08 November 2009

Almost to the end of his life, he lived ensconced within pebble dash...



Last night I was catching up on my reading; I picked up the October issue of Harper's, which had a review of a book about J. G. Ballard, whom I have previously blogged as a favorite author. The book review was unremarkable until I encountered this passage -
The few times I met Ballard, I was struck by his very traditional manners and his beautiful voice. Almost to the end of his life, he lived ensconced within pebble dash in South London's Shepperton (a non-place singled out for early destruction in Wells's War of the Worlds), seated on a deck chair amid silver palm trees, a "typical suburban lord of the manor," as The Paris Review described him.
I had never heard of pebbledash before, and it's not in my OED as a single word. Here's the Wiki description, and here and here are photos of examples. I presume the etymology comes from dashing/throwing the pebbles against the wall. You learn something every day.

Photo source.

6 comments:

  1. Hi - a lot of houses made from the 1950's to 1970's have pebbledash walls. It's a bit grim.

    Josh ;o)

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  2. One walking surfaces it is referred to as "exposed aggregate." This, likewise, is formed by either incorporating the rock into the mix and washing the filler off, or by laying a smooth concrete surface and casting the stones into it, leaving the tops exposed. It was a popular walkway surface in the 1970s and 1980s. You don't see so much of it now.

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  3. When I was growing up in the UK (rather than refusing to grow up in the US, which is what I do now), we used 'pebbledash' as one of many, many euphemisms for vomit, particularly in a public place.

    As Josh says, it's a grim choice of wall covering, very common in buildings erected in those impoverished post-war decades.

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  4. I believe it has also been used as a term for explosive diarrhea...

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  5. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Pebbledash

    I rather like the "coming from South London" which is the only printable bit and happens to be where I live.

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  6. I worked with Ballard in the 1970s - edited several of his books, including CRASH, HIGH-RISE, CONCRETE ISLAND and LOW-FLYING AIRCRAFT. In fact he asked me to choose the title of the last book from the titles of the stories in it, and that's what I went for. Could easily have ended up being called MY DREAM OF FLYING TO WAKE ISLAND instead! Like the reviewer, I was struck by his traditional manners and beautiful voice - and the disconnect between this mild-mannered man and what went on in his head. Editing CRASH was a really disturbing experience...I went to see him among the pebbledash several times.

    BTW, Shepperton isn't in what's commonly thought of as South London, but South-West London, or even, if you want to be picky, Surrey. I know it's the reviewer's mistake, but thought you'd like to know...

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