There are still some things worth looking at in Portland Place despite the vandalism of the Adam streetscape. Number 5, for example, is a 1911 building of not much merit by an architect called Percival W. Hawkins whose only other building, as far as I can tell, is a Baptist church in Shepherds Bush.Number 5 is a block of serviced offices clearly designed to add as much floor space as possible, but right at the top there is a series of nice carved panels depicting the seasons. From the left, a man ploughs and sows. Next, a girl holds a swag of flowers, and in the centre an earth-mother figure plays a double flute while her little boy plays with his bow and arrow. That dove he's holding looks rather alarmed as well she might.
Further on, a man carries a scythe and a sheaf of corn. The sequence is completed by a heavily-hooded woman gathering firewood under leafless winter trees.
