Don't Burn Our Fire Stations!

Recently, I popped into the wonderful Clerkenwell Tales, an independent bookshop on Exmouth Market, to buy a couple of birthday presents. Whilst in there, I noticed they had a petition on the counter to stop the closure of Clerkenwell Fire Station. I was shocked - I hadn't known it was under threat! - and didn't hesitate to sign.

I have rather an attachment to Clerkenwell Fire Station, located on the corner of Rosebery Avenue and Farringdon Road. I always feel pleased when I happen to see the firemen doing drills on the tower behind the station (it was because of seeing them engaged in such activity that I realised what the towers were for...) or when I see them heading out or coming back in their fire engine, having been out on a mission and hopefully having saved the day. There's such appeal to me in a building which has such a distinct and important function, still operating in the same capacity for which it was designed a century ago.

The 1950s/1960s drill tower alongside the Edwardian station

To think that it might be closed down is an awful prospect. Naturally, not just for the building but for the public good! It's not because the fire station is redundant or in excess of need, but rather due to a plan to cut the London Fire Brigade's funding by £45 million. To deal with this blow, it is proposed to close down 12 fire stations, including dear Clerkenwell... If I may, I'll tell you a little bit about this special building.

The current fire station was not the first erected on this site. Its predecessor was built in 1871-73, facing onto Farringdon Road. By 1890, this had became the superintendent's station for the central district which, according to the Survey of London, made it one of the most important stations operated by the London fire brigade.

The original fire station (Image source: Survey of London, British History Online)

However, the 1870s station didn't provide enough space for all the firemen as the complement grew and so some had to be accommodated in nearby housing. This wasn't an ideal situation so, in 1895-97, an extension was erected, facing onto Rosebery Avenue. In addition to more accommodation, this incorporated a new 'appliance room' (i.e. where the fire engines are housed). From the new appliance room, the fire engines could exit more safely onto the less busy Rosebery Avenue, rather than Farringdon Road.

The 1890s extension (Image source: Survey of London, British History Online)

However, even with the extension, it became apparent that an even larger fire station was necessary. Hence, between 1912 and 1917, in two phases, the fire station was extended again and the 1890s section rebuilt, with the old and new parts given a unified facade. The design for the 1912-17 works was by H. F. T Cooper, a young London County Council architect. The building is consistent with many early twentieth-century London fire stations in its loose Arts and Crafts style, particularly evident in the impressive gabled roof with its tall chimney stacks.

The building was listed Grade II in 1988. It is considered to be one of the best examples of an LCC fire station of the Edwardian period, a sort of golden era of civic architecture in London due to the general quality of design, workmanship and materials. The exterior survives virtually intact and is noted as being a well-designed response to the corner site. Sadly, the interiors have been much altered, although apparently the top floor has a communal washroom with obsolete washing and drying equipment. I'd like to see that! (Firemen of Clerkenwell Fire Station, if you are reading this and would be willing to show me around, please drop me an email!)

So, this corner site in Islington has a long history of accommodating an important London fire station and I personally don't want to see it turned into fancy flats or some such. It's for the firemen and it should stay that way! They've definitely earned their place in it, as far as I'm concerned.

If this post has made you fall in love with Clerkenwell Fire Station, even just a little bit, you can read more from the BBC here and here, and find out about the related public consultation here.

Love Letter from... Hawarden

Details from Nativity window by Burne-Jones and Morris & Co.

Okay, I have to admit that this post is rather incongruous in terms of chronology and theme. The photos are from a trip to north Wales with my family about nine months ago, rather than part of my recent Australian adventures, or even anything more recent.

However, it's rather appropriate to show stained glass on a Sunday, I guess... These particular examples are from St Deiniol's church in the small town of Hawarden, near the border. And at the moment, the Pre-Raphaelites have flooded my brain (more on that later...) so it seemed appropriate to share these with you while I was thinking of it, otherwise they would get lost forever in my backlog of pictures.

Crucifixion window by Burne-Jones and Morris & Co.

Now, I've been trying to confirm who designed each of these exquisite windows but am having a little difficulty with different sources at the moment. All I know for sure is that the wonderful Edward Burne-Jones was present here.

The top images - details from the west window depicting the Nativity - are his design, as is the east, Crucifixion window, and both were executed by Morris & Co. Of course, the only problem with these windows is that you can't expect the women in the congregation to focus on the service when the shepherds and St John are so very beautiful...

Details from window depicting Fides and Caritas

The two ladies above - Fides and Caritas - date to after Burne-Jones's death, but one source I've found claims they are his design... It's possible that they were copied from designs of his used elsewhere previously, as was the case with the Crucifixion window. By the look of them though, they are certainly Morris & Co creations.

Detail of unattributed, unidentified angel

The violinist angel above is a complete mystery (at least to me). But isn't he absolutely stunning? 

St Agnes and St Catherine below are by Henry Holiday, and they do seem to have a subtly different style and execution to them... but still utterly lovely. 

St Agnes and St Catherine by Henry Holiday

I really love stained glass, and these particular examples are so beautiful, they make me want to weep. The use of colours and the delicacy of the features are incredible and transfixing.

And if I wasn't already emotional from the stained glass, I came across this tucked away on a column on my way out of the church:

To Remember R. Charles Ricketts,

Born 1896, Died 1913

The Angel who redeemed me

Bless the lads.

Love Letter Featured, and a Chop House

Recently, a lovely lady from a website called Be In Style contacted me to say she wanted to feature Love Letter from London in their weekly series which hand-picks style blogs of interest from around the internet. You can read the feature here, which focuses on vintage and crafty style blogs, and which also happens to include one of my regular reads, Molly-Made.

For the article, I was asked to pick a picture which encapsulated Love Letter from London - which was a lot harder than I anticipated! I wanted to include my two main interests and usual focus of my blog - vintage style and historic architecture... but no one, individual picture captured both those things. After I'd looked through lots of pictures and rejected them all, I ended up popping out to grab some photos of one of my favourite local (and very London) buildings, with myself stood in front, in what I happened to be wearing one Sunday.

After emailing the above photo off to Be In Style for their feature, I thought I may as well turn the pics into a blog post! This was a casual Sunday outfit for a trip to the National Portrait Gallery to see the very satisfying Annual Portrait Award. (Recommended by me! And free!)

Top: Beyond Retro
Trousers: Off-cast from a friend
Shoes: Jones Bootmaker
Handbag: Beyond Retro
Earrings: Boutique shop (of which the actual name escapes me as it was many moons ago...)

The building has been glimpsed in a very early blog post. Located on Farringdon Road, near Rosebery Avenue, it's a late Victorian building, which was converted to a working class restaurant in the very early twentieth century, a place where someone could get a good, hearty meal for a reasonable price.

Alongside its fellow Victorian neighhbours

"London's noted cup of tea"

"Quick service" - important for working lads and men

"Civility" - as should be expected

"Progressive working class caterer"

"Jellied eels" - a familiar working class London food

... and less expected - "Caviar"!

The interiors are amazingly well preserved with fixed benches and tables, timber panelling and decorative pressed tin wall coverings (known as "steleorite"). The wonderful state of preservation of the original fittings and fixtures is one of the reasons this quirky piece of social history has been designated as a Grade II listed building. Sadly, it is presently closed, so this historic picture of the interior is all I can provide at present:

A festive, historic photo of the Quality Chop House (Image source)

Next time (or at some time in the future): the equally lovely Edwardian fire station opposite the Quality Chop House, as glimpsed in the glass reflections of the above photos. I just have to see if the firemen will agree to posing for some pictures for me...

Love Letter from Mont St Michel

I spent last weekend in Normandy on a work social trip. We made it to Mont St Michel, as hoped. I'd really been looking forward to this, and it certainly didn't disappoint.... I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves, though they don't come anywhere near capturing the astounding beauty of this place, or the fun we had there.

Victorian Warehouse Exploration

Last week I trotted along to have a look at the annual Clerkenwell Design Week.  Amazingly, this is the first time I've ever been along, despite having worked in Clerkenwell for almost four years.  So, before I could even get around to focusing on the designers who were displaying their creations, I first had to just take in the wonderful buildings that were hosting the exhibitions...

In fact, I've realised that there's just too much to write about in one post, so this is going to have to be split up over three - one for both the buildings I visited plus one for the designs which caught my eye.

First up in the series, the Farmiloe Building on St John Street, as shown in all its glory in the picture above.  This is a fabulous, run-down, vacant Victorian warehouse built in 1868.  It housed a glass and lead suppliers, George Farmiloe & Sons, until just over ten years ago, when they moved their operations down to South London.  

Because it was functioning as both a warehouse and offices until so recently, the building is quite a fascinating hodge-podge of features from different periods.  You can still see essential warehouse elements retained from its early years, such as pulleys for lifting goods up through wide openings onto the numerous, lofty floors.  But then there are various modern interventions such as repairs and strengthening works carried out in concrete.  Whereas concrete on an historic building is usually an abomination, there is something wonderful about the way it shows the building's development over almost a century and a half of solid use in its original function.

And then the ground-floor display rooms and first-floor offices are still absolutely legible.  Climbing up the fabulous staircase, my companions and I found all the fixtures of the old offices, including internal doorbells and quaint little letterboxes (the latter of which unfortunately didn't translate well into photographs).

The Farmiloe & Sons logo on the staircase

And then, finally, there's the view over Clerkenwell/Farringdon's rooftops from the higher floors of the warehouse.

It's just a shame it isn't open all year round for exploration and for games of Victorian make-believe!