All roads lead to... Kilburn?

I was down in the City of London for the meeting of the management committees of Hampstead Heath , Keats House and Queen's Park when I spied this little gem.

Ye Olde Watling public house
There's a great summary review here http://ultimatepubguide.com/pubs/info.phtml?pub_id=353
including the much repeated claim that this pub was built on the instruction of Christopher Wren for workers on the St Paul's project...

The picture isn't great quality - I was in a rush and the light was falling and failing, but of course it's also on Watling Street.

The road later (physically and historically), as it heads north, becomes Edgware Road, then Maida Vale, the Kilburn High Road and Shoot Up Hill, Cricklewood Broadway and off into England's shires...

But of course it starts somewhere and as I dashed for my tube to Mansion House I had forgotten that it was in fact here.

Don't worry good readers I didn't delay, but a return visit to the watering hole before emabarking north to Kilburn seems appropriate at some point...

Anyone else want to join me here for a sneaky half one day soon?

Toilets on the tourist trail?

Known, understood, but little spoken of... London's celebrated gay past (is that a contradiction?).

Joe Orton is a sell out playwright, but there is a dark story-ending to his glittering ability (he was murdered by his partner) and the much reported court case of Islington Libraries combine with this public toilet in South End Green, Hampstead (picture right and interior below left).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Orton

http://www.joeorton.org/

This is the only toilet still in use that Joe Orton is confirmed as having 'used' and so it enjoys something of a touch of notoriety...

http://www.qxmagazine.com/pdf/gayhistory-north.pdf

The toilet itself is bizarrely pretty and glamorous and reminds me of those at Stoke-on-Trent Railway Hotel - which of course draw on the potteries tradition.

But the wall to ceiling tiling has a dramatic gleaming effect and combined with the black pediments creates an almost gothic victoriana to them.

I have done a note to the Joe Orton website - link above - asking them to reflect North West London in their photo gallery of associated Orton places and features. We shall see what happens, but pop down to South End green and have a look - a brief look.

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

We've finished with it - remove it!

These cursed phone boxes litter the local area in a very specific limited number of locations and are absolutely impossible to get rid of.


I know of one dogged Brent councillor who managed to get one removed but for the most part they lie on the street, unused, disconnected (for phone calls), increasingly neglected and damaged...

But becuase the firm that put them up doesn't exist there appears to be some kind of arcane reason why they can't be taken down by the Local Authority (in this case Brent).

Well, there's a new way in town and it occurred here on the Kilburn High Road - badly damaged by a passing truck and it was removed as dangerous.



There is one on Station Terrace, Kensal Rise: it is a bit more tricky to run over, but it prob worth a try!

:-))

A reminder of the scare of an empty building

I just stumbled across this in my photo file and it reminded me of ther brief period when local residents and traders were worried about the shops laying empty and the nervousness of what was coming.

We are looking here at the shops opposite Hampstead Post Office on the High Street just near the zebra crossing (which I think I'm standing on when I took this picture).

Empty shops can be so devastating and the effect on perception, moral and actual trade so demoralising...

So it's good when the refurb happens and they re-open...

http://474towin.blogspot.com/2009/01/two-shops-merge-into-one-unit.html

Hanging a cardboard sign up adds confidence - it's true!

It's a good example of how to do highly visible christmas decorations and it's from Seven Dials.

The Seven Dials project which is now several years old is for me a model on how to take a neglected area and, using it's history, transform it into the height of fashion, desirablity whilst retaining it's charm and character.

The effect is then further built upon through innovative, intelligent and niche marketing drawn through in these card (?) christmas advertings that were suspended across the streets.

Yes, I know the buildings are tall and close but there are opportunities elsewhere it is just that too often there is the lack of ambition and vision to actually move an area forward...

More of this sort of this sort of stuff helps a lot I think in the place shaping debate and adds confidence. Could we see this nest year in Hampstead, Belsize, Kilburn, Salusbury Road and Kensal Rise?

Two shops merge into one unit

After the scare last year that Sainsbury's or an equivalent was going to move into Hampstead High Street the shops on the High Street were being watched nervously by residents and fellow traders.

In itself this might not be a problem but there was a wider fear that the current small shops would be amalgamated together, thus loosing a retail shop and that it would be a brash chain, thus loosing the local charm.

At a time of recession (official today!) there was a greater fear that shops would lie empty and rot would set in.

This an important little range of shops and they have great character.

Sadly it does look like two shops are becoming one unit, but the question of who it was to be was hanging in the air.

Now we have the answer: Zadig and Voltaire - a pretty exclusive chain which all adds to the local reputation.

Good luck to them as they open for business.

I hope they join NW3 Hampstead - the local traders association. :-)