'Here, There And Everywhere'

Day 14

Brockley - Bromley-by-Bow - Brondesbury - Brondesbury Park - Buckhurst Hill

A bit of a trek today, assuming I manage to get to all the stations I hope to reach. I don't think I'll finish the 'B's - that would be too much to hope for - but my plan is to tick four more off the list at least. The only trouble is, none of them (apart from the two Brondesburies*) are anywhere near each other - or even on the same lines.

 

*(I'm assuming that's the plural of Brondesbury - and if they will put two stations with the same name in such close proximity to one another, a plural is bound to ensue)

 

By the time I've finished today I'll have been south, east, north and, of course, back west for home. I'll have changed trains ten times, and travelled (almost) full circle round the centre of London.

 

To start off with, I'm getting the District Line to Westminster, followed by the Jubilee to Canada Water, and then the Overground Line to Brockley.

 

This is familiar territory, as I did almost the same journey to reach Anerley way back on Day 3, and I'm glad these previously unfamiliar parts of London are beginning to slot together in the mental jigsaw puzzle of the capital's geography I'm gradually assembling in my mind.

 

***

Whereas on my previous day's travelling, I felt that Brixton could only be described as 'Vibrant', today the word that springs insistently to mind as I wander through the streets of Brockley, is 'Sleepy'. My pre-womble research has told me that Brockley has had many famous residents over the years - Kate Bush, Spike Milligan, Chris Tarrant, Lillie Langtree, Marie Lloyd, to name but a few - but I fear their influence, if it ever existed, has long gone from this quiet little suburb.

 

Brockley - this colour-scheme is possibly the loudest thing about the place

I walk down Brockley Road from the station, pausing only to take a photo of some colourful murals on the wall of a car repair centre - they're vibrant enough, I grant, but they're tucked down a back street and beginning to show a little wear and tear. Brixton has nothing to fear just yet.

 

Murals Wedding

My goal is a park on a hill - appropriately, if not imaginatively, called 'Hilly Fields' - from which the views are said to be well worth the climb. As it happens the climb isn't all that steep, or arduous, and the views - while picturesque - are somehow less than the spectacular vista I'd hoped for.

 

Hilly Fields - a field, a hill... you think of a name then!

That said, the park is pleasant enough, and since today is a particularly sunny day, I take the opportunity to sit on a bench and watch the world go by for a short while. In the distance I can see the aerial towers of the Crystal Palace transmitting station in Crystal Palace Park - one for another day...

 

Vitamin D replenished, I head back to the station. There are other things I could have seen in Brockley - a theatre for one (the Brockley Jack) and in the park I've just left, a stone circle erected in 2000 as part of the millennium celebrations, but I've lots to see elsewhere too - so I head northwards to Whitechapel and then turn east towards my next destination - Bromley-by-Bow.

 

***

Bromley-by-Bow

Bromley-by-Bow station stands on the stretch of the A12 known as the Blackwall Tunnel Northern Approach. It's an unremarkable brick building, and the road it stands on is a busy three-lane highway in each direction. There is, consequently, not much beauty to be found at the station or its immediate surroundings. However, I have as always done my research, and I know that just a short walk away, is another example of a former way of life, preserved - like Brixton's Windmill - for future generations to visit, and in my case, photograph.

 

The Clock Mill

Three Mills Island is the site of - you guessed it - two mills.

 

Ok, so I'm being a little unfair. There were originally eight or nine mills here recorded in the Domesday book - all tidal mills (which means that water was trapped by a sluice gate at high tide, and then released at low tide to drive the water-wheel). The area was known as Three Mills in medieval times, so presumably some had gone by then, and a windmill joined the tidal mills at some point, but has since been demolished.

 

At any rate, the two remaining mills - The Clock Mill and The House Mill are well preserved, and the House Mill (though as yet not in full working order) is the largest tidal mill still in existence.

 

House Mill (background far left) and Clock Mill (centre)

I pass a pleasant ten or fifteen minutes here, with the mills before me and narrow-boats on the canal behind me, and even the odd duck or swan to complete the rural scene.

 

However, time and tide wait for no man, not even at a tidal mill, so I pack my camera away and trudge back along the A12 to the station, marvelling again at how much there is to discover, hidden behind London's grim grey façade.

 

***

Brondesbury (pronounced Bronze-bury) and Brondesbury Park are within ten minutes walk of each other, and both on the Overground Line. I therefore head back to Whitechapel once more, and rejoin the Overground, heading northwards.

 

Although the Overground Line effectively circles the whole of central London, it does so (as I have discovered before) in quite short bursts. The section I'm on at the moment only goes as far as Highbury & Islington, so I'll have to change there to another train (and in fact another platform) to continue westwards to Brondesbury.

 

When I get there, and emerge onto Kilburn High Road, I'm surprised anyone ever gets on a train here at all. The entrance to the station is an almost unnoticeable doorway in the shadow of the railway bridge above it, and seems to have been left there as an afterthought by whoever built the station - as if they didn't realise people would need some way of actually getting to the trains.

 

Brondesbury - no, really - look closer, it's there, I promise...

It's also within spitting distance of what I imagine is the more popular station of choice for getting to Kilburn - Kilburn Station. This is only a couple of hundred yards up the road, and on the Jubilee Line, so I suspect sees rather more passengers, as a rule, than its neighbour.

 

Since Kilburn Station is so close, I don't think I can avoid retracing these steps on a later exploration. However, I do my best by heading in the opposite direction (southwards) which looks to have more to offer by way of shops and (since I realise it's now lunchtime) restaurants.

 

Kilburn High Road has, it must be said, all the bustle of Brixton, without, sadly, the accompanying 'vibrancy'. With an eclectic mix of eateries, pubs, shops, and even a well-respected theatre, it should feel more lively than it does - but everything has an air of being past its best.

 

Even the theatre (The Tricycle) despite having entertained me with some excellent performances in the past, lets me down today by not having its kitchen open and presenting me instead with a bar-counter utterly devoid of sandwiches.

 

So, after an indifferent Panini served by a sullen waitress in a grubby Italian café, I walk through the surprisingly picturesque avenues that run off the High Road, towards Brondesbury Park.

 

While Brondesbury Park (the station) is at least slightly more conspicuous than its semi-namesake, Brondesbury Park (the street) is sadly completely uninspiring.

Brondesbury Park - erm........... no, sorry, can't think of a thing to say about it...

 

The station is pretty much all it has to offer, so - having taken the usual photo - I decide there's still time enough today to manage just one more 'B' - Buckhurst Hill.

 

***

Ticking Buckhurst Hill off my list today means that I'll only have two more 'B's to see. It also means I won't be starting my next jaunt with a bloody great long journey to the other end of the Central Line from Ealing - since Buckhurst Hill is only five stops from the eastern end of the line.

 

Buckhurst Hill - one of the more attractive stations I've seen today at least.

Now, if Brockley was 'sleepy' then Buckhurst Hill is practically comatose.

 

This isn't meant (well, not entirely) as a criticism - I really don't mind leaving the incessant drone of traffic, people and Heathrow-bound planes behind me, to be replaced with birdsong and the occasional 'alright, dear?' from a passing pensioner. It's just that, well... there's nothing here!

 

According to the map, there's only one street that shows any sign of life and that's Queen's Road. Accordingly I head there from the station, to discover a narrow, almost semi-pedestrianized street with a Waitrose at one end, and various cafés, knick-knack shops and hairdressers along its length, There are few people about, despite it being school chucking-out time, and I complete my walk up and down both sides of the street in under ten minutes.

 

Down a side street I spot some greenery, and find myself at a quiet and secluded side-entrance to Knighton Wood. I'm tempted (for a minute or so), but decide in the end to leave it (possibly my demons haven't, after all, been entirely exorcised). In any case, it's a long journey back to Ealing, and rush hour isn't too far off, so...

 

I do my best not to notice how much I'm trying to justify to myself my reasons for leaving the wood unexplored, but can't help but feel a niggling (if minor) twinge of self-contempt as I catch the next Central Line train back home to Ealing.