Goodbye Highbury Corner roundabout

Have you seen what's been going on at Highbury Corner recently?
It's turned into Islington's version of Diggerworld expect that the machines don't seem to have moved much since they demolished a strip of grass and trees approx 5 metres wide from around the north and western sides. And I can't see where the ticket booth is.
As far as I am aware reconstruction work only started this week – so the sign I saw at the top of Canonbury Road last Monday (right)
Two days later I took these pics from the upper deck of bus:

Pics taken morning of Wed 4th July

Turns out it's all in the name of progress and here is the explanation.
The really good thing is that the lovely foresty area at the centre of what Islington Council had labelled "Highbury Island" will now be accessible as a park – I've been wanting to get in there for decades. As you can see it's really lush and shady.
The loss of the flora is to put in cycle lanes and to change the flow of this junction. It won't be a roundabout any longer – it'll return to how it was before the Germans made a mess in 1944.
When the work is completed I really hope cyclists will use their designated lanes because if the tumbleweed tracks along Drayton Park and around Navigator Square at Archway are anything to go by I very much doubt the green tarmac will see much action.
And... buses and bus stops... where are they going?
The concourse outside Highbury and Islington station has been in a state of flux for ages now.
Last month I thought they'd finished, though it looked really dull, but then two weeks ago they started digging up a newly-paved area near the kerb and I thought, aha, they've forgotten to put a bus stop there!
But nope. There is still only a tiny bay that I reckon you could squeeze two cars into. What's that for? Four buses use that route. I think a big opportunity has been missed here.

Art In The City, St Mary Axe and The Gherkin

Last weekend I finally found time to go and see [most of] the art installations in and around The Gherkin At St Mary Axe.

Ai Weiwei's bicycle rack and Damien Hirst's donation's box

Tomoaki Suzuki's little people and Keita Miyazaki's car parts.

I was also interested by other things that were not part of the trail; a sobbing woman near the air filters and a drain full of fag ends in Lime Street.

Near the Hirst piece a bollard made from a cannon can be found.

Every time I visit the Gherkin, love it as I do, after all, it may be the only truly beautiful and beautifully designed glass structure made in the past twenty years, I am always distracted by the rhythmic solidarity of Holland House across the road in Bury Street.
But I will save that for another day...

A walk along Kings Road (part 2) – The Chelsea Potter, RSoles and The Pheasantry/PizzaExp

This continues from my post on July 24th

An Art Nouveau-esque typeface on the optician's sign uses a cut of Arnold Böcklin by Otto Weisert harking back to the 1960s when this kind of retro look was very 'in'. Think Biba.
Next, The Chelsea Potter's ornate railings and pub sign.
On the next row, hints of the road's distant history can be glimpsed when looking at the lovely old house, home to RSoles boots and shoe shop. Note the  quirky cyclist art for sale above the ground floor. Possibly sold by the time you read this as I took these pics in March.
And then we have the splendid Grade II listed Georgian frontage of The Pheasantry, so called because in and around 1865 George Samuel was breeding pheasants, cattle and foxes at this site. Three plaques on the building show that the site was occupied by Amédée Joubert & Sons (1880-1914) who seemed to be masters of a multitude of trades including upholstery, cabinet making, wood carving and gilding. They also manufactured bedding and furniture and imported and restored tapestries and carpets. It would have been during this period that the triumphural entrance, the courtyard and architectural mouldings and details were added. AJ&S produced and sold not only full size items but miniatures for dolls' houses.
After 1914 the building became the home of a dance studio/ ballet academy, and was used as studio space by artists. In the mid 1930s the basement was turned into The Pheasantry Club and for decades was a popular haunt of artists, actors, writers and the like. It closed in 1966; the basement became a nightclub and the upper floors were converted into apartments.
It has been a branch of Pizza Express for as long as I can recall (date to be checked).
I can't find any info as to who the two people depicted in the roundel on the main gate are (shown in the pics bottom right). Possibly it's Monsieur Joubert and his wife? ... any ideas?