election slow down

The delay on the blog site has been visible and palpable but now this election is over I'm going to be picking this back up...

Ed

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.

Just 474 more votes - writ large...

For too many weeks we have had to endure billboards of David Cameron and the Tory Party - funded from abroad...

I'm proud and delighted that local residents, friends of mine, supporters, people who live here in NW6, NW3 agreed to fund a specific number of billboards in support of our campaign for a new type of local MP.

The first of these has gone up in Hilltop Road, near Swiss Cottage and received quite a lot of comment judging by my e-mail in-box!

Enjoy! :-)

Ed

Souces 1

I often get asked where I get the content for the blog and especially the reference text books. The simple answer is that virtually all of the blog is driven by my own photographs but I have a shelf of local history text books that I constantly refer to to try and check things out.

So over the next few weeks I'll try and gve a few pointers of recommended books and pamphlets:

- Hampstead Past, by Christopher Wade, published in 1989 and reprinted in 2002 by Historical Publications Ltd. ISBN 0 948667 05 2

- Wartime Camden (booklet), compiled by Valerie Hart and Lesley Marshall, 1983, London Borough of Camden Libraries and Arts Department

- The Good Grave Guide to Hampstead Cemetery, Fortune Green, by Marianne Colloms and Dick Weindling, 2000 by Camden History Society, ISBN 0 904491 47 1

- Queen's Park, Kensal, Brondesbury and Harlesden, A Pictorial History by Len Snow, 2006, Phillimore, ISBN 1 86077 416 4

- Buildings of England, London 4: North, by Bridget Cherry and Nikolaus Pevsner, 2002, Yale University Press, ISBN 0 300 09653 4

Back in service - busy and typing

My apologies for the gap in service on the blog - it's been a shade busy as I'm sure you all understand.

The election is now looming big and proper - but that's just the excuse - I have loads of bits and pieces worth sharing on here so am now playing catch up.

Most recently I was at the east London reception for President Sharrif Ahmed, President of the Transitional Government of Somalia.

It was an incredibly moving and emotional evening for the 9,000 Somalis present - and as one of the few non-Somalis present it was a huge honour for me to be there. The President was preceeded by a host of speeches, singers, dancers and a rage of colour and cheering and then made an incredibly measured and sincere speech to the assembled throng.

Now my Somalia is not very good (non-existent) but I was able to appreciate firstly the significance of the occasion but also the art-deco surroundings of the theatre we were in - curious similar and resplendant to the Kilburn Gaumont State Cinema (but of course smaller!). :-)