24th June ’17: Urban hieroglyphics

Happy Saturday, Colour Filers 💛💕🍅💚
Have you ever seen spray-painted arrows and symbols on roads and pavements, like striking floor graffiti? I see them everywhere and love them for their colours (if you catch me photographing tarmac from now on, you’ll understand why) but I also love how purposeful they look – “Here!!! Right here!!! X marks the spot!!!” As such I’ve often wondered who these urban hieroglyphs have been sprayed by. Apparently they’re to let us know where pipes and wires are underground, and it’s all in the colour. Unsurprisingly, blue is daubed by water companies, green is cable communications, red is electricity, yellow is gas and white is to indicate where road markings should go. I particularly liked this orange one I saw in Ealing. Apparently it’s a symbol for ‘A lamppost will go here.’ Functional AND beautiful. William Morris would have been impressed.

Martha, The Colour File x 

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