*the “Post Box Eating Tree” of ‘Fitz-George Avenue’-London W14

My London Shoes likes to throw in a cheeky short & sweet one every now and then – a sort of ‘quirky quickie’ if you like – and this one certainly fits that category.

Sometimes, I stumble upon something and I think……surely, this can’t be true – and this particular subject matter just so happens to be one of those topics.

So, with that in mind – last week my London Shoes headed off westwards to the extremely ‘lively’ ’North End Road’ London W14 – a 1:5 mile stretch of road down Kensington way that connects West Kensington with Fulham.

Now – about half way down the ‘North End Road’ there’s a turning off of it called “Fitz-George Avenue’ (yes, Fitz-George comes with a hyphen)– and that was the location of this week’s topic.

However – before I get to the actual subject matter story – I just wanna give a short back-story  about ‘Fitz-George Avenue’ as it’s quite an interesting street.

As I said above, the ‘North End Road’ is a hive of activity – a constant streams of traffic / noise / busy pavements / loads of independent retail-cafes-fast food outlets / very ‘cosmopolitan’ – however, turning into Fitz-George Avenue, is like stepping into a completely different world. Almost immediately, the hustle and bustle street noise disappears – and you are suddenly surrounded by these spectacular looking red-brick mansion block type buildings on a street lined with wonderfully large London Plane trees.

Fitz-George Avenue was laid out (the technical term for…built) in a late Victorian architectural style, around 1897, originally as a cul-de-sac (although its not that today).

Each of its grand mansion styled blocks, has been built in a different style inside and outside. They all have gated entrances with small but impressive garden forecourts.

The properties were all once part of the ‘Crown Estates’ and as a result the ‘flats/apartments’ in them apparently have quite complex leasehold arrangements – which in a way, has turned out to be helpful, as their various ‘restrictions’ has meant that developments like basements extensions – have not been allowed or take place, as they have in many other similar styled buildings across London.

Walking down Fitz-George Avenue, especially in the sunshine – is real delight, particularly when you think of how ‘lively’ it is in North End Road just at the end of the street.

Gawd knows how much one of the apartments/flats inside these stunning red-bricked mansions would cost – but it must be quite an interesting place to live.

Anyway – about half way down Fitz-George Avenue, is where the subject matter of this little piece can be found – namely, the “Post Box Eating Tree”.

This weird quirky London landmark is simply an established London Plane tree who’s roots, over the years, have wrapped themselves around the post box situated right next to it.

The post box displays an Edward VII – Royal cypher.

Royal cyphers are raised monograms on the front of post boxes that display the initials of the reigning monarch at the time of their installation. The cyphers—include either an “R” is for Rex (ie Latin for ‘King’) or Regina (ie Latin for ‘Queen’) and are a great way of dating these unique items of British street furniture.

 

Being Edward VII cyphered means that this Fitz-George Avenue post box  would have been installed and brought into service at some stage during King Edward VII’s reign between 1901 – 1910 – so it’s been in situ some 125 years to date (2026) – not bad going. In fact, because he wasn’t ‘on-the-throne’ for too long, there aren’t as many Edward VII cyphered post boxes around London, as there are for other Monarchs – so they are actually post box geeks delight.

Anyway – as with all the trees in Fitz-George Avenue and its surrounding streets – this post-box eating tree is maintained by the ‘London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham’ – and its fair to say that, living through a previous a history full of conflicts/wars/disagreements and massive change – the tree and post box have got along together quite happily in each other’s embrace throughout the past decades – perhaps a lesson to us all!!!

I don’t know for sure, but I’m guessing that there’s some sort of preservation order on the tree and post box – I would hope so, as it’s such an unusual landmark, and hopefully it will be viewed, enjoyed and smiled upon by future generations.

I’m glad that my London Shoes took the time to seek it out and capture it as a blog article.

So – having located and admired the post box eating tree (of ‘Old London Town’) it was time for a little liquid refreshment before heading off back home – and in Comeragh Road, another extremely quiet residential street, just a little further down the road from Fitz-George Avenue, my London Shoes stumbled upon a very unusual pub called “The Curtain’s Up”.

The pub was opened around 1879 and was originally called ‘The Barons Court Hotel’. The pub has been re-named a few times throughout its history – and has been ‘The Curtains Up’ since 1993.

Uniquely, it is home to the famous ‘Barons Court Theatre’ – a fringe theatre located in the pub’s basement that hosts all different fringe type  performances.

In today’s world ‘The Curtain’s Up’ is a popular pub with locals/theatre goers and tourists – and it has a reputation for serving up really good food.

So – that’s the story of the extremely unusual ‘Post Box Eating Tree’ and the equally unusual ‘The Curtains Up’ pub – hope you enjoyed the read and its accompanying photos.

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See below the entire gallery of photos taken to accompany this London Shoes blog

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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