Comments on: The Coal Holes Of London https://spitalfieldslife.com/2024/03/23/the-coal-holes-of-london/ In the midst of life I woke to find myself living in an old house beside Brick Lane in the East End of London Tue, 04 Mar 2025 16:31:45 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Francis Mariani https://spitalfieldslife.com/2024/03/23/the-coal-holes-of-london/#comment-1698204 Tue, 04 Mar 2025 16:31:45 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=199298#comment-1698204 I was in London for a few days in September 2023 for a wedding. I found time to do a lot of walking and discovered coal-hole covers all over Kensington and Chelsea, particularly in Sinclair Road, where I was staying. I took photographs of 35 coal-hole covers without knowing what they were until much later. Thank you so much for publishing this particular article of Dr Shephard Taylor’s wonderful drawings – regrettably, I did not take photographs on any of the streets he walked in.

This is a link to a mosaic of 28 of my photographs: https://www.flickr.com/photos/designwallah/53463018947/

]]> By: Joanna https://spitalfieldslife.com/2024/03/23/the-coal-holes-of-london/#comment-1664718 Wed, 11 Dec 2024 21:48:02 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=199298#comment-1664718 When I was at Central Foundation School in 1964, our holiday art homework was to appreciate the designs and make rubbigs on greaseproof paper, of local coal holes. . . which being keen on art I did. The teacher had suggested it would be polite to knock on the doors of houses to which coal holes on pavements belonged, to ask permission to take the rubbings. My mother however told me that wasn’t necessary, and years later explained how she was amazed Mrs . . .the art teacher must have been unaware of the obvious innuendo there. (My mother wasn’t the type at all to use or appreciate innuendo, but had studied a bit of psychology at university in the early 40s which must have included Freud.

]]> By: Ann Ranshaw https://spitalfieldslife.com/2024/03/23/the-coal-holes-of-london/#comment-1563449 Tue, 02 Apr 2024 09:18:41 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=199298#comment-1563449 When I was at University in London in the late 60’s it was not unusual for fellow students to take rubbings, like brass rubbings of these for decorating – covering up the damp patches and unfortunate wallpaper – in their student accommodation, mostly rented bed sits in poor repair.

]]> By: Catherine https://spitalfieldslife.com/2024/03/23/the-coal-holes-of-london/#comment-1561528 Sat, 23 Mar 2024 22:00:53 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=199298#comment-1561528 Some of the round ones would make wonderful designs for pie crusts!

]]> By: Robin https://spitalfieldslife.com/2024/03/23/the-coal-holes-of-london/#comment-1561470 Sat, 23 Mar 2024 18:08:13 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=199298#comment-1561470 Oh yes, they exist! I don’t have any photos from coal holes on the streets listed, but I do have several of the same or similar designs from the streets around Kensington Chelsea. Makers’ names include JAS Bartle & Co Western Iron Works Notting Hill; C.L. Hacking Kings Road.

]]> By: Jennifer Newbold https://spitalfieldslife.com/2024/03/23/the-coal-holes-of-london/#comment-1561452 Sat, 23 Mar 2024 15:26:03 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=199298#comment-1561452 Do these still exist? There are so many different designs, and I have never noticed a single one. Even if most of them have been filled in or paved over, there must still be a few in existence (although to go looking for them on the Strand or in Trafalgar Square would probably mean colliding with a few dozen people, at least).

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