Pause, stop and dawdle on the Finchley Road...

The Finchley Road is much maligned and massively under-estimated.

Hidden away are gems and insights into the Eyre Estate (more to follow), the development of metro-land and the growth of traffic in a way that is captured in few other places. Now of course it's role as a main arterary road in and out of London and leading down to Swiss Cottage it has what i think is a strong sense of speed and movement about it...

The effect now is slightly odd and I would suggest it is under-appreciated.

So this is just one little building, tucked away with stunning marbled stucco's.

It's Canfield House and is, I think, the main stay of the old station buildings. I've tried a bit of digging on the origin of the name Canfield and not got hugely far- interestingly as we are not too far from Acol Road (a school of bridge) - Canfield is a card game but there appears to be no connection.

But for simple tastes such as myself the cherubs and the satyrs and the nature of the almost french style is realy nice. It's too easy when rushing out of the station, or dashing into Waitrose or up to the O2 Centre to miss it - pause, have a dawdle and look up - it's well worth it and as I say, slightly unlikely.

My instinct is it date to the 1930's and is a high quality frontage to what might actually be quite a cheap set piece brick construction and this is actually a faccia. Anyone out there know more?