michael adams wrote:
"John Rowland" wrote in
message ...
Richard J. wrote:
John Rowland wrote:
In Thames Rd aka Strand On The Green, just west of the railway
bridge is an alley called Post Office Alley which contains a small
old floodgate at the river end. Set into one wall of this alleyway
is a line of solid metal knobs which are shaped like carpentry
dovetails. The line is level (i.e. level with a spirit level
rather than level with the rather sloping ground). There is
nothing in the other side of the alley. I presume they serve some
flood defence purpose but I can't figure it out. Any clues?

I can't help with your question, but just to correct one point in
your post:
Thames Road is not "aka" Strand on the Green. The name Strand on
the Green is applied both to (a) the riverside village just
downstream from Kew Bridge, and (b) within that village the highway
along the river bank. That highway starts as a road but the road
soon veers away from the river at which point it becomes Thames
Road. Strand on the Green (the highway) continues along the river
bank as a mere towpath, but still has houses fronting on to it
(with postal addresses of xx Strand on the Green) whose land
reaches back as far as Thames Road, sometimes with separate
buildings fronting on to Thames Road.
Buildings or gates on the south side of Thames Road may therefore
carry either Thames Road numbers or Strand on the Green numbers,
usually without specifying which. As far as I remember, the
situation is not helped by the numbers on the two roads running in
different directions.
Finding house number X in Thames Road can be difficult!

"What is the name of this road" is often a surprisingly difficult
question to answer: it is not rare for the two sides of a road to
have different names, although this is a particularly unusual
example, because there are Thames Road properties on both sides of
the road, and there are Strand On The Green properties on both sides
of the road, and the experience of someone driving along the road is
that both sides of the road are changing name back and forth. In
particular, there are some properties numbered as Strand On The
Green on the north side of the road east of the point where Thames
Road starts, which defeats your argument. Therefore I don't consider
my original post to be in need of correction.

Just a thought.

What you see on Strand on The Green are the backs of the houses. Same
as the top end of Park Lane whose "actual address" is far less
prestigeous.
So possibly in both cases the owners have taken advantage of the fact
that their houses stand on two thoroughfares and have chosed the
better one - even fitting a letter box if necessary.

As you say, "just a thought". If you'd actually been there, you would
realise that your thought doesn't match the architecture and position of
most of the buildings. Was your previous post pure conjecture as well?

--
Richard J.
(to email me, swap 'uk' and 'yon' in address)

On Mon, 28 Jul 2008, michael adams wrote:

"John Rowland" wrote in message
...
Richard J. wrote:
John Rowland wrote:
In Thames Rd aka Strand On The Green,

I can't help with your question, but just to correct one point in your
post: Thames Road is not "aka" Strand on the Green. The name Strand on
the Green is applied both to (a) the riverside village just downstream
from Kew Bridge, and (b) within that village the highway along the
river bank. That highway starts as a road but the road soon veers away
from the river at which point it becomes Thames Road. Strand on the
Green (the highway) continues along the river bank as a mere towpath,
but still has houses fronting on to it (with postal addresses of xx
Strand on the Green) whose land reaches back as far as Thames Road,
sometimes with separate buildings fronting on to Thames Road.

"What is the name of this road" is often a surprisingly difficult
question to answer: it is not rare for the two sides of a road to have
different names, although this is a particularly unusual example,
because there are Thames Road properties on both sides of the road, and
there are Strand On The Green properties on both sides of the road, and
the experience of someone driving along the road is that both sides of
the road are changing name back and forth. In particular, there are
some properties numbered as Strand On The Green on the north side of
the road east of the point where Thames Road starts, which defeats your
argument. Therefore I don't consider my original post to be in need of
correction.

Just a thought.

What you see on Strand on The Green are the backs of the houses. Same as
the top end of Park Lane whose "actual address" is far less prestigeous.
So possibly in both cases the owners have taken advantage of the fact
that their houses stand on two thoroughfares and have chosed the better
one - even fitting a letter box if necessary. And just so lang as
there's no intention to decieve that's presumably o.k.

Here's another thought: if you had a letterbox on both sides, could you
have two addresses? Do addresses in fact belong to letterboxes, and not
houses?

That's true, mutatis mutandis, of internet addresses and network
interfaces. I was very confused when i realised that my computer didn't
actually have an internet address, but my network card did! And am still
slightly confused by the fact that it's my computer which has the domain
name ... isn't it?

tom

--
an optical recording release. copyright digitally mastered. .,

On Sat, 26 Jul 2008 16:25:19 +0100, "John Rowland"
wrote:

In Thames Rd aka Strand On The Green, just west of the railway bridge is an
alley called Post Office Alley which contains a small old floodgate at the
river end. Set into one wall of this alleyway is a line of solid metal knobs
which are shaped like carpentry dovetails. The line is level (i.e. level
with a spirit level rather than level with the rather sloping ground). There
is nothing in the other side of the alley. I presume they serve some flood
defence purpose but I can't figure it out. Any clues?

Great that MatSav found the photo:

http://americangrey.co.uk/index.php?showimage=489

but unfortunately it doesn't show the knobs very clearly.

ISTM that is unlikely they are anything to do with flood control.

Could they be the terminals of rods holding the wall in? If so, the
higher rendering on that side could be concealing wall repair work.

On Sat, 26 Jul 2008 22:14:13 GMT, "Richard J."
wrote:

Thames Road is not "aka" Strand on the Green. The name Strand on the Green
is applied both to (a) the riverside village just downstream from Kew
Bridge, and (b) within that village the highway along the river bank. That
highway starts as a road but the road soon veers away from the river at
which point it becomes Thames Road.

The word "strand" means beach or shore. The road Strand near Charing
Cross used to be along the shoreline of the Thames before infilling
(narrowing) of the river, which is a common fate for waterfront in
areas of high land value.

I assume Strand on the Green is/was a river beach backing on to a
green, and a village by it. The green seems to be long-gone,
according to my A-Z. The street Strand on the Green is right next to
the (original) strand, while Thames Road is slightly inland of it and
thus quite properly not called a strand. The A-Z appears to name the
river bank parallel to Thames Road as "Strand on the Green".

There's an article about the place in Wikipedia, with pictures
(including one of flooding).

Adrian

..

Adrian Stott