Bracing Brighton

Another visit to Brighton, this time for the Coöperative Congress, the large meeting of Coöperative societies that predates the Pioneers. Alan Gill, good County Durham man made history as the last president of Congress and Peter Marks the Chief Executive Designate of the United Coöperative Group made a keynote speech setting out his vision and telling us all that he would know a coöperative principle if it slapped him in the face. However you will no doubt be able to read the congress reports in the Coöperative news if you are so inclined. Friday and Saturday gave good weather but Sunday was wet and I got soaked just going to the Metropole where congress was held (see illustration). Round the back of the Metropole is the little French Church (although it is really the services that are in French). I had a little walk on the pier but really the purpose of the visit was Congress.

Bustling Brighton

Brighton is the Queen of the Watering Places, with a lot going on in the summer months. On Saturday Kemp Town Carnival took place with music and stalls and a French Market. I was down with Mark staying at Mike and Ken's flat in Kemp Town (thanks fellas!). The weather was kind and the stalls were good, including the coöp stall, which was giving away a free fair trade banana to everyone who signed a petition to make trade fair. They had almost run out of bananas by 4:00 after bringing 22 cases of bananas! Still, I hope the Kemp Town store did well from the day. We met with Mike and Tony at the carnival and visited the stalls and St Georges Church Kemp Town, a dignified georgian church with a beautiful painted rood and reredos with the obligatory decalogue, creed and Lord's Prayer written down. The blue colour scheme was very calming. This is the second oldest church in Brighton (the oldest is the 14th Century St Nicholas) most of Brighton's churches being Victorian to cope with the growing population as Brighton became a resort and industrial town.

We spent the late afternoon in the pub then had a walk on the pier. We were going to go on the dodgems but it would have been £6 to go on one car for the two of us, although the same for two of us in two cars, so we didn't. Brighton Pier need to get their prices sorted out I think. We had dinner then walked down the sea front to the Metropole Hotel and back. We went back to the pub later.

On the Sunday we walked up through the town Calling in at the Oxfam and Books for Amnesty bookshops. We walked through the Pavillion grounds and saw the fountains playing on the steine, which is a very rare sight (see illustrations) . We also saw the cyclists on the London to Brighton run. 27000 cyclists do the run each year, although at the finish line I saw one man on a motor scooter. He had lost his way, and ended up on the route.

After a short snooze on the pier with a Mr Whippy for Mark (I refused the Mr Whippy but balked at the price of a proper cornet) we went back to the flat to tidy up, and left town. The cyclists were still arriving.

The other illustration is the view towards the seven sisters cliffs from the pier.

Hertford

Hertford is the County Town of Hertfordshire but it's still a small market town at the confluence of the Lee, the River Beane, the River Mimram and the river Rib. The New River also rises nearby. Hertford is delightful with quaint streets, a half-timbered library and an old castle. The peace memorial has a bronze hart on top of it. Outside the library there is a drinking fountain (which doesn't work due to municipal meanness) made from the windows of a 13th century church. There are also half timbered buildings although many of these bear their original pargeting. The curious egyptian style house (see illustration) is located just off the market place near Shire Hall.

After lunch Mark and I went into the 1895 church of All Saints which was having a music marathon. We watched a good looking alto who sang stuff from Peter Warlock, Handel Scarlatti and others. I wasn't really in a concert mood but it was quite enjoyable. Then it was time to go home after a balanced day out.

The suburb - Dame Henrietta's dream and Spaniards

A trip to Zone 3 to see a pageant but also a long walk up to Hampstead to take some photographs. The walk was nothing much to write about, going by Euston station, Camden town with its gimcrack market and the TV-AM building now shorn of its egg cups. Haverstock Hill, with the pub where I had the best roast beef in London - the Haverstock Arms, was a bit better leading into Hampstead with its proprietary chapel of St John, Downshire Hill built in the regency period, and the derelict church of St Stephen's Hampstead built in the victorian period. St Stephens was affected by subsidence caused by building the Royal Free Hospital at Hampstead. It is currently being restored but not as a church. There is another church opposite which [is the orthodox cathedral]. St John's Downshire hill is the proprietory chapel for the Downshire Hill estate designed to keep the estate exclusive. A proprietary chapel receives no funds from the diocese and makes no contribution to it. They are usually evangelical in opposition to high church practices elsewhere. The Downshire Hill estate is where Keats lived, and his house is now Hampstead library.

I walked up through Hampstead to the tube station then caught the tube to Golders Green. Arriving early for the pageant I took some photos of Golders Green church St Alban, a nice looking, bricky twentieth century church.

Then it was time to walk up past St Jude's on the hill to watch the pageant in Little Oak Wood. This traced the hundred year history of Hampstead Garden Suburb, a model community planned by Henrietta Barnett for housing of all social classes, although the atmosphere there today is decidedly well to do. Nevertheless as an experiment in town planning it remains a supreme example, although by no means unique. Henrietta was a philanthropist, but also acting out of self interest - she and her husband lived on Hampstead Heath and wanted to protect their view from unsightly development when the railway was driven through. Just like the development I found in my last post in Haringay.
The pageant was a warts and all portrait of Henrietta, and celebrated the suburb as a good place to live, which it undoubtedly is. There is even a suburb song, sung to the tune of the Vicar of Bray, Words by Miss M M Scott

Come all who think that songs are good! A joyous song we'll sing
And praise our Garden Suburb Home until its echoes ring
A home we have beyond compare, where all men may be free
To live in cheery fellowship with man and flow'r and tree.

Chorus

Come then rejoice and raise your voice and sing right merrily
Good luck attend our Garden Home! Good luck to you and me!

There are two more verses: If there's demand I'll put them on.
Everybody in the audience sang that song but nobody in the audience sang "There'll always be a suburb".

I ended the evening with cheery fellowship with men, althougn not flow'r and tree in the Spaniards Inn on Hampstead Heath, a haunt - in years gone by - of highway robbers including Dick Turpin. Overall an entertaining evening out.

Finsbury Park to Hornsey on the new river path.

For the curse of water has come again because of the wrath of G*d
And water is on the Bishop's board and the higher thinker's shrine
But I don't care where the water goes if it doesn't get into the wine.



An evening walk from Finsbury Park to Hornsey on some of the most boring and dangerous roads in Harringay if not London as a whole. I started out at Finsbury Park Station when I should have got off the train at Manor House. Never mind. Finsbury park is quite attractive to walk through with a pleasant avenue, although you do have to dodge the bicycles and the drunks. Meeting the new river in the corner of the park, I lost it again at the main road. The only redeeming feature of the car-choked Wightman Road was the wonderful post modernist church of St Paul, Harringay (see illustration). The original church was burnt down in 1984 and was rebuilt with a new organ which is apparently exceptionally good. The attached accomodation for the incumbent was also post modernist.

The path by the new river is closed at the request of Harringay Council although much of the New River is open here. There is a tunnel and when I rejoined the river it was at the end of this tunnel where there was a barrage attracting flotsam of very dubious charm! I saw all sorts of refuse in the river here as it ran next to the East Coast Main Line, again the river was on an embankment. I soon needed to leave the river and go via three sides of a triangle to arrive in Hornsey.

There was building work taking place on a pumping station and water treatment works site (luxury flats no doubt) and the path was closed. It was here I saw a Thames Water Authority coat of arms, a combination of the LCC and New River coats.
So I decided to explore Hornsey. I went past a church tower, minus church, that looked like it had been bombed. Actually it was demolished in 1927 and a new church built nearby. Drat, I didn't see the new church and didn't even look! Then I had a walk round Priory Park, complete with three fountains and two people with dogs breaking into the paddling pool. The third fountain was in the 'philosopher's garden' named after a group of old men who meet there in order to have 'casual conversation. The park was a lot more run down than Finsbury Park but there was good play equipment. There were some curious houses round about, including what looked like war surplus buildings - the sort with the crittall windows and the flat overhanging roofs transformed into flats.

Coming out of the park I called in on my friends Jason and Liz. Jason showed me Hornsey Common which had been planted as a wild flower garden - at vast expense.

On the new River Path from Broxbourne to Enfield

AMWELL, perpetual be thy stream
Nor e’er thy spring be less,
Where thousands drink who never dream
Whence flows the boon they bless.

Too often this ungrateful man
Blind and unconscious lives;
Enjoys kind Heaven’s indulgent plan
Nor thinks of Him that gives.

So says the quaker poet, and good quality water is certainly a boon but this path isn't. It's dull, dull, dull, although there were a few good photo ops.

The photos show (a) the first glimpse of Canary Wharf (the building with the pointy roof shown in the blue circle in the smaller photo.



This next photo shows the M25 London Orbital motorway which the New River crosses the motorway by way of an aquaduct in two concrete channels.
The final picture shows the Docwra Aqueduct which doesn't really do anything as the New River is actually diverted to Walthamstow reservoirs.
Really this walk went past some very dull areas, and even Theobald's Park, that royal spot, didn't add anything to the thrills. I think I'll breathe a sigh of relief when it's over.

On the way back, via Great Cambridge Road I saw a conservation area on a council estate and a great big church of the 1920s. I think this will provide much better fodder.

Salford (and Manchester)

When I visit Manchester I usually stay in Salford, so I thought I'd have a look around Salford for a change. Salford is little brother to Manchester and appears in the bit I visited to be much more run down. It is the place where Coronation Street (tm) is based. There is the eighteenth century church of the Sacred Trinity, which has a goth night on one of the fridays in the month. It is also cris-crossed with railway lines.

Portsmouth

A visit to Portsmouth for the Benenden Society Conference. The conference was held in the Portsmouth Guildhall, a Victorian structure that appeared to have been rebuilt in the 1950s possibly after bombing. The hall was quite opulent with tapestry hangings at high level.
Portsmouth and Queen Mary share a motto - Heaven's light our guide - which in Portsmouth's case I assume relates to Navigation. I don't know why Queen Mary (nee Mary of Teck) had it or who had it first.
Portsmouth is always quite an exciting city guided by heavenly light or not. It has a large naval population and a large student population too. The pubs are certainly lively, and the swearing from the Navy girlfriends and wives is quite surprising to hear in the pubs and clubs. There are lots of coöp stores in the town but you'll have to see the other blog for those.

The conference dinner was held in the shadow of the fairly new Spinnaker tower

in one of the boathouses in the historic naval dockyard. We had a very good (cold) dinner and entertainment by a local band. The DEFRA delegation strolled back to the hotel around midnight.
Portsmouth is worth going back to.

A moody view of Kings Cross Station

 

Brighton

A May Day visit to Brighton to go to a party at Mike and Ken’s. A most enjoyable party but the weather was unkind and very gloomy. The seas were rough too so here’s a historic picture of rough seas at Brighton.

Hertford to Broxbourne on the new river path

"He maketh the wilderness a standing water
And water springs of a dry ground
And there He setteth the hungry
That they may build them a city to dwell in"

"He opened the rock, and the waters gushed out;
They ran in the dry places like a river."

Thus says the psalmist and this was Hugh Myddleton's vision. London was thirsty and Hertfordshire was wet (it still is). A new river was needed to quench the thirst of the capital and bring water to London. Royal Jeweller to King James I and VI Myddleton was main promoter of the new river.

It wasn't too easy to find New Gauge, the official start of the New River and the New River Path from Hertford East Station, but I made it eventually. The gauge measures the amount of water Thames Water takes from the River Lea to supply North London with its drinking water. It is many millions of litres a day. The New River is then fed by an enormous spring, forming a small lake at Chadwell with an old gauge building, more of a shed really. The New River still provides around 8% of London's drinking water and the route passes Amwell where there are stone monuments to Hugh Myddleton. These are inscribed with poems which has inspired me to begin each section of this walk with a poem. After Great Amwell the path passed by the Great Amwell War memorial and passes Stanstead St Margarets. At Stanstead St Margarets there is a very large ecclesiastical looking building which I believe is a school. It is also the home to SM Coaches, which always amuses me when I go to Harlow.

I had to deviate from the path at this point, walking past a school at chucking out time - a most unpleasant experience. I got back on to the New River and came to Rye House. By this time I was in need of refreshment so I called in at the pub for a refreshing lime and soda. Rye house is now an RSPB Bird sanctuary but it was at the centre of a (possibly manufactured) plot to assasinate Charles II and his son James who had converted to Roman Catholicism and prevent a return to the throne of a Roman Catholic. The plan was to ambush Charles and James as they came back from the races at Newmarket, a regular haunt of the 'merry monarch'. Unfortunately there was a fire in Newmarket and the races were cancelled and thus the King his son went home early. All that remains of Rye House is as shown in the photo. The New River has a gentle slope of about 1:100 which means it is very level. The next point of interest was Ware as in the great bed of Ware, now in the V&A Museum. The Great bed is around 11 feet square and was made as a tourist attraction. It can sleep five or six people, which must have been very warm. "'ere: stop poking me!"
Ware is a pleasant town for a stop to eat lunch and visit. It has a lot of buildings that would be black and white if the plaster was removed, although black and white buildings were traditionally covered with plaster giving the origin of the name 'Pargeter'.
I didn't see much in Ware but was soon back on the New River. Passing some pumping stations and the backs of houses and crossing busy roads was not ideal but functional. The river runs on an embankment which is most peculiar. I decided to stop at Broxbourne, where there is a bus service to Harlow, and where I also once saw three young men use the river as a urinal after a drunken night out (on their part, not mine).

Southend and Rochford

A visit to Southend. Southend is an Essex seaside resort with the usual facilities, including the longest pier in Britain. The pier is so long there is a railway on it to take visitors to the end. I didn't go on the pier but I walked along the front, although it is a River Thames estuary front rather than a sea front. On the front there was a party of girls from a girls school who asked me if I could answer some questions. I was desparate for the loo at the time so I couldn't oblige.

However I did speculate on the nature of the questions: Are you in Southend for business or pleasure?
For pleasure.
Are you having any?
I don't think I should answer that one.

I wasn't having any pleasure at the time. Westcliff on Sea was a higher class part of Essex with the Southend Art Gallery (closed for lunch).

Rochford

In Rochford there are many old houses including Lord Riches almshouses built for poor folk in Shakespeare’s time. Rochford hall was where Anne Boleyn was born, but that house has been demolished and the present house, once a refuge for displaced puritan ministers is now a clubhouse for golfers. Penelope Devereaux was loved by Philip Sydney, one of the cavalier poets but she married Robert Rich who followed the puritan way of life. Rochford old church owes its grandeur to the hall and its tower is a fine example of early Tudor brickwork.

The interesting places on the way to Brighton?

A purposeful visit to the small towns glimpsed from the window of the train on the way to Brighton.

Haywards Heath is a little town that isn't near the railway, so it meant a decent walk up to the high street and St Wilfred's Church. Actually the double octagon Library also looked rather like a 1960s church, complete with two very short spires over two cone shaped copper domes. I didn't take a picture but there are pictures on the web.

The next point of interest was the muster green with flowers. The High Street begins with St Wilfreds church and the heath and has the usual array of small town shops.

Horley is in the Mole Valley in Surrey and here the town is built near the railway although the old church was too far away to walk. It's a bustling town with a Waitrose superstore.

The picture shows St Wilfred's Haywards Heath


These places are not quite as interesting as you think.

A visit to York

York is an ancient cathedral city and the County town of Yorkshire. Founded by the Romans, it was largely redeveloped in medieaval times, to leave the street pattern existing today.

I visited York to attend a meeting, and stayed on after it was over to do some sightseeing. And what sights! York is a medieval city with many ancient but reformed churches and the glorious minster, seat of the Archbishop of York, Primate of England, although nobody calls John Smetanu a primate. Well, not to his face. The Primate of England has responsibility for the bits that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of All England does not cover.

The Committee Meeting was held in a very atmospheric room in the Black Swan, an old manor house where General Wolfe’s mother had lived, now a public house. You don’t want to see my colleagues so there isn’t a picture of the room, although someone said satanic rituals took place in the room where we were meeting. I think that might just be the bands the pub hires.

I visited some of York’s old churches including St Helen’s Stonegate, which is the church of the York glass painters’ guild, and there is plenty of glass in it. Some members of the guild are buried here.

St Martin Le Grand is a church that was partially destroyed by enemy action in the second world war in a Baedeker raid, designed to sap civilian morale by bombing important historic buildings. The meadieval builders knew their stuff though and much of the church is still standing. The church has a beautiful ceiling with painted bosses, a spectacular font cover and a wonderful east window showing St Martin. Of its modern adornments is a very curious organ, extremely small and all in clear Perspex so the workings can be seen. There is a large clock on the outside wall.

Holy Trinity Goodramgate is a redundant church cared for by the Churches Conservation Trust. The church has 17^th century box pews which Arthur Mee doesn’t like as he calls them crazy. There is an old three decker pulpit and a piscine, as well as two old stone coffins.

I got a nice warm welcome at St Michael le belfry. One of the church sitters said I looked like a tourist, I have been called worse! I was only half a tourist that day. St Michael’s is in the shadow of the Minster and was where Guy Fawkes was baptised in 1570. One of the plotters to restore the Roman Catholic church to Britain he was discovered in time to prevent this disaster. England commemorates its deliverance on 5^th November every year. The church was rebuilt in the time of Henry VIII. The church is well worth a visit.

A kind lady let me into St Mary’s Bishophill for a brief walk round although the church wasn’t open. The church is one of the few anglo catholic churches in York with a beautiful reredos of Victorian times.

I also saw Clifford’s tower, (see picture left) the Norman castle on a motte. Alas, in the 12^th Century the York Jews, who had sought sanctuary in the tower were either massacred or committed mass suicide.

I didn’t neglect the street of butchers – or Shambles – with its overhanging houses to keep the sun off the meat. You could shake hands with your neighbour through the top storey windows. The Shambles is mentioned in the doomsday book and is now full of chocolatiers, souvenir shops and the shrine of Margaret Clitherow of York who was pressed to death for refusing to plead in court when accused of being a Roman Catholic. The shrine is maintained by the Roman Catholic church.

The City Walls sparkled in the sunshine as the stone dissolves in the rain to keep them clean. I walked along them for a few stages, but they were not particularly thrilling where I walked. From some parts I could see Terry’s sweet factory. Terry’s peppermint creams were always a treat.

York has few modern buildings as the conservation lobby has become stronger since the 1970s. Modern buildings can be as good as anything our forbears put up provided they are not stinted. In York I come to the Theatre Royal. This has a new(ish) café bar area with octagonal columns enclosed in glass. It’s definitely worth a look, but would not be allowed in York today. Good modern architecture, which this is, is not well appreciated.

People who believe in Karma will be disappointed in this one. I was in the Museum Gardens where there was a young man smoking dope on the grass down a bank from where I was walking. As he got up to go, he lost his phone from his pocket. I shouted after him but he didn’t hear, so

I went to get the phone to chase after him, or hand it in to the police, but slipped and fell. I wasn’t hurt apart from the pain of hitting the ground but so much for trying to help people.

York’s a lovely city and well worth a visit.

The uncompleted parts of the New River Path

O traveller stay thy weary feet,
Drink of this fountain pure and sweet,
It flows for rich and poor the same.
Then go thy way remembering still
The wayside well beneath the hill
The cup of water in his name.

There are a few poems relating to water and some in particular associated with the new river. I started at the wrong end, which means I’m walking uphill, or I was today at any rate. Starting at the New River Head in Roseberry Avenue the new river is a bit of a fiction here. It has not run to the head since 1920 when the Metropolitan Water Board put their new HQ there. They built labs in 1939 and a pipe appears to run through the visible new river possibly taking water to the lab for testing. All these buildings are now, of course, luxury flats. Following the course is not too difficult as the river runs through streets up to Clissold park on large central reservations and even runs exposed through another park called New River Walk. The walk is quite flat as one would expect, first leading me up the back streets of Islington with a dad and his two sons playing with mini motos, which I thought was a bit much in the park, but aren’t they great?

The course then follows a path up Petherton Road, again under a large central reservation and there’s not much to tell until it comes up to the surface again at the Castle, an old pumping station that is now the new New River Head. The path skirts round two reservoirs and then follows the new river round to Finsbury Park. The river flows on an embankment here and it is strange to see houses below a river in this way. When I got to Finsbury Park I decided it was time to go home, although it was so flat I felt I could have walked to Amwell.

Whistle stop tour of Manchester

Another visit to Manchester.
The inside of the Travel Inn was as adequate as they usually are.
The inside of Legends Nightclub was better than last time.
The inside of a flat in Salford was enhanced by 2 African grey parrots.
The inside of the New Century Hall was as expected.
The inside of the Coöperative Insurance Society Building was hot.
The inside of the Crown and Anchor was busy.
What the outside of these places was like, I'm not really sure.

A visit to the Peckham Conservation Area

As it's a conservation area the photographs are in black and white using Rollei Retro 400 film - a 1950s or 1960s type emulsion developed in an old fashioned Rollei developer.

Most of the buildings in the area are 19th Century houses - nice enough in their way but not much interest to me. However there are 3 excellent twentieth century buildings that are meritorious.

The first picture shows the Pioneer Health Centre, now converted into flats. Listed Grade II* it was built in 1934. Arthur Mee calls it the Glass House of Peckham, a great modern clubhouse, where the families of Peckham find every encouragement to be healthy, happy and wise. They may dance, fence, play games and swim in a blue-green bath. The debt was lifted by Lord Nuffield and Mr Meyerstein and over 1000 families had been examined when he wrote. The place is now nicely converted into luxury flats and the great floor to ceiling windows survive along with the blue-green bath.
 

R.E. Sassoon House is also listed grade II and was designed in the international style by Maxwell Fry and built for the Pioneer Housing Society in 1932 or 1934 (sources differ). Elizabeth Denby who was on the Utility Furniture Advisory Committee was also involved in the design.
 
 

St Mary Magdalene's Church was built in 1961 and is the most prominent landmark in the Street. It is on a traffic island this and its design emphasise its central importance to the community. The building was designed by Potter and Hare and St Mary Magdalene’s is a good example of their work according to the 20th Century Society. The building has a concrete frame forming a steeply pitched ribbed roof clad with copper that dominates the appearance of the building. The low walls are red brick and the church has a cruciform plan with the ridges of the nave, chancel and transepts sloping up to a central narrow spire with loudspeakers in lieu of bells - this is rather a demerit, although understandable bells are expensive, a hi-fi system isn't. 

Easter Day - Church in Harlow

Visited St Paul's Church in Harlow for the Easter Service. The church is in the 1950s style with a good sized congregation. The pulpit, painted lectern font and seating is all in the light and pleasant Festival of Britain style. The pews have heating installed as part of the structure - a good way to keep the congregation warm. I would like to take some pictures in the church but that's for another day. The church also has a mosaic mural of a haloed figure (Jesus?) with two other figures without haloes.
Here is a picture of the church

The service was traditional Evangelival Church of England with choruses and hymns, including 'Majesty', one of the few choruses I know.

The church of St Mary at Great Parndon is older and has a much more rural feel although it looks out over the Glaxo factory.

The picture shows Great Parndon Church porch.

The ford on the Chelmer

I visited Chelmsford from Harlow with Mark, travelling by bus via Old Harlow and some little villages in the Essex countryside. Chelmsford is the County Town of Essex and has the Essex County Hall and a cathedral. The diocese had its first bishop in 1914, therefore the cathedral is a former parish church rather than an ancient foundation like St Paul's or Durham. Even though it is on a rather small scale, the cathedral is attractive with a painted roof. It is also very light and airy.

The town of Chelmsford nestles between two rivers, the Chelmer and the Can, but the Chelmer gives the place its name - Chelmer's ford. The town has some good shops and a market, the highlight being the independent Chelmsford Star Coöperative Society Quadrant Department Store. There are pleasant riverside walks, and with beautiful weather, this was a good day out.

Highgate and Archway - Maundy Thursday afternoon

Maundy Thursday has come round again and therefore I, in common with all other Civil Servants, have the afternoon off. I'm never sure what to do with this jolly half day, but today I went to Archway and Highgate. Starting off at Archway Station, after the obligatory visit to the Coöp supermarket (which puts some of the others to shame) I walked up the hill past the Whittington stone where Dick Whittington heard the bells of St Mary le Bow calling him back to London. He subsequently made his fortune there as a mercer and banker, becoming Lord Mayor four times (three in the pantomime) and giving money to various charities somewhat indiscriminately.

At the top of Highgate hill is Waterlow Park, given by another Lord Mayor of London out of lands surrounding 5 Houses, including Lauderdale house, where Charles II 'entertained' Nell Gwyn, who threatened to throw her bastard first child off the roof unless the King gave him a peerage! The King begged her to save the Earl of Burford! The other dwellings included one where the poet Andrew Marvell, a friend of Milton, lived. The picture shows Lauderdale House the other houses have been demolished.

Highgate also contains the Whittington Hospital and a fusty old secondhand bookshop with everything priced at £12.50. The crusty old proprietor must love his stock so much he never wants to let it go. The other item of note, for gentlemen only was the spectacular public urinal, from the days when sanitary fittings were big.