Upper and Lower Belgrave St, London SW1

Hayward Bros

Hayward Bros

William Pryor and Co, Dalston Junction

Hayward Bros

C Heap and Co, Leicester St

These ornate and beautiful beasts are in the heart of London's diplomatic quarter, littered with embassies and High Commissions. They included new Haywards designs and two new foundries or ironmongers in Heap and Pryor.

Outer Circle, Regents Park, London NW1

Some of the most expensive property in the world overlooks Regents Park so I was going for some seriously fancy coal hole covers.  Unfortunately,  most are modern  replacements except for this well preserved T Sampson cover from the nearby Euston Road.

York Square, London E14

I was recently in the Limehouse area of East London and straying a few yards north of the busy Commercial Road, stumbled across the Georgian oasis of the York Square Conservation Area and its surrounding streets including a Saxon church.

The buildings were nearly all handsome 2 storey brick homes, directly fronting onto York stone pavements. York Square itself has 2 pubs fronting onto it. I even saw a family of song thrushes in the churchyard. As you'd expect this close to the City, gentrification has set in and houses in York Sq sell for over £700,000.

There were some lovely coal hole covers around which were mainly not marked with the maker or suppliers name but I did find a CM McCarthy of 284 Mile End Road and another from Stepney. The area is mainly in Tower Hamlets and the Council has published a guide, although it doesn't specifically refer to coal hole covers.

North Gower Street, London NW1

Up in London for beer and curry,  I found these 2 beauties just off the Euston Road. They're from Thomas Sampson 394-398 Euston Road, an ironmongers or foundry I've not encountered before.

Smith Square oddity

There are a few oddities in Smith Square. The biggest is that the  former Conservative HQ is now occupied by the European Union.  Sitting on the grass outside the rather lovely church in Smith Square, I noticed this other oddity It's odd because it's in the road,  unlike every other coalhole cover I've seen.  I assume it's because the crypt (which houses a fine cafe) extends out under the road.

Rubbings are go

Montage

Star Foundry from TW Porter

J Every from Lewes

C+J Reed from Brighton

Flower

Another Every and Newman

Large Haywards

Modern stars

At last, I've located and photoed my coal hole cover rubbings from 2002 or 2003. There's a fine selection of foundries, styles and even sizes. All rubbings are from the North Laine and Old Steine in Brighton. The rubbings were done on a large A3 pad of artist's paper with black rubbing crayon from the now-disappeared artist supply shop on the corner of Richmond Parade.

Kemptown glories

I've been told that Kemptown has many good coal holes, and so it should - being stuffed with fine Regency and Victorian homes needing copious amounts of coal. I had half an hour to kill the other evening and did a quick circuit of the streets to the south of the County Hospital.

I encountered a fine mix of people - skinny dodgy-looking yoofs with big scary dogs, large shaven-headed middle-aged men with small yappy dogs, ladies of leisure drinking red wine on their doorsteps and smooth couples in matching dressing gowns on their Regency balconies.

I also encountered a fine mix of coal hole covers, including some larger-than-normal ones and some from manufacturers not encountered further west.  Feast your eyes on this lot.

First up, in Sudeley Terrace - a trio of Haywards covers in nice iron surrounds.

Moving on down to the seafront, on Chichester Terrace we find these great ones - some supersize like this Haywards with 19 glazed hexagonal panels.

And this nice chevron flower design.

And this very pleasing 'bullseye' Woodrow design.

this beautiful Clare, Hunt design from Shoreditch...

this unnamed design with slots in, and

a larger version of a fairly common design.

Round the corner, in Chichester Place there is this Haywards self-locking patent design 'D' model.

Maunsell Street, London SW1

Three fine covers from around the corner of the august Royal Horticultural Society in the quiet backstreets of Westminster. I particularly like the Haywards concentric circles. The floral design is from Burt and Potts of Westminster and the one split into quarters is a Luxfer Prisms, from 16 Hill Street, London EC. Unfortunately, the glass prisms have been replaced by concrete.

Hove actually

Brunswick Town Conservation Area actually, in the borderlands with Brighton. This part of town doesn't quite have the genteel air of parts of Hove further west and the pavements have taken a pounding.

However, in these streets north of Western Road there is a fair sprinkling of coalhole covers in designs not found in Brighton. The Hodges and Butler (from the Thames Silicated Stone Works, East Greenwich) example (top right) is in Brunswick Road, the others in Cambridge Road. The Haywards (bottom right) is an unusual 4 circles design, the Imperial Stone Co Ltd (also from the Thames Silicated Stone Works, East Greenwich) (bottom left) looks like a copy of the Hodges and Butler and the other has a lovely floral design.

Wish Road, Hove

I know that Hove is a good hunting ground for coalhole covers. The genteel streets are less pounded, dug up and generally mucked about with than its brasher and seedier sister to the east.

So this Evelyn and Newman cover is a good one to start with. I particularly like the flower in the middle.

Down the A23 - Beaconsfield Road and Beaconsfield Parade, Brighton

Wandering down the A23 towards the seafront I remembered I'd seen some nice coalhole covers on Beaconsfield Parade and Beaconsfield Road (the one way bits).

On the northbound section just north of the viaduct is an unbranded 'Improved Patent Safety Plate' with a lovely sunburst motif. What's the point of patenting it if the name of the foundry isn't shown?

The second is on the southbound section outside a florists - a lovely Ashton Green floral design.