The 400th Anniversary of the Opening of London’s New River
You don’t get too many four hundredth anniversaries in the world, but in 2013, there will be an important one for London.
Melvin Bragg did a program on the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible this year and he has been on television talking about it. But where is the program about the New River, which brings fresh water to London? And has done since 1613!
I was brought up in Southgate and cycling around the area as a child it was something you couldn’t avoid. I now live near its southern end and every time I go to the Angel, I see the statue of Hugh Myddelton on Islington Green.
The story of this great undertaking gets a good mention in Wikipedia, but surely the 400th anniversary deserves something more.
For a start, how many schools along the river are doing projects or having parties to celebrate the anniversary?
In some ways, the history of the river has lessons for the modern world, where water is such a precious commodity.
Surely, this anniversary is something that should interest someone like Griff Rhys Jones or Adam Hart Davis.
3D Photography Is Not New
I found this fascinating article on the BBC website. It describes how 3D photography was used by the RAF in the Second World War to unlock the secrets of German missile sites.
I hope that those in the military use drones or high altitude aircraft equipped with such cameras for their reconnaissance today in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The technique might also be useful in assessing things like earthquake damage in remote areas.
The Garage Problem Solved
One of the things that has irritated ever since I have moved in has been the non-working door to my garage. Like many of the things in this house, the previous tenants had broken it. Several people have come to look at it and have usually suggested a new door at a cost of several hundred pounds. After e-mailing the manufacturer’s of the door control, Hörmann, they suggested I try their London distributors, Garage Doors Ltd.
I arranged a visit and yesterday, a guy came on time and an hour later, I had a working door. He also explained what had caused the problem and how I could put a remote control on the door. I like professionals like that, who do the things they are good at, explain what you do in words of one syllable and don’t try to sell you things you don’t or won’t need.
So if you need a garage door, and especially an automatic one, repaired, I would recommend the company.
So when I had a delivery a few hours later, it was just open the garage door and put everything inside.
Byron Hamburgers
I ate in Byron Hamburgers at Islington Green tonight. It was good and it made a nice change for me to have a real gluten-free hamburger and chips.
I also got to thinking about the similarities between my father and Lord Byron.
For a start they were both poets, although my father’s output wasn’t very large and was much less famous and was meant to be spoken with a Cockney accent. But then my father was probably a better printer than the noble Lord.
They both married women with the surname of Millbank, although Byron’s wife had a spelling of Milbanke.
And then just like I am a computer programmer, so was Lord Byron’s daughter; Ada, Countess of Lovelace.
But that’s as far as the links go.
Credit Where It is Due!
It is difficult these days to find what you need and when you do I think it should be rewarded by a small plug.
When I needed some pictures framed, an old friend of nearly forty years recommended that I try A + B Glass in Stoke Newington High Street, who do windows, mirrors, tabletops and picture framing. I’ve had quite a few reframed and they have certainly done as good a job as I’ve found and at a price that is very competitive to what I used to pay in Newmarket or Cambridge.
I would point to their web site, but they don’t have one. If you need A + B Glass, they are at 124, Stoke Newington High Street, N16 7NY with a phone number of 020-7254-4541. Here’s a picture.
A + B Glass and Framing, Stoke Newington
Since they have replaced three of my double-glazed panels in my windows, that had been broken when I bought the house. Again, friends said the price was very reasonable. They also came and measured one week, giving me an estimate at the time and then delivered and installed the new panes late the next. It was completely hassle free.
One thing that they do is give you a bill immediately, so you can do a transfer immediately over the Internet. I often think that one of the causes of bad cash flow in small businesses is their tardiness in sending out bills. So if it takes three months to arrive, you feel entitled to wait another three.
As I said in this post, if it’s a direct transfer and it fails, it usually isn’t your fault. Cheques have this amazing habit of getting lost in the post. Thatb is if you can find your cheque-book. But it seems that bank transfers are very difficult to lose on the Internet, unless someone makes a typo and then the system hopefully flags it up.
How Not To Win Friends and Influence People
If you read this blog regularly, you’ll know that I hate junk mail and have a sticker on my letter box to discourage people to not fill it up with unwanted paper.
But some people obviously can’t read.
Two were from a new grocery store down the road. As they don’t take my Times vouchers, I think it highly unlikely now, I’ll ever use them.
The other was from a gardener and judging by the number that were blowing around in the road, because he put them under car windscreen wipers, he wasn’t very popular either.
My Rolex Keeps Stopping
My last present from C, a Rolex from her, engraved with “J Xmas 2007 and Forever. C” is not running too well and I have to keep adjusting the time.
Is this all part of a fiendish joke to make sure I remember her? Not that I need reminding!
The Blind Beggar and His Dog
After the cemetery, I crossed under the railway and made my way to Globe Town, intending to photograph the Blind Beggar and His Dog by Elisabeth Frink.
Elisabeth Frink's Blind Beggar and His Dog
Elisabeth Frink was born in the same village where I used to live in Suffolk.
I know times are hard, but surely this important sculpture by a world-famous artist can be displayed better.
An Abandoned Jewish Cemetery
Walking around London, I get amazed and sometimes very sad.
An Abandoned Jewish Cemetery
This picture was taken at a virtually abandoned Jewish Cemetery in Bancroft Road behind the Mile End Hospital.
Yesterday, I was amazed at finding this cemetery without any information on either my map or the fence and saddened at its state.
In Search of Jack Nissenthal
In the web site on the BBC relating the story of Jack Nissenthal, it says that he was born in Cottage Row in Bow.
Yesterday, I decided to find out more. searching the Internet, showed no trace of Cottage Row in Bow, so I took the bus to my nearest big library; the City of London, library in the Barbican Centre. There displayed in a cabinet was a map of poverty for London and a Cottage Grove could be easily seen in Bow Neighbourhood, but not a Cottage Row. My up-to-date A-Z didn’t show Cottage Grove at all. So the librarian and myself concluded that development had taken place and the street pattern had been changed. Rhondda Grove seemed to occupy the same place as Cottage Grove.
So it was a tube ride to Mile End station via Bethnal Green to see what I could find.
Rhondda Grove/Cottage Grove in Bow
This picture shows the end of Rhondda Grove. Note the Cottage Grove sign with a date of 1823.
It is a pleasant street now with most of the terrace and other houses now fully modernised.
Rhondda Grove, Bow
There appeared to be not too many spaces or new properties, that would be typical of bomb damage.
So was this the street where Jack Nissenthal grew up?
I then went to Tower Hamlets Archive Centre in Bancroft Road just around the corner.
They did confirm from a 1920s London Street Atlas, that there was only one Cottage Row in London at the time of Jack’s birth and that was in South East London. Cottage Grove had not yet been renamed. On searching the large scale maps of the area, I did find that the street seemed to have been renamed in the late nineteenth century. There were also a few mews houses behind the street. So could one of these been known locally as Cottage Row?
