Peter Barber (a fellow member of the London Topographic Society member) introduced Simon Morris when he delivered the latest HHS talk entitled ‘Street Name Plates of Hornsey’.
A fantastically engaging speaker, Simon has cycled some 3000 miles round every street in the London Postal Districts and photographed pre-1920 street name plates – stone, painted, tin plated and cast iron. He shared his discoveries and insights about the historic street signs of Hornsey as well as those in Tottenham and Wood Green, describing their design and where to find them. His talk finished off with a look at some superlatives – the oldest, longest, shortest, largest, most mis-spelt and most confusing historic London street signs that he spotted.
A lively Q&A followed – we even went off-piste as Simon sportingly answered questions about the naming of old telephone exchanges!