Christ was in Clerkenwell today, for the Festa Della Madonna Del Carmine, at the Italian Church. Here he carries his cross in the procession. Later on he appears again, this time being nailed to the cross by a Roman centurion, on the back of a flat bed truck. You don't need a photo of THAT tableau!

What is a photo?

Wendover House, the largest block on the Aylesbury Estate, Walworth, seen from Burgess Park. Now empty, protected by high fences and dog patrols, and awaiting demolition. Mixed feelings. Was the estate poor by design or just poorly managed? Anyway it will soon be gone, to be replaced by something.

6am on a Sunday morning ride in Wapping, a car stopped beside me. The passenger, in his early 20s, engaged me in a friendly conversation. I had no idea what it was about, but we parted on good terms. On reflection I think he may have been selling drugs. Or looking to buy them. Flattering anyway.

Extraordinary folk art/graffiti on top of the river wall at Bermondsey Wall East. It seems to be a commentary of a lady queuing for QEII's lying-in-state (Sep '22). But something's odd. The work is dated Jun '23, and the flippant tone seems incongruous for a royalist. (Who else would queue 36 hrs?)

Over the road, builders have spent a few hours hauling materials up to the roof with a squeaky pulley. It's like having Trump's military parade passing the house.

I am privileged to announce the publication of the Anti-Autocracy Handbook: sks.to/autocracy 1/12

Imperfect symmetry (Dorset House, Holloway Rd). A pair of modest shops perhaps. But look at the decorative features that have survived. The scrolls of the balustrade. The Greek meanders. The dentillated cornices. The finials. Cor! Admire the resolve to maintain the colour split across the plaque.

Continuing the journey along Cycle Route 12 (aka The Earl of Warwick's Anabasis in reverse). After 1/4 of a mile - mostly downhill - along Dancers Lane, I reach a gate. There's a C12 sign. I'm in the right place. Watch the stinging nettles.

Cycle Route 12, at Wash Lane, near South Mimms. There are reasons to think that this is the route followed by medieval travellers between London and St Albans. Watling St was in disrepair for some years, so Barnet, despite its hills, became the preferred option (as seen in the Gough Map c.1400).

This at Teddington Lock must rank among the ugliest Thames-side developments. Show me worse. Three 1990s apartment blocks (Regatta, Fairmile & Admiral Houses). Described by the council as "most distinctive". True. A migraine in ochre and terracotta. Like a cruise ship reflected in a broken mirror.

Berkeley Homes, phoning it in. (Imperial Square, Finchley) Spot the difference.

I think this is the site of Rod Stewart's birth and childhood home. Look - he often behaves like a complete idiot, but he's a great singer with a beautiful soul, and this location needs some sort of monument. The campaign begins here!

These days the job of school caretaker is one of low wages, split shifts, and a maintenance schedule in the hands of the school bursar. Long ago and far away (in Kensal Rise), things were different. 'Residence', if you please! That's right lah-de-dah, like a proper aristocrat.

South London is a foreign country. They do things differently there.

The top sign, before it fell, pointed to a single address: currently that of a legal adviser, but also subject of a planning application. Can anyone explain why the location merited a street sign? Will there be a paper trail? The sign in in LB Barnet while the address is Haringey.

Squalid chapters to be written about this country - there are enough to fill several volumes. Recent immigration policy wouldn't even make a footnote.

@timenw.bsky.social @mikeyashworth.bsky.social Looking at a planning application in East Finchley, I happened upon that same Metropolitan Water Board corridor we see in Golders Green.

The extravagant ornamentation of this entrance leads archaeologists to believe that Postmen were a high status or priest caste. (Old sorting office, Winchmore Hill) >>>

View south along Stephenson St, Canning Town. A shimmering future viewed from a grotty past. One day there will be no industrial spaces left in the capital. All will be residential (and coffee shops).

For what he did to the parish church, the children of Chipping Barnet learn early to spit on the memory of William Butterfield (1814 – 1900). They sing comic songs about his tasteless Gothic Revival, his flint and chequerboard flushwork. On the other hand, in certain lights, it looks rather nice.

Garage in constant use (Leyton).

Wonderfully euphemistic notice at Barking Riverside. Is the problem tour buses?

Municipal Branding Championship. London County Council 1, Hackney Council 0 LCC played a long game, while Hackney started brightly but faded.

#mushroom #mushroomid Is anyone out there able to identify these mushrooms growing in the salad patch?

Trans-exclusionary builders yard. Wembley.

High Barnet's amazing shrinking building. 70 High St (once the notorious Bat & Goldfish Pub, AKA the Bat & Bloodbath). Some years ago the building was demolished and replaced with a taller and bulkier one - without permission, and only yards from Barnet Church, within the conservation area. >>>

Once the site of the Wood Green and Hornsey Steam Laundry. Now, (possibly) Victory vintage motorcycle repairs. Lately, Visual Packaging Ltd. No planning applications yet, but it may not be long. The chimney is listed, so we look forward to it becoming an ornamental feature of a nasty housing block.

Tears of a clown. The former Jester pub in Mount Pleasant, Cockfosters. This window is as distressed by the building's condition as the neighbours are. Having been abandoned and neglected for many years by its then owners, it caught fire. Dark mutterings suggest it may have been deliberate. >>>

High Road, N. Finchley. A misleading photo. Red & Black Restaurant didn't succeed the [?Fa]ncy Store. Several intermediate layers of archaeology have been removed, including evidence of the Welcome Restaurant that ceased trading by 2017. Red & Black opened 2019, oblivious to the approaching storm.

Leaflet from 1995 (Tottenham). Bishop Akosa promises to bring the dead to life, and to perform sundry personal services during 40 days of Miracle Healing Power Thunder. Warning: The bishop employs some rather old fashioned terminology in his classifications of mental and physical conditions.

Five years since the first Covid lockdown, when I started mapping my cycling journeys in and around London. Nothing against South London, but the rides are mostly done before breakfast, or late at night. There's only so far one can get (there and back) in three or four hours.

Leaflet #2 Mrs A Johnson in Central London. The only one with a written guarantee to solve all your problems. Is she qualified to advise on court cases? Yeah, well, have you dealt with lawyers? It's worth a punt. She cures all ailments unknown to modern medicine. What about the known ailments?

From the archive. 1/? In the days before the internet, leaflets like this could often be found pinned to trees, or blowing around city centres. No longer though. I expect they all moved over to Facebook. The vocabulary is pretty standard, always coming with a 100% guarantee. Here's the first >>>

With the stories of how more than 5,000 streets were named, we are (we think) London's biggest repository of the capital's topographical knowledge. (That's a lot of big words...) Find out how your London street got its name. londonstreetguide.com/a-to-z/

Platform Ticket Machine, made by Associated Automation Ltd, Duddon Hill Lane, Willesden. (?1960s) The machine operates without electricity (apart from the internal lamp). Thumb power raises the weight by insertion of the first 2 coins. The 3rd triggers the weight to fall, issuing the ticket. >>

Tally Ho, North Finchley. Sometime around the mid 00s, in response to Labour's ID card plan, Tory MP David Davis set himself up as the parliamentary voice of civil liberties. Yet here he is, a couple of years earlier, snipping the ribbon on a decidedly liberty limiting alcohol-free zone. >>>

'...MIND THE DOGGY DO-DO' ...but what's that in the tree? (Burnt Oak)

Huge win! Government announces plans to open up the Land Registry. If delivered, will finally reveal more about who owns land in England and Wales. Read my blog post for more details & how you can write to the Minister to make sure this now happens: whoownsengland.org/2025/03/06/h... 🧵1/

From the family archive. Confidential Memo, LBHackney, 1974. A complaint that glazing contractors were being engaged against the express instructions of the manager, and orders he had cancelled had quietly been resubmitted. "The orders concerned were for glazing in the public area of blocks >>>

This morning the postman brought me 'From Bow to Biennale'. Things are looking up!

From the family papers. 15/05/79 the Queen's Speech set out plans for Thatcher's 1st term. One line caused panic in town halls. "Legislation will be introduced to promote greater efficiency in local government, including regulation of the activities of local authority direct labour organisations".

Cockfosters water tower (1968), on the edge of Trent Park. Can such a delicate thing be described as 'brutalist'?

I feel bad about criticising this development near Tufnell Park. After all, both the planning dept and the developer have taken considerable trouble to make the new resemble the old. Trouble is, while it's hard to point to any terrible errors, the thing just looks... ...wrong. >>>

No tour of London is complete without a visit to this repaired wall in Edmonton. The bricks of the old wall are laid in 'English bond', i.e. headers and stretchers in alternate offset courses. Yet by the time the rebuilt wall reaches the gate [pic 2] there is a transition to 'stacked bond'. >>>

What's wrong with this? Everything! - The notion of private tuition solely aimed at passing the 11 Plus. - The graphics (typefaces, artwork, colours, layout). - The 1 star out of 5. Was somebody having a laugh? - A sign so large that it obstructs the view of the flower bed... >>>

Feeding the poor, 1900 style. 1. The Alexandra Trust Dining Rooms, City Rd, near Old St Station. Funded by tea magnate Thomas Lipton, & designed to provide cheap meals at cost price. 1500 people could be fed at one sitting. 2. A mile away: Soup Kitchen for the Jewish Poor, Brune St, Spitalfields.

On one hand, it may seem a huge waste of resources to adorn what could be utilitarian service buildings with ornamental stone-masonry. On the other, it shows a confidence in the future, and offers a sense of permanence that vinyl stickers, and pop-up police stations and libraries do not. >>>

Temple Fortune. Once upon a time, the borough's highways department employed people with an interest in typography and grammar. The second image shows the modern horror.

If you see this, post a bridge.