5&9Models' Blog

Magnificent, Chris. Victorian characters with a big V! 

 

William Peirse's establishment is superbly modelled. The Hackney carriage too. Are your horse-drawn carriages fixed to the layout? I would like to add reins to mine, but I normally store them in a box off the layout so am not sure how it could be done without breaking the reins. 

 

Just FYI: I'm curious to see the header photo, but it appears like this to me. I think the software 'crops' the top and bottom of the header photos.

 

The sash windows have proper horns on the upper sashes....and locks!!! There's a lot going on at Bricklayers Arms, a bit of a treat for the Victorian enthusiast (and Solly is relying on the skill of the fitter if the lamp above his head is not to abruptly descend and put a stop to his bibulous progress).

 

Kit PW

2 hours ago, kitpw said:

The sash windows have proper horns on the upper sashes....and locks!!! There's a lot going on at Bricklayers Arms, a bit of a treat for the Victorian enthusiast (and Solly is relying on the skill of the fitter if the lamp above his head is not to abruptly descend and put a stop to his bibulous progress).

 

Kit PW

Thanks Kit PW, I’m glad you like it. Lots done but loads more to do yet.

3 hours ago, Mikkel said:

Magnificent, Chris. Victorian characters with a big V! 

 

William Peirse's establishment is superbly modelled. The Hackney carriage too. Are your horse-drawn carriages fixed to the layout? I would like to add reins to mine, but I normally store them in a box off the layout so am not sure how it could be done without breaking the reins. 

 

Just FYI: I'm curious to see the header photo, but it appears like this to me. I think the software 'crops' the top and bottom of the header photos.

 

Thanks Mikkel. The carriage is wired on with some very fine wire and a small amount of epoxy resin too. Hopefully it’s not going anywhere so it enables me to add reins and so on without fear of them being broken in handling. The wire is the fine brass stuff they put round wine bottles to make you think you’re getting much better quality than you really are!

 

Good point about the header photo. I edited it four times to try and get round the cropping, then gave up!

Really good modelling - the 'Greyhound' looks splendid and Archibald Plummer is one of the most convincing model figures that I have seen.  I really enjoy these Victorian scenes.

 

I've fought for ages trying to compose header pictures - how it's cropped varies with the screen used to view the site.

 

Nowadays, I prefer using a phone rather than a camera for model photos.

 

Mike

Edited October 25, 2021 by MikeOxon

40 minutes ago, MikeOxon said:

Really good modelling - the 'Greyhound' looks splendid and Archibald Plummer is one of the most convincing model figures that I have seen.  I really enjoy these Victorian scenes.

 

I've fought for ages trying to compose header pictures - how it's cropped varies with the screen used to view the site.

 

Nowadays, I prefer using a phone rather than a camera for model photos.

 

Mike

Thanks Mike,

I agree about the phone camera. I may have to ask Santa for a new one!

Superb attention to detail.

 

You have an eye for colour, that looks spot on to me. 

8 hours ago, Dave John said:

Superb attention to detail.

 

You have an eye for colour, that looks spot on to me. 

 

Thank you Dave, much appreciated.

Although, as they are still around, I assume, I expect you have your own photos, these are some of Pages Walk, at the western end of the Bricklayers Arms depot site. I took them when I worked in the area. I also have some of Grange Walk which runs parallel to and to the north of Grange Road, if they would be of interest..

 

 

 

 

Edited November 11, 2022 by phil_sutters

Thank you Phil, they're really interesting. These were built later than those on the Upper Grange Road (I believe by the railway to house employees). Architecturally similar but perhaps a bit larger. The b&w photo shows the houses to the left of The Greyhound pub just outside the boundaries of my layout. Unfortunately I can't include Pages Walk either as the layout is already pretty big and space is limited.

Wonderful atmosphere Chris.

 

I must have a wander around the Pages Walk area, have not been around there for ages.

Then there's Upper Grange Road and Greyhound Bridge. Most original features gone now I think.

 

Interesting choice of name William Rolls for the gent in the cab. As I recall, part of the Bricklayers Arms site was built on the Rolls Estate (hence Rolls Road) and the family was connected to the Rolls Royce car manufacturers. Although I believe that the Mr Rolls in connection with the car business died fairly young.

 

Keep up the good work.

 

All the best

Ray

 

 

1 hour ago, wainwright1 said:

Wonderful atmosphere Chris.

 

I must have a wander around the Pages Walk area, have not been around there for ages.

Then there's Upper Grange Road and Greyhound Bridge. Most original features gone now I think.

 

Interesting choice of name William Rolls for the gent in the cab. As I recall, part of the Bricklayers Arms site was built on the Rolls Estate (hence Rolls Road) and the family was connected to the Rolls Royce car manufacturers. Although I believe that the Mr Rolls in connection with the car business died fairly young.

 

Keep up the good work.

 

All the best

Ray

 

 

 

Thank you Ray. Yes, it was all demolished in the 1980s, the Upper grange Road is now called Dunton Road, Greyhound Place, the pub and the bridge all long gone.

Well done for identifying William Rolls, he is indeed from the family you're thinking of. They lived at the Grange (hence Grange road), William Rolls owned much land and property in Bermondsey around the Bricklayers Arms site. He owned The Greyhound pub but was not landlord, that was William James Peirse.  Rolls received a significant amount of compensation from the SER for the inconvenience of having a bridge built right outside his pub, so much so that he was able to have it rebuilt so the public rooms were moved up to the first floor to be level with the rising road outside. He also owned a floor cloth manufactory on the Old Kent Road which suffered substantial fires around the time of the building of the railway. The b&w photo was taken in the 1960s, the Greyhound pub stood where the advertising hoardings are, they're basically pinned to what remains of the building. The photo of the Greyhound itself was taken around 1890-1910.

My version of Greyhound Place. I've not included some of the features in the old photo as they were later additions/alterations post dating my era which is c.1845.

 

This photo was taken before I added the bridge road and railings, and before the whole lot was added to the layout.

 

Edited October 26, 2021 by 5&9Models

Regarding cameras, for close-up detail shots of figures and cameos I find it vital to use manual focus. Recent mobile phones have an advantage there, I feel, as you can just touch the screen where you want the focus.

 

That said, the photos taken on my medium-priced phone still can't compete with the resolution and general quality of my aging point-and-shoot Nikon. This isn't necessarily a problem for online viewing, I've noticed that uploads to RMweb reduces file size and quality anyway. But for magazine publication it obviously does matter.

 

I'd be interested to hear if anyone has experiences with the top range new mobile phones for close-up layout photos. 

 

Edited October 26, 2021 by Mikkel

34 minutes ago, 5&9Models said:

My version of Greyhound Place. I've not included some of the features in the old photo as they were later additions/alterations post dating my era which is c.1845.

 

This photo was taken before I added the bridge road and railings, and before the whole lot was added to the layout.

 

That's very interesting Chris. 

I cannot remember that side of Dunton Road as it was. I am however very familiar with St James Road bridge which replaced Mercer's Crossing. The buildings there seemed to suffer a similar fate, including a row of houses and a pub on the corner end junction with Lynton Road. These seemed to have fared better and I am not sure whether the houses had another floor added, but they certainly had dummy front doors at first floor level which was always a fascinating sight to children. At a later date I found out that the pub, the Sultan, had received another floor and had a a two storey cellar ! How do I know that, well our club's first club room was in the crypt of St Augustine's Church, Lynton Road, about five minutes walk from the pub and we used to frequent it on a Friday night after our club sessions.

Needless to say, the pub has now been demolished and replaced with a block of flats and the houses the same with part of the London Academy School built on the site. There is a tunnel under the road still extant, which links the two halves of the school, and I think was the only means of access to the houses on that side of the road.

 

All the best

Ray

1 hour ago, wainwright1 said:

At a later date I found out that the pub, the Sultan, had received another floor and had a a two storey cellar ! How do I know that, well our club's first club room was in the crypt of St Augustine's Church, Lynton Road, about five minutes walk from the pub and we used to frequent it on a Friday night after our club sessions.

 

Thanks Ray,

I do wonder if the greyhound had a cellar as well from when the frontage was at ground level. You can see from the attached, taken from the minutes of the Bricklayers Arms Extension Committee held at the National Archives in Kew, the massive compensation William Rolls received. Apparently in todays money his £2310 would be worth in excess of £287,000! William Peirse received a fair chunk too, about £62,000 in today's money.