| Re: Post Office Alley in Chiswick, London |
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Group: uk.transport.london · Group Profile
Author: Tony HaynesTony Haynes Date: Jul 29, 2008 05:42
On Jul 27, 1:24Â pm, "John Rowland"
journeyflow.spamspam.demon.co.uk> wrote:> MatSav wrote:
>> "John Rowland" journeyflow.spamspam.demon.co.uk> wrote in
>> messagenews:g6ffl1$omo$1$830fa7b3@news.demon.co.uk...>
>>> In Thames Rd aka Strand On The Green, just west of the railway
>>> bridge is an alley called Post Office Alley which contains a
>>> small old floodgate at the river end. Set into one wall of this
>>> alleyway is a line of solid metal knobs which are shaped like
>>> carpentry dovetails. The line is level (i.e. level with a
>>> spirit level rather than level with the rather sloping ground).
>>> There is nothing in the other side of the alley. I presume they
>>> serve some flood defence purpose but I can't figure it out. Any
>>> clues?
>
>> Photograph here:
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>
> Thanks!
>
> You find the most secret little wonderful place in London... and then you
> find out that several Beetles movies have been shot there. Sigh.
>
>> It looks to me like they may just have been some sort of fixing
>> for shuttering when the render was applied to the brickwork - but
>> why is the rendering higher on that wall than the opposite wall?
>> Either that, or there's a mezzanine floor inside the building,
>> and the dovetail joints are exactly that!
Interested? Well, I am.
The dovetail 'knobs' do seem to be attached to the ends of large
rectangular beams equally spaced. I am wondering whether the building
above and to the right of the photo was built up on these beams to
keep the floor-level above flood-level, though it sees extravagant to
cast them from iron for this purpose. The only function the 'knobs'
could have then, would be to aid slinging them into place.
Strange though.
Tone
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