Gandy Street, Exeter, Devon

 

Exeter must be one of the most unsung and delightful of English cities, and Gandy Street one of its most magical features. It's my favourite part of the city and brings back lots of happy memories.

 

My photos are quite old, the black & white ones taken some 30 plus years ago and the colour ones around 15 years later. I don't have very many photos, and I'd really love to go and take more, but can no longer travel for the hour plus it takes, so I'm going to manage with what I have for now.

Situated at right angles from the top of Upper Paul Street at the side of the Royal Albert Memorial Museum - seen above and below - and parallel to the main Queen Street, it dates back to Alfred the Great's time in the Saxon era.

Named Gandy Street after Henry Gandy, who was the Mayor of Exeter in 1661 and 1672, its previous names were St Lucie's Lane in 1669 and Correstrete in 1265. Correstrete is the Middle English for Currying Street - currying being the curing of leather.

This attractive cobbled street is only short but it's full of independent shops, pubs and cafes. Looking at my black and white photos, it looks a little bland but more recent photos online show it full of bunting, flower baskets in the summer and magical trees and lights at Christmas time. One photo has a string of large lanterns above the street, which looks fabulous.

Most of my photos were taken at the end of Gandy Street near to Upper Paul Street. The ones above and below are of the top of Paul Street, showing the side of the Royal Albert Memorial Museum (called RAMM for short). On the right side is a building with the name City Chambers on. I haven't been able to discover anything historic about it but it appears to be used for rented business offices now.

The strange chinese dragon like objects on the left, below, were quite popular canopies above shop windows in the 1990s, made from a stiff plastic instead of the usual canvass. Oddly enough, I think the shop was a chinese restaurant at the time, lol.   

The photo below is of the side opposite the City Chambers, with Ramm behind it. Interestingly, the wall has been shaved off from just below the street sign, making a curve which was either to give clearer sight going around the corner, prevent accidental bashing from vehicles or because of one having happened! One of my favourite photos. :)

As well as the main Gandy Street there are two alleyways leading off it. One is Queen's Walk, which connects to Queen Street and can be seen below.

On the left of the above photo is the entrance to an underground pub and music venture called the Cavern Club. Some of us from our University building on Queen Street went in there occasionally for coffee during the daytime.

The other one is the delightful New Buildings, which was added circa 19th century (new at the time!). I don't remember the exact date, but it was mentioned during an Exeter Red Coat tour I once went on. Sadly, I can't find it anywhere online so I contacted RAMM to see if they can help. I'll add it here if they do.

Inside the entrance to New Buildings is a wall which was built using Dutch bricks brought back from the Netherlands in a trading ship as ballast.

The alleyway itself is totally charming with lots of interesting independent shops and colourful bunting.

To finish off, one taken from Bradninch Place, just above the top of Upper Paul street, where the Phoenix building is situated.

Just for interest here are a few more photos of the RAMM buildings around that end.

And finally, one showing the Phoenix building peeping over the top end of RAMM.

I hope you found that interesting. I started this a while ago then after my break I went all out to finish it and get something published at last. It was really enjoyable to do, especially seeing and organising my photos, along with the memories they gave. During my break I also worked a little bit on two other articles. 

I'm still finding myself somewhat short of time but I'm more than ready to get back into the swing of keeping up with my blog. Fresh start, new ideas coming up and hopefully I'll be able to get out and take some more photos soon, weather permitting! 

Cheers everyone! Have a great weekend. :)

Hello, I'm Back!

 

This is just a very short note to herald my arrival back! I feel so much better for the break and have almost completed the first article ready to publish. :)  

I'll also have some editing to do as, having read through the last few articles, I seem to have used some very iffy grammar - something I used to struggle with, and obviously an outcome of the need to take the break. As some of you might know, I get phases of chronic fatigue as a consequence of fairly severe back and joint problems, and one of the first things to go is being able to order my thoughts and write properly.

Anyway, I've slowed down somewhat as I seem to have turned into a little old lady this year, so I've really had to! I hardly even manage to go out so I haven't taken any new photos I'm afraid - just a few autumnal ones from my bedroom window and some other bits and pieces - but I'll try my best to do so.

So, coming up shortly is Gandy Street in Exeter. I also have some new ideas brewing for articles, as well as some that are still on the back burner. I'll keep a bit quiet about those for now though, as I don't want to jinx myself. It's a beautiful day today, all sunny and frosty, and I should be out taking photos, lol. 

Have a great Friday, everyone. Cheers. :)

 

Temporary Break

As it says on the title, I'm taking a temporary break from the blog for a while. I realised, after not posting for some time, that I might as well make it official and let everyone know that I'm not able to do anything at the moment.

I've been really struggling to get any writing done or get out to take photos due to a change in circumstances, although I still love it and intend to continue as soon as I can. I've been intermittently working on two articles; Part Three of Weather Lore and an interesting shorter one about Gandy Street in Exeter. The latter is lovely to do and I thought it would be a good stop gap before finishing the longer article.

However, I've ground to a halt, so I realise I just need a complete break and rest to finish other things in life I have to do so that I can get those out of the way and recuperate my enthusiasm at the same time.

I'm not sure how long it's going to be but hopefully I'll be back before the end of Autumn, if not earlier! The top two photos are from the forthcoming Weather article, and these last two from Gandy Street. Cheers everyone, and have a great September. :)

 

1950s Arts & Craft Style Houses and Bungalows, Seaton, Devon

 

The above photo was taken from my balcony a few years ago, when I nicknamed it the Higgledy-piggledy road, its real name being Wychall Orchard. Realising how lovely some of these buildings are I recently had a meander across to take some photos.

I haven't been able to fix an exact date on them yet as the only OS Map of that era I could find is dated 1933, on which Wychall Orchard is just shown with trees as it was when an orchard. However, the buildings are consistent with the Modernistic yet later Arts & Crafts style of the 1950s, so I'm sticking with that for now.

Some of the buildings are on the main road either side of the turning to Wychall Orchard. The first of those houses, seen above and below, has some typical features of this style, including the front gable on one side with stone chimney partly projecting from it. Although a two-storey house, it has the look of a bungalow, with dormer windows in the steep pitched roof.

The next house along is on the corner of this road and Wychall Orchard.

Brimming with flowers and shrubs, the garden is really delightful to see whilst walking past - as are most of the front gardens in and around the town - apart from the odd gravel ones! Don't get me started, lol.

The side view with some fabulous features, below.

The tiny dormer window, seen below, is called an eyebrow window because of its shape and the way the tiles are fitted around the opening. It became fairly fashionable during the 1930s, whereas the style of chimney with its rough cast stones and the delightful porthole windows either side of it were more indicative of the 1950s.

Walking further up the side road is this fabulous bungalow, below. The central door is flanked by two large bay windows each shaped with five sides, while the left one is topped by a projecting clapboard gable on brackets. One of the ways to compensate for steep slopes can be seen on the right with its brick base.

The next one has been built in the same style but with a very different treatment of unpainted rustic gable boards, blue trim and a wonderfully tumbly garden with a variety of plants, which makes it totally enchanting.

And another one but with the gable and bays reversed.

Then this one with a seven-sided bay on one side of the bungalow. I couldn't get too close to some of them as a couple of people were talking outside one of the houses inbetween these and I didn't want to be too intrusive.

The other side next, starting near the top. Again, I couldn't get everything because of activity and/or vehicles in view, but I think I managed to get a good selection of the styles.

Another eyebrow window. I love these. :) The house on the left can be seen more clearly on the photo below.

Interestingly, some of the buildings have a mansard roof above the side elevation, as seen in the two above. They also have gables, the lower one with rustic clapboarding and the other one with plain plaster and paint like the rest of the wall. I really like how the chimney stack neatly fits between the two roofs on the lower house.

Another bungalow with the two bays and gable above the left can just about be seen at the top of the road.

This next house at the bottom of the road appears to consist of three separate dwellings in one building.

Two more lovely eyebrow windows inbetween the forward facing gable and a dormer casement window. My camera was facing the sun at that point so these photos are a bit washed out.

And back to the bottom of Wychall Orchard, the photo below showing a bit more of the opposite corner with the adjacent end of the above building.

Although it doesn't look the same, this next photo shows that adjacent part from the main road. I wasn't sure from my photos but I had a walk down to check yesterday morning and it is part of the three dwelling building.

Although I couldn't see much of it, I did take a few photos of the garden borders tumbling over the retaining wall, shown below.  

Which brings us neatly to the last of these style of houses along the main road. With a large eyebrow dormer window and rustic boarded gables, this also has a roof skylight and a projecting bay to the left.

As the buildings are on a steep slope, this one has a parking bay and a garage in front of the retaining wall.

In the photos below we can also see some of the three dwelling building on the corner of Wychall Orchard.

Finally, another photo taken from my balcony of this wonderfully quirky higgledy-piggledy road with its lovely buildings. Something I should have done a long time ago, but sometimes we can walk past something for decades without looking properly. I'm really glad I finally had a walk around and I hope you enjoyed it too. :)

There we go and now for the chatty bit! Actually, I don't have much to say this time, lol. I put my back out again four days ago but it's healing quite quickly and I'm also walking somewhat better than recently, so at least that's some good news. 

Other than that, I'm not sure what's coming next but I might get another Useful Books completed plus some more of Fore Street in Beer and the next of the Weather Lore series. I'm hoping I can finally get over to Beer again for more photos soon but I'll see how it goes. Fingers crossed!

Cheers everyone. :)