A clock and a canal

The row of faces above comes from a building in Islington, one that I like and often photograph. If you haven’t guessed what it is by then, the answer is near the end of the article.

J Smith & Sons clock

I went out today to photograph a clock. This clock is also in Islington and I have become very fond of it.

It stands in the strange triangle where City Road and Goswell Road meet. This area has recently been refurbished. Alarmed when the clock disappeared, I was happily reassured when it came back, freshly painted and gilded.

The clock was presented by the firm whose advertisement appears on it, J Smith & Son (Clerkenwell) Ltd. Founded in 1780, the company’s original business was clock making but today, as their own account of their history tells us, they specialize in the supply of metals.

The clock remains as a reminder of their beginnings and is a handsome decoration of this corner of Islington. Long may it remain there.

Clock face

I have to admit to being somewhat conservative when it comes to clock faces. I like this robust, no-nonsense round dial with clearly marked minute ticks and Roman numerals. The hands have a nice solidity too.

I don’t know whether the company made this clock and when it was set up here in Islington but I am trying to find out and if I discover any useful information I will post a follow-up article about it.

The work gloves you see on the pediment presumably belonged to the workman nearby. The circle around the clock on the pavement contains the rhyme Up and down the City Road, In and out the Eagle, That's the way the money goes. Pop goes the weasel.

Just as I was talking to the workman, another chap approached and exclaimed “The Eagle no longer exists! They should have done their research before writing that!” Then he looked narrowly at me and asked “Are you the artist?” I quickly denied all guilt in that department...

The Regent's Canal

Walking on down I came to the Regent’s Canal. It passes through the Islington Tunnel, under the place where I was standing to take the above photo.

A barge approaches the Danbury Road bridge

It is a pleasant walk along the canal on a sunny day. Its traffic is slower and quieter than that on the surrounding roads.

Misty view of the City

Further along, you come to a little park called Graham Street Park, beside which is a jetty where I had this rather dreamy view of the distant City (you can see the Gherkin hiding demurely in the haze).

Got any chips?

I also met this pigeon on the jetty and you know I can never resist a pigeon in close-up, especially a handsome one with clean coral-pink legs like this chap. He was probably hoping for a hand-out but, if so, was disappointed.

Did you guess where the faces at the top are to be found? They belong to the beautiful building on the corner of Pentonville Road and Islington High Street, that was once a hotel and now accommodates a branch of the Cooperative Bank. They are the facing on a decorative ledge that divides the 3rd and 4th floors of the building.

And finally...

I will leave you with a little mystery. I don’t know the answer to this myself but I expect there is someone somewhere who does.

Double door knockers

Why does this door have double doorknockers? Do you use both or only one and, in that case, which one do you use? “Knock the left for Peter, the right for Paul”? It seems unlikely. Maybe the occupants are deaf and it takes a good pummelling with both hands to attract their attention. Then again, there seems to be a doorbell too...

Update

See update on the clock here.

Blue doors and foam

Today was not only Valentine’s Day but also the Chinese New Year and the Year of the Tiger to boot. What should we do on such a day? Why, the laundry, of course! (Well, it needed doing.)

Blue doors

While the laundry was spinning we went for a little walk around. The first thing that caught my eye was the sight of these blue doors. They made a bright contrast with the sober brickwork.

Russell Rooms, Russell Hotel

Nearby was this rather handsome building. Over the ornate doorway it says “Russell Rooms”. I believe these are rooms belonging to the Russell Hotel and can be hired for conferences are so on.

How not to soap your washing

Back at the launderette, we saw this machine in action: somebody had overdone it with the washing powder. It was like watching a film about London in the days of the Great Smog. I just hope he doesn’t go out in the rain in those clothes...

On the way home we bought a couple of slices of cake for tea. Sorry, no photos: they didn’t last long enough!

Happy New Year of the Tiger!

Today is the start of the Chinese New Year and this is the Year of the Tiger!

Happy New Year of the Tiger

to all our Readers!

Eurostar responds

Back in December, in my post Tigger goes to Sheffield; I stay at home, I mentioned, more or less in passing, the disruption to Eurostar’s services and the long queues waiting at St Pancras.

I was pleasantly surprised yesterday to receive an email from someone I suppose I might describe as a Eurostar official, referring to my post and inviting me to view Eurostar’s response to the Independent Enquiry set up to review last December’s events and make recommendations.

This was flattering but, in a sense, the writer saw the mote and missed the beam, the latter being my much more direct experience of disrupted Eurostar services in Paris in September 2008, recorded in my page, Paris 2008. What I criticized then was the lack of preparedness of Eurostar staff to deal with a major event and the lack of adequate mechanisms for keeping passengers informed of the state of play. From what I have read, similar problems manifested themselves again last December.

The Response, which you will find here, does mention poor communication as one of the problems experienced and proposes measures to improve matters. The email tells me that Eurostar is, above all, focused on

• Improving passenger care in disruption
• Improving communications, and
• Strengthening the resilience of our trains

The email invited me to pass on any thoughts and I did so. One of these was that I see Eurostar as a very important service in a world that is tackling global warming and seeking to clean up the environment. I believe that high-speed rail travel should replace air travel, at least within Europe.

Thus, failures of the Eurostar service as experienced in December are very worrying. Not only do they disrupt the plans of hundreds of passengers but they also cast a shadow over the whole concept of fast rail travel and cause a loss of confidence in it. Winning passengers back is then likely to be an uphill struggle.

At its best, Eurostar is a fine service. I remember with pleasure the trips we have taken on it and I hope to enjoy many more. The optimistic words of the Response are all very well – all companies issue statements like this after the event – but what counts is whether or not Eurostar delivers on its promises. If Eurostar does so, then it will have my wholehearted approval.

Perhaps you would like to read the Response for yourself and see what you think.

Aquae Sulis

The main pool of the Roman baths

Today’s trip was to Bath, the Aquae Sulis of the Roman occupiers. Having found the hot springs, the Romans quickly built elaborate baths with several pools. The image above shows the main pool, often referred to as the swimming bath.

---

Tigger went off early and later sent me a text to say she was aboard the 8:00 train for Bath. As the deadline is 13:00, she should make it comfortably and have time to start exploring Bath. Because today is Friday, a busy day on the main rail routes to and from London, and because we could buy our tickets only the evening before, I could not get a cheap ticket until 10:30, especially as we preferred open tickets rather than being limited to specific trains. This because of the weather: if it is bad, we want to be able to return early.

Terrace Walk and The Huntsman

So far it is a dull day, and although it is not raining at present, the ground is wet and there are raindrops on the bus windows. Perhaps it will improve or conditions are better in Bath. I am dressed warmly with my "carapace" (thick fleece jerkin). After the low temperatures of the last few days I am not taking any chances.

---

Bath's elegantly understated station

At Paddington, my train was already available so I went straight aboard and found a good window seat. If I say little about the journey, it's because I felt tired and closed my eyes, just for a moment... and slept for the next hour. By the time I started taking an interest in my surroundings again, there was less than half an hour to go to Bath.

On my arrival, we started to walk to the centre and on the way Tigger proposed a choice of three venues for lunch, a vegetarian restaurant, a French one and a Moroccan. I was rather tempted by the French restaurant but finally plumped for the Moroccan, as this is something we rarely have a chance to try.

Café du Globe

It is called Café du Globe and though small has an extensive menu with vegetarian dishes clearly marked with a green 'V'. We chose the Moroccan soup, which was served with delicious Moroccan bread, and vegetarian cous-cous. We drank mint tea with this. It was all very tasty and enjoyable, so we might come here again.

Wealthy man's tombstone

After this, we decided to visit the Roman Baths. Work is still going on in the baths, uncovering the tumbled stones and restoring the buildings as far as possible. One of the finest areas is the main pool (see top picture).

Head of the goddess Minerva

The town and the baths were known as Aquae Sulis to the Romans. Sulis was a British Goddess. It was standard practice on the part of the Romans to leave the native gods in place but to conflate them with a similar Roman deity. In this case, Minerva was chosen as the Roman version of Sulis.

Corridor, the Victorian arcade

After touring the extensive exhibition, we took tea in the Pump Room cafe. And no, we did not take the waters, thank you very much! My interest in cultural history stretches only so far...

Bath City Markets

We then toured some of our favourite spots such as the Victorian arcade, Corridor, and the City Markets. A plaque there tells us that they received their Royal Charter in 1189.

The Pulteney Bridge at evening

It was now evening and it was beginning to get dark. Lights were coming on, showing a different aspect of Bath. We took a look at the famous Pulteney Bridge (above), photographed it and the Abbey, then continued to wend our way to the station.

Bath Abbey

We arrived in time for the 17:43 Paddington train. The platform was crowded and this put me in a somewhat gloomy mood as I guessed the train would be also be packed. I was right and there was standing room only. Our plan was to get off at Chippenham and try our luck with the next train. We did get off, but then saw that a lot of other passengers also disembarked, so we got back on! This time we did manage to find seats though not together.

When the train reached Swindon, more people got off and I was able to grab a pair of seats and wave to Tigger. Together again at last!

A vestige of the past - the servants' doorbell

It was a good day with a successful courier run, an interesting visit to the Roman baths and a tour of some of our favourite parts of Bath.

A town beside the Avon

The Pulteney Bridge

The Pulteney Bridge crosses the river Avon in the city of Bath and, all being well, we shall see this river tomorrow. Rather late in the day, we learned that Tigger has a courier run to Bath tomorrow. I will be tagging along, of course, though for reasons of cost, I will have to travel later, arriving in time for lunch. By then Tigger should have made the drop and carried out a preliminary reconnaissance of the terrain.

How shall we spend the rest of the day? As of now, I cannot say. We shall wait on the inspiration of the moment although, because of the cold, indoor occupations seem attractive and I have not visited the Roman Baths for a number of years.

All will be revealed in due course!

Note

In the original of this post my brain slipped a cog and I confused Bath and Oxford. Why, I do not know. We are going to Bath, not Oxford, and Bath has nothing to do with the Isis.

The original may appear in your RSS reader and you may wonder why you can’t access it. Well, now you know!