Dirty Old London  published by
Yale University Press (October 2014)

Wednesday 14 May 2014

From Holborn to Aldersgate

We begin with steel and glass, a new, quite pleasant building, on Great Turnstile, the north-east corner of Lincoln's Inn Fields.


Remarkably, a few doors down, on Holborn, a derelict plot of land, open for redevelopment, for anyone with a few dozen million to spare ... a reminder of post-war dereliction, glimpsed through a gap left open in the hoarding ...


And here, at the Holborn entrance to Staple Inn, a barricade to dissuade people from urinating at the gates ... Staple Inn's complaints on this subject appear in my forthcoming book Dirty Old London, as it happens, but this is the first time I've noticed the measures on this side of the buildings ...


A nice bit of deco on the entrance corridor to Gresham College


And a very decorative fire escape at the back, too ...


The view looking out of the gates at the college ...


Further down the road, I always notice the copper facing on the City Temple's rooftop ...


At Holborn Circus, for the first time I noticed the detail beneath Albert's equestrian statue, with the writing (in shade here) 'Exhibition of All Nations 1851 Britannia Distributing Awards' ...


Lovely old bricks.



William Walworth stands guard on Holborn Viaduct ...


 Together with a rather dashing Hugh Myddleton, in much better condition than his twin at Islington Green ...


Never noticed the rather Chinese look of these dragons before the recent repainting/restoration ...


And here's a modern excrescence, blighting yet another sight-line ...


A lovely double-act, on Snow Hill ...


Meanwhile, past and present collide in various ways, in the Victorian-columned windows of a certain betting chain ...


Finally, white-out in concrete on Little Britain ...


With this surprising flourish on the same wall, further along - Egyptian?


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