Video Court, Mount View Road

poxy

Video! Why Video? Seems an odd choice of name for a nondescript block of flats.

Doug

Video, as in Latin for view. It's got a splendid view. Of course it should now be renamed DVD Court

Arkady

Yes, I've always assumed that it should be pronounced as in Montevideo - Mount View!<br>

Mirandola

Video is Latin for 'I see'. Shoot me now

miss annie

Like 'viddy' in A Clockwork Orange

kreuzkav

Maybe the 'jumpers over shirts' can rent a flat there, set up a korova milk bar and viddy all the plebs on lower Stroud Green.  The droogs in tracksuits can be hired by the people on the hill to take care of those that complain, especially those in social housing.  'Best you know your place!' they will all bleat.

Doug

The question, Kreuzkav, was why it is named that. Ilex House, the skyscraper on the Holly Park Estate is so called, as ilex is the Latin name for holly. All credit to the Islington Council droog who came up with that in the sixties.<br>What is the Latin for Kreuzkav? I'm guessing Onan comes (sic) into it somewhere.<br><br>Any thoughts?<br>

kreuzkav

i feel like I'm stepping into the twilight irony free zone now.  The Islington Council droog is not a droog but a pagan who knew that life is better on the lower side.  All hail the holly!  Long live social housing and Doug I live in social housing on the lower east side of stroud Green. Onan is something we have all worshipped.  Refine thy rapture!<div><br></div>

checkski

<P>Well, that was fun. And the Knight of the Cross didn't even seem to mind being called a wanker, which was amazingly tolerant of him.</P> <P>An ilex is actually a type of oak, I think. One with holly-like leaves. Leccio, in Italian. You see them all over the place round Florence, which is where I learnt about them years ago, when I lived there, off and on, through the 80s. </P> <P>Jealous? So you should be!</P>

gardener-joe

@Checkski: Wikipedia reckons that "Ilex ( /ˈaɪlɛks/), or holly, is a genus of 400 to 600 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. The species are evergreen and deciduous trees, shrubs, and climbers from tropics to temperate zones worldwide". Ilex/Holly grows quite well round here ... I have got some very healthy examples in my garden on the eastern (Stroud Green) side of Crouch Hill. You'll find nice examples in public areas on the same easterly aspect in and around the appropriately named Holly Park. (Any local historians here might be able to comment on which came first, the holly or the Park). On the other hand (from Wikipedia too) there is your "Quercus ilex, the Holm Oak or Holly Oak [...] a large evergreen oak native to the Mediterranean region. It takes its name from holm, an ancient name for holly.[1] It is known [as ...] leccio in Italian [...]. It is a member of the white oak section of the genus, with acorns that mature in a single summer."

Ali

Holly is one of the last plants to flower every year- a bit of late food for any bees that might be around

poxy

Thanks for ALL the above. The video-view connection never occurred to me as there is an abundance of trees around the block at pedestrian level. Are there any more Latin-named blocks?

vetski

@poxy, if there aren't there should be! 

checkski

@gardener-joe, re yr last para: exactly so.

ChangN4N6

Holly / ilex named after big Victorian house Holly House demolished in 1950s to make way for the said craP bloke of flats. Progress. Chang