Day 70
Penge West - Perivale
Yuck.
What a miserable day it is as I leave my house this morning. The rain is that interminable drizzle we do oh so well in this country, and which dampens my spirits as well as my clothing.
A shame, because (having crossed off the first four 'P' stations relatively easily) I had set off with the optimistic hope of visiting a similar number today - something I now fear is very unlikely.
Mind you, it was always going to be a stretch - the next few stations on the list are so far apart, (and very much a case of 'back and forth and back again') that I'm likely to spend more time travelling than exploring each location.
Ah well, we can but try...
***
According to Douglas Adams and John Lloyd in their book 'The Deeper Meaning Of Liff' (sequel to the seminal work, 'The Meaning Of Liff), a "Penge" is defined as:
"the expanding slotted arm on which a cuckoo comes out of a cuckoo clock"
Well, that's as may be - but it's also, today at least, a bit of a Ghost Town.
The station at Penge West is deserted, as are both the little road leading to it and the main road beyond. There's no sight or sound of anybody around.
Penge West is almost as far south on the Overground Line as you can go. It's on the West Croydon branch though very close to Crystal Palace, and has taken me over an hour and a half to get here, so I'm a little disappointed by what greets me as I emerge from the station.
I hurriedly take my traditional photo - protecting my camera from the relentless rain as best I can - before walking speedily along the deserted streets until I reach what passes for the shopping hub of Penge - the High Street.
While this isn't, strictly speaking, deserted (there are one or two people sheltering at bus stops, and a couple hurrying by under umbrellas) the feeling of ghostly silence persists, and I get the impression that if I were to say 'hello' to anyone, the traffic would screech to a halt, the rain would freeze in mid-air and a tumbleweed would suddenly appear rolling down the centre of the road.
The shops and cafés are all rather tired looking, and their shabbiness does nothing to improve my first impressions of the place. The problem - at least in part - is that I've seen all the interesting stuff around this part of town already, when I visited Crystal Palace.
I try my best - walking the length of the High Street and back, despite the ever-persistent rain - but nothing tempts me to linger, and I give up after a fruitless fifteen minutes and head back to the station.
Hopefully I'll have better luck at my next stop.
***
Perivale is, if nothing else, closer to home for me - being not much more than a twenty minute walk to my house.
On the face of it, as I emerge from the station, it doesn't have that much more to offer than Penge did. The station sits on a road heading north from the busy A40 (which effectively forms the southern boundary of Perivale) and this road consists of 1930s semis on one side and sports fields on the other.
The bulk of the area is residential, stretching from the A40 in the south up to the Grand Union Canal in the north. There's one road on which stands a fairly humdrum parade of shops - Bilton Road - and there's a collection of industrial units and warehouses in the 'Perivale Park' industrial estate.
However, where it does score over the first place I visited today, is the fact that around the corner from the station, and serving as a major landmark in the A40, is the huge art deco splendour of The Hoover Building.
Built in 1933 for the famous vacuum cleaner manufacturer, it has watched over the traffic heading into London ever since - by day a gleaming white reminder of bygone architecture, by night lit up by green floodlights it becomes something out of the Emerald City.
Not quite so white and gleaming today sadly - and partially covered in construction company hoardings - it is clearly undergoing some renovation.
The rear of the building is - as most locals know very well - now the entrance to a huge Tesco superstore, that company having taken over the building in 1989. However, the Grade II Listing means that the original structure has thankfully been retained in all its glory.
Across the A40 from the Hoover Building, Perivale continues some little way towards North Ealing.
Hidden among the fairways of the Ealing Golf Club, and a short distance along a public footpath that divides the golf club in half and leads to Pitshanger Park, is the 'Ancient Church of St Mary The Virgin'
This is a redundant church, now used as a venue for music recitals, that can trace its history back at least as far as the 13th Century.
And from here it's only a pleasant fifteen minute walk through Pitshanger Park to my own home. So, with the rain now thankfully abated for the day, I decide to call it quits and replenish my energy for the next trip out, when I'll be starting with a biggie - Piccadilly Circus! Till then - toodle-pip!
A shame, because (having crossed off the first four 'P' stations relatively easily) I had set off with the optimistic hope of visiting a similar number today - something I now fear is very unlikely.
Mind you, it was always going to be a stretch - the next few stations on the list are so far apart, (and very much a case of 'back and forth and back again') that I'm likely to spend more time travelling than exploring each location.
Ah well, we can but try...
***
According to Douglas Adams and John Lloyd in their book 'The Deeper Meaning Of Liff' (sequel to the seminal work, 'The Meaning Of Liff), a "Penge" is defined as:
"the expanding slotted arm on which a cuckoo comes out of a cuckoo clock"
Well, that's as may be - but it's also, today at least, a bit of a Ghost Town.
 |
| Penge West |
Penge West is almost as far south on the Overground Line as you can go. It's on the West Croydon branch though very close to Crystal Palace, and has taken me over an hour and a half to get here, so I'm a little disappointed by what greets me as I emerge from the station.
I hurriedly take my traditional photo - protecting my camera from the relentless rain as best I can - before walking speedily along the deserted streets until I reach what passes for the shopping hub of Penge - the High Street.
While this isn't, strictly speaking, deserted (there are one or two people sheltering at bus stops, and a couple hurrying by under umbrellas) the feeling of ghostly silence persists, and I get the impression that if I were to say 'hello' to anyone, the traffic would screech to a halt, the rain would freeze in mid-air and a tumbleweed would suddenly appear rolling down the centre of the road.
The shops and cafés are all rather tired looking, and their shabbiness does nothing to improve my first impressions of the place. The problem - at least in part - is that I've seen all the interesting stuff around this part of town already, when I visited Crystal Palace.
I try my best - walking the length of the High Street and back, despite the ever-persistent rain - but nothing tempts me to linger, and I give up after a fruitless fifteen minutes and head back to the station.
Hopefully I'll have better luck at my next stop.
***
Perivale is, if nothing else, closer to home for me - being not much more than a twenty minute walk to my house.
 |
| Perivale |
The bulk of the area is residential, stretching from the A40 in the south up to the Grand Union Canal in the north. There's one road on which stands a fairly humdrum parade of shops - Bilton Road - and there's a collection of industrial units and warehouses in the 'Perivale Park' industrial estate.
However, where it does score over the first place I visited today, is the fact that around the corner from the station, and serving as a major landmark in the A40, is the huge art deco splendour of The Hoover Building.
 |
| Hoover Building |
 |
| The 'Canteen' Block |
Not quite so white and gleaming today sadly - and partially covered in construction company hoardings - it is clearly undergoing some renovation.
The rear of the building is - as most locals know very well - now the entrance to a huge Tesco superstore, that company having taken over the building in 1989. However, the Grade II Listing means that the original structure has thankfully been retained in all its glory.
Across the A40 from the Hoover Building, Perivale continues some little way towards North Ealing.
Hidden among the fairways of the Ealing Golf Club, and a short distance along a public footpath that divides the golf club in half and leads to Pitshanger Park, is the 'Ancient Church of St Mary The Virgin'
 |
| St Mary's Church |
This is a redundant church, now used as a venue for music recitals, that can trace its history back at least as far as the 13th Century.
And from here it's only a pleasant fifteen minute walk through Pitshanger Park to my own home. So, with the rain now thankfully abated for the day, I decide to call it quits and replenish my energy for the next trip out, when I'll be starting with a biggie - Piccadilly Circus! Till then - toodle-pip!
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