I am not actually in the market for some new furniture at the moment – although the sofa could do with repair work – but I do enjoy scanning down auction house website catalogues every so often.

When clicking though auctions for domestic interiors though, I have sometimes been surprised not just how expensive some antiques can be, but also how comparatively cheap some can be.

As a long-term watcher of Antique’s Roadshow, I know that for some reason, tables seem to be shockingly expensive for what they are. I presume this is due to rarity, as not many families would have space for, let alone be able to afford a dining table 150+ years ago.

The same for simple looking kitchen chairs. Again I am guessing that the rickey old kitchen chair got thrown on the bonfire rather than restored after its 500th accident, so rarity adds value.

However, counterbalancing that is the seemingly good value that sofa chairs seem to offer.

Accepting that not everyone wants a chair that looks like the sort of thing your granny perpetually sat in when you were a tiny kid – but I often see chairs that could almost be modern – and at prices not that different from the high street. Oddly, actual modern chairs sold at auction are very expensive, because of the designer label.

I sometimes wonder if the people shopping in Ikea or John Lewis realise that they could buy a Victorian or even Georgian era chair for a price comparable to what they are paying for a good modern version?

Two Late 19th Century Victorian Leather Chairs
Estimate £300-£400 each

Eight 19th Century North European Dining Chairs
Estimate £75 – £110 each

Five mid-18th Century Mahogany Dining Chairs (George II era)
Estimate £100 – £125 each

Late Victorian Walnut Wing Armchair (OK, this is the granny chair!)
Estimate £500 – £700

I think that given the choice between a modern bit of mass production furniture and paying maybe 10% more to get something that looks comparable, but is over 100 years old, then I think I would prefer the older item.

The downside is that you can spend ages waiting for just the right item to come up for sale – then get outbid by another buyer. Then again, it took me over two months to buy my current sofa as it was perpetually out of stock and no other shops sold anything I liked.

I wonder how much cheaper items would be at house-clearance type sales as opposed to the rarefied airs of Christie’s as the items above are from.

No long rambling thoughts, just a long ramble through South London to stop me sitting at the computer and doing the work I should be doing.

Herewith – some photos:

Greenwich foot tunnel – photos of which are officially not allowed any more

A sad forlorn Fozzie Bear abandoned probably by a child being dragged across a busy road – see Londonist for more lost bears

Severndroog Castle – a folly built in 1784 to commemorate Commodore Sir William James who, in April 1755, attacked and destroyed the island fortress of Suvarnadurg (then rendered in English: Severndroog) on the western coast of India.

Other photos – here, here and here

The view from Severndroog castle over an ornamental garden – with a sapling planted by some idiot right in the line of sight for photographers.

Rather a nice water fountain from the remains of an old house demolished by the London County Council.

The Two Towers – an old water tower and the more modern communications tower

The view from the cafe in Oxleas Wood – a good spot to stop and have a rest.

Wandering round through Welling and down to Plumstead Common. On the way, this dire warning on a small grass verge against letting cattle roam the land

Plumstead Common offers these views over East London. Not particularly scenic, but the scale of the view is impressive.

Thence home.

Each photo is geotagged on a map if you want to know where they were taken from – just click on the photo then the “map” link on the side menu on the Flickr website.

A few months ago I decided to start taking regular photos of the skyline to document the construction of The Shard from my home.

Umm, a bit of laziness in taking photos and incompetence in keeping some of the ones I did take has left a few gaps in the time-lapse, although most of the missing weeks were when the structure was below the line of sight anyway.

Now that the core is rising up and fast becoming a major feature on the skyline, it will be harder to forget in future!

Here are three photos to show how the concrete core is rising up over just the past few weeks.

Nothing to see – yet.

Just starting to peer out over the tops of the buildings

Fairly noticeable now!

If you thought the animosity between North London and South London was a recent concept, then have a look at this map of London from 1787 which barely even notices that South London exists!

OK, actually a map of Middlesex – as what we call “South London” was at the time part of Surrey and Kent and not part of London at all. Then the Local Government Act came along in 1888 and merged parts of each County to create the newly formed County of London.

The map below is by John Cary and taken from his New and Correct English Atlas originally printed in 1787. This map was itself based on the slightly earlier Dury & Andrews map of 1766, although several minor changes were made to the plate.

It was re-engraved in 1793 and published in later editions of the atlas until 1843 – the 1840 and 1843 versions showing the first railway lines. With the imprint information removed, extra railways added, etc, lithographic transfer prints from the plate were issued in Cruchley’s County Atlas of England and Wales between 1863 and 1876.

Sadly, I am not currently able to say which reprint my version is – although the lack of railway lines puts it firmly in a pre-1840 edition.

Click here for medium, large or  very large versions.

My attention has been drawn to a newish feature on the BBC website that aims to review blogs from around the world “for a special BBC season about the power of the internet”.

…well, at least they will until the cutbacks in the BBC’s website start to take effect.

Starting on March 8th the BBC will be airing short TV and radio slots in English, Arabic and Farsi, talking with some of the bloggers they feature. That probably gives you a feel for the sort of blogs they want to review, which for me at least makes the project more interesting as I do like to keep up to date with international news and opinion.

They are seeking recommendations, either via email on super.power@bbc.co.uk, comment on their website, or via twitter @bbc_blogworld.