Crow Alley - Original Photographic Artwork - 8x12

Description

How did “Parsons Row”, a small lane in the heart of London, become full of crows and why do they rule this narrow alley to this day?
You would be advised to give “Crow Alley” (as it was renamed) a wide berth. There really is such a thing as a murder of crows…

The full story of Crows Alley can be found at the foot of this page.

The artwork has been created using a High-Resolution Canon Camera and Adobe Photoshop and the Print you will receive has been made professionally on Fuji Photographic Paper with a Lustre Finish.
The Print is borderless so that you get a full sized image.

Simply add the Artwork to your Shopping Cart and pay with Etsy’s checkout system and we will dispatch your photographs via the US Postal Service (in most cases it will ship within 24 hours of payment), Monday through Friday.


The Dark Tale of Crow Alley

Ernest Hornblow, it could be said, was not the brightest of sparks in fact, if he were a spark it would be like an ember which had recently been dowsed in sopping wet sleet.
At Fifty-Nine, he had passed through life giving employment and responsibility the widest of berths.
A tall, stick like man whose only remarkable feature was his wildly bulging eyes, Ernest was utterly unpopular – particularly with his family - minor aristocrats whose halcyon days had long passed.
The Hornblows’ were a misfortunate lot, the most accident-prone family in London. One by one they passed away through a series of misadventures (including death by croquet and a faulty umbrella) – until Ernest became the last of the line.
With the death of his great Aunt, the wilting family fortune came to rest with Ernest.
Anyone with a semblance of sense would have sought the counsel of a Banker or Accountant to ensure that the small pile of money be fed into various streams to turn the waning funds back into a mighty river, but not Ernest.
Earnest took the last of his families’ fortune and invested it in a remarkably expensive property (it could be said that the Landlord saw him coming), in a dark and narrow London lane, and turned it into a “Crow Gallery”.
What is a Crow Gallery?
Well there has only ever been one – the childhood dream of Ernest Hornblow; boiled down to its “essentials”, it consisted of a shop full of crows.
Ernest’s expectation was that throngs of people would turn up to visit the Crow Gallery and pay a handsome admission fee.
Within a few hours of staring forlornly at the inanimate door, it became quite clear to Ernest that his Crow Gallery would not be the big hit he’d envisaged.
A sane or noble man would have realised his folly and released the birds (which had cost a small fortune to round up) – but Earnest took his disappointment out on the birds and tried to beat them with a hefty stick.
At first, the crows squawked and squealed and evaded his lunges, but once he managed to hit one with a lucky swipe, they turned as one on Earnest in a hurricane of black feathers and soon there became a murder not of crows, but by crows.

The case of the murdered Hornblow came before the local Judge (or in London Street Vernacular: "Beak") – Erasmus Pike, a gentleman in his twilight years who was as mad as a coot.
He dismissed the case for lack of evidence.
Whilst it was clear that the crows had murdered Ernest, the actual culprits could not be found (no matter how long the police questioned them).
Given Ernest Hornblow’s lack of kith, kin or heir – the eccentric judge signed the property and the remains of the Hornblow estate over to the crows and to this day, the shop remains open (without one visitor) and the alleyway that contains its dark and dusty windows is widely known as “Crow Alley”.

Added on Nov 06, 2009

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