This morning I came across a handy little car park there, just up from the Pantiles, not full at around 0930 so presumably too far for the commuters from the surrounding area to walk to the railway station. But there were some rather flashy cars, presumably the property of similarly flashy wives, one of whom was to be seen climbing out of her very natty looking BMW convertible. Very gracious she was to the attendant too.
Wouldn't like to hazard a guess as to which of the various BMW convertibles it was, but even if it was bottom of the range at £25,000, a lot more than we paid for our stretched Ford Focus. And top of the range comes in at near £100,000.
Wouldn't like to hazard a guess as to which of the various BMW convertibles it was, but even if it was bottom of the range at £25,000, a lot more than we paid for our stretched Ford Focus. And top of the range comes in at near £100,000.
Venturing north from the common the evening before we had found a very pleasant restaurant in Lime Hill Road, 'Dame Tartine' (http://www.dametartine.co.uk/), run by a very pleasant young French couple (maybe their first venture on their own account?), but no relation of the various dames tartine Google turns up in Metropolitan France. We thought it proper to have tartines, a variety of open sandwich, and with the usual trimmings a very good light supper they made too. Lime Hill Road itself offered an interesting variety of housing, maybe 100 or more years old, with unusual three story terraced town houses on one side and with the more usual two storey variety - such as you might see in Sheen or Kew - on the other. These last mostly trimmed with coloured stained glass to the hallway, a rather posher version of the stained glass in the slightly younger houses in our own road in Epsom.
All of which brought to mind an architectural thought from last week, to the effect that suburban housing in this country went through two good patches, roughly the 20's and 30's and then the 50's of the last century, when lots of mainly three bedroom houses were built (the job creation schemes of their day, as I recall, something we could do with now), detached and semi-detached, but which, while decent and substantial, were all to built to much the same tried & tested design and were largely free of the pretentious trimmings which usually adorn such housing. So none of the stone trimming which adorns much upper artisan housing from the decades around the turn of the 19th century, such as is to be seen in many London Boroughs, for example Clapham or Harringey. No fancy plasterwork to fall off the interior ceilings. Pointed roofs with cement tiles. Functional. None of the faux muddled village/old town affectations which you get in housing estates being built now. Maybe a bit of faux timbering to the first floor, but on the whole decent and substantial housing which has stood the test of time well. I wonder if an architectural historian would agree with me.
All of which brought to mind an architectural thought from last week, to the effect that suburban housing in this country went through two good patches, roughly the 20's and 30's and then the 50's of the last century, when lots of mainly three bedroom houses were built (the job creation schemes of their day, as I recall, something we could do with now), detached and semi-detached, but which, while decent and substantial, were all to built to much the same tried & tested design and were largely free of the pretentious trimmings which usually adorn such housing. So none of the stone trimming which adorns much upper artisan housing from the decades around the turn of the 19th century, such as is to be seen in many London Boroughs, for example Clapham or Harringey. No fancy plasterwork to fall off the interior ceilings. Pointed roofs with cement tiles. Functional. None of the faux muddled village/old town affectations which you get in housing estates being built now. Maybe a bit of faux timbering to the first floor, but on the whole decent and substantial housing which has stood the test of time well. I wonder if an architectural historian would agree with me.
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