Living with The Roof Dragon

[sbisson]

There's a house down our street with a dragon on the roof.

It's a proud wee terracotta beastie, rising up on its haunches, wings spread, to greet the sun and the cloud alike. It stares up at the passing planes as they glide down to Heathrow, counting the hours, the days, the weeks, the months, the years, the centuries. It's our Clock Of The Long Now, older than us all and destined to outlast our scurrying little lives.

It looks down on Putney, it watches and it waits.

I like it a lot.







Every street needs a dragon.

Comments

[history-monk.livejournal.com]

That's very fine. Thanks.

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

I wish I knew who sold these. In Thaxted I saw three houses on one street with similar dragons...

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

I thought they might be an Essex firm.

http://www.roofdragon.com/

[sbisson.livejournal.com]

Interesting! Our local one is (as far as we know) an original Victorian fitting, on a house designed and built by William Morris.

[inamac.livejournal.com]

Fortunately the salvage companies are preserving the species (along with roof-owls and roof-cats). I do love Victorian house embellishment, and rejoice in a row of intact keystone masks on a nearby terrace. Must go photograph them sometime.

[ivory-goddess.livejournal.com]

That is rather cool.

[fishlifter.livejournal.com]

There are several of those on houses in Addiscombe (Croydon) too.

[secritcrush.livejournal.com]

I love it. There's a wrought iron dragon near my work and I often take the long way to the Tube to walk by it.

[pickledginger.livejournal.com]

Very nifty indeed!

[grey-lady.livejournal.com]

Now I want a roof dragon...

[natf.livejournal.com]

I too have photos of that dragon. It protects a beautiful house, does it not? ;-p

[(Anonymous)]

I stumbled across this post by pure chance. These guys also do roof dragons, not that particular design but similar:

http://www.rooffinials.co.uk/dragon-finials/view-all-products.html

[(Anonymous)]

I remember dragons in west London...and one in Putney..maybe this one? there is one in Mortlake, as well....I bought a repro one for my roof, made of reconstituted stuff, but once up there, it looks as real as terracotta..mine was made from the mould of an original..although the one shown here is spectacular.

I do love my dragon, and bought one for my son when he bought his house, too.