Saturday morning on the Upper Grange Road
Ex petty officer Solly is in a bit of a pickle.
Having recently been suspended from active naval service owing to a regrettable incident with a cannon, he has decided to consume an increasing quantity of London’s best porter.
Unfortunately, not only did the calamity result in the loss of his right leg below the knee, it also neatly removed his left thumb. He now has to swap his crutch to the left in order to hold a bottle in his right hand. After several bottles this balancing act can prove increasingly challenging.
Meanwhile, Archibald Plummer calmly makes his way past the undignified display. He’s seen it all before and he knows it rarely ends well.
A cab clatters past the houses at Greyhound Place. Inside, William Rolls peruses the morning papers on the way to his floor cloth manufactory.
In January 1837, James Braby a coach builder of Duke Street, Lambeth was granted patent no.7279 to cover ‘Certain Improvements in the Construction of Carriages’. His patent was well illustrated with drawings of three designs for hackney carriages and one omnibus. The first, a one horse hackney carriage is the subject of my model. It's cast in white metal as a ‘kit’ and the driver, a heavily modified ModelU character. The horse was a spare from the scrap box.
Whether James Braby actually built any of these carriages is unknown. Unlike many inventors he was at least in a position to manufacture his designs, even if only in model form to promote his ideas to prospective clients.
Figures are ModelU’s finest (with minor and occasionally major modifications). The layout is my ongoing project to recreate Bricklayers Arms, Bermondsey, c.1845 in 4mm scale. Apologies for the low resolution of these images, I must buy a new camera!
Edited by 5&9Models
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