Fences and Flats

Near to where I went to school, both primary and secondary schools, and in fact across a lot of London stand blocks of flats built from the beginning of the 20th century, up until the Second World War. They come in many variations around the same idea, some in London Stock with Red Brick edging, some unusually in a Brown Brick. Most have white highlights on the balconies etc. They have stairs, which are sheltered but open, are often built around a courtyard, commonly have four floors above the ground level, (restricted by having no lifts of course) and, (this being the mysterious bit to me when I was a kid), have grass areas surrounding them with odd bulges and an odd design in fencing.

How odd is the design? Well the pavement boundaries are a low wall often topped with a glazed or polished brick, out of which sprang black metal uprights in pairs every 6-7 feet, fixed to these were horizontal poles which ran along and supported meshwork filling the gaps and making the fence.

So far nothing sounds odd, but there was a final element which defied my brain to suss it out for years. Inbetween the uprights, the horizontal poles zigged back from the straight for no reason making little "v"s all the way down the fence - a design element I thought, but why doesn't the mesh follow the zig-zag then, and why are the zig-zags so close to the ends?


In some of the green areas these fences surrounded, the ground bulged up into (often) squared off bulges and once I remember I saw an entranceway into one (Though I can't remember where! Any offers/photos?)

I was quite young and mother pointed out this was a bomb shelter so that made sense as these building were as I said pre-war.

Still I never saw any link to the designer fencing....

.... for there is a link and it's also a good example of reuse of old items, which is more efficient that recycling and shows great ingenuity.


For the "fence panels" were originally stretchers, and as soon as you imagine them cut away from the uprights and rotated around their long axis you can see the zig-zags on the long rods are legs for keeping the stretcher off the ground.

It seems so clear to me now, as all things are when looked at with the right perspective; but I'm guessing there are still people who don't realise, particularly as the further we go on in time and more of these are replaced as they are damaged.

Right along from where I took these pictures other sections of the fencing have been changed out for boring arrowed railings and even these examples are not original as the original mesh was attached with metal straps which I presume allowed flexibility and movement; desirable in a stretcher, but not in a fence; the panels in the pictures above are welded, however these panels on the left are from Kennings Way and are original.


There are few like this about now - soon these too will probably be gone, but if they are being repaired to keep the zig-zag frames at least, there might still be kids in the future who will look at them and wonder.... and if they are cleverer than me, will puzzle it out.

Laurie Smith