City of London (1)

I thought it was about time to look at the City of London, where many of my early clock photographs were taken but not so far represented on this blog. The high numbers of clocks in the City mean that it is easier to approach the topic on an individual basis rather than attempting complete coverage in a small number of postings. This means that the City will be tackled on a random basis, interspersed between more complete coverage of other urban areas.

For those of you who are not familiar with the terminology, the City of London is only one (small) part of the London conurbation. It is the historic heart of the city, and is home to a world financial centre. It is often called the Square Mile (covering an area of 1.12 square miles) and is governed by the City of London Corporation.

My random start, City of London number 1, is St Mary Woolnoth church on Lombard Street.

The building is Nicholas Hawksmoor's only church in the City, and dates from 1716 - 1727. The church sits between Lombard Street and King William Street, but has this projecting clock on the Lombard Street side only. This is perhaps explained by the fact that the other side was not exposed to view until King William Street was built in 1829.

This is a nice octagonal clock which looks in good condition, but unfortunately was not showing anywhere the right time when this photo was taken. So not a good start for the City of London.

Diss

Welcome to 2013, and welcome to Diss, a small town in Norfolk close to the border with Suffolk.

First up is a clock on a new housing development on Victoria Road, the main road through the town, at its junction with Rose Lane.

Slightly incongruous, but nevertheless nice to see new clocks when so many older ones are disappearing or are in a poor state of repair.

Further along Victoria Road (if you manage to dodge all the cyclists - you have to walk in the cycleway as the pedestrian part of the dual use footway is blocked by parked cars) is the Rosedale Funeral Home. As we have seen from earlier postings, funeral directors often have clocks (perhaps to remind us all that time is running out), and this is no exception.

Onwards past Tescos (no clock) to Morrisons. The style adopted here for the clock seems to be that of a radio past - it has something of a Soviet-era feel to it. Perhaps it is secretly part of the defence network for all the US airbases in the region!

The clockface itself is a no-messing sort of design. You feel that you wouldn't argue with this clock (although arguing with any clock is pretty pointless and liable to lead you to be prescribed strong medication).

So far it has been three out of three for working clocks, but here the winning run ends. This building on St Nicholas Street is looking for a new use, but was once the local branch of Lloyds Bank. Given the empty state of the building it is no surprise that the time given here would lead you astray.

Back now to the centre of Diss, and the church of St Mary.

A slightly weather-beaten surround, but otherwise I really like this one.

In the shadow of the church tower (well okay not much sunshine to give a shadow on this cold overcast day in January, and anyway the building I am about to talk about is to the south of the tower and therefore wouldn't be cast in its gloom - but perhaps it could be caught in a moonlight shadow: who knows but I am not about to hang around Diss on a freezing cold January night. Now where were we?) is the Post Office in Market Place.