Orange Tree Grille
The Orange Tree Sandwich Shop on Sun Street has a wonderful decorative grille on the front of it. The business is one of two in a nice three storey red brick c1800 building. This was The Paternoster & Hale Printing Office, originally Paternoster’s Bookshop and Stationers. They amalgamated with Hale in Bucklersbury and became known as Paternoster and Hale and then became a printers. (It printed the Hitchin Advertiser newspaper.) The raised lettering ‘Printing Office’ can still easily be seen on the top third of the building.
BT Telephone Exchange
This door in the BT Telephone Exchange of the corner of Queen Street and Hollow Lane really is a case of over egging the pudding. Red Tape gone mad me thinks. Why on earth would one door require 12 items on it? I think one large sticker with all the do’s and don’ts would suffice and be much simpler and less cluttered.
The River Hiz in Bridge Street
Just recently, someone or some business decided to clear up an area of The River Hiz that runs from The Priory to under the bridge on Bridge Street. Compare the photograph now, to only a year ago in June 2006 (below) to see how different the area is. You can now see the back of The Priory, (and a little spiral staircase) a nice design feature like a little Greek Theatre, and a nice contemporary staircase that leads up to the overhanging upper floor of the late 15th/16th century timber framed building that is now 32 Bridge Street. It is a joy to see another piece of Hitchin revealed again.
Roof Top Garden
Within about a year or two, the owner of the building that houses the Triangle Café and other shops has created a nice little roof top garden/haven. This can only be seen from the tower of St.Mary’s Church, but it amazes one that it can be tasteful and fitting in with its surroundings even though it can’t be seen from ground level; whereas a few other buildings in Hitchin lack taste, style or blend in with their neighbours. Why a nice 18th century building was allowed to be pulled down to put up the hideous concrete carbuncle that is Churchgate beggars belief!
St Mary’s Church Font Cover
St Mary’s Church in Hitchin is blessed with a beautiful font cover (Pictured above) Font covers were originally used from 1236 onwards (Ordered by Edmund, Archbisop of Canterbury) as a protection from Sorcery. (“Fontes baptismales sub sera clausi teneantur propter sortilegia”) Some have plain ‘lids’ over the stone fonts or like this one above, very ornate and raised by a cable and pulley system and sometimes counter weights. A lot are kept in this raised position and others actually lowered over the font and only raised for Baptisms. Some font covers did survive the Cromwellian destruction. These iconoclasts were opposed to any ornamentation, decoration or statues. Other font covers are Victorian copies of earlier originals. Whether it is an original or a copy, it is a welcome addition to the church ‘experience’.
Thundercats in Hitchin
Hitchin is either blessed (or cursed, depending on one’s viewpoint) with unusual graffiti. This particular example had memories of the children’s animated television series ‘Thundercats‘ come flooding in to my brain and is at the end of bancroft opposite Bancroft Park. Nostalgia and Art, all in one go. ‘Thunder, Thunder, Thundercats, Hoh’
Melanic Squirrels
People still think that the Letchworth Black Squirrels only exist in Letchworth. Not so! Much to the chagrin of Letchworth residents, they are also in other parts of Hertfordshire such as Hitchin and Stevenage, as well as Cambridgeshire, Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire. The Letchworth name was a bit of a misnomer. Apparently they were rare and were a local adaptation/phenomenon called Melanic Squirrels due to the fact that they have very high levels of the pigment melanin in them and are in fact only a dark Grey Squirrel. They are not as rare as Albino squirrels though. They’re a local variant. Obviously from the Grey squirrel, but are more aggressive and will attack the Greys (and win) giving them an edge over the Greys, therefore breeding more and increasing their numbers and enlarging their habitat.
Retribution I think, for importing the American Grey Squirrel in 1876 into Cheshire, which decimated the native Brown Squirrel. Evolution in progress and nature bloody in tooth and claw. This particular squirrel was photographed in the graveyard of the beautiful St Mary’s Church in the centre of Hitchin itself.
Monkeys
The photograph is of some graffiti that were sprayed high up on a building that has no easy access and has barbed wire around it. (Royal Mail depot) It’s the footpath that leads from Hermitage Road through to Portmill Lane. I think they’re good. So much better than the usual ‘Spray-Your-Name’ Tags that youngsters usually un-imaginatively do. It’s added a little something to an otherwise plain, uninteresting and never noticed building. (Unfortunately since this has been taken, they are somewhat covered up by a plain and ugly plastic drain pipe)