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?

Being co-educated in a built urban environment

The history of UCS (University College School) is pretty straight forward and so you would think...

But as I was passing at the weekend I reflected on the fact that in 1907 the mov was to generous greenfield sites on the outskirts of London - Hampstead. Nopw clearly Hampstead is pretty leafy but now given the traffic pressures, the area doesn't feel like a vast green site.

But I was struck that this picture I took earlier in the summer gives the green atmosphere beautifully.

UCS has just celebrated 100 years of success and with that went a new history of the school. Nigel Watson, was commissioned to write what isthe third history of the school (the other two being in 1930 and 1980).

The UCS website lays proudly (rightly) lays out something of the philosophy of the school:

"UCS was founded to be different from other schools and it remains so today. Our liberal philosophy lends the school a distinctiveness of which we are extremely proud. We are, of course, committed to academic excellence. We believe, however, that this should be more than a narrow aim in itself.

"Excellence at UCS at every level from age 3 to 18, results from not only effective teaching and learning. It depends upon respect for the individuality of each pupil, recognition of each pupil's talents, interests and potential, and a very high quality of personal care.

"Education at UCS is a friendly and purposeful co-operation between school, pupil and home. Founded as a tolerant community without religious or ethnic barriers, we could not approach our work in any other way."

So why am I precisely musing on this? - well, this week, 1st September, sees the school going co-educational and admitting girls into the sixth form. Long overdue or timely doesn't really matter - it happened this week. :-)

Why Overground need to listen to a Users Group for the North London Line

The North London Line (I assume it is still called the North London Line even though it's part of Overground) is being gradually tidied up - or at least new signs are going up and handrails are being painted.

But frankly I'm looking for a bigger shift than just the paint colour. Now we do have the security guards, but there's a bit of work needed on some of the customer service based on my experience - and I'm using about 4-5 different stations a week - and some fixture repairs are going on.

My picture here is of a dumping area at Kensal Rise that needs cleaning up - it's pretty grim, use an area used for putting full bin bags and is generally being used as a storage space for rubbish and becoming an eyesore. it's not the only one - it is just one example I saw when i had the camera.

But there is a still a further catalogue of repairs and enhancements that are needed:

- the graffiti at Brondesbury

- the awful awful wire security fence at Finchley Road and Frognal

- the bike rack in the wrong place at Hampstead Heath

- the lack of screens in the various ticket halls which mean you have to swipe your oyster card to go in and find out if a train is due (yes, I know there is a printed timetable, but trains on this line are frequently late and the screen is the only way of finding out actually likely departure times).

Oh, and when the trains are cancelled I hope that there is a better system in future than this one I caught on a recent sunday...

Yes, the piece of flip chart paper says "NO TRAINS FROM THIS STATION 12.30 TODAY

02/12/07 Sunday"

And the even more amusing piece of tape over the Oyster swipe card point says "NO TRAINS TODAY."

To be fair these were put up by a member of staff who 'happened to be there' and who was trying to be helpful - but it didn't feel very professional and did nothing to assist the people who had bought tickets cos the machine is separate from the swipe point or the stairs to the platforms...

For these reasons and more I'm very keen to accelerate setting up a Users Group for the 6 affected stations - please do get in touch. I'm hoping to get a meeting sorted in the next week or so and will let everyone know.

ed.fordham@hampsteadandkilburn.org.uk

A Users Group for the North London Line?

For too long the North London Line has sat neglected and tatty. It is without a doubt one of the most useful lines of transport in London - for starters it goes across London (east west) rather than the perennial north south, second it stops in places people live in rather than just shopping centres (such as Brondesbury Park) and third it goes to really useful places (connecting at Willesden Junction, down to both Stratford and Kew).

However, for a long time now it has felt low grade - unstaffed at night, poorly lit, subject to a lot of graffiti - a general air of neglect.

The North London Line is now being transformed in reputation as part of Overground - there are staff (albeit a bit security led - there's some need for some customer service training in places) and ticket barriers and with these elements the re-paint jobs.

The effect is to restore some confidence and tackle the back-log of works.

With that end in mind there has been an ongoing conversation with the regional station manager about setting up a users group for the 6 stattions along the bit of the line that runs from Kensal Rise to Hampstead Heath (Kensal Rise, Brondesbury Park, Brondesbury, West Hampstead, Finchley Road & Frognal, Hampstead Heath). If you're intersted and up for this then please do drop me a line ed.fordham@hampsteadandkilburn.org.uk - it's hoped to have a a meeting in the next few weeks to get a group going - it's not rocket science, we don't want to to make it too onerous, but just a chance to be the eyes and ears on the line, making things better, giving suggestions and where useful working with TfL and Overground to push forward enhancements.

Please do get in touch.