Day 46
High Street Kensington - Hillingdon - Holborn
Hello you...
It's been a while hasn't it? Over a month in fact, since my last post.
Back in the heady days of the E.A.E. (Early Alphabetic Era) when Man first set out on his tube travelling adventures (well - one man did, at any rate) and everything seemed not only possible, but very much a piece of easily digestible cake, I had thought (foolishly) that this journey might take me a year or so to complete.
I'd started off, full of enthusiasm, by heading out two or three times a week, and was crossing off the stations with a gratifying rapidity.
Then I realised that this wasn't really sustainable - there wasn't time to visit everywhere, come home, edit the photos, write up the blog and research the next trip more than once a week, without seriously rushing things. I felt I was perhaps missing out on some of the more interesting and unusual sights and sounds at each station, in my haste to be moving on to the next one.
So I settled into a more leisurely pace - one day a week, with occasional time off for holidays and the like.
Of course, in the amusing way it often does however, Life began to throw one or two banana skins onto my path and there have been periods when you've had nary a word from me for weeks on end.
It's not that I've lost any enthusiasm for the project. It's just that it does seem to take more time than I'd originally bargained for, and there are occasions, unfortunately, when other things have to take priority.
However, let's not get despondent. I'm here now - and with profound apologies for the delay, all I can offer is my assurance that it is my firm intention - however long it may take - to complete this challenge sooner or (more probably) later.
***
And with that, let's set off again.
I'm heading first to High Street Kensington.
The station, not surprisingly, sits on Kensington High Street (why the word Kensington has been demoted to the end of the name on the tube map, I have no idea) and is contained within a shopping mall called Kensington Arcade.
Shopping is very much a feature of this area, with many famous names lining the street and even more famous names sadly lost to the annals of history.
The two most famous of these were Barkers Of Kensington (started in 1870) and Derry & Toms (founded in 1862) and the original grandeur of the two department store buildings (now housing a Whole Foods Market and a Marks & Spencer, respectively) is still plain to see.
Barkers actually purchased Derry & Toms in 1920, and both companies eventually became part of House Of Fraser.
The Derry & Toms building is most well-known these days as the location of the Kensington Roof Gardens - one of the largest roof gardens in Europe, and began as a means of raising charitable funds for local hospitals via the 1s entrance fee, which entitled visitors to take in the Spanish, Tudor and English Country Gardens, as well as the Clubhouse and of course, spectacular views.
These days the gardens are more often hired out for exclusive private functions. I know this because when I turned up at the ground floor entrance hoping to get a few photos from the rooftop, I was informed that there was a private party taking place and would have to come back another day.
It really does seem to be becoming a feature of this journey that museums and landmarks turn out to be closed at precisely the time I want to visit them...
I have to content myself with a miniscule glimpse of a couple of treetops from the street opposite the building, and then a quick wander up and down the High Street.
The shops aren't enough to interest me for long, however, and I decide to head on to the next stop - catching the tube to Earl's Court, and from there out on the Piccadilly Line to Hillingdon.
***
Now, if you happen to have gone for a spin in the old Jalopy, out to the Cotswolds for instance, and are now making your weary way back to the Big Smoke along the M40 (or A40 as it becomes closer to town) then one of the early indications that you're finally approaching the Capital is the sight of several huge London Underground 'Roundel' logos dominating the motorway from the towering red brick wall between it and the tube station that stands next to it.
This is Hillingdon.
The roundels seem to be (and I'm more than happy for someone to correct me if I'm wrong about this) unique on the Underground system, and I'm not sure I entirely see the point of them.
Anyone on the motorway (by whom, presumably, the roundels intended to be viewed) travelling past them at the statutory speed limit, will have just enough time to register that there might be a tube station somewhere nearby (though not which one, as there is no station name visible from the road) before they have whizzed past. At which point the moment when they could safely stop and take advantage of the trains passing through the station will be long gone. This, coupled with the fact that they are in a car, and therefore seem to have the whole transport thing pretty much sorted out, seems to suggest that whoever decided on putting the roundels up hadn't really thought things through.
Unless, to go back to my introduction to this station, they are merely intended as an indication that you are approaching the Capital - the home of the Underground. Are they simply a way to make you feel a bit more London-y?
Whatever the reason they're there, they are sadly the most interesting thing about the station and its environs.
The actor James Corden was born here, if that's of any interest to you, and there are a few shops to the south (along a road called Long Lane) but they don't have either the history or the attraction of the more upmarket ones in Kensington. Not surprising perhaps - being in a suburb and on top of a motorway is hardly the most tourist-friendly environment.
Still, I'm always a little disappointed when I find myself leaving a place barely fifteen minutes after my arrival, which unfortunately is exactly what I do today.
***
And so to my final stop of the day.
It's back into town on the Piccadilly Line, stopping at Holborn.
As well as being a tube station, Holborn (pronounced "Hoe-buhn" rather than "Holl-" or "Hole-buhn", just so you know) is also a street, and an area of London. The street called Holborn is actually some distance to the east of the station, beyond Chancery Lane, while the station sits on the busy junction of High Holborn and Kingsway.
Since I visited the part of Holborn which lies beyond Chancery Lane tube station some time ago during the Cs, I decide today to head in the opposite direction and explore a little to the north and west.
I head briefly north therefore, up Southampton Row, before nipping off westwards down a delightful little pedestrianized street called Sicilian Avenue.
Though it looks older than it is (it was completed in 1910) it definitely gives the feeling of an Italianate promenade, although it has to be said that this does rely on the sun being out - as, luckily, it is today.
There are a smattering of people enjoying a coffee or a meal outside the various restaurants that line the street, and at the other end is Bloomsbury Square and its gardens - also full of people enjoying the sun.
I'm heading in the general direction of The British Museum, the 'Big Daddy' of the museums in this area (of which there are many). In fact, the stretch between Euston Road to the north, and The Strand to the south is now known as Museum Mile thanks to the number of museums dotted along the route.
I won't actually be going into the British Musem on this occasion - partly because we're currently in the School Summer Holidays, and the place is likely to be swarming with bored kids being dragged around by their desperate parents in an attempt to stave off the inevitable "Mum - I'm bored......", and partly because I prefer to take you off the beaten track a little - and there are one or two other museums nearby that I feel might be more to our fancy.
The first of these - The Museum of Comedy, on Bloomsbury Way - is, typically, shut when I arrive. For some weird reason (perhaps an attempt at comedy?) it only opens in the evenings - when most people have gone home - so I'm unable to experience the 'iconic props and artefacts from our rich comedic history' exhibited within.
Trudging on, around a couple of corners onto Little Russell Street, I find the next museum on my quest is, thankfully, open for business.
This is the Cartoon Museum.
I've always had a penchant for cartoons - from reading the Beano and watching Tom & Jerry as a kid, enjoying the puerile filth in Viz as a teenager, and finally appreciating the ascerbic wit and political acumen of the cartoons in my daily newspaper, so I happily pay my £7 to get in and have a look round.
The events at the offices of French magazine Charlie Hebdo in January are brought to mind as I wander around the exhibits, and spot a cartoon that responds to the attacks in typically robust fashion.
I won't go into politics here - but I do feel that the right to Free Speech is one we should defend at all costs.
Further around the museum is an exhibition dedicated to Alice In Wonderland, though not restricted to the Lewis Carroll original by any means. There are politicians represented as Tweedledum and Tweedle Dee, for example, and satirical commentary using the White Rabbit, Red Queen, 'Eat Me' label, and many other episodes from the story. And, of course, Mr Disney gets a mention too...
I head back outside (passing a cheery 'Andy Capp' on my way) and decide that that's probably enough for one day.
I'm still many stations from the end of the H section - which for some reason seems interminable - and hundreds away from the end of the whole journey. But as I said at the beginning - I will finish this! One day.....
It's been a while hasn't it? Over a month in fact, since my last post.
Back in the heady days of the E.A.E. (Early Alphabetic Era) when Man first set out on his tube travelling adventures (well - one man did, at any rate) and everything seemed not only possible, but very much a piece of easily digestible cake, I had thought (foolishly) that this journey might take me a year or so to complete.
I'd started off, full of enthusiasm, by heading out two or three times a week, and was crossing off the stations with a gratifying rapidity.
Then I realised that this wasn't really sustainable - there wasn't time to visit everywhere, come home, edit the photos, write up the blog and research the next trip more than once a week, without seriously rushing things. I felt I was perhaps missing out on some of the more interesting and unusual sights and sounds at each station, in my haste to be moving on to the next one.
So I settled into a more leisurely pace - one day a week, with occasional time off for holidays and the like.
Of course, in the amusing way it often does however, Life began to throw one or two banana skins onto my path and there have been periods when you've had nary a word from me for weeks on end.
It's not that I've lost any enthusiasm for the project. It's just that it does seem to take more time than I'd originally bargained for, and there are occasions, unfortunately, when other things have to take priority.
However, let's not get despondent. I'm here now - and with profound apologies for the delay, all I can offer is my assurance that it is my firm intention - however long it may take - to complete this challenge sooner or (more probably) later.
***
And with that, let's set off again.
I'm heading first to High Street Kensington.
 |
| High Street Kensington |
Shopping is very much a feature of this area, with many famous names lining the street and even more famous names sadly lost to the annals of history.
 |
| Barker Of Kensington (Now Whole Foods Market) |
 |
| Derry & Toms (Now M&S) |
Barkers actually purchased Derry & Toms in 1920, and both companies eventually became part of House Of Fraser.
The Derry & Toms building is most well-known these days as the location of the Kensington Roof Gardens - one of the largest roof gardens in Europe, and began as a means of raising charitable funds for local hospitals via the 1s entrance fee, which entitled visitors to take in the Spanish, Tudor and English Country Gardens, as well as the Clubhouse and of course, spectacular views.
These days the gardens are more often hired out for exclusive private functions. I know this because when I turned up at the ground floor entrance hoping to get a few photos from the rooftop, I was informed that there was a private party taking place and would have to come back another day.
It really does seem to be becoming a feature of this journey that museums and landmarks turn out to be closed at precisely the time I want to visit them...
 |
| Kensington Rood Gardens (or as much of them as you can see from street level) |
 |
| View along the High Street |
***
Now, if you happen to have gone for a spin in the old Jalopy, out to the Cotswolds for instance, and are now making your weary way back to the Big Smoke along the M40 (or A40 as it becomes closer to town) then one of the early indications that you're finally approaching the Capital is the sight of several huge London Underground 'Roundel' logos dominating the motorway from the towering red brick wall between it and the tube station that stands next to it.
 |
| Hillingdon |
 |
| Roundels on the Motorway |
Anyone on the motorway (by whom, presumably, the roundels intended to be viewed) travelling past them at the statutory speed limit, will have just enough time to register that there might be a tube station somewhere nearby (though not which one, as there is no station name visible from the road) before they have whizzed past. At which point the moment when they could safely stop and take advantage of the trains passing through the station will be long gone. This, coupled with the fact that they are in a car, and therefore seem to have the whole transport thing pretty much sorted out, seems to suggest that whoever decided on putting the roundels up hadn't really thought things through.
Unless, to go back to my introduction to this station, they are merely intended as an indication that you are approaching the Capital - the home of the Underground. Are they simply a way to make you feel a bit more London-y?
Whatever the reason they're there, they are sadly the most interesting thing about the station and its environs.
The actor James Corden was born here, if that's of any interest to you, and there are a few shops to the south (along a road called Long Lane) but they don't have either the history or the attraction of the more upmarket ones in Kensington. Not surprising perhaps - being in a suburb and on top of a motorway is hardly the most tourist-friendly environment.
Still, I'm always a little disappointed when I find myself leaving a place barely fifteen minutes after my arrival, which unfortunately is exactly what I do today.
***
And so to my final stop of the day.
It's back into town on the Piccadilly Line, stopping at Holborn.
 |
| Holborn |
 |
| The junction of High Holborn and Kingsway (looking south) |
I head briefly north therefore, up Southampton Row, before nipping off westwards down a delightful little pedestrianized street called Sicilian Avenue.
 |
| Entrance to Sicilian Avenue |
 |
| Sicilian Avenue |
There are a smattering of people enjoying a coffee or a meal outside the various restaurants that line the street, and at the other end is Bloomsbury Square and its gardens - also full of people enjoying the sun.
I'm heading in the general direction of The British Museum, the 'Big Daddy' of the museums in this area (of which there are many). In fact, the stretch between Euston Road to the north, and The Strand to the south is now known as Museum Mile thanks to the number of museums dotted along the route.
I won't actually be going into the British Musem on this occasion - partly because we're currently in the School Summer Holidays, and the place is likely to be swarming with bored kids being dragged around by their desperate parents in an attempt to stave off the inevitable "Mum - I'm bored......", and partly because I prefer to take you off the beaten track a little - and there are one or two other museums nearby that I feel might be more to our fancy.
 |
| Museum Of Comedy (Ha ha - very funny...) |
The first of these - The Museum of Comedy, on Bloomsbury Way - is, typically, shut when I arrive. For some weird reason (perhaps an attempt at comedy?) it only opens in the evenings - when most people have gone home - so I'm unable to experience the 'iconic props and artefacts from our rich comedic history' exhibited within.
Trudging on, around a couple of corners onto Little Russell Street, I find the next museum on my quest is, thankfully, open for business.
This is the Cartoon Museum.
 |
| Cartoon Museum |
 |
| Note the Charlie Hebdo cartoon - top right of the picture. |
I won't go into politics here - but I do feel that the right to Free Speech is one we should defend at all costs.
Further around the museum is an exhibition dedicated to Alice In Wonderland, though not restricted to the Lewis Carroll original by any means. There are politicians represented as Tweedledum and Tweedle Dee, for example, and satirical commentary using the White Rabbit, Red Queen, 'Eat Me' label, and many other episodes from the story. And, of course, Mr Disney gets a mention too...
 |
| Alice - the Disney version |
I'm still many stations from the end of the H section - which for some reason seems interminable - and hundreds away from the end of the whole journey. But as I said at the beginning - I will finish this! One day.....
