The owner of the eponymous Phillip's Cameras on Wensum Street. I was in his shop buying a second hand Canon Remote Switch (RS60-E3) and this was taken with the aid of that and without looking through the viewfinder. This should be seen as one of an occasional series of Norwich Independent Camera Dealers including Richard Nunn of Exposure Cameras (below).
I guess Pat Woods of Capricorn Cameras will have to be next.
Phillips Cameras (01603) 625261
Exposure Cameras (01603) 622458
Comets were once a popular design for weather vanes; particularly in the 18th/19th century. Several reasons for this I think.
Firstly to commemorate the coming of a comet (whether Halley's comet or not). This happened less often than some would have you believe. More likely people became comet minded rather than trying to actually commemorate the coming of a particular comet.
Secondly it was not a weather cock. Weather cocks became associated with the Papacy after a Papal Decree in the 19th century said that the figure of a cock should be put on every church steeple as the emblem of St Peter. (A cock is an allusion to his three times denial of Christ before the cock crew twice). I have read that this Papal Decree was the cause for a lot of churches on the continent losing fine specimens of early weather vanes. This is favourite where St Helens is concerned I think. In the great rivalry between High and Low Church that festered in Norwich, St Helens was always a bastion of the Low. Fellow Flickr photographer and habitual Church Visitor Simon_K will probably want to expand on this theme if he swings by here.
Thirdly as a symbol it chimed in with the scientific ethos of the Age of Reason and beyond.
Fourthly there are only so many designs that are suitable to be a weather vane for a church and be effective in its job; it must have a point and a tail.
Fifthly there is an aesthetic satisfaction in looking up at a tower or steeple and seeing a heavenly body on top.
Sixthly they only had comets in stock in ye olde weather vane shop that day.
Freezing fog envelopes and hides the usual view of Norwich Cathedral, Castle and City Hall from my bedroom window. Thankfully for our collective peace of mind, it also camouflages the multii-storey car parks which are home to some of our population of rough sleepers.
Old Winter is come with its cold chilling breath
And the leaves are all gone from the trees
All nature seems touched by the finger of death
And the lakes are beginning to freeze
When your minds are annoyed by the wide swelling flood
And your bridges are useful no more
When in plenty you enjoy everything that is good
That's the time to remember the poor
The cold air and snow will in plenty descend
And whiten the prospect around
The keen cutting wind from the north will attend
And cover it over the ground
When the hills and the dales are all candied with white
And the rivers are froze on the shore
When the bright twinkling stars they proclaim the cold night
That's the time to remember the poor
The poor timid hare through the woods may be traced
By her footsteps indented in the snow
When our lips and our fingers are all dangling with cold
And the marksman a-shooting doth go
When the young wanton lads on the river slide
And the icicles hang at your door
When in plenty you are sitting by a warm fireside
You will tremble to think of the poor
For the times fast a-coming when our Saviour on earth
All the world shall agree with one voice
All nations unite to salute the blest morn
And the whole of then earth shall rejoice
When grim death is deprived of its killing sting
And the grave rules triumphant no more
Saints angels and men hallelujah shall sing
Then the rich will remember the poor
("The stains on the pavement around the Prince Of Wales Road night pissoir," read the original flickr caption, "seem to prove what women have claimed since Thomas Crapper installed the first indoor W.C.; Men may be in possession of powerful weapons but they can't aim them for toffee.")
I wish this was a better photograph. The shopfitters are working in the old Mega Munch premises in Prince of Wales Road and they have pulled away the plaster board to reveal an old cast iron Edwardian fireplace with tile surround.
It is not an item of outstanding rarity and beauty and I would not have noticed if it had it not been on this particular street. Prince of Wales Road with it's industrial sized drinking dens and fast flow takeaway restaurants has become a faceless environment of easy wipe Formica and brushed aluminium surfaces where the individual is entirely subsumed. This quirky art nouveauish fireplace is a reminder of a gentler time. I reckon it will have been thrown in a skip by now.
