'A Sort Of Homecoming'

Day 79

 

Snaresbrook - South Acton - South Ealing

 

A sunny but chilly day today sees me heading eastwards to the far end of the Central Line once again.

 

My first station today is Snaresbrook - and my first impression, even as I step off the train onto the platform, is a positive one.

They look after their wildlife here...

I mean, any place whose station has a 'Stag Beetle Nest' and a London Underground branded 'Bee House' must be somewhere worth visiting!

Snaresbrook



Drinking Fountain

Outside the station is a short slip road, unimaginatively called 'Station Approach' leading down to the top end of the High Street, where there's a rather ornate drinking fountain at the corner - though it doesn't seem to be in working order any longer.

I'll be exploring the High Street in a little while, but first I'm going to head a little further west - to what is actually part of the southern end of Epping Forest.

It's been a curiosity of my travels along this stretch of the Central Line, that the forest - which I naturally expected to encounter at Epping itself - has also made an appearance at every other location along the line. Debden, Buckhurst Hill, Loughton... in fact every station from Leyton to Epping... is within spitting distance of this vast forest.

It stretches 12 miles in total (though it's only 2.5 miles wide at its widest point) all the way from Forest Gate in the south, to Epping in the north - so it shouldn't really surprise me that I keep coming across it.

Anyway, it's not actually the forest I'm looking for as I head west from the station, but something a little more man made - and a lot more grandiose.

Eagle 'Pond'

I catch a glimpse of it through the trees as I walk around the lake which sits to the north of the building. This is called Eagle Pond - though the word 'pond' is laughably inadequate to describe the expanse of water, replete with ducks and other wildfowl, that lies between me and my goal.

And my goal is this little place...

Snaresbrook Crown Court

 

Ostentatious? Moi?

This is the Snaresbrook Crown Court - and if you're going to be sent down for 'the rest of your natural', I can think of no nicer location from which to wave your farewells...

It didn't start life as a Crown Court of course, in fact it was designed (by the eminent architect Sir George Gilbert Scott - of St Pancras fame) as the 'Infant Orphanage Asylum', built by philanthropist the Reverend Andrew Reed and opened (for some obscure reason) by King Leopold I of Belgium.

 

It housed about 400 children and, rather contrary to the ostensible philanthropy of the venture,  there were certain restrictions on which children were accepted under its roof. Orphaned, (or at the very least, fatherless) children would only be accepted if their late fathers had earned enough money to be given one of the following epithets:

 

'Creditable' - earning not less than £50 per year.

'Respectable' - £100 per year.

'Very Respectable' - £400 per year.

 

What the orphans of poorer families did is not made clear - though I suspect we can all make a shrewd guess as to the miserableness of their fate.

 

I've been very careful only to take long-distance shots of the building, as there are notices all over the place telling me I'm not allowed to take photos of any court proceedings, or people involved in them. To avoid any chance of my presence being misinterpreted, however, and not wishing to see the inside of the Crown Court for all the wrong reasons, I don't linger in the grounds and head back to the High Street for quick wander among the shops.

 

Although I'm in Snaresbrook, the High Street is actually 'Wanstead High Street', and Wanstead station lies at the south-east end of the street.

 

Wanstead High Street - in Snaresbrook

 

It's a very pleasant shopping street - once again having that 'village' feel that I've noticed in several places around London. It's funny how some High Streets can feel like pleasant little communities, almost cut off from the hustle and bustle of the capital - and yet others seem unable to shake off the 'inner city' grime and are simply collections of kebab shops and greasy spoon cafés...

 

I don't walk too far - since I'll no doubt be walking back the other way in a few letters' time from Wanstead - but my brief visit here has certainly left me with a good impression.

 

***

On to my next station, though - and here things are rather different...

 

Not unpleasant, I have to say - just... very different from the rural idyll I felt I was entering at Snaresbrook.

 

Getting here has been a bit of a trek.

 

South Acton (the first of the many 'South...' stations I have to wade my way through before I get to the end of the 'Ss') is on the Overground Line and - unless you're already on that line - is a bit awkward to get to.

 

There are no nearby interchange stations (where I could change from a tube line to the Overground line) so I've had to choose either Acton Town or Chiswick Park stations, as being the nearest within walking distance.

 

I opt for the former, since I can change from the Central Line to the Piccadilly Line at Holborn, and make my way southwards to South Acton from there.

 

There are two exits from the station, and a handy footbridge takes me across the tracks so that I can take a photo of both of them.

 

I do this, not because of any transport-related geekery (heaven forfend!), but because there's a very different backdrop to the station, depending on which way you're looking.

 

To the south it's all terraced housing, heading towards Chiswick High Road with its upmarket shops and restaurants.

 

South Acton - looking south

 

To the north the skyline consists of nothing but tower blocks - the South Acton housing estate - and beyond that the not quite so upmarket shopping area of the Acton High Street.

 

South Acton - looking north

 

However, in many ways, it's the housing estate that provides the more attractive vista, though this is largely thanks to a gradual replacement of the old 1960s Tower Blocks, with modern, more colourful, buildings.

 



South Acton Housing Estate



 

I head into the estate - which seems very quiet and deserted, even for a weekday afternoon - and wonder whether the attractive façade is just that - and that behind the mask the problems of crime and drug usage, which historically have plagued the area, are lurking unseen, waiting to catch me unawares.

 

Charles Hocking House - due for demolition

 

But thankfully nothing untoward happens as I head north, into the older parts of the estate.

 

And even here, although many of these blocks are actually due for demolition, there is a splash of colour - thanks to a London street artist called 'Stik'

 

'Big Mother'

The enormous mural on the side of 'Charles Hocking House', featuring Stik's trademark stick figures, is called 'Big Mother'. It depicts a mother and child 'looking forlornly from their condemned council building across the expanse of private luxury apartments being built around them'.



The artist, once homeless himself, and who has painted murals both across London and in New York and other world cities, says that 'affordable housing in Britain is under threat; this piece is to remind the world that all people need homes.'

 

(For their part, the council have stated that “We would like to make it clear that  nobody living on the old estate is being pushed out... It would be far more accurate to report that ‘luxury’ flats are being built for residents, not around them. Half the 'luxury' apartments being built in the new block opposite the artwork are affordable, and many of the residents from Charles Hocking House will be moving there.”)

 

Nice though it is to see a splash of colour on what would otherwise be a collection of drab and imposing concrete, there isn't much else to see here other than more and more housing.

 

So I head off once more, to my third and final stop of the day.

 

***

And this (for those few of you with nothing better to think about, who might have been wondering) is the station that led me to plump for the particular U2 song I chose as the title for this post.

 

South Ealing

 

 Arriving here at South Ealing Station, the circle (as Darth Vader might have put it) is - in one way - complete.

 

It was just around the corner from here that I - as a fresh faced language student attending what was then the Ealing College Of Higher Education - had my first independent home, and my first taste of London life.



I dipped my toe into the cold waters of living away from home very gingerly at first, unlike some of my contemporaries. Rather than plunging head-first into a Young Ones style shared student house, I rented a room (or more accurately - half a room) in a family home, with a landlady who cooked enormous Sunday Roasts seemingly every day, a landlord who drove Bentleys for visiting Arab Sheiks and introduced me to his favourite drink; Brandy and Ginger Ale, (a tipple I've been fond of ever since) and two huge, but ultimately friendly, Rottweilers.

 

Not quite the
Young Ones...

I say I rented half a room - this was a twin room, shared with another student from a different course, who I'm afraid I didn't really get on with all that well. He was friendly enough in his own way, but that 'way' was the product of an English public boarding school education, and could be a tad 'superior', to put it mildly.



On the other hand, he did know where to go shopping to buy a basque, stockings and suspenders for my first ever trip to see The Rocky Horror Show - so they must have taught him something at that school of his...



I won't give the actual address of the house in question, not knowing how the current residents might feel about that, but the photo here shows the front of it, largely unchanged, if you're interested.

 

 

In any case, twenty-seven years ago, South Ealing became my local tube station.

 

Not that I used the tube much back then of course - I trod a basically triangular path between my 'digs', the lecture hall, and the student bar (with the lecture hall occasionally going by the way-side in favour of the local kebab shop).

 

***

South Ealing Station is on South Ealing Road, a continuation of St Mary's Road, which leads south from Ealing Broadway. It's on the Piccadilly Line, and is the stop just before Northfields station.

 

What you don't realise, unless you look at a map of the area, is that the two are barely 500m apart, separated only by a couple of streets of terraces. In fact, since their respective platforms stretch toward each other between the stations, the distance from tip-to-tip (as it were) is more like 250m - the closest two stations (above ground) on the network.

 

The proximity is thanks - in part at least - to a sort of 'domino effect' of bureaucratic decisions (or, as some would have it, cock-ups).

 

To begin with, there was no station at Northfields when South Ealing was built. And South Ealing was originally on the District Line.

 

As the Northfields area developed from being a collection of market gardens to a busier residential area, a small station was built to serve the inhabitants. However, it was slightly further away from the current location, and had platforms facing westwards - away from South Ealing station - so the distance between them was marginally greater.

 

Then came the Piccadilly Line. Not only did this mean additional tracks were laid, roads and bridges were rebuilt, and Northfields station was moved to its current location, but also a train depot was built to the west of Northfields, which meant that its platforms had to be built out to the east - or in other words, towards South Ealing station.

 

When the senior management of London Underground realised how close the stations were, their solution was a proposal to shut down South Ealing station - which seems a trifle unfair, as this station had sat quietly minding its own business as chaos seemed to reign all around it!

 

Residents and Shopkeepers protested against this proposal, and the two stations both remained where they were.

 

***

Across the road from the station is a small park - South Ealing Road Park - which sits alongside the underground tracks and provides a pleasant little spot to rest on a bench or walk your dog, as the fancy takes you.

 

South Ealing Road Park

 

At the far end of the park is a footpath heading north, behind the houses on South Ealing Road, which takes me up as far as St Mary's Church, behind which is a pub - the Rose And Crown - where I occasionally joined my landlord in a pre-Sunday Roast pint or two. (Looking back now, I'm amazed my stomach didn't actually burst after some of those Sundays - and it certainly explains the number of sizes my jeans had gone up by the time I left University).

 

Just the one then...

 

 

St Mary's Church

The church (or rather its vicarage) is, sadly, most famous for being the site of an attack, which - though horrific - led to a change in attitudes towards the victims of rape, and their right to anonymity.

 

The victim - Jill Saward - was the first woman in Britain to waive her right to anonymity in order to tell her story and thus educate people as to the trauma suffered by rape victims.

 

She had, effectively, already been identified by The Sun newspaper, whose then editor, Kelvin MacKenzie claimed that the existing right to anonymity only applied after a suspect had been charged - a loophole which was subsequently closed thanks to Jill Saward's campaigning.

 

***

Heading back south from the church, and back on the main road, I pass some of the numerous shops and cafés that line this street.

 

Having eulogised about Snaresbrook this morning, you might think I'd be quick to criticise the slightly shabby appearance of South Ealing Road.

 

South Ealing Road

 

But actually, if you ignore the occasional peeling paintwork, there's still a bit of a village-y type feel to this place. Yes, there's a Costa Coffee and a Co-op food store - typical of any high street - and the usual tattoo parlours and take-aways, but there's also an independent (and rather upmarket) butcher, several fruit and veg shops, a smattering of delicatessens, and even a second-hand record shop.

 

I might not have made much use of such places as a student (even the records had given way to CDs when I was at University), but I can certainly see myself picking up a few tasty morsels from the butcher and the various delis for my own - rather less monumental - Sunday lunch one day...