SCOTLAND YARD ART

Hokitika Guardian, 29 May 1924, Page 3

SCOTLAND YARD ART

LONDON. March 22

What is probably London's jofliest olliee is to lie found in most unexpected places- among He- cold, hard rooms and passage' of Scotland lard.

Wry different from the other rooms of distempered walls nod hard Itirnittire is the one in which line old coloured prints hang two and three deep on walls on which the big lire in an oldfashioned grate sets shadows dancing. They call it the new Trallic Control Department. Ini! all the pictures deal with l.rnllie ol the old days.

Over the lire is the notice that the post coach, the lioyfd Charlotte will leave the George and Blue Bear Inn. | liilbiirn. for Newcastle and I'.dinbtirgli. and nervous passengers are assured in big letters that a guard and lamps will positively be provided. There is a “French coach - a diligence—and nn English coach diiten French fashion, and coloured prints show the Liverpool coach, the Glasgow coach, and others so realistically that one can almost hear the hoarse whispers of the coachman and the jangle of the harness.

There is a team silhouetted against a harvest moon, another plunging with its conch across a lord, and anotnei with its team horses down. Irightened hy a vivid flush of lightning that has startled the passengers. I here is a line print of a Cockney and his wile driving out. studies of happy couples in traps, ami other conveyances, and a picture of an IS 10 London Imrse omnibus which shows that, red w:e the omnibus colour of those days. None of these treasures L the property of "the Yard." They have been collected patiently and lovingly by a member of the stall' who has made the study of traffic loth his hobby and hi> occupation. In a drawer, waiting to he framed, are a dozen pictures of old horse omnibuses packed with merrymaking top-hatted conductors, and on a desk is a new treasure—a huge old tome on French coaches and coaching methods, replete with illustrations.