Bollard of the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple...

Here in London we find the "Inns of Court" which are four chambers that have the right to call people to the bar.

At the Inner Temple we find many bollards with a trusty summer blue shield placed upon the middle part of the bollard with the winged horse better known has "Pegasus". If we visit the website of the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple you'll notice that Pegasus is in fact their badge/coat of arms for want of a better word/term.

Pegasus, Greek mythology, an Inn of court and now all linked to a bollard of London. This city never ceases to amaze. Just in case you were wondering who was Pegasus, well the winged horse came out of Medusa after she was beheaded by Perseus.

Back to the bollard it is one of the more common type we find dotted around parts of central London and certainly looks more cannon like than some of those we find upon the pavement. What makes this bollard different if not magical is the shield and badge upon of Pegasus the winged horse.

A very special thank you to a man from South London who goes by the name of Peter Watts you can find him on twitter @peter_watts with his wonderful website http://greatwenlondon.wordpress.com/ you should note Peter used to run/edit the online site "the big smoke" for Timeout, if I was listening or reading at Timeout please do bring it back. Peter though is a big fan of bollards and here follows his top three hope you all enjoy:

• Ello Ello Ello (Policeman bollard) post no 18.
• Hans town bollard post no 38
• Peckham bollards post no 62.

Peter thank you for all the help and encouragement along the way.

Bollards of London...

Doing the Lambeth Walk...

Well I just happened to be doing the Lambeth Walk the other day and noticed just to the left of the sign to the "China Walk Estate" these rather odd looking 1970's concrete pebble dashed bollards.

You will notice that the bollards are cylindrical in shape and slightly taller than your average bollard too. Near the top we see two channels embedded into the concrete with a ever so slight curved top that is ribbed, in fact the lines on the top of these bollards reminded me of the lines that appear on food on a barbecue. Looking down the line of bollards you will see a small traffic cone sitting near three of them and on closer inspection you can see that at least three of these bollards are in fact fractured. The breaks are pretty clean and more than likely created by the impact of a motor vehicle of some sort.

Over the next few posts we will be mentioning a few of you who have helped to promote this rather odd if not quirky blog about street furniture and one of the recent and newest converts to the world of bollards is Laura Porter @AboutLondon (twitter) who writes the excellent http://golondon.about.com/ travel website. We asked Ms Laura Porter what were her favourite three bollards were on the web/blog-site and she came up with the following:

• Bollard Statues (Leapfrog) post no.39
• Ello Ello Ello (Policeman) post no.18
• Rather large bollard or a Dalek (Dalek) post no.22

Bollards of London...

The 100th bollard...

The 100th bollard (post) is here and who would have thought that an idea for a blog created in the front of a London taxi-cab would or could have ended up hitting the magic number of 100 (bollards) not out.

The bollard chosen by me to be the 100th is a City of London Corporation bollard that can be found on the corner of Fleet Street and Bouverie Street EC4. Why this bollard you may be asking ? The answer is very simple the Corporation of London is the bollard capital of London and probably the world and rather like the many financial products that are designed and traded here in the World's premier financial centre we can find many different types of bollards dating back to the early part of the 19th century to the present day.

This bollard is special in my opinion for it has a flat top, cylindrical from base to bottom with two outer rings near the very top painted bright red between these rings the bollard is painted white and bang in the middle is a shield containing a George cross. The bollard is a work of the mundane art that very few of us notice or even realise we walk/drive past whilst going about our business in the hectic world we all inhabit and live in.

A very special thank you to all of you who were asked to rate your top three bollards, your choice will be appearing in the next few posts with your twitter name plus embedded link to your website/blog. For now though the real champions of this blog are in fact the bollards themselves and I hope all of you take the opportunity to look at the environment you live, work and play in and maybe comment or even try to make a little difference to a bollard or place near you.

Thank you from Bollards of London...

Art Deco for the 99th Bollard in RBK&C...

The honour of the 99th post (bollard) goes to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBK&C) at the borders of its Town Hall and Library in Phillimore Walk, Kensington W8.

The bollard is made of stone and certainly looks like it is of the art deco era. It sits upon a square base which rises vertically and then the stone masonry work takes over and the corners http://www.thecornershot.blogspot.com/ are cut/taper inwards so that the main vertical body of the bollard becomes octagonal in shape. When we look at the top of the bollard we find that the body of the bollard shrinks and takes a step inwards which gives the appearance that it is layered which is finally topped off with a semi-circular domed top.

This bollard is in my opinion beautiful because it's made of stone a material then wears well and tends not to crack like cast iron or splinter like wood. The honour of the 99th bollard goes to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and this wonderful stone art deco looking bollard.

Bollards of London...

The 98th Post...

Around the back of Cartwright Gardens WC.1 in the London Borough of Camden I came across a bog standard bollard with a Camden Council no dumping sign attached.

However as you can clearly see in the picture it looks like the Gods have dropped a rather large liquorice allsort and it's impaled itself upon the pavement next to the bog standard ribbed council bollard.

The bollard may well stop vans/lorries from cutting the corner but why leave the eyesore allsort sitting right darn next to it ?

Bollards of London...

PS Can I say a big hello and thank you to @davehill at the guardian for placing us in the category of "Top London bloggers" in the guardian online http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/feb/11/bollards-london-blog?CMP=twt_fd

Arthur Road Width Restriction...

Here we are at Arthur Road in the London Borough of Merton and in an area better known has Wimbledon.

Smack bang in the middle of Arthur Road is a width restriction and within the middle of the traffic island that forms the centre part of this restriction is the oddest looking "keep left" traffic bollard that I've seen or found within the capital/London.

The traffic bollard has a square base that then tapers upwards in a cylindrical fashion. We find vertical orange/yellow stripes around the column area topped with a circular face "keep left" sign. I have to say this again this is a complete one off plastic traffic bollard.

Considering we are only hundreds of yards away from Wimbledon Village this piece of street furniture is not only ugly but shows the local council up to be a little lazy at the very least. If councils are going to plant this sort of stuff upon streets/roads the very least they can do is maintain the street furniture.

Bollards of London...

Shorts Garden WC2...

Here we are at Shorts Garden WC2 on the edge of London's theatre land and in the heart of a rather trendy if not swanky shopping district. However one thing Shorts Garden isn't short of and that is the wooden bollard.

We've looked at wooden bollards in the past in the London borough of Wandsworth but here in Camden/Covent Garden WC2 we find two fine examples of well aged (just look at the colour of the wood) wooden bollards that are just so different in shape yet do exactly the same job has the young tree in the background they appear to be protecting.

The bollard to the right of the picture is square based and then of a rectangular shape that extends upwards and we see the groove near the top that leaves us with a neat looking cube effect at the top/head of the bollard. The bollard to the left of the picture is indeed rare a circular base with a cylindrical shape extending upwards with a smooth turned finish that also leads to a grooved area that then leads us to a domed shaped head that I'll leave you and your imagination to decide what it actually really looks like and that is a wooden bollard.

Bollards of London...

PS Can I say a big hello to a Graduate at UCL who is presently taking a rather keen interest in street furniture and the urban environment this post Ms Eugenie Scrase is dedicated to you and all the work the many students at UCL put into ensuring we have brighter better educated future.

Tubular Stainless Steel Bollard...

A Tubular Stainless Steel Bollard can be found in the centre of the road here at South Kensington with a traditional keep left sign (white arrow on a blue background and white circular border).

If you look closely at the picture you'll see a light placed in the floor of the traffic island which illuminates the sign upon the Tubular Bollard. However if you really want to see the wealth of this area its not just the street furniture that's expensive just take a look at the car showroom in the background. Stainless steel bollards and Lamborghini's what more could a resident of South Kensington want or require.

Bollards of London...

The Bollards have landed...

The bollards have landed and like an invasion of street furniture at night we can see clearly how we have completely lost the plot with regards to town planning and road layouts.

The junction we are at is Swandon and Smugglers way and we can see the amazing layout of well lit traffic bollards that are made of plastics and sit upon a light which internally lights up the simple square ended rectangular shaped traffic bollard.

We do have to ask though does a simple cross roads actually need this daft amount of street furniture?

Bollards of London...