Monday, May 31

The Clocks of Waterlooville


This post has been inspired by a comment left by Steve in an earlier post. Here I have taken a series of photos of Waterlooville town centre from a location just outside Lloyds TSB bank. I have added arrows to indicate where a total of 3 clocks can be seen. Waterlooville now has 3 fully function clocks all of which have 4 clock faces. Click on the image if you want to view a bigger version of the mash up:


So why the fuss?
Well lets have a look at the clocks. On the left we have the Clock House Building with a working clock visible from quite a distance up and down the streets. It dates back to at least the 1970s, probably earlier (50s or 60s?).

Then in the centre of the image we have St Georges church tower with a clock at the top. This is viewable from the centre and down in the direction of Denmead and Hambledon Road. The current St Georges church was rebuilt in 1970.

So that leaves the clock on the right of the image. We have established that we already had two clocks that have been available for decades, so what about the little tower on the right?
Well in the noughties (about 2005) Havant Borough Council decided we needed another clock in close proximity of two existing clocks (all are within 50 to 200 yards of each other) and as you can see, from Lloyds TSB they can all be seen at the same time.

Yes, in this day and age when political parties encourage us to be independent and fuel consumerism to create economic growth, the days when everyone on the street has a watch, mobile phone or can even ask someone for the time. Yes in these days, our local government approved a new public clock, with all the accompanying expenses.

BTW spot the man with the shopping trolley who appears 3 times in the image. I think he is capable of doing quantum jumps and can appear in many places at the same time!

8 comments:

Steve said...

LOL ... very good.

I'll consider it a challenge to see if there are any other clocks that can be seen from around that location ... I am an infrequent user, but do the bus-stops opposite the News Agent have digital clocks?

TheVille said...

I think the bus timetable screens have the current time on them, at least when they are working!

I am a frequent user and rarely bother looking at them, I usually know roughly the bus times, or I use the old fashioned paper timetables that are pasted up.

Steve said...

The TSB Bank on the corner used to have a clock prior to the merger with Lloyds.

TheVille said...

I don't remember the Lloyds clock??!

The Francis Frith web site has a lot of old photos of Waterlooville and Portsmouth.

This one is of London Rd in 1960:

http://www.francisfrith.com/waterlooville/photos/london-road-c1960_W486023/

I think the clock tower is the old Baptist church (would make sense, the style of the building looks Baptist/Methodist).
I think the photo is looking South towards Portsmouth, the bank in the photo would be where Subway is now.

I think I am making the correct orientation, the building on the left of the photo is the big one near Lloyds bank, I think in the Victorian period it was sort of a local general store.

I guess at one time the only clocks were on the Baptist and Anglican churches.

TheVille said...

Are you sure about the Lloyds clock??

In Barry Stapletons book a 'Waterlooville - A Pictorial History', a 1979 photo of the junction shows the Lloyds bank building clockless.

But it does show the Clock House building on the other side of the road.

TheVille said...

Ahhh, just found a 1907 photo in the same book of the building where Lloyds later became. It has a clock on the Stakes Hill road side of the building. However in 1907 it was H.G. Wadhams drapery shop.

I'm not sure how long the clock would have been there, can't imagine it being there in the 70s or later.

Steve said...

Is it a clock without numerals?

I may be mistaken, but I remember many hours waiting at the bus stop that was there for my bus home to arrive. The clock, or a clock, was the only amusement to a infant who was rather good at telling the time (and how late the bus was!).

TheVille said...

It's not very clear, but the clock looks like it has Roman numerals.

It has two faces , one pointing down stakes hill rd, the other towards the centre of waterlooville.

It is mounted on the wall, above the ground floor, level with some windows on the first floor.