A work of sublime beauty

15 November, 2022 Gibson Square 4 Comments

I used to run a series of posts titled ‘Site Unseen’, and it would appear that I’ve not ‘seen’ a sight which I’ve used on countless occasions for years.

Matt Brown, Editor-at-Large at the Londonist recently started a post with: ‘Look me in the eye and tell me that this isn’t a work of sublime beauty’.

The ‘beautiful’ building was the exit ramp in a Romford car park.

In 1993 Romford’s Star Brewery was closed, and with it went the smell on Monday brew day of mashing grains and boiling wort. The brewery’s 165ft high chimney was repaired, re-clad and utilised as a fulcrum for the wraparound spiralling sculpture car park’s entry ramp.

And the object of Matt’s admiration? The exit ramp, a Brutalist concrete perfect spiral, and something of a rarity, London has only one other in Uxbridge, which lacks the symmetry of Romford’s beauty.

Featured image: Romford: The Brewery Development car park access ramp. This spiral car park access ramp is in the south-eastern corner of the development. Havana Close is the road in the foreground. By Nigel Cox (CC BY-SA 2.0).

Romford Brewery car park ramp and brewery chimney. The brewery chimney and Romford Brewery car park ramp. By Snidge (CC BYSA 2.0).

London in Quotations

London in Quotations: Thomas de Quincey

Quote 14 November, 2022 Gibson Square 2 Comments

. . . a duller spectacle this Earth of ours has not to show than a rainy Sunday in London.

Thomas de Quincey (1785-1859)

London trivia

London Trivia: The Thunderer returns

13 November, 2022 Gibson Square 2 Comments

On 13 November 1979 The Times newspaper was published for the first time in nearly a year, following a dispute between management and unions over manning levels and the introduction of new technology. It was the first break in the production of the Times, known affectionately to its readers as “the Thunderer” since it was founded in 1788.

On 13 November 1969 Britain’s first live quintuplets born this century at Queen Charlotte’s maternity hospital. The five girls were born to Irene Hanson and her husband John from Rayleigh in Essex

An old police box aka TARDIS can be found outside Earl’s Court station. The same station that had the Underground’s first escalator on 4 October 1911

Records show that the site of OXO Tower, bought for £75,000 by the Leibig Extract of Meat Company in the 1920s, was once used as a butchery!

Charles II, encouraged by Nell Gwyn, founded Chelsea Royal Hospital in 1682 for injured Civil War veterans. Soldiers over the age of 65 may apply to become a Chelsea Pensioner

In 1796 a Commons Committee spent days debating a plan to dig a channel across the Isle of Dogs to save sailing time around the peninsular

In his study at Harrington Gardens SW7 W S Gilbert saw a Japanese sword fall from the wall and inspired him to write The Mikado

Piccadilly may take it’s name from Piccadilly Hall so called home of Robert Baker, a tailor who sold piccadillies, a form of collar or ruff

London has more professional football clubs than any other city in the world except Buenos Aires. In 2013 the Football Association celebrated the 150th anniversary of its formation in a tavern in Holborn

The average speed on the Underground is 20.5 miles per hour including station stops but on the Metropolitan Line trains can reach over 60mph

From his Wapping soap factory John Knight produced the famous Knight’s Castile soap, which won a medal at the Great Exhibition of 1851

In 1995 Holborn had a bizarre claim to fame as the most commonly mispronounced word in the English language. Remember the l is silent

Trivial Matter: London in 140 characters is taken from the daily Twitter feed @cabbieblog.
A guide to the symbols used here and source material can be found on the Trivial Matter page.

Previously Posted

Previously Posted: Goodbye Piccadilly

12 November, 2022 Gibson Square 2 Comments

For those new to CabbieBlog or readers who are slightly forgetful, on Saturdays I’m republishing posts, many going back over a decade. Some will still be very relevant while others have become dated over time. Just think of this post as your weekend paper supplement.

Goodbye Piccadilly (06.10.09)

When was the last time you had your inside leg measured? Or for that matter you were asked rather discreetly “and what side does Sir dress?”

One of the last bastions of sartorial elegance is hanging up its tape measure for the last time at the end of the year. Baron of Piccadilly one of London’s quirkier outfitters is to close, as Crown Estates their landlord plans to pull down their block for re-development.

Further along the road was Simpsons of Piccadilly, now a Waterstones book store. Simpsons opened in 1936 in what is now a listed building the Art Deco design was the first shop in Britain to have an uninterrupted curved-glass frontage. This new style was made possible by arc-welding a wide-span steel frame, rather than earlier techniques which involved using bulky bolted joints.

The company built as a quality clothing store specifically for men had the ethos that Simpson of Piccadilly was to be a purveyor of “quality clothes for the well-heeled”. Indeed, the store regularly attracted the ‘tweed set’ including Royals, MPs, dignitaries and country landowners.

During the early 1950s, scriptwriter Jeremy Lloyd was employed as a junior assistant at Simpsons; he drew on his experiences to come-up with the idea for the highly-popular television sitcom Are You Being Served?

At least Fortnums are still in Piccadilly, the store that gave you such exotic foods as Harts Horn; Gable Worm Seed; Saffron and Dirty White Candy, and incidentally were the first in 1886 to stock the entire output of a Mr Heinz’s newly invented canned food.