OT - folly
 

Does anyone know what this object by Saunders Ness Road is?
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&... 202672934965
I think it's a little taller than a man.

While I'm here, I noticed a few slipways (if that's the term) down to the
Thames in the area, and all were strewn with large amounts of half-bricks.
It looked reminiscent of flotsam, but I can't imagine a half-brick floating
in any circumstance.

OT - folly
 

In message , John Rowland
writes

Does anyone know what this object by Saunders Ness Road is?

Purely a guess, but since it is opposite Greenwich, is it marking the
prime meridian on the north side of the river?
--
Paul Terry

OT - folly
 

Paul Terry wrote:
In message , John Rowland
writes

Does anyone know what this object by Saunders Ness Road is?

Purely a guess, but since it is opposite Greenwich, is it marking the
prime meridian on the north side of the river?

That's a good thought, but it's not exactly north of the observatory.

OT - folly
 

"John Rowland" wrote in message
...
Paul Terry wrote:
In message , John Rowland
writes

Does anyone know what this object by Saunders Ness Road is?

Purely a guess, but since it is opposite Greenwich, is it marking the
prime meridian on the north side of the river?

That's a good thought, but it's not exactly north of the observatory.

There are various items scattered around the area from the old docks. If
this wasn't part of a buoy, it may have marked the entrance lock to one of
the docks.

MaxB

OT - folly
 

On Apr 9, 2:12*am, "John Rowland"
wrote:
Does anyone know what this object by Saunders Ness Road is?http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&...7,-0.005343&sp...
I think it's a little taller than a man.

While I'm here, I noticed a few slipways (if that's the term) down to the
Thames in the area, and all were strewn with large amounts of half-bricks..
It looked reminiscent of flotsam, but I can't imagine a half-brick floating
in any circumstance.

Is it possibly a police point?
Actually, I don't even know what a police point is!

OT - folly
 

John Rowland wrote:
Does anyone know what this object by Saunders Ness Road is?
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&... 202672934965
I think it's a little taller than a man.

While I'm here, I noticed a few slipways (if that's the term) down to the
Thames in the area, and all were strewn with large amounts of half-bricks.
It looked reminiscent of flotsam, but I can't imagine a half-brick floating
in any circumstance.


Clearly, it's a Dalek.

OT - folly
 

On Thu, 9 Apr 2009, John Rowland wrote:

Paul Terry wrote:
In message , John Rowland
writes

Does anyone know what this object by Saunders Ness Road is?

Purely a guess, but since it is opposite Greenwich, is it marking the
prime meridian on the north side of the river?

That's a good thought, but it's not exactly north of the observatory.

Nor's the prime meridian - it's 5.31 seconds of arc east of it. However,
the dalek is 19.23 seconds west of the meridian, so it's not lined up with
it anyway. Also, the meridian only moved from the observatory in the 80s
(i think) and the dalek looks older than that. It doesn't look like the
kind of thing you'd build to mark a meridian anyway.

However, examining the 1898 Booth map:

http://booth.lse.ac.uk/cgi-bin/do.pl...=298&m.v.y=105

Reveals that the dalek is exactly, as far as i can tell, at the head of a
long thin structure that lay pependicular to the waterfront marked 'Ship
Bldg Yard', which i would guess was a slipway.

The dalek has windows round the top which make it look like a midget
lighthouse, so it could be a beacon marking the slipway, perhaps one of a
pair of leading lights, but i can't think why you'd want leading lights on
a slipway. It could just have been for illumination rather than as a
beacon, but why would you build that precisely at the head? Wouldn't
illuminate much.

It could be a bollard, to which you'd make fast ropes used to hold a boat
in the slipway. But i don't see any rings or other sticky-out bits to
which you might fix ropes, and why would it have windows on?

tom

--
PS I am trying to stab a giant warthog in the arse but it keeps throwing
me off a bridge :( -- Martin Lewis

OT - folly
 

On Apr 9, 11:26*pm, Tom Anderson wrote:
However,
the dalek is 19.23 seconds west of the meridian,

You're a fast walker!