Boat Racers

“I can’t see who’s in the lead, but it’s either Oxford or Cambridge,” John Snagge, 1949.

This is the fourteenth square of my London Faces Patchwork. It is a patchwork of papers gleaned from the pavements of the city in which I live. There are twenty-five squares making up the whole piece. You can see it here.

These are not so much faces, as backs of heads. Although, ironically, ‘boat race’ is rhyming slang for ‘face’.

The Boat Race started in 1829, and is 4.2 miles. The official start and finish lines are marked by stones on the Thames. I have never seen these stones, but intend to go looking for them.

The square was cut from Vintage Sporting Posters Calendar 2015. Printed and published by J. Salmon, 2014. Artwork, I think, as it’s very difficult to read, is by Waterlow and Sons. This is likely as they did a lot of work for London Transport. Copyright, Transport For London.