A Lunchtime Urban Wander around Hammersmith (flyover, mews and stinkpipe)

Just before I finished work for the Christmas break, I was working up in London for a few days. One of those days was the classic, cold-but-crisp December days where it seemed a crime to sit in the office and eat my sandwiches over a hot laptop filling the gaps between the keys with crumbs, so off I went in search of some space ...

There is something simultaneously ugly and beautiful about the underside of a flyover, almost a little like no-man's land. It also reminded me a little of J.G.Ballard's Concrete Island.

Beneath the Hammersmith flyover, London

Beneath the Hammersmith flyover, London

Despite this building being quite unique, it took more than a little research to reveal its purpose, although I probably could have guessed. Allowing a clear view along the Thames, it's used a starting box for rowing races.

Hexagonal starting box, Upper Mall, Hammersmith, London

As anyone who has read this blog for a while will know, I have been through various phases of things I'm interested in. More recently it's been doorway mosaics and ghost signs, but several years ago it was London mews, or mews-style dwellings. I can't remember the last time I shared any picture of London mews, but here's one I am very sure I have walked past before but never previously photographed.

Mulberry Place, Hammersmith, London

Mulberry Place, Hammersmith, London

I've seen these structures many times before, but never really stopped to consider what thy might be. It is in fact a stinkpipe, or stenchpole, built in Victorian times to allow gas to escape from underground sewers. Many are quite elaborate in design as well as functional.

Stinkpipe, Hammersmith, London

Now I know what these intriguing structures are, stinkpipes are something I may return to at a later stage when I have more to share. In the meantime, and much to my surprise, there seems to be plenty of reading material available on these, firstly in this wonderful Londonist blog post, and also of course in physical format ...

A lunchtime urban wander around West Kensington and Baron's Court, London W14

For what will probably be my last 2015 blog post from an Urban Wander, I return to the Baron's Court / West Kensington area of London, that I managed to not only squeeze in during a lunch break, but also managed to avoid the rain. In fact there were a few rare moments when the sun was actually shining, allowing me to take a couple of pictures of some mansions in Baron's Court with the brickwork beautifully lit.

??? Mansions, West Kensington, London

Faraday Mansions, West Kensington, London

A little further through my wander I came across a mews which I don't recall having seen before, or if I have seen it then I certainly have never photographed it. This is Comeragh Mews, looking magnificent with its cobbled road between the two arches at either end. Unfortunately the light is not too good in either of these pictures, so they look a little drab.

Comeragh Mews, Baron's Court, London W14

Comeragh Mews, Baron's Court, London W14

Occasionally I take pictures of street names, but mainly to remind my increasingly failing memory of the place where I took the photo. However, I thought this was quite an unusual sign so have included it here.

Comeragh Mews, Baron's Court, London W14

In other news, one of my Christmas presents has completely renewed my interest in psychogeography, and that was A London Trilogy: The Films of St. Etienne. It's a great DVD comprising 3 short films, with extra features, of footage from various place in London from the Lea Valley to the South Bank, all set to a wonderful St. Etienne soundtrack. For anyone interested in London past and semi-present, I can't recommend it enough. It's also provided me with a few new references to check out, including Nairn's London, published back in 1968, and also to revisit a DVD I bought in the Spring but have not watched for a while, The London That Nobody Knows.

    

An evening drift around Kensington, in search of mews

With time on my hands after work one evening this week, and my passion for London Mews reignited, I set out on a Psychogeography inspired, Urban Wander around Kensington in search of more. This first mews I have passed plenty of times before, but usually in the dark, so it never really presented itself as a good photo opportunity, and also I had never ventured within, so a good excuse to put that right. This is not a conventional mews, being more of a courtyard, with garages beneath the two and three storey houses, linked by metal stairways, and balconies beautifully decorated with flowers in window boxes and hanging baskets. It’s not quite a gate community but the entrance barrier, which fortunately I managed to avoid in my photos, makes it look a little intimidating. Maybe next time I’ll be brave enough to venture further within, and climb the stairs to the first floor. I did try to see if I could see this mews-cum-courtyard from the other side but without any luck.

Kensington Court, London W8

Kensington Court, London W8

 Kensington Court, London W8

Kensington Court, London W8

Next we come to Cornwall Mews, with its magnificent arches and urban topiary. I say magnificent in relation to the arches as they seem disproportionately large in comparison to the mews houses, although perhaps more in keeping with the grandiose style of the houses on the outside of the mews.

Cornwall Mews, Kensington, London W8

 Cornwall Mews, Kensington, London W8

 Cornwall Mews, Kensington, London W8

Cornwall Mews, Kensington, London W8

A little further beyond Cornwall Mews was this delightful little passageway, open only from dawn to dusk, which as it was approaching dusk as can be seen from the photo below, was quite handy and offered a good photo opportunity.

Narrow passageway, Kensington, London W8

This whole area seems to have an abundance of mews and I found a few more as I made my way back.

Unidentified mews, Kensington, London W8

Unidentified passageway, Kensington, London W8

Unidentified mews, Kensington, London W8

And as I headed west from Kensington, into the sunset, I managed to capture this one.

Sunset over Kensington, London W8

Finally on this wander, I cam across this curious, red-striped house, which I’m fairly sure was not painted in such a manner last time I walked past it. I’m sure there’s a story behind it.

Red striped house, Kensington, London W8

An urban wander along Adam and Eve Mews, Kensington, London W8

With time on my hands one lunchtime last week, I popped out for a quick wander around Kensington. Those of you who remember my early posts way back when, may remember that I was slightly obsessed with London Mews. Whilst I may have veered away from exclusively mews focused posts over the past few months and years, I still marvel over their beauty, dotted across Village London. These pictures are all from the wonderfully named, Adam and Eve Mews, which is just off the hustle and bustle of Kensington High Street. My only regret was that it seemed to be bin day and there are dustbins of varying colours and sizes in most of the shots.

Adam and Eve Mews, Kensington, London W8

I loved the turquoise colour of these doors but was disappointed by the photo and not being able to capture both sets of doors in full.

Adam and Eve Mews, Kensington, London W8

 From the turquoise garage style doors above, to this rustic looking door, I don't think I saw two doors the same in the whole mews.

Adam and Eve Mews, Kensington, London W8

A lovely piece of urban topiary, which even with the dustbins looks ok.

Adam and Eve Mews, Kensington, London W8

This was probably my favourite door in the mews. Tall, thin and elegant, although I suspect the postman is none too please at having to get down on his hands and knees to deliver the letters through the almost ground level letter box.

Adam and Eve Mews, Kensington, London W8

Adam and Eve Mews, Kensington, London W8

Adam and Eve Mews, Kensington, London W8

    

A couple of brief Urban Wanders in and around Kensington, London

Well, another few weeks of radio silence. No one specific reason, just lots going on. Rather than this blog post being on a specific topic, it’s going to ramble around a bit.

First up are a couple of pictures I took a few weeks back of one of the disused platforms at Kensington Olympia station. I have blogged about Kensington Olympia station before, and whilst it’s still quite busy for both passengers and freight, the motorail is long gone and the station would seem to be a shadow of its former self. However, this post paints a slightly different, more colourful picture. The southbound platform has now been relocated slightly to the west, over one of the former lines, but the old platform has been left standing and is now home to the Kensington Olympia Community Kitchen Garden.

Kensington Olympia Community Kitchen Garden, London

Kensington Olympia Community Kitchen Garden, London

These next two pictures were taken at varying stages of an evening out. The first is the bar of the Bombay Brasserie in Gloucester Road, where I caught up with a former colleague and had an excellent curry.

The bar at the Bombay Brasserie, Gloucester Road, London

The second is of a classic car in a streetlamp lit mews I spotted whilst wandering back.

Unidentified mews, somewhere in Kensington, London

And finally, for some reason this week I found myself wandering through Paddington station around 11am, and saw on the overhead announcement boards, a train going to West Ruislip, a destination which is more usually associated with the line out from Marylebone. I vaguely remembered reading something about this a while back, so a few minutes of internet research later proved that firstly my memory was not playing tricks on me, and this is in fact what’s known as a Parliamentary train, or ghost train. I did not have time to take any pictures but there's plenty of information here. Not quite a bucket list activity but I am curious to travel along the line between Old Oak Common and where it joins the main line from Marylebone.

Oh yes, and my mid-life crisis (aka obsession with finding all the vinyl I used to have as a teenager) is still in full swing. Recent (re)purchases include Coming Up For Air, by Penetration, Starry Eyes by The Records, and Ghetto, by The Wall, to name but a few.

I do need to find time to get back into some serious Psychogeography but that will need to wait for a while as next week is already beginning to look a bit manic.

;    

An Urban Wander around Westbourne Grove, London W2

With time enough for a short lunch break one day last week, and still very much inspired by Psychogeography, I paid a visit to some familiar ground and, as always seems to be the case, found a few new things which caught my eye. Starting at the Beany Green café in Sheldon Square, where they make one of the best Flat White coffees I've had, I headed off towards the Westbourne Grove area.

Beany Green Café, Sheldon Square, Paddington, London W2

First up was this quaint, little mews, Bott's Mews, not far off the Westbourne Grove itself.

Bott's Mews, London W2

At the far end of this mews there are paths leading off both left and right. I have walked along the paths before but for some inexplicable reason never seem to have noticed the actual mews before. Maybe because I've never looked at it from this direction before. 

Bott's Mews, London W2

Bott's Mews, London W2

As I drifted along Artesian Road, I caught sight of an old and new sign for Courtnell Street. It wasn't until I had crossed the road and lined up the picture, that I realised that in addition to the ghost sign of the road name, there was also a ghost sign in the glass of the windows too.

ORDERS PROMPTLY DISPATCHED

Ok, so the last word is missing so I have guessed that maybe that's what it would have once said.

Ghost sign in Courtnell Road, London W2

On the other side of the building was more writing,

WINES BEERS

Ghost sign in Courtnell Road, London W2

This next ghost sign is in Powis Mews. I have previously walked along this mews and spotted a ghost sign at the other end, but this was the first time I'd seen this one. This is harder to read than its counterpart at the other end of the mews, but is also for

LEVERWTT & FRYE

Ghost sign in Powis Mews, London W2

No shortage of restaurants, pubs and cafés in this part of around London. Most of them I have never been into, including these two, but they both look good from the outside.

Wildflower Café, Chepstow Road, London W2

The Tin Shed, All Saints Road, London W2

Pub sign, Westbourne Park Road, London W2

Possibly the world's most technically sophisticated toilet which seems to have its own built-in telephone exchange.

Toilet-cum-telephone exchange, Bishop's Bridge Road, London W2

Initially I just thought this was a ghost sign for Alexander Street itself, but beneath that there's also an even older ghost sign for what the road was previously called.

SUTHERLAND
TERRACE

Ghost signs, Alexander Street, London W2

Westbourne Park Passage, London W2

I also noticed quite a few old cars dotted around the streets of W2 and W11. The Citroen is my favourite.

Morris Minor, London W2

Old Citroen, London W2

Old Volvo, London W11