Urban Wandering: Paddington to Ladbroke Grove

Being fortunate enough this week to have a decent length lunch break, I ventured out for a cold and crisp urban wander out towards Ladbroke Grove. Although I've walked some of these streets many times before, I was still surprised, as always, to come across a small alleyway or cul-de-sac mews that was new to me. Heading west from Paddington along the Westbourne Grove is always a great walk with so much contrast in all of the residential and commercial buildings, from old mews to relatively new housing estates, from Victorian shop fronts, to garish, more recent additions. But the real jewels were to be found off the main road.

The first two pictures are of Bridstow Place. Although the sky was blue and the sun was shining for much of my walk, it was decidedly overcast at this point so unfortunately the photo does not do the location justice. The houses along this road are simply beautiful, and could almost be in a Cornish fishing village if it wasn't for the constant hum of traffic on the main roads which run to the north and south.

Looking north along Bridstow Place, London W11

Looking south along Bridstow Place, London W11

The next picture shows some unidentified mews at the southern end of Bridstow Place, which I stumbled across after having been through a couple of narrow alleyways. I'm pretty sure I would never have found them if I was coming from the other direction. Unlike many of the mews I have seen previously, what struck me about these ones was the uniformity of the design, and the uniformity of the (presumably) restored features. Whereas many other mews houses have converted their garages into living accommodation, or have potted shrubs outside the house, these ones seem remarkably untainted.

Unidentified Mews, near Bridstow Place, London W11

 

By complete contrast, this picture of the houses in Lancaster Road was taken only a few minutes apart from the pictures above, and as you can see the sky was a magnificent blue, making the vibrant colours of the houses even more appealing. Normally seeing brick painted over in this fashion makes me shudder, but here it seems to work well.

Lancaster Road, London W11

By the time I got to St. Luke's Mews below, I was almost out of time and aware that I needed to get back to the office, so I only had the shortest of opportunities to take a quick photo before heading off. Definitely one to return to when I have more time as I'm curious to know what lies down the far end.

  St. Lukes Mews, London W11

Although the next picture was taken in a mews, the mews itself was not especially remarkable, whereas the old advertisement painted on to the wall was of more interest. It's quite difficult to decypher what's written, but I think it says "Boundary Warehouse, Bottling Stores, Packing Warehouse, Office". The name of the company is written above this but even harder to read ... it could be "Llyerell & Fry", but internet searches don't help much here. Maybe one of my more sleuth-like readers can shed some light on this? And sure enough, I have been contacted by someone who has confirmed the name to be "Leverett and Frye" who were a firm of grocers.

Powis Mews, London W11

So, as the evenings get lighter, I am hoping to undertake even more urban wandering after work. On the London list so far is Shoreditch, Bermondsey and Camberwell, and on the Edgelands list is my very own Edgelands, Ruislip Gardens, Rusilip and Ruislip Manor, where I spent the early years of my life. Almost each chapter in the Edgelands book brought back memories of my childhood and I'm curious to see if those places are still there.

On the subject of Edgelands, I have now finished Paul Farley and Michael Symmons' excellent book, and have now moved on to a more reference based account of Psychogeography, in Merlin Coverley's Psychogeography. For me personally it's a much harder read than Edgelands, but is acting as an excellent introduction and reference to the wider field of Psychogeography. From completing Edgelands and from only just starting Psychogeography, I now have an even longer list of places to visit and books to read now. However, top of my books to read list has to be Brendon Chase, which is referred to in Edgelands. I'll say no more about that for now but will give a more thorough account once I've read it.

    

Urban Wandering: Limehouse to Canary Wharf

I was delighted this week to have found some time for space and unusually it was on my way to work. I found myself with about half an hour before I needed to get to Canary Wharf where I had a meeting for the day. Firstly I decided to take the Docklands Light Railway as it's much more enjoyable being above ground, and this particular DLR route offers views of some great Edgelands, and secondly with time to spare I alighted at Limehouse and walked the 30 minutes or so to Canary Wharf. The morning was clear and a little cold, so I was hoping to get some half-decent photos. If I say so myself, those I did manage to take are rather striking.

View across moored boats to residential area near Limehouse

 Looking eastwards along the River Thames, not long after sun rise

Residential buildings now flank the sides of a huge dock

  Looking west along the River Thames towards the Shard

Approaching Canary Wharf

In other news I am now about half-way through Edgelands and thoroughly enjoying it. Each chapter covers a different aspect of Edgelands, and having grown up on the outskirts of London, essentially between the city and the countryside, the childhood memories are flooding back. I really cannot recommend this book enough. I also bought Psychogeography of which the content of Edgelands could probably be considered a sub-topic. I've yet to start this one but curiously it has been picked up by my wife who has been inspired by it in relation to an art project she has just undertaken.

    

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Now we're back into the working week I must admit I've almost had enough of the snow now, but the weekend was brilliant and I managed to get out and about. Below are a few pictures I took walking around the Hollington Loop when the snow was still fresh and thick.

This last picture is of icicles on what I think is possibly a Wisteria. It looked better in real life but hopefully the photo captures some of its beauty.

In other news, I have just ordered a book called Edgelands that I mean to order months ago when it was first brought to my attention. During this buying process I came across the term Psychogeography against which Edgelands seems loosely associated, so have also just ordered a book called Psychogeography: Pocket Essentials. Pyschogeography seems to be a massive and complex subject from what little I've read so far, but what inspired me most to delve deeper into this subject was the fact that the subject seems to include the relationship between a city and its inhabitants as observed on foot through walking the city. Given that I do a lot of urban wandering myself at every opportunity, this seemed like a good reading companion. The books have not arrived yet but I will comment on them in a later post once I had a chance to read through them.

    

Sunrise over Hyde Park

A strange week just gone by. I found some space that was not what I thought it would be, and also found some space that I'd been to before that was better than I'd expected. So turning first to my disappointment if I can call it that, which was a brief surfacing at Canada Water when changing trains to get out to Canary Wharf. But first of all, why was I at Canada Water anyway? Well, on this particular occasion it was easier for me to travel on the Waterloo line rather than the Paddington line, but rather than going into Waterloo and taking the obvious Jubilee line tune across to Canary Wharf, I decided instead to change at Clapham Junction and take the newly joined-up outer-circle line, or the London Overground as it's really called. I'd not been on this part of the London Overground so it made a pleasant diversion from my normal route, passing through some places I'm pretty sure I've never been to before, so as usual a mental note was made to return at ground level.

To get to Canary Wharf involved a change at Canada Water, and I originally thought I could walk between the two, but alas this was not possible as there was too much of the River Thames in the way. Having not looked around that part of the docklands before I decided to surface above the underground and see what was there. Perhaps I did not explore enough but as far as I could see it was just a retail park, and quite a cold and sterile one at that. It was freezing cold so maybe I caught it on a bad day and it's normally more inspiring, but on that particular day it wasn't for me. Needless to say I took no pictures and was glad to get back underground to continue to my destination.

Later in the week I had an opportunity to walk across Hyde Park to the office. I must have done this walk tens of times before, if not more, but this particular day was special as it was just as the sun was rising on a very cold and crispy winter's morning.

Sunrise over Hyde Park, January 2013

So, it looks like we are going to get some snow after all. I know this is bad news for many people, but I for one absolutely love the snow. I did leave work on time today and headed straight back to West Berkshire on the train as I'd much rather be snowed in at home than at work. Hopefully there will be good opportunities to get some good pictures to share.

    

Paddington Railway Station ... and a bit of Brian Eno

My search for space this week has been somewhat thwarted by it being my first full week back at work, the weather, and also by feeling a bit under the weather. I had intended to go walkabout after work on the Friday but ended up leaving early not feeling too good. However, as a small pick-up, I managed to get a reasonable picture of the restored canopy at Paddington station just before my train took me home. There's something about station architecture that always impresses and inspires me, and Paddington station is no exception, especially after such a wonder restoration.

Restored canopy at Paddington railway station, London

Feeling a bit better today, I ventured out to continue my exploration of places near where I live that I've either not been to before, or haven't been to for a while, and today's choice was Wallingford, in Oxfordshire. The grey weather meant that I did not take any pictures, but had an enjoyable stroll around the town, and a good lookaround the antiques centre. I didn't buy anything as I'm still processing a lot of the vintage postcards I picked up before Christmas.

On checking the 6music schedule when I returned home, I was delighted to discover that there was a 2 hour Brian Eno special, hosted by Tom Robinson. I was initially disappointed when I realised that it was about his more recent career, but found myself captivated by the music played, the conversation and his outlook on life. Of his recent material, I think the latest I have is Small Craft on a Milk Sea and had not even realised that there were more recent releases, such as Lux.

    

I'm hoping next week will bring more better opportunities for exploration. I have a trip out to docklands during the week so hopefully will get a bit of an opportunity to see someof the areas I've not yet been to.

New Year resolution still going strong

Well, tomorrow is the beginning of my first full week back at work this year. If I'm honest I can't say that I'm looking forward to it very much as it's been great having time at home, being able to chill a bit, and getting outdoors for some much needed post-Christmas exercise.

I've now managed 2 bike rides in 2013, but despite having a mountain bike I have kept to the roads, which in places are muddy enough to be mistaken for off-road cycling. I've also managed to keep to my New Year's Resolution of doing something new every week ... in fact in this week alone I have been to several new places. The most recent of which was a brief visit to Wilton, in Wiltshire this afternoon. I only had time for a quick walk around the town, but it did seem to have a few antique shops worth returning for, on a day when hopefully they are open.

Yesterday we were up in London to see a couple of exhibits at the Tate Britain as we were fortunate enough to get some free tickets. We went to the Turner Prize exhibits first which, apart from Noble, did not float my boat at all ... glad we didn't pay. The pre-Raphaelite exhibition was all together a lot more impressive, but unfortunately very crowded. Probably the best part of my day was a short walk between Sloane Square and Pimlico, which was a first for me and has opened up a whole other area of London that I need to find time to explore ... and hopefully I'll get some better weather in which to do it. As you can see from the picture below, the weather was pretty dismal, and even the towers of Battersea Power Station, which looked much better in real life, is somewhat lost against the greyness of the sky.

Battersea Power Station across the train lines from Victoria, on a very grey day

    

A New Year's Resolution ... of sorts

First of all a very HAPPY NEW YEAR to the handful of readers who regularly look at this blog. As usual, this blog is for things that don't really fit on to my vintage postcards blog or my vintage magazines blog. You'll fund all sorts of things here, from my (slight) obsession with London mews, to mountain biking, books, music, the great outdoors, and all sorts of other things.

Apart from the dream of turning my vintage and music hobbies into multi-million pound businesses, I only made one New Year's resolution this year which was originally to try and do something new or different every day, but already I have downgraded that to weekly. Hopefully I'm not being too ambitious here as this covers everything from visiting new places, eating in different restaurants, trying a new beer, reading a new book, etc. Three days into the New Year and I have met my first week's target on New Year's Day when we took a walk with friends up on to the Wayfarer's Walk and did a 6 mile loop coming back across Coombe Gibbet. The pictures below are a few I took along the way, and whilst the sun was shining for the most part, the ground underfoot was incredibly soggy.

Musically I've been quite active over the Christmas and New Year period, mainly thanks to my Christmas present of a Sonos Bridge and Sonos Speaker. It was a genuine surprise for which I was very gtareful, and the sound quality is amazing. I've really had a hugely varied playlist but a few standout albums this week have been The Orb - The Dream, Small Faces - The Autumn Stone and Public Service Broadcasting - The War Room.

      

Unusually I did not get any books for Christmas this year, so will have to scout around some of my favourite secondhand bookshops in the next couple of weeks. I'm also planning to continue my visits to new places in London when I get the opportunity during lunch breaks and after work. Hopefully more posts to follow with more London mews, alleys and side streets.