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!
No comments:
Post a Comment