I had Sunday to myself so did some homework on Saturday evening, to see if there was anything on worth doing. I remember that I have often ended up on the www.eventbrite.co.uk site so I thought I would have a search on the website directly. I came up trumps I found Londoner offers walks in London cost just £10 for a 3 hours which seemed good value. The meet up point was Ladbroke Grove tube station. The instructions in the email said “The walk will start fairly promptly at 11am. From the meeting point outside Ladbroke Grove tube station we will be heading along Malton Road to St Marks Road so, if you are delayed, by walking briskly in that direction you should be able to catch up with us.”
The subject of the walk was “Stuart’s first walk”. According to the website: In Geoff Nicholson’s novel Bleeding London, jaded tour guide Stuart London sets out to walk every street in the A-Z.
“He knew he had to begin somewhere and he knew that in one sense, any place was as good as another, but he scanned the index of his A-Z looking for a street name that sounded appropriate. His eyes fell on a line that read North Pole Road. Next day he went there and started his walk.” (p.84)
This walk takes in some of the streets that Stuart would have covered in this first walk.
I considered driving up just like Stuart did as it would save 30 minutes journey time, but in the end opted for the more relaxing train journey. The 09:07 from Berkhamsted would get me to the appointed tube station for 10:30 time for a coffee and cake. Unusually the Euston train was alighting on platform 2, rather than the usual 4. A few people had not read the signs and an elderly gentleman put them right. He told me on a Sunday it was best to wait at the top of the stairs as you never knew if the platform would change. Apparently the lights indicated the line was in slow mode, hence the reason for platform 4 not being used.
At Euston I walked west to Euston Square station to so that I could get on a train without changing before getting to Ladbroke Grove. I wax early so popped into Cafe Nero for a coffee and a pee. They had the Sunday times lying around so I spent some time reading up on the news, or what ever it is they have in that publication. Apparently most of the last 12 London marathon winners were tainted by suspicious blood counts, Mo Farah passed the tests OK so England are off the hook, and it is the Russians who they are pointing there finger at. It looks like the labour candidate Corbyn us going to be the next leader, and will most likely shake things up a bit, which is a refreshing change to the middle of the road stuff we have had for a few decades.
We walked away from the tube station and under the Westway for a bit, then we went into the suburbs. The guide Jen told us about a number 7 ghost bus which has been seen in May at 0130 going down Cambridge Gardens without a drive. It has so the myth goes been the cause of a few accidents.
Further along we passed a church, on St Quintin, which was rebuilt after being destroyed during the war. In the church hall the BBC held rehearsals for such programs as Z Cars. One of my fellow guidees, and a local, can remember hanging around outside to get autographs.
We passed the hospital where Roger Daltry was born, although it is named Hammersmith hospital it is not in Hammersmith. Just on from the hospital we took a detour to look at the entrance to Wormwood Scrubs prison. A few famous people have stayed there including Keith Richards who was sentenced to a year but only stayed a day. George Blake the infamous spy was imprisoned there for a 42 year sentence but managed to escape by climbing out of a window and into a waiting car, he then fled to Berlin.
The football season had started and was in full swing on the Scrubs I overheard a couple of the players complaining that they needed to get fit! We got a bit lost trying to get to The Harrow Road on the edge of the scrubs, and ended up walking through a wooded area, where there was a parakeet roost, there was certainly lots of birds shit about.
Off The Harrow road we crossed the Grand Union, then we walked through one of the Magnificent seven London cemetery’s, Kensal Green. It is a fascinating place and we’ll worth another visit. There are according to our guide regular walks you can join, and I think I will.
Back on The Harrow road we crossed the Grand Union for a second time, then passed a small nature reserve, called Meanwhile nature reserve owing be the fact the council allowed it to be used in the 70’s while they decided what to do with the land, they never have. Shortly after that we were told about the history of the Trellick tower and its Hungarian Architect Goldfinger.
Just around the corner was Portobello road, which even when the market is not on is buzzing. There are lots of interesting food shops, cafes and restaurants. We finished off with a drink at the KPH Kensington Park Hotel, which is a pub now. I then took the tube back to Euston Square then got the fast train to Birmingham which stopped at Berkhamsted.
I will definitely do another walk sometime, it was very enjoyable even if it was a bit tiring in the heat of August.