A couple of brief Urban Wanders in and around Kensington, London

Well, another few weeks of radio silence. No one specific reason, just lots going on. Rather than this blog post being on a specific topic, it’s going to ramble around a bit.

First up are a couple of pictures I took a few weeks back of one of the disused platforms at Kensington Olympia station. I have blogged about Kensington Olympia station before, and whilst it’s still quite busy for both passengers and freight, the motorail is long gone and the station would seem to be a shadow of its former self. However, this post paints a slightly different, more colourful picture. The southbound platform has now been relocated slightly to the west, over one of the former lines, but the old platform has been left standing and is now home to the Kensington Olympia Community Kitchen Garden.

Kensington Olympia Community Kitchen Garden, London

Kensington Olympia Community Kitchen Garden, London

These next two pictures were taken at varying stages of an evening out. The first is the bar of the Bombay Brasserie in Gloucester Road, where I caught up with a former colleague and had an excellent curry.

The bar at the Bombay Brasserie, Gloucester Road, London

The second is of a classic car in a streetlamp lit mews I spotted whilst wandering back.

Unidentified mews, somewhere in Kensington, London

And finally, for some reason this week I found myself wandering through Paddington station around 11am, and saw on the overhead announcement boards, a train going to West Ruislip, a destination which is more usually associated with the line out from Marylebone. I vaguely remembered reading something about this a while back, so a few minutes of internet research later proved that firstly my memory was not playing tricks on me, and this is in fact what’s known as a Parliamentary train, or ghost train. I did not have time to take any pictures but there's plenty of information here. Not quite a bucket list activity but I am curious to travel along the line between Old Oak Common and where it joins the main line from Marylebone.

Oh yes, and my mid-life crisis (aka obsession with finding all the vinyl I used to have as a teenager) is still in full swing. Recent (re)purchases include Coming Up For Air, by Penetration, Starry Eyes by The Records, and Ghetto, by The Wall, to name but a few.

I do need to find time to get back into some serious Psychogeography but that will need to wait for a while as next week is already beginning to look a bit manic.

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