Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
The Plimsoll Sensation
I just stumbled across a book written by our Finsbury Park neighbour and local newsletter writer, Nicolette Jones, about her street in Finsbury Park. The following text from her personal website gives the story about how the book came to be written:
In 1995 I moved into Plimsoll Road in north London. A few doors down was a pub called The Plimsoll, with a trainer stuck in the middle of its pub sign. Around the edges of the sticker was a scrap of grey sea.When the pub changed name a few years later, a strange impulse prompted me to buy the sign—an ugly object that revealed, with the trainer stripped off, the Plimsoll mark, and the name and dates of Samuel Plimsoll, 1824-1898.
I knew then that the Plimsoll line was the level of maximum submergence marked on a ship, but other than that nothing about the man it was named after. I began to find out about him, and discovered a story of such resonance and irresistible drama, and a character so compelling, that my idle curiosity became something of an obsession.
Continued on Nicolette's website........
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by 1qbsbeuo78w3l on
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How very kind, Hugh. Thank you for showing an interest!
And to Liz for her enthusiastic response.
All the best,
Nicolette
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Nicolette, the trainer stuck over the Plimsoll Line on the pub sign was of course a plimsoll / plimsole - named for its resemblance to the Plimsoll Line. The Plimsoll story was a chapter in our Primary School Reader (Class 4) back in 1952 - probably a piece of improving literature to prove to us South Armagh kids that maybe one or two Englishmen could conceivably be champions of human rights.
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Yes, OAE, named after him in 1876 as a tribute when Samuel Plimsoll was a household name, by a sales rep for the Liverpool Rubber Company (the rep was called Philip Lace). It was a kind of pun, because these 'sand shoes' inventing for walking on the beach on the newly established bank holidays, being canvas above and rubber below, could only be safely immersed in water up to a certain point, like a merchant ship. By a happy irony, Plimsoll (as MP for Derby) voted for the legislation that introduced bank holidays, and therefore ensured his own immortality both through the Line and the shoes.
Delighted that your school took an interest. Indeed he was a rare champion of human rights. Also a supporter of Irish home rule, as it happened.
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You've beaten me to it! Just checked with Wikipedia to find your book has it covered from all angles. Of course in Northern Ireland we called them gutties. I'm all for puns, though I can't remember whether we laced them with philip laces.
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I always thought it was funny that Lace was in shoes.
Gutties in Northern Ireland. Daps in Gloucestershire. Sand shoes still in Scotland.
Meanwhile many thanks to Lesley. Really hope you enjoy it.
All best,
Nicolette
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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From Twitter:
@harringayonline Just bought The Plimsoll Sensation. Looking fwd to reading it. Sounds most interesting. Glad to support local author. Thx
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Permalink Reply by StephenBln on
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Just to bring this discussion back down to earthy N4 again..
'FINSBURY PARK Plimsoll Road'
was for over fifty years the destination and terminal point of the 19 & 236 bus routes. A white pseudo -bauhaus style building now occupies the site of what was the LONDON TRANSPORT 'Canteen', where the route 19 crews would day in, day out, take their meal breaks and 236 drivers, like me, would sneak in a quick cup of 'Griffin Tea'. London Transport's own brand of tea.
Sadly, the line of parked up red buses on a scruffy Plimsoll Road is now long gone, now replaced by gentrified houses and lines of exclusive push chairs.
RF 411 en route to Finsbury Park (Plimsoll Road) at Leyton Town Hall in 1965.
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I remember when the building still looked something like a caf.
Sorry to bang on, but just fyi the reason why the symbol on the front of this lovely bus looks like the Plimsoll mark is that Frank Pick, who designed the London Transport logo (and tube map), was inspired by Plimsoll.
That's enough Plimsoll facts from me.
All the best,
Nicolette
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Nicolette, I think the Plimsoll mark certainly was the inspiration for what later became the London Transport and laterly the TfL 'Roundel'. It wasn't designed by Pick, but he was responsible for it's wider use as the brand mark for the Underground Group and later the L.P.T.B or London Transport.
I'm afraid he wasn't the designer of the 'tube map' either. That was Harry Beck from Palmers Green, although Pick was it's instigator.
Pick died quite young in 1941 and although a pedant, his only concern was improving London Transport's systems. An icon for all of us admirers of London Transport and it's 'House Style and Architecture'.
I'm convinced that had he lived, Pick would have pushed through the Northern Heights extension of the Northern Line and not allowed it to be cancelled. Thereby easing public transport for hundreds of thousands of North Londoners, who still would have benefited from it today.
1949 Quad Royal Map showing the 'Northern Heights extensions' via Stroud Greed & Crouch End to Highgate & Ally Pally.
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Very interesting, Stephen, thanks!
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