'Broken Stones'

Day 87

 

Tottenham Hale - Totteridge & Whetstone - Tower Gateway - Tower Hill

 

A sunnier, if still slightly chilly, start to the day this morning. The forecast is for rain either side of today, so this looks like being my best opportunity to go out Wombling this week.

 

Which is all to the good, as today I'll be visiting one of the oldest and best known landmarks of the Capital, and I'd like to get some decent photos if I can.

 

Before that though, I'm heading to two rather less well-known corners of London.

First up (and 'up' is very much the appropriate word, as I'm heading very much north for my first two stops) is Tottenham Hale, which is almost at the very northern end of the Victoria Line.

 

Tottenham Hale

It is, of course, in the borough of Tottenham, and lies to the south of that area. The 'Hale' part of the name refers to the 'haling' (hoisting or pulling) of goods from the nearby River Lea. To the north are the Tottenham Marshes, and to the east are several large reservoirs, which are collectively known as the Walthamstow Reservoirs.

The area immediately surrounding the station is - unfortunately - not much to write home about. For a start the station itself is undergoing a major refurbishment, so is covered in scaffolding and construction hoardings. In addition though, the area is largely taken up with a huge retail park - with its Pizza Huts, B&Qs, Carphone Warehouses and the like. Other than that, it's mainly tower blocks.

So rather than hang around outside the station I head to the River Lea, where I can at least enjoy the sight of the narrow-boats moored along the riverside.

Tottenham Lock and the River Lea

On the whole it's a pleasant scene - despite the pylons in the distance - and I take a few more snaps of both the boats and the local wildlife before heading back towards the station.

River Lea, looking south

It's a tough life...

On my way there I pass one of the many collections of tower blocks.

'Hale Village'

This one is - I believe - mainly student accommodation, which might be why they've gone to a bit of an effort to make it look a little more decorative. I think, however, that calling it a 'village' is pushing it a bit - it's certainly not a patch on Theydon Bois, the last (proper) village I saw when I was out last week.

In a final effort to find something a little more picturesque, I head north of the station to the local park - 'Down Lane Park'.

Down Lane Park

This too though is a fairly run-of-the-mill affair. In fact, everything - including the riverside narrow-boats - is just a little on the tired-looking side. It's a shame because I think it could all be so much better, though I suspect that would take a financial commitment greater than most local councils are willing to contemplate.

On to my next stop I think...

***
From the top of the Victoria Line to the top of the Northern Line next - Totteridge & Whetstone.

Totteridge & Whetstone

And here there's definitely more that could be described as 'picturesque'. This feels very much like some of the other more rural places I've visited - the 'village' feel definitely in evidence.

In fact, as the name suggests, Totteridge & Whetstone station actually serves a combination of two places, which are next door to each other. The Totteridge area is to the west of the station itself, which technically lies within the Whetstone area, to the east.

And it's Whetstone which seems to offer the most interest for my purposes.

My first port of call is a pub called 'The Griffin' - built in the 1920s, although there has been an inn of sorts on the same site for several centuries.

The Griffin

The reason for my interest isn't the obvious attractions of the pub itself, but for what sits - unobtrusively - in front of it, between a couple of short metal posts.

The Whetstone

This is - according to local lore - the 'whetstone' after which the place is named. A whetstone is the stone used to sharpen knives and other tools, and the chunk of stone outside the pub is, presumably, one that was used by the locals in centuries gone by to keep their cutlery in pristine order.



High Road

The pub is on the High Road, and as I stroll along this street I enjoy a rather more attractive line of shops than I was ever likely to find in Tottenham Hale (I mean, anywhere with a Waitrose has - by definition - got to have a certain class, doesn't it?)

After picking up a sandwich (from Waitrose naturally) for lunch, I head westwards towards (but not actually into) Totteridge. I'm going to have a quick look at the long stretch of green parkland I've seen on the map - just to the west of the station and marking the dividing line between the two neighbouring villages.

Dollis Valley Greenwalk route map

It follows the path of Dollis Brook - a tributary of the River Brent - and is made up of several different smaller parks. A footpath called the Dollis Valley Greenwalk takes you through them all, and I take a short stroll along part of it heading northwards.

The 'Greenwalk' footpath, living up to its name

It's a pleasant spot, though perhaps a little unvaried in its scenery, and it's a nice way to end my visit to this part of town. But now it's on to my final two stations of the day.

***
The next two stations are pretty much next door to each other and both serve on of London's major attractions - the Tower Of London.

Tower Gateway - a DLR station - comes first alphabetically, though I've actually arrived in the area at Tower Hill, on the Circle Line. I therefore adopt my usual practice in these situations and pretend I haven't seen Tower Hill as I emerge from its entrance, and nip quickly round the corner to take my photo of its neighbour, the rather unusually shaped Tower Gateway.

Tower Gateway

I've been unable to find any explanation for the large dome covering the entrance to the escalator up to the usual elevated DLR platforms. Obviously it offers some protection from the weather - though not much of an extension of that over the escalators - but it seems inordinately large and ostentatious.

In any case, the stations themselves are the least interesting sights I'm going to see in this part of town, so I leave the puzzle of Tower Gateway behind me and make my way back to Tower Hill station.

Between the two stations, and rather dwarfed by the backdrop of the Tower of London, is a short section of what remains of the London Wall.

London Wall, with the Tower in the background

It's sometimes easy to forget that London was once a walled city  - like York, Canterbury, Winchester and so on. But, while those places have substantially kept their protective battlements, London's wall has all but disappeared in the relentless expansion form its historical centre over the centuries, and only a few small sections of broken stonework remain.

Tower Hill

Before I visit the Tower itself, and having stopped briefly to take a photo of Tower Hill station, I head to a small enclosed garden area, complete with park benches and neatly trimmed hedges, which is called Trinity Square Gardens.

This is the original "Tower Hill", from which the station takes its name. It is also - despite its current cultivated and well-ordered appearance - the site of the scaffold on which the majority of the Tower's erstwhile 'guests' met their gory end. Among those who lost their heads here are such well-known names as Thomas Cromwell, Thomas More, George (brother of Anne) Boleyn and various members of the nobility and clergy who had been deemed traitors.

Site of Public Executions

A small memorial marks the spot where the scaffold stood, though this goes largely ignored by the business-suited office-workers having their lunch in the gardens around it.

As well as the site of the public executions, the Gardens also contain a large war memorial - the Tower Hill Memorial - which is dedicated to those who lost their lives at sea, and therefore have 'no grave but the sea'.

Tower Hill Memorial

It's a memorial of two halves - the above 'vault' is actually the memorial to those who died in the First World War, while behind it is a sunken garden - the memorial to the dead of WWII.

And so, at last, it's time to enter the Tower of London itself.

I've probably made this comment before, but it's all too easy, despite (or possibly as a result of) living in London, to see many of the city's landmarks as being "for the tourists" and somehow never to get round to visiting them yourself.

Such is the case with me and the Tower of London. I've passed by it, seen it, read about it - all many times - but I've never actually paid the entrance fee and gone inside its formidable thick stone walls.

Until today of course.

Outer walls of the Tower

I'm not going to regurgitate the official Guide Book for you, as this is one of those places that - having finally seen it for myself - I now urge you (with apologies for the hypocrisy) to make the effort and visit for yourselves.

However, as I spend the next two hours or so both being guided by one of the Yeoman Warders ('Beefeaters') and then wandering around on my own, I take lots of photos which I hope will give you a feel for the place, and what you can see there. I'll also drop in a few nuggets of historical trivia here and there to whet your appetite.

A Yeoman Warder...

As I mentioned, the first hour or so of my visit is spent in the company of one of the many Yeoman Warders - more commonly known as 'Beefeaters' - who takes a large group on a guided tour of the main sights of the tower.



We start at the outer walls of the Tower, and are given a potted history of the growth of the fortress.




The Tower was originally built by William the Conqueror and  has grown over several centuries from its original construction - which consisted of the central 'White Tower', surrounded by a wall of battlements.



...enjoying her work

Two further outer walls were added between 1200 and 1300, surrounded by a moat that was initially enlarged over time, and then eventually filled in (to eradicate the stench from the sewage that had settled in it over the years).



Various sculptures of archers are dotted around the battlements

The main entrance into the Tower is in the same place now as it has been for centuries, though these days the arrow-slits are more likely to contain CCTV cameras than the watchful eye of trained archers. There are a few sculptured figures positioned around the walls, which give an impression of how the place would have been defended in the past.

Between the outermost wall and the next one in is a 'street' called the Outer Ward. this encircles the inner walls and is provides a secondary defence. It is here that the famous 'Traitor's Gate' is to be found - the gate through which the accused would be brought, having travelled to the Tower by boat along the Thames.

Traitor's Gate

Of potential amusement to American visitors is the fact that this gate - synonymous with treachery and betrayal - used to be called the 'Watergate'...

Another piece of trivia is that the phrase 'one for the road', meaning a final drink of the evening, originated here. As the condemned left the main entrance of the Tower, on their way up to Tower Hill, they passed an inn, built into the walls. The innkeeper would always offer the prisoner a tankard of ale - 'one for the road' - which would be their last drink on earth. On one occasion, a prisoner was so convinced he would get a reprieve from the King, and so incensed that this had not arrived in time to save him, that he petulantly refused the proffered tankard and was taken to the scaffold immediately.

Had he paused to drink with the innkeeper, the reprieve - which had indeed been sent - would have arrived in time to save him. The moral, of course, is that it's always worth having just one more drink...

There are several towers built into the various walls surrounding the central tower, and most of these have their own names.

Bloody Tower, with original portcullis

I now pass through the gateway of the 'Bloody Tower' into the Inner Ward, where the White Tower is situated.



White Tower

The White Tower is on a raised mound, and was William the Conqueror's original fortress.

Would you leave
if you could....?

These days the mound is home to the famous Tower of London ravens - of whom legend has it that if they ever leave the tower 'the kingdom will fall'.

How the presence or absence of a half dozen black birds can affect the fate of a nation is anyone's guess, but since the current birds are all housed in their own aviary (when not out on the lawns) and have had their flight feathers clipped, they don't really have much say in the matter.







At the top of the mound, behind the White Tower, are the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula and the Waterloo Barracks, in which the Crown Jewels are kept in the Jewel Room.

The former is a working chapel, as well as being the last resting place of the bodies (if not the heads) of the victims of the axe. These include Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard and Lady Jane Grey - all three executed on Henry VIII's orders.

Being of higher status than other 'traitors' these three were all executed within the Inner Ward, in private, rather than in public on Tower Hill - and a memorial now stands in front of the chapel on 'Tower Green'.

Execution Site Memorial

The inscription reads:
"Gentle visitor pause awhile · where you stand death cut away the light of many days · here jewelled names were broken from the vivid thread of life · may they rest in peace while we walk the generations around their strife and courage · under these restless skies"

I now pass into the Waterloo Barracks and to the Jewel Room. I'm not allowed to take photos of the Crown Jewels, for reasons that are not really made clear, but they are - of course - spectacular.







Also dotted around the various nooks and crannies of the Tower are several wire sculptures of wild animals. these are representations of the menagerie that used to reside here, made up of the exotic gifts from foreign Kings and Queens to the monarch of the day.

Are you looking at me?

The menagerie lasted well into the 19th century and included lions, bears, an elephant, wolves, monkeys and various birds of prey.

As I said earlier - I urge you to visit the Tower yourself, as there's far more here than I can possibly cover in this short blog.

Here are a few more of my photos for you to peruse, after which I'll re-join you as I take my leave of the Tower and have a look at the other major landmark of this part of town...



Guards outside the Waterloo Barracks

Armoury inside the White Tower

A selection of weaponry



A fake soldier...

...and another one



Stained Glass

Ravens 'not leaving' the Tower

White Tower seen from the Riverside

The Tower of London is, of course, one of London's foremost attractions, but perhaps a more iconic (in the sense of being an instantly recognisable image) landmark is just to the south of it - spanning the Thames between Tower Hamlets and Southwark.

Tower Bridge

Tower Bridge is named, not for its proximity to the Tower of London, but because of the two towers that contain the hydraulic winding mechanism that allows the central sections of the bridge to be raised out of the path of tall ships passing along the river.

It's possible to visit these two towers and the walkway that joins them high above the road bridge below. But like the Tower of London, this has so far not been something I've ever got around to doing - despite living in London for nearly thirty years.

And I'm afraid I'm not going to be doing it today either - as it's been a long old day and I need to get home and start writing up this post for your delight and edification.

But who knows, one day I might just get around to it...

'Empty Spaces'

Day 86

 

Temple - Theydon Bois - Tooting Bec - Tooting Broadway - Tottenham Court Road

 

So here we go - another letter of the alphabet gets under way!

Before I get into the day's travelling, however, I'm going to share something with you which - though a bit geeky - gave me a bit of a frisson of excitement when I put it together.

In order to keep track of my progress, I've naturally had all of the stations written on a list (alphabetically as they appear on the back of the pocket tube maps) and have been ticking them off one by one as I visit them.

So far so obvious - but in addition, to give me a more visual representation of how I'm doing, I recently decided to create an electronic version of the map, and to blank out all the stations I've visited (including today's).

And here it is...

That's a lot of London I've already crossed off!

Wow.

That's a lot emptier than when I started, and looking far more do-able!

I'm particularly pleased to see that there are whole sections or branches of the network that have no more stations left to visit on them. So, for example, I don't need to go back to the Heathrow branch of the Piccadilly Line, the Richmond branch of the District line, the Edgware branch of the Northern, or the Beckton branch of the DLR. There's definitely a sense of achievement at seeing long stretches of lines entirely bereft of stations.

There are now more empty sections of the map than there are full ones, and in fact some lines are very close to being completely finished. There are only four stations left on the whole Bakerloo line, for example, and only one on the Waterloo and City line!

You know I think I might just be able to do this...

***
Today we start off with a bit of historic London.

I know pretty much every bit of London has some historic significance attached to it, and many have at least one or two ancient buildings tucked away behind the office blocks and supermarkets, but here at Temple the history fairly screams at you from every corner.

Temple

There are offices and shops here, of course, but on the whole they've been incorporated into the several-hundred-year-old buildings, rather than brashly elbowing them out of the way as they do in other parts of town.

Temple station - and the indeed the whole area - is named after the 'Temple Church', to which I'll come in a little while. First though, since it's right next to me, I take a couple of minutes to visit the river just south of the station on Victoria Embankment.

It's a typical busy day on the river, with tourist cruisers and working boats chugging long side by side.

Waterloo Bridge

To my right is Waterloo Bridge, with Westminster in the background, and across the river from me is the National Theatre and what looks like a forest of construction cranes towering above both it and its neighbours.

Cranes at work

But that's the modern face of London - I'm about to head to somewhere much older.

The area known as Temple stretches east from the station almost as far as Blackfriars Bridge, and is bordered to the north by the Strand and Fleet Street. It is divided roughly in half to form Middle Temple to the west and Inner Temple to the east.

In the middle sits the Temple Church, and - though there are a few other things to show you before we get there - it's probably best to explain its history before we delve into the narrow passageways and venerable buildings of the wider area.

It was built in the 12th Century by the order of the Knights Templar as their English Headquarters, though their name actually comes from Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem. After the abolition of the order in the 14th Century, the Temple passed into the possession of King Edward II and was eventually passed on to two colleges of lawyers, who moved in to separate sets of buildings but shared the use of the church. The two colleges of lawyers, and the separate buildings they inhabited, became known as two of London's four Inns of Court - Inner Temple and Middle Temple. The Inns of Court - where traditionally all barristers have lodged, trained and practiced - have remained here ever since.

My first view - entering the western edge of Middle Temple from Temple Place - is of the rear of Middle Temple Hall.



Middle Temple Hall, and surrounding chambers

Way back on Day 58, while visiting the replica of the Golden Hinde near London Bridge, I mentioned in passing that I had appeared in a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream here at Middle Temple Hall, so I'm familiar enough with the building.

Middle Temple Hall - main entrance

It's closed to the public today, unfortunately, so I can't take any photos of the elaborate interior, but I can assure you that - as the venue that saw the first recorded performance of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night - it is a uniquely atmospheric place. It is where all the formal dinners for the Inn of Court are held, and its wood panelling, beamed roof and huge portraits lining the walls are positively dripping with history.

On the way to the church

Heading gradually east through the cobbled streets, and covered passages, I come eventually to the Temple Church itself.

Temple Church

A Knight Templar

The original church was just the round section at the western end, but the rest was added only 50 years or so later. It was in the gardens of this church that (according to Shakespeare at least) the opposing houses of York and Lancaster first plucked their respective white and red roses, thus signalling the beginning of the Wars of the Roses. It has survived both the Fire of London and the Blitz, though it has had some renovation and rebuilding over the centuries.



Outside the church is a column topped with a representation of a Knight Templar, though how old this is I can't say.




Western Entrance

The normal entrance to the church is through a door on the southern side, but the main entrance - and the one through which the original initiates hoping to join the Knights Templar would have passed at dawn - is on the original western end of the round church.



This is very ornate and - like everything else around here - seems to speak of its long and complex history.





From the Temple Church I now head north, out of the Temple grounds, and onto two of London's best known streets (at least, to anyone who's ever played Monopoly) - first Fleet Street and then west onto the Strand.



Fleet Street

Fleet Street is probably best known for two things - it was the former home of most of the British press, before it all moved out to Wapping in the 1980s, and it was also the home (in legend at least) of the fictitious 'demon barber' Sweeney Todd.

The legal profession seems to have taken over from the newspapers in most of the buildings, with the majority of them now containing solicitors' offices - those that haven't been turned into pubs or coffee shops that is.

Walking eastwards to the Strand, the legal connection continues, as I stand opposite the entrance to the Royal Courts of Justice. This is where both the 'High Court' and the 'Court of Appeal' are located, which deal with anything from business law and administrative matters to adoption or divorce proceedings.

Royal Courts of Justice

Samuel Johnson

Further west still is the church of St. Clement Danes, which - to me at least - is less interesting in itself than for the statues that stand outside it. Originally founded by the Danish in the 9th Century, the current church dates from the 17th Century and was built by Sir Christopher Wren.


It is now the central church of the Royal Air Force.


There are, as I have mentioned, various statues outside the church. At one end is Samuel Johnson, who lived just north of Fleet Street, and wrote his famous dictionary there.



"Bomber" Harris

At the other end - to the front of the church - are various figures. Two of them are related to the Air Force, though I only recognise the name of one of them - Air Chief Marshall Sir Arthur "Bomber" Harris.


He was the Commander-in-Chief of Bomber Command during WWII and was convinced of the efficacy of 'area bombing' - the bombing of whole cities rather than purely military or industrial facilities. The most famous - and perhaps controversial - of these bombing raids, was the bombing of Dresden in 1945, in which between 23,000 and 25,000 people were killed.

Strand Station

Continuing along the Strand in the direction of Waterloo Bridge, I come to one of London's disused tube stations - though unlike many, the entrance to this one is at least still fairly obvious, even if its name is not.

Despite the signs clearly visible on the front, Strand Station isn't actually Strand Station at all, but Aldwych Station.

It started life as 'Strand' in 1908, but was renamed in 1915 as a result of the very confusing name changes going on at the other end of the road, which - as you may recall - I went into a very detailed explanation of when visiting Charing Cross.

The station closed in 1993 but the platforms and tracks are still accessible, and are now used as a film set, standing in for pretty much any other station as and when required.

Just before Waterloo Bridge is Somerset House, originally a Tudor palace and home to Queen Elizabeth I (before she actually became Queen) but later remodelled and improved in the 17th and 18th Centuries.

Somerset House - courtyard

Designed as a 'national building' the new Somerset House was designed by Sir William Chambers in 1776 (though not completed until 1819). It housed many public offices, such as the 'Salt Office', 'Navy Office', 'Stamp Office', 'Tax Office' and so on, and in later years was the repository of all Birth, Marriage and Death certificates in England and Wales (until these were moved elsewhere, and online versions made available).

Waterloo Bridge is just around the corner, and of course I'll be seeing this from the other side of the river when I visit Waterloo Station itself, so rather than crossing it, I descend the steps leading down to the Embankment beneath, and head back towards Temple Station.

I've one final curiosity to see before I get there though, if at all possible, and that's up a small side alley called Strand Lane.

At the top end of this, behind an anonymous arched window, is the so-called "Roman Bath" - 'so-called' because in all probability they are nothing of the kind, but are instead a 17th Century cistern that provided water to a fountain in the grounds of the old Somerset House.

The "Roman Bath"

Although it's a National Trust property, and there's a sign outside giving a bit of the history of the 'Bath', it isn't what you'd call a typical 'tourist attraction'.



Information outside the 'bath'



View through the window

You can only visit the inside of the building by prior arrangement (and seemingly only as part of a group).

Instead, your average interested passer-by has to press the light-switch on the exterior wall to turn on the timer-controlled lights inside, then crouch down to try and peer through the pretty grimy panes of glass forming the lower half of the arched window.

Even then, all you can really see is a bit of brickwork around a rectangular pit in the gloomy interior.

I attempt to take a photo for your benefit, the result of which is the pretty poor effort shown here. What with the dim light, the grubby window, and the reflection of my own two legs getting in the way no matter what angle I tilt my camera to, it's the best I can do I'm afraid.

And that's it for Temple - at least as far as today's visit goes. There's so much history here that it would be impossible to cover it all in one go, and I have other stations I need to see. So, having barely scratched the surface, I move on to my next destination.

***
And it has to be one of the most eccentrically named stations on the whole tube map.

Theydon Bois

Theydon Bois (pronounced "Boys") gets its name from the 'de Bosco' or 'Bois' family who owned the manor house here in the 12th and 13th Centuries. The 'Bois' part has had various spellings over the years but apparently its current spelling (which, as you may know, also means 'forest' in French) was officially settled on thanks to its proximity to Epping Forest.

Village Green

It's a mainly residential, and very picturesque, village next to the Forest and the last station before Epping on the Central Line.

Duck Pond

It's also a little quirky (even for rural England) in that it is almost entirely devoid of any form of street lighting. Apparently the local residents feel that to introduce this would detract from the 'village-y' feel of the place, which may be true - but it must be an eerie place to wander around late at night...

Avenue on the Green

It has a large village green, and this has an impressive avenue of trees cutting across it, which were apparently planted to celebrate Queen Victoria coming to the throne. Some of these are now, sadly, at the end of their lives and a new line of trees has been planted parallel to the current ones, which will eventually take over.

Forest Drive - the 'main' street

It's not an especially big or exciting place - it's a village after all - but that's actually it's charm. As well as the green, there's a short shopping street and a couple of pubs, and that's about it. On the other hand, it is connected - however remotely - directly to the centre of London via the tube, and it therefore feels less like somewhere remote and cut-off, and more like a friendly and enthusiastic puppy being let out on a very long lead...

All of which fanciful stuff brings me to the end of my time here, as I head back to the station and on to my next two destinations.

***
Ok, so it's really one destination, with two stations in it. The place is Tooting, and the stations are Tooting Bec - to the north - and Tooting Broadway - to the south. Both stations were designed by Charles Holden, and both opened in 1926 as part of the Morden extension.

In complete contrast with the rural idyll I've just left, Tooting is very much part of the hustle and bustle of London and - though the two stations aren't especially close to each other - their environs are pretty much of a muchness.

Tooting Bec

I start (of course) with Tooting Bec, which is about a kilometre north of Tooting Broadway on the Upper Tooting Road.

Upper Tooting Road

The name 'Bec' comes from the 'Abbey Of Our Lady Of Bec' in Normandy, which owned this land following the Norman Conquest - not that there's much evidence of French influence these days. Instead there's a mixture of ethnicities, including a large Muslim community. London's current Mayor - Sadiq Khan - was MP for Tooting before his assumption of office.

Having looked up the area in advance, I know that - other than the shops on this road - the main things I want to try and have a look at are Tooting Bec Common and Tooting Bec Lido, both of which are to the east of this station.

So, I could either head there first, and then south to Tooting Broadway, or - and this seems to make more sense - get both stations under my belt, and then visit the 'sights' afterwards.

This is what I decide to do, and I walk the fifteen minutes or so down to the second of Tooting's stations.

Tooting Broadway



Edward VII

Tooting Broadway feels much more like the 'centre' of things in Tooting. It's busier, for a start, with more shops and cafés, and a statue of Edward VII outside the station gives it a slightly grander air than its neighbour to the north.



I stop for lunch - briefly - but other than taking a photo of His Majesty, there's not a lot else in the immediate vicinity to keep me here for long.




And so I head north again, or rather north-east, to bring me to Tooting Bec Common, and the Lido that it holds.

Tooting Common(s)

I've been calling it Tooting Bec Common but actually there are two Commons here that have been joined together. Tooting Bec Common forms the north-eastern half, and Tooting Graveney Common the south-western half. Together they are properly known as Tooting Commons.

The Lido opened in 1906, and is one of Britains oldest open air pools.

Tooting Bec Lido

It is of course a sad fact of modern life that, were I to spend too long standing outside the railings pointing my camera at all the children happily splashing away inside, I would instantly be branded a child-molesting monster, rather than an innocent passer-by trying to capture the essence of a British institution for the purposes of a (hopefully) enlightening and informative travel blog.

I'm therefore forced to settle for the hurriedly snapped photo of the entrance above, and the following colourful, if fairly uninstructive, image of the backs of some of the changing cubicles.



The outside wall

And that's it for Tooting.

Well, almost.

Back at the station I notice - while waiting for my train back northwards - the clock above the platform.

Self Winding Clock

It bears the name of the 'Self Winding Clock Company' of New York, and is an example of their electromechanical clocks, whose winding mechanism is powered by battery rather than by hand.

In this digital age, that might sound an obvious, and now old-fashioned, mechanism, but when it was first introduced in the late nineteenth Century it was a real innovation.

Prior to this, all clocks had to be wound by hand, which meant that someone had to remember to do so. And if they forgot, the clock would no longer be accurate. 'Exact Time' had become a commodity to be bought and sold as much as anything else, thanks to the increased accuracy of Observatories' equipment and the ability to transmit the current time via Telegraph around the world.

Railways in particular recognised the need for accurate, synchronised time, both for efficiency and safety, and the Self Winding Clock Company made clocks for stations across the world - including Grand Central Station in New York, and - of course - the London Underground.

***
As I'm borne slowly upwards by the escalator to the entrance of my next station - Tottenham Court Road - I'm surprised at the large crowd gathered in the doorways. This is unnaturally busy, even for a Friday afternoon in Central London.

Busy 'ere innit?

At first I wonder whether there's a parade or something going on outside, but the reason soon becomes apparent, and unfortunately it's nothing so exciting.

Despite leaving Tooting in warm weather and sunshine, I emerge from Tottenham Court Road into a torrential downpour.

Tottenham Court Road

I'm not the only one huddling in the station entrance who is ill-prepared - clothing-wise - for this weather, and there are many using newspapers and carrier bags as improvised umbrellas.

I don't mind the rain itself - it's actually quite refreshing - but it isn't very camera-friendly and photography tends to get a bit awkward in weather like this.

I dash across the street to another crowded doorway, in order to get a photo of the station, wondering how long the rain is likely to last, and whether I can still salvage anything from this visit.

Luckily, there's a large multi-storey bookshop just south of the station on Charing Cross Road, and if there's one place I can happily while away a pleasant half-hour or more, it's in a bookshop.

This one is Foyle's Bookshop - which has long been a feature of Charing Cross Road, though it has recently moved slightly north of its original location.

Thankfully, the rain doesn't last all that long, and I can head outside again to have a look around the Tottenham Court Road area.

I mentioned when I visited South Tottenham that the 'Tottenham' of this road is not the same as the 'Tottenham' of the north London Borough. To re-iterate, there was a manor house (the 'Court') at the top of what is now Tottenham Court Road in the 13th Century, owned by a certain William de Tottenhall - and it's from this that the road gets its name.

The road runs north from the station (which is at the crossroads with Oxford Street), with Charing Cross Road running south from it. Tottenham Court Road itself has long been a centre for electronics shops, whereas Charing Cross Road is more famous for its many and various bookshops, including the famous - though sadly long-gone - Marks & Co, more commonly known by their address: 84, Charing Cross Road.

Centre Point

The major landmark that dominates the area is the 33-story tower known as Centre Point.

This is a 1960s construction that is the tallest building in this part of town. It was built as office space by property developer Harry Hyams, despite the fact that at the time of construction (and for several years afterwards) no-one was actually interested in moving into it. It stood empty until 1975.

The problem was that for some reason, Hyams was only interested in leasing it in its entirety to a single company, rather than on a floor-by-floor basis. He stubbornly refused all requests to lease individual floors, causing anger among some who felt that it could be used to alleviate London's housing problems at the time.

Today it's a Grade II Listed building, and has - in recent years - been converted into luxury flats, no doubt sending Mr Hyams spinning in his grave....

And that's your lot for today boys and girls.

I've well and truly broken the back of the 'Ts' and with any luck I'll only need two more trips out before I'm on to the next letter. So, until next time - toodle-pip!