Is that a Boat in this Corner ?

Having a wander around the OXO tower the other evening and what should I come across but a corner of a rather old building with a boat sticking out !

I love corners of buildings and London certainly has many more to offer but I never thought I'd find a boat sticking out of won but then again being this close to the Thames could come in handy....

Camden NW1.....

Welcome to the corner of Albert Street/Delancey Street in Camden NW1.

What do we see but a great house with beautiful stone and wonderful windows with small ledges and wrought iron borders. The road or should I say street signs are actually painted on the brickwork !

However did you notice the windows that have been bricked up ? In the past people were taxed based upon the amount of windows and therefore many were just bricked up and never to see the light of day again.....

More Than Just a Corner...?

Looks like a simple corner with a cement render on the lower half and brick work on the upper part of this building. I should let you know we are in fact at the junction of Tufton Street and Horseferry Road.

Now the traffic cones and notice board are here not for artistic effect but because we are close by the local magistrates court of Horseferry Road which somebody renamed Westminster.

But back to this corner notice the how the shade changes the colour and tone of the magnolia render and admire the lovely small paned window with curved arch. What though is within that frame ? Well it turns out this site was once a home for the needy, the poor and orphans in other words it was a boys home. The Stone which is covered and framed is a foundation stone and was laid by a Lord Kinnaird.

Who would have thought a plain simple corner would hold a local piece of history and all that is left of the home is this foundation stone. The site now is in fact residential property of a sort after nature...

Old Church Street SW3...

We have a number of corners here but what really strikes me with this corner shot isn't the brickwork or the vertical pipe but the clash of the red and olive green colours.

Old Church Street SW3 in Chelsea is a beautiful pleasant mainly residential street. Here we have found a shop next to a home and the difference in use and colour creates a stunning setting let alone corner. Please forgive the bollard in the shot they seem to breed in Chelsea.

The corner for me here though is the small corner at the base of the two buildings were the colours clash of should I say collide...

Pavilion Street and Road SW3...

What a corner we have here at the junction of Pavilion Street and Road in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea SW3.

Just look at the wonderful clean lines created by the brickwork which travel off into the perspective. On closer inspection we find that on the left hand wall a number of windows have in fact been bricked up (was this over the window tax) with just a slot and an air brick providing ventilation. On the right hand wall we see the window is in place but a wrought iron grill is placed across for security.

At the top of the window frame notice the angled brick work which is giving strength to the construction of the opening and taking up some of the load weighing downwards, today we would just place a lintel across opening. The terracotta colour of the bricks certainly work well when you introduce a lighter shade allowing a pattern to develop around the whole of this building. The ridge that juts out also makes a very handy window ledge and don't worry I haven't forgot the bollard...

Savage Gardens E.C.3...

What a corner and what a sign "Savage Gardens E.C.3." with a very 1960's look. The Corporation of London just get the signage right for the era and the area of the square mile. This corner is actually under a railway bridge and with the trunking and metal duct we have a sort of working functional corner complete with plastic binbags and a telecoms hub.

The walls themselves are pebbled dashed and painted a rather off white with all the usual London dirt and grim attaching itself over the months if not years.

For me though this corner is made because of that one old road sign, a piece of modern history under a railway arch...

A Welbeck Corner...

This is a very different corner to what I've noticed recently for we have a house that is converted into apartments/flats but the look design of the property is very different when looked at from a corner perspective.

From the front elevation we notice the beautiful smooth greystone with a short iron fence/gate yet from the side and the corner we see the rather nice red brick just merge with the grey stone. In fact the drain pipe seems to draw a line where this change takes place and the box sash windows are a must for period properties like these. My only critisium of this place is that it appears the road sign could be better placed just seems to close to the window ledge.

Oh let's not forget those tiles...

How Many Corners...?

I must say I have got plenty of mileage out of the walk around Hyde Park Corner and here we have a corner shot of Wellington's Arch.

This is a very simple corner with a rather lovely but plain wrought iron railing/fence that protects a service area of the arch. I must say the pale green paint job does the trick here for it doesn't detract from the beautiful grey stone.

If we look closely at the picture you'll notice we actually have a number of corners here. The corner of the railing/fence, the internal corner within the confines of the railing and then at the end of the railing we have a corner with a column upon it plus the solid stone wall corner which forms a much larger part of the triumphal archway.

Just in case you do wish to see a few more shots of Hyde Park Corner please log onto http://www.freelondonevents.co.uk/talkthewalk.htm and click on Hyde Park Corner...

French Place E1...

This is a very interesting corner for we are in the heart of Shoreditch E1 which is a very newish trendy place & cetainly different to the usual places that people tend to visit here in the capital.

Looking at this beautiful dark brick corner with offset windows just makes me wonder what this area would have been like a hundred years ago. I love the fact that the box sash windows are still in place even if it appears the lower ground window to the right needs a security grill. But look at the perfect vertical drain pipe and the lone bollard to our right (http://www.bollardsoflondon.blogspot.com/) and notice the really dark looking bricks with a slight curve on the actually corner of the building.

In fact the name of this little street/place eg French Place E1 just makes me wonder of the past in this rather gritty, grey part of the newish London pub/club scene that is all around this ever so quiet corner...