06 August 2014

To Lamb's Conduit Street (Bloomsbury)

When I worked in Bloomsbury, Lamb's Conduit Street was sometimes a lunch-hour destination - but had fewer nice sandwich shops, and nice shops in general, than it does now. 

Today, the camera caught a few architectural details, mostly 18th century -
Great James Street, 1727, says the (definitely non-standard) street sign

Wonderful Georgian door cases (and colourful 21st century rubbish)
The blue plaque is because Dorothy L Sayers lived here, 1921-9

A pair(?) of doors - and traditional shutters

The dairy on Rugby Street has become a jewellery shop, the current
display  linking to the Tate's Malevich exhibition

"The street is named after William Lambe, in recognition of the £1,500 he gave for the rebuilding of the Holborn Conduit in 1564. (According to 'The London Encyclopaedia': "The conduit was an Elizabethan dam made in one of the tributaries of the Fleet River and restored in 1577 by William Lamb, who also provided 120 pails for poor women".) The remains of the head of the conduit can be seen on the side of a 1950s building on the corner between Lamb's Conduit Street and Long Yard." [from Wikipedia]

Shops consist of interiors, clothing, and other "independent traders" - including Persephone Books. Great browsing!

1 comment:

Stitchinscience said...

I love a visit to the Persephone shop. Those books are so lovely to handle.