The Pond like you have never seen it...

Whitestone Pond is something of a local legend so it's great to see the level of care and attention being lavished upon it by a joint repair venture by the City of London and Camden Council.

These snaps taken this weekend just gone are of the pond being worked upon as you will soon never see it again.

The pond and it's environs have an incredibly special place in the heart of Hampstead - once known as the cockney seaside we have at last restored the donkey rides and begun to re-create the victorian funfair atmosphere...

http://474towin.blogspot.com/2008/10/where-is-that-white-stone-hidden.html

Originally it was called the horse pond and was the place where people coming over the heath and about to go down into Hampstead would run their horse and cart through the pond to clean the mud off the hooves and wheels to stop slipping when going down the steep Heath Street.

The Hampstead left-wingers

Don't know how many people have noticed this lovely house tucked away on Arkwright Road - in the middle of NW3 but it's a building called West Brow and is in fact the HQ of Tribune.

In the context of the passing of the great Michael Foot - it seemed only right that I report the existence of this building/office:

http://www.tribunemagazine.co.uk/

Happy to be corrected but I have a memory that it was/is also the location of the office of Glenda Jackson MP - but haven't sensed that for a while so it's poss that she has changed her arrangements or I have misunderstood the past arrangements.

The Tribune website records this
"Tribune was founded in 1937 by Labour politician Aneurin Bevan, who, as Health and Housing Secretary in Clement Attlee’s post-war government, went on to found the National Health Service.

Originally intended as a unifying platform for the left in the fight against fascism in Franco’s Spain, Tribune remains an independent weekly labour movement voice carrying news, views, features, books and arts reviews and cartoons.

Its editors have included Michael Foot and George Orwell, a former literary editor.

A thorn in the side of all governments, constructively to Labour, unforgiving to Conservatives.

Gold medal for the best street name

I think despite my love of the sign in Tanza Road (http://474towin.blogspot.com/2008/03/types-of-street-name-plates.html and http://474towin.blogspot.com/2009/10/its-all-in-name.html)
, the affection I hold for the streets I have lived in locally (Quex Road, Sumatra Road and Christchurch Hill)...

This is definately the front-runner in the competition for the best street sign in the constituency...

It's all in the name.

But sadly the close reading of the explainatory plaque says the name is infact from the Goulding family rather than a level of wealth acquisition.

But not bad for a period dates from the 17th century...

(Anyone wanting the full story should clcik on the picture on the left and it should open in a large high quality format to make the reading easier...)

Regular (obsessive) readers will know that Mount Square was previously known as the Golden Square.