Camden Road: A Destination Station on the North London Line
Obviously stations like Stratford and Richmond are destination stations on the North London line, where there is a lot to do and are ideal places to meet a friend or someone on business. Hampstead Heath station is probably another, but it is not really an interchange.
Today, I went to buy a new jacket and found myself at Camden Road station, which is being updated by the addition of lifts. I got the jacket and then proceeded to have a coffee in the restaurant under the station called the Meribel Brasserie & Coffee House. The coffee was very good and although they didn’t specifically do gluten-free, there were a few items on the menu, that were. For instance, their breakfast menu included scrambled eggs and smoked salmon at a reasonable £7, to include some accompaniments like tomatoes and a bit of salad. I checked the dinner menu with the Russian chef and I certainly wouldn’t starve there. He knew his stuff and even knew that skate were not kosher fish.
You certainly have a better choice of gluten-free food at Camden Road station, than in the whole of Eastfield.
I also drank my coffee on a pleasant terrace in the sun watching the traffic. Unfortunately,that unusual clothes shop, Swanky Modes, which used to be opposite has now gone. C always wondered, whether they actually sold any of their way out designs.
Disabled and Normal Access on the Docklands Light Railway
When I was in Bank station yesterday, I noticed that there is a lift down to the Docklands Light Railway. Where it comes out at the surface, I don’t know. and it is worth an investigation. As it is foggy today, perhaps I’ll go and have a look. According to Wikipedia, the lift gets to the surface in the rectory of St. Mary Woolnoth
i should say though, that access to the DLR has greatly improved from the Northern line and now it is just one short staircase and twenty metres or so in a tunnel. There are also escalators everywhere, which is one of the reasons I didn’t use the lift. so sometimes, when they refurbish a station, like they have at Bank, they do get it right.
But this web site for Stratford International station doesn’t. Type disabled or wheel-chair into the site search engine and nothing is found. Although the station is known to be step free and if you want to transfer between the DLR and say a service to Ipswich, Southend or Dalston, it’s lifts all the way.
Why can’t people who design web sites get them right? I suspect that there’s full information on how to get to Eastfield, the Shopping Centre though!
To take the Golden Syrup picture, I travelled to West Silvertown station, which is a typical elevated DLR station, with a lift and a staircase to both platforms. Incidentally, this station has some short term parking, as many do on the DLR, so it is an ideal place to set someone on their way in a wheel-chair say and then go and find somewhere safe to leave the car for a longer time.
Where’s the Gluten-Free Food at Eastfield?
I went to John Lewis today at Eastfield, to see if I could get some blinds. They were very helpful and I now have a good base price.
What I also wanted was a good late lunch to set me up for the weekend.
But could I find any gluten-free food? No! But then I didn’t check out all the restaurants. Surprisingly, I didn’t find a decent Indian restaurant, especially when you consider that a good proportion of the clients are of South Asian descent.
So in the end, I took the DLR to Carluccio’s at Canary Wharf and had an excellent meal there.
The Hanging Gardens of Dalston
The development by Dalston Kingsland station replacing the old Peacocks store is official called Dalston Green. I don’t like the choice of name, as it really isn’t green space and Dalston is short of the latter. This was said on the old London Development Authority web site about Dalston.
On average in London 38% of land is given over to green space – in Dalston it is less than 12%.
There is more here about the LDA’s plans for Dalston. As the LDA has been abolished it would be interesting to know the view of the GLA.
So you can see why I prefer the Hanging Gardens of Dalston, as the development will not add to any green space in the area.
The Proposed Development
I should start by saying, that the proposed development will not affect me on a permanent basis, unless the access to Dalston Kingsland station is improved from the south-west. But during constructi0n, I fear it might make it difficult to walk to the station from the same direction.
The development is tall, is all flats for sale, and has no on-site parking except for two disabled spaces. The green part comes because they are intending that residents cultivate gardens on their balconies. Some will, but many won’t I fear. Incidentally, when we lived on the eleventh floor of Cromwell Tower in the Barbican, we didn’t bother to grow anything.
So my first question is will the developers actually sell all of the flats? I have been told that the penthouses are about a million. And that of course goes with a maximum green view of 12%, no water view and no car parking. For that sort of money in Hackney, you can buy a whole house. OK, a lot of the flats will be much cheaper, but I think they’ll struggle to sell them to owner-occupiers.
Which leaves those, who are buying-to-let. I have two buy-to-let properties outside London and both have water views. They are not a problem to let. I would think that these in Dalston might be difficult. Especially, if you want to make a return on your money.
About the only thing going for the development, is that it has its own railway station and as the developers are rebuilding this with lifts and full step-free access, this is a plus to offset the car parking problems.
But the biggest problem of the development is that it is not a friendly neighbour and it will cast a deep shadow over all the buildings around. A lot of people are objecting to that.
A Deal Over Windows
Apparently, the developer has done a deal to rebuild the station with step-free access and has now got the ability to put windows on the northern side of the tower. You could argue that only the north and east sides of the tower have any interesting views, with the railway and the Kingsland Road respectively. It does seem a bit dodgy, but then all the parties involved are reputable.
The picture shows Dalston Kingsland station from the westbound platform with the Peacocks store on the right.
Dalston Kingsland Station Looking East
Note how it would be impossible to squeeze another track into the cutting. But does the deal between the parties allow them to build over the tracks? This might be actually easier than not, as somewhere underneath all this is HS1.
Rail Considerations
The cross-London routes and the London Overground are probably in for a lot of changes over the next few years. If TfL get their way a lot of freight will leave the North London Line through Dalston Kingsland and move to a newly-electrified Gospel Oak to Barking line. Some freight will never get near London at all, due to developments elsewhere, like the Bacon Factory Curve at Ipswich. This will increase the number of passenger trains on the North London Line, but not enough to cope for the expected increase in passengers on the line.
Further increase in capacity will come from lengthening the trains from four coaches to five. The trains are designed to be coupled in various combinations and four to five, is just a matter of coupling in the coach and telling the train it is now longer. Some stations are ready for the extra coach, but Dalston Kingsland is not, so temporarily the longer trains would use selective door opening. The way the trains are designed means this won’t be a problem, especially as it would be easy for passengers to move to a coach from which exit was not allowed.
Selective door opening is only a short term fix though and inevitably the platforms will have to be lengthened.
The platforms at Dalston Kingsland are actually staggered, so only one platform would need to be lengthened. I took this picture from the western end of the westbound platform.
Looking West From Dalston Kingsland Station
It shows the stagger well, and it would appear space has been left to extend the eastbound platform at its western end, with perhaps a bit of modification to the overhead wiring. The westbound platform would probably take a five car train with just a couple of metres of extra platform.
One advantage of extending the platforms at the western end, would be that the station frontage could be moved backwards from the Kingsland Road, if this would make a better balanced building.
The Rail South To and From the East Problem
At present if you come up from the South and want to get to anywhere in the East, like Stratford, you have to change at Canonbury via either steps or two lifts.
From the East to go South, you presently change at Canonbury by walking across the platform.
This is probably better than fighting your way down Kingsland High Road. Especially, with some heavy purchases from the Eastfield shopping centre at Stratford.
When I do the trip from Stratford to Dalston Junction, I always go via Canonbury.
Looking at the area today, I wonder whether it would be possible to slip a southbound platform between the southbound line and the end of the westbound platform, so that passengers could just walk across between a westbound train and a southbound one. There may be enough space, but would the expense be worth it given that Canonbury works well as an East-to-South interchange.
It Gets Complicated
If we look at all the site from Boleyn Road to the station, it is either directly owned by TfL/Network Rail or the developers, who may be under the rail companies control because of the northern windows issue.
Given too, that Peacocks have gone bust since all this development was planned and the Overground is going from strength to strength, might we not see a bigger plan covering the whole site, much more sympathetic to the better buildings on the Kingsland Road. A decent architect might even be able to build a small green space into the development, as after all Dalston needs it.
A Walking Route Between the Two Dalston Stations
This I think is very much needed, as I’ve said earlier, it’s not good to walk along the crowded Kingsland Road. But if all the development on the west side of the road is done together, there is a chance, that something everybody would be proud off can be created. There is probably space for a decent bus lay-by and the walking route could also branch down the Balls Pond Road, where hopefully a light-controlled crossing could cross that road to the Bentley Road car-park. We might even see some better shops and cafes alongside the walking route to compliment the pub and the Shanghai restaurant.
In Conclusion
A lot of what I have said here is kite-flying and can probably be shown up as rubbish. But I hope it shows how to treat the various sites to the west of the Kingsland Road holistically as one site could lead to something that is more in keeping with the surroundings, is probably shorter in height and offers benefits to everybody who uses the trains or the Kingsland Road.
Wot No Spidermap!
In common with many others, I like the bus spidermaps that London uses.
They effectively solve the problem of when you are out of your normal area and need to get someone you know. Often a point on a map will be well-known to you, so you just get the bus that goes there. In East London, there are also well-known points like the Angel, Aldwych, Bow Church, Clapton Pond and Walthamshow Central, where bus routes tend to cross. With the spder maps, which list every stop in a vague geographic way, it is easy to locate the place where your local route crosses one from the place you are.
But there is no spider map for Stratford City, despite it having an impressive bus station.
Stratford City Bus Station
I was told that it was coming and to look on the Internet. All that was there was this piece of designer tosh, that is very useful, if you know the bus you want, but useless if like me, you don’t know your way home. It doesn’t even have the detailed list of places where the buses go, which is common to all spider maps.
So in the end I came home by train.
A Disappointing Trip to Eastfield
The Waitrose at Westfield Stratford City is the only place I’ve found the delicious Genius gluten-free fruit bread.
As I needed one or two other things and also a prescription dispensed, I took the train to Stratford and walked to the centre.
But I didn’t get anything I wanted, except for the drugs.
- Waitrose were out of the gluten-free fruit bread and also the normal Genius bread as well.
- Marks didn’t have any gluten-free bread either, but they did have three gluten-free ham sandwiches. So at least they must be stocking them now!
So I left a few minutes after I got there and returned home.
I think though, I can recommend the Boots pharmacy there. I got everything I wanted without waiting, as obviously, the store isn’t the place where people would normally go for their prescriptions. It’s lovely to shop without queues.
One thing that annoys me about the centre, is that to get between the main entrance and Marks at the front and Waitrose and John Lewis at the back, means that I have to run the gauntlet of a crowded corridor and lot of shops with the exception of Starbucks and PC World, I never have visited and never will. It would be much better if the two end escalators were round the other way and I could walk across at first floor level, descending as required. There is also no direct link between John Lewis and Waitrose inside the store, which puts me off visiting both on the same visit. I should say I don’t buy much in Waitrose on most days, as I’m only getting my supper. For a big shop I go to Waitrose in Islington and get them to do the carrying.
The Door Finally Broke
I said in my post on Eastfield, that a child was constantly playing with the electric door.
A Broken Door at Eastfield
The door eventually broke, as the picture shows.
The Crush at Westfield Stratford City
It was a waste of time taking the train to the new shopping centre.
I walked out of the Overground station up the stairs and after walking past the masses of smokers, lined up outside the centre, I entered the centre, avoiding one of the doors, which was constantly being opened by a four or five-year-old constantly pressing the disabled door-opening button. He was having great fun smashing the door into people standing outside.
I did at least know where I was going and attempted to walk through to Waitrose at the other end. I don’t think, I’ve been in a crush like that for some years and that was probably at Wembley for the play-off final against Barnsley in 2000. But the football crowd was better behaved and I should say better controlled and it didn’t contain lots of children, buggies and especially aggressive youths, who were determined to get through at any cost.
Eventually, I did get to Waitrose, but decided that I didn’t really want to go through that crush again with my shopping, so I decided to just have a look round John Lewis.
I was astounded to see, two children on scooters in the shop. Some people must be mad.
I then gave up and decided that the best bet would be to get to Stratford International and take the DLR from there. It was a very wet walk around the outside of the centre. as there was no shelter.
At the station, I met a policeman and told him how dangerous it had been in there. He whole-heartedly agreed.
I must admit I did get a train to the main station at Stratford from where I took the Central Line back to Liverpool Street. After a walk, I did get a bus, but then this was delayed due to an accident on the New North Road.
This must be regarded as the least successful shopping trip, I’ve ever done.
First Impressions of Eastfield
As Bill Turnbull has used the colloquial term for London’s newest cathedral of shopping, I feel free to use it now and in future, as so many do.
So what is it like?
These pictures show that it is glitzy and it was very busy today.
Here are a few more detailed points.
The Marks and Spencer is enormous and I was actually able to find some trousers for the winter in my size of a 30 waist and a 29 leg. I joked with the assistant, that all the small sizes get bougt by the staff and he didn’t disagree.
The food hall is also large and there was both good and bad news. There was no gluten-free sandwiches, but the manager, told me she’d had that question several times in the day. So perhaps Marks will sort that one out.
John Lewis was its usual self and probably almost as large as Oxford Street.
But it was the next door Waitrose that was impressive. I’ve not seen a bigger one, that wasn’t a food shop with a mini-John Lewis attached like the one near Higham Ferrers. It seemed that they were trialing a few new products, including some Genius fruit bread, that I’d not seen before. This Waitrose will probably become the shop where I’ll go for special food shopping instead of Canary Wharf or Jones Brothers, but I’ll still do general grocery shopping at Upper Street, as they deliver. Eastfield doesn’t deliver as far as me.
The restaurants I saw, were not my sort of places, as they were typically fast food, burgers and non-gluten-free. But this doesn’t matter, as after the Olympics, it’ll be next to one of the biggest parks in Europe, so you’ll go to Marks or Waitrose and buy a picnic.
There were a few teething problems, one of which was the lack of signs to the trains in the centre, but it is infinitely better than the rather tired Lakeside and Oxford Street.
I was impressed too, that the General Manager of London Underground was there talking to travellers. Bosses should do this more often.
The Anonymous Widower 