Scenes from Gower Street

When walking to the West End of London, after disembarking my train, I decided to take a route I’ve never used before. Instead of heading south down Woburn Place / Southampton Row, which is the way I would normally go if walking, I headed further west along Euston Road and then cutting south down Gower Street.

I didn’t have any particular reason for choosing Gower Street other than it’s a road I’ve never walked before (and might therefore have some things worth photographing), and that it would take me towards my destination.

I already posted a couple of pictures yesterday that I shot outside University College London, but the ones featured today are what I photographed as I continued down the street past rows of elegant terraced houses. One of the things that struck me about these was the number on chimney pots visible above each property, with ten individual pots being visible on most of the buildings. Each has five floors including basement and attic, so I guess two or more fireplaces on each floor – which doesn’t actually sound that many – but to see them all emerging from the rooftop together is quite striking. None of the houses in the estate where I live has any chimneys, they instead have a simple vented tile on the apex of the roof where fumes from gas fires can escape (assuming a gas fire is still in use – our h0ome, and I suspect many others, now relies totally on gas-powered central heating, with any fumes vented from a flue from the boiler.. Different times, I guess.