A bollard, also known as a "boulard" or a "bole, " is a fairly short post positioned at 90 degrees to the surface of the earth. While bollards were once used mainly for mooring ships, they now have any number of functions. In AD 203, one of the earliest examples of a bollard was behind the Arch of Septimius Severus, where they protected the arch from being damaged by passing vehicle traffic. Modern versions are often used to prevent incidents of ram-raiding or vehicular terrorism in the form of suicide bombings.
Another type of bollard is called a Dragon's tooth. This is a square, pyramidal bole made from reinforced concrete. The first recorded use of dragon's teeth was in the Siegfried Line in World War II. Their purpose was to retard the progress of tanks and gently guide them toward pre-designated "killing zones."
The area around Winchester Cathedral has a whimsical display of boulards used both functionally as well as decoratively. Designed primarily to keep vehicle traffic separate from pedestrians, a number of them have been painted with features from famous paintings. Here, Da Vinci's Mona Lisa joins adapted works of Mondrian, Lautrec, Klimt, Matisse and others.
Bells are another form of bollard. Located on sidewalks at intersections, they are surprisingly not designed to trip up innocent pedestrians. Rather, they are there to deflect heavy goods vehicles from jumping onto the pedestrian walkways.
Boles are frequently lit up from the inside to aid visibility to motorists and keep them on the right side of the street. One local resident in London got hold of a marker pen and drew flowers and butterflies on a nearby bollard. She drew inspiration from her home town of Brisbane, where the town council encouraged locals to decorate their signal boxes.
London, England, has some amazing examples of boll-art. A particularly poignant example is entitled, "The Two Pupils." The complete sculpture consists of a little bronze girl sitting on top of a plinth. Nearby, there is a little boy leap-frogging over a bollard. The plinth is engraved with the story of the two children.
There is something about the mooring bollard with a perpendicular bar that seems to attract tourists with cameras. The purpose of the bar is to enable sailors to wind ropes around in a figure eight pattern when mooring a boat or a ship. Recent examples may be found in Marina of Izola, Lyme Regis and in the borough of Ghent in the principality of Wales.
London would certainly not be the same without the humble bollard. They protect pedestrians from errant vehicles and keep motorists from wandering down the wrong way of a one-way system. By the sea and on canals, sailors would have a lot less fun mooring their vessels. Tourists would have fewer objects to photograph as evidence of their holidays.
Another type of bollard is called a Dragon's tooth. This is a square, pyramidal bole made from reinforced concrete. The first recorded use of dragon's teeth was in the Siegfried Line in World War II. Their purpose was to retard the progress of tanks and gently guide them toward pre-designated "killing zones."
The area around Winchester Cathedral has a whimsical display of boulards used both functionally as well as decoratively. Designed primarily to keep vehicle traffic separate from pedestrians, a number of them have been painted with features from famous paintings. Here, Da Vinci's Mona Lisa joins adapted works of Mondrian, Lautrec, Klimt, Matisse and others.
Bells are another form of bollard. Located on sidewalks at intersections, they are surprisingly not designed to trip up innocent pedestrians. Rather, they are there to deflect heavy goods vehicles from jumping onto the pedestrian walkways.
Boles are frequently lit up from the inside to aid visibility to motorists and keep them on the right side of the street. One local resident in London got hold of a marker pen and drew flowers and butterflies on a nearby bollard. She drew inspiration from her home town of Brisbane, where the town council encouraged locals to decorate their signal boxes.
London, England, has some amazing examples of boll-art. A particularly poignant example is entitled, "The Two Pupils." The complete sculpture consists of a little bronze girl sitting on top of a plinth. Nearby, there is a little boy leap-frogging over a bollard. The plinth is engraved with the story of the two children.
There is something about the mooring bollard with a perpendicular bar that seems to attract tourists with cameras. The purpose of the bar is to enable sailors to wind ropes around in a figure eight pattern when mooring a boat or a ship. Recent examples may be found in Marina of Izola, Lyme Regis and in the borough of Ghent in the principality of Wales.
London would certainly not be the same without the humble bollard. They protect pedestrians from errant vehicles and keep motorists from wandering down the wrong way of a one-way system. By the sea and on canals, sailors would have a lot less fun mooring their vessels. Tourists would have fewer objects to photograph as evidence of their holidays.
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