Does this shape have a name?

r/

I see it all the time on 1930s semis. What would you call it?

Comments

  1. AutoModerator Avatar

    Please help keep AskUK welcoming!

    • When repling to submission/post please make genuine efforts to answer the question given. Please no jokes, judgements, etc.

    • Don’t be a dick to each other. If getting heated, just block and move on.

    • This is a strictly no-politics subreddit!

    Please help us by reporting comments that break these rules.

    I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

  2. Kobbett Avatar

    I don’t know if there even is an agreed name, it’s just one of several concrete, decorative screen wall blocks that were popular in the 60s and 70s.

  3. fluffy_samoyed Avatar

    It’s called a leaf block.

  4. Nuker-79 Avatar

    A German iron cross?

  5. Pristine-Account8384 Avatar

    I call it “those horrible 70’s cement blocks”

  6. VanshipNavi Avatar

    Dunno if it’s the right name for this object, but four-leaf shapes are sometimes called quatrefoils in design. 

  7. Nilesong Avatar

    California brick / block

  8. Extension_Sun_377 Avatar

    A 1970s Fourfanny Porn Block

  9. HH93 Avatar

    The Bath Taps of Power

    IFKYK

  10. Vivid_Transition4807 Avatar

    It’s a type of quatrefoil.

  11. GrumpyGingerGit Avatar

    Landscaping supplier Marshalls used to do these, other suppliers were available im sure. That shape in particular was called Porto superscreen walling. There was also Faro, which i think was a square within a square, Vigo was some ofset curves, (which was not particularly popular) a solid block called Northstar.

  12. PurpleSquirrel811 Avatar

    They’re in our back garden, semi detached house built 1937. I hate them! But they’ve never blown down in a storm, unlike the fence.

  13. Mi_santhrope Avatar

    Councilgardenwallagon

  14. nelbertred Avatar

    California screen wall breeze block

  15. Parker4815 Avatar

    Nans garden wall

  16. generichandel Avatar

    Nans house wall vent.

  17. Toedipper19 Avatar

    1950’s ex council house.

  18. WASP_Apologist Avatar

    The design is a croix pattée or croix formée

    It’s like a Maltese cross, but its arms flare out and are flattened at the end, rather than forked.

  19. The-Nimbus Avatar

    It’s called a Quatrefoil, or at least, that’s the most similar shape which has a name. Usually they are more circular.

  20. ProfessionalBird7847 Avatar

    80’s council lad done well?

  21. Insane_Fett_Posse Avatar

    Old persons bungalow wall

  22. jebediah1800 Avatar

    It’s a cross pattée, with piercings. Sue me!

  23. Ornery_Dot910 Avatar

    I used to draw these kind of shapes with my geometry box, using compass and a ruler

  24. DJStambo Avatar

    Trangualamahexalgronscquricle. Tis an ‘Ol saying for brickwork from back in the day. We used to call Turkeys walking birds back then.

  25. michaelloda9 Avatar

    Feel free to name it yourself

  26. sayleanenlarge Avatar

    Idk, but it looks angry. Does it look angry to anyone else?

  27. LengthinessAgitated9 Avatar

    It’s called 80s fluer de council estate

  28. Alex__Rob Avatar

    A picture tells a thousand words.

  29. comedydave1978 Avatar

    It’s called ‘Yer Nan’s House’

  30. Shygod Avatar

    It’s the shape you get when you overlap 4 circles, just a simple design

  31. bennyjacko Avatar

    Square shit head

  32. RhubarbSalty3588 Avatar

    California blocks they were once known as.

  33. Mortuusi Avatar

    The butterfly’s anus

  34. bowlander- Avatar

    I call mine Trevor

  35. Creepycripple Avatar

    Pretty flower stone

  36. not_me345 Avatar

    Real Old school. Reminds me of walking home from school and seeing it in people walls in front of their house 😂😌

  37. ThePanickingDM Avatar

    Yes, I believe that is called a square.

  38. Goblin_Deez_ Avatar

    Not sure but a few nearly fell on my head on a windy night

  39. Indecisive-Gamer Avatar

    It’s a clover. Pretty similar to the four leaf clover intersection.

  40. Expert-Connection120 Avatar

    This is a random answer, but it reminds me of the reverse of the ancient Ionian Miletus obol coins. Even experts can’t agree on what the pattern is, they describe it as “ornamented star, sun symbol, stellate pattern, starlike floral ornament, floral star, flower, floral design, or rossette.” I don’t know if there’s a shared origin of these symbols, but other guesses for quatrefoil seem to work.

  41. Prize-Ad7242 Avatar

    SPREAD EAGLE CROSS THE BLOOOOOCK

  42. Flibertygibbert Avatar

    I helped my dad make dozens of these from a mould in the 1970s.

    He had to raise the height of our back garden wall because our dog used to launch himself over into the downhill neighbour’s garden 😂

    It was 2 feet high on our side, but 6 feet high on theirs.

  43. Jizzle67 Avatar

    These remind me of the housing estate I used to live near (built in early 1980s)

  44. AdIll1754 Avatar

    Is it not a quatrefoil?

  45. Tickytor Avatar

    I’ve always known them as daisy blocks

  46. Harvey_Sheldon Avatar

    These are sex people, Lynn.

  47. TheTriNerd Avatar

    Council estate style 1

  48. VisKopen Avatar

    My little brother once killed a kitten with one of these when he was little.

  49. Knappologen Avatar

    A square with holes in it?

  50. aviatorhat_npc Avatar

    it’s called we are close to grandma’s

  51. Tau51994 Avatar

    You see a leaf, I see an iron cross. We are not the same.

  52. ukbot-nicolabot Avatar

    OP marked this as the best answer, given by /u/fluffy_samoyed.

    > It’s called a leaf block.


    ^(What is this?)

  53. dulkai_mp3 Avatar

    My neighbour had these :0

  54. wasdice Avatar

    Thankyou everybody! The correct answer is much appreciated and the rest really brightened my day

  55. Helloimnotimpotant Avatar

    Italian screed block is what us UK bricklayers know it as

  56. GreasedUpDeafGuy1 Avatar

    I call them triple H’s

  57. xXN0SK1LLZXx Avatar

    Thebasicgardenwalldeco3000

  58. Infamous-Pomelo9674 Avatar

    Retro and not in a good way

  59. zwifter11 Avatar

    Maltese Cross 

  60. Manuker Avatar

    Steve…it’s called Steve

  61. Useful-Towel5978 Avatar

    Looks like an iron cross lol.

  62. OStO_Cartography Avatar

    I once wrote a poem inspired by these kind of blocks:


    — Fractal —

    I know a place,

    ‘Twixt here and there,

    And yet in both,

    And none.

    Of dusted sand,

    And time-stripped land,

    Pier of the Rising Sun.

    Court of Ursa,

    Minor though,

    East King,

    Near blooming walls,

    From Doggerland,

    A Marram hand,

    Of whipping Winter calls.

    I wish to go,

    When the day is hot,

    And the Moon,

    Is much too long,

    To that curious place,

    With its parterre face,

    Singing Old Empire’s song.

    So join me, please,

    On the promenade,

    Or by the,

    Concrete flowers,

    For on this plot,

    Time’s all but stopped,

    And iterates in hours.

  63. thunderbastard_ Avatar

    It’s either square, triangle or oval depending on which shape you mean

  64. eggpoowee Avatar

    Old people bricks

  65. Zealousideal_Glass61 Avatar

    It’s called ‘the portal of the four vaginas’

  66. opopkl Avatar

    I think it’s from the 1970s. I think I saw an item about them on Tomorrow’s World.

  67. Old_Welcome_4760 Avatar

    For some reason it always reminded me of the sassanid empire

  68. Due_Olive_2940 Avatar

    Thay have different names it’s a breeze block the pattern can be called flower floral leaf

  69. purplishfluffyclouds Avatar

    What’s a 1930s semi? Were there semi trucks in the ‘30s?

  70. DailyHViewer Avatar

    Looks like a square with some holes in it

  71. Antique_Drawer5220 Avatar

    Uh… in between 4 circles.