Falcon Road, Battersea, London ; south-east wing wall, March 1944
This is, I suspect, an 'official' Southern Railway photograph as it has arrived as part of a bequest from an old colleague who was very much a 'Southern man'. It shows the south eastern 'wing-wall' or abutment of the bridges over Falcon Road - and this would be the Falcoln Road in Battersea, just to the east of the complex of tracks and platforms at Clapham Junction Station. Indeed, a check on Google Earth shows that the bull-nosed white glazed bricks still form the edge to the abutment at this point.
This is a London after five years of war and so yes, all is looking distinctly shabby and down at heel. Cart 112 stands at the side of the road and a London Transport trolleybus overhead pole, with two white band painted around it, stands guard and you can just make out the overhead wires for the 626 service that squeezed under this 16ft bridge here.
The posters make the scene with one of the classic wartime propoganda posters on show ; the famous "Walk short distances" with the pony holding the shoelace tells that familiar refrain of "go by Shanks' pony". It was designed by Polish emigres Lewitt-Him. I suspect that would be a useful one today given the incessant car frenzy we live amongst! Many of the other brands are still with us today. Cadbury, Oxo and Guinness, the latter represented by one of the iconic Gilroy Guinness 'Zoo' posters. Brooke Bond are best recalled for tea, not so much for beef cubes who are often associated with Bovril or indeed with Oxo as seen below! Senior's fish and meat pastes were, I think, a London based company now defunct.
Falcon Road, Battersea, London ; south-east wing wall, March 1944
This is, I suspect, an 'official' Southern Railway photograph as it has arrived as part of a bequest from an old colleague who was very much a 'Southern man'. It shows the south eastern 'wing-wall' or abutment of the bridges over Falcon Road - and this would be the Falcoln Road in Battersea, just to the east of the complex of tracks and platforms at Clapham Junction Station. Indeed, a check on Google Earth shows that the bull-nosed white glazed bricks still form the edge to the abutment at this point.
This is a London after five years of war and so yes, all is looking distinctly shabby and down at heel. Cart 112 stands at the side of the road and a London Transport trolleybus overhead pole, with two white band painted around it, stands guard and you can just make out the overhead wires for the 626 service that squeezed under this 16ft bridge here.
The posters make the scene with one of the classic wartime propoganda posters on show ; the famous "Walk short distances" with the pony holding the shoelace tells that familiar refrain of "go by Shanks' pony". It was designed by Polish emigres Lewitt-Him. I suspect that would be a useful one today given the incessant car frenzy we live amongst! Many of the other brands are still with us today. Cadbury, Oxo and Guinness, the latter represented by one of the iconic Gilroy Guinness 'Zoo' posters. Brooke Bond are best recalled for tea, not so much for beef cubes who are often associated with Bovril or indeed with Oxo as seen below! Senior's fish and meat pastes were, I think, a London based company now defunct.