Upper East Hayes and Grosvenor Place
At the lights here cross over London Road and go right. In a short distance you reach a building on the corner with Hanover Street. This building has been a pub since the early 1800's (but not since 2022). If you look just around the corner of the building next to the black lamp pole you can see some marks cut into the stone. One could be forgiven that this is the symbol of a secret society. It is actually a bench mark which was cut into stone structures by surveyors. An angle-iron could be placed in the slot to form a "bench" for a levelling rod so that the rod could be positioned in the same place in future. The Ordnance Survey created benchmarks to establish ground heights so that the whole country could be accurately mapped.
Turning into Upper East Hayes look out for the peculiar feature known as a link snuffer which can be spotted on No.5 on the left. Links were burning torches which were carried by link boys to guide people home through dark and dangerous streets. The snuffer was used to extinguish the links. At the top of the road on the right is Hayes Mount you can see a ghostly figure staring out of a window. The ghostly trompe l'oeil, painted by Jane Knapp a few years ago, is on the top floor of this grand house built in the 1770's.
Head downhill and turn left until you reach a traffic light crossing. Cross over here and head left to Grosvenor Place with the beautiful canopied balcony on the end building. Keep going along Grosvenor Place until you reach the centre building (No. 23) with seven columns. This centrepiece was the entrance to the pleasure garden behind the long façade of Grosvenor Place.
This quirky building has the central column sitting above the front door. Evidence that the building was not fully completed is indicated by three blank cartouches and the lower set of bands around the columns which are ungarlanded. However, the heads of icemen make an appearance above the ground floor windows. As you walk along Grosvenor Place look out for the painted windows - what do you see?
