'The Boys Are Back In Town'

Day 23

 

Cockfosters - Colindale

 

Well, golly, it's been a fair old while, hasn't it?

 

It feels strange to be setting off again on this trek of mine, having been sunning myself in Crete for a couple of weeks, and in a way I'd have preferred a more gentle 'easing in' to the renewed travelling. However, neither the alphabet nor the tube map are letting me off the hook very lightly this morning and I start with a long-haul to the other end of the Piccadilly Line, and Cockfosters.

 

***

Other than a brief mention in a 1980s commercial for Australian Lager, and the fact that being the northern terminus of the Piccadilly Line, it is the destination most often displayed on the front of the Piccadilly trains I catch into town, Cockfosters has largely failed to appear on my radar.

Cockfosters - 'drink it warm, mate...'

 

I'm relieved and surprised therefore (especially having to pass through Bounds Green - scene of my earlier adventures with replica firearms - along the way) to find that it's a very pleasant, quiet little pocket of London. It straddles the border between the boroughs of Enfield and Barnet, and is very much a 'countryside suburb' - with hardly an indication that it is still within the M25.

 

Even the station, unlike most, has gone to a bit of effort to make you feel welcome. There's a little garden (complete with gnomes) between the platforms, and as I arrive I see the station staff tending it with watering cans and trowels. This sort of thing could surely only happen in Britain...

 

Gnome Garden - makes you proud to be British...

 

The station was, in fact, opened exactly 81 years ago today - although like many 81 year-olds it doesn't seem to want much of a fuss made about it. On the other hand, the concourse has a faintly futuristic look about it - with lots of glass and tall concrete arches. With the flower-pots in the middle it's like a cross between Logan's Run and Gardener's Question Time...

 

Outside the station there are various parades, with the usual selection of shops, cafés and Mini-Me versions of well-known supermarkets, and the locals I see enjoying their morning coffee on the tables along the pavement seem particularly buoyant.

 

I walk south from the station initially, to explore the various shops, and then - since it's taken me a fair old time to get here from Ealing, and it's now coming up for lunchtime - I pick up a sandwich and a bottle of pop, and retrace my steps northwards to what I hope will be a pleasant spot for a picnic - Trent Park.

 

And it is.

 

It's absolutely huge - 320 hectares - and although it supposedly has a country house attached to it, it's so vast that I fail to spot any sign of the building. Instead, there are just great open spaces, and an atmosphere of summer relaxation (it is, after all, the school holidays - so a fair few families are out enjoying the sunshine with me - but in a place this big, it's impossible to feel crowded)

 

Trent Park - it's quite big...

There's a 'Go Ape' centre within the park, and I spot one or two mad fools doing 'death slides' as I walk back to the main road after my lunch. I'm sure it's exhilarating and fun and reasonably safe, although my brother would probably beg to disagree - having broken his ankle on one of these things not so long ago. I'm therefore not particularly tempted...

 

Ummmmmm....... Nah, don't thinks so...

 

It's been a relatively short visit - but that's because it took me so long to get here that if I don't press on I won't have time to see anything at my next stop. So, feeling relaxed and replete I catch the train back into town to King's Cross, then head out again, this time on the Northern Line, to Colindale.

 

***

Before I get onto that however, I mentioned my little escapade in Bounds Green back there, and you might like a quick update on how things are progressing, judicially speaking.

 

After numerous appearances at various hearings the main offender has now pleaded guilty, and will be sentenced later this month. All of this has happened without me having to make an appearance in court, and I can therefore now relax and forget about the whole thing - which I'm very happy to do.

 

Thanks to everyone who expressed concern at the time, and here's to many future crime-free journeys!

 

***

The next stop, Colindale, is also a servant of two masters - lying as it does in both Barnet and Brent.

Colindale

 

The station is currently covered in scaffolding and tarpaulins so doesn't make for a particularly photogenic scene, but the area itself is much like Cockfosters in its leafy suburbanity.

 

As usual, I've done a bit of research before I get here, and I know that there's one fairly major attraction in Colindale that I should really have a look at - the RAF Museum. Not that I have a particular interest in the history of aviation, or in the armed forces, but I suppose there's still a bit of the little boy in all of us (he said, hoping it doesn't attract the attentions of Operation Yewtree).

 

It means I won't have much, if any, time for a more general exploration of the area, so I should therefore also mention a couple of other nuggets I discovered prior to my visit...

 

Firslty, Colindale is the home of the Metropolitan Police Training Centre (colloquially known as Hendon Police College - or simply 'Hendon') - located at 999 Letsby Avenue...

 

(Oh, alright then - it's on Aerodrome Way.)

 

Either way - it isn't in Hendon, which lies to the east of Colindale, so how much we can trust the training that goes on there I hesitate to think. (Only kidding lads - keep up the good work!)

 

The 'Peel Centre' - to give it its official title - was opened in 1934 and was expanded into the grounds left empty by the closure of the RAF base next door. Although residential training no longer takes place here, it is still one of the main centres for training for the Metropolitan Police.

 

Another wee snippet of information related to the erstwhile RAF base, is that a certain T.E. Lawrence was briefly stationed here. Having joined the RAF incognito (to avoid the inevitable publicity that having 'Lawrence Of Arabia' on site would cause) he also used a number of pen-names for the articles he wrote in various publications. The name he chose for his Spectator articles, was 'Colin Dale'.

 

Anyway - on to the RAF Museum.

 

And I think I can do no better than to let the photos speak for themselves. It's free - although a donation is always welcome - and if you're ever at a loose end in North London, I can heartily recommend it to while away a couple of hours... 

Spitfire - WWII fighter

Bleriot XI - first cross-channel flight in 1909

North American Mustang - WWII Fighter

North American Mustang - and the Bleriot XI in the background



Lancaster Bomb Bay

A selection of bombs



Bit insensitive to put this sign on a plane that
drops bombs on people don't you think?

Who's it pointed at today? (By my reckoning, looking at its trajectory on
Google Earth, it's a toss-up between Aberystwyth and Dublin)

 

There's far more to see than the selection I've put up here, and there's plenty of interactive stuff for the kids too, so well worth a visit.

 

However - that's a whole day gone, and I've only visited two stations. Hopefully next time I'll have an easier journey - and be able to fit in a few more in one go!

 

Toodle-pip!

'Summer Holiday'

Enough said...

'Common People'

Day 22

 

Chorleywood - Clapham Common - Clapham High Street - Clapham Junction - Clapham North - Clapham South

 

Chorleywood (my first destination) and Clapham (my second) have little in common apart from, ironically, a common - they both have one.

We'll come to the two commons in due course, but first I find myself in yet another quiet market town in the Chilterns beginning with the letters "CH".

Quite why this part of the world has so many places beginning with those two particular letters is something you'll have to ask a toponymist, but it's probably something Anglo-Saxon (it usually is).


Chorleywood - Careful or you'll be crushed in the stampede...

I start by wandering up and down the road in front of the station - Station Approach - but as the name suggests (and in common with many of the more suburban stations) the road's main purpose is simply to provide access to the station, and the few houses and businesses that I pass seem content to ignore me - perhaps they're having a mid-morning nap.

Round a couple of corners and running parallel to the tracks on the other side of the station, is Lower Road, which seems to be the main shopping street here. I say 'seems' because I don't actually see anyone doing any shopping. There's a supermarket, a chemist, a post office, and an inordinate number of estate agents, but no-one seems to be using them. Perhaps they're all at home waiting expectantly while the estate agents sell their houses to each other.

Tiring fairly rapidly of the delights offered by Lower Road, I make my way to Chorleywood Common. in search of wild adventure and excitement.

Hmmm...

The Common is 80 hectares (which is about 200 acres apparently) of open grassland dotted with occasional woodland areas. There are a few ponds, some of which apparently provide homes for Great Crested Newts (Did I see any? Nah... course not).

It also has a golf course slap bang in the middle of it, and knowing that golfers can sometimes be a little 'precious' about where you're allowed to walk and where not, I decide to stick to the 'circular path' that I saw marked on the map at the entrance to the Common.

Pond on the Common - note the cunningly camouflaged newts

I stop at a pond, where I fail to spot any newts, but do encounter a dragonfly which seems happy to be photographed.

Dragonfly posing for a close-up

I continue for a short way along what I hope is still the circular path, although without a map (which was inconsiderately attached to a big wooden signpost back at the entrance) it's hard to tell.

Chorleywood Common

So eventually I retrace my steps back to the entrance to the Common, which also happens to be the first tee of the golf course. A couple of retirement-age female golfers (golfresses?) are teeing up and I watch for a few minutes, but as a source of thrills and spills I find it all sadly inadequate.

'Right then Ethel, just you see what I do with this bad boy!'

I think it's time to move on...

***
Clapham's five stations (alright, four - Clapham Junction is actually in Battersea) lie in a roughly straight line running from Clapham South at the southern tip of Clapham Common, via Clapham Common Station, Clapham High Street Station and finally up to Clapham North at the junction of Clapham High Street and Clapham Road.

The fact that I have to do all these Clapham stations in alphabetical rather than geographical order, coupled with the fact I've already mentioned - that Clapham Junction is some distance away in Battersea - is in reality only a minor niggle, since Clapham is such a marked contrast to Chorleywood and as soon as I arrive I know I'm going to enjoy it here. There's a buzz about the place that's reminiscent of Brixton, and the shops, restaurants, cafés, and the Common itself, are full of people soaking up the rays of today's particularly hot sun.

Nobody seems to be doing any actual work here, apart from the waitresses in the various eateries, but nobody seems to mind very much either - maybe it's the natural way of things in this part of town...

Since most of the stations are within just a few minutes' walk of each other, I won't bore you with repeated details of arrivals and departures at each one, and will instead just give a few snippets of info, together with my overall impression of the area around Clapham Common, which is the natural hub of activity here - especially on a hot summer's day like today.

Clapham Common station, which is at the north-eastern tip of the triangular Common, sits like a little temple on an island in the middle of Clapham High Street.


Clapham Common - and we're off!

This of course, is just the visible part of the station, as the ticket hall and platforms are underground. Also underground here, as well as at Clapham North and Clapham South, are the remains of the deep-level shelters constructed during World War II and later used temporarily to house immigrants from the West Indies, who had recently arrived on the Empire Windrush.

The Common that lies next to the station is, of course, full of sunbathers on this sunny day. I wander around with my camera, trying not to look too pervy as I take a photograph, but actually I don't think anyone would bat an eyelid here.


Clapham Common - I want to live like common people...

Surprisingly, given the fact that this is an inner London park, it is actually slightly larger than the Common out at Chorleywood - at roughly 220 acres. There's a bandstand, a drinking fountain, three ponds, and plenty of trees if the sun gets too hot. It regularly hosts concerts and other events, although the Friends Of Clapham Common website seems to regard most of these as a nuisance rather than a benefit to the community - since they make it very clear how to complain to the council, should you wish to do so.

I hope that the majority of residents don't feel any need to complain - and indeed that they join in wholeheartedly with whatever community event is taking place - since, after all, 'The Man On The Clapham Omnibus' has long been supposed to be the standard measure of reasonableness, and I'd hate to think that reasonableness was synonymous with petty-mindedness.

The High Street, along which I walk next, is full of places to eat - most of them with outside tables - and here again is the vibrant buzz of people relaxing in the summer sun. I pass a motley collection of architectural styles, including the modern Library which has several large and abstract-looking metal sculptures on the pavement in front of it. It takes me rather longer than I care to admit to realise the that the sculptures are in fact the letters of the word 'Library'...

After a few minutes more I arrive at Clapham High Street Station, which is actually just off the main street. There's not much too it, and Voltaire Road, on which it sits, is fairly nondescript, so I jump straight on the first train in the direction of Clapham Junction.


Clapham High Street - two down, three to go...

***
So - Clapham Junction - what's all that about then, eh? Why is a station located in Battersea named after a location one mile to the east?

Well, somewhat surprisingly perhaps, given the current demographics of this part of London, it seems to have been a matter of pure and simple snobbery. Battersea in the late 19th Century was not sufficiently genteel enough, and so the name of the neighbouring district was used instead, in the hope of attracting a better class of customer. I'm not entirely sure how this would work - you either need to catch a train or you don't - if the station happens to be in a less salubrious part of town, are you therefore not going to catch it? Or perhaps you'll try running alongside the tracks as it passes through a classier area, in the hope of being able to jump onto it...?

The station itself is big. In fact I'd almost go so far as to say they could have dispensed with the whole Battersea/Clapham question by simply declaring it a separate London Borough all of its own. There are 17 platforms, and the walk from Platform One (where I arrive on the Overground Train) to the exit at the other side of the station takes me at least ten minutes.

I emerge from the station onto a smallish pedestrian area called Brighton Yard, just off St John's Hill, and turn to take a photo of the station entrance.


Clapham Junction - main entrance

Unfortunately, I notice that the entrance I've just passed through has a distinct lack of London Overground signage.

To explain - the London Tube Map, which as you know is the map I'm using as my definitive list of London stations to visit, shows three networks: The London Underground, The London Overground and The Docklands Light Railway (DLR). There are other railway lines going through London, and connecting with some of the stations I will be visiting, but these lines are part of the National Rail Network, and are not shown on the normal tube map.

So, in order to satisfy my own pedantic and self-imposed conditions of this challenge, I have to take a photograph of the station sign which proves that it appears on the London Tube Map. It's no use the station being all grand and imposing and a wonder of railway architecture, if there isn't a little coloured Roundel, with the word 'Underground', 'Overground' or 'DLR' across it.

It would appear that this entrance, though the most impressive for the average commuter, is no good to me, so I trudge back round to the other side of the station (the long way round - at street level) and eventually find myself at the Grant Road entrance, and thankfully, with a Roundel to photograph.



Ok, so now I know why
they hide this entrance
away round the back...

I enter the station here, and discover - not surprisingly - that I am back where I started at platform one, and had I known it, I could have just come out of the station at this entrance and saved myself a long walk.

 

Still, at least I got my photo, eh?

 

 

 

 

 

 

***

Back on the Overground to Clapham High Street, and it's a short walk round the corner to Clapham North.

Clapham North

 

I don't go into the station, as I can walk from here to Clapham South without too much trouble. If I did, however, I'd be catching the train from one of only two 'island' platforms left in London.

 

Most tube stations have separate tunnels and platforms for each direction of travel. To get from northbound to southbound, or eastbound to westbound, you exit one platform and cross a mini concourse to get to the other platform.

 

In this station, and in Clapham Common, which is the other station to have an 'island' platform, trains from both directions stop at the same platform, which forms a narrow catwalk between them. Given how busy most London Underground stations can get at rush hour, I hate to think how many accidental 'one-unders' have been caused by sheer weight of numbers squeezing onto this narrow platform between the two approaching trains.

 

***

Finally, then, I head south again to Clapham South. And you'll notice a marked similarity between this station and Clapham North.

Clapham South (spot the difference...)

 

Both were of course designed by the same man - a Mr T.P. Figgis (now there's a name that belongs in Suburbia if ever I heard one!) and both were later revamped by our old compadre Charles Holden. Which bits were Figgis and which Holden I don't know, but I'm guessing the rather Germanic looking entrance halls are Charlie-Boy's.

 

***

And that's it for another week, and in fact, for some little time.

 

I'm off visiting another 'C' - Crete - for a couple of weeks with Mrs Nowhere Man, and have no intention of interrupting my lazing-by-the-pool-with-an-ice-cold-something-or-other to write about the vagaries of the London Underground system. So I'm afraid you'll just have to wait a while for the next thrill-packed instalment of my adventures.

 

I don't know how you'll cope, honestly I don't...