Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
What's the Story Here?
Most of you will probably recognise this wonderful panel from Manor House underground station.
We have a turkey, a dovecote, a couple of doves, a weeping willow, a balustrade and some gates. I imagine they're all supposed to reflect the local context. Some elements are easy to match up. Others less so. Can anybody cast any light on the less self-evident elements?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Finsbury Park Ranger on
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Wood green tube has pictures of African animals, not sure it's all locally specific, unless they used to keep them in the palace ?
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Permalink Reply by Gordon T on
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Best photo I've seen of the panel, which is a ventilation screen I think. Turnpike Lane and Wood Green stations have the like too, but in different also locality-specific designs.
In casting-light mode; all the motifs are to indicate the station's location by Finsbury Park. I guess the left-most bird is likely to be a fantail dove rather than a turkey, and the elements at the bottom of the screen are plants, park railings and gates.
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Permalink Reply by Abi on
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Heh, could it be a humble pigeon? They're a sort of dove and we certainly see enough of those ;)
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Permalink Reply by Gordon Curtis on
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Can't help with the elements, but the artist is Harold Stabler apparently?
http://150greatthingsabouttheunderground.com/tag/harold-stabler/
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Sorry, I know you can use google too. But this might save you a couple of seconds if interested, though still no clues as to the elements. He was quite a talent - he made tiles and posters for the underground as well:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24772733@N05/sets/72157623188053661/de...
http://www.ltmcollection.org/posters/artist/artist.html?IXartist=Ha...
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Permalink Reply by Lydia R on
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Anyone with a domestic turn of mind like myself would recognise the panel as a sort of Art Deco take on the Willow Pattern. A rich mandarin, infuriated that his beautiful daughter had attracted the attention of his secretary, built a fence around his house, from which the lovers tried to escape. In one story, they could get over the fence only by becoming birds, and in another they got away as humans but, cornered by the angry parent, killed themselves and were turned into doves by the sympathetic gods. Next question is this--what does Manor House have to do with a willow pattern plate? Was the manor in some way connected to pottery, or did one of the owners design the original (or make up the story)?
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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What an intriguing thought!
I couldn't fit it to the old poem though
Two birds flying high,
A Chinese vessel, sailing by.
A bridge with three men, sometimes four,
A willow tree, hanging o'er.
A Chinese temple, there it stands,
Built upon the river sands.
An apple tree, with apples on,
A crooked fence to end my song.
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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I enjoy these details of art and craft in public spaces.
And it's nice to think it may have been what Harold Stabler had in mind when in 1915 - according to Oxford Art Online - he and others founded the Design and Industries Association.
As a Haringey Libraries user you can access Oxford Art Online's article on Stabler by signing-in with your library card number. (Use HAR???????? when the question marks are the eight digits of your card - no spaces.)
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Permalink Reply by Padmadipa Paul Simmons on
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The grill designs are in Wood Green, Manor House and Turnpike lane tube. The Wood Green one depicts a deer and a couple of birds - which to me suggest that the artist thought of Wood Green in times gone by as more like Richmond Park! Turnpike Lane is perhaps the most realistic in that what it shows is a gentleman on a horse approaching from the left, the gate house and the toll gate, and the first pair of houses of a stage coach approaching from the right: depicting the days when Turnpike Lane was literally a turnpike. Any one know of a dove cote that existed in Fin Pk at any time? The rectangular part immediately below the dove cote I think is more suggestive of a park seat seen straight on in front elevation rather than a balustrade.
But I think the really interesting thing is that the artist must have done the design just based on his brief without looking at the actual site, as he has put a couple of spherical roundels on top of the gate posts and although this kind-of architecturally fits, there are no such balls in actuality on any of the Finsbury park gates - and by looking at old photographs I do not think there ever has been! (Any one know of any balls on the gate posts in times gone by?)
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