The Royal Exchange?

New Malden telephone exchange was built 160 years after yesterday's fake castle. For some reason I'm very fond of the architecture of the 1930s exchanges, it's a little stark but rather imposing and usually features big windows and quite fancy stone and brickwork. The royal cypher of George VI appears over the door because at the time the telephone system was run by the Royal Mail - I can't help thinking that it's a more dignified and discreet logo than anything that BT has come up with since privatisation. It's hard to do justice to the building simply because it's very close to a busy main road. The appearance of the building is also rather spoiled by the gaudy but badly applied signs and stickers that have been added in more recent times - I rendered this in mono to avoid having to show the ones on the doors.

Wow I'm in a curmudgeonly mood this evening! For some light relief why don't you check out my most recent postings from this time last year - you'll find them here and here