so after a while decided to walk down and take a look. I certainly picked the right road as I came out opposite a waterfront pub called The Angel . Very nice it was too with a great view of the river from its upstairs gallery. It seemed apt to have a bottle of Taddy Porter with a packet of crisps (Cheese and Onion of course. Old school...) before moving on. Outside were the ruins of an old manor house and a very strange statue. Or three statues to be precise. The main one was of an elderly man sitting on a chair looking at a young girl and a cat about ten yards away. Apparently this is in honour of a local doctor, Alfred Salter, and shows him recalling his young daughter (and her cat presumably) who had died of scarlet fever many years before. It all looked a bit Gothic, like stumbling across some private ghost story. A bronze complexion doesn't suit her really...
Dr Salter's Dream - Bermondsey Wall East
It's an intriguing work though commemorating a local hero, so I was pleased to have seen it.
Bermondsey Wall -
Just up from the Angel was this riverside conversion with associated crane,
and on one of the walls opposite this decorative reinforcing plate. Quite an attractive one at that. I must keep an eye out for a few more examples.Following the Thames path round the river I noticed a small passage heading towards the river. What caught my eye though, apart from the rusted 'Right of Way' sign was the two imprints above it. The top one is the clearer and reads St. M.R 1871 The other one has the date obscured but it is definitely not the same - 1899 possibly? Very intriguing. I wonder what their significance might be?
By this time I suppose I was venturing into Rotherhithe, or Surrey Quays as I now know it to be. Being docklands the area took a huge pounding during the Second World War and post war development apparently saw a transformation of the area. Many docks were filled in and built over and what I found myself walking round for the next few (tedious) miles was what felt like an isolated and fairly sterile development. The river walk is there and so are some of the old quays, but they look as though they are crying out for anything to tie up alongside. Instead everything seems to be fenced off and even the inhabitants wouldn't be able to get down to the shore-line. The surrounding flats are either conversions or mock-ups of warehouses and the lack of activity, either on foot or by car, gave it an air of desolation. I'd put it as the low point of the walk (although don't go away with the idea that I was going through any emotional upheaval over this. Mildly disappointed would about sum it up.)

Rotherhithe Street & Surrey Water.
Carrying on though I did pass by an old pumping station with this interesting logo from the Port of London Authority and dated 1929. With the pond behind it this seems to have been converted into an ecology centre and was a nice spot to dally for a few minutes
If you did find yourself in these parts I could recommend stopping off at the Surrey Docks City Farm for a cup of tea and a slice of cake. Very restful with a faint but reassuring whiff of the countryside...
Rotherhithe Street - Nelson Dock
On the same street but right around the other side, were a cluster of original buildings, now mostly converted. This shipbuilding company looks as though it's still trading but apparently they left in 1968 although someone seems to keep the painted sign looking spick and span
Passing along Redriff Road and over the corner of Greenland Water I could see the real-life hustle and bustle of Lower Road and Evelyn Street and just along the road I came across this old advertising clock. As you can see it's formed like a giant stopwatch but the advertising panels are long since gone. I'm not sure if it's still working as I don't have a watch to compare it to (or a mobile phone for that matter) but it's certainly a sizeable piece.
I followed the road, and the traffic congestion, around up to Southwark Park where there was a fairly lonely looking pub sitting on the corner.
Lower Road SE 16
Bit of a result here though as it had a coal hole out front with a manufacturer new to me, Nicholls & Clark of Shoreditch, London . Now known as N&C, from their history it looks as though they got into architectural ironmongery in the 1880's. Nice to see them still going strong!
Heading up Rotherhithe New Road and just before the railway lines, I spotted some interesting old bollards by Corbetts Passage. Apart from the general air of dilapidation I particularly enjoyed the black and white banding!
Eventually I hit the Old Kent Road, which at first glimpse lacked any Monopoly board quaintness at all. It didn't have much charm on a second glimpse either, but this marked the point where I turned west and started heading back toward Borough...

Kennington tube to the Imperial War Museum

Just a short stroll but there were a couple of nice items on the way there and back. The first of which was this ghost sign above what seems to be a standard terraced town house
Kennington Lane SE1 - 'The Albion Coffee House' The Albion Coffee House was apparently one of the haunts of Charlie Chaplin's father so I expect there is a good chance that Charlie himself spent some time in there himself. At Kennington Cross there's a whole gaggle of interesting items. Originally an island at a road junction the Cross consists of a horse trough, a Victorian underground Gents toilet, a venting pipe with a crown mount and some interesting bollards. The bollard below is one of the four remaining original examples - the rest are aluminium casts taken from a cast - and it seems to have retained its crisp lines. In fact I thought this example was one of the new ones until I spotted a bit of rust where some paint had been removed. The hourse trough was a standard example from the 'Metropolitan Horse & Cattle Trough Association' with an inscription on the end that read 'The gift of two sisters from Leytonstone'. I'm sure I've read something similar elsewhere so I'm now thinking that the sisters might have left enough money for more than one trough and probably weren't too worried where they were sited I was spotted taking the photo below and had an interesting chat about the area with a lady called Celia. She's part of a group campaigning to preserve Kennington Cross and to turn the toilets (now a Grade 2 Listed Historical Monument) into a Community Arts space called ArtsLav. Celia also featured on Disappearing London where she explained her interest to the singer Suggs. (Disappearing London - The Victorian Public Loo). I hope she succeeds because it was a real jolt seeing them and realising how long it's been since I've seen one of these 'old style' Gents toilets and there's an always present danger of further decay.
Durning Library, Kennington Lane
Durning Library has an exotic Victorian front and this impressive dragon lurking above the front door (don't be late returning your books)...
..and on the roof a very nice little weather vane
Kennington Lane - 'Ariel Writers'
Facing the Library was this really attractive ghost sign . I'm not quite sure what it's advertising, probably the name of the company that were based there, but it's very eye catching all the same.

A Lot of Old Bollards

Bollards aren't what they used to be. I can remember one in an alley down the side of my Grandparent's shop in Battersea that was an old cannon with an oversized cannon ball stuffed down the barrel and you could find similar examples of municipal re-cycling all over London. As years have gone by there's been more and more homogenization of street furniture and bollards for the most part, look pretty bland. There's still the odd one or two of interest though including some of those shown here

Putney High Street
A large number of modern, fairly bland an inoffensive bollards line the High Street. The point of interest here lies in the colour they are all painted -the colours of Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Putney Bridge is the starting point of the annual University Boat Race which might not be quite up there with the nearby Wimbledon Tennis Championship, but is still obviously making a fuss about (if painting your bollards two-tone blue can really count as 'making a fuss')
Roehampton High Street
This is a 'proper' village-like High Street, now little more than a backwater, but this solid and rather attractive bollard looks as though it's been around for quite a while.
Spring Passage, Putney
Ha! What's this? Same bollard, different location and this one looks as though it's not buried quite as deeply as its Roehampton cousin
The Strand, Central London
No idea as to age, but it's suitably ornate and solid for a prime 'prestige' tourist location. Westminster seem to go rather for the ornate, which is no bad thing in my book.
Westminster, Central London
This seems to be the 'bog standard' Westminster design. There were certainly enough of them around. Quite distinctive and not at all unattractive I feel.
Borough Market, London Bridge
All on its own by a passageway under the railway bridge, again this is one that could have been here for a while. I'm not too sure abouth the dated plaque though. I doubt that it's been here since 1813!
Albert Road, Kingston-on-Thames
It looks pretty plain and modern, but it was standing all alone without an obvious job to do and the wall and fence had been built around it. Interesting...as was the 'Chelsea' embossed on the top. Is it a bollard though, or have I come across a new sub-species?

Station Road, Morden
Classic in its design, sturdy no-nonsense stuff on a riverside location and with quite a nice logo.
Medfield Street, Roehampton
This elegant beast is located at the other end of the passage from where the other Roehampton bollard is located, but they are totally different in design. This has a definite air of Victorian design about it, octagonal stem, scroll-work, loads of gratuitous knobbles and a nice bit of patina and wear.
Blackshaw Road, Tooting
My personal favourites - five very quirky and unusual bollards near St George's Hospital
Not sure what's going on with the design here - It reminds me of a row of lolly sticks with a few bulges. And why does the middle one not have a round top like the others?
The maker seems to be 'Thomas Perry' although the paintwork looks as though it could do with a touch-up. Better not mention it to the local council though as they'd probably whip them out and replace them with some concrete ones...
Winchester Walk, Borough
Could this be it? This bollard is actually embedded into the side of this building and I'm wondering if underneath all that paint and rust... could this possibly be an old cannon? Probably not but it certainly looks the part.
As does its companion just a few feet away. Hmmm... the ball is definitely in a depression there, but I'm still not 100% convinced.