Culture Magazine

More Wood Blocks – Side Streets and Access Roads

By Janeslondon

Here's the latest update on woodblock sightings. These are all in side streets or back alleys.

Find the current list here.

First, here's one I spotted and photographed years ago but completely forgot abbot until recently. This unusual elliptical shaped man hole cover can be found just inside the side alley to the right of 169 Bermondsey Street, SE1:  

More wood blocks – side streets and access roads

Next, a regular shaped man hole cover, jam-packed with lovely big chunks of wood. This can be found in Crooked Billet Lane, a narrow street under the Overground railway line at the southern end of Kingsland Rd, E1. I read in a 1930's book about London that this little street was [then] a wonderful evocation of a bygone Victorian age (or something similar). A couple of 1880's buildings do remain on the right/north side but, apart from that, there's not much left except this marvelous example of the old road surface that would have covered the whole street 150 years ago: 

More wood blocks – side streets and access roads

A similar example can be found lurking in the little road parallel to West End Lane, West Hampstead, specifically behind Oddbins with access from Sumatra Road, NW6:

More wood blocks – side streets and access roads

Finally, I mentioned earlier this year that I'd been on a tour of the Holborn Kingsway tram tunnel and I'd noticed that many areas of its woodblock road surfaces were still intact. Here are some more pics: 

More wood blocks – side streets and access roads

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