A Couple of Borough 'Ghosts' (and two others!)

Two ghost signs to kick us off then,

Redcross Way, Borough
This is a big advert slapped on a residential development. You might not be surprised to hear that it faces directly on to the railway line for maximum exposure and isn't a sign that's easy to ignore.
Park Street, Borough
You can find this beauty just where the road does a sharp 90 degree bend. The trouble is it looks too authentically French shabby-chic. Part of me thinks it must have been painted for some period drama or something, but then again, in all probability, it is more than likely the real McCoy...

And two others to titillate and amuse...

Bear Gardens
Odd one this. I would guess that at some point a community group or rogue muralist painted the side of a semi-derelict building. Years later a modern building was erected alongside and the mural is now hidden, for the most part, by the car-park. Bits of it still are still visible, though the overall effect is lost... Rose Alley
Stuck down an insignificant dead-end of an alley is this faded 'rose mural'. Was it once a shop or entrance to a Shakespearian museum? No idea, but it's now faded, peeling and pretty much ignored.

Faded London on the Road: Bootscrapers of Totnes and Dartmouth

Some more of my holiday snaps. No, honestly I do normal holiday things as well but it's very difficult to pass by an inviting boot-scraper or a nice bit of mosaic... Take these intriguing examples for instance

Dartmouth
Well it all goes down hill from now on. I mean honestly, what a cracker of a boot-scraper... the whole thing is just so aesthetic. I think I'd be a bit ashamed to put mud anywhere near it.
Bit of a comedown, but nevertheless there's probably a nice bit of detail under all that paint.
Getting a bit plain now. The further down the hill you go the less impressive the scrapers. Some sort of social stratification going on here?
Cheerful, alert and lively. A pukka example of a decent Victorian scraper!
A little shy and retiring and not wishing to make a fuss. Nevertheless a scraper who's willing to take the rough with the smooth...
Right at the foot of the hill, just as you hit the market we have a simple, straightforward scraper. No recess, no decoration, no fuss. A real 'Fisherman's Friend'!
Totnes
The first one I spot coming from the river and heading toward town - full of rubbish and a single, plaintive dandelion.
South Street
This photo was taken at the top of the High Street and is a real value-for-money shot. A boot-scraper, old bollard and an ancient public faucet within a few feet of each other.This is a bit unusual. A recessed arch with a stand-alone scraper. Is it the original? The arch is quite accommodating with no obvious side fitting space, so I'm inclined to think it is. (I never said it was very unusual, did I?)High Street
The next three are all variations on the same theme I think. Or at least they look to me like the same design, despite having aged very differently over the years. First off you can't use this particular scraper these days, even if you wanted to. Silly place to stick a pole... This one seems to have suffered a bit of rust in its time but looks the same design to me.Intact, but well camouflaged ... I wonder what that white thing is to the side?
Proud, visible and intact. Ready to scrape your shoes at the drop of a hat! A nice one to finish on.

The Kaiser, a Doorway, a Bridge and his Bust!

Wandering around looking for intriguing bits of London can sometimes throw up little mysteries, little questions that knock around until you can come up with some sort of explanation, right or wrong, that manages to satisfy...well this is one of those!

The other week I was wandering down the back streets of Putney, parallel to the High Street, when I noticed a house with slightly more elaborate decoration than its neighbours. It was at the end of Werter Road, Putney and one of the most striking things about it was the florid bust of a military looking gentleman above the door arch.


One of the reasons I noticed it was because I had once picked up an interesting painted plaster cast of what seemed to be the same individual in a junk shop on a small island off of Istambul (stay with me on this one...). The cast seemed to be of a high ranking German officer of WWI-ish vintage, but there was no indication as to who it could have been. It probably wasn't all that surprising to find such a bust in Turkey as the two countries were close allies up to and during the First World War, but to find what appeared to be the same individual in Putney was a bit odd. Could this be a bust of Kaiser Wilhelm II ('Kaiser Bill')?

Then there was the name Werter Road, which is distictly German in tone, for example comprising part of the title of a book by Goethe called The Sorrows of Werter. Could the bust and the naming of the road be connected?

All a little coincidental possibly but then I began to wonder how a house with such a prominent bust of the Kaiser have fared during the war? I recall reading somewhere that Gerhold the Bakers on the Upper Richmond Road had their windows broken more than once just for having a name that sounded germanic so having the bust of the evil Kaiser above your door seems to be more than a little foolish. Why wasn't it smashed or defaced?

Then I thought I'd cracked it. I vaguely recalled hearing that the Kaiser had once visited Wimbledon Common to review the troops. He must have travelled through Chelsea and Fulham before crossing Putney Bridge and making his way up Putney Hill to Wimbledon Common. Had his visit, the visit of Queen Victoria's grandson, provided enough goodwill and excitement to cause someone to comission a bust to remember it by? A look on the Putney Conservators website confirmed the trip

In 1891 the Emperor of Germany, Kaiser Wilhelm II, inspected 22,000 troops on
Wimbledon Common of whom 16,000 were volunteers

When I thought about it a little further I also recalled that for many years the Railway Pub on the corner of Putney High Street and the Upper Richmond Road (is it now called Flannegan's?) used to feature a large painted bust of a be-whiskered German in a picklehaube helmet, high up in a niche by the roof. More evidence of the Kaiser's visit?(Update: I found this picture in an old book of architectural detailing. The head itself is no longer there)

Another avenue of enquiry occured to me as my father in law has a large collection of old photos of Putney, taken off of the original plate-glass negatives and given to him many years ago. I went through them and found this picture of the approach to the bridge

It's a nice atmospheric shot, but there's bunting out and the bridge seems to have been turned into a triumphal archway with ivy, flags and a sign. All very intriguing and when you zoom in on the sign it gets even more interesting...


The 'VELKOMMEN' (I think a bit of the 'E' has been obscured to make it look like an 'O') could only be a welcome to a visiting German dignitary of high rank and affection. An 1891 visit by the Queen's grandson, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Emperor of Germany which caused so much excitement that pubs and private houses both marked the visit with busts of the man himself.

Except there's a rather large fly in that ointment. It turns out that the whiskery chap isn't Kaiser Wilhelm II but his grandfather Kaiser Wilhelm I 'The Great' of Prussia and Germany as can be seen from this portrait

Well that's my neat theory blown out of the water. No busts for Kaiser Bill, but all of them for his grandad! Did he ever visit Putney? Not to my knowledge but there must be some link and I'd be
very interested if there are any possible suggestions out there.

And all this from spotting one small bust...

Derricks of Borough Market

Derricks are small fixed cranes often used for hoisting sacks or crates up to the top floor of a building. Apparently named after a famous hangman they are most often to be found in areas of old warehousing, like that around Borough Market, Southwark. I was up visiting Vinopolis one evening last week and spent a few minutes in the gloom snapping a few pictures. They are quite impressive lumps of iron which has probably helped their retention on the sides of buildings now more often flats than warehouses, but I am slightly suspicious that at least one or two of these beasts have been moved for dramatic effect!

Stoney Street, Southwark
It looks as though thus one would have lifted items up on to the wooden drop-leaf to the right

Clink Street (under the railway bridge)
A bit dark and gloomy this one, and just as I was going to take a photo a white van parks in front of it...
Stoney Street, Southwark
Nice bit of adaptation here by Majestic on what looks like a very solid derrick
Borough Market, Southwark
I can't recall the exact location of this one which is a pity as it is the only one that, if not fully-functioning, at least looks as though it could be used without much effort

Bear Gardens, Southwark
An attractive meccano-like effort, but the building it's on is pretty much gutted, as you can see when you notice a lack of roof through the windows.

Bear Gardens, Southwark
Solid, functional, non-swivelling but sadly a little boring.
Clink Street, Southwark
A good, solid effort this one.
And finally, a 'stray' not from Borough at all

Ravensbury Mill, Morden Road, SM4
From no-where near the Thames comes this final example. This is actually on an old mill on the banks of the Wandle and a good 15 feet in the air. It now sits outside someone's luxury flat but must be useful if you need to get a new piano or something!

Q. When is a Ghost Sign not a Ghost Sign? A. When it's in Totnes, Devon

A 'Faded London' Holiday Special!
Down in Devon this 'summer' I came across this interesting building in Totnes, facing onto the River Dart. What caught my attention was the way that the building had been painted. It was obviously a recent paint-job, but the owners seemed to have made a conscious effort to replicate/preserve the original signage that must have been apparent on the side of the building.
I suppose most owners of a building with a 'ghost sign' will either leave it alone - assuming it either adds to the character of the building or that they would feel guilty in obliterating it - or paint over it , preferring a nice, shiny blank canvas. However this owner seems to have taken a rare, third course of re-painting the lettering in-situ. As his neighbour has not followed suit it looks a little odd but it's certainly eye-catching and preserves something of the history of the site. It's certainly not as interesting as the original and leaves me with mixed feelings. On the whole I think it's not unlike having a gravestone for the original sign. The body may be gone but you can still read a sanitised version of what it represented. I wonder how many more such examples may be out there?

Assorted London Coalholes

I've recorded a few more intriguing coalholes on recent journeys - including an exceptionally fine ones for the trophy cabinet!

Green & London, Chelsea, London SW (Fulham Road)
This one is a bit splattered with chewing gum but still shows its' local roots. Not a bad pattern - a bit reminiscent of a compass I think.
Hayward's Non-Slip Patent (spotted in Charring Cross)
Instead of the usual metallic pattern incorporating lots of ridges and lines, Hayward's obviously thought that having a concrete in-fill was the way to go. They still kept the glass lights and the metallic, embossed name in the centre but it's a bit bland and I can't say it's one of my favourite designs.
Addis's, Leicester Street, Leicester Square (Spotted near Regent Street)
Very strong and distinctive design where the typography is as prominent as the decoration. I don't know if the Star of David effect at the centre was purely decorative or whether it had some other significance - could it be that Addis was a Jewish-owned company? Anyway, it's certainly a strong and distinctive design.
Hayward Brothers, London
Looks like an earlier effort to incorporate concrete into the manhole cover. Slightly more attractive than the one above and not without a hint of charm, but really not a coal-hole to boast about at cocktail parties ...
J.W. Cunningham & Co., 196, Blackfriars Road S.E. - Iron Steel and Grindstone Merchants 1882 (spotted in Lower Marsh Street, Waterloo)
Well spotting this one is like having a penny Black in the collection, or some rare First Edition.
How much better can a coal hole cover get? Dogs, three-legged pots and all the information you can want about the makers. If that isn't enough you then find out it's 'highly sought-after' by the Greater London Industrial Archaoelogical Society who have some interesting information about the origin of the sign . To quote from the site above

Lily Goddard in her book 'Coalhole Rubbings' (1979) adds this.

'In 1823 young Charles Dickens, walking home to Lant Street, Southwark, over Blackfriars Bridge and into Blackfriars Road, noticed the sign of the 'Dog's Head in a Pot over a corner shop in St Georges Terrace, 'the likeness of a golden dog licking a golden pot over a shop door,' he wrote to a friend. This wooden effigy, preserved in the Cumings Museum (sic) in Southwark, had been known to people in the Borough since 1783 as the sign of an ironmonger's establishment.'

Haywards Limited Patent, Union Street, Borough, London - Self Locking (spotted on The Strand)
Larger than average as it was for an establishment, not a private dwelling, this effort looks more like a man-hole cover with its pattern of radiating diamonds.

More Horse and Cattle Troughs

Following the dictum that you can't have too much of a good thing here are a few more Horse and Cattle Troughs that I've come across on my travels. All of them are granite troughs provided by the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association

Norstead Place, Roehampton
Just by the busy A3 and opposite the cemetery (where no doubt horses pulling hearses were grateful for a rest during the service) this particular trough is even visible from satellite! All the metal fittings have been removed except for what I take to be a link to attach the cup on a chain to. I'm not sure what the rest of the fixing points were for though and there's no evidence of dedications on this one.Could it have been the fixing points for a sign or plaque? The changing road layout has left it slightly beached though.Very convenient for the graveyard opposite though and it's all uphill back to Roehampton!


Clifton Road, Kingston KT2
Tucked just off the main road this solid looking trough still has the metal grill at one end and is just for the horses. No water for humans or dogs on this one.
The dedication on the road side reads 'Gift of Miss G. L. Paterson'
Cottenham Park Road, Raynes Park
This is an intriguing trough that must have been pretty much in the country when it was set up. Now it's tucked down an insignificant side road and dead end but at least it has a nice flush of greenery to set it off. There's a metal basket at one end and I'd be interested to know what the point of it was

The 'Push' button is still in place though. I assume this would have topped the trough up if it was getting a bit low. There was also a dedication at the other end but sadly it is now unreadable and although I think the date was 1895 even that isn't too clear.

Bootscrapers

Bootscrapers are one of those items of street furniture that are now pretty much redundant. Can you recall the last time you felt the urge to remove the accumulate sludge from your own shoe arches? I suppose at a time of poor drainage, cobbled streets and a multitude of horses then it might have been a good move to at least make the effort to remove any obvious aromatic lumps before visiting a customer, Bank Manager or church. Now days though they have either been filled in, removed or just left to rot as there's not many alternative uses around (although one newsagent has made a valient effort!)

Parsons Green, Fulham
The villas to the east of the green have their date of construction recorded above the door (1770's seem to be the average). This is the only one to retain a scraper by the front gate though.
Off Regent Street, London
I spotted this plain but intact scraper in one of the small streets behind Regent Street. The scraper itself has been adapted into a chaining point for the newsagent to prevent his board being stolen or blown away.
Wimbledon Broadway SW19
Solid, robust and devoid of any Fancy-Dan trimmings, this is one of a pair outside a local Catholic ChurchChurch
Wimbledon Village, SW19
My limited knowledge of bootscrapers doesn't stop me from recognising one of the most common decorative features - the head of a Medieval King at the top of the arch. Why this should be the case I've no idea but the head is about the best preserved feature of this sadly decayed scraper
Wimbledon Village, SW19
This example is situated outside a very impressive looking bank and has the simplicity and authority of a great Victorian institution
Clapham Common, Old Town
This one has the look of a home-made effort, although I'm sure it's not. I wonder who swept the scrapings out at the end of the week?
Upper Richmond Road, Putney SW15
The whole scraper is quietly rusting away in this example. No-one can even be bothered to remove the scraper section which now lies unused on the floor.