Hounslow

Hounslow, south-west London. Or given the wintry weather, Houn-snow.

Initially it looked like an unpromising hunting ground. But then on the High Street appeared good old dependable Marks and Spencer, with a clock that makes me think of After Eight mints.

Off the High Street is Bell Road. And a derelict building with a derelict clock.

Actually a YouTube clip of video footage shot on a drive round Hounslow in 1987 suggests that this clock is a relatively recent addition to the building - although the quality of the video makes it hard to tell for sure. My suspicion is that the clock was taken from some other building - does anyone have the answer to this?

This is in fact the former Sunrise Plaza supermarket - more like sunset, as it now appears to have morphed into the Bell Road car park. Another YouTube clip claims that the Sunrise Plaza was the "largest Asian supermarket in West London".

But it does have this rather nice clock tower on the other side of the building.

Close to Hounslow Central underground station on Lampton Road is the premises of Caffe Venezia, which at one time must have been Stanleys Motors with its Smiths clock.

Our final clock in Hounslow is this rather unusual clock on a modern building just behind the High Street. The location is rather odd, and the clock style doesn't really go with the architectural design, but hey, who cares?

Surbiton

Surbiton is in the south-west of Greater London, close to the Surrey border. My visit was on a cold and damp day, which is reflected in the quality of the photographs.

Surbiton railway station was opened in 1838, but the current building dates from 1937. It is a fine example of the Art Deco style, a fact recognised by its Grade II listed building status. Its clock tower has dials which face the platforms and the town centre.

The above is the somewhat rust-stained face on the platform side. The town-facing side is a bit cleaner.

 



 

The station's recent claim to fame is that it was used or filming a scene from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

 

The ticket office has its own small clock.

 

 

Along from the station on Victoria Road are the offices of Wallakers, Chartered Surveyors.

A bit further along, and on the opposite side of the road, is the wonderful shopfront of F P Turner & Sons, with its clock situated above the doorway.

The next clock be-decked buidling stands on the corner of Brighton Road and Maple Road. Other than that I know nothing about it.

 

On to St Andrews church on the corner of Maple Road and St Andrews Road. The church itself was built in 1871-72 (and the effect of the light rain clearly shows on this photo).

The clock dates form 1892, and was made by Caydon & Sons of Kingston on Thames in 1892. There are three dials facing north, west and east. [Information on the church and its clock, and for St Mark's later on, was taken from the website www.surbitonchurch.org.uk].

The jewel in the crown of Surbiton's clocks has to be the Coronation Clock Tower on Claremont Road.

The tower commemorates the coronation of King Edward VII in 1902, as set out in a plague affixed to its south-facing side.

The tower now has several more modern buildings for neighbours. The Waitrose building is a swishy modern design, whilst the adjacent office block is pretty awful on its own, but is redeemed by its mirroring effect on the tower.

St Mark's chuch is on the junction of St Marks Hill and Church Hill Road (so a few clues in the road names then!).

The clock dates from 1860, and was made by Thomas Cooke & Sons of York. It was later reconstructed by John Smith & Sons in the Midland Clock Works, Derby in 1972. There is only one dial, facing south (so the parish of St Andrews and St Marks manages to cover the four compass points).

Ewell Road has a fine set of civic buidlings dating from the 1930's. There is a very nice public library, a fire station, and this building, the Court House. And if you are venturing down this road, check out the gorgeous art deco lettering on the lodge building to Surbiton Hospital (sadly no clock).

Overall, Surbiton has thrown up a good range of clocks and some wonderful architecture. i feel a return visit coming on when its is warmer and sunnier.

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.