Felixstowe Road
Examples of trade lettering can be found in and around
Felixstowe Road near
to the Royal Oak public house. This enigmatic set of lettering is
prominently
displayed on the side wall of the house at Felixstowe Road, on the
corner
of Salisbury Road. We decipher this as: 'J.W. HOW. HOUSE (word
obliterated)
FOR SALE &(?) TO LET. OFFICES(?)'. The proprietor (whatever he did)
appears to have painted over earlier lettering as well as obliterating
some
with a brick-coloured paint.
-
Across Felixstowe Road and a bit further up towards The
Royal Oak, is the
Lloyds Pharmacy at number 159, resplendant with its vertical 'CHEMIST'
lettering
on the leading edge of the side wall. Although recently repainted,
these
letterforms look as though they've been in place for many years. The
centred
extended caps in shiny white against the black panel are very
eye-catching
and get across that jump from the 'M' to the 'S' with a slender 'I'
remarkably
effectively in this format. See also the examples 'H.W.
Turner' (and the Berners Street 'Hotel' on the same page).
As drivers queue at the traffic lights in nearby Derby Road (opposite
the
Royal Oak) they may have noticed on the back wall of 181 Felixstowe
Road
the words: 'FAMILY GROCER.' (complete with full stop); above it the
name
of the proprietor has been obliterated ('H. PRENTICE', we think). This
particular
shop has changed hands a number of times since it was a corner shop
selling
groceries (remember them?) and, add insult to injury, the plot at the
rear
of the premises has been sold off. One of its more recent incarnations
was
a linguistic curiosity: the hair salon immortalised as "Rena's Canse".
Perhaps the proprietor was Rena and she wanted to proclaim herself as a
Renaissance Hairdresser?
-
A modern house facing Derby Road now blocks the
eye-line of the advertisement
and 'Family Grocer.' remains as a fading reminder of a time before
out-of-town
supermarkets when the corner shop serving local shoppers was mainstay
of the town's economy.
A superb 'pub sign' in coloured ceramic tile and relief
surround announces
'THE BLOOMING FUCHSIA' on the corner of Foxhall Road and Fuchsia Lane.
Quite
who commissioned this work of art for such a modest building
(presumably
the brewers who owned the premises) deserves recognition. The fired
glazes
have ensured that the vibrant colours are as fresh today as they were
when
created. Another ceramic brewery sign exists on The
Butchers Arms in Knodishall.
Doctor Fuchs and the Fuchsia.
Father Charles Plumier, a Frenchman, was hunting for plants or trees
which
contained a chemical, later to be known as Quinine, to cure malaria;
this
probably happened during trips in the late 17th century, although dates
are confused and Plumier's date of death is conjectural. He discovered
a
new genus of plant calling it Fuchsia Triphylla Flora Coccinea. Fuchsia
was named after a German man of medicine, Triphylla because it
was
three leafed (that, too, can be confusing: most fuchsia leaf nodes
having
two leaves), Flora for flower, and Coccinea for its
scarlet
colour (after the maroon cochineal dye extracted from a Mexican scale
insect).
When it came to Plumier's naming of plants he liked to use a surname of
respected personalities, for the Fuchsia, he thought of a German Doctor
of Medicine who had died 80 years before Plumier was born. This Doctor
was
Leonhart Fuchs (1501-66), (Fox in English) who for most of his working
life,
worked at Tubingen University in charge of Medicine. He had written
several
books, including one called De Historia Stirpium, which contained 516
wood
engravings and was (and still is) considered a masterpiece when it was
published
in Latin in 1542. However, the fact is Leonhart Fuchs, had nothing to
do
with the Fuchsia, other than have his name used by an admiring
Frenchman,
who remembered and respected him. Leonhart Fuchs is still well
remembered
for his work to the present day. Indeed 2001 saw celebrations of his
500th
birthday throughout Europe.
Fuchsia cochineal, from Brazil is generally accepted as the first
living
plant to appear in Europe, probably in 1788 when a Captain Firth gave a
plant to Kew Gardens. The 19th century saw British plant hunters lead
the
field with 25 out of 47 new species being found by the British. The
countries
where most of the fuchsia species were found, and can still be found,
are
Peru, Bolivia, Equador, Brazil, Columbia, Mexico, Chile, and other
South
American countries.
From The Blooming Fuchsia it is only a few minutes walk
down to Ruskin House and the Foxhall
Road Co-op (now rebuilt).
Home
Copyright throughout this site belongs to Borin Van Loon, 2003.