Cleaning up after the party and securing the toilets

It was the Notting Hill Carnival and so a day out not to be missed - not sure I had appreciated the full scale of the event - you hear the numbers of people attending in press reports but it isn;t until you are there that you see the full true scale.

This event is huge and the impacts upon the local area, the community are huge.

Just walking to the Carnival from where I live you could sense the growing crowds - Kilburn High Road was busier and had greater traffic - as we got to Kilburn Lane you could see the pubs were fuller and as you got to Harrow Road the queues at the bust stops were visible and vast.

For some in the community the experience has been err... negative.

There has been a bit of an elongated battle for the residents of what is called the Kensal Triangle trying to get toilet provision during the period of the carnival - well thanks to lots of noise, hassling and most especially the work of local councillor Simon Green this festival had toilets - and here are people queueing up to use them.

The are of course by the great local graffiti whihc has survived so far...

http://474towin.blogspot.com/2008/08/political-art-on-streets-is-that.html

For me the carnival was fun and lively and great music - but my enjoyment was partly based on the sure knowledge that I didn't have to be ivmoplved in the clean up - just how much jerk chicken can a street cleaning load into a rubbish bag?

William Friese Greene - Kilburn as the home of cinema?

So, does Kilburn have the claim to be the home of William Friese-Greene and cinematography? There are certainly enough traces and claims that are fairly easy to track down.

The Tricycle Theatre has a plaque on it's wall for the grand opening that pays tribute to Friese-Greene's work.

But none of the biographies I have found to date suggest or confirm a north london connection and not yet a Kilburn link... other than the Kilburn plaque...

Well in fact at the bottom of the Kilburn High Road, where it becomes Maida Vale I found Friese-Greene House - nothing special or flashy but very much there...

So clearly the rumour, the story, the myth and the tradition that he was Kilburn has some credence, supporters or validity.

It is suggested that Kilburn High Road was the location for Friese-Greene's studio's - and that the Tricycle is on the site of the those. These were not successful cinema's and Friese-Greene's role in the development of cinematography. His supporters suggest that he in fact effectively invetned the moving picture and that Thomas Edison secured the patent... other suggest that he was heading on the right lines but his lack of success, business acumen and inability to secure the patent that took off means his reputation has been dimmed and then controversial.

In tradition with all great inventors (it would seem) he died in dramatic circumstances whilst addressing a convention of film enthusiasts so his place in history has been at least noted and enhanced.

The main claim to his story lies with Brighton who are very keen to secure him: http://www.mybrightonandhove.org.uk/page_id__5718_path__0p117p157p344p.aspx

But there is one further piece in the Kilburn claim... just down the Kilburn High Road, a few yards from the Tricycle there is a row of late victorian buildings that has some stone tracery - in the form of film rolls! Now I am not suggesting that this is some kind of subliminal tribute to Friese-Greene, though it is possible (esp. given the lilely operational dates in Kilburn of 1888-1891), but I am saying that it feels like it adds some voracity to the claim that Kilburn has a cinematic tradition. It might be all those cinema's, but it might be the film experiment and development studios... any insights out there?

More on William Friese-Greene can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Friese-Greene which is a pretty balanced account.

The grand old country houses in NW6... now extinct?

There was time when the density of population on West End Lane and Kilburn High Road was very different - and not that long ago. Indeed most of both of these roads were lined by large almost county houses...

Maps of the late 19th century show both West End Lane and Kilburn High Road with a series of large detatched houses in garden settings.

So to find the remnants of this still highly visible last weekend was a real treat...

If you're in Kilburn Grange Park looking towards the Kilburn High Road there is a stunning modernist house with a view over the park and then from that house to the main entrance of the park (ie. behind the Black Lion) is a long brick wall with brick built pillars surmounted by large concrete balls.

It clearly isn't part of the park boundary wall and hasn't really been altered since the main High Road was changed into a series of commercial opportunities and rented above the shop blocks. I think this is the old garden wall of Grange House.

As the Kilburn High Road developed so the number of houses dwindled - this was a pretty fast period from the 1860's when the railway boom was underway through to the 1900's as the massive building work of most of the surviving architecture dates from... As I understand the local developments The Grange House, which was a large many bedroomed house, with most of the current Grange Park and more as it's grounds, was one of the last houses to survive.

The economic reality was that such large houses in such high demand development areas gave them high maintenance costs and made them expensive and unfashionable and so over this 50 year period of the second half of the 19th century they were sold, demolished and the arrival of retail and rent...

The Grange House was put up for sale in 1910 and the house was sold almost immediately - the demand to preserve the park was vocal and in 1911 Hampstead and Willesden Council's jointly stepped in and bought the park for preservation.

So that's the context and if you want to see the surviving evidence of the old house - walk into the park and the boundary back wall is there for all to enjoy...

The power of the lyric to capture an area...

Many's the day I took for granted
Breathing the air that silenced some
As the North Wind blew
With its head of thunder
Beating its breast with a war drenched song
Bathe awhile, awash in slumber
Cry what's left to sleep
Where you dream of the love you left forever
But pity no more nor grieve

For we're the kings of it all
For the day we were born
Now we're the kings of the Kilburn High
Sure we'll always take a drop and we'll never leave a sup
Your empty glass is but a tear filled eye
We were the kings of the Kilburn High

Listen to the sound of dead men dying
March as they flee but exiled bound
Their ship once sailed no longer anchors
For gone is the green
And their hallowed gound
Toast to tears of times past glories
This ageless clock chime stalls
Where to kiss the lips of that love forgotten
To fly where no others have soared

For we're the kings of it all
For the day we were born
Now we're the kings of the Kilburn High
Sure we'll always take a drop and we'll never leave a sup
Your empty glass is but a tear filled eye
We were the kings of the Kilburn High

Toast to tears of times past glories
This ageless clock chime stalls
Where to kiss the lips of that love forgotten
To fly where no others have soared
For we're the kings of it all
For the day we were born
Now we're the kings of the Kilburn High
Sure we'll always take a drop and we'll never leave a sup
Your empty glass is but a tear filled eye
We were the kings of the Kilburn High

and see it here:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=lNkkudZ_eGk

The Old Bell Public House in Kilburn

The Old Bell Pub is one of the oldest pubs in Kilburn and probably even dates from the time of Kilburn Priory. At the bottom of the Kilburn High Road it's at the strategic junction of the old Roman Road Watling Street, the old Kilburn River and the now railway line and associated bridge.

In more recent times it was the principle pub in the 30's at which many Irish workers could find accommodation - there used to be blackboards with chalk listings of landlords and bedsits.

It's credited with being on the spot behind which was the preaching field from medieval times through to the 1800's (this is part confirmed by Goldsmith's Place being renamed Springfield Lane...) and became the main drinking hole for those using the railway line after its' arrival.

The Ox red brick tiling certainly gives it that sense of railway tavern and the architecture is of that type too.

The pub is commemorated in the mural up by Kilburn Tube Station (pic right).

Are you coming to the Kilburn Festival: http://www.kilburnfestival.co.uk/

Other key postings on this bit of Kilburn:
http://474towin.blogspot.com/2008/04/outdoor-preaching-in-kilburn.html
http://474towin.blogspot.com/2008/03/yes-you-can-visit-kilburn-priory-today.html
http://474towin.blogspot.com/2008/03/changing-of-street-names.html

Please don't give me another plastic bag!

Ok so it's treated as being slightly odd - but that's precisely the issue.

Just nipped down to my local Sainsbury's for some consumables for my baking-fest that I'm about to embark on for the Hampstead Summer Fayre.

In a fit of greeness I did what I have wanted to do for a while and I asked to see the Manager to ask why, under the refitted store, the provision of plastic bags were so prominent, why the staff always asked me if I want bag (I DON'T!) and why the bag recycling point has gone.

I'm sure Darren (his name IIRC) didn't mean it but I felt like some kind of greeneyed monster asking a really silly thing - anyway we persisted with the conversation and I've asked him to:

• Consider changing the staff culture so the customer service line is - you don't need a bag do you, have you brought your own bags or can you carry this one item
• Make contact with the Kilburn Partnership and have the same dialogue with them
• Push for the restoration of the bag recycling point and
• Look again at what can be done here locally in Kilburn in hist store at his initiative.

I flagged up the existance of the I love Kilburn bags (I was using mine :-)) and he was interested in stocking them. So it's small dialogue and it was broadly positive.

But I was really struck at just how dififcult it was, from the point at which I made time, including the 'can I see the manager please' - WHY? - through to the can you change your culture, it won't lose you money or customers if you do.

And it saves the environement!

The wonders of Kilburn

When you are rushing along it's often too easy to miss the posters, the advertising and just to tut at the graffiti - yet some of the wall paintings are just stunning.

This one on the Kilburn High Road is probably the best I have ever seen - it's clever, colourful, skilled and deeply rooted in the history of the local area.

It's also much appreciated by others who have seen it
http://www.testmeat.co.uk/photos/index.php?id=165

http://www.orbville.com/forum/photos/136152

It was ranked 7th in the top ten graffiti in London and it is amazing - references to George Orwell, the Kilburn State cinema, HG Wells and his time machine and the local Irish community.

There's a statue of a very large man which IIRC refers to an old pub landlords who was at one point the second heaviest man in the world!
http://www.timeout.com/london/features/1647/2.html

The graffiti was brought about by the Kilburn Town Centre Partnership and it's really great addition to the local area - next time you're up by Kilburn Tube station (Jubilee Line) take a few minutes to have a proper look - there is so much to take it - it spans three walls...

Going overground with our rivers...

Ok - we want to bring the river back overground - it has lain underground since it was piped over 200 years ago and we want to enjoy it again...

Surely that's a daft idea? It hasn't be done elsewhere, has it? and it would cost a fortune and to what benefit?

Well, I think it's a superb idea - it's about restoring our proper environment. Everyone agrees that water flow is a calming influence and is a beautiful environmental feature. I have a picture here is the rive flowing down the High Street in Wells, Somerset and it is just so so special - attractive, helpful, not dangerous and manageable.

The Sustainability Task Force in Camden, led by Cllr Alexis Rowell has already explored this possibility and are actually advocating the opening up of the Rivers Fleet and Kilburn. Surely the Kilburn High Road could be so much better for a river running down it and as can be seen in the picture it adds to the street scene and does not intrude.

So if you go to the Camden website link - Pages 9-14 deal with this particular issue and opportunity - it's seriously interesting reading and worth while.
http://www.camden.gov.uk/ccm/navigation/environment/green-events-and-initiatives/sustainability-task-force/task-force-reports/

What do you think? Who's up for a walk of the overground flow of the Fleet and the Kilburn Rivers so we can explore whether bringing them back into visibility is a runner.. (excuse the pun!).

Ed Fordham

The National Ballroom WAS The Grange Cinema

The interest in old cinema's is fascinating - perhaps it's the 50's traditional off seeing the matinee and that generation of people are still around to take close interest - but I still get the biggest response when I post stuff about the local cinema's.

The Kilburn High Road is especially rich pickings in this regard and I posted earlier about the National Ballroom.
http://474towin.blogspot.com/2008/05/national-ballroom-could-make-comeback.html

Well I was passing this weekend and nopticed that in fact my hunch that it was called The grnage was right (i've clearly read or been told this before) because nestling behind one of the high growing trees you can still see the name of the cinema in the external stucco plaster work.

The window's as well are really stunning and would benefit from a serious decontamination of the pigeon army and then lighting from within - at least to get the pictures taken of them in full glory.

I have now been contacted by quite a few people willing to share their memories of the cinema's - i can see quite a piece of oral history ahead of me - who knows where this sort of historical capture goes? I sense that this is an especially good seam and that the Kilburn High Road is rich pickings in this regard...

The National Ballroom could make a comeback...

I'm told you could see queues down the Kilburn High Road at the peak of the cinema going 40's and 50's and oft course it is easy to forget that there were at least 4 cinema's.

The National was one of the most grand (though not as grand as the Gaumont State) and is still there today - only now as a church not a cinema.

Taking a walk around it you realise just how large and in fact dominant it is - an entire island off Grangeway that looms over Kilburn Grange Park.

Now it's a bit tatty and feels like it would benefit from a spruce up, but all the features are still there including the coloured glass windows.

It was first known as the Kilburn National Ballroom, then later as the Kilburn National Club, the National, with its distinctive dome, has played host to hundreds of major rock bands, from The Smiths to Nirvana to Blur.

There was even a short-lived music television programme broadcast live from the place in the 1980s.

In 1999 it was closed down after long legal battles over noise levels, and was converted into an evangelical Church which continues today.

Cinema's arouse great passion:
http://www.cinema-theatre.org.uk/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/collective/A2866971

Long live the fresh fishmongers shop!

It might be considered sentimental, it might be slightly daft, but my deep affection for local independent shops is at the core of my political beliefs.

This fishmongers in Kilburn, on the High Road, encapsulates it for me - local, genuine, fresh, popular.

The whole notion of what makes up a strong thriving community is demonstrated by this fishmonger - for me it is as important as the butchers was in Hampstead (before it closed!).

So it's really very simple - use it or lose it. I use it - please do go along - they're friendly, helpful, informative, great value...

KILBURN: the closer you look... the better it gets!

Outdoor preaching in Kilburn...

It's been a while since I blogged on ye olde history of Kilburn and have been meaning for follow up this particular thread - the outdoor preaching of Kilburn Vale and links to religious fervour down the years.

This site has talked about the development of the priory and it's subsequent demolition during the disolution of the monasteries.

http://474towin.blogspot.com/2008/03/yes-you-can-visit-kilburn-priory-today.html

Well I wondered about how these 'locations' remained religious over the years? The same principle/approach applies for post pagan England - there is considerable evidence that generally celtic religious sites became Roman ones and they in turn became Christian and so it continued in use.

So what happened in Kilburn after the fall of the priory and in the development of what we now see as the thriving Kilburn High Road?

Well, the strategic significance of the crossing of the Westbourne river remained - we have hermit place, the pubs (at least The Cock and the Red Lion and probably others) and the arterary road (old Watling Street) increasingly known as Edgware Road.

All the evidence points to Kilburn and in particular this point of the Kilburn High Road was a crucial staging post for travellers heading north.

Well I think an insight into what was happening in Kilburn is revealed by this old church hall (picture above) in Kilburn Vale - just opposite Hermit Place and near The Priory Tavern.


You can see the plaque on the left of the building on which is written

"Ebenezer Chapel was erected by Margaret Creswick in memory of her brother Thomas Creswick who departed this life August 31st 1868. He laboured daily among the sick and in the open air at Kilburn, St John's Wood and Primrose Hill. His first sermon was preached from a platform in the Abbey Fields 1859. His last sermon was delivered at the bridge near this spot one week before he fell asleep in Jesus. 'the memory of the just is blessed' This stone was laid July 18th 1870 John Fordham, builder"

The Abbey fields appear to have been behind the Red Lion pub - in Springfield Lane? http://474towin.blogspot.com/2008/03/changing-of-street-names.html - and have been a gathering point for people, open air discourse, I suspect like a speakers corner but in Kilburn.

It would have been busy, lively, possibly some street traders, a real sense of hustle and bustle and have been a gathering point for travellers fefore heading north - a focus for local people in regency and then victorian Kilburn... and here in Kilburn Vale on the side of an old chapel (that feels dis-used?) is a plaque giving some hint of that open air tradition.

The bird theme :-)

In the bird theme (http://474towin.blogspot.com/2008/03/birds-of-prey-on-fortune-green.html) this is one of the more interesting pubs around - at the bottom of West End Lane - it's near (3-400 yards) from the junction with Kilburn high Road on Kilburn Vale.

I have no experience of the pub being open, though clearly it has been open in recent times (http://www.viewlondon.co.uk/pubsandbars/the-bird-in-hand-info-10527.html) - but it's a great location and I think dead good that the occupier has kept the facade and all the features. - especially the pub sign.

Yes, you can visit Kilburn Priory today...

I have wanted to write a post on Kilburn Priory for some time and it's only in the last few days that I have had the time to wander round getting the pictures I needed in order to illustrate the story. It's quite good and there is much more to see than people realise, so here goes...

Early in the 12th century there was a small hermitage - not that unsual - near the Kilburn river (Kilbourne and various other spellings) and prob also on the edge of the wooded area that led from Kilburn up to Shoot-up-Hill.

Amazingly Hermit Place still survives by Kilburn Vale (pictured right) and hints at the probable location of the hermitage - of course the strategic location is very good and is perhaps confirmed by the Kilburn High Road railway station - i.e. this a good place to stop and alight. The hermit was apparently called Godwyn - his existence is placed at the start of the 12th century in the reign of Henry I (1100-1135). Around this arose a community of religious - probably nuns - and in time a priory. The geography is important because this was a major crossing point for the river and for accessing Watling Street (later Edgware Road, the High Road Kilburn, now Kilburn High Road) which was the main road from London to St Albans - a major place of pilgrimage.

Today, three elements survive - Kilburn Grange Park, the Red Lion (now sadly The Westbury - pictured right - you can see the dating claim above the Red Lion itself) founded in 1444 and part of the series of inns that lined the travellers road north and also The Cock Tavern (first licensed in 1486 and boldly emblazoned on the front of the building - pic right).

It is likely that the Priory was founded under Henry's reign - there was something of a growth of religious patronage at this time - the nuns who settled there founded an Augustine community and this is dated to 1134. The Priory grew in size, but rarely in wealth and was dogged by financial problems. However, it was still a significant estate and had a number of elements - church, guesthouse (possibly on the site of the Bell Tavern today - this may even have been the original Red Lion), farmhouse as well as the associated outhouse for animals, grazing, harvest etc - some of these were thought to be on the edge of what is now Grange Park.

Precisely where the Priory itself lay is a little unclear and I have not had the time to sit down and examine archaeological reports for the area, but I have always been under the impression that much/most was on the now Camden side.

However the gem I recently discovered were the actual remains of the priory.

Just down Coventry Close opposite the Bell Inn, are the actual physical remains of the well (below left) and massive lumps of the priory - the story has always been that the priory was poor (financially) and yet looking at the surviving chunks of masonry you realise the massive scale of the building. Sure, it may have had low disposable income (to use modern jargon) but the resources to build it were not spared! I reckon these pics are pretty incredible and don't seem very widely known or recognised.

The Priory, of course, came to an end with the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII - an audit in 1535, full closure in 1536 and demolition soon after. many of the buildings will have survived and been used for other alternatives - apparently part survived until 1790 when it was finally taken down and the stone re-used.

I suspect that the remains we can see today are from the church/prioriy itself rather than the residential parts - i.e. demolished at the time of the dissolution which is why they lay unoticed until the construction of the current estate in the 1950's.

So enjoy one of the little seen and unknown treasures of Kilburn Priory - still visible, still massive and impressive - what else it there out there - I suspect much much more...

Kilburn music mystery solved...

So the music mystery is finally solved - thank you Janet Grauberg.

http://474towin.blogspot.com/2008/02/kilburns-musical-past.html

The building at the bottom of West End Lane, where it meets Kilburn High Road, has four musical 'medallions' - details on the links above. I have reproduced the picture of the building here.

I suggested that it might of been a music school, but in fact (and of course lessons might have taken place there) it was Philip's Music Shop - opposite what was Parr's Bank.

Philip's moved here in 1891 and the shop closed in the 1930's. Amongst other services they hired out piano's, but are now captured by the medallions on the wall...

Mystery solved... :-)

There is a picture of the Kilburn High Road when the music shop was there in Kilburn and Cricklewood, by Marinanne Colloms and Dick Weindling.

Kilburn's musical past?

It might be that there is a history that we have missed, but I'm not aware of a Kilburn School of Music, and I've read most of the history texts on the local area.

But this building on the corner of West End Lane and Kilburn High Road has had some busts that I thought interesting. A few snaps (albeit poor quality ones) and the mystery has come to an end.

http://474towin.blogspot.com/2008/02/are-old-music-schools-listed-anywhere.html

In fact this building boasts four busts of music greats:

Mozart, Handel, Beethoven and Vivaldi.

Once one was identified it seemed pretty straightforward, but it leaves the question why and what was the building... answers on a e-postcard please

How street names get their nomenclature :-)

One of the most frequent asks is ‘where does the street name come from’ and for north west London the link with Kent and Africa is perhaps a little obscure.

In simple terms here are four of the ‘connections’:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asmara
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menelek_II_of_Ethiopia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somali_Region
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skardu

The Powell- Cotton family owned vast tracts of the land along the Edgware Road (now Kilburn High Road) and gradually started the process of cashing in on their land as demand for housing development grew.

Most of the places were named after the Powell-Cotton links in Kent and their own estate of Quex Park or places in Africa and India that Major Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton (1866-1940) visited (pic. left).

The Major made over 28 expeditions to Africa and his records, collections and trophies, now much frowned upon as a sport, are being used as an amazing anthropological resource for conservation and wildlife charities.

Menelik was a personal choice after he had an audience with the then famous Ethiopian Emperor Menelik II (pic. below left).

The speed of the local developments in West Hampstead/Cricklewood/Kilburn development was pretty intense and this is the source of many of the street names.

You really get a sense of the scale of building that was happening and also the money that would have changed hands (presumably giving the Powell-Cotton family significant income at a time when there was a lot of spending on the world travel!

The chronology works something like this (I have plundered a host of sources here!):

1855 plans for Shoot-Up-Hill were drawn up but then deferred for greater clarity on what was planned for the new railway lines.

1866 plans approved for the Liddell estate of Quex Road, Birchington Road and Mutrix Road.

1890s plans were approved for north of Mill Lane
- Fordwych Road by 1892 and houses built between 1892 and 1907.
- Minster Road between 1891 and 1900
- Gondar Gardens between 1892 and 1896, with the flats going up in 1899
- Westbere Road between 1893 and 1904
- Sarre Road from 1896 and 1904
- Skardu Road in 1897
- Manstone Road (15 houses in 1899-1900)
- Rondu Road (6 houses in 1900)

1890’s and 1900’s then saw the Cricklewood Broadway and Parade areas developing
- Richborough Road in 1885 and then again from 1892 to 1899
- Ebbsfleet Road, named in 1893
- Somali Road between 1904 and 1908
- Asmara Road had a couple of houses in 1912
- Menelik Road in 1913.

And the after World War I it resumed in 1918:
- Westbere Road gained 70 houses
- Somali, Menelik, and Asmara roads were further developed between 1922 and 1928.

The things you see and take for granted

I found time to pause and look up along the Kilburn High Road the other day and have now sorted out and picked out what I think are this illuminating set of pics - nothing much, but just little insights into the vibrancy and history of the area.

Picture 1:
GW & AE Thomson Ltd
CASH LENT
JEWELLERY DIAMONDS
It's a great old metal sign from an age now slipping out of view - magnificently the shop beneath is still a jewellers - I do think that this needs either the building owner to leave the sign up or to take it down now and put it in the Museum of Kilburn (whenever that comes about! - perhaps Kilburn Library or one of the archive offices should take the sign now with the owners agreement?)

Picture 2:
The Tricyle Cinema and Theatre has a landmark status now for the area leading on Irish and Black traditions, drama and culture. The Theatre opened in 1980 in the old Forresters Hall (the Forresters shop front still survives in full operational status) before being burnt down in 1987 and rebuilt opening in 1998. The sign on the KHR is just great and I love the tricycle mechanism just inside this open hallway also (well worth a look if passing) - and has a great little coffee bar inside.

Picture 3:
The Black Lion Pub is just an architectural masterpiece of it's type - great street presence, well maintained, and inside - well, it just takes our breath away. It has the best of pub architecture and probably my best and favourite pub for aesthetics. I have other critieria such as atmosphere, beer quality, fond memories etc. that put other pubs high up my list. But the long and short is if you haven't been in this pub you are really missing something.

Pic 4:
Vacancy board on the High Road. This dates back to a time when the High Road was identified as the heart land of temporary and indeed very packed bed and breakfast boarding. I suspect that it was areas such as this that generated the definition of 'garret' in old parlance. I'm told that this sign is the last one of what used to be one on every building advertising vancies - the Old Bell used to have boards showing vacancies and that this little sign is one of the last vestiges of the need for hundreds of rooms for rent from the days of the thousands of Irish workers who moved into the area and were very mobile and transient when they first got here...

Picture 5:
The old sign advertising the newspaper of record: THE KILBURN TIMES. Founded in 1867 the Kilburn Times has outlived all of the other newspapers of Kilburn and area. papers it has seen off have included Kilburn & Queen's Park Post, Kilburn Free Press, and Kilburn News and the Kilburn Post. I'm told that this sign dates from the 1970's and has been updated at various times.

Picture 6:
My favourite: the old cigarette wall painting advert - previously covered in the blog and reproduced here because it is my favourite picture.

The extra pavement on Minster Road

The road works on the bridge on Minster Road have been done - all fine and dandy.

And crucially the bit on the left hand side (travelling from Kilburn high Road/Cricklewood Boradway) has had the pathway built out to enable people parking (mainly residents) to open their door and get out.

It might be very common, but I hadn't seen such a measure before and I thought it was dead good - meant the railings didn't intrude etc etc.

A small, but helpful measure.

Why are old signs better?

I've been noticing just how much better, more attractive, more stylish the old features of the local area are - it's really curious - I saw an old picture of the first Ian Drury and the Blockheads first album cover (apparently taken outside Woolworths on the Kilburn High Road) and even that makes the shop look better than it does now!

So I caught these two images - one is a small label road sign above a road name in Hampstead and the other is a old street frontage from Kilburn Lane, Brent.

The first (first pic) is a stret sign pre 1964 (i.e. before the creation of Camden) when Hampstead was it's own Borough.

The lettering is old fashioned, perhaps it is out of date, but to me there is something that is inherently attractive about it and that adds to a locality. If I recollect correctly it's Rosecroft Avenue (Frognal and Fitzjohn's ward).

The sense of detail and the individual lettering gives residents a real sense of pride, that their Borough matters and that their Council cares. It's good that Camden still repairs and restores these old signs, but perhaps more of a shame that where new signs go in they are the standard metal formulaic signage.

The second is taken at the other end of the constituency on Kilburn Lane (where it meets Chamberlayne Road) in Queen's Park ward. It's an old shop front - lying empty and there is this old mosaic from when the shop was Craven Laundry.

The more I find things like this I can't help but think there should be some kind of historic audit of an area that seeks to save, enhance, promote these sorts of features.

Perhaps this is one of things that residents associations could be mobilised for? I spent much of tonight in a residents association and one of the discussions was about the formal role - maybe there should be a remit of environmental responsibility - identifying features, assets and historic hangovers.

Oh, and just to make my point even better the shop front (albeit closed) has the old mosaic protected by a set of old railings (granted, they are prob post WWII) but they do add character and charm.