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!
Along the East London Line Embankment
From Shoreditch High Street Station to Dalston Junction, the line runs on the North London Railway embankment. I followed this by a mixture of walking and buses.
Here are some pictures.
The stations seem to need some finishing work, but judging by the number of busy workers in orange vests, I suspect they have things under control.
Not like the Cambridge Busway!
Note the pictures of the Geffrye Museum. The gardens of the museums are being landscaped. Is this in readiness for the opening of Hoxton Station on the East London Line, which is just behind the museum.
If it is, this is good joined-up thinking.
Not like the Cambridge Busway!
Shoreditch High Street on the East London Line
The East London Line will have a station on Shoreditch High Street, just before it turns north to follow the embankment of the old North London Railway that terminated in Broad Street Station to the west of Liverpool Street Station.
These are some pictures from around the station and Shoreditch High Street.
There was a movement to call Shoreditch High Street Station, Banglatown. But then the area has been home to Jews and Huguenots before being colonised by the Bangladeshis.
Who will inhabit this area in thirty years time?
From Whitechapel to Brick Lane
It was a pleasant day compared to some we’ve had lately and I quite enjoyed the walk on surprising quiet and clean streets as I walked down Vallance Road and down Buxton Street to Brick Lane.
These are some pictures of the new East London Line.
Note that the GE19 bridge was the one that fell slightly on installation. There are some more pictures on this London Connections Blog.
On Buxton Road, there is the Spitalfields City Farm. That is a separate post and gallery.
The Royal London Hospital
Whitechapel station looked to be ready for the East London Line, as all the new signs were there pointing to the platforms for the line. But before I started to follow the line, I looked at the famous hospital opposite.
The Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel will always have a special place in my life, as my granddaughter was born there. Actually, not just born there, but operated on for a congenital hernia of the diaphragm at just a couple of days old. She is now eight and no-one would know she is not any normal eight-year-old.
It’s amazing how things have moved on in the forty years since our first son was born. Then in the Middlesex Hospital, the lady in the next bed, lost her baby to exactly the same condition, as that of my granddaughter.
Now the hospital is changing.
The Old Royal London Hospital
This shows the old buildings, with the impressive frontage of the Royal London Hospital.
But times are changing and a new hospital is rising behind the old.
The New Royal London Hospital Rises
One thing of note in the hospital grounds is an impressive statue of Queen Alexandra. She was very much someone who involved herself with the hospital.
The New East London Line
I have always been an advocate of calling the East London Line, the Brunel Line as it goes through the tunnel that father, Marc, and son, Isambard, built under the Thames.
It is now just a few weeks away from reopening the line as a major part of the London Overground, reaching from Highbury and Islington in the north to Crystal Palace and West Croydon in the south. So on Friday, I thought, I walk the line and take some photographs.
I started by taking a train to Whitechapel.
Olympic Progress
This is the new Olympic stadium rising above the ground.
The Olympic Stadium Rises
As I got on the A12 I got a good view of the new Velodrome.
Both looked to be making good progress.
Victoria Park
Coming back from Brands Hatch, I needed a walk and a visit to the loo, so what better place to do this than Victoria Park in Bow.
I got a short walk, but the toilets were closed, as that had probably been vandalised. So I had to leave.
I have many fond memories of Victoria Park. When we lived in the Barbican, our children used to go to school near the park and we’d take them for walks afterwards. Years later, my son lived with his wife near the park and we’d walk again and later with our granddaughter.
There used to be a lido, but that closed in 1990.
It is a park worth visiting. Remember that it is within walking distance of the 2012 Olympic site, so it will be a lovely place to take a picnic before going to the Games.
The Anonymous Widower 
