The Herd is Getting Ready for Migration

This blog, all of its sundry London scraps and of course all the London elephants are about to migrate! See the end of this post for sketchy details. There is just time to catch a glimpse of a final Weekend Elephant here in its original home.

As regular readers will know, each Friday we publish a picture of one of  London's enormous herd of elephants, this week's is Number 7.

You then have the whole Bank Holiday weekend to email the location to elephants@peterberthoud.co.ukThe first person to locate each weekend's elephant will be rewarded with a glorious mention sometime on Tuesday when the location will be officially revealed.

So, this week's somewhat titillating Weekend Elephant is:

Happy hunting!

During next week the new blog should be up and running at  a new self-hosted site http://www.peterberthoud.co.uk/ .For those of you who are technically minded, a quick glance at the new site will demonstrate conclusively that I am not! A feast of broken links, odd typography, poor layout and limited functionality awaits you.

I am relatively confident that bit by bit I will develop a basic mastery of FTP, CSS, RSS, PHP, HTML, Widgets and all the other tools I would currently struggle to define, let alone be able to use! This confidence, I must stress, is the kind born of blissful ignorance rather than that born out of experience and ability.

Whether I can remove the irritating auto link to a Romanian car dealership, that has embedded itself into every single imported post, remains to be seen ( I hate you Piese Auto, I don't even drive!). I should however be able to remove the other annoying feature of the import, the use of the > symbol at the beginning of every headline and first line.

So, why the move? Well, I have been advised that if I am to develop this blog in the way I want and have the ability to integrate a couple of new London related projects, then I will really need to set up my own site. So I have taken a leap of faith in a quest to deliver more and better content.

August seemed a good time to immerse myself in utter bewilderment, double my nicotine intake and lose what little hair remained on my head. The fruits of my new found obsession and physical deterioration will hopefully be worth it.

It will certainly be good to be back blogging more regularly, I have been missing the daily ritual and have collected quite a backlog of posts. I haven't been publishing too many this month as it would just have given me more stuff to import to the new site and of course provided more free advertising opportunities for that dratted car dealer in Romania!

Anyway, if I can master the mystery of a "301 redirect" and get my RSS into gear, then this blog should pop up at the new site automatically over the next few days. If my innate technical incompetence gets in the way, then I may have to ask anyone who has kindly linked, followed or bookmarked me to amend their links.

Any feedback on features you would like to see on the new blog would be very welcome at hopeless@peterberthoud.co.uk, any advice on how to implement them even more so!

Have a great Bank Holiday!

The author of this blog is a qualified City of Westminster Tour Guide who runs unique walking tours throughout Westminster, see tabs for details.

A Lebanese Elephant Nailed by Claire from the Old Kent Road

There was a bumper crop of entries for Friday's Weekend Elephant! Thank you to all of you who correctly located it in Notting Hill Gate, outside Newcombe House near Waterstones.

But one entrant was especially quick off the mark and is a clear winner. Within moments of me hitting the "Publish Post" button, barely before the pixels had coagulated into an image, sharp-eyed Claire of the Old Kent Road had emailed me her winning entry, congratulations to her!

Carnival Elephant dates from 2003 and was produced by Nadim Karam and his firm Atelier Hapsitus. The artist was born in Senegal and works from his company studio in Beirut. He describes his studio as  “a satellite grouping of young architects and designers around happenings and situations.”. Check out the link for details of their many worldwide projects.

The elephant here was commissioned by the Notting Hill Improvements Group and Land Securities.

On the roof of the nearby Waterstones are two more of his figures, these date from 1999.

The author of this blog is a qualified City of Westminster Tour Guide who runs unique walking tours throughout Westminster, see tabs for details.

I Am Not A Number, I Am A Free Elephant!

Each Friday we publish a picture of one of  London's enormous herd of elephants, this week's is Number 6.
You then have the whole weekend to email the location to discoveringlondon@hotmail.co.uk. The first person to locate each weekend's elephant will be rewarded with a glorious mention sometime on Monday when the location will be officially revealed.

This week's Weekend Elephant photo has been cropped; a fuller view might lead to an instant winner!

Happy hunting!

The author of this blog is a qualified City of Westminster Tour Guide who runs unique walking tours throughout Westminster, see tabs for details.

An Obscure Weekend Elephant

As calm returns, trivia is palatable once more.

Each Friday we publish a picture of one of  London's enormous herd of elephants. You then have the whole weekend to email the location to discoveringlondon@hotmail.co.uk. The first person to locate each weekend's elephant will be rewarded with a glorious mention sometime on Monday when the location will be officially revealed.

This week's Weekend Elephant is a particularly obscure one and merits a clue:

This elephant has an SW1 address and can be found above the door of an defunct insurance company.

 Happy hunting!

UPDATE: Monday 15th August.

Last week's elephant has stumped everybody, uniquely there has not been a single correct entry! With no winner to announce, it only remains to put those of you who may have wondered out of your misery!

The particularly obscure elephant is to be found above the doorway of 29 Buckingham Palace Gate. The building is currently occupied by an insurance company who are in the process of winding up. Municipal Mutual do not appear to have any elephantine element to the company logo and I can offer no explanation for why it is there.

This week's upcoming Friday Elephant should be far more familiar!

The author of this blog is a qualified City of Westminster Tour Guide who runs unique walking tours throughout Westminster, see tabs for details.

Weekend Elephant #5, London's Newest!

Each Friday we publish a picture of one of  London's giant herd of elephants. You then have the whole weekend to email the location to discoveringlondon@hotmail.co.uk. The first person to locate each weekend's elephant will be rewarded with a glorious mention sometime on Monday when the location will be officially revealed. Honour is all that is at stake.

So without further ado here is London's most recent addition to the herd.

 Happy hunting!

The author of this blog is a qualified City of Westminster Tour Guide who runs unique walking tours throughout Westminster, see tabs for details.

Weekend Elephant #4

Each Friday we publish a picture of one of  London's giant herd of elephants. You then have the whole weekend to email the location to discoveringlondon@hotmail.co.uk. The first person to locate each weekend's elephant will be rewarded with a glorious mention sometime on Monday when the location will be officially revealed. Honour is all that is at stake.

So here without further ado here is the last Weekend Elephant of July!

 Happy hunting!

The author of this blog is a qualified City of Westminster Tour Guide who runs unique walking tours throughout Westminster, see tabs for details.

Parliament Foxed in Recess

Spotted yesterday in Victoria Tower Gardens.

 

 

This fox calmly walked amongst the bushes until it found a secluded spot in the sun and settled down for a snooze.

I know we have many urban foxes and I see them quite often but this view seemed especially incongruous and interesting enough to prompt this author to start pondering puns for a headline.

The above result is the best I could do, perhaps I need more sleep. I did at least manage to resist any references to Black Rod's Garden Entrance, so hope remains. Any more inventive headline suggestions would be very welcome.

Weekend Elephant #3 - Result Out!

This weekend's elephants lie tucked behind King's College Library building off Chancery Lane.

 

India

The India panel, that features the elephants, is just one of six including:

Australasia

 

 

Africa

America

A plaque on the end of the little building explains their presence here.

There are pictures of all the panels and some more details about them from the excellent Victorian Web.

Congratulations to this weeks winner Colin Davey, a City of London Guide with Walk City. Colin emailed the correct answer many hours before anyone else, well done sir!

Friday's Weekend Elephant(s) Are Here!

Each Friday we publish a picture of one of  London's giant herd of elephants. You then have the whole weekend to email the location to discoveringlondon@hotmail.co.uk. The first person to locate each weekend's elephant will be rewarded with a glorious mention sometime on Monday when the location will be officially revealed. Honour is all that is at stake.

So here without further ado here is are a pair of pachyderms for our third Weekend Elephant!

 Happy hunting!

The author of this blog is a qualified City of Westminster Tour Guide who runs unique walking tours throughout Westminster, see tabs for details.

Nose for Sale - Is it a Rick Buckley?

Paul Smith's antique shop in Albemarle Street currently have this handsome nose for sale.

 

The price tag is £550 and guesses at a 1960's US origin for the unsigned piece.

To my eye the piece is not stone but resin and seems remarkably like two of the famous Seven Noses of Soho (these were produced, in several sizes and in resin by Rick Buckley before being attached to buildings around Soho in the 1990's, see previous posts for more on them). The tentative attribution to a US artist is based on the fact that a Paul Smith buyer found this nose in Miami.

Now as someone who has devoted a lot of time to researching the noses and even leads guided tours around them, I would bet money this nose is a Rick Buckley ... but I have no proof. Can anyone help? Does anyone know if Rick Buckley produced free-standing noses for sale in addition to his building enhancements? Do you perhaps own a similar nose? Please drop me a line if you can shed any light on any of this.

The author of this blog is a qualified City of Westminster Tour Guide who runs unique walking tours throughout Westminster, including The Seven Noses of Soho, see tabs for details.

This Week's Weekend Elephant!

Each Friday we publish a picture of one of  London's giant herd of elephants. You then have the whole weekend to email the location to discoveringlondon@hotmail.co.uk. The first person to locate each weekend's elephant will be rewarded with a glorious mention sometime on Monday when the location will be officially revealed. Honour is all that is at stake.

So here without further ado here is our second Weekend Elephant!

 Happy hunting!

The author of this blog is a qualified City of Westminster Tour Guide who runs unique walking tours throughout Westminster, see tabs for details.

More Unseen Images of Tower Bridge Under Construction

Here are six more images of Tower Bridge under construction.In these pictures the high-level walkways are joined.

These photos are part of a set of 20  that were saved from a skip in central London many years ago. At the offices of one of the original contractors, management had decided to have a "clear-out" and a great many boxes of old paperwork from throughout the firms history were simply dumped.

The only person who thought these photos were worth saving is a friend and neighbour of mine. He rescued them, scanned them and this weekend he gave me copies to share here on the blog. We will never know just how much other material was lost in the company's "clear-out", journals, letters and many other photos probably went straight to landfill.

An act of corporate vandalism that could so easily have been averted. I am sure that many public archives and private collectors would have helped the company gain space by taking this material "off their hands", they would probably even paid them handsomely to do so, at the very the least the company could have saved themselves the cost of skip hire.

The original post contains eight more photos of the bridge in an earlier phase of construction. I will publish the final six photos in the set here soon.

In the meantime if you would like to know a little more about the history of Tower Bridge, there is an excellent quick guide at Caroline's Miscellany, this guide also has many useful links to other sites.

The author of this blog is a qualified City of Westminster Tour Guide who runs unique walking tours throughout Westminster, see tabs for details.

Unseen Images of Tower Bridge Under Construction

These images show Tower Bridge under construction in the 1880's. They were saved from a skip many years ago by a neighbour of mine. The skip was outside the former offices of one of the original contractors. He has kindly scanned them and agreed that I can share them here.

There are a total of 20 images in the set, I will publish the rest here over the coming week. Some details about the bridge, which celebrates the 125th anniversary of its foundation this year, from the Tower Bridge website here.

The author of this blog is a qualified City of Westminster Tour Guide who runs unique walking tours throughout Westminster, see tabs for details.

Launch of the Weekend Elephant!

In this blog's recent Elephants in London Quiz 21 London elephants were showcased. This is only the tip of the trunk. London's streets are filled with a permanent herd of elephants in every medium; glass, bronze, stone, steel, wood, fibreglass, signage, hedging and more.

The winners of the recent quiz were The Georgian Group who knew the locations of far more elephants than anyone else. It has been noted though that mere mortals can hardly be expected to compete with a national charity renowned for attention to detail, architectural expertise and central London offices. So it is with regret that the inaugural Elephants in London Quiz will now be the last.

At a glittering, but very emotional, presentation ceremony at the Georgian Group's headquarters in Fitzroy Square this week, Secretary of The Georgian Group, Robert Bargery accepted this now unique prize on behalf of the entire organisation.

(Mr Bargery is the good looking one, on the right, the one with the hair. Your author is the other one, with a tear in his eye.)

Now to give other pachyderm lovers in London a sporting chance to demonstrate their elephantine expertise, this blog is now proudly launching The Weekend Elephant.

Each Friday we will publish a picture of a different London elephant. You then have the whole weekend to email the location to discoveringlondon@hotmail.co.uk. The first person to locate each weekend's elephant will be rewarded with a glorious mention sometime on Monday when the location will be officially revealed. Honour is all that is at stake now.

So here without further ado here is our first Weekend Elephant!

Easy perhaps if you live or work nearby, more challenging to those that don't. Happy hunting!

The author of this blog is a qualified City of Westminster Tour Guide who runs unique walking tours throughout Westminster, see tabs for details.

Senior Whitehall Source Reveals New Nose in Soho!

I was contacted this week by a Senior Whitehall civil servant regarding a new nose in Soho! Seriously I was, I am not making this one up!

For those of you who do not already know about the legend of Seven Noses of Soho please see this link to an earlier post Seven Noses of Soho Discovered . For those of you who are already afficianados, I present to you "The Roman Nose"

My Senior Civil Service source, who I shall refer to as Tony, leaked the information to me by email on Monday. His cryptic Latin clue took some unravelling but after a long slog through Soho I was thrilled to spot it myself. Naturally this new discovery has been incorporated in all my future "Seven Noses of Soho" walking tours.

So now there are confirmed sightings of eight noses but two of them lie just outside Soho. Is it possible that a ninth still remains within Soho's boundaries? If that were true then there really would be Seven Soho Noses. Any sightings or alternate theories gratefully received.

Elephants in London - Quiz Results

The deadline for entries to London's most prestigious elephant based photo quiz has now passed. Overnight a hand-picked team has checked and re-checked all the answers provided. And the winner, with the greatest tally of correctly located elephants is ....



The Georgian Group!



So now they are pre-eminent not only as the Nation's guardians of Georgian buildings, monuments and landscapes but they are also London's leading pachyderm spotters! If you don't know about the work of this excellent organisation there is a link to their website here.


Congratulations! Your prize, a copy of Jan Bondeson's Animal Freaks, will be hand-delivered to you in Fitzroy Square in the next few days!


For everybody else who entered, thank you and commiserations.  To put you out of your misery here are the locations of all 21 elephants.


I have collected many other London elephants and will publish them here on a regular basis.

1 Africa House, Kingsway

2 Elephant & Castle Shopping Centre

3 India House, Aldwych

4 Oriental Club, Stratford Place

5, South Africa House, Trafalgar Square

6 Camden High Street

7 Animals At War Memorial, Park Lane

8 Liberty, Gt. Marlborough St.

9 Albert Memorial, Kensington Gardens

10 Holland Street Chelsea

11 Allington House, Victoria St

12 South Lambeth Road Vauxhall

13 Baby Tembo LSE, Clare Market

14 Entrance to St Katherine's Docks

15, Adelphi, John Adam St

16 Fenchurch Street, City

17, Cutlers' Hall, Warwick Lane, City

18 Selfridges Duke St. Entrance

19 Chapel, Lincoln's Inn

20 Outer Circle, Regent's Park, Nr. Zoo

21, Burlington Arcade Piccadilly