Marylebone Bollard...
St Mary Le Bone 1757...
We are in Ashland Place off Paddington Street in London's rather pleasant trendy area know has Marylebone.
The bollard in the picture (top) is nearly 5ft tall with a rather large square block base that that curves ever so slightly to form a tall/solid looking cylindrical shaped bollard. The top is capped off with the near traditional style cannon ball top and we can see the three ridged areas on the main body.
If you happen to take a close look you can just about make out some lettering which is near common on bollards found in this district/ward of Marylebone (St Mary-le-bone) and throughout parts of the City of Westminster (a London borough).
The picture above is of a much older bollard and we can see clearly from the lettering painted in gold the words 'St Mary-le-bone' and a date 1757. I've mentioned this on a previous post could this be a mid 18th century bollard ? We shall try to find out and confirm at a later date.
Now by pure coincidence Robert Elms of bbc London 94.9 fm was discussing on his show on Friday (03.02.12) the correct pronunciation of the word/name 'Marylebone' according to my ears was/is 'Mary-le-bone'. Now if we take a look at the wonderful website of the Londonist I think they've reignited the debate all over again and proved the Mayor needs a better proof reader of his election literature and London needs to decide once and for all how to pronounce the name 'Mary-le-bone'. Personally I think the bollards have the right answer.
Bollards of London...
PS please do when you get a chance take a look at the new blog Bollards of Britain with it's very own twitter account @bollard_britain
