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?

Polar Bears abound...

We're at 104 Finchley Road at one of the main junction points and yet this pub is almost lost in the noise maelstrom of the modern traffic flow of the Finchley Road.

The North Star was built in 1850 - one of the many watering holes that appeared as the route became more popular (from the 1830's onwards) - an alternative from either Watling Street (Kilburn High Road) or the windy routes up and through Hampstead.

It's a strong and dominant architecture but of course is now aligned with the route of the Metropolitan line which apparently runs a mere 3 feet under the cellar - from where the vibration and noise can be easily heard.

This has to be one of the nicest pub signs and for lovers of Philip Pullman surely worth a stop-off for a drink and picture?

The ironwork on the first floor balcony is original to 1850 and is the last bit that reflects this pubs role as a viewing and resting spot - the roof used to have a balustrade from which one could survey north west London - now the building feels decidedly low rise, but upon a time was a significant height in the local architecture.

A brief indulgence please....

I try and focus this blog on local historical, architectural and curious features of interest - it's not often I give way to my own very specific preference - besides the genre of the content. :-)

But Louis' cafe - one in Heath Street, Hampstead, and the other on Finchley Road, Swiss Cottage, are great institutions... This is the Hampstead branch.

You haven't been? Get there now!

My other regular haunt is of course the inimitable Wet Fish Cafe on West End Lane - we love it, love it, love it...

http://474towin.blogspot.com/2008/06/wet-fish-cafe-is-just-best.html

Not sure on the passing trade but hey...

I haven't publicised it too much really, but I have a small YouTube channel on which I've done a few local video's and campaign clips.

A couple of them date back a few years now, but still have some currency.

I'm struck by the extent to which some of the issues have moved on so much and how some are due to come round again to bite. In particular I'm sure that there will be a club application for the site on Finchley Road (formerly The Establishment and previously Barclays Bank).

Here's the simple links
Camden Green Fair:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=onx3C2c0yPQ&feature=channel_page

Granny Drippen Steps:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=etCpLIPdSLo&feature=channel_page

Just 474 votes to win here in Hampstead and Kilburn:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=L3NxZTyKfnQ&feature=channel_page

They can all be found at http://uk.youtube.com/user/474towin

Enjoy! And feedback is always appreciated if it's not too cruel :-)

Has public philanthropy currency in our libraries?

The old Central Library on Arkwright Road has all the atmosphere of a grand old library in the philanthropic tradition and so it is not surprising to find that the cost was covered by a gift from Sir Henry Harben.

This further enforced when you learn that the reference library comprised 8,000 volumes of Professor Henry Morley's Library and a local archive collection including a survey of 1680 of the heath. After severe damage in 1940 and 1945 the adjoining bombed sites were bought for future enlargement, but in 1964 the library closed.

It is now a grade II listed building and serves as Camden Arts Centre.

Libraries in the local area have a long pedigree:

• 1833 saw the foundation of Hampstead subscription library
• 1887 started free lending to working-class readers from Stanfield House
• 1891 created a specific reading room for users
• 1892, Hampstead Vestry set up commissioners to provide libraries outside of Hampstead after the adoption of the Public Libraries Act
• 1894 saw the first local public library at 48 Priory Road, Kilburn
• 1896 was the start of construction of the Central Library on the corner of Finchley and Arkwrights Roads, designed by A S Tayler and opened the following year
• 1897 saw the Belsize branch library in Antrim Grove
• 1899 The Central Library began full lending library facilities
• 1901 saw West Hampstead branch library was opened on the corner of Westbere and Sarre roads
• 1907 Heath branch library opened as Worsley Road branch in the former school building
• 1909 saw the addition of a children's library to The Central Library
• 1910 Belsize was adapted from it's series of reading and reference rooms into an open-access library
• 1936 Belsize was closed due to structural defect and a new building opened on the same site the following year.
• 1940 West Hampstead branch Library was destroyed during the war and temporarily located
• 1950 the West hampstead library moved to Cholmley Gardens on Fortune Green Road and the corner of Mill Lane
• 1954 a new West Hampstead branch library was built as part of a housing development at the corner of Dennington Park Road and West End Lane where it continues today
• 1964 The Central Library was closed and transferred to the new swiss Cottage site

http://www.camdenartscentre.org/home/

Following a reburbishment by Tony Fretton Architects, Camden Arts Centre re-opened to the public in 2004. The beautiful and sensitively designed building combines the original victorian gothic features with a contemporary urban design to enhance space and light. The new galleries attract artists of the highest calibre, able to display a broad range of work including installation, film and video, light sensitive drawings and sculpture.

Boxing fights at Swiss Cottage...

When we were kids, my sister and I always knew when we were close to our relatives cos we had reached Swiss Cottage - either on the bus or in the car. It was for us the landmark that we had reached London.

By nature of the colours, decor, design and signage I always had some sort of image that it had been the early retirement project of a former swiss guard, that a swiss person had one lived there... all good daydream stuff.

The current site of the pub is not quite how many local folk remember it - it was fronted by a grill and pub until the 1960's - now you can sit outside and enjoy the road of the vehicles that circle the giratory system. :-)

The 'cottage' appears to date from about 1804 or 1805 and the pub from the 1840's and was The Swiss Tavern, now Ye Olde Swiss Cottage - it's architecture is pretty amazing especially given the increasingly high rise nature of the local area what with the Swiss Cottage development itself around the Library and Sports Centre and also the residential blocks of the Finchley Road.

It seems it's more mundane and more connected with the pub and musical hall traditions and is in fact named after an opera of the 19th century.

The pub and music tradition is often overlooked and pubs were often drinking holes at which the stars of the stage were discussed and championed - the Lillie Langtree in Kilburn for example (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lillie_Langtry).

Former champion boxer Frank Redmond was the landlord of the pub in the 1840's and is attributed with being the first landlord. he was a public figure and used the pub as a venue for running races and outdoor boxing events.

Notable jewish fighter Barney Aaron won £50 when Frank Redmond forfeited their bout in August 1827. Two months later, on October 23, Barney defeated Redmond in 1 hour and 12 minutes, in a bout that went 42 rounds.

The swiss theme was made popular by the opera Le Chalet which was performed in 1834, first in Paris and later in London (but untraced).

The architectural swiss theme certainly had popularity in the victorian era and whilst it stands out now as being slightly eccentric it had currency then: http://www.timetravel-britain.com/articles/london/swiss.shtml

Swiss Cottage is also one of five underground stations named after nearby pubs...

http://474towin.blogspot.com/2008/05/swiss-cottage-formerly-swiss-tavern.html

Swiss Cottage - formerly The Swiss Tavern

Swiss Cottage is one of the significant landmarks of London - not least because it is the traffic landmark for many people arriving in London. Certainly when travelling down to see aunts and grandparents as a young boy, we knew we were close when we got to Swiss Cottage.

Now the main landmark is the pub and the tube station - I was discussing yesterday with a friend whether anyone actually lives in 'swiss cottage'. It's also an administrative district for elections - Swiss Cottage Ward in Camden - but as a residential area...

In the Swiss Cottage ward many people consider themselves to live in West Hampstead, South Hampstead, Primrose Hill - the actually definition of Swiss Cottage as a geographic area is very small.

Now Swiss Cottage tube station is a London Underground station at Swiss Cottage. It is on the Jubilee Line, between Finchley Road and St. John's Wood. It is in Travelcard Zone 2.

This picture captures what I think is the great 20s/30s architecture of the tube station escalator... it's really stunning and has actually been well matched by the modern architecture of much of the rest of the jubilee line (esp. at Westminster Station).

Opened on November 20, 1939 on the Stanmore branch of the Bakerloo Line, Swiss Cottage station was transferred to the Jubilee Line in 1979. The station was originally called The Swiss Tavern (after the pub which is early 19th century), but was soon changed to Swiss Cottage.

Swiss Cottage has always been a major transport hub and in the early 19th century saw a couple of parliamentary bills on the Finchley Road toll road (1835).

The Victoria County History records this in full:
"Omnibuses routes were pushed farther north with the spread of building and opening of suburban railway stations after 1855. By 1880 they not only stretched along Kilburn High Road to Brondesbury but also served Kilburn and West Hampstead by way of Abbey Road and the area north of Swiss Cottage by way of Finchley Road as far as Finchley Road station. Later omnibuses were extended along Finchley Road to meet others from Edgware Road along West End Lane, continuing north to Childs Hill in Hendon."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_Cottage_tube_station
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_cottage
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=22632&strquery=swiss%20cottage

Origins of Platt's and Kidderpore...

By nature of the local government boundaries areas that exist, communities that in fact are part of a whole appear to be split in two by nature of one road - so it is with Platt's Lane.

Platt's Lane sounds really idylic (and it is) - is one of the most attractive street names around - and yet at the far northern border of the London Borough of Camden - or even on the far south of the London Borough of Barnet is slightly isolated from appreciation.

I remember speaking with Peter Cadogan when he blamed a cleric (bishop?) of St Alban's who had the chance to re-unite Kilburn in the 1300's and who didn't, thus sundering the commujnity of Kilburn into two.
http://474towin.blogspot.com/2007/11/part-of-kilburn-has-passed-away.html
Now of course, Kilburn is a commercial shopping area - in a way that Platt's Lane isn't, but it led me to consider the name origin of 'Platt's'.

Perhaps it was predictable: Thomas Platt owned the area and in about 1810 he bought a farmhouse (with the attendant out-buildings) and enlarged it - then on the border of the heath - it was in an area much more woooded than now, and built what was regarded as a very fashionable and pleasant house.

Before this the landowners were thought to be part of the old Templar estate of North West London (sic. Templar House, West Hampstead)

There is then (post 1830's) pretty fast local development:

• T Howard built Kidderpore Hall, for John Teil, an East India merchant which gives the origin of the name http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidderpore. (now Kidderpore Avenue and Kidderpore Gardens)

"One of the oldest parts of Calcutta, Kidderpore has a legend as far as its name is concerned. It is said that the British couldn't pronounce bengali. So when they asked for the directions to the port where ships were harboured, their broken hindi sounded somewhat like 'kidder-port' and hence the name Kidderpore came into existence."

• Two lodges were added, one in 1849 on Finchley road, another in 1867 on Platt's Lane.
• Four houses facing Finchley Road were built in the 1840s in the district called New West End (West End of Hampstead).
• By 1870 the farm buildings at Platt's Lane had been replaced by a house.
• Two cottages were built in Platt's Lane by P. Bell of West End in 1875.
• 13 houses, build/designed by George Pritchard, between 1884 and 1886.

http://474towin.blogspot.com/2008/03/changing-of-street-names.html
http://474towin.blogspot.com/2008/02/one-of-most-frequent-asks-is-where-does.html

Save the old visible painted wall adverts!

There's quite a few old visible painted wall adverts round here in North West London and I'm taking pictures as I go - and it seemed worth sharing them.

On the side of walls, usually in commercial shopping areas, there are quite a few old painted wall adverts that are still visible. Clearly fading, but not yet obscured, they are left to brave the elements.

I noticed that one in West Hampstead had been cleaned away recently and also on the Finchley Road, but this nice old from from West Hampstead Mews has hung on... There's another really good one on the Kilburn High Road which I'll try and capture in the next few days when I pass it next.

I just think it adds some real character to the area. A mate of mine commented that they have the same definition of old medieval paintings that are sometimes uncovered in churches - I'm not sure I'd go that far, but you get the idea...