Day 94
West Acton - Westbourne Park - West Brompton - West Croydon - Westferry
My first journey today is about as short and sweet as you can get, without actually staying put in one place.
I'm travelling the grand distance of just one stop along the Central Line from my home station of Ealing Broadway to its next-door neighbour, West Acton.
Yes, we've entered the 'West' zone - having previously moaned about all the 'Easts', 'Norths' and 'Souths', I'm now embarking on the final point of the compass - and the list of stations with 'West' in their name is not a short one...
...Unlike my visit to West Acton, which is very short indeed.
I've been in this area before, since North Ealing tube station is only just up the road from here, so there isn't really all that much to discover.
I mentioned on my visit to North Ealing that the area here is very popular with the Japanese community, and that's very obvious from the collection of shops, cafés and estate agents outside the station.
But other than these, there's very little to say about the place. It's a reasonably pretty, well-kept conservation area, and I'm sure it's a lovely place to live - if you happen to be a Japanophile - but not especially interesting to visit.
So, after little more than 15 or 20 minutes here, I head on to my next stop.
***
I'm travelling the grand distance of just one stop along the Central Line from my home station of Ealing Broadway to its next-door neighbour, West Acton.
 |
| West Acton |
Yes, we've entered the 'West' zone - having previously moaned about all the 'Easts', 'Norths' and 'Souths', I'm now embarking on the final point of the compass - and the list of stations with 'West' in their name is not a short one...
...Unlike my visit to West Acton, which is very short indeed.
I've been in this area before, since North Ealing tube station is only just up the road from here, so there isn't really all that much to discover.
 |
| The local 'greasy spoon'.... |
I mentioned on my visit to North Ealing that the area here is very popular with the Japanese community, and that's very obvious from the collection of shops, cafés and estate agents outside the station.
 |
| Japanese Supermarket |
 |
| Japanese Estate Agent |
But other than these, there's very little to say about the place. It's a reasonably pretty, well-kept conservation area, and I'm sure it's a lovely place to live - if you happen to be a Japanophile - but not especially interesting to visit.
 |
| Entering the conservation area... |
 |
| Very neat... if a little dull... |
So, after little more than 15 or 20 minutes here, I head on to my next stop.
***
My next stop is Westbourne Park - a station on both the Circle Line, and the Hammersmith & City Line.
This too is a relatively quick journey - just a short hop to White City on the Central Line then a brief walk to Wood Lane to get the train to Westbourne Park. (All 'W' stations you'll notice - why, oh, why am I being so strict about this alphabetical business? I could have crossed off another couple of stations there!)
As I reach the elevated platform at Wood Lane to wait for my train north, I'm confronted with the sobering sight of one of London's most recently noted (though for the most tragic and horrific of reasons) landmarks.
The tower block whose name - Grenfell Tower - is now known to the world, has been here for years of course, and I must have seen it many times as I've journeyed from this station.
But the fire that ripped through it on the night of the 14th June this year has left such a blackened shell of a building that it stands out against the sky like a giant tomb-stone. And of course, that's pretty much what it is.
There are still many victims of the fire yet to be found and - if at all possible - identified from the a 24-storey residential block, and the causes and ramifications of the tragedy are continuing to breed anger, frustration and resentment among the survivors and their families.
Though some facts have already, it seems, been established and point to the non fire-retardant nature of the exterior cladding of the building as a main contributing factor - the enquiry into the tragedy will no doubt be a long and distressing one, and I can't think of anything to say here, which hasn't already been said many times already by other commentators far better informed than I am.
I do think, however, that there is a case - however strange it may sound - for preserving the remains of the tower exactly as they are (always assuming they can be made safe), especially if - as has been suggested - cost-cutting and poor fire safety provisions are in any way to blame.
It would certainly be a vivid reminder of the human cost of bureaucratic decisions.
***
At Westbourne Park there is, yet again, not all that much to see and do.
The A40 Westway passes overhead just to the north of the station, and a little further north the Grand Union Canal provides a little escape from the concrete and exhaust fumes of the roads above.
Similarly, a reasonably sized park next to the canal is an area where the locals - whose idea it was to build the park in the first place - to relax and enjoy themselves.
The park was built in derelict ground in the late 1970s by a group of locals fed up with the site of rubble and corrugated iron fencing, who obtained a grant from the council and set to work to transform the waste ground into the park that stands here today.
Originally the council only agreed for the area to be used as gardens 'for the meanwhile' - until they had finalised their own plans for development - but as it proved so popular, the park stayed, and the name 'Meanwhile Gardens' was adopted.
There are several youngsters making use of the skate-board area in the middle of the park, and one person who is clearly not quite so young, who I presume is teaching them the fine arts of skate-boarding. Either that or he's finding it hard to accept that he may not be as young as he used to be...
I leave the park at one of its northern exits and walk back eastwards along the canal to the main road, from which I head back to the station - after a brief but pleasant visit - and make my way onwards.
***
West Brompton is next and - once again - this is an area I've skirted the fringes of on a previous visit.
I suppose it's inevitable at this stage of the journey - which is effectively just a case of 'joining the dots' between all the stations I've previously crossed off my list.
In this case the nearby station I've already visited is Earls Court, just around the corner, and the eponymous exhibition centre I photographed on that occasion has long been demolished.
Which leaves me with the Brompton Cemetery as the main 'attraction' of this particular locale.
How very cheery...
On my way there I'm accosted by an aging Australian gentleman, who - like me - is carrying a camera, and who asks if I am part of their 'Photo Walking Group'. Apparently they're missing someone and they can't start the walk - which is going to take in the cemetery - without their lost sheep.
I'm not altogether sorry to have to disappoint him, and I take the opportunity - while he continues to look for the wayward photographer - of getting ahead of his group so as to avoid having half a dozen obtrusive photographers getting in the way of all my atmospheric graveyard shots.
The cemetery is one of the so-called 'Magnificent Seven' private (as opposed to parish church owned) cemeteries established in the 19th Century to alleviate overcrowding in the smaller graveyards. The other six are - Kensal Green, West Norwood, Highgate, Abney Park, Nunhead and Tower Hamlets.
There are over 35,000 monuments in the cemetery, ranging from simple headstones to lavish mausoleums and - if you have the time to look for them - there are several noted personages buried here, including Emmeline Pankhurst and .
I wander around for a brief time, but don't, unfortunately, have time to locate all the famous names on the gravestones.
I do marvel at the extent some people will go to show off their wealth - even after death. Some of the mausoleums and family vaults are practically buildings in their own right and must have cost a pretty packet when they were built - to the annoyance, no doubt, of the people hoping to inherit from the deceased.
Personally, I prefer some of the simpler monuments, and though I'm not generally a fan of the weeping angel motif, I do find one or two of the stone figures here rather atmospheric, tucked as they are among the greenery.
Along the road from the cemetery (and actually closer to Earls Court Station than to West Brompton) is the former home of the famous children's author, Beatrix Potter.
Or, so at least, I'm led to believe.
At first I have some trouble locating the site - despite having the exact address - thanks to the curiously confusing geography of the street in question.
Bolton Gardens (for such is the street I'm looking for) is - according to the map - a road running eastwards off the Earls Court Road.
As I turn up this from the Old Brompton Road and walk northwards, however, I cannot seem to see any street sign of that name. I pass Wetherby Mews and then Bramham Gardens and am more than a little puzzled - as Bolton Gardens should, if the map is anything to go by, be between the two.
It's only when I turn on my heels and head south again, that the mystery is (partially at least) solved.
It would appear that Bramham Gardens is only Bramham Gardens on one side of the street - on the other it is in fact the street I'm looking for; Bolton Gardens.
Of course it is. I mean, why wouldn't it be?
The fact that you only discover this if - like me - you happen to turn round and see the sign on the south side of street, as opposed to the one on the north side (which makes no mention of Bolton Gardens whatsoever) is, I suppose, just one of those quaint little idiosyncrasies that London is so fond of throwing at the unwary traveller.
Not that the fun stops there. Oh no.
Having, as I assume, found Bolton Gardens, I wander along it looking for number 2 - the erstwhile home of Ms Potter.
But the last (or first, if you prefer) house on this stretch of road is number 16.
Huh?!?!?
Aaahhhh - the numbering (and the street) goes round the corner! How could I not have suspected as much? Oh, and they go round the next corner too, so that I'm almost doubling back on myself! What fun!
In fact, the house I'm looking for no longer actually stands, but was (according to the plaque on the wall) formerly located on the site of what is nowadays a Primary School...
...which stands on the Old Brompton Road.
I give up.
***
Next it's on to what I had planned to be my final stop of the day - West Croydon.
Given how little time I've spent in each location so far, however, it may well be possible to squeeze in an extra station before the end of the day. We shall see...
West Croydon - as a quick glance at the tube map will show you - is somewhat out on a limb, geographically speaking and looks to be a long trek to get to from West Brompton.
In reality, however, there are several options for me in terms of the routes I could take.
Firstly I could take a couple of tube trains to Canada Water and then the Overground from there to West Croydon. Alternatively I could take the Overground all the way from West Brompton (though this would involve changing at Clapham Junction, and again at Surrey Quays, in order to head south).
But in the end I plump for neither of these, and in fact settle for a method of transport I've not yet used at all on this journey - the Tram.
This is largely because, being a relatively new addition to the tube map (June 2016) though not to the London transport system (May 2000) it doesn't actually appear on the copy of the map on which I'm basing my alphabetical list of stations (December 2013). And so, in the ordinary course of events, I wouldn't get to see any of the stations along its length - which is a shame (though not - I should say - enough of one to make me start my journey over to include them all) because some of them sound rather charming.
Dundonald Road, Phipps Bridge, Sandilands, Gravel Hill, Elmers End... It's as though they'd all been lifted straight from an Enid Blyton story.
Be that as it may, it seems an opportunity not to be missed, and though they're not officially on my list, I can at least give them a nod, in passing as it were, on my way to West Croydon.
The tram leaves from Wimbledon (another 'W' of course!) so I head there first from West Brompton and manage to catch a tram within a few minutes of my arrival.
It's a sedate journey over to West Croydon, and not an unpleasant one. There's just something about trams...... I've always enjoyed travelling on them in Europe (where they seem to have enjoyed uninterrupted popularity, unlike the UK, where it's only in recent years that they seem to be making a comeback). The more the merrier, I say.
West Croydon station is very close to the town centre, although this isn't particularly glowing recommendation, as the town centre isn't all that much to write home about.
I've seen many town centres on my travels, and there are - of course - several features common to all of them. The pedestrianised areas, the shopping centres, the public benches, the occasional hanging baskets on lamp-posts, the coffee shops, banks and mobile phone shops...
Nevertheless, you can usually tell whether the local council has gone to that extra bit of effort to spruce it up a bit and make it stand out - proudly - from the urban hoi polloi.... or not.
Croydon is, I'm afraid, in the latter camp.
There's nothing wrong with it per se - it's just all a bit... 'meh'.
I had perhaps been led to expect greater things, since the word 'Croydon' apparently comes from the Saxon 'croeas deanas' which means 'valley of the crocuses', and if that doesn't conjure up a rural idyll I don't know what does...
I wander southwards down the road called North End, which is a pedestrianised street between Croydon's two shopping centres - the 'Whitgift Centre' and 'Centrale'.
It's the usual collection - and clearly popular with the locals judging by the crowds of shoppers bustling around me, even on a Tuesday afternoon - but nothing very inspiring.
At the bottom end of the street is an older looking building, on which a sign tells me that it was formerly 'The Hospital Of The Holy Trinity'.
What the building is used for today, I'm not quite sure.
I'm also mildly bemused by the specificity with which it offers to help 'certain' (but presumably not all) 'maymed, poore, needie or [most amusingly to today's ears] impotent people'. I mean, how did they choose which 'certain' people to help?
Incidentally, the founder of the hospital was one John Whitgift - Archbishop of Canterbury from 1583 to his death in 1604. He taught Francis Bacon at Cambridge (before his tenure as Archbishop), and was present at Elizabeth I's deathbed and the coronation of James I. How proud he would be to know that his name is immortalised as that of a shopping centre...
Another name, on another shop, has a rather more recent and unfortunate history.
The old, family firm of the 'House Of Reeves' - a furniture store established in 1867 - would probably, like the Grenfell Tower, have remained unknown to the general British consciousness were it not for a devastating fire that destroyed one of its main buildings.
Unlike Grenfell, however, this fire was started deliberately - and took place during the rioting that hit various areas of London in August 2011, and spread to other cities in the following days.
The business had been an established part of the Croydon centre for so long that the junction it sat on was officially known as Reeves Corner.
Today the site of the building that was destroyed is a fenced-off gravelled area, planted with trees.
***
Well, it's still early enough in the day for me to squeeze in that extra station I wondered about earlier.
Not that Westferry promises much more to see or do than any of the other places I've visited.
It's on the DLR between Limehouse and Poplar stations, and is in the Limehouse district, rather than (as might be supposed) a district called Westferry. In fact it gets its name from the road it sits on - Westferry Road which (along with East Ferry Road) was one of two roads leading to the ferry which ran from the southern tip of the Isle Of Dogs.
The only 'sight' to see in the area, as far as I can tell, is a church called St Anne's, which apparently has the tallest church clock tower in London.
I put the word 'sight' in inverted commas because, unfortunately, seeing the tower is well-nigh impossible thanks to the high walls, chained gates and tall trees that surround it.
I manage to get a couple of photos through a gap in the trees by standing in the carpark of a Community Transport depot next door, but even the best of them is hardly the most awe-inspiring of pictures. (I discover later, from the church's website, that the churchyard is currently remaining under lock and key thanks to the anti-social behaviour of some local yobs - what a wonderful bunch we are sometimes...)
The clock, and indeed the church, are closely linked with the area's maritime history. The clock was designed to be seen by the ships on the river and the top of the tower carries a golden ball, which designates it as a 'Trinity House Sea Mark' as marked on Thames navigation charts.
In the carpark from which I take my photo of the church I notice a mini-bus with the unlikely looking name 'Ethel' printed across its bonnet.
Things become a little clearer when I see that, on the side of the mini-bus, is printed 'In memory of Gretchen Franklin' - though my younger readers may need a little explanation.
Gretchen Franklin was an actress who in later years played the character 'Ethel Skinner' in the soap opera 'Eastenders', appearing in its first ever episode in 1985 and off and on up to the year 2000. Having long been a generous supporter of many charities, she left - following her death in 2005 aged 94 - several legacies, including one to the St. Hilda's East Community Centre, who used it to purchase the eponymous mini-bus.
On which heart-warming note it's time to call an end to another day's travelling. More 'West' stations next time, but until then, toodle-pip!
This too is a relatively quick journey - just a short hop to White City on the Central Line then a brief walk to Wood Lane to get the train to Westbourne Park. (All 'W' stations you'll notice - why, oh, why am I being so strict about this alphabetical business? I could have crossed off another couple of stations there!)
As I reach the elevated platform at Wood Lane to wait for my train north, I'm confronted with the sobering sight of one of London's most recently noted (though for the most tragic and horrific of reasons) landmarks.
 |
| Grenfell Tower |
The tower block whose name - Grenfell Tower - is now known to the world, has been here for years of course, and I must have seen it many times as I've journeyed from this station.
 |
| Monument to the Victims |
There are still many victims of the fire yet to be found and - if at all possible - identified from the a 24-storey residential block, and the causes and ramifications of the tragedy are continuing to breed anger, frustration and resentment among the survivors and their families.
Though some facts have already, it seems, been established and point to the non fire-retardant nature of the exterior cladding of the building as a main contributing factor - the enquiry into the tragedy will no doubt be a long and distressing one, and I can't think of anything to say here, which hasn't already been said many times already by other commentators far better informed than I am.
I do think, however, that there is a case - however strange it may sound - for preserving the remains of the tower exactly as they are (always assuming they can be made safe), especially if - as has been suggested - cost-cutting and poor fire safety provisions are in any way to blame.
It would certainly be a vivid reminder of the human cost of bureaucratic decisions.
***
At Westbourne Park there is, yet again, not all that much to see and do.
 |
| Westbourne Park |
The A40 Westway passes overhead just to the north of the station, and a little further north the Grand Union Canal provides a little escape from the concrete and exhaust fumes of the roads above.
 |
| Grand Union Canal |
Similarly, a reasonably sized park next to the canal is an area where the locals - whose idea it was to build the park in the first place - to relax and enjoy themselves.
 |
| Meanwhile Gardens |
The park was built in derelict ground in the late 1970s by a group of locals fed up with the site of rubble and corrugated iron fencing, who obtained a grant from the council and set to work to transform the waste ground into the park that stands here today.
 |
| Foundation Stone |
Originally the council only agreed for the area to be used as gardens 'for the meanwhile' - until they had finalised their own plans for development - but as it proved so popular, the park stayed, and the name 'Meanwhile Gardens' was adopted.
 |
| Aren't you a little old for that...? |
There are several youngsters making use of the skate-board area in the middle of the park, and one person who is clearly not quite so young, who I presume is teaching them the fine arts of skate-boarding. Either that or he's finding it hard to accept that he may not be as young as he used to be...
 |
| Homes along the canal |
I leave the park at one of its northern exits and walk back eastwards along the canal to the main road, from which I head back to the station - after a brief but pleasant visit - and make my way onwards.
***
West Brompton is next and - once again - this is an area I've skirted the fringes of on a previous visit.
 |
| West Brompton |
I suppose it's inevitable at this stage of the journey - which is effectively just a case of 'joining the dots' between all the stations I've previously crossed off my list.
In this case the nearby station I've already visited is Earls Court, just around the corner, and the eponymous exhibition centre I photographed on that occasion has long been demolished.
Which leaves me with the Brompton Cemetery as the main 'attraction' of this particular locale.
How very cheery...
On my way there I'm accosted by an aging Australian gentleman, who - like me - is carrying a camera, and who asks if I am part of their 'Photo Walking Group'. Apparently they're missing someone and they can't start the walk - which is going to take in the cemetery - without their lost sheep.
I'm not altogether sorry to have to disappoint him, and I take the opportunity - while he continues to look for the wayward photographer - of getting ahead of his group so as to avoid having half a dozen obtrusive photographers getting in the way of all my atmospheric graveyard shots.
 |
| Brompton Cemetery |
The cemetery is one of the so-called 'Magnificent Seven' private (as opposed to parish church owned) cemeteries established in the 19th Century to alleviate overcrowding in the smaller graveyards. The other six are - Kensal Green, West Norwood, Highgate, Abney Park, Nunhead and Tower Hamlets.
 |
| Some of the 35,000 monuments |
There are over 35,000 monuments in the cemetery, ranging from simple headstones to lavish mausoleums and - if you have the time to look for them - there are several noted personages buried here, including Emmeline Pankhurst and .
 |
| R.I.P. |
I wander around for a brief time, but don't, unfortunately, have time to locate all the famous names on the gravestones.
I do marvel at the extent some people will go to show off their wealth - even after death. Some of the mausoleums and family vaults are practically buildings in their own right and must have cost a pretty packet when they were built - to the annoyance, no doubt, of the people hoping to inherit from the deceased.
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| Impressed?.... Me neither. |
Personally, I prefer some of the simpler monuments, and though I'm not generally a fan of the weeping angel motif, I do find one or two of the stone figures here rather atmospheric, tucked as they are among the greenery.
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| Simple and Serene. |
Along the road from the cemetery (and actually closer to Earls Court Station than to West Brompton) is the former home of the famous children's author, Beatrix Potter.
Or, so at least, I'm led to believe.
At first I have some trouble locating the site - despite having the exact address - thanks to the curiously confusing geography of the street in question.
Bolton Gardens (for such is the street I'm looking for) is - according to the map - a road running eastwards off the Earls Court Road.
As I turn up this from the Old Brompton Road and walk northwards, however, I cannot seem to see any street sign of that name. I pass Wetherby Mews and then Bramham Gardens and am more than a little puzzled - as Bolton Gardens should, if the map is anything to go by, be between the two.
It's only when I turn on my heels and head south again, that the mystery is (partially at least) solved.
It would appear that Bramham Gardens is only Bramham Gardens on one side of the street - on the other it is in fact the street I'm looking for; Bolton Gardens.
 |
| Ah, so that's where you've hidden it... |
Of course it is. I mean, why wouldn't it be?
The fact that you only discover this if - like me - you happen to turn round and see the sign on the south side of street, as opposed to the one on the north side (which makes no mention of Bolton Gardens whatsoever) is, I suppose, just one of those quaint little idiosyncrasies that London is so fond of throwing at the unwary traveller.
Not that the fun stops there. Oh no.
Having, as I assume, found Bolton Gardens, I wander along it looking for number 2 - the erstwhile home of Ms Potter.
But the last (or first, if you prefer) house on this stretch of road is number 16.
Huh?!?!?
Aaahhhh - the numbering (and the street) goes round the corner! How could I not have suspected as much? Oh, and they go round the next corner too, so that I'm almost doubling back on myself! What fun!
 |
| Did she, did she really... well bully for her... |
In fact, the house I'm looking for no longer actually stands, but was (according to the plaque on the wall) formerly located on the site of what is nowadays a Primary School...
...which stands on the Old Brompton Road.
I give up.
***
Next it's on to what I had planned to be my final stop of the day - West Croydon.
Given how little time I've spent in each location so far, however, it may well be possible to squeeze in an extra station before the end of the day. We shall see...
West Croydon - as a quick glance at the tube map will show you - is somewhat out on a limb, geographically speaking and looks to be a long trek to get to from West Brompton.
In reality, however, there are several options for me in terms of the routes I could take.
Firstly I could take a couple of tube trains to Canada Water and then the Overground from there to West Croydon. Alternatively I could take the Overground all the way from West Brompton (though this would involve changing at Clapham Junction, and again at Surrey Quays, in order to head south).
But in the end I plump for neither of these, and in fact settle for a method of transport I've not yet used at all on this journey - the Tram.
This is largely because, being a relatively new addition to the tube map (June 2016) though not to the London transport system (May 2000) it doesn't actually appear on the copy of the map on which I'm basing my alphabetical list of stations (December 2013). And so, in the ordinary course of events, I wouldn't get to see any of the stations along its length - which is a shame (though not - I should say - enough of one to make me start my journey over to include them all) because some of them sound rather charming.
Dundonald Road, Phipps Bridge, Sandilands, Gravel Hill, Elmers End... It's as though they'd all been lifted straight from an Enid Blyton story.
Be that as it may, it seems an opportunity not to be missed, and though they're not officially on my list, I can at least give them a nod, in passing as it were, on my way to West Croydon.
The tram leaves from Wimbledon (another 'W' of course!) so I head there first from West Brompton and manage to catch a tram within a few minutes of my arrival.
It's a sedate journey over to West Croydon, and not an unpleasant one. There's just something about trams...... I've always enjoyed travelling on them in Europe (where they seem to have enjoyed uninterrupted popularity, unlike the UK, where it's only in recent years that they seem to be making a comeback). The more the merrier, I say.
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| West Croydon |
West Croydon station is very close to the town centre, although this isn't particularly glowing recommendation, as the town centre isn't all that much to write home about.
I've seen many town centres on my travels, and there are - of course - several features common to all of them. The pedestrianised areas, the shopping centres, the public benches, the occasional hanging baskets on lamp-posts, the coffee shops, banks and mobile phone shops...
Nevertheless, you can usually tell whether the local council has gone to that extra bit of effort to spruce it up a bit and make it stand out - proudly - from the urban hoi polloi.... or not.
Croydon is, I'm afraid, in the latter camp.
 |
| A Tale Of Two Shopping Centres |
I had perhaps been led to expect greater things, since the word 'Croydon' apparently comes from the Saxon 'croeas deanas' which means 'valley of the crocuses', and if that doesn't conjure up a rural idyll I don't know what does...
I wander southwards down the road called North End, which is a pedestrianised street between Croydon's two shopping centres - the 'Whitgift Centre' and 'Centrale'.
It's the usual collection - and clearly popular with the locals judging by the crowds of shoppers bustling around me, even on a Tuesday afternoon - but nothing very inspiring.
At the bottom end of the street is an older looking building, on which a sign tells me that it was formerly 'The Hospital Of The Holy Trinity'.
 |
| The Hospital Of The Holy Trinity |
What the building is used for today, I'm not quite sure.
I'm also mildly bemused by the specificity with which it offers to help 'certain' (but presumably not all) 'maymed, poore, needie or [most amusingly to today's ears] impotent people'. I mean, how did they choose which 'certain' people to help?
 |
| The history of the Hospital |
Another name, on another shop, has a rather more recent and unfortunate history.
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| House Of Reeves at Reeves Corner |
The old, family firm of the 'House Of Reeves' - a furniture store established in 1867 - would probably, like the Grenfell Tower, have remained unknown to the general British consciousness were it not for a devastating fire that destroyed one of its main buildings.
Unlike Grenfell, however, this fire was started deliberately - and took place during the rioting that hit various areas of London in August 2011, and spread to other cities in the following days.
The business had been an established part of the Croydon centre for so long that the junction it sat on was officially known as Reeves Corner.
Today the site of the building that was destroyed is a fenced-off gravelled area, planted with trees.
 |
| Reeves Corner |
***
Well, it's still early enough in the day for me to squeeze in that extra station I wondered about earlier.
 |
| Westferry |
Not that Westferry promises much more to see or do than any of the other places I've visited.
It's on the DLR between Limehouse and Poplar stations, and is in the Limehouse district, rather than (as might be supposed) a district called Westferry. In fact it gets its name from the road it sits on - Westferry Road which (along with East Ferry Road) was one of two roads leading to the ferry which ran from the southern tip of the Isle Of Dogs.
 |
| Westferry Road |
The only 'sight' to see in the area, as far as I can tell, is a church called St Anne's, which apparently has the tallest church clock tower in London.
I put the word 'sight' in inverted commas because, unfortunately, seeing the tower is well-nigh impossible thanks to the high walls, chained gates and tall trees that surround it.
I manage to get a couple of photos through a gap in the trees by standing in the carpark of a Community Transport depot next door, but even the best of them is hardly the most awe-inspiring of pictures. (I discover later, from the church's website, that the churchyard is currently remaining under lock and key thanks to the anti-social behaviour of some local yobs - what a wonderful bunch we are sometimes...)
 |
| St Anne's Church Tower. |
The clock, and indeed the church, are closely linked with the area's maritime history. The clock was designed to be seen by the ships on the river and the top of the tower carries a golden ball, which designates it as a 'Trinity House Sea Mark' as marked on Thames navigation charts.
In the carpark from which I take my photo of the church I notice a mini-bus with the unlikely looking name 'Ethel' printed across its bonnet.
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| 'Ethel' the Mini-bus |
Things become a little clearer when I see that, on the side of the mini-bus, is printed 'In memory of Gretchen Franklin' - though my younger readers may need a little explanation.
Gretchen Franklin was an actress who in later years played the character 'Ethel Skinner' in the soap opera 'Eastenders', appearing in its first ever episode in 1985 and off and on up to the year 2000. Having long been a generous supporter of many charities, she left - following her death in 2005 aged 94 - several legacies, including one to the St. Hilda's East Community Centre, who used it to purchase the eponymous mini-bus.
On which heart-warming note it's time to call an end to another day's travelling. More 'West' stations next time, but until then, toodle-pip!
