Architecture
National Westminster House
Just for a change, I thought to upload a photograph of the back of a building. (not normally seen and photographed all the less). This was called the National Westminster House and is on Hermitage Road. It used to contain The Yorkshire Bank amongst other businesses such as The Motor Agents Association. I find this side of the building rather more interesting than the front just by the fact of having a set of stairs tacked on to its outside rather than being incorporated inside the building.
Hitchin Race Circuit
Hitchin Race Circuit is a photo-realistic 3D model of the town centre and some of the other streets that can be played as a computer racing game. (Like Formula 1 racing at Monaco, Silverstone etc) Download it and race against friends or against others online. It’s absolute fun to play a computer game and see Hitchin also. Some buildings are now gone and others have changed hands, so added local history too. Find it here http://www.hitchin-circuit.co.uk/ and enjoy.
The Sun Hotel
Just for a change, a a different view of the wonderful Sun Hotel (Also previously known as the Sun Inn) on Sun Street. Sun Street used to be called Angel Street due to the fact that the Angel Inn formerly stood on it. (This collapsed in 1957)
The Archaeology of Hitchin
On the 10th of May 2008, a book about the archaeology of Hitchin is being released and there will be a launch on the lawn in front of the Hitchin Museum at 12.00pm (courtesy of The Hitchin Historical Society). It’s a ‘must have’ book about Hitchin and is somewhat of a ‘bodice ripper’ when it comes to archaeology. The authors will be signing copies of the book (they don’t bite) beforehand and will be giving a brief talk about it.
Aerial View of Hitchin Market
This aerial shot taken from the top of the tower of Hitchin’s St. Mary’s Church, illustrates well that the market area is in a ‘hollow’ between raised areas. What you can’t see from here is that fact that The River Hiz runs through the middle of them and under the market. (Canalised sometime in the 1920s) From ground level, it is glaringly obvious that the designers of the more modern market (Moved many times around Hitchin) had no real thoughts of trying to fit it in to its surroundings; being concrete, brick and garish metal roofs. They could have designed it to ‘echo’ the church near it, the way that St Saviour’s Cloisters do that were built in the 1920s-30s.
Market Place Cabin
This Edwardian Cabmen’s Shelter used to stand on the forecourt of Hitchin Railway Station and was paid for by the donations of rail users collected by Edward Boxall who ran a cab business from The Red Lion that used to be in Bucklersbury (Now the new age shop ‘Harvest Moon’) It was used as a shelter for cab drivers waiting for fares until 1976 when it was sold by British Rail and stood in the garden of John and Patsy Myatt. They donated it to the town, whereby it was restored and promoted by The Hitchin Historical Society and Hitchin businesses. On the 10th Of October 1998, it was finally handed over to the Hitchin community and moved to The Market Place.
Since then, the Hitchin Historical Society have lampooned the Cabin on their Christmas cards; one famous card’s comments being, it was designed by a little known Chinese architect Lu Tien. He thought he’d been asked to design a lantern, and when the drawings were returned to the railway company, the engineers misunderstood his size specifications and accordingly built it as a full sized shelter. The text was littered with shameless clues such as the name Crisp. E. Duck as well as the name Lu Tien, which is a parody of Sir Edward Lutyens name. (A great Victorian Architect) Unfortunately, this story was picked up by a local railway historian who failed to spot the obvious clues and included the curious history of the cabin in his recently published book on the local railway.
St. Mary’s Graffiti
Much to the chagrin of the good citizens of the parish of St Mary’s Church in Hitchin, graffiti has appeared (or I should say more has appeared) on the north door. This is not a modern or ‘new’ phenomenon at all. One should look at the pillars of the door frame on both sides, to see lots and lots of carved graffiti dating back to the 1960s, 1950s, 1930s; even back a hundred years. In churches all around the parishes of Britain, one will find similar graffiti (and going back to 1700 say) Things such as names, love tokens or just dates. The Romans did this too, as did the Egyptians, Greeks, Vikings et al. As the expression goes, ‘There is nothing new under the sun’!
Moss’s Corner
In 1899, The Trooper inn or public house was pulled down to make way for W.B. Moss grocery shop (Probably built and completed in 1900) Vodafone shop now inhabits the building and has a huge garish shop front and signs. What is wonderful though is the rest of the building, with its very early usage of Art Nouveau tiles; Quite thrilling to have in a small market town at that time and for to it survive now.
This area used to be known as Guilden Square, (Because of The Brotherhood building opposite on High Street) Sheep Market, Cattle Market, Church Passage and now High Street. But after W.B. Moss built its shop, it has been known as Moss’s Corner. Up until the 1970s, this was where most of the town’s bus services started and finished and was known as Moss’s Corner on the bus timetables, although Moss’s shop had long since departed.
