Gullible's Travels
Monday, October 12, 2009
George III Mahogany dining table
with drop leaves on cabriole legs with pad feet.
As previously blogged the house has been rearranged ("A Weekend with World-Class Wines") leaving us with no dining table.
We looked at fine George III Mahogany dining table in Peter Jones where we bought the TV. A bargain at GBP 2,700 - not!! Instead we put in a bid at the local auction house (Criterion Riverside) for a table answering to exactly the same description. Maybe not in quite as superb condition but still a solid mahogany antique.
We put in a absentee bid for Monday's auction and won the item. And the price tag - a whopping GBP 420, including buyers premium. So 2,700 or 420? Hmmm, <strokes chin> let me think now...
Well pleased with that. So we christened it on Sunday with a fine Sunday evening meal of roast pheasant and a bottle of 1999 Baron de Boutisse Saint-Emilion Grande Cru.
with drop leaves on cabriole legs with pad feet.
As previously blogged the house has been rearranged ("A Weekend with World-Class Wines") leaving us with no dining table.
We looked at fine George III Mahogany dining table in Peter Jones where we bought the TV. A bargain at GBP 2,700 - not!! Instead we put in a bid at the local auction house (Criterion Riverside) for a table answering to exactly the same description. Maybe not in quite as superb condition but still a solid mahogany antique.
We put in a absentee bid for Monday's auction and won the item. And the price tag - a whopping GBP 420, including buyers premium. So 2,700 or 420? Hmmm, <strokes chin> let me think now...
Well pleased with that. So we christened it on Sunday with a fine Sunday evening meal of roast pheasant and a bottle of 1999 Baron de Boutisse Saint-Emilion Grande Cru.
Labels: wandsworth
¶ Permanent link: 8:36 PM 1 comments
Wednesday, October 07, 2009
A Weekend with World-Class Wines
Sometimes I feel like Alice with the Red Queen running faster and faster merely to stand still. I normally quip on a Monday that I go to work to recover from the weekend unfortunately work is very busy too at the moment.
This weekend was another hectic weekend. It started on Friday with meeting Mary straight from work at her hairdressers for a pre-theatre meal at Sofra followed by Bounce performing Insane in the Brain. A hip-hop dance performance based on One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
Saturday was spent rearranging the house. Mary decided to turn the dining room into a cosy sitting room. It started with moving the sofa bed from the front room into the new sitting-room. That meant moving the bicycles from the dining room into the hall and the dining table into the study. That meant moving the computer desks into the back guest bedroom. It will take a few days for everything to be restored to order.
Saturday evening, to relax, we went round the dinner to our friends Bron and Maggie. Bron, like Mary, is a wine aficionado and very generously produced some extremely fine wines from his cellar, two of which rated 100 out of 100 by Robert Parker.
A beneficial side effect of the room rearrangement was that we had to go shopping for a second TV which meant a trip on Sunday to Peter Jones. We now have 37 inch LCD screen (Philips 37PFL5604H) which will be excellent for watching DVD's while Mary is watching rubbish on the other TV. We gave it a trial run Sunday evening with Moulin Rouge and very fine the new setup is especially with the sound played through Mary's hi-fi.
Sometimes I feel like Alice with the Red Queen running faster and faster merely to stand still. I normally quip on a Monday that I go to work to recover from the weekend unfortunately work is very busy too at the moment.
This weekend was another hectic weekend. It started on Friday with meeting Mary straight from work at her hairdressers for a pre-theatre meal at Sofra followed by Bounce performing Insane in the Brain. A hip-hop dance performance based on One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
Saturday was spent rearranging the house. Mary decided to turn the dining room into a cosy sitting room. It started with moving the sofa bed from the front room into the new sitting-room. That meant moving the bicycles from the dining room into the hall and the dining table into the study. That meant moving the computer desks into the back guest bedroom. It will take a few days for everything to be restored to order.
Saturday evening, to relax, we went round the dinner to our friends Bron and Maggie. Bron, like Mary, is a wine aficionado and very generously produced some extremely fine wines from his cellar, two of which rated 100 out of 100 by Robert Parker.
- Gisselbrecht Vendage Tardive Reisling 2001
- Chateau Montrose 1990 St Estephe
- Leoville Las Cases 1990 Saint Julien
- Banyuls 1983 Castell des Hospices
A beneficial side effect of the room rearrangement was that we had to go shopping for a second TV which meant a trip on Sunday to Peter Jones. We now have 37 inch LCD screen (Philips 37PFL5604H) which will be excellent for watching DVD's while Mary is watching rubbish on the other TV. We gave it a trial run Sunday evening with Moulin Rouge and very fine the new setup is especially with the sound played through Mary's hi-fi.
Labels: social, the arts, wandsworth, wine
¶ Permanent link: 7:24 PM 1 comments
Monday, August 10, 2009
Cleaning the Wandle August 2009
My poor bones are aching, but in a good way, from five hours cleaning the Wandle on Sunday under the auspices of The Wandle Trust. It was a beautiful day for getting on the waders and doing some serious shopping trolley retrieval.
Essential rubber wear ;-)
I got some strange looks from my colleagues today when I said I spent Sunday wearing shorts, a t-shirt and rubber.
The team in the water
A good turn out and some excellent team work. Some in the river and some on the bank and some land-side acting in relay to ferry the haul from the river to the bank to the rubbish assembly area.
A very heavy old old boiler
Right at the eleventh hour the stragglers unearthed this monster. Initially full of water and sludge it got lighter with patience as it drained. Even so it took four of us lifting plus half a dozen hauling on the grapple rope to get it up the bank and over the railings.
Part of our collection of ten shopping trolleys
Plus all manner of junk, debris, rubbish, scrap and general detritus. It is appalling what people will simply chuck in the river! Many thanks to Wandsworth Borough Council for providing a truck to cart away all the rubbish.
A full set of pictures on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8179454@N02/sets/72157621877528459/detail/
Apologies for the quality but they were taken with my iPhone not a proper camera.
My poor bones are aching, but in a good way, from five hours cleaning the Wandle on Sunday under the auspices of The Wandle Trust. It was a beautiful day for getting on the waders and doing some serious shopping trolley retrieval.
Essential rubber wear ;-)
I got some strange looks from my colleagues today when I said I spent Sunday wearing shorts, a t-shirt and rubber.
The team in the water
A good turn out and some excellent team work. Some in the river and some on the bank and some land-side acting in relay to ferry the haul from the river to the bank to the rubbish assembly area.
A very heavy old old boiler
Right at the eleventh hour the stragglers unearthed this monster. Initially full of water and sludge it got lighter with patience as it drained. Even so it took four of us lifting plus half a dozen hauling on the grapple rope to get it up the bank and over the railings.
Part of our collection of ten shopping trolleys
Plus all manner of junk, debris, rubbish, scrap and general detritus. It is appalling what people will simply chuck in the river! Many thanks to Wandsworth Borough Council for providing a truck to cart away all the rubbish.
A full set of pictures on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8179454@N02/sets/72157621877528459/detail/
Apologies for the quality but they were taken with my iPhone not a proper camera.
Labels: wandsworth
¶ Permanent link: 8:23 PM 1 comments
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Further historical facts about Wandsworth in the days gone by
Borough News June 14, 1912
The hand of the improver is busily engaged in Wandsworth at the present time. Buildings which have done duty in their respective spheres for many, many years, are being sacrificed at the altar of improvement; what were not so long ago winding lanes, bordered on either side by hedgerows, severing the corn fields on the one side from the meadow-land on the other are now fairly wide thoroughfares. The modern Aladdins of the lamp are transforming with almost incredible speed old-time premises into more commodious wants more fitted this twentieth century.
The coming of the electric tramway system is much to answer for in this direction. The road-ways, which, until a few years ago, were considered ample for the modest horse-drawn vehicles, are no longer thought worthy of the more speedy and up-to-date electrically driven conveyances. Hence, houses have been demolished to permit of roadways being widened. Unmindful of anything of the historical import, the housebreakers have carried on their work of abolition ruthlessly, and old Wandsworth is fast becoming unrecognisable.
"Love-lane" is now but a memory, and so for that matter is Slough-lane and Pickpocket-lane. Indeed, as regards the two latter, it is doubtful whether they find a place even in the memory of the average Wandsworthian. As I write these notes my glance wanders through the office window over a forest of bricks and mortar, where previously existed fields of weaving corn, undulating pasture land and orchards. It requires an imaginative mind more pronounced than that of the scribe who pens these notes, to eliminate the hundreds of houses which now exist in the area under discussion and to picture in their stead the beautiful country which formerly existed. It takes one back to the days when Wandsworth was still a country village, nestling on the banks of the one-time pellucid Wandle. Pickpocket-lane and Slough-lane are things of the past; today, York-road and Fairfield-street are the names in vogue. It was the mention of the alterations which are now taking place at the corner of Fairfield-street which induced Mr. Cecil T. Davies, the Wandsworth Librarian, to divulge the following interesting facts concerning the locality:
On turning to Rocque's map of 1741, the street is called Slough-lane, and joined Pickpocket-lane, now better known as York-road, and the district is termed Bridgefield, an older name than the more modern appellation Fairfield. Where the bridge was which acted as sponsor has not yet been traced, the toll of it is mentioned in Doomsday, and in many documents subsequent to date (1087).
In a deed September 24, 1490, by which John Warner, alias John Lincoln, yeoman, grants to Richard Parker, gentlemen Katherine his wife, and John Parker, citizen and writer of the Court letters of the city of London various properties in Wandsworth, appear the following entries:
"And another half-acre lies towards the Slowe on the South and the said road called Millewey on the North, and the land of the said Archbishop (of York) on the East, and the land of the said Thomas Wattys on the West."
"And another half-acre called to the Hedeland lies between the Slowe on the West are 'down' there called the 'Litell Down' on the South."
The 'Litell Down' was open and on the top of Tonsley-hill.
Not far from the 'Litell Down' stood Tonsley Hall, the residence of Sir Richard Blackmore, the physician and poet who died in 1729. The son of an attorney at Corsham, Wilts, he came to Westminster School, thence to Oxford, where he took his B.A. in 1674. For some reason dire necessity making a schoolmaster.
By nature form'd, by want a pedant made
Blackmore at first set up the whipping trade.
Next quack commenced; then, fierce with pride he swore
That toothache, grapes and corns should be no more;
In vain his drugs as well as birch he tried,
His boys grew blockheads, and his patients died."
He took the degree of M.D. in Padua, and became a F. R. C. P. of London in 1687, and eight years after he sought relaxation in publishing "Prince Arthur, an heroic poem, in X Books." Written, so the author informs us, "In such scant moments of leisure as his professional duties afforded." William III appointed him as a physician in ordinary, and on March 18, 1696-7, his Majesty knighted him in his bedchamber at Kensington Palace. He held the same appointment in Queen Anne's court, and that gave a semblance of reality to the tradition that, while Queen Anne resided at the Manor House he occupied Tonsley Hall, so as to be in immediate attendance on her Majesty. 'Tis true he lived at Tonsley Hall, but Princess Anne (afterwards Queen Anne) was never in residence at the Manor House.
He was a prolific writer on medical and divine subjects as well as a versifier. He died on October 9th, 1729, and was buried at Boxted, Essex, where he spent the last seven years of his life. A monument was created to his memory, and to that of his wife, Dame Mary, in that church.
The name of the house is still kept green in the-street names - Tonsley-hill, Tonsley-place, and Tonsley-road. The house was pulled down in about the middle of the nineteenth century, but so far no view of it has been found; in the latter called the same century the stump of an old cedar tree which stood in the grounds still showed a few feeble signs of life.
In Corris's map of Wandsworth, 1787, Slough-lane is shown as far as the corner of present York-road, then practically all open and cultivated land (laid out in strips), stretching to Swanden-shot and Windmill Shot to the waterside. The triangular piece now bounded by Fairfield-street, York-road and Warple-way, was the scene of the Wandsworth fair, which was held there for many years, to discontinued in the last century. It is said that the winning post from the races held in that field is on the gable end of the farrier's forge, in Garret-lane. On June 6, 1838, Dr. Longstaff, sen., enters in his diary, "Maria (Mrs Longstaff) went to Wandsworth Fair."
In 1836, Lord Spence sold a quantity of his freehold land in Wandsworth. In the third portion sold on July 8, we notice:-
"Lot 36, pasture west of Hill Shot and fronting Slough-lane. 1a. 0r. 0p.
"Lot 37, a ditto, adjoining North on Lot 36, also with frontages to Slough-lane. 0a. 3r. 26p.
"Lot 38, a ditto, situate north of Lot 37, with frontage to Slough-lane. 0a. 0r. 14p.
All held by Mr. Phillips. The above the three small lots on East hill, was sold to Mr. William King, of New court, Broad-street, London for £1275. These lots are now covered by North Terrace.
At the public library of West-hill may be seen two views of Wandsworth, shoing the Slough-lane and the district around. Then open fields, well cultivated - the corn is shown so high that only a man's head and shoulders may be seen - are now all covered with bricks and mortar.
In the year ending March, 1880, the South London tramways introduced a Bill to authorise the construction (inter alia) a line from Plough-lane along York-road, by the Wandsworth Station, along North-street to the foot of East-hill and along Red Lion-street, to High-street, Wandsworth. The last portion was not sanctioned. In 1882, it is reported that this line is under construction, and was finished opened in that year, and was in continuous use till the new line in Tooting was opened in 1907.
The old horse car, with its uncovered top, makes many long for similar ones to be used on the electric lines during the bright summer weather. The covered tops are oft exceedingly useful, though when the windows are open they are very draughty, and many a cold may be traced to them. It would be agreeable to many if a car with open top were to run from time to time.
When the Richmond railway was opened the Wandsworth Station was situate where the line passed over North-street, at the station was afterwards removed to the York-road Bridge.
Beyond the line lie the works of the Wandsworth and Putney Gas Company, but a description of them and of the site cannot be given now, nor an account of the Baptist Chapel, which stood opposite the Gas Works.
Dr. Longstaff, in December 1837, moved to Bridgefield House which he took for a short time furnished. It was opposite the old Fairfield. A view of it is at the West-hill library. He was there about six months, when he moved to Tooting. Mr. W. R. Selwood has told me that a Mr. Sadd had a cottage with a shop window front on the site of Mr. Stamper's coach factory, in which were displayed drawings of a flying machine, which he believes was the first on record.
In accordance with instructions from the London County Council the name North-street was abolished, and Fairfield-street substituted in August 1906.
R. H. H.
Wandsworth in 1786
Wandsworth in 1862
Note: If you look carefully below Tonsley Place you can see Myrtle Villas (that's us) and the four blocks below are North terrace which is where Fairfield Drive is now. See also "Our house is not Georgian". I cannot help but wonder if the White House shown on the 1862 map isn't, in fact, Tonsley Hall in its final years - that would fit with the above article and the census of 1851.
Borough News June 14, 1912
The hand of the improver is busily engaged in Wandsworth at the present time. Buildings which have done duty in their respective spheres for many, many years, are being sacrificed at the altar of improvement; what were not so long ago winding lanes, bordered on either side by hedgerows, severing the corn fields on the one side from the meadow-land on the other are now fairly wide thoroughfares. The modern Aladdins of the lamp are transforming with almost incredible speed old-time premises into more commodious wants more fitted this twentieth century.
The coming of the electric tramway system is much to answer for in this direction. The road-ways, which, until a few years ago, were considered ample for the modest horse-drawn vehicles, are no longer thought worthy of the more speedy and up-to-date electrically driven conveyances. Hence, houses have been demolished to permit of roadways being widened. Unmindful of anything of the historical import, the housebreakers have carried on their work of abolition ruthlessly, and old Wandsworth is fast becoming unrecognisable.
"Love-lane" is now but a memory, and so for that matter is Slough-lane and Pickpocket-lane. Indeed, as regards the two latter, it is doubtful whether they find a place even in the memory of the average Wandsworthian. As I write these notes my glance wanders through the office window over a forest of bricks and mortar, where previously existed fields of weaving corn, undulating pasture land and orchards. It requires an imaginative mind more pronounced than that of the scribe who pens these notes, to eliminate the hundreds of houses which now exist in the area under discussion and to picture in their stead the beautiful country which formerly existed. It takes one back to the days when Wandsworth was still a country village, nestling on the banks of the one-time pellucid Wandle. Pickpocket-lane and Slough-lane are things of the past; today, York-road and Fairfield-street are the names in vogue. It was the mention of the alterations which are now taking place at the corner of Fairfield-street which induced Mr. Cecil T. Davies, the Wandsworth Librarian, to divulge the following interesting facts concerning the locality:
On turning to Rocque's map of 1741, the street is called Slough-lane, and joined Pickpocket-lane, now better known as York-road, and the district is termed Bridgefield, an older name than the more modern appellation Fairfield. Where the bridge was which acted as sponsor has not yet been traced, the toll of it is mentioned in Doomsday, and in many documents subsequent to date (1087).
In a deed September 24, 1490, by which John Warner, alias John Lincoln, yeoman, grants to Richard Parker, gentlemen Katherine his wife, and John Parker, citizen and writer of the Court letters of the city of London various properties in Wandsworth, appear the following entries:
"And another half-acre lies towards the Slowe on the South and the said road called Millewey on the North, and the land of the said Archbishop (of York) on the East, and the land of the said Thomas Wattys on the West."
"And another half-acre called to the Hedeland lies between the Slowe on the West are 'down' there called the 'Litell Down' on the South."
The 'Litell Down' was open and on the top of Tonsley-hill.
Not far from the 'Litell Down' stood Tonsley Hall, the residence of Sir Richard Blackmore, the physician and poet who died in 1729. The son of an attorney at Corsham, Wilts, he came to Westminster School, thence to Oxford, where he took his B.A. in 1674. For some reason dire necessity making a schoolmaster.
By nature form'd, by want a pedant made
Blackmore at first set up the whipping trade.
Next quack commenced; then, fierce with pride he swore
That toothache, grapes and corns should be no more;
In vain his drugs as well as birch he tried,
His boys grew blockheads, and his patients died."
He took the degree of M.D. in Padua, and became a F. R. C. P. of London in 1687, and eight years after he sought relaxation in publishing "Prince Arthur, an heroic poem, in X Books." Written, so the author informs us, "In such scant moments of leisure as his professional duties afforded." William III appointed him as a physician in ordinary, and on March 18, 1696-7, his Majesty knighted him in his bedchamber at Kensington Palace. He held the same appointment in Queen Anne's court, and that gave a semblance of reality to the tradition that, while Queen Anne resided at the Manor House he occupied Tonsley Hall, so as to be in immediate attendance on her Majesty. 'Tis true he lived at Tonsley Hall, but Princess Anne (afterwards Queen Anne) was never in residence at the Manor House.
He was a prolific writer on medical and divine subjects as well as a versifier. He died on October 9th, 1729, and was buried at Boxted, Essex, where he spent the last seven years of his life. A monument was created to his memory, and to that of his wife, Dame Mary, in that church.
The name of the house is still kept green in the-street names - Tonsley-hill, Tonsley-place, and Tonsley-road. The house was pulled down in about the middle of the nineteenth century, but so far no view of it has been found; in the latter called the same century the stump of an old cedar tree which stood in the grounds still showed a few feeble signs of life.
In Corris's map of Wandsworth, 1787, Slough-lane is shown as far as the corner of present York-road, then practically all open and cultivated land (laid out in strips), stretching to Swanden-shot and Windmill Shot to the waterside. The triangular piece now bounded by Fairfield-street, York-road and Warple-way, was the scene of the Wandsworth fair, which was held there for many years, to discontinued in the last century. It is said that the winning post from the races held in that field is on the gable end of the farrier's forge, in Garret-lane. On June 6, 1838, Dr. Longstaff, sen., enters in his diary, "Maria (Mrs Longstaff) went to Wandsworth Fair."
In 1836, Lord Spence sold a quantity of his freehold land in Wandsworth. In the third portion sold on July 8, we notice:-
"Lot 36, pasture west of Hill Shot and fronting Slough-lane. 1a. 0r. 0p.
"Lot 37, a ditto, adjoining North on Lot 36, also with frontages to Slough-lane. 0a. 3r. 26p.
"Lot 38, a ditto, situate north of Lot 37, with frontage to Slough-lane. 0a. 0r. 14p.
All held by Mr. Phillips. The above the three small lots on East hill, was sold to Mr. William King, of New court, Broad-street, London for £1275. These lots are now covered by North Terrace.
At the public library of West-hill may be seen two views of Wandsworth, shoing the Slough-lane and the district around. Then open fields, well cultivated - the corn is shown so high that only a man's head and shoulders may be seen - are now all covered with bricks and mortar.
In the year ending March, 1880, the South London tramways introduced a Bill to authorise the construction (inter alia) a line from Plough-lane along York-road, by the Wandsworth Station, along North-street to the foot of East-hill and along Red Lion-street, to High-street, Wandsworth. The last portion was not sanctioned. In 1882, it is reported that this line is under construction, and was finished opened in that year, and was in continuous use till the new line in Tooting was opened in 1907.
The old horse car, with its uncovered top, makes many long for similar ones to be used on the electric lines during the bright summer weather. The covered tops are oft exceedingly useful, though when the windows are open they are very draughty, and many a cold may be traced to them. It would be agreeable to many if a car with open top were to run from time to time.
When the Richmond railway was opened the Wandsworth Station was situate where the line passed over North-street, at the station was afterwards removed to the York-road Bridge.
Beyond the line lie the works of the Wandsworth and Putney Gas Company, but a description of them and of the site cannot be given now, nor an account of the Baptist Chapel, which stood opposite the Gas Works.
Dr. Longstaff, in December 1837, moved to Bridgefield House which he took for a short time furnished. It was opposite the old Fairfield. A view of it is at the West-hill library. He was there about six months, when he moved to Tooting. Mr. W. R. Selwood has told me that a Mr. Sadd had a cottage with a shop window front on the site of Mr. Stamper's coach factory, in which were displayed drawings of a flying machine, which he believes was the first on record.
In accordance with instructions from the London County Council the name North-street was abolished, and Fairfield-street substituted in August 1906.
R. H. H.
Wandsworth in 1786
Wandsworth in 1862
Note: If you look carefully below Tonsley Place you can see Myrtle Villas (that's us) and the four blocks below are North terrace which is where Fairfield Drive is now. See also "Our house is not Georgian". I cannot help but wonder if the White House shown on the 1862 map isn't, in fact, Tonsley Hall in its final years - that would fit with the above article and the census of 1851.
Labels: wandsworth
¶ Permanent link: 8:53 PM 0 comments
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Cleaning the Wandle July 2009
I have a soft spot for the River Wandle . When I lived in Garfield Road it ran past the ends of the gardens. Every day I would walk down past Wandle Park on my way to Colliers Wood underground watching the river flow. Sometimes, after a long evening at the pub I must confess to occasionally augmenting the flow.
When Sainsbury built their hypermarket on the site of an old cardboard box factory part of the deal was building a riverside path along that stretch of the river. Next to the superstore, Merton Abbey Mills (http://www.mertonabbeymills.org.uk/) opened up in old Wandle-powered works used by William Morris for printing the original Liberty silks. It is a great place for craft markets and food stalls and general meandering.
We then moved out of London for 14 years but ended up moving back in - this time to Wandsworth where the Wandle emerges into the Thames. Many a Sunday we have gone for a walk along the Thames side path from Wandle Creek to Putney Bridge and back, stopping at the creek to hurl bread at the ducks.
Last year while wandering the Wandle trail through King George park we came across a huge pile of tyres, a man in waders and an eel wriggling out of the former to be captured and returned to the river by the latter.
He was a member of the Wandle Trust (http://www.wandletrust.org/) who organise monthly river clean ups. This weekend as I was home alone with a clear second-Sunday-in-the-month I decided to join them for a bit of old shopping trolley retrieval.
The main theme of the day was in fact weeding. The invasive Himalayan Balsam is destroying the banks and driving out native species. Three hours and dozens of black bin bags later we had cleared a good stretch but given the river is 15 miles this seems something of a Herculean task.
After that it was time for their annual picnic.
I have a soft spot for the River Wandle . When I lived in Garfield Road it ran past the ends of the gardens. Every day I would walk down past Wandle Park on my way to Colliers Wood underground watching the river flow. Sometimes, after a long evening at the pub I must confess to occasionally augmenting the flow.
When Sainsbury built their hypermarket on the site of an old cardboard box factory part of the deal was building a riverside path along that stretch of the river. Next to the superstore, Merton Abbey Mills (http://www.mertonabbeymills.org.uk/) opened up in old Wandle-powered works used by William Morris for printing the original Liberty silks. It is a great place for craft markets and food stalls and general meandering.
We then moved out of London for 14 years but ended up moving back in - this time to Wandsworth where the Wandle emerges into the Thames. Many a Sunday we have gone for a walk along the Thames side path from Wandle Creek to Putney Bridge and back, stopping at the creek to hurl bread at the ducks.
Last year while wandering the Wandle trail through King George park we came across a huge pile of tyres, a man in waders and an eel wriggling out of the former to be captured and returned to the river by the latter.
He was a member of the Wandle Trust (http://www.wandletrust.org/) who organise monthly river clean ups. This weekend as I was home alone with a clear second-Sunday-in-the-month I decided to join them for a bit of old shopping trolley retrieval.
The main theme of the day was in fact weeding. The invasive Himalayan Balsam is destroying the banks and driving out native species. Three hours and dozens of black bin bags later we had cleared a good stretch but given the river is 15 miles this seems something of a Herculean task.
After that it was time for their annual picnic.
Labels: wandsworth
¶ Permanent link: 6:15 PM 3 comments
Friday, March 27, 2009
Magnolias in Bloom
Google street view has come to London. Naturally I checked out our house - clearly visible of course although half of it is obscured by the foliage of a large tulip magnolia in our front garden.
The greenery was in full leaf when the google van drove by. A pity as the magnolia is now in full bloom.
The blooms come out in a matter of days. Unfortunately they fade and fall as fast. Still they are wonderful while they last.
Even if out house is part obscured I took a quick zoom round Fairfield Drive and there was my car in excellent detail I could even spot the small cuddly Angus the Coo on the parcel shelf :-)
Google street view has come to London. Naturally I checked out our house - clearly visible of course although half of it is obscured by the foliage of a large tulip magnolia in our front garden.
The greenery was in full leaf when the google van drove by. A pity as the magnolia is now in full bloom.
The blooms come out in a matter of days. Unfortunately they fade and fall as fast. Still they are wonderful while they last.
Even if out house is part obscured I took a quick zoom round Fairfield Drive and there was my car in excellent detail I could even spot the small cuddly Angus the Coo on the parcel shelf :-)
Labels: wandsworth
¶ Permanent link: 2:14 PM 0 comments
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Long time no blog
This is going to be to have to be a bit of a Portmanteau blog as it has been *shock, horror* over two weeks since I last put finger to keyboard...
Changing jobs: After four years and many contract extensions (I must have been doing something right) I finally left the client for whom I have been working since August '04. Odd feeling as it is the longest I have ever worked on any project, ever. Fortunately (in this current climate) I have picked up a new contract with one of the recipients of my former client's offerings - a veritable case of poacher turned gamekeeper.
My double crown fell off: A quick trip to Raj to have it temp-bonded back on revealed that the bone of the jaw underneath had healed so well that it had pushed up against the crown from below and eased it off the implants. So he got the technician to grind some porcelain off the underside of the bridge and popped it back on. It shows the wisdom of Raj using temporary cement - a deliberately designed point of failure to prevent stresses building up where they shouldn't.
Weekend in Scotland: Visiting the MIL as per usual. An opportunity to see Mary's sister and family as well as spend time with her Mum. This weekend Mary decided to kitchen cupboards needed a good clear out. Yellowing plastic containers out of the Ark and tins with a 'best before' date in the last century.
A week at home between contracts: Though not idle - I wish. General tidying and foutering and a visit to my Mum and Dad on Wednesday. Oh yes, and I painted the breakfast room and kitchen in my spare time.
This is going to be to have to be a bit of a Portmanteau blog as it has been *shock, horror* over two weeks since I last put finger to keyboard...
Changing jobs: After four years and many contract extensions (I must have been doing something right) I finally left the client for whom I have been working since August '04. Odd feeling as it is the longest I have ever worked on any project, ever. Fortunately (in this current climate) I have picked up a new contract with one of the recipients of my former client's offerings - a veritable case of poacher turned gamekeeper.
My double crown fell off: A quick trip to Raj to have it temp-bonded back on revealed that the bone of the jaw underneath had healed so well that it had pushed up against the crown from below and eased it off the implants. So he got the technician to grind some porcelain off the underside of the bridge and popped it back on. It shows the wisdom of Raj using temporary cement - a deliberately designed point of failure to prevent stresses building up where they shouldn't.
Weekend in Scotland: Visiting the MIL as per usual. An opportunity to see Mary's sister and family as well as spend time with her Mum. This weekend Mary decided to kitchen cupboards needed a good clear out. Yellowing plastic containers out of the Ark and tins with a 'best before' date in the last century.
A week at home between contracts: Though not idle - I wish. General tidying and foutering and a visit to my Mum and Dad on Wednesday. Oh yes, and I painted the breakfast room and kitchen in my spare time.
Labels: family, teeth, wandsworth
¶ Permanent link: 7:07 PM 1 comments
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Our house is not Georgian
But not too far off. We had previously thought that "Our house may be Georgian". Subsequent research shows that it is at least 1861. It is looking unlikely that it is earlier but we (that is Mary) has not definitively ruled it out.
We have been using http://www.ancestry.co.uk/ to research family history but it is also very handy for house detective work using the census records.
We know that our house and our immediate neighbours were Myrtle Villas in the 1860's; we have a reproduction Stanford map of 1862 which shows that clearly. And there in the 1861 census are 1, 2 and 3 Myrtle Villas. Living at number 2 are:
Sarah Banister 44 [ ] Coffee House Keeper
Elizabeth Banister 40 [Sister] Coffee House Keeper
Isiah Carver 62 [Head] Land Proprieter
Julia Carver 24 [Daughter]
Ervan Williams 20 [Lodger] Chemist
Working forwards, 2 Myrtle Villas turned into 28 North Street in 1871 and then, sometime in the early 20th century, turned into Fairfield Street.
Working backwards, the 1851 census shows the adjacent terrace 1-8 North Terrace (now the site of Fairfield Drive) but the next property listed is Tonsley Hall with no Myrtle Villas.
However some of the people at 3 Myrtle Villas in 1861 turn up in the earlier 1851 census at Ebenzer Place, also in Wandsworth. It is faintly possible they renamed the houses, took the census in a different sequence and we were still there. So the final jury is still out.
But not too far off. We had previously thought that "Our house may be Georgian". Subsequent research shows that it is at least 1861. It is looking unlikely that it is earlier but we (that is Mary) has not definitively ruled it out.
We have been using http://www.ancestry.co.uk/ to research family history but it is also very handy for house detective work using the census records.
We know that our house and our immediate neighbours were Myrtle Villas in the 1860's; we have a reproduction Stanford map of 1862 which shows that clearly. And there in the 1861 census are 1, 2 and 3 Myrtle Villas. Living at number 2 are:
Sarah Banister 44 [ ] Coffee House Keeper
Elizabeth Banister 40 [Sister] Coffee House Keeper
Isiah Carver 62 [Head] Land Proprieter
Julia Carver 24 [Daughter]
Ervan Williams 20 [Lodger] Chemist
Working forwards, 2 Myrtle Villas turned into 28 North Street in 1871 and then, sometime in the early 20th century, turned into Fairfield Street.
Working backwards, the 1851 census shows the adjacent terrace 1-8 North Terrace (now the site of Fairfield Drive) but the next property listed is Tonsley Hall with no Myrtle Villas.
However some of the people at 3 Myrtle Villas in 1861 turn up in the earlier 1851 census at Ebenzer Place, also in Wandsworth. It is faintly possible they renamed the houses, took the census in a different sequence and we were still there. So the final jury is still out.
Labels: wandsworth
¶ Permanent link: 1:43 PM 1 comments
Sunday, September 09, 2007
Bathroom Update (4)
Almost done! Andy came yesterday and fitted the second mirror door plus fixed one of the lights. We had our first bath yesterday and first shower this morning. All seems to be working just fine and dandy.
Bathroom before and after
Note the curve of the bath. That allowed us to move the bath to the wall side and hang the door the other way without bashing the corner. Having to buy a bath with a corner missing just about trebled the cost of the unit!
Previously: Bathroom Update (3), (2), (1), (0)
Almost done! Andy came yesterday and fitted the second mirror door plus fixed one of the lights. We had our first bath yesterday and first shower this morning. All seems to be working just fine and dandy.
Bathroom before and after
Note the curve of the bath. That allowed us to move the bath to the wall side and hang the door the other way without bashing the corner. Having to buy a bath with a corner missing just about trebled the cost of the unit!
Previously: Bathroom Update (3), (2), (1), (0)
Labels: wandsworth
¶ Permanent link: 11:35 AM 2 comments
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Maps Ancient and Modern
Ever since we took ownership of the Hovel-in-the-Hills™ we have been looking for decent scale maps of the local area.
The "Istituto Geografico Militare" http://www.igmi.org/ promised 1:25,000 (4 cm to 1 km or 2½ inches to 1 mile) but when we investigated they turned out to be discontinued. So instead we went for the 1:50,000. We are near an edge and so ordered two; one arrived and the other was out of print. And the level of detail is nothing like as clear as the Ordnance Survey maps. Pretty useless but we framed it and put it on the wall anyway.
Conversely the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 series are readily available in all good bookshops, specialist leisure shops and online from their website. In fact the OS go all the way to 1:1250 for business purposes and also do historical maps. For Wandsworth they even do an 1866 map at a quite extraordinary 1:1,056, that is 5 feet to the statute mile! Which I bought.
You can see every outbuilding, drinking fountain, fence and field boundary, even the garden paths are marked in the bigger houses. Our house is there - both the original building and the later rear extension. So we now know that extension is at least 1866 and the main house, obviously, older than that.
Now all I need to do is get back down to the library and that 1851 survey to get a positive fix on our property. Easier to do now I can match the census house numbers to the buildings on the map.
Ever since we took ownership of the Hovel-in-the-Hills™ we have been looking for decent scale maps of the local area.
The "Istituto Geografico Militare" http://www.igmi.org/ promised 1:25,000 (4 cm to 1 km or 2½ inches to 1 mile) but when we investigated they turned out to be discontinued. So instead we went for the 1:50,000. We are near an edge and so ordered two; one arrived and the other was out of print. And the level of detail is nothing like as clear as the Ordnance Survey maps. Pretty useless but we framed it and put it on the wall anyway.
Conversely the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 series are readily available in all good bookshops, specialist leisure shops and online from their website. In fact the OS go all the way to 1:1250 for business purposes and also do historical maps. For Wandsworth they even do an 1866 map at a quite extraordinary 1:1,056, that is 5 feet to the statute mile! Which I bought.
You can see every outbuilding, drinking fountain, fence and field boundary, even the garden paths are marked in the bigger houses. Our house is there - both the original building and the later rear extension. So we now know that extension is at least 1866 and the main house, obviously, older than that.
Now all I need to do is get back down to the library and that 1851 survey to get a positive fix on our property. Easier to do now I can match the census house numbers to the buildings on the map.
Labels: italy, wandsworth
¶ Permanent link: 4:59 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Bathroom Update (3)
Friday the bath arrived and the plaster starts to dry out. Monday the shelving unit was installed over the cistern. Tuesday the tiler started work on the walls.
Bathroom with bath, shelving and tiles
Even though they are moving along it is good that we have a shower and a second loo downstairs otherwise it would be off to work via the gym for a shower.
Previously: Bathroom Update (2), (1), (0)
Friday the bath arrived and the plaster starts to dry out. Monday the shelving unit was installed over the cistern. Tuesday the tiler started work on the walls.
Bathroom with bath, shelving and tiles
Even though they are moving along it is good that we have a shower and a second loo downstairs otherwise it would be off to work via the gym for a shower.
Previously: Bathroom Update (2), (1), (0)
Labels: wandsworth
¶ Permanent link: 9:08 AM 1 comments
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Bathroom Update (2)
The shower plumbing is complete and the cistern for the loo* is there. The walls are all re-plastered as are most of the holes in the ceiling where the old lights were. Yesterday a pallet load of tiles arrived for the floor and walls. But still no bath!
* Checking with my American colleague on the next desk perhaps I should translate this as: "the water reservoir for the toilet"
Previously: Bathroom Update (1), (0)
The shower plumbing is complete and the cistern for the loo* is there. The walls are all re-plastered as are most of the holes in the ceiling where the old lights were. Yesterday a pallet load of tiles arrived for the floor and walls. But still no bath!
* Checking with my American colleague on the next desk perhaps I should translate this as: "the water reservoir for the toilet"
Previously: Bathroom Update (1), (0)
Labels: wandsworth
¶ Permanent link: 8:35 AM 0 comments
Monday, August 20, 2007
Bathroom Update (1)
The lads are cracking on. Andy brought in a couple of electricians on Wednesday so we now have new ceiling lights: a couple of blue ones over the bath and five white ones across the rest of the ceiling. They are operated by a twin dimmer switch and all laid out in a neat diagonal pattern. Plus various other switches and boxes of unkown function, probably for the extractor fan and fuses and such like.
The plumbing also moves forward. The pipework for the basin is now plastered over and some new pipework has appeared where the shower will go. Now all we need is a bath. It was supposed to be delivered last Wednesday. Apparently it is in the country but not yet with the shop (Colourwash).
Previously: Bathroom Update (0)
The lads are cracking on. Andy brought in a couple of electricians on Wednesday so we now have new ceiling lights: a couple of blue ones over the bath and five white ones across the rest of the ceiling. They are operated by a twin dimmer switch and all laid out in a neat diagonal pattern. Plus various other switches and boxes of unkown function, probably for the extractor fan and fuses and such like.
The plumbing also moves forward. The pipework for the basin is now plastered over and some new pipework has appeared where the shower will go. Now all we need is a bath. It was supposed to be delivered last Wednesday. Apparently it is in the country but not yet with the shop (Colourwash).
Previously: Bathroom Update (0)
Labels: wandsworth
¶ Permanent link: 8:32 AM 1 comments
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Bathroom Work Starts
Having agreed the design for the new bathroom in Wandsworth we commissioned the work and Andy started on Monday:
Bathroom before and after Monday
Of course it has to be "Demolition Derby" first!
Having agreed the design for the new bathroom in Wandsworth we commissioned the work and Andy started on Monday:
Bathroom before and after Monday
Of course it has to be "Demolition Derby" first!
Labels: wandsworth
¶ Permanent link: 12:57 PM 3 comments
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Our house may be Georgian
I am beginning to suspect our house may not be Victorian (1837-1902) but in fact Georgian (1714-1830).
When we bought the house the vendor told us it was 1890 but there is nothing in the legal paperwork to confirm this date. Stylistically nothing about it really looks late-Victorian: the cube-like overall shape of the building, the horizontal (not-arched) window lintels, the small panes in the sashes, the original wooden shutters, the tall (12 foot, 3.66 meter) ceilings. We have been describing the house to our friends as Victorian but with Georgian dimensions.
On Sunday I was chatting to Jo next door and she tells me we are listed in the 1851 census. Suddenly that makes more sense of the Victorian extension at the back. Why build a house and almost immediately extend it? But if the original property was built at least 40 years earlier that is far more plausible scenario.
Wednesday evening I called in at Battersea Library Local History Service near Clapham Junction to inspect the census which they had on microfilm. It was not possible to identify our property exactly as the street had changed name and length. It was previously North Street and ran all the way to the river.
Apparently a lot of street naming went on at the request of the emergency services because there were so many North Streets, Victoria Roads, etc. There used to be a field where B & Q now stands which was the site of Wandsworth Fair, marked on the 1894 OS map as "Fairfield" hence the new name of our street. I will chat to Jo again then go back armed with the original address.
Further evidence came last night when Mike from The Original Box Sash Windows Company came round to quote for refurbishing the side and back windows. He looked at the bathroom window and exclaimed "Good Lord, I have never seen a window that old!" This from a man whose company specializes in repairing Victorian windows.
He explained that the thin profile of the wood and quality of the joinery spoke to an earlier age of craftsmanship. This was repeated around the house. He also, interestingly pointed out the slightly opaque pane in our bedroom window as "sugar glass" - low quality glass from a repair sometime during WW2.
Wandsworth in 1786
This map from 1786 shows a street there and buildings. North street runs from just above the "W" of Wandsworth to the "r" in Creek. Pickpocket Lane is now, more prosaically, York Road. Unfortunately the scale and detail are not sufficient to confirm anything useful, merely to encourage. Now I am getting excited at the prospect of playing House Detective and researching the true age of our home. Watch this space...
I am beginning to suspect our house may not be Victorian (1837-1902) but in fact Georgian (1714-1830).
When we bought the house the vendor told us it was 1890 but there is nothing in the legal paperwork to confirm this date. Stylistically nothing about it really looks late-Victorian: the cube-like overall shape of the building, the horizontal (not-arched) window lintels, the small panes in the sashes, the original wooden shutters, the tall (12 foot, 3.66 meter) ceilings. We have been describing the house to our friends as Victorian but with Georgian dimensions.
On Sunday I was chatting to Jo next door and she tells me we are listed in the 1851 census. Suddenly that makes more sense of the Victorian extension at the back. Why build a house and almost immediately extend it? But if the original property was built at least 40 years earlier that is far more plausible scenario.
Wednesday evening I called in at Battersea Library Local History Service near Clapham Junction to inspect the census which they had on microfilm. It was not possible to identify our property exactly as the street had changed name and length. It was previously North Street and ran all the way to the river.
Apparently a lot of street naming went on at the request of the emergency services because there were so many North Streets, Victoria Roads, etc. There used to be a field where B & Q now stands which was the site of Wandsworth Fair, marked on the 1894 OS map as "Fairfield" hence the new name of our street. I will chat to Jo again then go back armed with the original address.
Further evidence came last night when Mike from The Original Box Sash Windows Company came round to quote for refurbishing the side and back windows. He looked at the bathroom window and exclaimed "Good Lord, I have never seen a window that old!" This from a man whose company specializes in repairing Victorian windows.
He explained that the thin profile of the wood and quality of the joinery spoke to an earlier age of craftsmanship. This was repeated around the house. He also, interestingly pointed out the slightly opaque pane in our bedroom window as "sugar glass" - low quality glass from a repair sometime during WW2.
Wandsworth in 1786
This map from 1786 shows a street there and buildings. North street runs from just above the "W" of Wandsworth to the "r" in Creek. Pickpocket Lane is now, more prosaically, York Road. Unfortunately the scale and detail are not sufficient to confirm anything useful, merely to encourage. Now I am getting excited at the prospect of playing House Detective and researching the true age of our home. Watch this space...
Labels: wandsworth
¶ Permanent link: 1:04 PM 3 comments
Monday, June 11, 2007
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe *
The weekend was mostly spent in the garden completing the installation of an irrigation system to keep the plants watered while we are on holiday. This means we will return to a blooming garden unlike last year when absences and hose-pipe bans meant the spring planting did not survive the summer and we had a load of dead and dessicated plants.
It is also a fine example of "constructive laziness". My thighs may ache from hours hopping about in the shrubbery like a frog but that now means no more watering! At the appointed hour the hissing of summer lawns will announce the timer unleashing a trickle of drippers all around the garden.
I also realised that we now have a "wabe": The grass plot around a sundial. It is called a "wabe" because it goes a long way before it, and a long way behind it, and a long way beyond it on each side. This sundial was my 50th birthday present from the family and lived on the patio at Avon Cottage. Now it is on the Wandsworth lawn I have a "wabe". So that's nice.
* "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe *
The weekend was mostly spent in the garden completing the installation of an irrigation system to keep the plants watered while we are on holiday. This means we will return to a blooming garden unlike last year when absences and hose-pipe bans meant the spring planting did not survive the summer and we had a load of dead and dessicated plants.
It is also a fine example of "constructive laziness". My thighs may ache from hours hopping about in the shrubbery like a frog but that now means no more watering! At the appointed hour the hissing of summer lawns will announce the timer unleashing a trickle of drippers all around the garden.
I also realised that we now have a "wabe": The grass plot around a sundial. It is called a "wabe" because it goes a long way before it, and a long way behind it, and a long way beyond it on each side. This sundial was my 50th birthday present from the family and lived on the patio at Avon Cottage. Now it is on the Wandsworth lawn I have a "wabe". So that's nice.
* "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll
Labels: garden, wandsworth
¶ Permanent link: 8:47 PM 0 comments
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Sunday in the Garden
At the weekend we bought *three* trolley-loads of plants and spent Sunday planting them in the beds.
Planting the lower bed
Mary did the planting, I did the big weeds and cutting the lawn.
The lower bed planted up
I also spiked all over the front lawn with a fork and now the muscles in my fingers ache. "My hand's can't feel to grip" - opening screw top bottles is real a challenge.
At the weekend we bought *three* trolley-loads of plants and spent Sunday planting them in the beds.
Planting the lower bed
Mary did the planting, I did the big weeds and cutting the lawn.
The lower bed planted up
I also spiked all over the front lawn with a fork and now the muscles in my fingers ache. "My hand's can't feel to grip" - opening screw top bottles is real a challenge.
Labels: wandsworth
¶ Permanent link: 8:37 AM 1 comments
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
A New Bathroom for Wandsworth
Plan for new bathroom
Our bathroom is small and a previous owner has not made best use of the space.
The "before" as it is now has the bath against the window wall, the basin top left and the loo currently where the basin will be, bottom right.
The door opens the other way so, if you are sitting on the loo you get knee-capped as the door opens. Plus the shower window-side means the sill gets soaked and all the paint peels off.
This "after" was designed for us by the team at "H2OLondon". Hanging the door the other way and rearranging the units as you see here will make a big difference. Plus new everything and tiles and accessories will make a transformation. Well done chaps.
We have a final visit to the warehouse on Friday to see the bath in the flesh and choose tiles and colours. Then a six week lead time on the bath so the work won't be done till the end of July. Fortunately we have a shower room downstairs otherwise that might have meant a week of showering at work.
Plan for new bathroom
Our bathroom is small and a previous owner has not made best use of the space.
The "before" as it is now has the bath against the window wall, the basin top left and the loo currently where the basin will be, bottom right.
The door opens the other way so, if you are sitting on the loo you get knee-capped as the door opens. Plus the shower window-side means the sill gets soaked and all the paint peels off.
This "after" was designed for us by the team at "H2OLondon". Hanging the door the other way and rearranging the units as you see here will make a big difference. Plus new everything and tiles and accessories will make a transformation. Well done chaps.
We have a final visit to the warehouse on Friday to see the bath in the flesh and choose tiles and colours. Then a six week lead time on the bath so the work won't be done till the end of July. Fortunately we have a shower room downstairs otherwise that might have meant a week of showering at work.
Labels: wandsworth
¶ Permanent link: 9:07 PM 1 comments
Thursday, April 05, 2007
American Visitors
Over the weekend Mary was in Scotland with her Mum and I was playing host to a couple of American visitors: Elizabeth (an old colleague) and Baylor, a friend of hers.
They arrived Friday morning and we immediately set off to Stonehenge with a couple of minor detours to look at where Elizabeth and I worked together for a while. Stonehenge was pretty chilly, grey and overcast but an unexpected bonus for Baylor; E and I have been there before but it is still an impressive sight.
Saturday they did not want to do the tourist thing so we chilled out around Wandsworth. We went to the farmers' market by the station and then for a walk along the Thames-side path. We took a route Mary and I do often over Wandle Creek, through the park (Grade 2 listed) to Putney Bridge and back through the residential streets. I was pointing out all the typical Victorian terraced housing. Then quick visits to Ros and to Sarah to drop off stuff for our visit to Italy on Saturday and finally home for a meal with the food from the market.
Over the weekend Mary was in Scotland with her Mum and I was playing host to a couple of American visitors: Elizabeth (an old colleague) and Baylor, a friend of hers.
They arrived Friday morning and we immediately set off to Stonehenge with a couple of minor detours to look at where Elizabeth and I worked together for a while. Stonehenge was pretty chilly, grey and overcast but an unexpected bonus for Baylor; E and I have been there before but it is still an impressive sight.
Saturday they did not want to do the tourist thing so we chilled out around Wandsworth. We went to the farmers' market by the station and then for a walk along the Thames-side path. We took a route Mary and I do often over Wandle Creek, through the park (Grade 2 listed) to Putney Bridge and back through the residential streets. I was pointing out all the typical Victorian terraced housing. Then quick visits to Ros and to Sarah to drop off stuff for our visit to Italy on Saturday and finally home for a meal with the food from the market.
Labels: social, wandsworth
¶ Permanent link: 2:36 PM 0 comments
Friday, February 16, 2007
Avon Cottage Empty ...
... but Wandsworth house full!
"Well the move seemed to go smoothly" he said, looking at the chaos around him.
Breakfast room full of packing boxes
Dining room full of packing boxes
Living room full of packing boxes
It took the movers four and a half hours to pack up the cottage. The 17 metre van was full, we literally could not get another item in. And it is now all in our Wandsworth home!
We cannot move; we have two complete sets of *everything*. The bedrooms upstairs are just as bad. It will take a while to digest this lot. A few trips to the local auction house and municipal dump will help. And expect to see quite a few items appearing on eBay, we have already sold a washing machine and a day bed. There will be more to follow...
Oh, yes, and we had a lovely meal at The Food Room and fell exhausted out of the taxi and into bed.
... but Wandsworth house full!
"Well the move seemed to go smoothly" he said, looking at the chaos around him.
Breakfast room full of packing boxes
Dining room full of packing boxes
Living room full of packing boxes
It took the movers four and a half hours to pack up the cottage. The 17 metre van was full, we literally could not get another item in. And it is now all in our Wandsworth home!
We cannot move; we have two complete sets of *everything*. The bedrooms upstairs are just as bad. It will take a while to digest this lot. A few trips to the local auction house and municipal dump will help. And expect to see quite a few items appearing on eBay, we have already sold a washing machine and a day bed. There will be more to follow...
Oh, yes, and we had a lovely meal at The Food Room and fell exhausted out of the taxi and into bed.
Labels: avon cottage, moving house, wandsworth
¶ Permanent link: 8:32 AM 2 comments
Monday, February 05, 2007
House Clearance
Did you know you can get sixteen and a half cases of wine in a BMW 330Ci Sport? That's 198 bottles with no room for passengers! Mind you it doesn't do much for the handling and acceleration. I was breaking gently well in advance of junctions and roundabouts (US: circles).
When we met our buyers two weekends ago ["Avon Cottage Under Offer"] the talk was of completion by Easter, last weekend this turned into "third week of Feb" and by last Tuesday it was Friday 16th. O-o-oh ****, that's less than three weeks away. We still had to clear the house, dump the rubbish, move the wine, ship the furniture, spring clean the place and complete the actual sale.
So we brought the skip hire forward and this weekend, while Mary was in Scotland, I was down the cottage in my blue overalls filling the skip. I thought 3.5 cubic metres (4.5 cubic yards) would see us through the next two weekends. But no. By 11:30 the thing was full.
The rest of the day was spent clearing Jabba the Shed, disassembling the shelving in the loft and casing up the wine from the Vinosafe. The VSP 214 holds a thousand bottles and that means quite a few round trips.
Sunday was preparing the Wandsworth house for the furniture onslaught. Moving furniture from room to room so we can free up the back bedroom as a temporary furniture depository. The 16.5 cases are all safely in the cellar but boy are my back muscles aching today.
Did you know you can get sixteen and a half cases of wine in a BMW 330Ci Sport? That's 198 bottles with no room for passengers! Mind you it doesn't do much for the handling and acceleration. I was breaking gently well in advance of junctions and roundabouts (US: circles).
When we met our buyers two weekends ago ["Avon Cottage Under Offer"] the talk was of completion by Easter, last weekend this turned into "third week of Feb" and by last Tuesday it was Friday 16th. O-o-oh ****, that's less than three weeks away. We still had to clear the house, dump the rubbish, move the wine, ship the furniture, spring clean the place and complete the actual sale.
So we brought the skip hire forward and this weekend, while Mary was in Scotland, I was down the cottage in my blue overalls filling the skip. I thought 3.5 cubic metres (4.5 cubic yards) would see us through the next two weekends. But no. By 11:30 the thing was full.
The rest of the day was spent clearing Jabba the Shed, disassembling the shelving in the loft and casing up the wine from the Vinosafe. The VSP 214 holds a thousand bottles and that means quite a few round trips.
Sunday was preparing the Wandsworth house for the furniture onslaught. Moving furniture from room to room so we can free up the back bedroom as a temporary furniture depository. The 16.5 cases are all safely in the cellar but boy are my back muscles aching today.
Labels: avon cottage, moving house, wandsworth
¶ Permanent link: 1:11 PM 1 comments
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Wandsworth Chainsaw Massacre
We got off lightly in Thursday's winds. One tree down and it was one we had wanted to remove as it was three quarters dead. Ours fell sideways and landed on the garages at the bottom of the garden. I was able to wrestle it back into the garden as it was only 8 in (23 cm) diameter. Next door's was three or four times that size and took out a lamppost in the street, they were lucky it fell sideways as well.
Nature has saved us the cost of a tree surgeon but it did leave us with the problem of disposal. As luck would have it we were going down to the cottage this week end to start the rubbish clear our - better to chuck it that move it - and so I brought the chainsaw up to London. Boys', big-cheesey-grin, kind of work.
The logs will go to Bob&Lynn next time we go down to the cottage.
Wallace and Grommit watched from the safety of the shrubbery.
We got off lightly in Thursday's winds. One tree down and it was one we had wanted to remove as it was three quarters dead. Ours fell sideways and landed on the garages at the bottom of the garden. I was able to wrestle it back into the garden as it was only 8 in (23 cm) diameter. Next door's was three or four times that size and took out a lamppost in the street, they were lucky it fell sideways as well.
Nature has saved us the cost of a tree surgeon but it did leave us with the problem of disposal. As luck would have it we were going down to the cottage this week end to start the rubbish clear our - better to chuck it that move it - and so I brought the chainsaw up to London. Boys', big-cheesey-grin, kind of work.
The logs will go to Bob&Lynn next time we go down to the cottage.
Wallace and Grommit watched from the safety of the shrubbery.
Labels: garden, wandsworth
¶ Permanent link: 5:53 PM 1 comments
Saturday, April 15, 2006
Arthur "Two Sheds" Jackson
I have written previously of the challenges in naming our bike shed (see "Jabba the Shed". Now the problem has been solved, the inspiration has been found.
We decided we needed a second shed in which to store our garden furniture that we won at auction. So off we went to Homebase this week to order a second bike shed. Of their range it seemed the best size and shape to accommodate our wooden folding chairs.
So now we will have two identical sheds and then I remembered the old Monty Python sketch about Arthur "Two Sheds" Jackson.
So I will be calling one shed "Arthur" and the other shed "Jackson". Excellent! <grin>
I have written previously of the challenges in naming our bike shed (see "Jabba the Shed". Now the problem has been solved, the inspiration has been found.
We decided we needed a second shed in which to store our garden furniture that we won at auction. So off we went to Homebase this week to order a second bike shed. Of their range it seemed the best size and shape to accommodate our wooden folding chairs.
So now we will have two identical sheds and then I remembered the old Monty Python sketch about Arthur "Two Sheds" Jackson.
So I will be calling one shed "Arthur" and the other shed "Jackson". Excellent! <grin>
Labels: humour, wandsworth
¶ Permanent link: 9:22 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
A weekend of DIY
The weekend was not all post house-move DIY tasks. We started with a trip to Cineworld Wandsworth to see Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. We went with Tim&Sarah and their two children Alex&Zoe. A cracking film and no chav brawls outside the Spotted Dog.
Most of Saturday was very productively spent doing handyman tasks that went smoothly - not always the case! Bathroom shelf, cabinet and loo roll holder all sorted. Plus Mary did major wine shuffling in the cellar.
Sunday we had Mum&Dad round for a very enjoyable Sunday lunch followed by a little more DIY. There will be more in the weeks and months to follow I am sure. It is best to get as much done as possible in the early days or the danger is it never does get done.
Oh yes, and I am in Zurich today.
The weekend was not all post house-move DIY tasks. We started with a trip to Cineworld Wandsworth to see Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. We went with Tim&Sarah and their two children Alex&Zoe. A cracking film and no chav brawls outside the Spotted Dog.
Most of Saturday was very productively spent doing handyman tasks that went smoothly - not always the case! Bathroom shelf, cabinet and loo roll holder all sorted. Plus Mary did major wine shuffling in the cellar.
Sunday we had Mum&Dad round for a very enjoyable Sunday lunch followed by a little more DIY. There will be more in the weeks and months to follow I am sure. It is best to get as much done as possible in the early days or the danger is it never does get done.
Oh yes, and I am in Zurich today.
Labels: wandsworth
¶ Permanent link: 6:07 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Home but not alone (2)
Unlike a previous Home but not alone this time I had a productive weekend. Mary was away Saturday and Sunday on an NLP Practitioner course and I was again Home but not alone.
For company I had the cat and a prodigious "To Do" list occupying a full sheet of A4 (double column). Priority One tasks were house-move related: fix the door and window locks, un-box the hi-fi, clear the smallest bedroom of boxes, write to the council (times several), unblock the moss from the drainpipe and so on...
Low on fun but high on job satisfaction. Ticking off things that needed to be done leaves a satisfying and slightly smug sensation.
Unlike a previous Home but not alone this time I had a productive weekend. Mary was away Saturday and Sunday on an NLP Practitioner course and I was again Home but not alone.
For company I had the cat and a prodigious "To Do" list occupying a full sheet of A4 (double column). Priority One tasks were house-move related: fix the door and window locks, un-box the hi-fi, clear the smallest bedroom of boxes, write to the council (times several), unblock the moss from the drainpipe and so on...
Low on fun but high on job satisfaction. Ticking off things that needed to be done leaves a satisfying and slightly smug sensation.
Labels: wandsworth
¶ Permanent link: 1:13 PM 0 comments
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
We're moving house
Now the "cone of silence" has been lifted and I can reveal that we are moving house. At first SWMBO said not to tell anyone in case it all went pear-shaped. Even after we exchanged contracts force of habit made me keep schtum.
It is all part of the grand plan to sell Avon Cottage in four years time, clear our debts and downshift to Italy. We would live in the Hovel-in-the-Hills™, reinvest in a UK based property and work here part time. The principle is still good, it is the sequencing that is all to cock.
Discussing where to live I remarked that all the considerations that made us choose Wandsworth for our current London base still hold good so Mary went surfing - "just to check out the area". Our requirements are very specific and, *expletive*deleted*, if the ideal property didn't pop up two weeks later. A unique property that might not come on the market again for a very long time.
What to do? The horns of a dilemma! So we said, what the heck, and we bought it. We are converting the flat into a buy-to-let mortgage, renting it out and we are moving *literally* three doors down the street.
Now the "cone of silence" has been lifted and I can reveal that we are moving house. At first SWMBO said not to tell anyone in case it all went pear-shaped. Even after we exchanged contracts force of habit made me keep schtum.
It is all part of the grand plan to sell Avon Cottage in four years time, clear our debts and downshift to Italy. We would live in the Hovel-in-the-Hills™, reinvest in a UK based property and work here part time. The principle is still good, it is the sequencing that is all to cock.
Discussing where to live I remarked that all the considerations that made us choose Wandsworth for our current London base still hold good so Mary went surfing - "just to check out the area". Our requirements are very specific and, *expletive*deleted*, if the ideal property didn't pop up two weeks later. A unique property that might not come on the market again for a very long time.
What to do? The horns of a dilemma! So we said, what the heck, and we bought it. We are converting the flat into a buy-to-let mortgage, renting it out and we are moving *literally* three doors down the street.
Labels: avon cottage, wandsworth
¶ Permanent link: 1:43 PM 0 comments
Sunday, August 28, 2005
Spotted dog
Our plan for riverside dining had been a picnic in Battersea Park followed by the open air jazz concert. In the end we wimped out on account of the cooling evening. Instead we ate the picnic food indoors and went to the 9:15 showing of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory [excellent] at Cineworld Wandsworth. We do like their VIP seats, you can take your drink in, the seats are huge and there is a glass screen to acoustically separate you from the rest of the punters.
On the way down we passed the Spotted Dog public house and remarked that it did not look like our type of venue. Shaved heads, tattoos, tracksuit bottoms and chunky gold chains do not make a positive fashion statement. And so it proved two hours later on our way back. The first sign of trouble was theharridans young ladies screeching at each other in the shopping mall. Outside the pub itself there was much shouting and drunken jostling.
We crossed over the road but then crossed back when we saw this bloke lying in the gutter. Mary went to see if he was OK while I called 999. He was unconscious with blood pouring from a bottle cut on the back of his head. By the time I had given the dispatcher all the details two police cars had arrived and the "victim" was staggering up the road. So we left them to it and went home for a last glass of wine and bed.
Our plan for riverside dining had been a picnic in Battersea Park followed by the open air jazz concert. In the end we wimped out on account of the cooling evening. Instead we ate the picnic food indoors and went to the 9:15 showing of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory [excellent] at Cineworld Wandsworth. We do like their VIP seats, you can take your drink in, the seats are huge and there is a glass screen to acoustically separate you from the rest of the punters.
On the way down we passed the Spotted Dog public house and remarked that it did not look like our type of venue. Shaved heads, tattoos, tracksuit bottoms and chunky gold chains do not make a positive fashion statement. And so it proved two hours later on our way back. The first sign of trouble was the
We crossed over the road but then crossed back when we saw this bloke lying in the gutter. Mary went to see if he was OK while I called 999. He was unconscious with blood pouring from a bottle cut on the back of his head. By the time I had given the dispatcher all the details two police cars had arrived and the "victim" was staggering up the road. So we left them to it and went home for a last glass of wine and bed.
Labels: wandsworth
¶ Permanent link: 11:13 AM 0 comments
