funkypancake: street stuff Archives

inorganic waste collection

auckland has this very cool thing where once or twice a year your street will be nominated for an 'inorganic waste' collection. the weekend before the week you have to put all the rubbish that wouldn't normally be allowed in the rubbish bin (the stuff you'd take to the refuse tip in the UK).

for a few days the streets look completely messy, except they are full of fantastic things. And there are rag and bone type people going round collecting anything which can be repaired or sold or melted down. so by the end of the weekend there really is very little left. it's an excellent scheme.

they are also really clear that anything you put out will end up in a landfill (unless it get taken away by a passing opportunist) so people can think twice about what they put out.

i like the mixture of official and unofficial recycling that goes on. and the glorious mess that exists for a few days.

the word on the street

wordymungus

open secret cabinet

just a street scene
Comments (2)

sometimes it's nice to take photos of things which actually are boring, rather than boring things which are actually quite exciting.

the long skinny passage

top box

the real london always shows through

various green things

street ambassador

i took this photo a few weeks back before it got really cold. i particularly like how he'd organised himself with his shoes neatly lined up and even a bed side table with tray and drink. lovely stuff

at home in the park

it's a funky street embassador

chefs down an alley

leaning

telco john spotted these wonky street cabinets.

parking meter upgrade

this happened over a period of days:

first a strange plinth appeared:

and the bollards moved in:

then a new taller parking meter appeared (this photo was taken at a different location up the street where the new one was put up on the other side):

the old was decommissioned:

then they took it away:

and converted the stump in to a rather handy coffee dispenser:

vomitting

here is a paper recycling bin vomitting up it's content. luckily paper vomits are very slow so i had plenty of time to get this photo

your air is being monitored

london's narrowist alley

This is Brydges Place - it's london's narrowist alley you know.

i thought i'd contribute something to The Way We See It, but i didn't think these photos were good enough.

but i did enjoy finding it !

meters

camouflage
Comments (1)

traffic lights

street lights

traffic lights need to lie down too.

two spades
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click for big

flag, lamp post and speakers

white lines

these parallel lines are quite nice to look at. imagine if you were a small monkey scampering round the streets of london. this is probably how it would look.

person's view:

small monkey's view:

colours

tramp chic

here's a funny old thing. it's a wicker chair next to a street person's cardboard bed.

somewhere for him to sit and read his book before retiring to bed

and what about just this a street away. it's a street person's mantel piece where he can rest his beer and cigs.

a wonky street

i like taking wonky photos, but for these two objects (which were near each other on the same pavement) i didn't even need to tilt my camera.

the things you see when you haven't got a creased suit that needs cleaning

do not park round this tree
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builder's broth / street soup
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if the pine tree is the default smell of outside-ness (as seen on air freshners and toilet cleaners) then the smell of melting tar in the back of a lorry should be the smell of choice to represent town-ness.

it's got to be one of the best smells ever and i'd be very happy to install chemically-produced-equivelent-smelling-products in my life.

what's your favourite town smell ? i don't think there are that many nice ones - cooked breakfasts from cafes in the morning possibly ? keep it pleasant !

precision engineering

mains stumps.

not a film set
Comments (1)

here are a load of beer barrels piled up in an action movie type way. the police car just adds to the unlikelyness of it all.

you'll be pleased to know that no car came hurtling through whilst i was watching. (in fact a few minutes later all the barrels had been loaded on to a lorry and taken away)

lamp menders
Comments (3)

this lamp is due to be mended.

i was quite impressed the council had been so good with their signs which even explained what was wrong. it's broken because of electricy supply fault apparently.

i was less impressed when i saw that their charter said it should have been mended by 13 March 2004. i may phone the helpline so we can find out what's going on.

advertise here
Comments (2)

street advertising could be the future. especially if you were trying to market a product to street cleaners.

here is the little sign. i would have got a better picture only a man with a dog appeared at the doorway next to wear i was standing and i think he thought i looked a bit suspicious !

behind the toilet

ever wondered what's in the other half of those horrible street toilet things ? well, here's the answer. there's a giant circular brush and lots of pipes and gubbins.

no loitering

if they'd been a no loitering sign this picture would have been even better.

i would have called it something like "stand waiting in the street".

parking

street cabinet

there's all sorts of regulation about putting equipment in to boxes in the street. telephone companies are the main people that do this. here we see a new approach.

rather than using the traditional black or green boxes they've gone for a more contemporary wooden cupboard look. i think it works.

pipes

a better version of the worser version
Comments (2)

this is like one of those "what shape comes next" quizzes. for those who care, here is the worser version

strange markings on the road

better picture here

a strange pipe
Comments (1)

a yellow pipe in the middle of tottenham court road.

pay phones

i thought this was quite interesting. mobile phones have increasingly made payphones unnecessary. I think BT's payphone marketing people have nicely spun this back round in their latest advertising.

there's probably a word for this in marketing speak. but i don't know what it is.

compare BT's response to the fate of the domestic payphone which was just down the road a bit:

drinking point
Comments (2)

we've seen these on street refueling p(o)ints before. here is one on a zebra crossing which is a very sensible place for it.

if this had been guiness it would have made a nice advert with the 'wait' on the sign. but it isn't. so it doesn't.

street repairs

this road has been ground down to its concrete base ready for resurfacing. i'm really looking forward to it's new smooth covering. expect photos next week.

the writing's on the road

i have nothing to say (or means to say it)

the doors

tiles

here are some tiles on the floor outside someone's front door. imagine being greeted by this each morning.

electricity

gold tops

the tops of these railing have been painted gold since i went on holiday. they look quite fancy now

earth quake

hundreds and thousands

lots of small coloured sugary things

cable ties

dozens of cable ties as used to tie notices to the lamp post.

since there are no more adverts left, perhaps this could be described as post-post-advertising perhaps ?

blue pole
Comments (1)

a metal stick with a slight blue glow from an adjacent light.

just how more exciting can this blog get !

letter box

beautiful security

this is victorian barbed wire to stop people climbing over walls in to a house's backgarden. vicious but very pretty.

stealth phone box

more camping
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packer

london. san francisco. same thing really. cheryl saw a compactor and then so did I. who would have thought it ?

day light

inner-city road lobster catching trial fails

urinals
Comments (6)

street urinals have arrived in london. i'm sure this must be as a direct result of our involvement in europe.

advertising tape

tap

look at this. it's a massive tap on a stick with a giant on off turny handle thing.

it's nowhere near the giant tap i saw earlier this week (which has now gone).

so what IS going on ?

man hole cover
Comments (1)

i find great amusement in man hole covers which have been put back at the wrong angle so that any street writing (eg double yellow lines) suddenly go at a differnet angle.

you probably don't have a clue what i'm on about. that's my fault, not yours, so don't worry.

anyway, here is a man hole cover in the middle of the pavement nowhere near any double yellows. maybe it means no parking very small cars (or helicopters) on this manhole.

tape should rest up too

they've locked my cupboard
Comments (1)

this is a street cabinet which houses telecoms equipment. every day for the last 3 years its doors have been open to reveal its technical contents. every morning i walk by and swing its doors closed.

but first i climb in and have a little rest before continuing my journey.

so, imagine my dissapointment this morning to see my old friendly cabinet with it's secret world of hidden tunnels and compartments blocked off from the public with red tape.

"no entry" it says. "pah" i say.

one side of the street
Comments (7)

i walk down this street every day:

today i walked down the opposite side and i took a photo of all the different bits of metalwork inserted in to the pavement.:

The street is only a few 100 metres long but has a quite a variety of man hole covers

i took one photo of each type. if you can't see them below then go here

(a desktop size picture is here)

Continue reading "one side of the street" »

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