Former Gasworks Turning Into Entertainment Venue
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on IanVisits.
This is the first paragraph.
Four giant warehouses and an empty field — a former gasworks in Tottenham — is to become a new entertainment venue.
These are some points about the venue.
- Four interlinked warehouses capable of holding 10,000 people.
- Ten acres of outdoor space.
- Close to the soon-to-be-opened Meridian Water station.
- It will be know as the Drumsheds.
The first event will be the Field Day on June 7-8, 2019.
This Google Map shows the location of the site.
Note.
- The blue-roofed shed in the North-East corner of the map, will be the centrepiece.
- The site is bordered on the West by Pymmes Brook and on the East by the Lea Navigation Canal.
- The grass area South of the sheds must be the outdoor space.
- Meridian Water station is perhaps four-hundred metres to the West.
- There’s even an IKEA and a large Tesco, for those who don’t want to hump their tent and food from hundreds of miles away.
Could this be the first of a new style of entertainment venue?
In some ways, this venture brings me back to the vibrant music scene in the area, where I grew up, just a few miles to the North-West.
Artists from the sixties, that I saw in the area included.
- Adam Faith
- Animals
- Chuck Berry
- Joe Brown
- John Mayall with a very drunk Eric Clapton
- Nashville Teens
- Rolling Stones
But no venue was bigger than the large Regal Edmonton cinema, which held perhaps a few hundred!
After the recent opening of the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, this is surely more good news for the area, which has had its troubles over the last few years.
Tottenham Hale Bus Station Opens
The new bus station at Tottenham Hale has opened.
It will certainly be useful as an interchange to get the 192 bus to and from IKEA.
The 76 which passes close to my house, also ends up here.
Changes At Tottenham Hale
Tottenham Hale station and the associated bus station, is an important transport interchange in North London. It suffered badly in the August 2011 riots, but some would claim that the 1960s design of the area was better after the modifications.
I went there today to go to the Staples, as that is my nearest. I was surprised to see that the bus station has now been demolished and work is starting on a major upgrade of the station and the roads in the area. there’s a lot more about it, with some good maps here on the TfL website.
My first thought was about time too! Hopefully, those that have demolished the bus station, will move on to Highbury and Islington station next.
Tottenham High Road Continues To Rise
After the riots of 2011, this area of Tottenham was in a bad way.
Compare these pictures, with those taken just after the riots, which are shown here.
Tottenham On The Up!
I took a 149 bus to Tottenham this morning, to look for a tunnel boring machine, that was being transported to its work site in North London. I may have missed the TBM, but I got a good chance to look at Tottenham nearly two years after the riots.
Things seemed to have improved immensely. It also looks like Spurs are getting their act together and are starting to create the new stadium.
And Here’s A Video
No visit to a museum like Markfield is complete without seeing the machine fully working.
Note how getting a machine like this going, isn’t just a simple matter of flicking a switch, but often involves quite a bit of physical work and gentle coaxing.
Two Proper Cups of Tea
The picture shows the two cups of tea we bought at the Markfield Museum.
Two Proper Cups of Tea
They had lots of things to eat, but not much that was gluten-free. The cafe also has free wi-fi, which is a must these days and seems to be in any pub or cafe worth visiting.
The Markfield Beam Engine
The Markfield Beam Engine sits in a park in Tottenham with a cafe and a rose garden.
It is well worth a visit.
A Plan For Tottenham Is Emerging
It would appear that Spurs are on the point of dropping their bid to take over the Olympic stadium according to the BBC.
I have looked at the plans for the new stadium and feel that the way it would be built is innovative and good project management, making the best use of all the resources.
A deal seems to be being working out with the Mayor and the Government about improving public transport in the area. As I said earlier, I believe this should be achieved by giving some or all of the Lea Valley lines to Transport for London and adding them to the Overground. The trains, track and power supplies are not the worst, but improving the stations with their dreadful access and especially the link at Hackney Downs to the North London line and to buses must be done. A point here, is that this access traps the locals in the area, whether they like football or not.
It would also help London and Tottenham Hotspur, if a large Park and Ride was built somewhere to the north of White Hart Lane station on the Cheshunt line by the M25. London and the City lacks a decent Park and Ride and parking at most stations to the north and east of London is inadequate and overpriced.
So in my view a proper modern railway run to the same reliability as the Overground would transform the whole area from Bethnal Green, through Hackney and Tottenham to Enfield and the M25.
Finally, it has always irked Spurs supporters that Arsenal have their own Underground station. So why shouldn’t White Hart Lane be renamed Spurs?
Searching For Mint Imperials
This trip didn’t start out as the title, but I do find those little tubes of Bassetts Mint Imperials difficult to find these days. Perhaps, they are a casualty of the takeover of Cadburys by Kraft.
I had gone to Stoke Newington to deliver some pictures for framing to A & B Frames and as it was raining with a certain ferocity, I decided that to go somewhere for lunch was not the best idea. So I decided to return home to cook some scrambled eggs to eat with some left over new potatoes and some smoked salmon. But the rain meant it would be better to go north to Seven Sisters as this avoided the walk to a stop for a 76.
In the end I decided to go to Blackhorse Road station, by taking a bus to South Tottenham station and then the Gospel Oak and Barking line of the Overground, as I wanted to see if you could see the Markfield Museum from the train. I made another change of mind at Blackhorse Road and instead of taking the Victoria Line home, I reversed direction and went to Harringay Green Lanes station to get a bus home.
Here are some of the pictures I took.
But I was able to buy some Mint Imperials in the kiosk at Blackhorse Road.
Note the two staircases at South Tottenham and Blackhorse Road. They’re not good, but at least they are better than those on the Lea Valley lines.
The Anonymous Widower 