St James Avenue, Kemptown, Brighton

These lovely covers are from my old stomping ground of the St James Street area of Kemptown. The area has changed a lot for the better (no doubt connected to my departure) but St James Avenue remains one is its most attractive residential streets.

The Clark and Hunt design is one of my favourites and the other one with a surround is a rare original.

Celebrity coalhole cover #2

This well worn Phoenix cover is in front of 32 Hamilton Road, Brighton. On the front of the house is a plaque commemorating the fact that Eric Gill,  inventor of the Gills sans font, fine sculptor and sexual deviant, was born and lived at the house and would have trod upon the coal hole cover. (Although  Wikipedia says he was born in Steyning).

In the neighbouring Brigden St there were several covers like this and also from Every and Newman.

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.

Portland Place, Brighton

One of the few bonuses of visiting the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton is mooching around the backstreets looking for coal hole covers. This one is in the fine wide avenue of Portland Place and is  the first Every and Newman plate I've seen featuring anything but circles.

Palmeira Avenue, Hove

Rejoice.
Just when I thought I'd seen all the Hayward's coal hole cover designs in Christendom, I find another one.
Just North of Palmeira Square there is a sprinkling of coal hole covers including a Haywards No 1d featuring 4 circles containing 7 circles.

There is also this  relatively rare Imperial cover. 

Go West pt 2 - Worthing

 Another trip to Heene Terrace in Worthing reveals a lovely horde of Pyke and Palmer coalhole covers from 140/141 Upper Thames Street, London - presumably the mother (or daughter) foundry of Palmers's Brighton - also found on Heene Terrace.

And at the top there's a large Hayward's coalhole cover. There are 2 different sized covers on this terrace which is interesting because all the properties were presumably built at the same time. Maybe the coalholes were installed later.

The bottom cover is presumably a replacement in a Pyke and Palmer surround. It looks rather fine. Unlike the ones in the next post. 

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.

Coleman Street, Brighton

Visiting my old Hanover stomping ground the other day I had to make a pilgrimage to the street that not only bears my name but also where one would most hope to find a coalhole.

And I'm pleased to report that there were a couple of remaining covers, despite multiple resurfacing of pavements.

While there was a common 'Every and Newman' design, this one was unlabelled with a pleasing symmetrical design of concentric circles and diamonds.

Tidy Street (again), Brighton

The photo on the left shows a modern replacement with a nice diamond design. The maker is Carron.

I like the other example because its right underneath someone's overhanging bay window and has got holes in it - surely the rain would get in and make the coal wet?