Upminster

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Chesham

If you ever get the chance to go to Chesham, take it from me, pass it by.

Eddie Gosney, he of the long cider-fuelled afternoon in Amersham, picked me up at the station. And the first thing he did was get the hell out. Which, happily, meant lunch in a country pub. That hosted Morris Dancing! This is the closest I've ever come to this peculiar British pastime.

New cultural experience though. I had Toad in the Hole for the first time. How I made it this long without this dish, I do not know. think my next project needs to be about British dishes I like.

The two things I did find interesting about Chesham are 1) Chesham has a long history of religous dissent. You gotta respect that. And 2) Many of those dissenting Chesham residents f*&ked off to the American Colonies, and went on to have considerable political and economic influence in the colony of Massachusetts. One Salmon P. Chase, went on to be the US Treasury Secretary and a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. I wonder what he would think of our current fiscal crisis.

Chesham sits in the Chess Valley, and there is evidence of settlements here dating back to 8000 BC.

My visit here threw up a flaw in the rules I follow for this project. On the grounds that I didn't want to have an itinerary for any place I went, lest I miss something aberrant rambling would throw up, I don't do any research until I get back. Shame, as I apparently, missed out on seeing some nice examples of Tudor buildings. I'm a geek, I know.

Chesham Tube Station, has a number of fun factoids about it. It's bay platform has been turned into an award-winning garden (I'd wondered what that was); it is the least used station on the entire Tube system (429,000 passengers a year); and it is the furthest station in the system from an adjacent station, being 3.89 miles from Chalfont & Latimer station. I also have confirmation tha it is the furthest out you can go on the Tube. This honour was held by Ongar on the Central Line, until it closed in 1994. I've never even heard of it.

Map.

Brixton

A Venezuelan friend told me that when I went to Brixton I had to visit the shop 'next to the famous pizzeria' to buy a special flour so I could make a Venezuelan and Columbian speciality, Arepas. Willing to try any food at least once, I agreed. I was also amused at the vagueness of her directions.

The only pizzeria I could find was Franco Manca in the market, and sure enough there was a shop next door. I am now the proud owner of a large bag of harina pan, and will be attempting Arepas in the near future.

I was pretty blown away by the size of the market. Well, really the fact that there were so many butchers. I would say there were at least 40, if not more, and they all specialise in different types of meats from different cultures. I found it rather weird, that anywhere else in London, butchers are a dying breed, and it can be hard to find one close by, but in Brixton, there are so many in one place.

Amusingly, I also found a shop that sold only Nigerian music.

Today, Brixton is mostly known for it's knife crime and teenage murders. And nightclubs. And the Brixton Academy (where I saw Michael Moore speak). But Brixton has actually played an important historical and cultural role in the shaping of modern Britain.

The area remained undeveloped until the early 19th century, when the newly opened Vauxhall Bridge made access to Central London much easier. Suburban development ensued, and the area was a middle class suburb by the 1860's. Brixtons first contribution to cultural Britain came in the 1880s, when Electric Avenue became the first street in the UK to be lit by electricity.

But perhaps the biggest impact Brixton has had on the shaping of modern Britain started with the arrival of the Empire Windrush, a ship that, on it's way back from Australia, stopped off in Kingston, Jamacia, and picked up 492 people who were willing to move to England to work. The image of these first Afro-Carribeans filing down the gangplank has come to symbolise the beginning of the modern, multicultural society that Britain was to become. Initially housed in South Clapham, the nearest Labour Exchange (the day's Job Centre) was in Brixton. And it was because the new arrivals went there to find jobs that they eventually settled in the area around the Labour Exchange.

However, by 1981 the area was suffering from deep social and economic problems; crime and drug use were rampant. Riots broke out over the use, by the police, of the Sus Laws, to stop and search anyone merely on the suspicion of wrongdoing. In 1985, riots again broke out protesting police behaviour. An inquiry into the behaviour of police found that the force was institutionally racist, and the riots eventually led to considerable reform of the police code of conduct. Social protest may be the least effective way to affect change, but it can sometimes work.

I was pleasantly surprised by what I learned about Brixton. This little project, which started out as a silly little game, has now turned into an exploration of British history and culture.

It's become really fascinating.

Map

Amersham

Had a really lovely day in Amersham. Was planning to do a two-fer and get to Chesham as well, but, due to inevitable engineering works, it took me just under two hours to get out there.

After realising that my old friend and former AD Eddie Gosney lived not far from Amersham, in Buckinghamshire, I arranged to meet him there for lunch. "I'll take the train", he said. "That way we can have a drink."

Turns out he's been bored. He retired just over a year ago, planning to focus on his photography. But he hasn't been doing much of that recently.

So he took me for lunch in a pub in the old part (there's a newer part, Top Amersham) of Amersham. As we ordered drinks and sat down, he remarked that the last time he was in the pub was when he met a friend there 40 years ago. 40 years ago I'd just gone from being an itch in my daddy's pants to being a little bundle of joy.

After lunch we went to the other old pub in town for a few more ciders. It is an old 16th century coaching in, and was lovely as well.

Eddie is an incredible source of esoteric local and historical knowledge. One gem he produced was that the Metropolitan Line (which is the fastest line in the network, and one of only two that get you out of Greater London), of which Amersham is the terminus, used to run all the way out to Aylesbury, until the service was shortened in 1961.

The other gem was that a number of scenes in Four Weddings and a Funeral were filmed in our lunchtime pub.

Historically, like most places I've been, there is evidence of people having lived here long ago; records go back to pre-Anglo-Saxon times. Then, Queen Edith, wife of Edward the Confessor (who, incidentally, was patron saint of kings, difficult marriages, and seperated couples. WTF. But I guess if advertisers can have a patron saint, then so can couples who don't get along), held the land until her death in 1075, at which time victor William the Conqueror gave it to Geoffery de Mandeville.

Apart from plenty of 16th century buildings, there is also a notable 17th century market building.

Interestingly, Amersham is also the preferred starting point for the Tube Challenge, a race to get through the Tube system in the shortest amount of time. The Guinness World Record stands at 17 hours, 12 minutes and 43 seconds. Challengers actually use algorithms to figure out the fastest route!

Fell asleep on the way home, and was chuffed that I woke up just as we were pulling into Baker Street, where I had to change.

The map.

Mill Hill East

I guess I'd always thought, for any number of forgotten reasons, that Mill Hill East Tube stop was a later addition, as it is a one-stop extension from Finchley Central, to the Northern Line. The truth, it turns out, is rather the opposite, and considerable more complicated.

The station opened in 1867 on the Edgeware, Highgate and London Railway Line. It was part of line that went out to Edgeware, which now sits at the end of a different branch of the Northern Line. Originally planned as a two-track line, the opening of the High Barnet branch of the same line five years later caused such a big decrease of traffic that only one track was finished. Indeed, to this day, Mill Hill East is the least used station on the entire Northern Line (780,000 entry and exits in 2005).

WWII broke out while the entire line was being electrified for inclusion in the London Underground, and passenger service was halted along the line in 1939. However, because Mill Hill East (try typing this 10 times fast; it's fun.) provided access to Mill Hill Barracks, the track was electrified to Mill Hill East and the station reopened in 1941.

Much of the land around the razor wire and guard dog protected barracks was sold of for development, and so what's left is a mixture of residential and big store development.

Researching Mill Hill East led me to discover why it is that the Northern Line is so mixed up. For those who are interested, and it is rather fascinating, it's largely the result of the Northern Heights project, or lack of it. Now I just have to figure out why it's so slow.

Had a butcher's in the, er, butchers, but other than that, there wasn't much to do there. Other than being able to say you've been there, natch.

The map.

High Barnet

This end of the Northern Line promised something of a two-fer, as High Barnet and Mill Hill East are far enough out and close enough together to warrant doing in one trip. While there is f&*k all in Mill Hill East, I'll do a separate post on it next.

Had a lovely day. High Barnet, or as it is also known, Chipping Barnet (Chipping denoting a royal charter to hold a market, granted, in this case, over 800 years ago by King John and still held today) is rather nice, even if it was pissing down the day I went.

The station itself dates to 1872, making it the oldest station I've been to yet.

Historically, High Barnet has been a major stop for travellers coming in and out of London, so it has always been known for it's coaching inns and thus its hospitality.

Popped into a lovely little sweet shop. I love English sweet shops. I used to go into one in Alnwick 22 years ago when I lived up there. It was run by an old man who loved kids (something that today would, naturally, create suspicion). He used to let the kids buy just a penny or two worth of sweets. I'd always thought that sweet shops were in decline, or confined mostly to seaside towns. So I was happy to learn that this shop had only been open for about 5 months. As I was buying my Rhubarb Custards and Rasberry Pips, I told the owner about this little project (the first time I have done this). Bemused, like most people, he suggested I visit the Barnet Museum if I wanted to get a sense of the history of the place.

Now, I think that the English do small, local museums extremely well. I find them very charming, and lovely in their minutiae. Strawberry Twist in hand, I sauntered across the church close.

Much of the museum seemed to be devoted to WWII, which was kinda cool. On display were an unexploded bomb, gas masks, and local maps of the destruction. But there was also a fantastic collection of British teacups, commemorating this or that, and a fantastic recreation of the Battle of Barnet (1471, Edward VI and the Yorkists won), made with little painted pewter figurines. It's exactly this kind of dedication to a subject, not to be found in any national museum, that I find so lovely.

It occured to me while I was heading to Mill Hill East that I didn't know anybody who lived at any termini, and the closest I could come was Ed Gosney, who lived just beyond Amersham in Buckinghamshire. A lunch date in Amersham was set.

The map.

Morden

Inspired by the slight hint of sunshine, I dashed off to Morden, not having done a lick of research.

And there ain't a whole lot there. It is, literally, just a suburb. In fact, it was a rural parish until the line extension opened in 1926, the station being built in the open fields. Which brings me to the only interesting thing about the station. Not constrained to a tunnel like more central stations, it is a wide and open station.

The history of the area, is a little more intriguing. There is evidence of prehistoric people living in the area, and the Chicester-London Roman road came through. Things began to pick up for the area when Ethelstan the Etheling, son of Ethelred the Unready (King of the English from 978–1013 and 1014–1016) left land in 'Mordune'; might mean 'land on the moor') that became the Saxon parish church of St. Lawrence. This was owned by Westminster Abbey until the Dissolution of the Monastaries by Henry VIII, at which time the manor was given to the Garth family, which held it for centuries until the 1870's. It's now a National Trust Property.

It's also really lovely, the park I mean. There are a couple of snaps in the slideshow below.

I came across a rather large mosque, but there is little notable about the present-day Morden. Though I will say, as suburbs go, it was nice, neat, and clean.

Walking past a Polish deli, I was inspired to pop in and buy some kielbasa to make with some saurkraut, the dish I keep making until I can get enough people together to make the saurkraut and porky-goodness dish I really want to make, Choucroute.

I've made a little map of where all these places are in Google My Maps. They don't seem to have a widget for my blog, so until I figure something else out, we'll have to stick to the link.

Edgeware Road

It would seem to me that a larger percentage of you lot will have been to or through Edgeware Road than the other destinations I'm visiting. But it is technically the terminus for the Wimbledon-Edgeware Road District Line, so despite having been there many times before, off I went.

It is, of course, a huge Middle Eastern area, full of Arabic and Lebanese cafes, where you can smoke sisha pipes, and restaurants (I had a lovely chicken shwarma at Beiruit Express). But did you know it was also the site of Great Britain's first curry house, the Hindostanee Coffee House, in 1809? I didn't either.

The station was part of the world's first underground railway system between Farringdon and Paddington, which opened in 1863. It was also one the sites of the 7/7 bombings. Had I not stayed at my girlfriend's place the night before, I would have passed through the station on my way to work.

Instead, having been kicked off the Central Line, I found myself standing at the bottom of Edgeware Road as the 30 or so emergency vehicles rushed up it.

This end of the road, near Marble Arch, is perhaps the most historically interesting. Edgeware Road is a Roman road, a fact that becomes obvious once you realise that it is straight, a feat successive road engineers in the UK have failed to match. It had been laid upon an ancient trackway in the Great Middlesex Forest (a forest? Here?). And it was at the end of this road, where it joined two other Roman roads coming out of London (now Oxford Street and Park Lane), that the medieval village of Tyburn stood.

For reasons that aren't entirely clear on Wikipedia, it was here, in this little village outside London, from 1196 until the 18th century, that executions took place. Indeed, for hundreds of years, it was the primary place for executing people around London.

And that was because of what became known as the Tyburn Tree--a three sided gallows that allowed up to 24 executions at once. Or, at least, that was the highest number ever achieved.

At the very bottom of Edgeware Road, in the median, you can see, if you can call it this, the memorial to what used to happen here. The name Tyburn is still in use in the buildings around the area (there's a Tyburn Abbey, even), perhaps most noticably, it is the name of the dodgy pub on the East side of the street.

When I set out for Edgeware Road, knowing it was a big Middle Eastern area, I thought I would try to figure out why Arabic peoples settled here. I never did.

Because now I want to know is what it would have been like to grow up and live in the village where they executed people.

Cockfosters

The lastest journey involved the end of the Picadilly Line. I actually found the history of Cockfosters far more interesting than the place.

It really is just a collection of houses with a few shops and eateries. Suburbia. And it's been that way its entire history. It started out as houses for the people servicing the large manor houses of what was to become known as Trent Park, which itself started out as a royal hunting ground. The Picadilly Line reached it in 1933. The station itself is a Grade II listed building.

Interestingly, it's only a couple of miles from the M25! Putting it, of course, smack dab in the middle of the Green Belt, the introduction of which apparently halted any further development. You might also note that Potters Bar is just on the other side of the M25. You may remember it as the scene of a rather terrible train crash a few years back.

Two other things of note about the area. In 1471, Monken Hadley village, King Edward 1V defeated Warwick the Kingmaker, who died on the battlefield, in a massive victory for the Yorkist army.

And, during WWII, German POWs were interrogated in Trent Park, in buildings now part of Middlesex University.

You wouldn't know it had such an interesting history by looking at it today:

My literary companion on this journey, was, in many ways, an exact opposite of the trip. Chronic City, by Jonathan Letham, is a story set in a sort of alternate universe NY. Highly, highly recommended, just maybe not while you're trying to experience specific parts of Britain.

This weekend, I may make good on my promise to go to Brixton. Which would require learning the name of the famous pizzeria there. Does anyone know the name of it?

West Ruislip

?...?... I don't get it. Why West Ruislip is there. It's right between Ickenham and Ruislip, both serve by their own Tube stops. Though someone cared enough to give it its own Wikipedia entry. Which was, well, esoteric. Apparently, there used to be a US Navy base right next to the station, which is now being turned into a load of flats. It's part of a planned extension that got scaled back right after WWII. There's also a golf course called The Fairway, which might as well have just been called A Golf Course.

Had a wander down to Ickenham, and had a lime and soda in the Coach and Horses. It was one of those places that only charges you, in this case, 35p for a soft drink, instead of like a pound fifty. Me likey. Not much to report about Ickenham, but there were a number of posh cars about and, more importantly, an inordinately high number of very attractive middle-aged Indian woman. Sadly, usually with kids. And SUVs.

Thinking there had to be another reason for the West Ruislip station, I wandered the other way from the station. Which took me to Ruislip.

Which seemed pretty nice. Clean. Nice stores. Even had a Baskin Robbins 31 Flavours (I went to uni with Sarah Baskin. She never wanted to talk to me.) A High Street with really wide pavements for the pedestrians, which I took to be a good sign.

Best part of the trip was easily my book, The Polish Officer, by Alan Furst. He writes historical thrillers set on the eve of WWII. Really enjoy him; his depictions of Warsaw before it was destroyed by the bombing are really good.

Glad I got it out of the way. Where to next?

Epping

I think I chose Epping, as my first destination because, to my knowledge, it's the furthest out of all the Tube termini(?). Indeed, you actually have to cross open farmland to get there. And it's surrounded by Epping Forest, which apparently used to be Royal hunting grounds, after it was home to a number of Iron Age peoples.

I was accompanied by 'Beneath a Marble Sky', by John Shors. It's about the great love that led to the building of the Taj Mahal. I don't recommend it to anyone, but I had to read it as it was a Christmas present from my mum, because I had just fulfilled a childhooddream of seeing the Taj Mahal last Autumn. And I much prefer the real story of Shah Jehan to this fictional goo.

Epping is apparently apparently famous for it's sausages, a fact that has managed escaped this foodie for the entire decade he has lived over here.

My cursory visit there sparked no thoughts of revulsion. While not that interesting, it was actually a nice little market town.



Next destination is West Ruislip, the opposite end of the Central Line. Yet another place I know absolutely nothing about.

To the ends of the Tube

Inspired by my friend Tom, I am going to go to the end of every single Tube line in London. You see these final destinations on the notice boards, and you rely on them to know which way you are going. But I, for one, have not been to most of them.

The rules are simple. I must arrive by Tube, and I have to exit the station, have a look around, and visit at least one shop, coffee shop or pub. Preferably the latter.

Armed with a book and an Oyster card. My first destination is Epping.