The Flat in St. John’s Wood
St. John’s Wood it may have been, but then it was on the fourth floor with no lift. And we had three small children.
Townshend Court, St. John's Wood
It does look as if they’ve improved the block.
Primrose Hill
When we lived in St. John’s Wood, we used to go to Primrose Hill a lot. There is the hill itself and also the area that sits between the bridge over the West Coast Main Line out of Euston, the hill and Regent’s Park.
West Coast Main Line from Regent's Park Road
Note the tower blocks behind the railway. Our doctor was in one of those towers, but which one I don’t know.
The bridge has been painted as long as I can remember. This is the south side.
Regent's Park Road Bridge, South Side
And this is the north.
Regent's Park Road Bridge, North Side
These paintings were done in 2007.
I wandered around the area, found that some of our friends were still about after nearly forty years and took a picture of the old Mustoe Bistro.
Where was Mustoe Bistro?
Sadly, it is now a shop selling up market bric-a-brac. I’d much prefer Edward’s simple fare and interesting chat.
I then walked to the top of the hill on my way to St. John’s Wood.
The View from Primrose Hill
On to Chalk Farm
I had intended to go to Hampstead using the North London Line from Highbury and Islington station. But that line is closed for a few month for an upgrade, so I decided to take the Victoria and Northern lines instead. But I changed my mind and instead of going all the way to Hampstead, I got off the tube at Chalk Farm.
Chalk Farm Station
I’d used this station many times, as in the early seventies I’d commuted from our fourth-floor walk-up flat in St. John’s Wood to ICI Plastics Division at Welwyn Garden City, by walking to Chalk Farm and then going to Kings Cross to get the train. It was actually a pleasant commute, as I was going the wrong way most of the time.
Some things never change and Marine Ices is still there.
Marine Ices, Chalk Farm
The shop was one of the pleasures of when we lived in the area.
And then there is The Roundhouse.
The Roundhouse
I went there for a coffee. It was good.
But it wasn’t the first time that I’d been there. I’d seen a couple of shows over the years at the venue, including the amazing de la Guarda.
But I do have one very bad memory of Chalk Farm. It was there that I was stopped by the police whilst driving a wreck of a Triumph Herald that I bought that I really shouldn’t have bought. I remember parking it on this road here before I got it towed to the dump.
Regents Park Road, Chalk Farm
It was all different then in 1971 or so, with no flats and no parking restrictions.
Street Art in Dalston
This mural is at Dalston Junction, where the Balls Pond Road meets Kingsland Road.
Street Art, Dalston Junction
Appropriately, it is by the old Reeves offices and factory.
Reeves Offices in Dalston
This was probably the place where my mother worked before she got married. I’m not too sure what she did, but I think she worked in accounts or wages, although I do know that worked a comptometer. I can remember her telling me that you used to do division, by multiplying by the reciprocals. She still knew her reciprocals many years later.
Reeves Offices in Dalston
As befits a company, whose business has been art for nearly 250 years, the details are very much in keeping.
Another twist in this area, is that my grandmother, who my mother always said thought herself terribly posh, was born round the corner in the Balls Pond Road. It’s going back up again!
Would You Want One, Let Alone Two?
I saw this set in a shop window by Dalston Junction Station.
Would You Buy One, Let Alone Two?
I obviously, don’t understand style.
Spitalfields City Farm
On Buxton Street is Spitalfields City Farm.
This is a wonderful venture that must on the one hand be visited and on the other supported financially and by voluteers.
Here are some pictures.
I thoroughly enjoyed my visit.
Numberplate for a Dog Trainer?
The plate on my Lotus Elan is K9 WFF. Not perhaps as good as K9 WUF.
But yesterday, as I went into Cambridge, I was following a van with the number K90 BAY, or as it was spaced K9 OBAY. Not perhaps as good as K9 OBEY, but good anyway!
Democracy: Burmese Style
I’ve just noticed this article on The Times web site.
Aung San Suu Kyi, the imprisoned Burmese democracy leader, will be forced to quit her political party and banned from taking part in elections, under new laws published today by the country’s military dictatorship.
The laws bar from membership of a political party anyone serving a prison sentence, thus excluding Ms Suu Kyi, who remains under house arrest. Her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), has 60 days to expel non-eligible members and register with the election commission if it is to take part in elections promised for later this year.
Democracy? What democracy!
But at least the Burmese have their supporters and protectors; the Chinese. But then the Chinese know all about how you enforce human rights!
V-2 Sculpture in Den Haag?
Outside of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Den Haag is this sculpture.
V-2 Sculpture in Den Haag?
Is it a V-2 exploding on takeoff?
Because it is in the area that was devastated by RAF bombing, as they tried to stop the missiles.
Den Haag’s Dark Secret
If you cycle towards Scheveningen past the prison and the barracks, there is a building on the eastern side of the road, that looks like a station. We see old stations all over the UK that have been converted into houses and although it’s a different style, it has the same aura.
When I got back I looked it up and found that there used to be a railway that ran from the main line from Den Haag to Amsterdam, through Wassenaar to a station by the beach at Scheveningen. As I had thought, the railway had run where the road is now.
It was the site with the map that told me the dark secret, that few know about. Den Haag was the launching point for all of the V-2 rockets that the Nazis sent towards London. A lot were fired from a beautiful estate called Duindigt, near the racecourse. It ended up being totally destroyed by Allied bombing and V-2’s that exploded on takeoff.
Nearly three thousand died in 1944, in London due to these weapons. But not as many as about 20,000 concentration camp inmates, who died making the weapons. Even the Dutch suffered greatly, as the weapons misfired and hit local targets, the Nazis executed anybody for the most trivial of reasons and the Allies destroyed parts of Den Haag by mistake as they tried to stop the launching of the rockets.
War is never the simple business it is made out to be.
There is also a book, Spitfire Dive Bombers versus the V2, by Bill Simpson, which details the hunt for the rockets by RAF Fighter Command.
The Anonymous Widower 