'Suburbia'

Day 65

 

North Harrow - Northolt - North Wembley - Northwick Park - Northwood - Northwood Hills

 

A packed day today, as I get nearer to the end of the 'Ns'. Today's stations are all in North West London, and all bar two of them lie pretty much in a row along the Metropolitan Line.

This is the 'Metro-Land' (a term coined by the train company's marketing department in 1915) extolled by poet laureate Sir John Betjeman, in his 'Three Late Chrysanthemums' (1954):

"Early Electric! With what radiant hope
Men formed this many-branched electrolier...

...Smoothly from Harrow, passing Preston Road,
They saw the last green fields and misty sky,
At Neasden watched a workmen’s train unload,
And, with the morning villas sliding by,
They felt so sure on their electric trip
That Youth and Progress were in partnership."

It all sounds rather splendid doesn't it - I wonder if I'll feel the same 'radiant hope' as I wend my way round the various stations on today's itinerary...

***

I start with North Harrow - a station I'm reasonably familiar with already, as I have some friends who live just around the corner from it.

North Harrow

This being the case, of course, I've tended to see little more of the area than the street they live on and the local off-licence. So today I hope to explore a little more.

 

First off though, I'll show you the main shopping street - Pinner Road.

 

Pinner Road - North Harrow

 

Like many suburban stations, North Harrow is situated among a collection of shops and businesses catering for the local residents. There are the usual cafés, take-aways, bakeries, betting shops, mini-supermarkets, and so on - though they seem somehow a little more welcoming here than in some of the inner city areas I've visited.  There's a more 'village-y' feel to them.

 

To the south of the station is a road called Northumberland Road, which is given on the Wikipedia page for North Harrow as an illustration of the 'typical' style of housing to be found here. It is also the road which leads to the local park - or 'Open Space' as it prefers to be known.

 

Yeading Brook Open Space is just that - a pocket of open space running alongside the northern end of Yeading Brook. The brook is a tributary of the River Crane (itself a tributary of the Thames) and flows from just north of North Harrow, at Headstone Manor, all the way down as far as Hayes (near the M4), before joining the River Crane.

 



Map of the 'Open Space'



 

The park (as I'm going to continue to call it) is a peaceful and pretty stretch of greenery, and a pleasant stroll on this bright but chilly autumn day.

 

The Autumn Leaves...

 

I pass a small stone bridge, crossing the Brook, and pause to take a photo or two.

 

Bridge Over The Yeading Brook

The Brook Itself

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Later on I spy a park bench with a dedication on it which causes me to do a quick double take.

 

Lucky man.

 

I'm not entirely sure, but I don't think the plaque refers to the popular teenage model of the 1960s - although she was born and raised in nearby Neasden, so you never know...

 

As I leave the park and head back towards the station, I do another double take as I see the reverse of the entrance sign to the park.

 

Who knew that you needed to read the small print before taking a stroll through a bit of greenery!

 

And of course, as with all such 'terms and conditions', the reality is that no-one ever does actually bother to read them, and it's quite possible we've all unwittingly agreed that by using the park we consent to our left legs being amputated and used as replacement traffic cones or something...

 

 

 

***

Enough of such nonsense. On to the next station - Northolt.

 

Northolt

Northolt is on the Central Line - on the West Ruislip branch - and its entrance is on Mandeville Road, which is named after the original landowner.

Geoffrey de Mandeville came to Britain during the Norman conquest and became the first Sheriff of London, and also Constable of the Tower of London - which meant that he was basically William The Conqueror's deputy. William granted him many large estates, including Northolt.

Mandeville Road

For much of its history, Northolt has been arable land - as witness the names of many of the roads which still stand near the station: Moat Farm Road, Court Farm Road, Priors Farm Lane, The Farmlands, and so on. The land here used to supply hay to the City of London, before being swallowed up by the suburban growth of the 20th Century.

I walk along Mandeville Road in the general direction of the A40. There's a village green to the south of Mandeville Road and to the south of that is the old Ealing Road, on which stands a church, parts of which date back to the year 1230.

St Mary's, Northolt

St Mary's church stands on a hill overlooking the old village of Northolt, and is a world away from the traffic and hustle of the busy Mandeville Road.

Along the way are various signs giving a potted history of the area, which will do a far better job than I can of educating you about Northolt's past.



History of Northolt (Part 1)



History of Northolt (Part 2)



History of Northolt (Part 3)

History of Northolt (Part 4)

















Through a small gate at the rear of the church, I enter a field which looks across the A40 to one of the more modern landmarks in this part of London.

Northala Fields

The distinctive man-made hills of Northala Fields, with their spiralling footpaths and constant stream of visitors climbing to stand at the summits, were constructed from the rubble of the original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished in 2003. They stand between the A40 and the rest of the park in which they're situated, and serve at least in part to dampen the noise of the traffic roaring by. The name 'Northala' is the original name for Northolt, as recorded in the Domesday book.

In 2012 - just before the London Olympics opened - former tennis champion Boris Becker was one of the Olympic Torch Bearers and began his leg of the journey from the top of one of these hills.

Walking back to the station via Church Road, I pass the Northolt Village Community Centre - which somewhat surprisingly has a model railway in its back garden.

Community Centre Railway

It's closed for business right now, but I suspect gets lots of use in the warmer months.

It also reminds me that I have several more stations to visit today - so I head back to the station and on to my next destination.

***
I get a mild sense of déjà vu on exiting North Wembley station.

North Wembley

Obviously the station itself is of a fairly standard pattern, but it also stands among a row of shops and cafés much like the ones at North Harrow, and at Northolt.


Déjà vu...

The streets in this area seem to have been named with a view to encouraging academic achievement in the local young - to the south of the station are Eton Avenue, Rugby Avenue and Charterhouse Avenue, as well as streets with references to perhaps less well known public schools, Repton Avenue and Beaumont Avenue.

Given where we are in London, however, there is, I'm bemused to note, one glaring omission to this list. Possibly the second most famous public school in the country after Eton (though I'm sure it would argue about that ranking) is Harrow School - barely 1.5 miles from here.

Does it get its own Avenue though? Not a bit of it.

There is a Harrow Road, but I rather suspect that's named after the locale rather than the school.

Seems a bit unfair to me...

Other than that, North Wembley has little to attract the casual visitor. It's some distance away from the famous (and of course, now rebuilt after its earlier demolishment in 2003) football stadium, though you can see the top of it from the station.

Hello Wembley!

And so, slightly disappointed with the little on offer here, I head on to the next stop - Northwick Park.

***
...Which has even less to offer.

Northwick Park

Northwick Park station is just a few hundred metres round the corner - and into the back streets - from Kenton Station, which of course I visited some time ago.

The 'local area' is, therefore, one I've already seen and described to you, and I'm sure you're not particularly interested in a description of the terraced housing immediately adjacent to the tube line.

The only other landmark nearby is the Northwick Park Hospital, which is a fairly typical example of its kind. It does have a couple of minor claims to fame, having been used by two different TV comedy shows as a filming location. Firstly it was the hospital in which Sybil Fawlty had her ingrowing toe-nail operated in the episode called 'The Germans', and secondly it was the location for the hospital comedy 'Green Wing'.

However, since one hospital looks very much like another from the outside, I'm going to move swiftly on to the next station.

***
Or indeed, stations - since Northwood and Northwood Hills are adjacent to one another, both on the Metropolitan Line.

Northwood

As an example of Suburbia, the area of Northwood is very possibly the archetype - since it was formerly the location of those quintessential Suburbanites - Tom and Barbara Good, of The Good Life fame. The external shots of their house, and of their neighbours, the Leadbetters, were filmed in the streets around here back in the seventies.

Northwood Hills

These days, like everywhere else I've visited today, both Northwood and Northwood Hills are a fairly homogenous collection of coffee shops, estate agents, banks and betting shops.

I don't even take any photos of Northwood (other than the station, obviously), since I can't imagine you're that fussed about a picture of such generic establishments as Costa Coffee or Barclays Bank, and the only photo I take of Northwood Hills is of the rather decorative murals on the bridge over the railway line:

A splash of colour.

Everything else - pleasant though I'm sure it is to live here - is all very much of a pattern with the other places I've visited today. They're all relatively peaceful. They all offer a goodly selection of shops and eateries. They all have neatly turned out rows of houses. They're all........ nice.

And none of them really stands out from any of the others.

***
POST SCRIPT
I'm aware that there's been a slight (!) delay in publishing this post since I did this trip on the 8th November, and we're now on the first day of December. I can only apologise and claim the onset of the festive season, with its demands for planning, shopping, cooking and - let's be honest - excuses for drinking, as the reason for the delay.

I hope to finish the Ns - only two more stations - before taking a break for Christmas, and to start the New Year afresh with a new letter.