Wednesday 28 October 2015

London, my London

This time London, my London will take you from Ally Pally, where we left off last time, to a lesser-known spot. Again, we are not focusing on shortcuts or quick routes, but on culture, history and the never-ending energy that characterises London. A city that only lives in the past (or off it) becomes dead, or at least it turns into a zombie. London is the opposite, it is alive and we, Londoners, born here or not, are the ones who keep it going.

You could say with a narrow margin of error that although London is not very hilly, as I remarked before, it is mostly hemmed in by elevations north of the Thames. South of the river, I know there are inclines, but they are fewer or at least easier to avoid.

The only positive outcome of hills – besides the exercise they provide – is that once you have exhausted yourself going up one, you will have to come down at some point and this is exactly what I did as I left Alexandra Palace in the borough of Haringey and carried on north-western bound. The ride down was smooth and along tree-lined streets. At the end of Alexandra Park Road I found myself with the chic barrio of Muswell Hill on my left. Together with neighbouring Crouch End and Highgate, this is an area that has become renowned for its arty-creative-type, middle-class demographic. Independent and – and you could say very – idiosyncratic shops line up along Colney Hatch Lane leading to Muswell Hill Broadway. If you happen to be staying in or visiting the area I would strongly recommend a stroll around some of the shops near the Muswell Hill Broadway roundabout. For those on foot there is a bus depot near the roundabout with good connections into town. A stone’s throw away is one of my favourite spots in London, Highgate Wood There is nothing more satisfying than walking down Muswell Hill Road in autumn until you reach Highgate Wood. This is a 28-hectare ancient woodland. Plenty of wildlife has made it its home and the woodland trails are picture-perfect. If you are travelling to London with little ones in tow, they will appreciate your effort. The playground in the park is worth a visit.

For me, the cyclist, the route was simpler although I must I admit I did get lost. I crossed Colney Hatch Lane and went straight down Page’s Lane. My goal was to get to Barnet and cycle through Finchley.

A confusing and bizarre trait of London’s urban geography is both its postcode and its borough demarcation systems. The former, I will go into detail in future posts; the latter is almost comical. I had been only a few minutes on Creighton Avenue when I realised that I had already crossed the border from Haringey to the Borough of Barnet. I retraced my steps to double-check and saw the welcome sign, but it was so inconspicuous that it was easy to miss.

A cycle lane brought me to the other end of Church Road and there I got lost again. The method I was following was the old-fashioned way. Although I had a built-in GPS in my mobile, I didn’t want to use it. For me a few scribbled-down street names on a piece of paper, with arrows indicating in which direction to turn, was more than enough. I approached a group of women talking outside a house. Not only did I get my bearings right after their instructions but I also got a short history lesson on this part of Finchley. The road I was looking for was East End Road which I had written incorrectly on my piece of paper. The street was not a mere thoroughfare but it had originally bequeathed the name to this area before it became East Finchley. The problem was that at the time there was also an East End in London famous for its deprivation and crime. The residents of this better-off north-western barrio wanted nothing to do with their down-on-their-luck fellow Londoners and changed the name to East Finchley.

I cycled away from the Old White Lion, a 1700s pub that still stood there on the same century-old spot and found myself speeding down Kingsley Way, through the middle of Hampstead Garden Suburb, an example of good “domestic architecture”. The fact that this early-20th-century blueprint for town planning looked like another world was the result (as I later found out) of a community-focused and joint co-operative effort by a group of like-minded citizens. Quiet, tree-lined, wide streets sporting impressive-looking hedges on their front gardens were visual balm for my tired limbs.

Hampstead Garden Suburb (photo taken from Flickr)

Upon turning left onto Finchley Road the lyrics of Mor Karbasi’s song, Judía, popped into my head all of a sudden: Judía será tu nombre/mi frente besó mi madre cuando nací/un beso de amor me dió mi madre cuando nací. If you are wondering what the words of a Sephardic Jewish singer are doing in a post about northwest London, perhaps you are not aware that Golders Green, the neighbourhood I was cycling through at that moment, has been home to a very diverse Jewish community for decades. A Jewish community about which I will write in my next post. Or rather in my next love-letter to London, my London.

© 2015

Next Post: “Voices and Faces of London”, to be published on Saturday 31st October at 6pm (GMT)

28 comments:

  1. Always fun walking with you







    ALOHA, Friend
    ComfortSpiral

    (\__/)
    (='.'=)
    (")_('')

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    1. You mean "cycling" with me? :-)

      Greetings from London.

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  2. isn't it wonderful that the best things often happen when we're lost!!

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    1. It happened a few times during the summer when I went out on my bike and wrote the majority of the "London, my London" posts. Believe me, sometimes it was a tad bit unnerving. :-)

      Greetings from London.

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  3. London has always fascinated me and I love learning more from your posts. Thanks.

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    1. The best part is that I will never be able to write a "last chapter" on London because the sheer size of it means that I will need another couple of lives in order to cover the whole city. :-)

      Greetings from London.

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  4. Love learning about London. Maybe some day...

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  5. Those hills round Ally Pally certainly can be a challenge, and match the ones on the other side of the city, near Camberwell, I think! Did you spot Martyns in Muswell Hill? It is/was a grocer, never modernised and somehow survived till today in its original 1950s. These days it sells gourmet food more than normal groceries, but then the things that grocers used to have (you will see them in the old Ladybird books) like boxes of biscuits, etc. are no longer available. I haven't been through some of the areas you mention on the bike, but I agree with you that everywhere you go in London you find incredible things. I just hope that the government gets a grip on the housing situation so that there is still room for all kinds of people in the city. Around our area a bit south of where you were, so many of the houses have been tarted up to look like something out of Grand Designs. All very well in its place I suppose but very boring when that's all you see. .

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    1. Thanks for your comment. If Martyn's is the shop I am thinking of, then, the answer is yes, it's still there. On this particular day I did not venture into Muswell Hill because I was on my way to somewhere else. I have had to divide these posts even more than I wanted because there is so much information and there were so many experiences. For instance, what I did not include here was that I actually cycled all the way down Colney Hatch Lane and back up almost to Muswell Hill Broadway. I could not find Page's Lane even though I cycled past it twice. What London has, and I love, is this quaint trait of making the public and in-your-face. intimate and personal. There are countless streets that I feel belong to me. I will include this in future posts.

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    2. I forgot to mention that there are few places "sarf" of the river on my must-visit list. I might even go out on my bike during autumn before the weather changes for the worse. I was near Camberwell in the summer but I decided to go to Brixton instead. Lewisham is also on my list, especially now that I have heard there's a whole gentrification prorgamme afoot and some local are quite "vexed" about it.

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  6. I enjoy these off the beaten path posts and look forward to revisiting Golders Green. On my junior year in London I went to Golders Green to find bagels, which were nearly impossible to find elsewhere. The city has indeed changed.

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    1. Golders Green is just one of the few Jewish "hot spots" we have in London. I can't wait to post that column. I really loved cycling through even if it's not the way I imagined it to be. Then, again, my main experience of Jewish London until this summer was Stamford Hill and part of the East End. I'd heard of Golders Green but had never been to it.

      Greetings from London.

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  7. you got lost :) Well, I can get lost if there are 5 trees and one corner. :)

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  8. Going off path and getting a little lost, can sure find much sometimes

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  9. I love your lovely walks! :)

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  10. I have to admire your determination, CiL, at the monumental task of exploring a metropolis with the vastness and the historic lore of London. You are describing what largely is an unknown world to me when your path weaves away from traditional tourist trails, and I am enjoying these posts.

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  11. Highgate Wood sounds delightful!

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  12. I am loving this series. Many of the place names are familiar to me, from my reading and from my mother's history, but I have not visited the UK (let alone London) and this perspective is wonderful. Thank you.

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  13. I am enjoying the tour. Is Barnet the same as Barnet Bypass, which I remember well. A group of us were en route to the Royal Albert Hall and the coach stopped there to give us a break from sitting. I went to Finchley once but can't remember anything about it. I love London, please tell us more.

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  14. Can't tell you how much I enjoy being part of your tours around the City. I am jotting down notes for when I will be staying there shortly. So long as my husband's operation goes well, my son and I would love to see some of the sights whilst he is recovering.
    I am really indebted to you for publishing this series.
    Thank you so much!

    Greetings from a very damp and dismal Hampshire...:/

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    1. The area I mentioned is gorgeous. I would recommend that you start with Crouch End and end with Highgate. It also makes sense as you will be moving from plain to hill, top of the hill and then downhill. Near the church in Crouch End (don't worry, everyone knows it. It's something Clock), there are lost of lovely shops with good cafes. Muswell Hill has a lot of character. I really like the area. Highgate for me is the Wood. It's also got beautiful shops, especially on Archway Road and streets off it, but the Wood is more than enough. If the weather is nice, take a stroll and have a picnic at the end of one of the walk trails. Even in autumn it is still possible to have a picnic in Highgate Wood.

      Greetings from London.

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  15. Me imagino que darse unas vueltas y alejarse de la aglomeración y encontrarse en un bonito lugar tal como nos lo describes es coger fuerzas y salud para volver en otro momento.
    Un abrazo.

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  16. I walked a lot when I was in London--it never far from the river. Thanks for the ride.

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  17. How are you Mario?? Love this pic of London and this post, Really lovely hear more about London.
    Hugs !!

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  18. What a lovely tour! Thanks for taking us along with you.

    But... I've gotta say one thing, dear CiL. Men don't "get lost." They get "temporarily side-tracked." That's what my husband tells me, anyway. :)

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    1. I'm still cracking up. "Side-tracked"? Expect me to start using that one from now on. :-)

      Greetings from London.

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  19. I like hills, in moderation , they make a walk more interesting....

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  20. thanks for sharing a part of your world, interesting post. I'd love to visit the UK for so many reasons.

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