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Baker Beach offers one of San Francisco's most iconic views of the Golden Gate Bridge, where natural beauty meets architectural marvel in perfect harmony. This mile-long stretch of coastline, situated within the Presidio, provides photographers and visitors with a stunning perspective of the bridge's southern span against the backdrop of the Marin Headlands.
The beach, which was historically part of the Presidio military base, now serves as a popular recreational destination within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The image captures the classic postcard view, featuring the rust-colored suspension bridge rising majestically above the San Francisco Bay's steel-blue waters.
In the foreground, a rustic fence line traces the coastal trail, while native cypress trees frame the scene, providing a characteristic touch of Northern California's coastal landscape. The sandy beach shows evidence of the typical wave action that shapes this dynamic shoreline, with white surf creating a natural leading line toward the bridge.
The Marin Headlands rise dramatically across the Golden Gate strait, their slopes showcasing the natural topography that makes the Bay Area's geography so distinctive. The weather conditions captured in the image display the characteristic marine layer, with high clouds creating depth in the sky while maintaining excellent visibility of the landmark bridge.
The path visible in the image is part of the California Coastal Trail, which offers hikers and nature enthusiasts access to this spectacular viewpoint. The beach's position, facing north, makes it particularly popular for photography during golden hour and sunset, though this daytime shot demonstrates how the location maintains its grandeur throughout the day.
Cavendish Mews is a smart set of flats in Mayfair where flapper and modern woman, the Honourable Lettice Chetwynd has set up home after coming of age and gaining her allowance. To supplement her already generous allowance, and to break away from dependence upon her family, Lettice has established herself as a society interior designer, so her flat is decorated with a mixture of elegant antique Georgian pieces and modern Art Deco furnishings, using it as a showroom for what she can offer to her well heeled clients.
Today however, we are beneath the streets, pavements and private squares of Mayfair in the brightly lit London Underground railway station of Down Street*, with its white and green tiled walls, decorated with advertisements and maps of the London Underground. It is here on a wooden bench that they share with a rather dowdy and overweight matron that Edith, Lettice’s maid, and her best friend and fellow maid, Hilda, await the next train to take them down the Piccadilly line to Leicester Square along with a smattering of other passengers milling around the railway station with their luggage. Hilda works as a live-in maid just around the corner from Cavendish Mews in Hill Street for Lettice’s married friends, Margot and Dickie Channon. However, Edith and Hilda met one another at their previous employer, Mrs. Plaistow’s, Pimlico townhouse where the two shared a cold and uncomfortable attic bedroom. In spite of the fact that they are both working for different people now, the girls remain the very best of friends, and catch up frequently.
It is Wednesday, and both Edith and Hilda have Wednesday afternoons off. They usually do something together on their midweek afternoons off, like go shopping for haberdashery, take refreshments in a respectable and reasonably priced tea room, or on warm spring days like today, visit a public park and just chat, enjoying one another’s company. Yet today, although they are both destined for Leicester Square Railway Station, they are going in separate directions. Edith has been invited by her beau, Frank Leadbetter, local delivery boy for Mr. Willison’s Grocery in Binney Street, Mayfair, to join him for a special surprise of some kind at Clapham Junction where she has agreed to meet him.
“So where do you think you’re going, then, Edith?” Hilda asks with keen and inquisitive eyes as she sits on the wooden bench next to her best friend. She nudges her lightly with her elbow and smiles conspiratorially. “What’s the surprise?”
“At first I thought we might be going to Clapham Common** for a picnic.” Edith replies a little uncertainly.
“But now you’re unsure.” Hilda remarks, completing Edith’s unspoken thought.
“I am, Hilda.”
“Why? What makes you think otherwise?”
“Well, for a start, what do I have with me to carry?” Edith asks.
Hilda glances down at Edith’s lap where her usual green leather handbag nestles comfortably across her neat black skirt, whilst in Edith’s net lace gloved left hand she holds her usual, battered black umbrella that has probably seen one too many London winter rainstorms. Her face crumples.
“Exactly!” Edith opines. “No picnic basket, no ribbon sandwiches and no thermos*** of tea.”
“Frank could be providing them, Edith.” Hilda ventures.
Edith snorts derisively. “I doubt that very much! Frank’s a good man, but he certainly doesn’t know how to cook, and from everything he tells me about his landlady and her daughter, I doubt either of them would be charitable enough to make him a picnic lunch.” She screws up her nose at the thought. “And even if they did, I somehow don’t think I’d fancy whatever they would have as their picnic fare.”
“Remember when we came back from our overnight visit to Manchester, and he brought us some tea and oranges?”
“Oh, I know Frank can make tea, but a couple of discarded oranges from Mr. Willison’s is hardly a picnic lunch.”
“Ahem!” The older woman on the bench next to them clears her throat noisily causing both maid to glance at her.
Taking up more than her fair share of the wooden railway bench, the portly woman with a rather disapproving jowly face is squeezed into a dark coat that is firstly too small for her, judging by the gapes in the fabric between the buttons, and secondly is unseasonal for the warm May weather, as is her matching black cloche hat. Her knitting needles clack noisily as she makes something in mustard yellow. At her feet rests her beaded handbag and a basket full of groceries. The girls glance at one another and wonder whether she is a customer of Mr. Willison’s Grocery in Binney Street where Frank works and where their mistress’ both have accounts. Hilda nods shallowly at Edith who returns her nod: their silent agreement not to mention Mr. Willison’s establishment in earshot of this woman again, who may well be the cook or maid of one of his customers. The last thing either girl wants is for Frank to get into trouble, or worse yet lose his position as delivery boy and sometimes window dresser. Whilst the oranges that they ate that day were sweet and juicy, Edith cannot guarantee that Frank actually bought them for she and Hilda. He may have taken a few that were not suitable for sale in the shop and sat in the back room. That might make them fair game for Frank, but Mr. Willison would doubtless have other ideas.
“And anyway,” Edith goes on. “Frank asked me to wear my good white blouse with the Peter Pan collar*** and the mother-of-pearl buttons. It’s not exactly picnic wear, Hilda.”
“There’s nothing wrong with dressing up for a picnic, Edith.”
“I know there isn’t, but the fact that Frank asked me to wear it specifically, and he knows it is a blouse I reserve for more special occasions, suggests that we’re not going on a picnic.”
“Well, perhaps it’s another kind of special occasion.” Hilda offers. “Hasn’t he told us before that he has a friend who runs a restaurant?” She ponders for a moment, ruminating. “Yes, an Italian restaurant as I recall!”
“Yes, that’s his friend Giuseppe,” Edith concurs. “But he has a restaurant up the Islington*****, not in Clapham Junction.”
“And you don’t think his landlady would host a lunch for you in her front parlour, Edith? Some landladies do, you know.”
“Not Mrs. Chapman!” Edith scoffs dismissively. “From everything Frank has told me about her, she’s a real tartar******, and she wouldn’t countenance any female guests of her lodgers in her front room.”
“Ahem!” the old woman next to Hilda clears her throat again, this time glancing up from her gnashing stitches, looking critically at Hilda and Edith over the tops of her horn-rimmed spectacles before returning her attentions to her knitting with a tight and disapproving pout.
Edith and Hilda roll their eyes at one another.
“Well maybe it’s another restaurant he wants to take you to, then, Edith.” Hilda suggests. “Clapham Junction has some lovely shops, like Arding and Hobbs*******, so there are bound to be some nice restaurants and tea rooms up Lavender Hill********.”
“Maybe.” Edith muses. “I can’t think what else we could be doing. However liberated Frank might be in his thinking, I can’t see he and I walking through Arding and Hobbs together whilst I buy thread and trims.” She giggles.
Hilda joins her friend, chuckling lightly as well at the thought of Frank going around the drapery store. “Perhaps not, Edith.” She laughs a little more before adding, “Maybe he’s going to take you shopping for a wedding ring, finally. There are lots of jewellers along Lavender Hill too.”
Edith pulls a face. “Oh, I very much doubt that! The last time we looked at jewellery in the window of Schwar’s********* up the Elephant********** we had the fiercest row over wedding rings.”
“Well, didn’t your…” Hilda pauses mid-sentence and quickly glances at the disapproving matron with her deeply set frown as she knits intensely, before lowering her voice slightly. “Your Madam Fortune…”
“Madame Fortuna.” Edith corrects her friend politely.
“Madame Fortuna. Well, didn’t she tell you that Frank was going to pop the question soon?”
“Hilda Clerkenwell!” Edith gasps in a mixture of surprise and incredulity, her eyes widening as she does. “You told me that you don’t believe in all that ‘mumbo-jumbo fortune telling’!”
“Well, I don’t.” Hilda defends. “I believe in cold hard facts, but you obviously do believe all that mumbo-jumbo if you went to see her.” She shakes her head at her friend in mild disapproval. “Didn’t you tell me that she’d said he would propose soon.”
“Before the year was out, was what she said.”
“Humph!” Hilda snorts. “Suitably vague for a charlatan.”
“Madame Fortuna was not a charlatan!” Edith hotly defends Mrs. Fenchurch, the ‘discreet clairvoyant’ in Swiss Cottage*********** with whom she corresponded via Box Z 1245, The Times, E.C.4., and finally went to see a few weeks ago.
“So you say.” Hilda mumbles self-righteously.
“Anyway, we’re only in May. Why should it be today?”
“Why shouldn’t it be?” Hilda eyes her friend suspiciously before adding, “You’ve changed your tune, Edith. Whatever is the matter?”
“Oh nothing.” Edith flaps her hand dismissively at Hilda. “I just…” She sighs heavily. “I just don’t want to get my hopes up.” She glances guiltily into her friend’s pudgy, concerned face. “I was for a while. After Frank and I spoke about getting married, I kept hoping he’d ask me whenever we went to the Premier in East Ham************ to watch a moving picture, or when we would go dancing at the Hammersmith Palais*************, but I’ve been waiting in vain. It’s disappointing.”
“Oh, I’m sure it is, Edith!”
“So, I just try to temper my wishes and stop getting my hopes up. I only get hurt when he doesn’t.”
“But he will, Edith.” Hilda assures her friend, reaching out her hands and squeezing Edith’s comfortingly. “I know he will!”
“How do you know, Hilda.”
“I told you, Edith. I’m a firm believer in cold, hard facts. And one thing I know for certain fact is that Frank is every bit as mad for you as you are for him. He’ll propose soon enough, and that’s a fact too.” Hilda nods seriously. “You mark my words, rather than Madame Fortuna’s.”
“Do you know what’s going on?” Edith gasps. “Has Frank said anything to you about today when he was delivering groceries to you?”
“Goodness me, no!” Hilda retorts quickly. “If I knew what you were doing today, why on earth would I ask you?”
“It could be part of some elaborate ruse.” Edith cannot help but betray the hope that today might be the day that Frank proposes as it causes her bright blue eyes to sparkle a little more and for a smile to tease the corners of her mouth as a flush fills her cheeks.
Hilda shakes her head again. “You’ve been reading too many of those Madeline St John romance novels, Edith! The world isn’t made up of sweeping, grandiose admissions of love: especially not now, with a dearth of young men after the war took so many of them away.”
“No. No, of course not! How foolish of me.” Edith replies, guilt filling her face as she remembers how her friend has no young man at all to step out with in her life. “Forgive me Hilda. I’m so thoughtless.”
“No you aren’t, Edith.” Hilda replies kindly with a dismissive wave of her own. “You’re just anxious, and wound up with the idea of getting married is all. Who wouldn’t be? I’d be the same if I were in your shoes.”
“No, I should be more considerate of your situation, Hilda.”
“Oh, you don’t have to tread around on eggshells************** on my account, Edith. I’m fine.”
“I don’t suppose you’ve met a nice young man, have you?”
“Pshaw!” Hilda mutters dismissively. “I haven’t even met a not-so-nice young man.”
Hilda gives her friend a doubtful look, and they both laugh good-naturedly, but their laughter is tinged with a little sadness. Edith still hopes that her best friend will one day meet a young man, or even an older one, who will meet her desires for an intelligent match, and form a loving relationship with him.
“Hasn’t Mrs. Minkin tried to match you up with a young man of her acquaintance?” Edith asks, referring to the old Jewess whom both she and Hilda visit when they shop of haberdashery in Whitechapel, and whose knitting circle Hilda has joined.
“It’s a bit hard when you aren’t Jewish.” Hilda remarks with a tone of despondence. “I’m one of the few women there who isn’t. Rachel Katz has a rather serious and studious elder brother who is unmarried, but their mother would never consider someone who wasn’t of their faith for him.”
“Oh, what a pity, Hilda.” Edith consoles her friend.
“It’s not a pity at all.” Hilda giggles in reply, surprising Edith.
“It isn’t?” Edith queries with a perplexed look.
“I’ve never met him, so he could be ugly, or beastly, or both, or simply not to my liking!” Hilda says matter-of-factly. “I’d rather be a spinster than marry a man I don’t love. I don’t understand how some women can do that.”
“Oh, I agree, Hilda!” Edith replies eagerly. “Don’t get married until you find the one, and yes, marry for love and nothing less.”
“Like you are with Frank.”
Edith smiles at her friend. “Don’t worry Hilda. Your Frank is out there somewhere.”
“Well, I just wish he’d bloody well hurry up and find me!” Hilda replies with a cheeky smile.
Both girls take a sideways glance at the matron on the bench next to them.
“Ahem!” she clears her throat loudly, pointedly expressing her disapproval of Hilda’s choice to swear, and her knitting becomes more fervent as she refuses to look at either Hilda or Edith, the furrows in her brow growing deeper and the scowl on her face becoming more pronounced.
“So where are you going to go then, whilst, I am going to my as of yet unknown destination with Frank in Clapham Junction, Hilda?” Edith asks. “The sales perhaps?”
“Good heavens no! I only just tolerate the department stores when I’m with you, Edith.” Hilda retorts. “No, I have a far more enticing assignation.”
“Assignation!” Edith gasps. “With whom? You just said you weren’t stepping out with anyone!”
“I’m not!” Hilda laughs. “I’m going to the British Museum*************** to see the Rosetta Stone**************** since it seems the whole of London has been gripped by Tutmania****************. I’ve never seen it, and now, I want to.”
Just at that moment with the thunder and rattle of its engine and the squeal of breaks, the Piccadilly line train with its brown painted carriages noisily enters Down Street railway station before coming to a juddering halt.
Edith, Hilda and the plump, grumpy matron in the undersized coat and cloche join the small number of other passengers boarding the train.
“I hope she isn’t going to the British Museum too.” Hilda remarks, nodding at the elderly lady as she waddles away from the two maids with her heavy basket of groceries in one hand and her blue beaded handbag with her knitting needles sticking out of it in the other, determined to sit in a different carriage to them.
“She looks more like she’ll come to Clapham Junction with me!” Edith giggles. “Let’s hope not. Come on.”
The two girls nimbly step aboard the carriage directly in front of them as the engine gently idles beneath them, making it thrum with a soothing vibration. Closing the door behind them, the guard at the end of the train blows his whistle shrilly, and as Edith and Hilda take two seats, the train jerks and commences the journey on to Dover Street railway station, Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square as the pair head off on their Wednesday afternoon adventures.
*Down Street, is a disused station on the London Underground, located in Mayfair. The Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway opened it in 1907. It was latterly served by the Piccadilly line and was situated between Dover Street (now named Green Park) and Hyde Park Corner stations. The station was little used; many trains passed through without stopping. Lack of patronage and proximity to other stations led to its closure in 1932. During the Second World War it was used as a bunker by the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, and the war cabinet. The station building survives and is close to Down Street's junction with Piccadilly.
**At over eighty-five hectares in size, Clapham Common is one of London’s largest, and oldest, public open spaces, situated between Clapham, Battersea and Balham. Clapham Common is mentioned as far back as 1086 in the famous Domesday Book, and was originally ‘common land’ for the Manors of Battersea and Clapham. Tenants of the Lords of the Manors, could graze their livestock, collect firewood or dig for clay and other minerals found on site. However, as a result of increasing threats from encroaching roads and housing developments, it was acquired in 1877 by the Metropolitan Board of Works, and designated a “Metropolitan Common”, which gives it protection from loss to development and preserves its open character.
***When we think of thermos flasks these days we are often reminded of the plaid and gawdy floral varieties that existed in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. Invented in 1892 by Sir James Dewar, a scientist at Oxford University, the "vacuum flask" was not manufactured for commercial use until 1904, when two German glass blowers formed Thermos GmbH. They held a contest to name the "vacuum flask" and a resident of Munich submitted "Thermos", which came from the Greek word "Therme" meaning "hot". In 1907, Thermos GmbH sold the Thermos trademark rights to three independent companies: The American Thermos Bottle Company of Brooklyn, New York; Thermos Limited of Tottenham, England; Canadian Thermos Bottle Co. Ltd. of Montreal, Canada. The three Thermos companies operated independently of each other, yet developed the Thermos vacuum flask into a widely sought after product that was taken on many famous expeditions, including: Schackelton\'s trip to the South Pole; Lieutenant Robert E. Peary\'s trip to the Arctic; Colonel Roosevelt\'s expedition to Mombassa and into the heart of the African Congo with Richard Harding Davis. It even became airborne when the Wright Brothers took it up in their airplane and Count Zepplin carried it up in his air balloon.
****A Peter Pan collar is a style of clothing collar, flat in design with rounded corners. It is named after the collar of Maude Adams's costume in her 1905 role as Peter Pan, although similar styles had been worn before this date. Peter Pan collars were particularly fashionable during the 1920s and 1930s.
*****The Italian quarter of London, known commonly today as “Little Italy” is an Italian ethnic enclave in London. Little Italy’s core historical borders are usually placed at Clerkenwell Road, Farringdon Road and Rosebery Avenue - the Saffron Hill area of Clerkenwell. Clerkenwell spans Camden Borough and Islington Borough. Saffron Hill and St. Peter’s Italian Catholic Church fall within the Camden side. However, even though this was the traditional enclave for Italians, immigrants moved elsewhere in London, bleeding into areas like Islington and Soho where they established bars, cafes and restaurants which sold Italian cuisine and wines.
******A tartar is a bad-tempered or aggressively assertive person, typically a woman, and is based upon the hard crust of calcium salts and food particles on the teeth which is known as tartar.
*******Arding and Hobbs was established in 1876. A second store was established on the corner of Falcon Road, Battersea, known as the Falcon Road Drapery Store, but this was sold to former employees Mr. Hunt & Mr. Cole in 1894. The original building was destroyed by a fire on 20 December 1909. The present building at the junction of Lavender Hill and St John's Road in Battersea was constructed in 1910 in an Edwardian Baroque style, and the architect was James Gibson. The department store was sold to the John Anstiss Group in 1938, however, John Anstiss was purchased by United Drapery Stores in 1948. The store was added to the Allders group in the 1970s and continued to operate until Allders went into administration in 2005. The building was subsequently broken up and sold, with the building split between a branch of Debenhams department store and TK Maxx retail.
********Lavender Hill is a bustling high street serving residents of Clapham Junction, Battersea and beyond. Until the mid Nineteenth Century, Battersea was predominantly a rural area with lavender and asparagus crops cultivated in local market gardens. Hence, it’s widely thought that Lavender Hill was named after Lavender Hall, built in the late Eighteenth Century, where lavender grew on the north side of the hill.
*********Established in 1838 by Andreas Schwar who was a clock and watch maker from Baden in Germany, Schwar and Company on Walworth Road in Elephant and Castle was a watchmaker and jewellers that is still a stalwart of the area today. The shop still retains its original Victorian shopfront with its rounded plate glass windows.
**********The London suburb of Elephant and Castle, south of the Thames, past Lambeth was known as "the Piccadilly Circus of South London" because it was such a busy shopping precinct. When you went shopping there, it was commonly referred to by Londoners, but South Londoners in particular, as “going up the Elephant”.
***********According to the Dictionary of London Place Names, the district of Swiss Cottage is named after an inn called The Swiss Tavern that was built in 1804 in the style of a Swiss chalet on the site of a former tollgate keeper's cottage, and later renamed Swiss Inn and in the early 20th century Swiss Cottage.
************The Premier Super Cinema in East Ham was opened on the 12th of March, 1921, replacing the 800 seat capacity 1912 Premier Electric Theatre. The new cinema could seat 2,408 patrons. The Premier Super Cinema was taken over by Provincial Cinematograph Theatres who were taken over by Gaumont British in February 1929. It was renamed the Gaumont from 21st April 1952. The Gaumont was closed by the Rank Organisation on 6th April 1963. After that it became a bingo hall and remained so until 2005. Despite attempts to have it listed as a historic building due to its relatively intact 1921 interior, the Gaumont was demolished in 2009.
*************The Hammersmith Palais de Danse, in its last years simply named Hammersmith Palais, was a dance hall and entertainment venue in Hammersmith, London, England that operated from 1919 until 2007. It was the first palais de danse to be built in Britain.
**************The idiom "walk on eggshells" meaning to be extremely cautious or careful, likely originated from the imagery of eggshells being fragile and easily broken when stepped on. The original, Eighteenth Century version was to “tread on eggs,” which the Oxford English Dictionary defines as “to walk warily, as on delicate ground.” The only two citations for the whole-egg version in the Oxford English Dictionary are from the same author, Roger North, and appear in biographical works he published around 1734.
***************The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human culture from its beginnings to the present. Established in 1753, the British Museum was the first public national museum.
****************The Rosetta Stone is a stele of granodiorite inscribed with three versions of a decree issued in 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt, on behalf of King Ptolemy V Epiphanes. The top and middle texts are in Ancient Egyptian using hieroglyphic and Demotic scripts, respectively, while the bottom is in Ancient Greek. The decree has only minor differences across the three versions, making the Rosetta Stone key to deciphering the Egyptian scripts.
*****************"Tutmania" refers to the widespread global fascination and cultural impact that followed the discovery of King Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922, sparking a surge in interest in ancient Egypt and its artifacts over the next few years.
This London Underground scene may look like one you could just walk into and sit down in, but it is not all that it seems, for it is in fact made up entirely with pieces from my 1:12 miniatures collection.
Fun thing to look for in this tableau include:
The travel advertisement, sale advert and London Underground map along the tiled wall are all 1:12 size posters made by the British miniature artisan Ken Blythe. Ken is known mostly for the 1:12 miniature books he created. I have quite a large representation of Ken Blythe’s work in my collection, but he also produced other items, including posters. All of these are genuine copies of real inter-war Art Deco travel posters put out by the different British railways to promote travelling on them. To create something so authentic to the original in such detail and so clearly, really does make these items miniature artisan pieces. Ken Blythe’s work is highly sought after by miniaturists around the world today and command high prices at auction for such tiny pieces, particularly now that he is no longer alive. I was fortunate enough to acquire pieces from Ken Blythe prior to his death about four years ago, as well as through his estate via his daughter and son-in-law. His legacy will live on with me and in my photography which I hope will please his daughter.
Edith’s green handbag and Hilda’s brown one are handmade from soft leather is part of a larger collection of hats and bags that I bought from an American miniature collector Marilyn Bickel.
The black umbrella came from an online stockist of 1:12 miniatures on E-Bay.
The basket I acquired from beautifully Handmade Miniatures in Kettering. In the basket are some very lifelike looking fruit and vegetables. The apples are made of polymer clay are made by a 1:12 miniature specialist in Germany. The leaves of lettuce are artisan made of very thin sheets of clay and are beautifully detailed. I acquired them from an auction house some twenty years ago as part of a lot made up of miniature artisan food. There are also several jars, one of Silver Shred Marmalade and one of P.C. Flett & Co Plum Jam, and a box of Hudson’s Soap, all made by Little Things Dollhouse Miniatures in Lancashire, with great attention to detail paid to their labels and the shapes of their jars.
Silver Shred lime marmalade still exists today and is a common household brand both in Britain and Australia. They are produced by Robertson’s. Robertson’s Golden Shred recipe perfected since 1874 is a clear and tangy orange marmalade, which according to their modern day jars is “perfect for Paddington’s marmalade sandwiches”. Robertson’s Silver Shred is a clear, tangy, lemon flavoured shredded marmalade. Robertson’s marmalade dates back to 1874 when Mrs. Robertson started making marmalade in the family grocery shop in Paisley, Scotland.
P.C. Flett and Company was established in Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands by Peter Copeland Flett. He had inherited a small family owned ironmongers in Albert Street Kirkwall, which he inherited from his maternal family. He had a shed in the back of the shop where he made ginger ale, lemonade, jams and preserves from local produce. By the 1920s they had an office in Liverpool, and travelling representatives selling jams and preserves around Great Britain. I am not sure when the business ceased trading.
Robert Spear Hudson invented the first dry soap powder, "Hudson's Dry Soap" in 1837 in his small pharmacy in West Bromwich, England, moving to Liverpool in the 1880s. He advertised extensively, first locally and then nationally, as his business and use of his products grew. The firm was taken over by Lever Brothers Ltd. (now part of Unilever) in 1908. The soap's use for cleaning the nursery floor (leaving the room "sweetened and purified"), baths, feeding bottles and on linen is boasted about on some small boxes on the reverse.
The beaded handbag is also a 1:12 artisan miniature. Hand crocheted, it is interwoven with antique blue glass beads that are two millimetres in diameter. The beads of the handle are three millimetres in length.
All the luggage you see on the platform are artisan pieces made by different unknown artists. All of them I acquired from Kathleen Knight’s Doll’s House Shop in the United kingdom. The fawn coloured parasol and Mary Poppins style parrot head umbrella are also artisan miniatures and were acquired from Kathleen Knight’s Doll’s House Shop as was the knitting which sits on the bench. The silver knobbed walking stick is also a 1:12 artisan miniature. The top is sterling silver. It was made by the Little Green Workshop in England who specialise in high end, high quality miniatures.
The bench is made by Town Hall Miniatures, and acquired through E-Bay.
The sun setting over the jagged shoreline of #FortWilliamsPark and the #PortlandHeadLighthouse in Maine. Make sure to experience all the natural beauty and Treasures Of Traveling this park has to offer!
treasuresoftraveling.com/portland-head-light/
#TreasuresOfTraveling #Portland #Maine #NewEngland #TravelBlog #WorldTravel #WorldTraveler #TravelBlogger #TravelPics #TravelPhotos #LukeKeelerTravels #TravelUSA #GlobeTrotter #PassportStamps #TravelTheWorld #TourThePlanet #TheGlobeWanderer #Wanderlust #DiscoverEarth #AwesomeGlobe #FantasticEarth #TravelGram #OptOutside #NaturalBeauty #GayTraveler #Coastline #Sunset #GuysWhoTravel
The sun setting over the jagged shoreline of #FortWilliamsPark and the #PortlandHeadLighthouse in Maine. Make sure to experience all the natural beauty and Treasures Of Traveling this park has to offer!
treasuresoftraveling.com/portland-head-light/
#TreasuresOfTraveling #Portland #Maine #NewEngland #TravelBlog #WorldTravel #WorldTraveler #TravelBlogger #TravelPics #TravelPhotos #LukeKeelerTravels #TravelUSA #GlobeTrotter #PassportStamps #TravelTheWorld #TourThePlanet #TheGlobeWanderer #Wanderlust #DiscoverEarth #AwesomeGlobe #FantasticEarth #TravelGram #OptOutside #NaturalBeauty #GayTraveler #Coastline #Sunset #GuysWhoTravel
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I absolutely love the hidden beauty in this world. real beauty they have to offer. IN comes the camera and Macro leans and the talent it takes to see the beauty from a different angle. Yes people will you when you lay on the ground to find that perfect composition but the artist will do whatever it takes.
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Cavendish Mews is a smart set of flats in Mayfair where flapper and modern woman, the Honourable Lettice Chetwynd has set up home after coming of age and gaining her allowance. To supplement her already generous allowance, and to break away from dependence upon her family, Lettice has established herself as a society interior designer, so her flat is decorated with a mixture of elegant antique Georgian pieces and modern Art Deco furnishings, using it as a showroom for what she can offer to her well heeled clients.
Today however we are northwest of Lettice’s flat, in the working-class London suburb of Harlesden visiting the home of Edith’s, Lettice’s maid, beloved parents. Edith’s father, George, works at the McVitie and Price biscuit factory in Harlesden as a Line Manager, and her mother, Ada, takes in laundry at home. They live in a small, two storey brick terrace house which opens out directly onto the street, and is far removed from the grandeur of Lettice’s Mayfair flat, but has always been a cosy and welcoming home for Edith and her younger brother Bert all their young lives. Since her father’s promotion in 1922, Edith’s mother is only laundering a few days a week now. The money she makes from this endeavour she uses for housekeeping to make she and George’s life a little more comfortable, but she is able to hold back a little back as pin money* to indulge in one of her joys, collecting pretty china ornaments to decorate their home with.
We are in Ada’s front parlour, which is where most of her decorative porcelain finds from different shops, fairs and flea markets around London are proudly displayed. With busy stylised floral wallpaper and every surface cluttered with ornaments, it can only be described as highly Victorian in style, and it is an example of conscious consumption, rather than qualitative consumption, to demonstrate how prosperous the Watsford family is, especially now that George holds the management position that he does. Like many others of its kind in Harlesden and elsewhere in London, it is the room least used in the house, reserved for when special guests like the parish minister or wealthy old widow and the Watsford’s landlady, Mrs. Hounslow, pay a call. However today’s special guest is not either the minister, nor Mrs. Hounslow. It is Frank Leadbetter, Edith’s beau, who has arranged to visit Edith’s parents on his own, as he has a very important question to ask of them both.
Dressed in his Sunday best suit, Frank sits awkwardly in one of two Victorian high backed barley twist chairs. The combination of the formality of his suit and the hard and uncomfortable horsehair upholstery of the chair encourage Frank to sit with a ramrod stiff back in his seat. He looks awkwardly around the room, allowing his gaze to flit in a desultory fashion around the unfamiliar surrounds of the Watsford’s formal front parlour. Cluttering the surface of an old Victorian sideboard and an ornate whatnot, the cold stares of Queen Victoria, Edward VII, Queen Alexandra and the current King George V and Queen Mary stare out from the glazed surfaces of plates and other objects celebrating coronations and jubilees, whilst on the mantle, flanked by pretty statues of castles and churches, younger versions of George and Ada in sepia pose formally with Edith as a little girl and Bert as a baby, gazing out from brass frames with blank stares. Frank coughs awkwardly and nervously tugs at his stiff collar, feeling hot even though there is no fire going in the small grate of the fireplace.
“Now, now, young Frank!” George booms good naturedly from the one comfortable seat in the room, an old armchair with thick red velvet button back** upholstery. “No need to be nervous, me lad!”
“Oh, you don’t know why I’m here, Mr. Watsford.” Frank replies, running his right index finger nervously around the inside of his collar.
George chuckles. “I think I can guess, Frank.”
Frank gazes down at Ada’s dainty best blue floral china tea set on the lace draped octagonal table set between the cluster of chairs. A selection of McVitie’s*** biscuits brought home by George from the nearby factory sit in a fluted glass dish.
“Will Mrs. Watsford be long, do you think, Mr. Watsford?”
“I shouldn’t think so, Frank. She’s only gone to boil the kettle and fill the pot.”
As if knowing that she was being spoken about, Ada sweeps through the door of the parlour, holding aloft the glazed teapot in the shape of a cottage with a thatched roof with the chimney as the lid that Edith bought for her as a gift from the Caledonian Markets****. “Here we are then,” she says with a heightened level of exuberance. “Tea for three!” She carefully places the teapot in the centre of the tea table.
“Perfect timing, Ada love.” George replies, and without waiting, reaches across the void between him and the tea table and snatches up a biscuit.
“George!” she chides. “Where are your manners?” She looks askance at her husband, who settles back in his seat, quite unperturbed by his wife’s scolding. “Guests first.” She sweeps her hand across the table towards the biscuits as she lowers herself precariously onto the edge of the other high backed barley twist chair. “Frank?”
“Err… umm…” Frank stutters. “Ahh, no… no thank you, Mrs. Watsford. I… I’m not hungry.”
“Oh well, more for us then, Ada love.” George says cheerfully through a biscuit filled mouth, stretching out his hand to the glass dish again.
“George!” Ada cries, slapping her husband’s hand sharply, the sound echoing around the cluttered parlour.
George retreats in his seat, recoiling and rubbing his chastised hand rather like a dog nurses a limp paw.
“Shall I be mother then*****?” Ada asks rhetorically as she automatically picks up the milk jug. “You take milk, don’t you Frank?”
“Err… yes, Mrs. Watsford.” Frank replies as she slops some milk into his cup before adding a dash to her husband’s and her own.
“And sugar?”
“Err.. two please, Mrs. Watsford.”
“Ahh, a sweet tooth after my own heart.” Ada replies with an indulgent smile, putting two heaped teaspoons of sugar into Frank’s cup before adding one to George’s and two to her own. “Now!” she sighs, taking up the cottage ware teapot pouring tea into the cups. “You wanted to talk to us, Frank?”
“Well…” Frank begins.
“You know it feels jolly funny having you here Frank, but not Edith.” Ada interrupts the young man even as he begins. “I’m quite used to you coming with Edith now.”
“Well, you know… I… I really wanted this to be a conversation that I had alone with you and Mr. Watsford,” Frank indicates to George, still licking his wounds. “Mrs. Watsford. So, I asked Hilda to take Edith out shopping today.”
“And she isn’t missing you, Frank?” Ada queries, as she replaces the pot in the middle of the tea table.
“Err…” Frank blushers, heaving and puffing his cheeks out. “Well, I told Edith a bit of a tall tale. I said that I had to help Giuseppe, my chum with his restaurant in the Islington****** today.”
“Oh yes,” Ada remarks with a tone of distaste as she hands George his cup of tea. “Giuseppe. He was your Italian friend who gave you the wine that we shared that first time we met, wasn’t he?”
Frank blushes red at the painful memory of that first rather awkward Sunday luncheon he had at the Watsfords’ when he and Ada had had a disagreement about some of his beliefs about life. “Yes.”
“My, my.” Ada takes up her own cup of tea and cradles it in her lap as she smiles to herself. “Such subterfuge to be alone with us.”
“You might not enjoy poor Frank’s discomfort quite so readily, Ada.” George pipes up from his seat as he sips his tea, tempering his wife.
“I was merely asking a question, George love.” Ada replies with a smug smile.
“No you weren’t, and you know it.” George retorts. “You were bringing up difficult memories of that awkward first tea we all had together, when you know perfectly well that we have all come a long way from there.” He gives his wife a doleful look. “Stop raking over old coals that don’t need to be raked over.”
“I agree, George.” Ada replies calmly. “We have come a long way; however, I was merely reminding Frank that in spite of that, we still have some concerns about his philosophies about life.”
“You have concerns, Ada love. I don’t.”
“Well one of us has to, if Frank has come here asking for Edith’s hand.” Ada turns her attentions to their young guest. “That is why you are here, isn’t it, Frank?”
“Well… I…” Frank stammers.
“Of course it is, Ada love. Frank?” George asks, sitting up in his seat.
“Well yes, Mr. Watsford. That’s what I came for. I came to formally ask for Edith’s hand in marriage.”
George leaps from his seat, dropping his half drunk cup of tea into the tea table noisily, sloshing tea into the saucer in his haste, before he bustles around the small black japanned cane table on which a vase of flowers stands before patting Frank on the back. “Of course! Of course! We’d be delighted, wouldn’t we Ada?” He turns and beams at his wife before turning quickly back to Frank without waiting for a reply. “What took you so long, Frank my boy?”
“Well Mr. Watsford, I know Edith and I have been stepping out for a while now,” Frank explains, sighing with relief and smiling at George’s exuberant acceptance of his request for Edith’s hand. “But I wanted to have a few things in place before I asked you.”
“Jolly good! Jolly good!” George chuckles delightedly. “Have you got a ring yet?”
“I’m not quite there yet, Mr. Watsford, but I’m getting there. I… I also wanted to assure you that my intentions are genuine. I… I love Edith and I don’t want anyone else.”
“Well, of course you don’t, lad!” George puffs, rubbing the young man’s right shoulder comfortingly. “We knew the moment we saw you together, that you two were made for each other, didn’t we Ada?”
Ada doesn’t reply immediately.
“Oh, this is wonderful, Frank!” George shakes Frank’s hands, barely able to contain his joy. “Welcome to the family!”
“Now just hang on for a moment.” Ada’s voice cuts in, slicing the joy with its sharp edge. “Let’s not rush into this without a few clarifying things first.”
“What?” George asks. He snorts preposterously. “Whatever do mean, Ada love? Frank’s just said his intentions are good. I don’t need anything more than that.”
“Well I do.” Ada replies calmly.
“What… what is… is it, Mrs. Watsford?” Frank asks, his voice quavering with nerves.
“Now, if you’d both just sit down for a moment,” Ada says, replacing her cup on the table, indicating for the two men to resume their seats.
Deflated, both Frank and George return to their respective seats.
“Now, Frank,” Ada starts, leaning forward in her seat. “I would just like to say that in principle, I am as pleased as my husband is that you’re asking for Edith’s hand in marriage.”
“Then Ada…?” George begins, but his wife silences him by holding up the palm of her hand to him.
She goes on. “I’d already had words with Edith about the two of you eloping.”
“Oh I’d never do that to you, Mr. Watsford or my Gran, Mrs. Watsford.” Frank assures her, looking earnestly into her unreadable face.
“Yes, I’m glad to hear it, as it confirms what Edith said, which was the same as you.” Ada turns to her husband. “Prospects?”
George looks quizzically at his wife. “Prospects?”
“Yes, prospects!” Ada’s eyes grow wide as she looks knowingly at him. She lowers her voice and whispers, “Remember, we discussed this?” When he looks uncomprehendingly at her again, she adds in a hiss, “When I said you’d go all doolally******* over Frank’s proposal, which you have?”
“Oh!” George pipes up. “Oh yes!” He sits up in his seat and turns to Frank. “Now young man, Both you and Edith have told us that you’re trying to improve your lot in life.” Ada scoffs from her seat. Ignoring her, he asks, “What are your prospects for Edith, once you’re married?”
“Well, it is true that I am trying to improve my circumstances. It’s one of the reasons why I have held off asking for Ediths hand until now. Like I said, I wanted to get a few things in place before I did.”
“Such as?” George’s bushy eyebrow arches over his right eye as he asks.
“Well, as you both know, I’ve been doing extra duties at Mr. Willison’s to build up my skills. I don’t want to be a delivery boy all my life.”
“No of course not, lad!” George pipes up.
“George!” Ada exclaims. “Let the boy finish. I want to hear what he has to say, not you.”
“Err… no, of course not.” George blusters. “Go on, Frank.”
“Well, I’ve been doing a bit of window dressing and arranging of products for Mr. Willison. I’ve also been taking a correspondence course on bookkeeping, which Edith doesn’t know about.”
“Why not?” Ada snaps.
“Because I wanted to complete it first and show that I’ve applied the skills before I told her: rather like a surprise, Mrs. Watsford.”
“Alright Frank.” Ada softens. “And have you?”
“Well, it’s a bit hard to get Mrs. Willison to relinquish anything about the shop’s books, but I did manage to do a bit of bookkeeping earlier this month when she was poorly and in bed. Technically she gave the task to her daughter, Miss Henrietta, but she wanted to do other things in her spare time, so it was reasonably easy to convince her to give it over to me to do, and Mrs. Willison did admit that I did a good job of it.”
“Well that’s something, isn’t it Ada?”
Ada nods in agreement with her husband, but keeps looking at Frank with an observant stare.
Frank continues. “And I’ve been tapped on the shoulder by friends of mine who are part of a trades union.” An uncomfortable look begins to cloud Ada’s features at the mention of unions. “And they tell me that soon there might be an opening or two in one of the suburban grocers for an assistant manager position, which would lead eventually to a position where I’d be running my own corner grocer.”
“In Metroland********?” George splutters. “My daughter all the way out there?”
“It’s not so bad, Mr. Watsford. The Chalk Hill, Grange and Cedars Estates are all built along the railway line not too far from Wembley Park, so Edith would be able to visit you easily, and you’d be able to come and visit us too. We’d live in a nice little flat above the shop with indoor plumbing and all electrified.” Ada tuts at the mention of electricity, but Frank continues to paint a vision of his and Edith’s rosy future. “The children we have, your grandchildren can grow up attending local schools and getting lots of fresh air.”
“Well, since you put it like that, I guess it’s not so bad, is it Ada?”
“Well,” Ada purses her lips. “I’m sure that Edith has told you that I hold no faith in that newfangled electricity, but living in Cavendish Mews she seems to have become a convert.”
“And a lovely new estate is far healthier for any children that we have, Mrs. Watsford. It’s far better than living in a house in Clapham Junction.”
“And how much will this flat of yours cost?” Ada asks seriously.
“Around five shillings a week for a two-up two down******** semi********* in the Chalk Hill Estate, Mrs. Watsford.” Frank says, gaining strength in his convictions, filling his voice with a new boldness and surety. “And, if we were to live in a flat above the grocers’ shop, it would be even less, and we’d still have all the modern conveniences like hot and cold running water and an inside privy.”
“Nothing wrong with an outdoor privy.” remarks George.
“Nothing wrong with an indoor one, either, Mr. Watsford. I only the best for Edith and our children.”
“Alright, young Frank.” George backs down.
“Now, going back to what I had eluded to before, Frank,” Ada continues. “You’re a good lad, Frank Leadbetter, and I can see that by your thoughtfulness and your manners. I know you love our Edith, and you obviously treat her very well…”
“As she deserves, Mrs. Watsford.” Frank assures her.
“I know, Frank.” Ada tempers him. “However, the vehemence with which you spurn your new ideas around is still a bit frightening to me.”
“Oh, there’s nothing to be frightened of Mrs. Watsford.”
“But these labour unions of yours…” Ada’s voice trails off.
“I can assure you, Mrs. Watsford, the unions aren’t bad, and I am not a Communist.” Frank defends himself. “As I said just before, I only want the best for Edith and for the family I hope we will have together. I just want a better world for all of us, and the unions will help with that. However, I swear that I’m not associated with any of those militant factions that popped up after the Russian Revolution. I believe in peaceable actions, discussion and compromise.” Frank looks earnestly at Ada. “I would never put Edith in any danger. I’m a hard working man who just wants a good future. Some of the finer details of it may be different to yours and Mr. Watsford’s, Mrs. Watsford, but at the end of the day, our ideals are the same, and whatever I do, Edith and her wellbeing is central in everything I do, and everything I have planned.”
Ada sighs and smiles. “Alright Frank. So long as she is, I can only give you my blessing too.”
“Oh thank you, Mrs. Watsford!” Frank exclaims, standing up and walking over to Ada who rises from her seat and embraces Frank kindly.
“Good lad!” George says, standing up as well and beaming over his wife’s shoulder, winking at Frank.
He reaches down and snatches up two more biscuits from the fluted glass bowl on the tea table.
“George!” Ada scolds, not quick enough to catch him this time.
He smiles back at her gormlessly.
“At this rate I’m going to have to let out that vest of yours, George Wastford!” Ada remarks.
George turns to Frank. “Are you sure you want the joy of these moments of wedded bliss, Frank my boy?” he asks jokingly.
*Originating in Seventeenth Century England, the term pin money first meant “an allowance of money given by a husband to his wife for her personal expenditures. Married women, who typically lacked other sources of spending money, tended to view an allowance as something quite desirable. By the Twentieth Century, the term had come to mean a small sum of money, whether an allowance or earned, for spending on inessentials, separate and in addition to the housekeeping money a wife might have to spend.
**Button back upholstered furniture contains buttons embedded in the back of the sofa or chair, which are pulled tightly against the leather creating a shallow dimple effect. This is sometimes known as button tufting.
***McVitie's (Originally McVitie and Price) is a British snack food brand owned by United Biscuits. The name derives from the original Scottish biscuit maker, McVitie and Price, Ltd., established in 1830 on Rose Street in Edinburgh, Scotland. The company moved to various sites in the city before completing the St. Andrews Biscuit Works factory on Robertson Avenue in the Gorgie district in 1888. The company also established one in Glasgow and two large manufacturing plants south of the border, in Heaton Chapel, Stockport, and Harlesden, London (where Edith’s father works). McVitie and Price's first major biscuit was the McVitie's Digestive, created in 1892 by a new young employee at the company named Alexander Grant, who later became the managing director of the company. The biscuit was given its name because it was thought that its high baking soda content served as an aid to food digestion. The McVitie's Chocolate Homewheat Digestive was created in 1925. Although not their core operation, McVitie's were commissioned in 1893 to create a wedding cake for the royal wedding between the Duke of York and Princess Mary, who subsequently became King George V and Queen Mary. This cake was over two metres high and cost one hundred and forty guineas. It was viewed by 14,000 and was a wonderful publicity for the company. They received many commissions for royal wedding cakes and christening cakes, including the wedding cake for Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip and Prince William and Catherine Middleton. Under United Biscuits McVitie's holds a Royal Warrant from Queen Elizabeth II.
****The original Caledonian Market, renown for antiques, buried treasure and junk, was situated in in a wide cobblestoned area just off the Caledonian Road in Islington in 1921 when this story is set. Opened in 1855 by Prince Albert, and originally called the Metropolitan Meat Markets, it was supplementary to the Smithfield Meat Market. Arranged in a rectangle, the market was dominated by a forty six metre central clock tower. By the early Twentieth Century, with the diminishing trade in live animals, a bric-a-brac market developed and flourished there until after the Second World War when it moved to Bermondsey, south of the Thames, where it flourishes today. The Islington site was developed in 1967 into the Market Estate and an open green space called Caledonian Park. All that remains of the original Caledonian Markets is the wonderful Victorian clock tower.
*****The meaning of the very British term “shall I be mother” is “shall I pour the tea?”
******The Italian quarter of London, known commonly today as “Little Italy” is an Italian ethnic enclave in London. Little Italy’s core historical borders are usually placed at Clerkenwell Road, Farringdon Road and Rosebery Avenue - the Saffron Hill area of Clerkenwell. Clerkenwell spans Camden Borough and Islington Borough. Saffron Hill and St. Peter’s Italian Catholic Church fall within the Camden side. However, even though this was the traditional enclave for Italians, immigrants moved elsewhere in London, bleeding into areas like Islington and Soho where they established bars, cafes and restaurants which sold Italian cuisine and wines.
*******Doolally is British and Irish slang for a person who is eccentric or has gone mad. It originated in the military.
*******Metroland is a name given to the suburban areas that were built to the north-west of London in the counties of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Middlesex in the early part of the Twentieth Century that were served by the Metropolitan Railway. The railway company was in the privileged position of being allowed to retain surplus land; from 1919 this was developed for housing by the nominally independent Metropolitan Railway Country Estates Limited (MRCE). The term "Metroland" was coined by the Met's marketing department in 1915 when the Guide to the Extension Line became the Metro-land guide. It promoted a dream of a modern home in beautiful countryside with a fast railway service to central London until the Met was absorbed into the London Passenger Transport Board in 1933.
********Two-up two-down is a type of small house with two rooms on the ground floor and two bedrooms upstairs. There are many types of terraced houses in the United Kingdom, and these are among the most modest. The first two-up two-down terraces were built in the 1870s, but the concept of them made up the backbone of the Metroland suburban expansions of the 1920s with streets lined with rows of two-up two-down semi-detached houses in Mock Tudor, Jacobethan, Arts and Crafts and inter-war Art Deco styles bastardised from the aesthetic styles created by the likes of English Arts and Crafts Movement designers like William Morris and Charles Voysey.
*********A semi-detached house (known more commonly simply as a semi) is a house joined to another house on one side only by a common wall.
This cluttered and old fashioned, yet cosy front parlour may look realistic to you, however it is in fact made up of pieces from my 1:12 miniatures collection, including pieces from my childhood.
You may think that by 1926 when this story is set, that homes would have been more modern and less Victorian, and many were. However, there were a lot of people during this era who grew up and established their homes during the reign of Queen Victoria and did not want to update their homes, or could not afford to do so, so an interior like this would not have been uncommon in the 1920s and even in the lead up to and during the Second World War.
Fun things to look for in this tableau include:
The old fashioned high backed Victorian chairs with their barley twist detailing and brass casters were made by Town Hall Miniatures
Ada’s collection of commemorative plates of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897, the Coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra in 1902 and the Coronation of King George V and Queen Mary in 1911 on the sideboard and the whatnot are all made by the British miniature artist Rachel Munday. The plate of Edward VIII on the far left is a piece of souvenir ware from around 1905 and is made of very finely pressed tin.
The bust of Queen Victoria was made by Warwick Miniatures in Ireland, who are well known for the quality and detail applied to their pieces. It has been hand painted by me.
The Victorian Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) vase in the centre of the fireplace has been hand made, painted and gilded by Welsh miniature ceramist Rachel Williams who has her own studio, V&R Miniatures, in Powys.
The Watsford family photos on the mantlepiece are all real photos, produced to high standards in 1:12 size on photographic paper by Little Things Dollhouse Miniatures in Lancashire. The frames are from various suppliers, but all are metal.
The church and castle statues at either end of the fireplace are made of resin and are hand painted. They came from Kathleen Knight’s Dolls’ House Shop in the United Kingdom.
Sitting on the central pedestal table is the cottage ware teapot Edith gave her mother as a gift a few years ago. Made by French ceramicist and miniature artisan Valerie Casson, it has been decorated authentically and matches in perfect detail its life-size Price Washington ‘Ye Olde Cottage Teapot’ counterparts. The top part of the thatched rood and central chimney form the lid, just like the real thing. Valerie Casson is renown for her meticulously crafted and painted miniature ceramics.
Also on the table, the glass dish of biscuits is an artisan piece. The bowl is made from real glass with the biscuits attached and hand painted. It came from Beautifully Handmade Miniatures in Kettering. The teacups, milk jug and sugar bowl also come from Kathleen Knight’s Dolls’ House Shop.
Ada’s wicker sewing basket, sitting closed to show off its pretty florally decorated top, has knitting needles sticking out of it. The basket was hand made by Mrs. Denton of Muffin Lodge in the United Kingdom.
The fireplace, the whatnot, the central pedestal table, the embroidered footstool by the fireplace, the brass fire irons and the ornate black japanned cane table on which Ada’s sewing box stand also came from Kathleen Knight’s Dolls’ House Shop.
The sideboard is a piece I bought as part of a larger drawing room suite of dolls house furniture from a department store when I was a teenager.
The collection of floral vases on the bottom two tiers of the whatnot came from an online stockist of miniatures on E-Bay.
The vase of flowers are all beautifully made by hand by the Doll House Emporium and inserted into a real, hand blown glass vase.
The little white vase in the forefront of the photo is mid Victorian and would once have been part of a tiny doll’s tea service. It is Parian Ware. Parian Ware is a type of biscuit porcelain imitating marble. It was developed around 1845 by the Staffordshire pottery manufacturer Mintons, and named after Paros, the Greek island renowned for its fine-textured, white Parian marble, used since antiquity for sculpture. I have had it since I was about ten years old.
The ‘home sweet home’ embroidery and the painting on the wall come from online shops who sell dollhouse miniatures, as does the Art Nouveau vase on the left hand side of the picture.
All images available for licensing via me. I offer commercial and editorial pet photography on a commissioned basis. And with a pet picture database with thousands of hand-picked images of dogs, cats, as well as horses, I might already have what you are looking for. All pictures here can be licensed.
For licensing and commission requests: info{at}elkevogelsang.com -
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A close family member once offered his opinion that I exhibit the phone manners of a goat, then promptly withdrew the charge - out of fairness to goats.
~ Jeffrey Kluger
This image offers a crisp, head-on view of MIKI GAKKI BASS SIDE, a specialty bass guitar shop located in the heart of Osaka’s Amerikamura (American Village) district—Japan’s mecca for musicians and gearheads alike. With gleaming glass doors and a brightly lit showroom, the entrance to this bass-only annex beckons to players of all levels, from casual enthusiasts to seasoned professionals.
Inside, a stunning lineup of bass guitars in every imaginable color and configuration hangs in orderly rows, creating a visual rhythm that mirrors the music these instruments are designed to produce. The reflected lighting and spotless floors speak to the shop’s modern, premium feel, while its highly curated inventory makes it a destination shop for low-end lovers across Japan and beyond.
MIKI GAKKI, one of Japan’s most legendary music retailers since 1825, is known for its elite service and expansive product range. The BASS SIDE location continues that tradition with a focused dedication to electric basses, amps, accessories, and boutique brands. Posters in the window announce promotions, gear buybacks, and shop hours (12:00–20:00), reinforcing this shop’s reputation as both a showroom and a community hub for serious musicians.
Even the corridor leading to the shop adds to the sense of anticipation—with clean architecture, quiet lighting, and an invitingly wide-open approach that frames the shop like a stage. Whether you’re in the market for a rare custom bass or simply want to bask in the glow of expertly displayed instruments, MIKI GAKKI BASS SIDE is a must-visit stop on any music-lover’s Osaka itinerary.
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 1041, offered by Les Carbones Korès 'Carboplane'. Photo: Studio Vallois.
Beautiful blonde Anny Nelsen (1942) was best known in France as Miss Angora. She also appeared in a dozen French film, including the Nouvelle Vague classic Jules et Jim (1962).
Anny or Annie Nelsen was born in 1942. She made her first film appearance with an uncredited bit part in the German-French romantic comedy Ein Engel auf Erden/An Angel on Wheels (1959, Géza von Radványi ) starring Romy Schneider. She also appeared in the action thriller Ça va être ta fête/ It's Your Birthday (1960, Pierre Montazel) starring hard boiled Eddie Constantine, and in the short film Rupture/ (1962, Jean-Claude Carrière, Pierre Étaix) starring the 'forgotten' French comic Pierre Étaix. This 11 minutes-long-film won an award at the Mannheim-Heidelberg International Filmfestival, and the First Prize at the International Short Film Festival, Oberhausen. Her next film would turn out to be her most successful one. She played the supporting part of Lucie in the classic love triangle Jules et Jim/Jules and Jim (1962, François Truffaut) with Jeanne Moreau and Oskar Werner. James Travers at Films de France: “Jules et Jim, François Truffaut’s undisputed masterpiece, was one of the high points of the French New Wave, a film which, with its uninhibited portrayal of free love and male friendship, instantly caught the Zeitgeist and became a worldwide success.”
Anny Nelsen was better known as a glamour model and sexy dancer than as an actress . Her main claim to fame was her election as Miss Angora, which was mentioned on the backside of the pictured postcard. After Jules et Jim, Nelsen did not appear in films for five years. In 1967 she returned to the screen with a small part in the comedy Le grand bidule/The large contraption (1967, Raoul André). The following year she appeared in three films, Les jeunes loups/Young Wolves (1968, Marcel Carné) with Yves Beneyton, the historical drama Mayerling (1968, Terence Young) starring Omar Sharif and Catherine Deneuve, and the thriller La main noire/The Black Hand (1968, Max Pécas). Five years later she made her final film, Lo Païs (1973, Gérard Guérin), the first feature film in Breton.
Sources: James Travers (Films de France), Mario Gauci (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.
This attractive young lady offers some perspective to the size of this radio controlled hydroplane. It measures 50 inches in length, 24 inches in width, 10 inches high at the engine, and 17 inches from the bottom of the rudder to the top of the tail fin. It is powered by a custom gas-burning air-cooled V8 engine designed and built by Mr. Storoz in the mid 1950’s. The engine measures about 11 inches long, 8 inches wide, and six inches high, has a bore of about 1-1/8 inch and a stroke of about 7/8 inch making the total capacity 7.2 cubic inches. It is equipped with a radio controlled throttle and spark advance and sports a chain drive to the prop shaft.
John was a tool and die maker for the auto industry in the Detroit area and began this project in 1954. First he fabricated the patterns and molds and cast the crankcase in his home shop; he spent about three years designing and machining the parts necessary to finish the engine. We believe he started to design and build the hydro in 1958 and he completed the entire project in 1961. Mr. Storoz fabricated everything except the spark plugs, fasteners, sprockets and chain, and the radio control unit.
See More Model Boat Engines at: www.flickr.com/photos/15794235@N06/sets/72157641089388694/
See More V8 engines at: www.flickr.com/photos/15794235@N06/albums/72157663468409191
See Our Model Engine Collection at: www.flickr.com/photos/15794235@N06/sets/72157602933346098/
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Courtesy of Paul and Paula Knapp
Miniature Engineering Museum
Leica offers the M9 in both Black and Steel Grey so it was only fitting that I skinned the other iPhone 4 to match as well.
And while my plans of offering up the files where thwarted there will be a how-to published soon from photographing your camera, to editing it to fit the dimensions to fit the phone, then sending it to the printers to finally installing it.
Also to all those that have emailed me, sorry I couldn't respond to each an everyone of you hang tight. Soon you'll be able to roll your own.
More photos of the phone/camera can be found here.
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Since my last portrait I have been offered a new job- happy days! I'll tell you more about it as it happens. Until then I am still officially off work. It's not bad at all, I've been walking a Cavipoo called Frankie (who is a dude) for a lady called Anne who is 83 and has a bad hip. I've been catching up with friends, staying off coffee and bread, cleaning and doing DIY.
I'm painting my bedroom dark grey. It's definitely bold but I love it. Pink and grey are pretty classic, my Grandma got married in a pink and grey dress.
When I work I listen to lectures. It feels like learning. Yesterday I was caught in a cycle of Ted Talks, there was one about not screwing yourself over when it comes to getting what you want. Acting in the moment regarding choices. When a thought comes to mind, do it and don't second guess it. The first daily choice most people make is to lie in bed a bit longer- so instead, get up and feel alive :)
I can do this with my selfies, wait for the perfect moment- when there are always a selection of perfect moments, and so this is me challenging myself in 10 minutes to get an idea, run with it, shoot it and stop. I kind of like where I am going right now.
More on that Ted Talk here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lp7E973zozc
Meriç River Bridge
Further going to south after the longer (250m) Meriç Bridge (Meriç Köprüsü), constructed in 1842-1847, crosses the Meriç River and offers wonderful views from a frescoed Ottoman kiosk in the middle. It is said the this kiosk was particularly built by the Sultan to watch the sunset on Meriç River, which is the best spot in Edirne.
The whole area around these bridges is covered with restaurants, tea gardens and bars, all great places to come for a drink or a meal in warm and nice weather. The best ones are those on the southern side of Meriç Bridge, which offers perfect sunset river vistas, great views of the lit-up Selimiye Mosque and atmospheric frog background noise on the walk back to town.
The Selımıye Mosque
The Selimiye Mosque (Turkish: Selimiye Camii) is an Ottoman mosque in the city of Edirne, Turkey. The mosque was commissioned by Sultan Selim II and was built by architect Mimar Sinan between 1569 and 1575. It was considered by Sinan to be his masterpiece and is one of the highest achievements of Islamic architecture.
This grand mosque stands at the center of a külliye (complex of a hospital, school, library and/or baths around a mosque) which comprises a medrese (Islamic academy teaches both Islamic and scientific lessons), a dar-ül hadis (Al-Hadith school), a timekeeper's room and an arasta (row of shops). In this mosque Sinan employed an octagonal supporting system that is created through eight pillars incised in a square shell of walls. The four semi domes at the corners of the square behind the arches that spring from the pillars, are intermediary sections between the huge encompassing dome (31.25m diameter with spherical profile) and the walls.
While conventional mosques were limited by a segmented interior, Sinan's effort at Edirne was a structure that made it possible to see the mihrab from any location within the mosque. Surrounded by four tall minarets, the Mosque of Selim II has a grand dome atop it. Around the rest of the mosque were many additions: libraries, schools, hospices, baths, soup kitchens for the poor, markets, hospitals, and a cemetery. These annexes were aligned axially and grouped, if possible. In front of the mosque sits a rectangular court with an area equal to that of the mosque. The innovation however, comes not in the size of the building, but from the organization of its interior. The mihrab is pushed back into an apse-like alcove with a space with enough depth to allow for window illumination from three sides. This has the effect of making the tile panels of its lower walls sparkle with natural light. The amalgamation of the main hall forms a fused octagon with the dome-covered square. Formed by eight massive dome supports, the octagon is pierced by four half dome covered corners of the square. The beauty resulting from the conformity of geometric shapes engulfed in each other was the culmination of Sinan's lifelong search for a unified interior space.
At the Bulgarian siege of Edirne in 1913, the dome of the mosque was hit by Bulgarian artillery. Owing to the dome's extremely sturdy construction, the mosque survived the assault with only minor damage. On Atatürk's order, it has not been restored since then, to serve as a warning for future generations[citation needed]. Some damage can be seen on the image of the dome above, at and near the dark red calligraph to the immediate left of the central blue area.
The mosque was depicted on the reverse of the Turkish 10,000 lira banknotes of 1982-1995. The mosque, together with its külliye, was included on UNESCO's World Heritage List in 2011.
Selimiye Mosque was built at the peak of Ottoman military and cultural power. As the empire started to grow, the emperor had found an immediate urge to centralize the city. Sinan was asked to help to construct the Selimiye Mosque, making the mosque distinctive and served the purpose of centralizing the city.
Like all other Ottoman mosques in the earlier periods, the Selimiye Mosque had a multitude of little domes and half domes. However, the limit in building Selimiye was to viewing the mosque as a single unit from inside or outside rather than separate masses. Sinan believed that building a single dome would be the only resolution to achieve this. Hence, he ambitiously decided to replace the busy confused domes in the center with an enormous one. The author of Other Colors, Orhan Pamuk mentioned that he saw a connection between the wish of the central dome and the centralizing political and economic changes made by the empire, but the idea was later objected by another book written by Sinan’s friend, Sai, claiming that Sinan had taken his inspiration from Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia.
In order to accentuate and draw attention to the centralize structure of the mosque, the traditional placement of different sized minarets was abandoned from the design as Sinan believed that cascade of smaller domes and half-domes used earlier would play down the gigantic single-shell dome. Besides, four identical minarets were planted at each corner of the marble forecourt to enforce attention on the surrounded central dome. The four vertically fluted symmetrical minarets amplify the upward thrust, shooting towards the sky like rockets from each corner of the mosque. With the great dome rising subtlety from the center, it had harmoniously interplayed with the half domes, weight towers, and buttresses crowded around it. It was believed that the circular architecture was to affirm the oneness in humanity and called out the simple ideology of circle of life. The visible and invisible symmetries that were called out from the exterior and interior of the mosque was to evokes God’s perfection through the plain and powerful structure of the dome and the bare stone.
Interior
The interior of the mosque received great recognitions from its clean, spare lines in the structure itself. With the monumental exteriors proclaiming the wealth and power of the Ottoman Empire, the plain symmetrical interiors reminded the sultans should always provide a humble and faithful heart in order to connect and communicate with God. To enter, it was to forget the power, determination, wealth and technical mastery of the Ottoman Empire. Lights were seeped through multitude of tiny windows, and the interchanging of the weak light and dark was interpreted as the insignificance of human. The Selimiye did not only amaze the public with the extravagant symmetrical exterior, it had also astonished the people with the plain symmetrical interior for it had summarized all Ottoman architectural thinking in one simple pure form. (wikipedia)
The pristine Iskele shoreline is home to the five-star Arkin Iskele Hotel. Magnificent freshwater pools are scattered around the site on an open terrace, where you may cool off in peace and quiet while admiring the stunning views of the Mediterranean Sea.
The 5* Arkin Iskele hotel rests on the stunning and upcoming coastline of Iskele. As you gaze at the stunning shoreline, you can cool off in exquisite freshwater pools. The Arkin Hotel’s golden sands and piers extend generously into the crystal waters of the Mediterranean Sea, offering the perfect spot for swimming, paddling, or simply relaxing by the sea. It’s perfect for soaking up the sun.
The hotel also offers room service, a kid’s club where children are taken care of and where they can enjoy a plethora of different arts, crafts and fun activities during their stay. There is also an aqua park featuring five unique slides for a splashing good time! With cosy sun loungers and beach umbrellas.
Arkin Iskele features a bar and lush gardens in addition to its 24-hour front desk. On-site, there is an international buffet restaurant to enjoy main meals and water slides for kids where they can have a splashing good time. The on-site spa offers body scrubs, body wraps and massages for anyone looking for a soothing wellness experience. Turkish baths and saunas are also available.
There are multiple bars to enjoy freshly prepared drinks and cocktails as well as a patisserie where cakes and tasty pastries are served at specific hours of the day. There is also an ice cream stand to find delight in many different flavours of ice cream. There is also a shuttle service nearby which is available to take guests to Famagusta.
Getting out and about after a day at the beach will not leave you disappointed in this phenomenal location. The Arkin Iskele Hotel is located very close to the gateway of the Karpas Peninsula, providing the perfect base from which to explore the spectacular natural beauty and unspoiled countryside of this region.
A protected beach area is found near the hotel where sea turtles lay their eggs. If you get there at the right time, you will be able to witness the mothers burying their eggs and little hatchlings scrabbling towards the sea - a breathtaking site for children as well. If you would like more information about turtle-watching sessions, please speak with your Rep.
As a great perk, Iskele is very close to the ancient Roman ruins of Salamis, an ideal day trip for both adults and children offering a chance to explore ancient gymnasiums and temples and discover profound artefacts.
There is also an opportunity to see Othello's Tower and Citadel mentioned in Shakespeare's play!
There are a variety of cafes, bistros, bars and restaurants in the charming historic town of Famagusta which is less than 25 minutes away. Iskele is also a stunning port town to explore, known for its incredible seafood restaurants and piers overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.
Trikomo is a town in Cyprus. It is under the de facto control of Northern Cyprus and is the administrative center of the Iskele District of Northern Cyprus, which mainly extends into the Karpas Peninsula , while de jure it belongs to the Famagusta District of the Republic of Cyprus . It gained municipality status in 1998. Before 1974 Trikomo was a mixed village with a Greek Cypriot majority.
In 2011 Trikomo had 1948 inhabitants.
Trikomo is located in the north-eastern part of the Messaria plain , 9 km south of the village of Ardana , about two kilometers from the Bay of Famagusta and four kilometers north-west of the village of Sygkrasi .
In Greek Trikomo means "three houses". In 1975 the Turkish Cypriots renamed it Yeni İskele to commemorate the origins of the town's current inhabitants. In Larnaca before 1974 Turkish Cypriots resided in the neighborhood called Skala ("İskele" in Turkish), so that when they settled in the village they renamed it with the same name (lit. "new İskele", later shortened to İskele ). Yeni means "new", so Yeni İskele literally means "New Scale/İskele".
Before the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus , the population of Trikomo consisted almost entirely of Greek Cypriots , most of whom fled during the conflict while the rest were subsequently deported to the south. Among these, worthy of mention is Georgios Grivas (1898-1974), general of the Greek army , leader of the guerrilla organization EOKA, protagonist of the liberation struggle against the English and of the paramilitary organization EOKA B.
The Turkish Cypriot municipality of Larnaca which had been established in 1958 moved to Trikomo in 1974, soon after the Turkish invasion of the island .
In Trikomo is the Church of the Panagia Theotokos , deconsecrated and home to an icon museum displaying rare examples of medieval iconography in Cyprus. The church is divided into two sections, one Orthodox and one Catholic. The first is the oldest, dating back to the Byzantine era , while the second was built in the 12th century, during the period in which the island was ruled by the Lusignans
Before 1974 Trikomo was a mixed village with a Greek Cypriot majority. In the 1831 Ottoman census, Muslims made up approximately 18.4% of the population. However, by 1891 this percentage dropped significantly to 3.4%. In the first half of the 20th century the population of the village increased steadily, from 1,247 inhabitants in 1901 to 2,195 in 1960.
Most of Trikomo's Greek Cypriots were displaced in August 1974, although some remained in the town after the Turkish army took control. In October 1975 there were still 92 Greek Cypriots in the city, but in 1978 they were moved to the south side of the Green Line . Currently, like the rest of the displaced Greek Cypriots, Trikomo Greek Cypriots are scattered across the south of the island, especially in the cities. The number of Greek Cypriots from Trikomo displaced in 1974-78 was approximately 2,330 (2,323 in the 1960 census).
Today the village is inhabited mainly by displaced Turkish Cypriots from the south of the island, especially from the city of Larnaca and its district . In 1976-77, some families from Turkey, especially from the province of Adana , also settled in the village . Since the 2000s, many wealthy Europeans, Turks and Turkish Cypriots from other areas of the north of the island (including returnees from abroad) have purchased properties, built houses and settled in the vicinity of the city. According to the 2006 Turkish Cypriot census, the population of Trikomo/İskele was 3,657.
The city annually hosts the Iskele Festival , which takes place for ten days in summer, and is the oldest annual festival in Cyprus, having first been held in Larnaca in 1968. In 1974, the event was moved to Trikomo together to the Turkish Cypriot inhabitants of Larnaca who had moved there. The program includes an international folk dance festival, concerts by Turkish Cypriot and mainland Turkish musicians, various sports tournaments, stalls offering food and various competitions, along with other performances and competitions highlighting the city's cultural heritage.
The current mayor of the city is Hasan Sadıkoğlu, who was first elected in 2014 as an independent candidate. It was re-elected in 2018 as the candidate of the right-wing National Unity Party (UBP), winning with 54.6% of the vote. In the 2018 local elections, four members of the UBP, two members of the pro-settler Renaissance Party (YDP), and two members of the left-wing Turkish Republican Party (CTP) were elected to the eight-member city council .
Trikomo is twinned with:
Flag of Türkiye Beykoz, Istanbul
Flag of Türkiye Büyükçekmece, Istanbul
Flag of Türkiye Finike, Antalya , since 2015
Flag of Türkiye Mamak, Ankara
Flag of Türkiye Pendik, Istanbul
Flag of Türkiye Samsung , since 2006
Turkish Cypriot sports club Larnaka Gençler Birliği (also called İskele Gençlerbirliği ) was founded in 1934 in Larnaca, and was playing in the Süper Lig of the Northern Cyprus Football Federation in the 2018–19 season
Northern Cyprus, officially the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), is a de facto state that comprises the northeastern portion of the island of Cyprus. It is recognised only by Turkey, and its territory is considered by all other states to be part of the Republic of Cyprus.
Northern Cyprus extends from the tip of the Karpass Peninsula in the northeast to Morphou Bay, Cape Kormakitis and its westernmost point, the Kokkina exclave in the west. Its southernmost point is the village of Louroujina. A buffer zone under the control of the United Nations stretches between Northern Cyprus and the rest of the island and divides Nicosia, the island's largest city and capital of both sides.
A coup d'état in 1974, performed as part of an attempt to annex the island to Greece, prompted the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. This resulted in the eviction of much of the north's Greek Cypriot population, the flight of Turkish Cypriots from the south, and the partitioning of the island, leading to a unilateral declaration of independence by the north in 1983. Due to its lack of recognition, Northern Cyprus is heavily dependent on Turkey for economic, political and military support.
Attempts to reach a solution to the Cyprus dispute have been unsuccessful. The Turkish Army maintains a large force in Northern Cyprus with the support and approval of the TRNC government, while the Republic of Cyprus, the European Union as a whole, and the international community regard it as an occupation force. This military presence has been denounced in several United Nations Security Council resolutions.
Northern Cyprus is a semi-presidential, democratic republic with a cultural heritage incorporating various influences and an economy that is dominated by the services sector. The economy has seen growth through the 2000s and 2010s, with the GNP per capita more than tripling in the 2000s, but is held back by an international embargo due to the official closure of the ports in Northern Cyprus by the Republic of Cyprus. The official language is Turkish, with a distinct local dialect being spoken. The vast majority of the population consists of Sunni Muslims, while religious attitudes are mostly moderate and secular. Northern Cyprus is an observer state of ECO and OIC under the name "Turkish Cypriot State", PACE under the name "Turkish Cypriot Community", and Organization of Turkic States with its own name.
Several distinct periods of Cypriot intercommunal violence involving the two main ethnic communities, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, marked mid-20th century Cyprus. These included the Cyprus Emergency of 1955–59 during British rule, the post-independence Cyprus crisis of 1963–64, and the Cyprus crisis of 1967. Hostilities culminated in the 1974 de facto division of the island along the Green Line following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. The region has been relatively peaceful since then, but the Cyprus dispute has continued, with various attempts to solve it diplomatically having been generally unsuccessful.
Cyprus, an island lying in the eastern Mediterranean, hosted a population of Greeks and Turks (four-fifths and one-fifth, respectively), who lived under British rule in the late nineteenth-century and the first half of the twentieth-century. Christian Orthodox Church of Cyprus played a prominent political role among the Greek Cypriot community, a privilege that it acquired during the Ottoman Empire with the employment of the millet system, which gave the archbishop an unofficial ethnarch status.
The repeated rejections by the British of Greek Cypriot demands for enosis, union with Greece, led to armed resistance, organised by the National Organization of Cypriot Struggle, or EOKA. EOKA, led by the Greek-Cypriot commander George Grivas, systematically targeted British colonial authorities. One of the effects of EOKA's campaign was to alter the Turkish position from demanding full reincorporation into Turkey to a demand for taksim (partition). EOKA's mission and activities caused a "Cretan syndrome" (see Turkish Resistance Organisation) within the Turkish Cypriot community, as its members feared that they would be forced to leave the island in such a case as had been the case with Cretan Turks. As such, they preferred the continuation of British colonial rule and then taksim, the division of the island. Due to the Turkish Cypriots' support for the British, EOKA's leader, Georgios Grivas, declared them to be enemies. The fact that the Turks were a minority was, according to Nihat Erim, to be addressed by the transfer of thousands of Turks from mainland Turkey so that Greek Cypriots would cease to be the majority. When Erim visited Cyprus as the Turkish representative, he was advised by Field Marshal Sir John Harding, the then Governor of Cyprus, that Turkey should send educated Turks to settle in Cyprus.
Turkey actively promoted the idea that on the island of Cyprus two distinctive communities existed, and sidestepped its former claim that "the people of Cyprus were all Turkish subjects". In doing so, Turkey's aim to have self-determination of two to-be equal communities in effect led to de jure partition of the island.[citation needed] This could be justified to the international community against the will of the majority Greek population of the island. Dr. Fazil Küçük in 1954 had already proposed Cyprus be divided in two at the 35° parallel.
Lindley Dan, from Notre Dame University, spotted the roots of intercommunal violence to different visions among the two communities of Cyprus (enosis for Greek Cypriots, taksim for Turkish Cypriots). Also, Lindlay wrote that "the merging of church, schools/education, and politics in divisive and nationalistic ways" had played a crucial role in creation of havoc in Cyprus' history. Attalides Michael also pointed to the opposing nationalisms as the cause of the Cyprus problem.
By the mid-1950's, the "Cyprus is Turkish" party, movement, and slogan gained force in both Cyprus and Turkey. In a 1954 editorial, Turkish Cypriot leader Dr. Fazil Kuchuk expressed the sentiment that the Turkish youth had grown up with the idea that "as soon as Great Britain leaves the island, it will be taken over by the Turks", and that "Turkey cannot tolerate otherwise". This perspective contributed to the willingness of Turkish Cypriots to align themselves with the British, who started recruiting Turkish Cypriots into the police force that patrolled Cyprus to fight EOKA, a Greek Cypriot nationalist organisation that sought to rid the island of British rule.
EOKA targeted colonial authorities, including police, but Georgios Grivas, the leader of EOKA, did not initially wish to open up a new front by fighting Turkish Cypriots and reassured them that EOKA would not harm their people. In 1956, some Turkish Cypriot policemen were killed by EOKA members and this provoked some intercommunal violence in the spring and summer, but these attacks on policemen were not motivated by the fact that they were Turkish Cypriots.
However, in January 1957, Grivas changed his policy as his forces in the mountains became increasingly pressured by the British Crown forces. In order to divert the attention of the Crown forces, EOKA members started to target Turkish Cypriot policemen intentionally in the towns, so that Turkish Cypriots would riot against the Greek Cypriots and the security forces would have to be diverted to the towns to restore order. The killing of a Turkish Cypriot policeman on 19 January, when a power station was bombed, and the injury of three others, provoked three days of intercommunal violence in Nicosia. The two communities targeted each other in reprisals, at least one Greek Cypriot was killed and the British Army was deployed in the streets. Greek Cypriot stores were burned and their neighbourhoods attacked. Following the events, the Greek Cypriot leadership spread the propaganda that the riots had merely been an act of Turkish Cypriot aggression. Such events created chaos and drove the communities apart both in Cyprus and in Turkey.
On 22 October 1957 Sir Hugh Mackintosh Foot replaced Sir John Harding as the British Governor of Cyprus. Foot suggested five to seven years of self-government before any final decision. His plan rejected both enosis and taksim. The Turkish Cypriot response to this plan was a series of anti-British demonstrations in Nicosia on 27 and 28 January 1958 rejecting the proposed plan because the plan did not include partition. The British then withdrew the plan.
In 1957, Black Gang, a Turkish Cypriot pro-taksim paramilitary organisation, was formed to patrol a Turkish Cypriot enclave, the Tahtakale district of Nicosia, against activities of EOKA. The organisation later attempted to grow into a national scale, but failed to gain public support.
By 1958, signs of dissatisfaction with the British increased on both sides, with a group of Turkish Cypriots forming Volkan (later renamed to the Turkish Resistance Organisation) paramilitary group to promote partition and the annexation of Cyprus to Turkey as dictated by the Menderes plan. Volkan initially consisted of roughly 100 members, with the stated aim of raising awareness in Turkey of the Cyprus issue and courting military training and support for Turkish Cypriot fighters from the Turkish government.
In June 1958, the British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, was expected to propose a plan to resolve the Cyprus issue. In light of the new development, the Turks rioted in Nicosia to promote the idea that Greek and Turkish Cypriots could not live together and therefore any plan that did not include partition would not be viable. This violence was soon followed by bombing, Greek Cypriot deaths and looting of Greek Cypriot-owned shops and houses. Greek and Turkish Cypriots started to flee mixed population villages where they were a minority in search of safety. This was effectively the beginning of the segregation of the two communities. On 7 June 1958, a bomb exploded at the entrance of the Turkish Embassy in Cyprus. Following the bombing, Turkish Cypriots looted Greek Cypriot properties. On 26 June 1984, the Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktaş, admitted on British channel ITV that the bomb was placed by the Turks themselves in order to create tension. On 9 January 1995, Rauf Denktaş repeated his claim to the famous Turkish newspaper Milliyet in Turkey.
The crisis reached a climax on 12 June 1958, when eight Greeks, out of an armed group of thirty five arrested by soldiers of the Royal Horse Guards on suspicion of preparing an attack on the Turkish quarter of Skylloura, were killed in a suspected attack by Turkish Cypriot locals, near the village of Geunyeli, having been ordered to walk back to their village of Kondemenos.
After the EOKA campaign had begun, the British government successfully began to turn the Cyprus issue from a British colonial problem into a Greek-Turkish issue. British diplomacy exerted backstage influence on the Adnan Menderes government, with the aim of making Turkey active in Cyprus. For the British, the attempt had a twofold objective. The EOKA campaign would be silenced as quickly as possible, and Turkish Cypriots would not side with Greek Cypriots against the British colonial claims over the island, which would thus remain under the British. The Turkish Cypriot leadership visited Menderes to discuss the Cyprus issue. When asked how the Turkish Cypriots should respond to the Greek Cypriot claim of enosis, Menderes replied: "You should go to the British foreign minister and request the status quo be prolonged, Cyprus to remain as a British colony". When the Turkish Cypriots visited the British Foreign Secretary and requested for Cyprus to remain a colony, he replied: "You should not be asking for colonialism at this day and age, you should be asking for Cyprus be returned to Turkey, its former owner".
As Turkish Cypriots began to look to Turkey for protection, Greek Cypriots soon understood that enosis was extremely unlikely. The Greek Cypriot leader, Archbishop Makarios III, now set independence for the island as his objective.
Britain resolved to solve the dispute by creating an independent Cyprus. In 1959, all involved parties signed the Zurich Agreements: Britain, Turkey, Greece, and the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders, Makarios and Dr. Fazil Kucuk, respectively. The new constitution drew heavily on the ethnic composition of the island. The President would be a Greek Cypriot, and the Vice-President a Turkish Cypriot with an equal veto. The contribution to the public service would be set at a ratio of 70:30, and the Supreme Court would consist of an equal number of judges from both communities as well as an independent judge who was not Greek, Turkish or British. The Zurich Agreements were supplemented by a number of treaties. The Treaty of Guarantee stated that secession or union with any state was forbidden, and that Greece, Turkey and Britain would be given guarantor status to intervene if that was violated. The Treaty of Alliance allowed for two small Greek and Turkish military contingents to be stationed on the island, and the Treaty of Establishment gave Britain sovereignty over two bases in Akrotiri and Dhekelia.
On 15 August 1960, the Colony of Cyprus became fully independent as the Republic of Cyprus. The new republic remained within the Commonwealth of Nations.
The new constitution brought dissatisfaction to Greek Cypriots, who felt it to be highly unjust for them for historical, demographic and contributional reasons. Although 80% of the island's population were Greek Cypriots and these indigenous people had lived on the island for thousands of years and paid 94% of taxes, the new constitution was giving the 17% of the population that was Turkish Cypriots, who paid 6% of taxes, around 30% of government jobs and 40% of national security jobs.
Within three years tensions between the two communities in administrative affairs began to show. In particular disputes over separate municipalities and taxation created a deadlock in government. A constitutional court ruled in 1963 Makarios had failed to uphold article 173 of the constitution which called for the establishment of separate municipalities for Turkish Cypriots. Makarios subsequently declared his intention to ignore the judgement, resulting in the West German judge resigning from his position. Makarios proposed thirteen amendments to the constitution, which would have had the effect of resolving most of the issues in the Greek Cypriot favour. Under the proposals, the President and Vice-President would lose their veto, the separate municipalities as sought after by the Turkish Cypriots would be abandoned, the need for separate majorities by both communities in passing legislation would be discarded and the civil service contribution would be set at actual population ratios (82:18) instead of the slightly higher figure for Turkish Cypriots.
The intention behind the amendments has long been called into question. The Akritas plan, written in the height of the constitutional dispute by the Greek Cypriot interior minister Polycarpos Georkadjis, called for the removal of undesirable elements of the constitution so as to allow power-sharing to work. The plan envisaged a swift retaliatory attack on Turkish Cypriot strongholds should Turkish Cypriots resort to violence to resist the measures, stating "In the event of a planned or staged Turkish attack, it is imperative to overcome it by force in the shortest possible time, because if we succeed in gaining command of the situation (in one or two days), no outside, intervention would be either justified or possible." Whether Makarios's proposals were part of the Akritas plan is unclear, however it remains that sentiment towards enosis had not completely disappeared with independence. Makarios described independence as "a step on the road to enosis".[31] Preparations for conflict were not entirely absent from Turkish Cypriots either, with right wing elements still believing taksim (partition) the best safeguard against enosis.
Greek Cypriots however believe the amendments were a necessity stemming from a perceived attempt by Turkish Cypriots to frustrate the working of government. Turkish Cypriots saw it as a means to reduce their status within the state from one of co-founder to that of minority, seeing it as a first step towards enosis. The security situation deteriorated rapidly.
Main articles: Bloody Christmas (1963) and Battle of Tillyria
An armed conflict was triggered after December 21, 1963, a period remembered by Turkish Cypriots as Bloody Christmas, when a Greek Cypriot policemen that had been called to help deal with a taxi driver refusing officers already on the scene access to check the identification documents of his customers, took out his gun upon arrival and shot and killed the taxi driver and his partner. Eric Solsten summarised the events as follows: "a Greek Cypriot police patrol, ostensibly checking identification documents, stopped a Turkish Cypriot couple on the edge of the Turkish quarter. A hostile crowd gathered, shots were fired, and two Turkish Cypriots were killed."
In the morning after the shooting, crowds gathered in protest in Northern Nicosia, likely encouraged by the TMT, without incident. On the evening of the 22nd, gunfire broke out, communication lines to the Turkish neighbourhoods were cut, and the Greek Cypriot police occupied the nearby airport. On the 23rd, a ceasefire was negotiated, but did not hold. Fighting, including automatic weapons fire, between Greek and Turkish Cypriots and militias increased in Nicosia and Larnaca. A force of Greek Cypriot irregulars led by Nikos Sampson entered the Nicosia suburb of Omorphita and engaged in heavy firing on armed, as well as by some accounts unarmed, Turkish Cypriots. The Omorphita clash has been described by Turkish Cypriots as a massacre, while this view has generally not been acknowledged by Greek Cypriots.
Further ceasefires were arranged between the two sides, but also failed. By Christmas Eve, the 24th, Britain, Greece, and Turkey had joined talks, with all sides calling for a truce. On Christmas day, Turkish fighter jets overflew Nicosia in a show of support. Finally it was agreed to allow a force of 2,700 British soldiers to help enforce a ceasefire. In the next days, a "buffer zone" was created in Nicosia, and a British officer marked a line on a map with green ink, separating the two sides of the city, which was the beginning of the "Green Line". Fighting continued across the island for the next several weeks.
In total 364 Turkish Cypriots and 174 Greek Cypriots were killed during the violence. 25,000 Turkish Cypriots from 103-109 villages fled and were displaced into enclaves and thousands of Turkish Cypriot houses were ransacked or completely destroyed.
Contemporary newspapers also reported on the forceful exodus of the Turkish Cypriots from their homes. According to The Times in 1964, threats, shootings and attempts of arson were committed against the Turkish Cypriots to force them out of their homes. The Daily Express wrote that "25,000 Turks have already been forced to leave their homes". The Guardian reported a massacre of Turks at Limassol on 16 February 1964.
Turkey had by now readied its fleet and its fighter jets appeared over Nicosia. Turkey was dissuaded from direct involvement by the creation of a United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) in 1964. Despite the negotiated ceasefire in Nicosia, attacks on the Turkish Cypriot persisted, particularly in Limassol. Concerned about the possibility of a Turkish invasion, Makarios undertook the creation of a Greek Cypriot conscript-based army called the "National Guard". A general from Greece took charge of the army, whilst a further 20,000 well-equipped officers and men were smuggled from Greece into Cyprus. Turkey threatened to intervene once more, but was prevented by a strongly worded letter from the American President Lyndon B. Johnson, anxious to avoid a conflict between NATO allies Greece and Turkey at the height of the Cold War.
Turkish Cypriots had by now established an important bridgehead at Kokkina, provided with arms, volunteers and materials from Turkey and abroad. Seeing this incursion of foreign weapons and troops as a major threat, the Cypriot government invited George Grivas to return from Greece as commander of the Greek troops on the island and launch a major attack on the bridgehead. Turkey retaliated by dispatching its fighter jets to bomb Greek positions, causing Makarios to threaten an attack on every Turkish Cypriot village on the island if the bombings did not cease. The conflict had now drawn in Greece and Turkey, with both countries amassing troops on their Thracian borders. Efforts at mediation by Dean Acheson, a former U.S. Secretary of State, and UN-appointed mediator Galo Plaza had failed, all the while the division of the two communities becoming more apparent. Greek Cypriot forces were estimated at some 30,000, including the National Guard and the large contingent from Greece. Defending the Turkish Cypriot enclaves was a force of approximately 5,000 irregulars, led by a Turkish colonel, but lacking the equipment and organisation of the Greek forces.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations in 1964, U Thant, reported the damage during the conflicts:
UNFICYP carried out a detailed survey of all damage to properties throughout the island during the disturbances; it shows that in 109 villages, most of them Turkish-Cypriot or mixed villages, 527 houses have been destroyed while 2,000 others have suffered damage from looting.
The situation worsened in 1967, when a military junta overthrew the democratically elected government of Greece, and began applying pressure on Makarios to achieve enosis. Makarios, not wishing to become part of a military dictatorship or trigger a Turkish invasion, began to distance himself from the goal of enosis. This caused tensions with the junta in Greece as well as George Grivas in Cyprus. Grivas's control over the National Guard and Greek contingent was seen as a threat to Makarios's position, who now feared a possible coup.[citation needed] The National Guard and Cyprus Police began patrolling the Turkish Cypriot enclaves of Ayios Theodoros and Kophinou, and on November 15 engaged in heavy fighting with the Turkish Cypriots.
By the time of his withdrawal 26 Turkish Cypriots had been killed. Turkey replied with an ultimatum demanding that Grivas be removed from the island, that the troops smuggled from Greece in excess of the limits of the Treaty of Alliance be removed, and that the economic blockades on the Turkish Cypriot enclaves be lifted. Grivas was recalled by the Athens Junta and the 12,000 Greek troops were withdrawn. Makarios now attempted to consolidate his position by reducing the number of National Guard troops, and by creating a paramilitary force loyal to Cypriot independence. In 1968, acknowledging that enosis was now all but impossible, Makarios stated, "A solution by necessity must be sought within the limits of what is feasible which does not always coincide with the limits of what is desirable."
After 1967 tensions between the Greek and Turkish Cypriots subsided. Instead, the main source of tension on the island came from factions within the Greek Cypriot community. Although Makarios had effectively abandoned enosis in favour of an 'attainable solution', many others continued to believe that the only legitimate political aspiration for Greek Cypriots was union with Greece.
On his arrival, Grivas began by establishing a nationalist paramilitary group known as the National Organization of Cypriot Fighters (Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston B or EOKA-B), drawing comparisons with the EOKA struggle for enosis under the British colonial administration of the 1950s.
The military junta in Athens saw Makarios as an obstacle. Makarios's failure to disband the National Guard, whose officer class was dominated by mainland Greeks, had meant the junta had practical control over the Cypriot military establishment, leaving Makarios isolated and a vulnerable target.
During the first Turkish invasion, Turkish troops invaded Cyprus territory on 20 July 1974, invoking its rights under the Treaty of Guarantee. This expansion of Turkish-occupied zone violated International Law as well as the Charter of the United Nations. Turkish troops managed to capture 3% of the island which was accompanied by the burning of the Turkish Cypriot quarter, as well as the raping and killing of women and children. A temporary cease-fire followed which was mitigated by the UN Security Council. Subsequently, the Greek military Junta collapsed on July 23, 1974, and peace talks commenced in which a democratic government was installed. The Resolution 353 was broken after Turkey attacked a second time and managed to get a hold of 37% of Cyprus territory. The Island of Cyprus was appointed a Buffer Zone by the United Nations, which divided the island into two zones through the 'Green Line' and put an end to the Turkish invasion. Although Turkey announced that the occupied areas of Cyprus to be called the Federated Turkish State in 1975, it is not legitimised on a worldwide political scale. The United Nations called for the international recognition of independence for the Republic of Cyprus in the Security Council Resolution 367.
In the years after the Turkish invasion of northern Cyprus one can observe a history of failed talks between the two parties. The 1983 declaration of the independent Turkish Republic of Cyprus resulted in a rise of inter-communal tensions and made it increasingly hard to find mutual understanding. With Cyprus' interest of a possible EU membership and a new UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 1997 new hopes arose for a fresh start. International involvement from sides of the US and UK, wanting a solution to the Cyprus dispute prior to the EU accession led to political pressures for new talks. The believe that an accession without a solution would threaten Greek-Turkish relations and acknowledge the partition of the island would direct the coming negotiations.
Over the course of two years a concrete plan, the Annan plan was formulated. In 2004 the fifth version agreed upon from both sides and with the endorsement of Turkey, US, UK and EU then was presented to the public and was given a referendum in both Cypriot communities to assure the legitimisation of the resolution. The Turkish Cypriots voted with 65% for the plan, however the Greek Cypriots voted with a 76% majority against. The Annan plan contained multiple important topics. Firstly it established a confederation of two separate states called the United Cyprus Republic. Both communities would have autonomous states combined under one unified government. The members of parliament would be chosen according to the percentage in population numbers to ensure a just involvement from both communities. The paper proposed a demilitarisation of the island over the next years. Furthermore it agreed upon a number of 45000 Turkish settlers that could remain on the island. These settlers became a very important issue concerning peace talks. Originally the Turkish government encouraged Turks to settle in Cyprus providing transfer and property, to establish a counterpart to the Greek Cypriot population due to their 1 to 5 minority. With the economic situation many Turkish-Cypriot decided to leave the island, however their departure is made up by incoming Turkish settlers leaving the population ratio between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots stable. However all these points where criticised and as seen in the vote rejected mainly by the Greek Cypriots. These name the dissolution of the „Republic of Cyprus", economic consequences of a reunion and the remaining Turkish settlers as reason. Many claim that the plan was indeed drawing more from Turkish-Cypriot demands then Greek-Cypriot interests. Taking in consideration that the US wanted to keep Turkey as a strategic partner in future Middle Eastern conflicts.
A week after the failed referendum the Republic of Cyprus joined the EU. In multiple instances the EU tried to promote trade with Northern Cyprus but without internationally recognised ports this spiked a grand debate. Both side endure their intention of negotiations, however without the prospect of any new compromises or agreements the UN is unwilling to start the process again. Since 2004 negotiations took place in numbers but without any results, both sides are strongly holding on to their position without an agreeable solution in sight that would suit both parties.
I revisited this magnificent nature reserve today 10th August 2018, many visitors to our city miss its glorious offerings, thinking all we have to offer is the beach front at the main boulevard , its a pity as this reserve is a short drive from the main tourist area and has its own charm, attraction and wealth of nature on offer, I love it .
Donmouth Local Nature Reserve is a beach site in the historic Old Aberdeen part of the City where the River Don meets the sea.
A great place to see seals and a range of interesting birds. The beach area has changed over time as the river has changed its course. There are lots of interesting plants in the dunes and beach area. Bird hide is an excellent shelter from which to watch the wildlife. The paths run across King Street to the Brig 'o Balgownie., the original bridge in to the City from the North, then down the other side of the river to the sea.
The site was designated a Local Nature Reserve in 1992
Paths are good although wheelchair access to the beach would be difficult as the boardwalk can get covered with sand.
There is plenty of free car parking on the Beach Esplanade and at the car park in Donmouth Road. There are cycle racks on Beach Esplanade
Bridge Of Don has five spans of dressed granite, and rounded cutwaters that carry up to road level to form pedestrian refuges. The spans are 75 feet (23 m), with a rise of 25 feet (7.6 m).
It was widened in 1958-59, from 24 feet (7.3 m), to 66 feet (20 m) by the construction of a new concrete bridge adjacent to the old one.
It now carries four lanes of the A956 road, and is the last bridge on the River Don before it meets the sea. The bridge is just downstream from a substantial island in the river. Around the area of the bridge is the Donmouth Local Nature Reserve, designated as a LNR in 1992.
Near to the bridge are a number of World War II era coastal defences, including a pill box.
Mudflats
Mudflats are formed when fine particles carried downstream by the river are deposited as it slows down before entering the sea, and to a lesser extent by fine particles washed in by the tide. The sand spit at the mouth of the Don provides shelter from the wind and waves allowing this material to build up. The mud flats are a very rich and fertile environment. Despite their rather barren appearance they support a surprisingly diverse invertebrate fauna which includes; worms, molluscs and crustacea. These invertebrates are vitally important to wildfowl and wading birds within the estuary.
Salt marsh
Along the upper shore of the south bank saltmarsh has developed. This habitat would once have been much more extensive prior to the tipping of domestic and other refuse in the area and the formation in 1727 of an artificial embankment to prevent flooding of the river into the Links. This habitat is now reduced to a narrow strip of vegetation along the river margins upstream from the Powis Burn.
The species composition of the salt marsh varies according to the salinity of the water i.e. the proximity to the sea. Close to the Powis Burn this habitat is dominated by reed sweet-grass (Glyceria maxima) with reed canary-grass (Phalaris arundinacea), sea club-rush (Scirpus maritimus), spike-rush (Eleocharis palustris), hemlock water-dropwort (Oenanthe crocata) and common scurvygrass (Chochlearia officinalis).
Further inland reed sweet-grass continues to dominate but hemlock water-dropwort is more abundant with meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) and valarian (Valariana officinalis),
Sand dunes
Sand dunes are found in the more exposed parts of the estuary at the river mouth. Again, this habitat was once much more extensive in this locality with dune grasslands stretching from Aberdeen Beach inland as far as King Street, southwards from the estuary of the Dee, northwards to the Sands of Forvie and beyond. Many of the dunes formed part of Seaton Tip, and following tipping the area was grassed over. Other areas have been formally landscaped to form golf courses or planted with native trees in 2010 to create a new woodland area.
Some remnants of the natural dune flora can be seen in the 'roughs' on the Kings Links golf course and near the mouth of the river.
Above the high water mark, fore dunes with thick clumps of the pioneer grass species including sea lyme grass (Elymus arenarius) and marram grass (Ammophila arenaria) occur. Few other species are able to cope with the shifting sand. The largest area of these young dunes is to the north and west of the headland. Further inland where the dunes are sheltered from the actions of the wind and waves, and soils are more developed, more stable dunes are present supporting a more diverse grassland habitat.
Strand line plants which are able to tolerate occasional coverage by sea water include sea rocket (Cakile maritima), frosted orache (Atriplex laciniata), sea sandwort (Honkenya peploides) and knotgrass (Polygonum aviculare). Bur-reed (Sparganium sp.) has been recorded; presumably washed down by the river.
Marram grass (Ammophila arenaria) and sea lyme grass (Elymus arenarius) dominate the fore dunes. The latter species is not native to this area but appeared in 1802. It is thought to have been unintentionally introduced into the area by fishing boats. For a number of years it remained uncommon but from 1870 onwards it spread rapidly along the coastline (Marren, 1982).
In the more stable dunes red fescue (Festuca rubra), sand sedge (Carex arenaria), yellow rattle (Rhinanthus minor), wild pansy (Viola tricolour), harebell (Campanula rotundifolia), bird's-foot-trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) and lesser meadow-rue (Thalictrum minus) are abundant. Small amounts of kidney vetch (Anthyllis vulneraria), valerian (Valeriana officinalis) and spring vetch (Vicia lathyroides) are present.
Scattered willows (Salix sp.) and sycamore (Acer pseudoplantanus) have seeded into this area. Gorse (Ulex europaeus) scrub has colonised the dunes in some areas and appears to be spreading.
Scrub
This habitat is almost entirely artificial with only the gorse scrub on the inner dunes being a semi-natural habitat. Alder and willow were planted along the south bank of the river in about 1970 and these shrubs are now generally well established. Further shrub planting on the south bank was carried out in 1990.
Willow (Salix sp.) and alder (Alnus glutinosa) were planted in the 1970's along the south bank of the River Don eastwards of the Bridge of Don. The trees to the west of this strip are doing considerably better than those to the east. More recent planting was carried out in 1990 with hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna), blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) elder (Sambucus nigra), goat willow (Salix caprea) and alder.
Underneath the scrub neutral grassland is present with cocksfoot (Dactylis glomerata), false oat-grass (Arrhenatherum elatius), cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris), sweet cicely (Myrrhis odorata), hedge woundwort (Stachys sylvatica) and hedge bindweed (Calystegia sepium).
Grassland
Much of the grassland within the reserve is formed on imported soil and is intensively managed. This includes grassland on the north and south sides of the Esplanade. Daffodils are present in the grassland on the north side of the road. On the north bank to the east of the Bridge of Don is rank grassland on a steep south-facing slope. This is unmanaged and contains some patches of scrub.
Rough grassland is present on the headland. This area has been modified by tipping, with rubble to the east and with grass cuttings to the west. The grassland contains a mixture of neutral grassland, dune grassland, ruderal, and introduced garden species. This area attracts flocks of seed eating birds in late summer and autumn.
Improved grassland is present on the headland and along the south bank of the estuary downstream from the bridge of Don. Much of this vegetation has developed on imported soil and contains a high proportion of ruderal species and garden escapes. On the headland, broadleaved dock (Rumex obtusifolius), nettle (Urtica dioica), coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara), spear thistle (Cirsium vulgare), cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris), hemlock (Conium maculatum) and hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium) are abundant. Sweet cicely (Chaerophyllum bulbosum) is widespread and in late summer fills the air with the scent of aniseed.
To the south of the Esplanade the grassland is managed with an annual cut.. The grassland does flood to form pools. Early in the year cuckoo flower (Cardamine pratensis) is common, meadow foxtail (Alopecuris pratensis)is known to occur around the margins of these pools.
Woodland
Semi-mature woodland is present on the steep sided south bank of the river upstream from the Bridge of Don. Most of this woodland has been planted in the mid 1930's though some older oak and elm trees are present. These may be relicts of former woodland cover. The woodland in the reserve is part of a strip of woodland along the River Don corridor which continues upstream from the Brig 'o' Balgownie.
Woodland is present on the south bank upstream from the Bridge of Don.
Much of the woodland consists of even aged stands with willow (Salix sp.), sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus), ash (Fraxinus excelsior), beech (Fagus sylvatica) and alder (AInus glutinosa). At the top of the slope mature oak (Quercus sp.) and elm (Ulmus glabra) are present. The ground flora contains tufted hair-grass (Deschampsia caespitosa), red campion (Silene dioica), ramsons (Allium ursinum) and lady fern (Athyrium felix-femina) .In a few areas dense shading is caused by the trees and in these areas the ground flora is poor.
On the north bank scattered trees are present, mainly willow and sycamore with some scrub.
French postcard by Editions P.I., offered by Les Carbones Korès 'Carboplane', no. 877. Photo: Paramount Pictures.
Eva Marie Saint, born 4 July 1924, is an American actress with a career spanning 70 years. She is best known for starring in Elia Kazan's On the Waterfront (1954), for which she won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, and Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959). She received Golden Globe and BAFTA Award nominations for A Hatful of Rain (1957) and won a Primetime Emmy Award for the television miniseries People Like Us (1990).
Eva Marie Saint was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1924. Her parents were Quakers: Eva Marie née Rice and John Merle Saint. She had one older sister, Adelaide Louise Saint. Eva Marie attended Bethlehem Central High School in Delmar, New York, near Albany, graduating in 1942. According to her yearbook, Eva Marie's nickname was "Bubbles" and her ambition was to be a teacher. She was also a cheerleader as well as senior class secretary. Saint studied acting at Bowling Green State University. Her introduction to television began as an NBC page. She appeared in the very early live NBC TV show Campus Hoopla in 1946–47. She also appeared in the Bonnie Maid's Versa-Tile Varieties on NBC in 1949 as one of the original singing 'Bonnie Maid'" used in the live commercials. She appeared in a 1947 Life Magazine special about television, and also in a 1949 feature Life article about her as a struggling actress earning minimum amounts from early TV while trying to make ends meet in New York City. In the late 1940s, Saint continued to make her living by extensive work in radio and television. In 1953, she won the Drama Critics Award for her Broadway stage role in the Horton Foote play, 'The Trip to Bountiful' (1953), in which she co-starred with Lillian Gish and Jo Van Fleet. In 1955, Saint was nominated for her first Emmy for "Best Actress In A Single Performance" on The Philco Television Playhouse, for playing the young mistress of middle-aged E. G. Marshall in Middle of the Night by Paddy Chayefsky. She won another Emmy nomination for the 1955 television musical version of Our Town, adapted from the Thornton Wilder play of the same name. Co-stars were Paul Newman and Frank Sinatra. A TV critic dubbed her 'the Helen Hayes of television.'"
Eva Marie Saint made her feature film debut in On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan, 1954), starring Marlon Brando. She played Edie Doyle whose brother's death sets the film's drama in motion. Although the role of Edie properly is a lead, producer Sam Spiegel listed her as a Supporting Actress in the hopes of getting her a nomination for the Academy Award. The ploy worked and she won the Oscar. Her performance also earned her a BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Award) nomination for 'Most Promising Newcomer.' In his review for The New York Times, film critic A. H. Weiler wrote, "In casting Eva Marie Saint—a newcomer to movies from TV and Broadway—Mr. Kazan has come up with a pretty and blond artisan who does not have to depend on these attributes. Her parochial school training is no bar to love with the proper stranger. Amid scenes of carnage, she gives tenderness and sensitivity to genuine romance." The film was a major success and launched Saint's movie career. She received $7,500 for the role. She next appeared alongside Bob Hope in That Certain Feeling for which she received $50,000. She was then offered $100,000 to star in the lavish Civil War epic Raintree County (Edward Dmytryk, 1957) with Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift. After that, she next starred with Don Murray in A Hatful of Rain (Fred Zinnemann, 1957), the pioneering drug-addiction drama, which although made later than Raintree Country was released earlier in 1957. She received a BAFTA nomination for the 'Best Foreign Actress' for her performance. Alfred Hitchcock surprised many by choosing Saint over dozens of other candidates for the femme fatale role in the suspense classic North by Northwest (1959) with Cary Grant and James Mason. Pedro Borges at IMDb: "Written by Ernest Lehman, the film updated and expanded upon the director's early "wrong man" spy adventures of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, including The 39 Steps (1935), Young and Innocent (1937), and Saboteur (1942)". North by Northwest became a box-office hit. In his review in The New York Times, critic Abe H. Weiler wrote, "In casting Eva Marie Saint as [Cary Grant's] romantic vis-a-vis, Mr. Hitchcock has plumbed some talents not shown by the actress heretofore. Although she is seemingly a hard, designing type, she also emerges both the sweet heroine and a glamorous charmer."
Although North by Northwest might have propelled her to the top ranks of stardom, Eva Marie Saint chose to limit her film work in order to spend time with her husband since 1951, director Jeffrey Hayden, and their two children. In the 1960s, Saint continued to distinguish herself in both high-profile and offbeat pictures. She co-starred with Paul Newman in Exodus (Ottoi Preminger, 1960), a historical drama about the founding of the state of Israel adapted from the novel of the same name by Leon Uris. She also co-starred with Warren Beatty, Karl Malden, and Angela Lansbury as a tragic beauty in the drama All Fall Down (John Frankendheimer, 1962), based upon a novel by James Leo Herlihy and a screenplay by William Inge. She appeared with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in the melodrama The Sandpiper (Vincente Minnelli, 1965) and with James Garner in the World War II thriller 36 Hours (George Seaton, 1965). Saint joined an all-star cast in the comedic satire, The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, (Norman Jewison, 1966), and the international racing drama, Grand Prix (John Frankenheimer, 1966), presented in Cinerama.
Saint received some of her best reviews for co-starring as the wife of George Segal in Loving (Irvin Kershner, 1970), about a commercial artist's relationship with his wife and other women. It was critically acclaimed but did not have wide viewership. Because of the mostly second-rate film roles that came her way in the 1970s, Saint returned to television and the stage in the 1980s. She appeared in a number of made-for-television films. She played the mother of Cybill Shepherd on the television series, Moonlighting (1986-1988), which lasted three years. She received an Emmy nomination for the TV series, How The West Was Won (Vincent McEveety, Bernard McEveety, 1976-1977), and an Emmy nomination for Taxi!!! (1978). She was reunited with On the Waterfront co-star Karl Malden in the TV Mini-Series Fatal Vision (David Greene, 1984), this time as the wife of his character, as he investigated the murder of his daughter and granddaughters. Saint returned to the big screen for the first time in over a decade in Nothing in Common (Garry Marshall, 1986), in which she played the mother of Tom Hanks's character. Critics applauded her return to features. Saint was soon back on the small screen in numerous projects. After receiving five nominations, she won her first Emmy Award for the TV movie People Like Us (William Hale, 1990). She appeared in a number of television productions in the 1990s and was cast as the mother of radio producer, Roz Doyle, in a 1999 episode of the comedy series Frasier. Saint returned to feature films in I Dreamed of Africa (Hugh Hudson, 2000) with Kim Basinger. In 2005 she co-starred with Jessica Lange and Sam Shepard in Don't Come Knocking (Wim Wenders, 2005), and appeared in the family film Because of Winn-Dixie (Wayne Wang, 2005). Saint appeared as Martha Kent, the adoptive mother of Superman, in Superman Returns (Bryan Singer, 2006) alongside Brandon Routh. In 2009, she made a rare public appearance at the 81st Academy Awards ceremony as a Best Supporting Actress presenter. Saint has lent her voice to the 2012 Nickelodeon animated series The Legend of Korra, a sequel to the hit TV show Avatar: The Last Airbender, playing the now-elderly Katara, a main character from the original series. She played the adult version of Willa in the film adaptation of the novel Winter's Tale (Mark Helprin, 2014). Most recently, Saint appeared at the 2018 Academy Award ceremonies and played in the drama Mariette in Ecstasy (John Bailey, 2019), set in a turn-of-the-century religious community about a nun who has recently taken her vows. She has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for motion pictures at 6624 Hollywood Boulevard, and one for television at 6730 Hollywood Boulevard. Eva Marie Saint was married to producer and director Jeffrey Hayden from 1951 till his death in 2016. They had two children together: son Darrell Hayden (1955) and daughter Laurette Hayden (1958). Eva Marie Saint lives in Santa Monica, California.
Sources: Pedro Borges (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
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Cavendish Mews is a smart set of flats in Mayfair where flapper and modern woman, the Honourable Lettice Chetwynd has set up home after coming of age and gaining her allowance. To supplement her already generous allowance, and to break away from dependence upon her family, Lettice has established herself as a society interior designer, so her flat is decorated with a mixture of elegant antique Georgian pieces and modern Art Deco furnishings, using it as a showroom for what she can offer to her well heeled clients.
Today however, we are following Edith, Lettice’s maid, along with her best friend and fellow maid-of-all-work, Hilda Clerkenwell, who works around the corner from Cavendish Mews in Hill Street as a live-in maid for Lettice’s married friends Margot and Dickie Channon. It is Wednesday, and both maids have Wednesdays as a half-day off work and are free until four o’clock. The pair of maids head east of Mayfair, to a place far removed from the elegance and gentility of Lettice’s flat, in London’s East End. As a young woman, Edith is very interested in fashion. This interest has intensified, particularly since she started stepping out with Mayfair grocer Mr. Willison’s delivery boy, Frank Leadbetter. She is hoping that after several years of serious courting, that he will soon ask for her hand in marriage and they will become officially engaged. This idea is more predominant in her mind these days, especially now that Lettice is engaged to Sir John Nettleford-Huges and talk at Cavendish Mews often revolves around their forthcoming nuptials*, even if they do seem a little fraught. Edith’s own desire to make their engagement official has gotten the better of her in recent times, and after a fierce row over when Frank would propose to her whilst they were window shopping together up the Elephant** one Sunday afternoon, Edith resorted to visiting a “discreet clairvoyant” named Madame Fortuna, in Swiss Cottage***. Luckily, Madame Fortuna told Edith that Frank would propose within the year, which has allayed her concerns. Like most young girls of her class, Edith’s mother has taught her how to sew her own clothes and she has become an accomplished dressmaker, having successfully made frocks from scratch for herself, or altered cheaper existing second-hand pieces to make them more fashionable by letting out waistlines and taking up hems. Thanks to Lettice’s Cockney charwoman****, Mrs. Boothby, who lives in nearby Poplar, Edith now has her own hand treadle Singer***** sewing machine, and frequents a wonderful haberdasher in Whitechapel, Mrs. Minkin, whom she goes to frequently on her days off when she needs something for one of her many sewing projects as she slowly adds to and updates her wardrobe. Edith’s interest in fashion is greater than that Hilda, who is more bookish, isn’t walking out with a young man like Edith is, and with a fondness for sweet cakes and pastries, has a fuller figure than her best friend. Hilda is also the exception to the rule, and she cannot sew a stitch to save her life. However, Mrs. Minkin has managed to get Hilda involved in her knitting circle, which Hilda joins on some of her own Sundays off, whilst Edith and Frank spend time in one another’s company. Mrs. Minkin’s Haberdashery is just a short walk from Petticoat Lane******, where Edith often picks up bargains from one of the many second-hand clothes stalls.
The pair of maids now stand in Mrs. Minkin’s cluttered, yet cosy and well organised haberdashery. The long and narrow old Victorian shop is illuminated by the early summer light filtering through the plate glass front window and several old fashioned Art Nouveau gas lights suspended from the high ceiling which Mrs. Minkin turns on and off and adjusts with a long stick with a hook on the end. The shelves stretching three quarters of the way up the walls of the haberdashers, full of bolts of colourful textiles and dazzling white pressed linens help to dull the noise of the foot traffic outside and cocoon Edith and Hilda in a snug comfort, as do the piles of cloth and lace and the tables of materials artfully arranged to show off all that Mrs. Minkin has to sell. The shop’s smell is always comforting for Edith, as the familiar scent of a mixture of soap, starch, cloves and lavender remind her of her parent’s home, where Edith’s mother, Ada, takes in laundry to supplement the family’s income.
Edith spies a holly sprigged tablecloth and six matching napkins on a table and walks over to it. “Perfect!” she breathes, smiling with delight. “I’ll buy them for Mum for Christmas. She’s always wanted a Christmas tablecloth!”
“Cor, you are so lucky Edith,” Hilda remarks to Edith as she joins her friend in front of the table which is covered in fabrics laid out expertly in layered rows, carefully showing off enough of the pattern for each one to attract the eye.
“Me?” Edith ask. “Why?” she drops her green leather handbag on the textile covered surface of the table and places a hand lovingly on some fabric covered in a bold floral pattern in lupin blue and scarlet that has caught her eye.
“Your Miss Lettice seems never to be home. Weekend parties and all that.” Hilda elucidates.
“She’s gone home for a few days is all, Hilda,” Edith says dismissively as she runs her hand over the bold, almost pansy like flowers of the fabric. “She’s gone to talk about organising and buying her trousseau******* with her mother, the Viscountess. She’ll be back tonight.”
“Yes,” Hilda answers. “I know.”
“Oh of course!” Edith exclaims. “She’s going to a dinner party at the Channons tonight, isn’t she.”
“As is that American Mr. Carter and his wife.” Hilda adds with a morose sigh. “And you know what that means.” She eyes her best friend with a knowing look.
“The hard graft of grinding coffee beans to make fresh coffee for Mr. Carter.” Edith replies with a nod of understanding.
“That’s right!” Hilda opines, raising her chin and looking down her nose at Edith before continues, “No Camp Coffee******** for His Majesty the King of the American Department Store!” She sighs again and runs her own pudgy, worn fingers across a bolt of exotic floral fabric in bright pink and blue, embroidered with gold thread. “Still, I mustn’t complain. At least with Mr. Cater and his bottomless American dollar pockets and largess with wine and champagne, I won’t have to worry about telling bare-faced lies********* to the wine merchant, who just like the butcher, the baker and your Frank’s Mr. Willison the grocer, all know about the Channon’s precarious financial situation.”
“That’s so awful for you, Hilda.” Edith looks at her friend and smiles sadly. “Being a maid-of-all-work is hard enough graft as it is, without having to try and put off shopkeepers whom Mr. and Mrs. Channon are indebted to.”
“I know. I don’t think Mrs. Channon will ever learn how to balance a household account. I’m only relieved that Mrs. Channon’s father Lord de Virre pays my wages.”
“We must be grateful for small mercies, Hilda.” Edith says sagely.
“Oh, I am, Edith!” Hilda breathes. “Believe me I am!”
“Thinking of things to be grateful for, I believe Mr. Bruton will be attending the Channon’s dinner party tonight as Miss Lettice’s escort, and he’s always polite and not dismissive of servants, like Mr. and Mrs. Carter.”
“That’s true, Edith. He and Miss Lettice always smile and acknowledge me, and say ‘thank you’, and that does make things a little bit nicer for me when I wait at table for the Channons. And of course Mrs. Channon always tells me at the end of a dinner party, how grateful she is to have me.”
“I should think she should!” Edith opines. “There are fewer and fewer servants like us, now, what with working class women like us becoming shop girls and secretaries. I hope she appreciates everything you do for her.”
“Oh, she does, Edith. It’s just the chaotic nature of the Channon’s household and their financial precariousness and foolishness that wears me down, sometimes. Mrs. Channon would rather spend eighty-five guineas********** on a new frock from Mr. Bruton to parade around the Crystal Palace Horse Show*********** in, than pay off the sixty pound debt she and Mr. Channon have accrued with the wine merchant, who has flatly refused to extend their credit any further until at least half the amount is paid.”
“Imagine spending eighty-five guineas on a frock, Hilda!” Edith gasps. She moves her hand to a green patterned material further down the table, rubbing it between the thumb and forefinger of her right hand before letting it drop in distaste, deciding that it too thick, and therefore not suitable for her purposes. “And here I am, looking at material so I can cut a pattern from Weldon’s************ and make myself a new summer frock for a few shillings.” Her eyes stray back to the brightly patterned pansy fabric.
“Do you suppose Mr. Bruton will make Miss Lettice’s wedding frock, Edith?”
“I would imagine so, Hilda. I can’t imagine anyone else making it. Then again, that all depends upon Miss Lettice’s mum, the Viscountess, Lady Sadie.”
“Why?”
“It would be the same for us. Our mums will get involved in our weddings when we get married.”
Hilda snorts derisively. “I don’t think I’m ever going to meet a man who wants to marry me, Edith.”
“It’s more like the other way around, Hilda.” Edith retorts. “With your exacting standards.”
“Well, why shouldn’t I want to step out with a young man who respects me for my mind, and allows me my independence, Edith?”
“Oh, you should, Hilda!” Edith assures her. “It’s just that young eligible men are sometimes intimidated by women who are smart and independent.”
“No, not all men are like your Frank, that’s for certain, Edith.”
“I’m hardly smart or independent,” Edith replies, her hand drifting back to the pansy fabric which she caresses softly. “Well, not like… well, like you, Hilda.”
“What rot!” Hilda retorts. “Of course you are, Edith! Frank wouldn’t want to marry a girl who had no brains or ideas of her own.”
“Well, I think in that area, you’re probably more of a match for him than I am.” Edith says with a little bit of discomfort. She has always felt that Hilda is far smarter and more forward thinking than she is, and she feels inadequate sometimes when Frank and Hilda talk about politics or the state of working conditions for the everyday man. She decides to try and guide the conversation back to something she does feel more comfortable discussing. “Anyway, just like your mum or mine, Miss Lettice’s mum will want to have her say about Miss Lettice’s trousseau. It’s her right, as Miss Lettice’s mum, to help with it, which is why she has gone down to Wiltshire to see her.” She pauses. “Mind you I don’t think Miss Lettice wants her mum to help her with it.”
“Whyever not, Edith? I’m sure being a Viscountess, she can afford more than one eighty-five guinea frock.”
“I’m quite sure she can!” Edith chuckles. “I know Miss Lettice certainly can! From what I can gather from snippets I have overheard around Cavendish Mews, I think, Miss Lettice thinks the Viscountess is too old and stuffy and staid in her tastes.”
“Well, your Miss Lettice is very fashionable.” Hilda opines.
“And she gets help from Mr. Bruton, who is forever making her something new to wear. Her ‘muse’ is what he calls her, whatever that is.”
“A ‘muse’ is a person who inspires an artist, Edith.” Hilda elucidates. “So I suppose he must like designing frocks for her.”
“See Hilda! You’re as smart as a whip*************.” Edith opines, making Hilda blush. She then goes on, “Miss Lettice’s head has also been turned by her fiancée, Sir Nettleford-Hughes’ sister, who is apparently ever so smartly turned out.”
“Have you seen her, Edith?”
“No. Not yet anyway, Hilda. But I’m sure it will only be a matter of time before she comes to Cavendish Mews and I can see her for myself. Miss Lettice tells me that Mrs. Pontefract is much older than she is, but that she had been living in Paris for many prior to returning to live in London after her husband died. Miss Lettice is always talking about how much Mrs. Pontefract knows about the latest styles, and how much she admires her style and taste.”
“Her mum will have her nose out of joint over that, I’d imagine, Edith, if that’s what Miss Lettice gone down to talk to her about.” Hilda’s thick and dark eyebrows arch over her eyes in apprehension.
“I think you’re right, Hilda.” Edith nods in agreement.
“That would make a lovely autumn frock, Edit.” eagle eyed Mrs. Minkin calls from behind the shop counter where she is sorting through a box of miscellaneous sewing notions**************, her pudgy finger decorated with a few sparkling gold rings moving with dexterity as she sorts. “The colours would suit your complexion and colourings.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Minkin.” Edith calls cheerfully in reply. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“I have some lovely buttons in this box that would go perfectly with it, Edit my dear.” Mrs. Minkin goes on, holding up half a card of glass buttons in a pretty shade of cobalt blue. “I will give them to you as a gift if you buy the fabric.” she says as she tries to tempt Edith.
A refugee from Odessa as a result of a pogrom*************** in 1905, Mrs. Minkin’s Russian accent, still thick after nearly twenty years of living in London’s East End, muffles the h at the end of Edith’s name, never ceasing to make the young girl smile, for it is an endearing quality. Edith likes the Jewess proprietor with her old fashioned upswept hairdo and frilly Edwardian lace jabot running down the front of her blouse, held in place by a beautiful cameo – a gift from her equally beloved and at the same time irritating Mr. Minkin. She always has a smile and a kind word for Edith and Hilda, and her generosity towards her has found Edith discover extra spools of coloured cottons or curls of pretty ribbons and other notions in the lining of her parcel when she unpacks it at Cavendish Mews. Mrs. Minkin always insists when Edith mentions it, that she wished all her life that she had had a daughter, but all she ever had were sons, so Edith is like a surrogate daughter to her, and as a result she gets to reap the small benefits of her largess.
“That’s far to kind of you, Mrs. Minkin. You are too generous.” Edith replies, blushing as she does.
“Nonsense Edit my dear!” Mrs. Minkin scoffs with a wave of her hand. “For me, it is a pleasure. Besides, they are just sitting idly in this box. Better they go home with someone who will use them!”
“She’s right about the colours, Edith.” Hilda remarks. “They would suit you.”
“Hilda Clerkenwell!” Edith exclaims, here eyes widening in surprise as she looks in amused startlement at her best friend. “Since when do you have an opinion about colours and how they’d suit someone’s complexion!”
“Let’s put it down to Mrs. Minkin’s knitting circle.” Hilda replies with a smirk, her doughy face brightening as a blush runs up her neck and floods her face.
“Well! That is a turn up for the books****************, I must say!” Shew turns to Mrs. Minkin behind her shop counter. “It seems as if you are having a good influence on Hilda, Mrs. Minkin.”
Mrs. Minkin bows her head a little bit and smiles indulgently at the two maids. “I do my best to be a good influence on Hilde, and anyone else, wherever I go, Edit my dear, except perhaps upon my Mr. Minkin.” She rolls her eyes to the stained white painted ceiling above. “Oy vey*****************! No-one can be a good influence upon my tsedoodelt******************Mr. Minkin!”
Just as she speaks, the door to Mrs. Minkin’s storeroom opens and her husband in his grey flat cap with his dark beard that is starting to slowly grey steps out. He wears a beautiful silk cravat of jade green and gold at his throat – an expensive, showy and stylish piece that looks like it should belong to an outfit that Beau Brummell******************* had worn in the Eighteenth Century, rather than Mr. Minkin’s outfit of a thick apron over a collarless shirt, dark woollen vest and worn work trousers. He has thick bushy eyebrows arch over soft, dark brown eyes, and a gentle and friendly smile graces his aging face.
“What are you saying about me now, Rachel?” he asks in a good natured way, his heavily accented voice soft, rumbling and deep.
“Well Soloman,” Mrs. Minkin replies, spinning to her right, away from Edith and Hilda to face her husband, placing her hands firmly on her hips in a stance she is obviously well versed in striking after thirty-five years of marriage and raising three sons. “I was just saying what a tsemisht mentsh******************** you are!”
“No wonder I am a tsemisht mentsh, being married to a yenta froy********************* like you Rachel!” A booming laugh bursts from his chest full of teasing joviality. He turns his attentions to Edith and Hilda. “Good afternoon, ladies.” he says politely, bowing towards them in acknowledgement. “Watch out for Mrs. Minkin,” His brown eyes twinkle with mischief. “She’s schlau**********************, my dears innocent ones. She’ll have you buy something you don’t want before you can say… err… say… ay cleaver!”
“It’s knife, Soloman, you schlemiel**********************!” Mrs. Minkin says with an air of mock offence. “How many years must we live in London before you learn to speak English properly, or keep your hoykh moyl*********************** shut!”
Mrs. Minkin snatches up a half used roll of pink grosgrain*********************** ribbon from her box and throws it across the shop at her husband. As it tumbles through the air, the ribbon uncoils, cascading like a pretty celebratory streamer. Mr. Minkin ducks as, with very good aim from his wife, the spool and streamer of ribbon hits the doorjamb behind where he had been before ricocheting off the wood and tumbling to the floor.
“I’ll let you clean that up, Rachel, my beloved schlemiel.” Mr. Minkin says to his wife before slipping back into the safety of storeroom with a final cheeky and loving smile towards her, before closing the door.
Mrs. Minkin laughs as she walks the short distance along the aisle behind the counter and bends to pick up the spool of mostly unwound ribbon. “Oy vey!” she laughs.
“I wonder what schlemiel means?” Hilda asks Edith.
Edith smiles as she chuckles softly. “I think I can guess.”
“Thinking of trousseaus and wedding frocks, we should ask Mrs. Minkin to unpack some of her special lace for you.” Hilda says to her friend as Edith runs her hands lightly over a piece of quilted fabric with a pattern of flowers on it.
“Hhhmmm?” Edith murmurs distractedly.
“Lace Edith.” Hilda insists. “For your wedding frock.”
“Has your young man finally proposed, Edit my dear?” Mrs. Minkin pipes up, her figure appearing suddenly from behind the notion filled counter, her middle-aged face a mixture of excitement, joy and expectation as her own dark eyes sparkle with anticipation.
“Nothing escapes you, does it, Mrs. Minkin?” Edith laughs. Not expecting an answer to her rhetorical question she goes on. “No, not yet.”
“But it’s going to happen soon, Mrs. Minkin.” Hilda pipes up.
“How do you know, Hilde?” Mrs. Minkin asks, depositing the roll of ribbon, still only half wound back onto the spool, onto the glass surface of the counter. She quickly steps away from behind the counter and walks over to the two girls.
“Well, I thought he was going to ask me on Easter Sunday, Mrs. Minkin.” Edith explains. “He was acting like he wanted to say something… something important, but then at the last minute he didn’t.”
“And Edith says he’s been like that a few times since, hasn’t he, Edith?”
Edith nods shallowly in acquiescence.
“Well then, Edit my dear! There is no harm in looking is there?” Mrs. Minkin purrs. “I have just received some beautiful Huguenot lace************************ from my suppliers in Spitalfields************************.” She carefully guides Edith around with her hands firmly on the young girl’s shoulders and indicates to the counter opposite, which is draped with a collection of crisp white and soft creamy lace.
Edith and Hilda both smile with delight as they observe the beautiful and intricate patterns in the lace. Dainty daisies, large asters, bobbles wound around curlicues of white and ecru, each piece seems more ornate and exquisite than the last.
“There is no harm in looking, Edit my dear.” Mrs. Minkin says cheerfully. “You don’t have to buy anything today, but let your creative mind imagine what you could do with this lace.” She holds up a length of creamy off-white lace made up of large, stylised chrysanthemum flowers. “Or this.” She carefully withdraws some lace covered with different sized asters from beneath it. “There is no harm in looking, is there?”
As Edith looks, her imagination is sparked as she imagines herself arrayed in a blouson style************************** wedding frock of creamy white crêpe de chiné*************************** with ruffles and a braided waistline, embroidered with tiny glass beads, wearing a bridal coronet made of lace, decorated with wax orange blossoms with a cascade of cream lace falling in romantic cascades down her back.
“What dreams are made of.” Edith murmurs softly as she feels the delicate lace as Mrs. Minkin runs it lightly across her careworn palm like a whisper of spiderwebs.
*Nuptials is a alternative word for marriage. The term “nuptials” emphasizes the ceremonial and legal aspects of a marriage, lending a more formal tone to wedding communications and documentation.
**The London suburb of Elephant and Castle, south of the Thames, past Lambeth was known as "the Piccadilly Circus of South London" because it was such a busy shopping precinct. When you went shopping there, it was commonly referred to by Londoners, but South Londoners in particular, as “going up the Elephant”.
***According to the Dictionary of London Place Names, the district of Swiss Cottage is named after an inn called The Swiss Tavern that was built in 1804 in the style of a Swiss chalet on the site of a former tollgate keeper's cottage, and later renamed Swiss Inn and in the early 20th century Swiss Cottage.
****A charwoman, chargirl, or char, jokingly charlady, is an old-fashioned occupational term, referring to a paid part-time worker who comes into a house or other building to clean it for a few hours of a day or week, as opposed to a maid, who usually lives as part of the household within the structure of domestic service. In the 1920s, chars usually did all the hard graft work that paid live-in domestics would no longer do as they looked for excuses to leave domestic service for better paying work in offices and factories.
*****The Singer Corporation is an American manufacturer of consumer sewing machines, first established as I. M. Singer & Co. in 1851 by Isaac M. Singer with New York lawyer Edward C. Clark. Best known for its sewing machines, it was renamed Singer Manufacturing Company in 1865, then the Singer Company in 1963. In 1867, the Singer Company decided that the demand for their sewing machines in the United Kingdom was sufficiently high to open a local factory in Glasgow on John Street. The Vice President of Singer, George Ross McKenzie selected Glasgow because of its iron making industries, cheap labour, and shipping capabilities. Demand for sewing machines outstripped production at the new plant and by 1873, a new larger factory was completed on James Street, Bridgeton. By that point, Singer employed over two thousand people in Scotland, but they still could not produce enough machines. In 1882 the company purchased forty-six acres of farmland in Clydebank and built an even bigger factory. With nearly a million square feet of space and almost seven thousand employees, it was possible to produce on average 13,000 machines a week, making it the largest sewing machine factory in the world. The Clydebank factory was so productive that in 1905, the U.S. Singer Company set up and registered the Singer Manufacturing Company Ltd. in the United Kingdom.
******Petticoat Lane Market is a fashion and clothing market in Spitalfields, London. It consists of two adjacent street markets. Wentworth Street Market and Middlesex Street Market. Originally populated by Huguenots fleeing persecution in France, Spitalfields became a center for weaving, embroidery and dying. From 1882, a wave of Jewish immigrants fleeing persecution in eastern Europe settled in the area and Spitalfields then became the true heart of the clothing manufacturing district of London. 'The Lane' was always renowned for the 'patter' and showmanship of the market traders. It was also known for being a haven for the unsavoury characters of London’s underworld and was rife with prostitutes during the late Victorian era. Unpopular with the authorities, as it was largely unregulated and in some sense illegal, as recently as the 1930s, police cars and fire engines were driven down ‘The Lane’, with alarm bells ringing, to disrupt the market.
*******A trousseau refers to the wardrobe and belongings of a bride, including her wedding dress or similar clothing such as day and evening dresses.
********Camp Coffee is a concentrated syrup which is flavoured with coffee and chicory, first produced in 1876 by Paterson & Sons Ltd, in Glasgow. In 1974, Dennis Jenks merged his business with Paterson to form Paterson Jenks plc. In 1984, Paterson Jenks plc was bought by McCormick & Company. Legend has it (mainly due to the picture on the label) that Camp Coffee was originally developed as an instant coffee for military use. The label is classical in tone, drawing on the romance of the British Raj. It includes a drawing of a seated Gordon Highlander (supposedly Major General Sir Hector MacDonald) being served by a Sikh soldier holding a tray with a bottle of essence and jug of hot water. They are in front of a tent, at the apex of which flies a flag bearing the drink's slogan, "Ready Aye Ready". A later version of the label, introduced in the mid-20th century, removed the tray from the picture, thus removing the infinite bottles element and was seen as an attempt to avoid the connotation that the Sikh was a servant, although he was still shown waiting while the kilted Scottish soldier sipped his coffee. The current version, introduced in 2006, depicts the Sikh as a soldier, now sitting beside the Scottish soldier, and with a cup and saucer of his own. Camp Coffee is an item of British nostalgia, because many remember it from their childhood. It is still a popular ingredient for home bakers making coffee-flavoured cake and coffee-flavoured buttercream. In late 1975, Camp Coffee temporarily became a popular alternative to instant coffee in the UK, after the price of coffee doubled due to shortages caused by heavy frosts in Brazil.
*********A bare-faced lie is a blatant, obvious lie told without any attempt to conceal it. It's a lie that is told with complete confidence and without any shame or remorse. The term "bare-faced" itself implies being without disguise or concealment, like a bald head is without hair.
**********The guinea was a coin, minted in Great Britain between 1663 and 1814, that contained approximately one-quarter of an ounce of gold. The name came from the Guinea region in West Africa, from where much of the gold used to make the coins was sourced. It was the first English machine-struck gold coin, originally representing a value of twenty shillings in sterling specie, equal to one pound, but rises in the price of gold relative to silver caused the value of the guinea to increase, at times to as high as thirty shillings. From 1717 to 1816, its value was officially fixed at twenty-one shillings. After the guinea coin ceased to circulate, the guinea continued in use as a unit of account worth twenty-one shillings (£1.05 in decimalised currency). The guinea had an aristocratic overtone, so professional fees, and prices of land, horses, art, bespoke tailoring, furniture, white goods and other "luxury" items were often quoted in guineas until a couple of years after decimalisation in 1971. The guinea was used in a similar way in Australia until that country converted to decimal currency in 1966, after which it became worth $2.10.
***********The Crystal Palace Horse Show was not a single event but rather a recurring fixture of the Crystal Palace, a large glass and iron structure built for the Great Exhibition of 1851 in Hyde Park, London. Initially housed in Hyde Park, the structure was later moved and reconstructed in Sydenham Hill, south London, becoming a popular attraction and the namesake of the area, Crystal Palace. The horse show was a regular event within the larger Crystal Palace complex, which was designed for public entertainment and events. While the Crystal Palace did host horse racing, the horse show itself likely involved other equestrian events and displays beyond just racing and became a popular destination for Londoners and visitors alike, offering a variety of entertainment and attractions. Held after the Fourth of June at Eaton, the Crystal Palace Horse Show became a fixture of the London Season and thereby the social calendar for the upper-classes: a place to see the latest fashions and be seen in them in a prelude to Ascot Week later in the month.
************Created by British industrial chemist and journalist Walter Weldon Weldon’s Ladies’ Journal was the first ‘home weeklies’ magazine which supplied dressmaking patterns. Weldon’s Ladies’ Journal was first published in 1875 and continued until 1954 when it ceased publication.
*************Meaning very quick-witted and intelligent, the idiom "smart as a whip" originates from the quick, snapping movement of a whip when it's used to urge on a horse. The rapid action and effectiveness of the whip led to its association with sharp, quick thinking and intelligence.
**************In sewing and haberdashery, notions are small objects or accessories, including items that are sewn or otherwise attached to a finished article, such as buttons, snaps, and collar stays. Notions also include the small tools used in sewing, such as needles, thread, pins, marking pens, elastic, and seam rippers.
***************Pogroms in the Russian Empire were large-scale, targeted, and repeated anti-Jewish rioting that began in the Nineteenth Century. Pogroms began to occur after Imperial Russia, which previously had very few Jews, acquired territories with large Jewish populations from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire from 1772 to 1815. The 1905 pogrom against Jews in Odessa was the most serious pogrom of the period, with reports of up to 2,500 Jews killed. Jews fled Russia, some ending up in London’s east end, which had a reasonably large Jewish community, particularly associated with clothing manufacturing.
****************“A turn-up for the books” is a British idiom that means a surprising or unexpected event, typically one that is pleasing. The phrase was originally “a turn up for the book”. At Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century English race meetings, when bets were placed the punter’s name and wager were written down in a notebook. Not unreasonably, this process was called “making a book”. If a race was won by a horse that the bookmaker had no record of in his book, he had a “turn up” and kept all the wagered money. By the 1820s, the reference was to cards or dice, which are “turned up” by chance. Specifically, the “turn up” was referred to in the game of cribbage. At the start of a game of cribbage a member of one team cuts the pack and a member of the other turns up the top card. If this is a knave, the second team gets extra points – called “two for his heels”. Holding the knave of the suit that is turned up also merits a point – “one for his nibs”, the knave being one of the “Royal” cards and “nibs” being slang for “a person of importance”.
*****************Oy vey is a commonly used Jewish exclamation indicating dismay or grief.
******************Tsedoodelt is Yiddish for befuddled or confused.
*******************George Bryan "Beau" Brummell was an important figure in Regency England, and for many years he was the arbiter of British men's fashion. At one time, he was a close friend of the Prince Regent, the future King George IV, but after the two quarrelled and Brummell got into debt, he had to take refuge in France.
*******************Tsemisht mentsh is Yiddish for a confused man.
*********************Both the forms yenta and yente are used in Yinglish (Jewish varieties of English) to refer to someone who is a gossip or a busybody. The use of yenta as a word for “busybody” originated in the age of Yiddish theatre. There is a mistaken belief that the word for a Jewish matchmaker is yenta or yente. In reality a Jewish matchmaker is called a “shadchan”. The origin of this error is the 1964 musical “Fiddler on the Roof”, in which a character named Yente serves as the matchmaker for the village of Anatevka.
**********************Whilst there isn't one single word in Yiddish that perfectly translates to “wily” as it is used in English, there are several Yiddish words can convey similar meanings depending on the specific nuance. "Schlaum” or "schlau" mean sly, clever, or cunning, which can fit the context of “wily.”
***********************Schlemiel is a Yiddish term meaning "inept/incompetent person" or "fool". It is a common archetype in Jewish humour, and so-called "schlemiel jokes" depict the schlemiel falling into unfortunate situations.
**********************Hoykh moyl is Yiddish for “loud mouth”.
***********************Grosgrain is a type of fabric characterized by prominent transverse ribs created by a heavier weft than warp in a plain weave. It's a firm, close-woven fabric with a distinct texture, making it suitable for various applications like ribbon, millinery, and crafting.
************************Huguenot lace is a type of imitation lace where floral cut-out designs are sewn onto a muslin net ground. This style of lace was popular in England, particularly in the counties of Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Northamptonshire.
*************************After the Massacre of St Bartholomew's Day in Paris in 1572, when over ten thousand Huguenot Protestants were murdered, many fled to England. A second, larger, wave of Huguenots fled from France in the 1680s when King Louis XIV revoked a previous royal edict protecting Protestants from religious persecution and they were again attacked. Many Huguenots had difficult and dangerous journeys, escaping France and crossing to England by sea. Many Huguenot Protestants upon arriving in England after their dangerous journey, set up in London, in Spitalfields, the City, Clerkenwell, Soho, Greenwich, Marylebone and Wandsworth. Here they established weaving and lace making businesses, some of which are still in existence today, albeit not in quite the same form as when they were first established.
**************************A blouson dress is characterised by its loose, flowing silhouette, often with a gathered or cinched waistline, creating a blouson effect (a billowing or puffy appearance) over the bust and upper body. The waistline is typically undefined or slightly gathered, creating a comfortable, relaxed fit. This more relaxed style of dress became popular with the abandonment of tightly laced corsets after the Great War in the 1920s, which revolutionised women’s fashions, creating a look that is more characteristic of what we see today.
***************************Crêpe de chiné is a lightweight, luxurious fabric known for its smooth, silky feel and fluid drape. It's often associated with silk, although by the mid 1920s, when this story is set, cheaper crêpe de chiné made from other materials like rayon and man-made silks were readily available for women whose budgets couldn’t extend to real silk crêpe de chiné. The name "Crêpe de Chiné" translates to "crêpe from China," reflecting its origins.
Mrs. Minkin’s cluttered haberdashers filled with an assortment of notions, bolts of colourful fabrics and swags of creamy lace is not all it seems to be at first glance, for it is made up of part of my 1:12 size dollhouse miniatures collection.
Fun things to look for in this tableau include:
Edith’s handbag in the foreground handmade from soft leather is part of a larger collection of hats and bags that I bought from an American miniature collector Marilyn Bickel. The black umbrella came from an online stockist of 1:12 miniatures on E-Bay.
The fabrics on the table in the foreground are, aside from the holly print cloth, which is a 1:12 size square tablecloth, all embroidered ribbons from my collection of haberdashery. Each ribbon was given to me by a very drear friend who knows I love and collect beautiful and vintage haberdashery. The ribbons were either manufactured in India or France. The Christmas themed tablecloth and serviettes are 1:12 miniatures from Mick and Marie’s Miniatures in the United Kingdom.
The delicate lace you see on the counter in the midground and the wooden shelves in the background are a mixture of antique hand sewn and embroidered doilies, milk jug covers or rolls of very fine lace. The ecru coloured lace you see draped beneath the folded linen tied with a ribbon to the right of the photograph is in reality an antique French lace collar from the late Nineteenth Century.
The corsetry boxes on the counter are 1:12 size miniatures made by the British miniature artisan Ken Blythe. Known mostly for his books, most designed to opened to reveal authentic printed interiors, he also made other paper and cardboard based miniatures including a selection of beautiful boxes. All of Ken Blythe’s books, magazines and boxes are authentically replicated 1:12 scale miniatures of real volumes and boxes, with meticulous attention paid to the detailing of each one. To create something so authentic to the original in such detail and so clearly, really does make the corsetry boxes miniature artisan pieces. Ken Blythe’s work is highly sought after by miniaturists around the world today and command high prices at auction for such tiny pieces, particularly now that he is no longer alive. I was fortunate enough to acquire a large number of pieces from Ken Blythe prior to his death about four years ago, as well as through his estate via his daughter and son-in-law. His legacy will live on with me and in my photography which I hope will please his daughter.
The spools of cotton in the box in front of the corsetry boxes, I acquired from Kathleen Knight’s Dolls’ House Shop in the United Kingdom. The concertina wooden sewing box on casters which you can see closed in the background to the left of the photograph, beside the counter, also came from Kathleen Knight’s Dolls’ House Shop, as did the starched sheets tied with ribbon on the counter in the midground to the right of the photograph.
Cavendish Mews is a smart set of flats in Mayfair where flapper and modern woman, the Honourable Lettice Chetwynd has set up home after coming of age and gaining her allowance. To supplement her already generous allowance, and to break away from dependence upon her family, Lettice has established herself as a society interior designer, so her flat is decorated with a mixture of elegant antique Georgian pieces and modern Art Deco furnishings, using it as a showroom for what she can offer to her well heeled clients.
Today however we are not at Cavendish Mews. Instead, we have travelled east across London, through Bloomsbury, past the Smithfield Meat Markets, beyond the Petticoat Lane Markets* frequented by Lettice’s maid, Edith, through the East End boroughs of Bethnal Green and Bow, and through the 1880s housing development of Upton Park, to East Ham. It is here that we have followed Edith and her beau, grocery delivery boy Frank Leadbetter, to the Premier Super Cinema**, where the pair are treating themselves to one of their favourite Sunday pleasures: a feature film with a newsreel and cartoon before the main event.
Even though spring is finally in the air, it is cold out on the streets of London today, with a biting cold wind, so the warmth of the cinema’s foyer is a welcome respite from the weather outside after the journey up the High Street from the East Ham railway station. The foyer is brightly lit and cheerful. The cinema, renovated in 1922, isn’t called a picture palace for nothing, and no expense was spared with thick red wall-to-wall carpets covering the floors and brightly coloured up-to-date Art Deco wallpaper covering the walls, upon which the latest films are advertised in glamourous and colourful posters. Throughout the space, button backed*** armchairs and settees are arranged in intimate clutches around small tables, allowing patrons like Edith and Frank to await the commencement of their session in comfort. It is at one of these clusters that Edith sits patiently in her black three-quarter length coat and black dyed straw cloche decorated with lilac satin roses and black feathers, with her green leather handbag at her feet as she awaits her beau.
“Here we are then,” Frank says cheerfully. “Tea for my best girl.” He places two utilitarian white cups in saucers from the nearby cinema kiosk on the table that he and Edith are occupying in front of a vase of fresh, fragrant flowers. He takes his seat opposite her, enjoying the luxury of his plush seat as he does. “And,” He fishes into his coat pocket withdrawing a purple box and presents it to his sweetheart with a flourish. “A box of Gainsborough Dubarry Milk Chocolates****!”
“Oh Frank!” Edith exclaims in delight, her cheeks flushing red as she speaks. “You are good to me.”
“Nothing too good for my best girl!” Frank assures her.
Edith smiles as she looks at the beautifully decorated box featuring a lady with cascading auburn hair highlighted with gold ribbons, a creamy face and décollétage sporting a frothy white gown and gold necklace. She traces the embossed gold lettering on the box’s lid with reverence.
“You’re being very solicitous today, Frank.” Edith remarks as she picks up her teacup, staring at Frank as she takes a sip of hot, milky tea from her cup.
“Am I?” Frank replies in a question, his voice full of nonchalance as he picks up his own cup.
“You are, Frank.” Edith opines. “You know you are.”
“How so, Edith?”
“Well for a start, you agreed to come and see ‘Peter Pan’*****.” Edith replies, placing her cup back into her saucer.
“I like ‘Peter Pan’, Edith!” Frank retorts. “I have read the book, I’ll have you know.”
“Yes, but when you may have one of your last chances to see the ‘Thief of Bagdad’****** with swashbuckling Douglas Fairbanks, and you demur to my choice...” Edith does not complete her sentence, but stares across at her sweetheart.
“Oh fie the ‘Thief of Bagdad’!” Frank scoffs. “It will still be running here for a week or two yet. We can see it next Sunday.” He waves Edith’s repark away with a dismissive hand. “Anyway, I chose the last film we saw, ‘Chu-Chin-Chow’*******, and that had enough swashbuckling with villain Abou Hassan being stabbed by Zharat and his forty thieves done away with.”
Edith looks sceptically at Frank. “And this box of chocolates on top of our slap-up tea at Lyon’s Corner House******** in Tottenham Court Road?”
“What?” Frank retorts with incredulity. “Can’t a chap spoil his girl once in a while?”
“Oh, please don’t misunderstand me, Frank!” Edith quickly pipes up with a smile. “I’m not complaining!”
“I should hope you wouldn’t be.”
“But I can’t help being a little bit suspicious.” Edith arches her eyebrow over her right eye and purses her pretty pale lips.
“Well I like that!” Frank answers back, folding his arms akimbo across his chest in defence.
“This wouldn’t have anything to do with the fact that I went to see a clairvoyant the week before last, would it, Frank?” Edith fishes. “And that I didn’t see you last Sunday, because you had to take care of your granny?”
“Clairvoyant? What clairvoyant, Edith?” Frank asks, pleading innocence.
“Oh come on Frank!” Edith laughs. “You know Mrs. Boothby loves a gossip!” she goes on, mentioning Lettice’s charwoman********* who comes to help Edith with all the hard graft around Cavendish Mews a few days a week. “You can’t imagine us not talking, Frank.”
Ignoring her gentle chuckle, Frank continues to decry his irreproachability. “I don’t know what you and Mrs. Boothby talked about.”
“She told me that she saw you Tuesday week ago, the same day I went to see Madame Fortuna the clairvoyant in Swiss Cottage**********, and she told you that I was going to see her. There’s no use trying to say she didn’t, because I know that for all her tall tales and gilding of the lily***********, Mrs. Boothby wouldn’t do that with a story about you.”
Frank unfolds his arms and picks up his teacup, taking a sip of tea. “Alright, so I did meet her that day, Edith, and yes, she told me that you were going to see a clairvoyant, although her description of her was perhaps a little bit less kind than that.”
“Oh yes.” Edith chuckles. “She told me that it was a lot of mumbo-jumbo too, Frank.”
“Well, I don’t know if I’d disagree with her, Edith.” Frank says in concern, cocking an eyebrow. “You know I am a believer in facts, not fiction.”
“Well, I happen to be a believer in Madame Fortuna, and what she had to say.” Edith replies defiantly. “Which I don’t believe to be fiction.”
“And what else did Mrs. Boothby disclose about our meeting in Binney Street, Edith?” Frank asks.
“Oh, not so very much, Frank.” Edith replies with a smirk. “Just that you were out delivering groceries when she saw you.”
“And?” Frank queries.
Edith sighs. “And that she told you how distracted I’ve been about not having a commitment from you about getting married.”
“Which is utter pish-posh************, Edith, and well you know it.” Frank says seriously. “You know I’m committed to marrying you. You’re the only girl for me.”
“I know that, Frank. But Mrs. Boothby also said that you should be a bit more demonstrative with your dedication.”
“I doubt Mrs. Boothby would have used either the word ‘demonstrative’ or ‘dedication’.” Frank laughs.
“Maybe not, Frank.” Edith concurs, chuckling as well. “But she made the point clear, as I’m sure she did with you, Frank.”
“Indeed, she did.”
“So, this is you being more demonstrative of your dedication to me.” Edith says with a smile, toying with the box of chocolates, turning the pretty packaging over in her careworn hands.
Frank thinks for a moment ruminating over in his mind as to whether to tell his sweetheart about Mrs. Boothby’s suggestion that he get on with asking Edith’s parents for their daughter’s hand in marriage, which he did do last Sunday on his afternoon off: a visit which resulted in both George and Ada Watsford readily agreeing to the match. Then he thinks otherwise. Frank may not yet be able to afford a gold wedding band like those which he and Edith saw in the window of Schwar and Company************* along Walworth Road in the South London suburb of Elephant and Castle************** a bit over a month ago, but he has almost finished paying off a silver ring intended for Edith at a smart jewellers shop along Lavender Hill***************, not far from his boarding house in Clapham Junction. Although simple, Frank is having his and Edith’s names engraved on the inside of the band, along with the year 1925. He still wants to surprise Edith with his proposal and the ring, so he decides not to say anything about visiting her parents, knowing that after his conversation with them, that they will not steal Frank’s thunder and give the game away, although it will be far harder for Ada, who is very close to her daughter.
Frank raises his hands. “Guilty as charged, Edith.”
“Oh Frank!” Edith exclaims, a smile of delight breaking out across her lips. “You really are sweet!”
Edith reaches out her hand to him across the polished wooden surface of the pedestal table. Frank stretches out his own hand and allows her to enmesh her fingers with his and squeeze them. The action is only small, but so intimate and full of emotion that Frank takes great comfort from it. Even though Edith does not know his grand plans yet, he knows that everything is alright between the two of them now, and any doubts Edith may have had about his commitment to her have been dispelled by his actions, Mrs. Boothby’s consoling words with Edith at cavendish Mews, whatever prediction Madame Fortuna the clairvoyant made, or most likely a mixture of all of these things. Frank smiles reassuringly across at his sweetheart, who returns his smile wholeheartedly.
“I keep telling you, Edith.” Frank murmurs as his cheeks colour. “You’re not only my best girl, you’re my only girl.” He returns her gentle squeeze with one of his own.
“Well, just you keep telling me that, Frank.” Edith replies softly, looking across at Frank with loving eyes a-glitter with emotion. “I may know it, but I’ll never tire of hearing it.”
“With pleasure, Edith, my best and only girl.” Frank answers.
Just then, the double doors near to them open and with the voluble burble of cheerful chatter, people begin to file out the door in pairs or small groups. Edith and Frank watch the passing parade of mostly women and a smattering of men in their Sunday best as they exit the cinema auditorium, all murmuring about the film they have just seen. As the crowd thins to a trickle with the stragglers leaving the theatre and the vociferous burble of voices dissipates, Frank turns to Edith.
“By the by, what did the clairvoyant, madame whatshername tell you, anyway?”
“Never you mind, Frank Leadbetter!” Edith replies with an air of mystery as she stands up, snatching up the box of chocolates as she does. “She told me the truth. That’s all you have to worry about.”
Frank gets up and follows Edith as they join the crowd of chattering cinema goers as they go into the brightly lit auditorium, and make their way to their plush red velvet seats.
Inside the theatre a fug of cigarette smoke fills the auditorium, a mixture of that created by the previous audience and a few new patrons who just start to light up before the house lights go down. The space is filled with the faint traces of various perfumes, which mix with the stronger traces of cigarettes, fried food, and body odour. Around them quiet chatter and the occasional burst of a cough or a laugh resound. It feels cosy and safe. At the front of the theatre, in a pit below the screen, a middle aged woman whom they have come to recognise by sight from their many trips to the Premier Super Cinema, appears dressed in an old fashioned Edwardian gown with an equally outmoded upswept hairdo that went out of fashion before the war. She starts to play the upright piano with enthusiasm, dramatically banging out palm court music for the audience before the beginning of the newsreel.
Settling in their plush red velvet seats in the middle of the auditorium, Frank winds his arm around Edith’s shoulder. “I love you, my best girl.”
Behind them the projector whirrs to life as the lights dim. Suddenly the screen is illuminated in blinding, brilliant white as the pianist in the pit below the screen starts to play the playful opening bars to the music to accompany Peter Pan.
“I love you too, Frank Leadbetter.” Edith replies as she opens her box of Gainsborough Dubarry Milk Chocolates and proffers the open end to Frank so that he may help himself to one of the delicious, foil wrapped chocolates inside.
*Petticoat Lane Market is a fashion and clothing market in Spitalfields, London. It consists of two adjacent street markets. Wentworth Street Market and Middlesex Street Market. Originally populated by Huguenots fleeing persecution in France, Spitalfields became a center for weaving, embroidery and dying. From 1882, a wave of Jewish immigrants fleeing persecution in eastern Europe settled in the area and Spitalfields then became the true heart of the clothing manufacturing district of London. 'The Lane' was always renowned for the 'patter' and showmanship of the market traders. It was also known for being a haven for the unsavoury characters of London’s underworld and was rife with prostitutes during the late Victorian era. Unpopular with the authorities, as it was largely unregulated and in some sense illegal, as recently as the 1930s, police cars and fire engines were driven down ‘The Lane’, with alarm bells ringing, to disrupt the market.
**The Premier Super Cinema in East Ham was opened on the 12th of March, 1921, replacing the 800 seat capacity 1912 Premier Electric Theatre. The new cinema could seat 2,408 patrons. The Premier Super Cinema was taken over by Provincial Cinematograph Theatres who were taken over by Gaumont British in February 1929. It was renamed the Gaumont from 21st April 1952. The Gaumont was closed by the Rank Organisation on 6th April 1963. After that it became a bingo hall and remained so until 2005. Despite attempts to have it listed as a historic building due to its relatively intact 1921 interior, the Gaumont was demolished in 2009.
***Button back upholstered furniture contains buttons embedded in the back of the sofa or chair, which are pulled tightly against the leather creating a shallow dimple effect. This is sometimes known as button tufting.
****Starting in the Edwardian era, confectioners began to design attractive looking boxes for their chocolate selections so that they could sell confectionary at a premium, as the boxes were often beautifully designed and well made so that they might be kept as a keepsake. A war erupted in Britain between the major confectioners to try and dominate what was already a competitive market. You might recognise the shade of purple of the box as being Cadbury purple, and if you did, you would be correct, although this range was not marketed as Cadbury’s, but rather Gainsborough’s, paying tribute to the market town of Gainsborough in Lincolnshire, where Rose Bothers manufactured and supplied machines that wrapped chocolates. The Rose Brothers are the people for whom Cadbury’s Roses chocolates are named.
*****Peter Pan is a 1924 American silent fantasy adventure film released by Paramount Pictures, the first film adaptation of the 1904 play by J. M. Barrie. It was directed by Herbert Brenon and starred Betty Bronson as Peter Pan, Ernest Torrence as Captain Hook, Mary Brian as Wendy, Virginia Browne Faire as Tinker Bell, Esther Ralston as Mrs. Darling, and Anna May Wong as the Indian princess Tiger Lily. The film was seen by Walt Disney and inspired him to create his company's 1953 animated adaptation. The film was celebrated at the time for its innovative use of special effects (mainly to show Tinker Bell) according to Disney's 45th anniversary video of their adaptation of Peter Pan. In 2000, this film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
******The Thief of Bagdad is a 1924 American silent adventure film directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Douglas Fairbanks, and written by Achmed Abdullah and Lotta Woods. Freely adapted from One Thousand and One Nights, it tells the story of a thief who falls in love with the daughter of the Caliph of Baghdad. In 1996, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant"
*******Chu-Chin-Chow is a 1923 British-German silent adventure film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Betty Blythe, Herbert Langley, and Randle Ayrton. Abou Hassan and his forty thieves descend on a small Arabian town on the wedding day of Omar and the beautiful Zharat and kidnap them. Abou sells Zahrat to Kasim Baba, the miser and money lender of Bagdad, while posing as Prince Constantine. Later, Abou poses as the wealthy Chinese prince Chu-Chin-Chow, and bids on Zahrat when she is placed at auction. She pierces his disguise and exposes him. He robs the other bidders of their wealth and escapes with Zahrat. Promising that she will live among untold wealth, he sets her free. After she finds Omar, Abou takes them to his treasure cave, making good on his promise. Ali Baba, brother of Kasim, accidentally discovers the cave and helps himself to the treasure. He then goes for aid to free Zahrat. Kasim, led by his greed, also comes to the cave but is captured and killed by Abou. Zahrat, now free, returns to Bagdad. Ali Baba gives a great feast. Abou appears as a merchant with forty jugs of oil, in which are hidden his forty thieves. Zahrat discovers the deception and, assisted by a powerful slave, they get rid of the hidden thieves. Left alone, Abou is denounced and the multitude turn on him. Cornered, he is stabbed by Zahrat who then returns to her village and finds happiness with Omar.
********J. Lyons and Co. was a British restaurant chain, food manufacturing, and hotel conglomerate founded in 1884 by Joseph Lyons and his brothers in law, Isidore and Montague Gluckstein. Lyons’ first teashop opened in Piccadilly in 1894, and from 1909 they developed into a chain of teashops, with the firm becoming a staple of the High Street in the United Kingdom. At its peak the chain numbered around two hundred cafes. The teashops provided for tea and coffee, with food choices consisting of hot dishes and sweets, cold dishes and sweets, and buns, cakes and rolls. Lyons' Corner Houses, which first appeared in 1909 and remained until 1977, were noted for their Art Deco style. Situated on or near the corners of Coventry Street, Strand and Tottenham Court Road, they and the Maison Lyonses at Marble Arch and in Shaftesbury Avenue were large buildings on four or five floors, the ground floor of which was a food hall with counters for delicatessen, sweets and chocolates, cakes, fruit, flowers and other products. In addition, they possessed hairdressing salons, telephone booths, theatre booking agencies and at one period a twice-a-day food delivery service. On the other floors were several restaurants, each with a different theme and all with their own musicians. For a time, the Corner Houses were open twenty-four hours a day, and at their peak each branch employed around four hundred staff including their famous waitresses, commonly known as Nippies for the way they nipped in and out between the tables taking orders and serving meals. The tea houses featured window displays, and, in the post-war period, the Corner Houses were smarter and grander than the local tea shops. Between 1896 and 1965 Lyons owned the Trocadero, which was similar in size and style to the Corner Houses.
*********A charwoman, chargirl, or char, jokingly charlady, is an old-fashioned occupational term, referring to a paid part-time worker who comes into a house or other building to clean it for a few hours of a day or week, as opposed to a maid, who usually lives as part of the household within the structure of domestic service. In the 1920s, chars usually did all the hard graft work that paid live-in domestics would no longer do as they looked for excuses to leave domestic service for better paying work in offices and factories.
**********Swiss Cottage is an area in the London Borough of Camden. It is centred on the junction of Avenue Road and Finchley Road and includes Swiss Cottage tube station. Swiss Cottage lies north-northwest of Charing Cross. The area was named after a public house in the centre of it, known as "Ye Olde Swiss Cottage".
***********The term “gilding the lily” came about as a mistaken version of a line from King John, which was “to gild refined gold, to paint the lily.”, and means to adorn unnecessarily something that is already beautiful or perfect.
************Pish-posh is a phrase used in British slang to express disagreement or to say that something is nonsense. The exact origin of this phrase is not precisely documented, but it is considered a colloquial and informal expression that has been in use for many years. It is often used to express scepticism or disagreement in a light hearted manner.
*************Established in 1838 by Andreas Schwar who was a clock and watch maker from Baden in Germany, Schwar and Company on Walworth Road in Elephant and Castle was a watchmaker and jewellers that is still a stalwart of the area today. The shop still retains its original Victorian shopfront with its rounded plate glass windows.
**************The London suburb of Elephant and Castle, south of the Thames, past Lambeth was known as "the Piccadilly Circus of South London" because it was such a busy shopping precinct. When you went shopping there, it was commonly referred to by Londoners, but South Londoners in particular, as “going up the Elephant”.
***************Lavender Hill is a bustling high street serving residents of Clapham Junction, Battersea and beyond. Until the mid Nineteenth Century, Battersea was predominantly a rural area with lavender and asparagus crops cultivated in local market gardens. Hence, it’s widely thought that Lavender Hill was named after Lavender Hall, built in the late Eighteenth Century, where lavender grew on the north side of the hill.
This beautiful Art Deco cinema interior is not all it appears to be, for it is made up entirely with pieces from my miniatures collection.
Fun things to look for in this tableau include:
Edith’s green leather handbag I acquired as part of a larger collection of 1:12 artisan miniature hats, bags and accessories I bought from an American miniature collector Marilyn Bickel. The umbrella comes from Melody Jane’s Doll House Suppliers in the United Kingdom.
The pedestal table , vase of flowers, white teacups and saucers and two flounced red velvet chairs all come from Kathleen Knight’s Doll’s House in the United Kingdom, whilst the dainty box of Gainsborough Dubarry Milk Chocolates, which has been beautifully printed, on the table’s surface, comes from Shepherd’s Miniatures in the United Kingdom.
The chrome Art Deco smoker’s stand in the foreground is a Shackman miniature from the 1970s and is quite rare. I bought it from a dealer in America via E-Bay. The black ashtray inside it is an artisan piece, the bowl of which is filled with “ash”. The tray as well as having grey ash in it, also has a 1:12 cigarette which rests on its lip (it is affixed there). The match box in the stand was made by Little Things Dollhouse Miniatures in Lancashire.
The Art Deco pedestal stand in the foreground has been made by the high end miniature furniture maker, Bespaq, whilst the vase of flowers on it comes from Falcon Miniatures in the United States, who are well known for their realistic and high quality miniatures.
The posters around the cinema walls were all sourced by me and reproduced in high quality colour and print.
The geometric Art Deco wallpaper is beautiful hand impressed paper given to me by a friend, who did so in the hope that I would find a use for it in the “Cavendish Mews – Lettice Chetwynd” series.
The thick and bright red carpet is in fact a placemat which I appropriated in the late 1970s to use as a carpet for my growing miniatures collection. Luckily, I was never asked to return it, and the rest of the set is long gone!
Urbex Benelux -
Today’s global short-term vacation property rental market is estimated to be worth $100 billion .The holiday cottage market in both Canada and the UK is highly competitive – and big business. In the UK, this increased competition has led to significant improvements in the quality of properties on offer. This improvement in standards has in turn contributed to the increase in the popularity of holiday cottages for weekend breaks, offering in many cases the same standard of accommodation as an hotel, yet with the increased freedom that a holiday cottage offers.
Cavendish Mews is a smart set of flats in Mayfair where flapper and modern woman, the Honourable Lettice Chetwynd has set up home after coming of age and gaining her allowance. To supplement her already generous allowance, and to break away from dependence upon her family, Lettice has established herself as a society interior designer, so her flat is decorated with a mixture of elegant antique Georgian pieces and modern Art Deco furnishings, using it as a showroom for what she can offer to her well heeled clients.
Lettice is nursing a broken heart. Her beau, Selwyn Spencely, son of the Duke of Walmsford, has been sent to Durban for a year by his mother, the Duchess of Walmsford, Lady Zinnia in an effort to destroy their relationship which she wants to end so that she can marry Selwyn off to his cousin, Pamela Fox-Chavers. Lettice returned home to Glynes to lick her wounds, however it only served to make matters worse as she grew even more morose. It was from the most unlikely of candidates, her mother Lady Sadie, with whom Lettice has always had a fraught relationship, that Lettice received the best advice, which was to stop feeling sorry for herself and get on with her life and wait patiently for Selwyn’s eventual return. Since then, Lettice has been trying to follow her mother’s advice and has thrown herself into the merry dance of London’s social round of dinners, dances and balls. However, even she could only keep this up for so long, and on New Year’s Eve, her sister, Lally, suggested that she spend a few extra weeks resting and recuperating with her in Buckinghamshire before returning to London and trying to get on with her life. Lettice happily agreed, however her rest cure ended abruptly with a letter from her Aunt Egg in London, summoned Lettice back to the capital and into society in general. Through her social connections, Aunt Egg has contrived an invitation for Lettice and her married Embassy Club coterie friends Dickie and Margot Channon, to an amusing Friday to Monday long weekend party of Sir John and Lady Caxton, who are very well known amongst the smarter bohemian set of London society for their amusing weekend parties at their Scottish country estate and enjoyable literary evenings in their Belgravia townhouse. Lady Gladys is a successful authoress in her own right and writes under the nom de plume of Madeline St John, so they attract a mixture of witty writers and artists mostly.
Now we find ourselves in the cosy and cluttered, old fashioned Art and Crafts decorated drawing room of Gossington, the Scottish Baronial style English Art and Crafts castle near the hamlet of Kershopefoot in Cumberland belonging to Sir John and Lady Gladys, where Lettice, Margot and Dickie have joined their hosts along with a few stragglers who arrived on a later train to Carlisle who were chauffeured to the house from the railway station there.
Lady Gladys stands by one of the full length windows looking out at the countryside beyond. Her face crumples up as she stares at the roiling and dark clouds in the sky. She pats her finger waved grey hair anxiously, as though trying to protect it from being spoiled by the rain she perceives is coming, “Looks like the weather is on the turn, John.”
“What’s that, Gladys?” her husband pipes up, glancing over the top of his book from his Savonarola chair by the crackling fire.
“I said it’s starting to cloud over.” she replies in a slightly louder voice, turning to face him so he can hear her more clearly. “I do hope that it doesn’t rain on Pheobe and the other ramblers.”
“I’m sure they can all shelter in a barn somewhere.” he replies. “It will be a new and novel experience for some of them.”
Snorts and muffles giggles come from a few of the guests sitting about the room enjoying indoor pursuits.
Sir John looks over at the clusters of heads lowered together and chuckles good-naturedly as he remarks, “Don’t get so self-righteous you lot!” He closes his book. “I bet it would be a new and novel experience for most of you too!”
Lady Gladys wanders across the room, toying with the long string of pearls about her neck and takes a seat, just as Lettice appears at the door of the drawing room.
“Oh, do come in Lettice,” Lady Gladys says warmly from a corner of the Knole sofa* upholstered in William Morris’** ‘Strawberry Thief’ fabric. “Come and sit with me.” She softly pats the cushion next to her, the action emitting a small cloud of dust motes.
“Thank you Lady Caxton.” Lettice replies as she walks across the room, squeezing between the clusters of chairs and occasional tables, some occupied by the late arriving guests, including Dickie and Margot, playing a range of parlour games on offer from the Gossington games cupboard.
“Ah!” the hostess wags her finger admonishing at Lettice. “I might be older than your mother, my dear, but here, we are egalitarian. We are all on a first name basis. I am Gladys and Sir John is just, John. Hmmm?”
“Very well, thank you, Gladys.” Lettice replies awkwardly, a little startled by this revelation, as she sits on the opposite end of the sofa, closest to the fire.
“Gladys is an old Fabian*** from before you were born, Lettice.” Sir John adds with a kindly wink from his seat opposite her.
“Not so much of the old, thank you John!” Gladys remarks, pretending to be offended. “Remember, I’m younger than you.”
“That doesn’t say much when you compare yourself to all these youngsters!” He waves his hand about the room.
“That’s why I like young people,” Gladys smiles indulgently at Lettice, directing her comment to her rather than her husband. “They help keep me young with their talk of nightclubs, the latest shows and the like.”
“More like it gives you fodder for your next novel, Gladys.” He looks lovingly at his wife, a mischievous glint in his sparkling blue eyes and a cheeky smile playing across his lips. “Writing vicariously through others.”
“It pays to keep up to date with the latest trends, John. I don’t want to fall out of fashion.”
“I don’t think your novels will ever fall out of fashion, Lady… err, Gladys.” Lettice remarks magnanimously.
“You’re a flatterer, that’s for certain!” Lady Gladys chuckles. “You’ll get on. I shall graciously accept your compliment.” Her pale, wrinkled face stills for a moment as a far away look glazes over her eyes. “We none of us think we will fall out of fashion, but we do, in one way or another – especially as we get older. Take this room for example. Decorated in what was once the height of fashion. Would you decorate your home in this way, my dear Lettice?”
From her vantage point, Lettice gazes around the room. Looking at the William Morris ‘Strawberry Thief’ pattern on the sofa, woven carpet and the Morris ‘Poppies’ wallpaper, Lettice estimates the room, like most around the grey stone castle, were decorated in the late Nineteenth Century during the heyday of the Arts and Crafts Movement. A hotch-potch of furnishings that jostle comfortably for space suggests a period of prosperity driven acquisition over the ensuing years up until the Great War, yet each piece is of high quality and well made, implying her hosts’ dedication to the arts, as do the ornaments that cover surfaces around the room, all of which are beautiful and handmade. Old paintings of Scottish landscapes remind Lettice of Sir John’s proud heritage, whilst the large number of books tell her of Lady Caxton’s literary pursuits and success.
“Oh, I think it’s charming,” Lettice replies. “You obviously have an eye for fine workmanship and artistry.”
“But?” Lady Gladys picks up Lettice’s unspoken thought.
“But no, I wouldn’t decorate my home like this.”
“That’s the correct answer, Lettice.” Lady Gladys replies kindly. “And, if I were your age, I wouldn’t either. It’s fusty and old fashioned.”
“It is lovely though, and all my modern ideas would look out of place in a room like this. You need to have older things here, not what is fashionable and up-to-date. It would look out of place.”
“Tea, Lettice?” Gladys leans forward towards the low beautifully hand embroidered footstool before her and picks up an empty cup. “Or would you prefer coffee?”
“Oh, tea will be fine Lady Cax… err, I mean, Gladys.” She chuckles awkwardly at such familiarity with people she barely knows. “White and one sugar, please.”
“Good. I’ve never been one for coffee myself.” Lady Gladys pours tea from the silver pot into the cup over the sugar, and adds a slosh of milk, before she passes it to Lettice to stir. “I do hope you found your room to be satisfactory, Lettice.”
“It’s lovely. Thank you. I shall feel like Sleeping Beauty when I retire.”
“Hhmmm,” Gladys smiles understandingly. “Yes. I thought you’d like the décor in there.”
“The Art Nouveau wallpaper is lovely. It is William Morris, like in here, is it not?”
“Yes,” Lady Gladys remarks with a surprised lilt in her voice. “How clever of you to notice. It’s ‘Sweet Briar’, so your reference to Briar Rose is most apt, my dear.”
“My Aunt Eglantine has it in her bedroom in Chelsea. She loves William Morris too.”
“And you, Lettice? Do you like William Morris?” Lady Gladys asks.
“I like a mixture of old and new, Lad… Gladys. I think a well placed antique on a modern table adds elegance, and I think a William Morris cushion,” She pulls the cushion from behind her back and looks at it thoughtfully. “Could look splendid as an accent on a plain coloured settee.”
“How is Eglantine?” Sir John asks, changing the subject as he takes a sip of his own cup of tea.
“I didn’t know you were acquainted with my Aunt, Sir John, until my aunt told me of my invitation to this weekend.”
“Just John, my dear.” he corrects Lettice politely, causing her to blush. “Remember the old Fabian in the room.” He nods at his wife. “And yes, Gladys and I have similar artistic and literary pursuits to her, so we know Eglantyne quite well.”
“I have some of her pieces,” Lady Gladys remarks proudly and indicates firstly to two dainty pots of hand painted petunias on the mantlepiece, which are part of Eglantyne’s pre-war work, and then to a pedestal next to a very full bookcase, where one of Lettice’s aunt’s more modern pottery pieces sits. “She is a wonderful ceramicist and artist. She can create such beautiful sinuous lines in pottery. It really is remarkable.”
“She doesn’t do that so much now,” Lettice remarks.
“That’s a pity.” Lady Gladys replies a little sadly. “It’s a shame to waste such a gift.”
“Her arthritis slows her somewhat when it comes to ceramics, and she is seldom happy with the results. She’s following different pursuits these days.”
“She paints now, doesn’t she?” Sir Caxton asks.
“She does… John. She’s currently painting a piece for the Royal Academy.”
“Excellent! We shall look forward to seeing that, shan’t we Gladys?”
“Oh indeed, John. And of course, she has her embroidery.” Lady Gladys adds.
Lettice laughs softly. “I fear sometimes that if I sit still in her drawing room for long enough, one day she might embroider me.”
A thunderclap breaks outside. It’s noise echoes through the atmosphere inside, sending a collective shiver through the guests in the room.
“I told you, John. Pheobe and the others are sure to get rained upon now.” She glances around the high wing of the Knole sofa to the window. Looking back at Lettice, she picks up her own teacup and tops it up with tea from the pot before continuing, “Pheobe, our niece and ward, has taken all the other young guests for the weekend on a ramble about the estate to help everyone work up an appetite for dinner. I do hope they will be back soon, especially now that it’s going to pour.”
“I bet they all went to the pub in the village for a lark.” Dickie remarks from where he sits. “And they are quite cosy and warm in there. They’ll be back when they are good and ready.”
“You may be right, young Dickie!” Sir John chortles.
“I’m puzzled,” Lettice says, her face crumpling up in thought. “As to why you asked me here for the weekend.”
“Puzzled, my dear?” Lady Gladys asks.
“Yes. I must confess I was very surprised to receive your kind invitation – delighted, but surprised. I mean, we’ve never met as far as I’m aware. Is it because of your connection to my aunt?”
“Well, that does have a little to do with it, Lettice,” Sir John explains. “You are your aunt’s favourite niece…”
“She says that to all of us Si… err, John.”
“Well, be that as it may, she has spoken to us about you and your talents over many years, particularly since you have come of age. However, Gladys and I keep our own eye on the artistic scene in London, so your name has been mentioned to us a number of times on different occasions.”
“Really?” Lettice asks in astonishment.
“Oh yes,” adds Lady Gladys. “Surely you must know that you’re gaining quite a reputation now, for your stylish interior designs.”
“Especially after that article in Country Life, showing the work you did for Margot and Dickie,” Sir John nods in the direction of the couple, ensconced together on an Art Nouveau sofa, happily playing cards. “It looked wonderful! So fresh and elegant with all those clean lines that are so fashionable now.”
“We did so want to finally meet you, dear Lettice.” Lady Gladys adds.
“Well,” Lettice blushes. “I’m very flattered, and honoured to be invited to Gossington. Your weekend parties are famous for being filled with fun and enjoyment.”
“Then I hope we shall not disappoint, dear Lettice.” Sir John beams.
“I’m sure with the return of the others, you won’t be starved for wit and aristocratic intelligentsia.” Lady Gladys adds. “Your aunt tells us that you can be quite witty yourself, and you obviously have intelligence amongst other attributes.”
Lettice notices a look exchanged between her two hosts but can’t read what it means.
“Ahem, Lettice,” Sir John clears his throat awkwardly. “I’m afraid that Gladys and I have a confession to make.”
“A confession?”
“Yes,” Lady Gladys explains. “I’m afraid that we’ve invited you here with an ulterior motive, my dear.”
“Oh?”
“Not that we aren’t delighted to have you here for your charm, beauty and obvious intelligence.” Sir John assures her with hands raised in defence.
“Yes.” Lady Gladys soothes in agreement with her husband. “As I said before, we’ve heard such great things about your interior designs, so you are under no obligation to agree to our request.”
Lettice suddenly looks about the room again, her eyes darting anxiously from surface to cluttered surface as she makes a calculated assumption. Her eyes grow wide and her cheeks pale. “You’re your request, La… Gladys?”
“Gladys my dear, you’ll scare the poor girl! She’ll think we want her to redecorate this old pile of stones from the cellar to the battlements.”
“Oh no!” Lady Gladys assures Lettice. “We don’t want you to redecorate our home! No, I have far too many treasures here to ever think of parting with. Good heavens no!”
“Then what?” Lettice asks cautiously.
“Well, it’s Pheobe.” Lady Gladys explains. “She’s moving to London. Now that she’s of age, she has decided to pursue a career in garden design, and she’s been accepted to a school in Regent’s Park associated to the Royal Academy, so she’ll be in London more often than she has been.”
Lettice looks on, puzzled and unsure as to how she can be of service to her hosts’ ward. “You want me to decorate her rooms in your London townhouse?”
“Oh no my dear!” Sir John defends. “Like here, our London house is very much an Arts and Crafts relic.”
“No. Pheobe’s father, my youngest brother Reginald, was part of the civil service in India before the war.” Lady Gladys continues. “He and Pheobe’s mother, Marjorie, died of cholera out there.”
“Oh, I am sorry.” Lettice says sadly, putting her hand to her chest.
“Thank you my dear. My brother bought a pied-à-terre**** in Bloomsbury for when they were in London.”
“Gladys actually lived in it when she worked as my secretary before she married me.” Sir John adds.
“Yes.” Lady Gladys acknowledges. “Anyway, when Reginald died, he bequeathed his pied-à-terre to his only surviving child, Pheobe. It was to be held in trust for her by us until she came of age. Now she is of age, we’re giving her the flat to live in. It will be more efficient, as when we go to London, we take staff from here, and when we aren’t in London, there is only a caretaker looking after the house. Pheobe can manage the flat without the need for any live-in staff, and she can finally have some independence from us, which I suspect she craves.”
“The flat hasn’t been redecorated since Reginal and Marjorie lived there.” Sir John adds.
“It’s so old fashioned.” Lady Gladys agrees. “It isn’t good for Pheobe to live in a flat surrounded by the ghosts of parents she hardly even knew. You’ll be sitting next to her at dinner tonight, and dear Nettie, who has some considerable sway with Pheobe. We’ve suggested that Pheobe talk to you herself. We’ll obviously foot any bills if she likes your ideas, which we’re quite sure she will. Will you consider it, my dear Lettice? It would be such a great favour to us, and to Pheobe of course.”
“Well, I’ll certainly consider it, Gladys.” Lettice replies.
“Splendid! Splendid!” Lady Gladys claps her hands in delight. “I knew you’d be open to the idea!”
*The original Knole Settee (also known as the Knole Sofa) is a couch chair that was made in the 17th century, probably around 1640. It is housed at Knole in Kent, a house owned by the Sackville-West family since 1605 but now in the care of the National Trust. It was originally used not as a comfortable sofa but as a formal throne-like seat on which an aristocrat or monarch would have sat to receive visitors. It was wide enough that a monarch and consort could be seated side by side. As of 2021, it is kept at Knole House in a transparent case.
**William Morris (24th of March 1834 – 3rd of October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, writer, and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts movement. He was a major contributor to the revival of traditional British textile arts and methods of production. His literary contributions helped to establish the modern fantasy genre, while he helped win acceptance of socialism in fin de siècle Great Britain. In 1861, Morris founded the Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. decorative arts firm with Burne-Jones, Rossetti, Webb, and others, which became highly fashionable and much in demand. The firm profoundly influenced interior decoration throughout the Victorian period, with Morris designing tapestries, wallpaper, fabrics, furniture, and stained glass windows. In 1875, he assumed total control of the company, which was renamed Morris & Co.
***The Fabian Society is a British socialist organisation whose purpose is to advance the principles of social democracy and democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist effort in democracies, rather than by revolutionary overthrow. The Fabian Society was also historically related to radicalism, a left-wing liberal tradition.
****A pied-à-terre is a small flat, house, or room kept for occasional use.
This very cluttered and overstuffed room may appear like something out of a historical stately country house, but it is in fact part of my 1:12 miniatures collection and includes items from my childhood, as well as those I have collected as an adult.
Fun things to look for in this tableau include:
The Knole Sofa covered in William Morris’ ‘Strawberry Thief’ pattern comes from Mick and Marie’s Miniatures in the United Kingdom. The cushions on it, and on the Savonarola chair opposite also feature the Morris ‘Strawberry Thief’ pattern in 1:12 size, and came from an American seller on E-Bay. The Savonarola chairs are made by high-end miniature furniture manufacturer JBM Miniatures.
The large embroidered footstool in front of the fireplace was made by the high-end miniature furniture maker, Bespaq, but what is particularly special about it is that it has been covered in antique English floral micro petite point by V.H. Miniatures in the United Kingdom, which makes this a one-of-a-kind piece. The artisan who made this says that as one of her hobbies, she enjoys visiting old National Trust Houses in the hope of getting some inspiration to help her create new and exciting miniatures. She saw some beautiful petit point chairs a few years ago in one of the big houses in Derbyshire and then found exquisitely detailed petit point that was fine enough for 1:12 scale projects.
The small round footstool in front of Sir John’s Savonarola chair has been hand embroidered as well, and was acquired from Kathleen Knight’s Dolls House Shop in the united Kingdom.
The silver tea and coffee set on the large embroidered footstool, consisting of milk jug, sugar bowl coffee pot and teapot come from Warwick Miniatures in Ireland, who are well known for the quality and detail applied to their pieces. The silver tray upon which they stand also comes from Warwick Miniatures. The four dainty floral teacups with gilt edging scattered about the room are part of a larger tea set that I acquired from Beautifully Handmade Miniatures in Kettering.
The books on the table to the left of the photograph between the two Savonarola chairs are 1:12 size miniatures made by the British miniature artisan Ken Blythe. They are novels written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Most of the books I own that he has made may be opened to reveal authentic printed interiors. In some cases, you can even read the words, depending upon the size of the print! I have quite a large representation of Ken Blythe’s work in my collection, but so little of his real artistry is seen because the books that he specialised in making are usually closed, sitting on shelves or closed on desks and table surfaces. These books are amongst the rarer exceptions that have been designed not to be opened. Nevertheless, the covers are copies of real Victorian bindings. What might amaze you even more is that all Ken Blythe’s books and magazines are authentically replicated 1:12 scale miniatures of real volumes. To create something so authentic to the original in such detail and so clearly, really does make this a miniature artisan piece. Ken Blythe’s work is highly sought after by miniaturists around the world today and command high prices at auction for such tiny pieces, particularly now that he is no longer alive. I was fortunate enough to acquire pieces from Ken Blythe prior to his death about four years ago, as well as through his estate via his daughter and son-in-law. His legacy will live on with me and in my photography which I hope will please his daughter.
The wonderfully detailed red and white chess set in the foreground of the photograph came from Kathleen Knight’s Doll’s House Shop in the United Kingdom. The set came in its own hand crafted compartmented wooden box with a working sliding lid which can be seen just in front of the Pig-a-Back and Ludo game boxes. The chess game is set up correctly with a match in progress. I wonder who will win? The table on which the chess game is being played comes from Mick and Marie’s Miniatures in the United Kingdom, whilst the two red velvet seated chairs drawn up to it, I acquired from an auction some years ago. The pieces date from the 1970s and are very well made.
The box of Ludo and Pig-a-Back are both 1:12 artisan pieces, produced authentically to scale with great attention to detail by Little Things Dollhouse Miniatures in Lancashire.
Sir John and Lady Gladys’ family photos on the mantlepiece are all real photos, produced to high standards in 1:12 size on photographic paper by Little Things Dollhouse Miniatures in Lancashire. The frames are from various suppliers, but all are metal. Only one, the larger square frame at the back, leaning against the tall blue vase on the left-hand side of the mantle is sterling silver. I t was made in Birmingham in 1908 and is hallmarked on the back of the frame. It has a red leather backing.
The two small vases of primroses on the mantle are delicate 1:12 artisan porcelain miniature ornaments made and painted by hand by ceramicist Ann Dalton.
The two dark blue double handled gilt vases with floral banding at either end of the mantlepiece, I have had since I was a child. I was given them as a birthday gift when I was nine.
The two tall blue glazed jugs featuring irises at either end of the fireplace came from Mick and Marie’s Miniatures in the United Kingdom, as did the brown glazed jug on the tall pedestal in the corner of the room next to the bookcase.
The grey marble French barrel clock on the mantlepiece is a 1:12 artisan miniature made by Hall’s Miniature Clocks, supplied through Doreen Jeffries Small Wonders Miniatures in England.
The Georgian style fireplace with its heavy wooden surround and deep mantle in the background was made by Town Hall Miniatures supplied through Melody Jane’s Dolls’ House Suppliers in the United Kingdom.
The glass fronted bookcase is a replica of a bookcase belonging to Abraham Lincoln and is part of the Lincoln Collection, made and distributed in America.
Lady Gladys’ book collection inside the glass fronted bookcase are 1:12 size miniatures made by the British miniature artisan Ken Blythe. Ken Blythe was famous in miniature collectors’ circles mostly for the miniature books that he made: all being authentically replicated 1:12 scale miniatures of real volumes. I have quite a large representation of Ken Blythe’s work in my collection. Each book is a 1:12 replica of a life sized volume with an authentic cover. To create something so authentic to the original in such detail and so clearly, really does make these miniature artisan pieces. Ken Blythe’s work is highly sought after by miniaturists around the world today and command high prices at auction for such tiny pieces, particularly now that he is no longer alive. I was fortunate enough to acquire pieces from Ken Blythe prior to his death about four years ago and through his estate courtesy of the generosity of his daughter and son-in-law. His legacy will live on with me and in my photography which I hope will please his daughter.
The paintings hanging on the walls are all 1:12 artisan pieces made by Amber’s Miniatures in the United States. The wallpaper is William Morris’ ‘Poppies’ pattern, featuring stylised Art Nouveau poppies. William Morris papers and fabrics were popular in the late Victorian and early Edwardian period before the Great War.
The miniature Arts and Crafts rug on the floor is made by hand by Mackay and Gerrish in Sydney.
amazing...
--
on the back of the postcard:
NEW YORK CITY
A view of this world-famous skyline was dominated by the twin towers of the World Trade Center, wich reached 1,350 feet into the sky. New York, New York
Scenes in November are much different from the October craziness that we call "fun" As of November 1st the town seems to be come a comparitive ghost town but in reality, Salem is just breathing a quiet sigh of relief. The tens of thousands of Halloween fanatics who flock here for the "Witch Central" experience are now gone. Today I walk the streets and a few people who look confused are surprised that someone would stop to offer them suggestions on what to do or where to go. But I was a Park ranger here so it's second nature for me to help out. The history is still here for people to take advantage of and the tours of the colonial homes and businesses are still running because when they were brand new no one knew what Halloween was or would be. So the maritime history is what is still here today.