Gary Gale

Posts about lost

History Is Also Written By The Man From The Council With A Tin Of White Paint

History is written by the victors". So goes the saying attributed to Winston Churchill sometime during his reign as British Prime Minister. I'd like to offer up a corollary to that saying, which is "History is also written by the man from the council with a tin of white paint".

I should explain.

I live in what used to be the rather grandly named Municipal Borough of Twickenham. Used to be. Twickenham as a borough was created in 1926 out of the 1868 Twickenham Local Government District. In 1934 the new borough absorbed the nearby urban districts of Hampton, Hampton Wick and Teddington. But when Greater London was created in 1965, Twickenham Borough vanished overnight, becoming part of the new London Borough of Richmond Upon Thames.

"History is written by the victors". So goes the saying attributed to Winston Churchill sometime during his reign as British Prime Minister. I'd like to offer up a corollary to that saying, which is "History is also written by the man from the council with a tin of white paint".

I should explain.

I live in what used to be the rather grandly named Municipal Borough of Twickenham. Used to be. Twickenham as a borough was created in 1926 out of the 1868 Twickenham Local Government District. In 1934 the new borough absorbed the nearby urban districts of Hampton, Hampton Wick and Teddington. But when Greater London was created in 1965, Twickenham Borough vanished overnight, becoming part of the new London Borough of Richmond Upon Thames.

But traces of the old borough still exist, if you keep your eyes open. Almost all of the old street signs still exist, with the old Borough of Twickenham wording carefully painted out, by the man from the council with a tin of council issued standard white paint. Almost 45 years later, those same street signs are still there, but they're starting to show their age and the paint is peeling in places, peeling back the years as an added bonus.

Lost London: The Borough of Twickenham

The Borough of Twickenham wasn't the only thing to vanish overnight in 1965, so did the County of Middlesex, of which Twickenham was a part. Middlesex however lives on, both as an informal name and as a postal county and again, traces of the lost county still exist, if you know where to look.

County of Middlesex sign

Photo Credits: Gary Gale and In Tea We Trust on Flickr. Written at the Radisson Blu hotel, Berlin (52.519648, 13.40258) and posted from the Nokia gate5 office in Berlin (52.53105, 13.38521)

Deliciousness: lost rivers, maps, dogs, fonts, alphabets, tees, bacon, lots of bacon, coffee & KitKats

f lost rivers beneath the streets of London. I grew up next to and played in one of them, Beverley Brook, as a (very muddy) child.
  • Some maps are works of art but Jason LaFerrera makes works of art from maps. No, really.
  • OpenStreetMap, waze and Map Maker announce the formation of the Closed Street Map alliance, but check out the date of the post and the registrant's details from the WHOIS record as well.
  • A search for estate agents in Islington on Mountain View's favourite search engine seems to say that prisons and estate agents are one and the same.
  • Forget dogs that look like their owners. Forget owners that look like their dogs. Fonts that look like dogs, that's the thing.
  • While I'm on the subject of fonts; best alphabet. Ever.
  • While I'm on the subject of best (ever); best beer name. Ever.
  • The last time I mentioned bacon deliciousness was October 2009 so here's a double helping. Still cooking your bacon the old fashioned way, you know, in a frying pan or under the grill? Try wrapping it around your machine gun for a change. You're going to be thirsty after all that cooking (and possibly that shooting) so slake your thirst with a beer, bacon flavoured of course.
  • I want this tee shirt, part one. Some days you make the coffee, some days the coffee makes you.
  • I want this tee shirt, part two. Nerd is the new cool you know.
  • I want this tee shirt, part three. Bacon makes everything better.
  • Not much in the grand scheme of things but two of my Flickr photos made it into the 2010 London Schmap guide. This pleased me.
  • Still drinking your coffee, the old fashioned way, by mouth? That's so passe. Inhaling is the new drinking.
  • Not one KitKat. Oh no. Nineteen of them. In Japan only, sadly.

    • Forgive me; it's been 5 conferences and 2 months since my last Deliciousness post and I offer this one up by way of atonement.