Holloway Road Old and New – nos.171-185

The changing face of the Holloway Road*.
Today I am looking at the section that ends at the junction of Palmer Place and Drayton Park.

As you can see from these pics comparing the 1970s with 2013 not much has changed really.
Aha! But don't be fooled into thinking this stretch has been cared for over the years, because about five years ago this whole terrace and parade was cleaned up to remove all the graffiti and layers of unnecessary paint where shop owners had applied the "this is my have of the dividing column, so I will paint it" rule.
I get disheartened every time I see that beautiful old tiles on delineators between shops have been painted over. And on pubs too. What's the point of that? Tiles are almost self-clening and they don't need painting.
Oops, I digress... back to the pics...
Most of the shops along this stretch are now food outlets of some description; take aways, fast-food chicken, restaurants, cafes and coffee shops. So it's great to see that Bartlett's the hifi store is still trading at the same location after all this time. I have lived in Holloway almost 30 years and this is one of a only a few shops that has been a constant during this time.

See all the posts in this occasional series about Holloway Road here

Also see this old post about painted shop dividers

*This reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend recently about how some roads have an extra 'the' put in front of them as in The Strand, The Aldwych, The Old Kent Road, etc.

Swain's Lane, Highgate West Hill, development of site

I have for many years been keeping my eye on the old garages at the corner of Swain's Lane on Highgate West Hill. It always pleased me that this sinuous low-rise 1930s building was still intact especially in the light of all the high rise apartments and modern shopping centres going up all around us.

The garages in 2008 – one expects a Bugatti to appear any minute

In August 2014 the plans for redevelopment of this site were published and businesses within the parade moved out. One lovely cafe, Forks & Corks moved to Archway but has had to close for a while during building works.
But nothing seems to have happened since then. It all looks a bit sad.
On a sunny day last month I took a few snaps for an update:

A hand car wash company was still trading at the rear of the garages. As the plans for redevelopment show, these garages will soon be converted into shops and cafes.

On the curved corner end a lovely old sign for an Ekcovision TV shop has been revealed

The Swain's Lane side of the terrace is all boarded up. I am not sure about the relevance of Liz Taylor's decorating skills; it looks like she is advertising Wall's ice cream.

Splish Splosh Splash!

There is a programme on TV at the moment called Splash!
Tom Daley, the UK's Olympic medal-winning diver, has been busy training up fifteen celebs with vary degrees of success.
What I cannot understand is why this is getting criticised so much. It's perfect prime-time Saturday night fare... gawping at people who are wearing almost nothing scaring themselves half to death before hurling themselves off a concrete platform without hurting themselves. Rather them than me.
So it seems it's OK for celebs to dance, sing (and opera sing), be themselves*, climb mountains, ice skate and take part in Mr & Mrs, but not right for them to have a go at something really quite difficult and properly sporty? All in the name of entertainment. And with proper training advice from Tom and the panel of judges which includes Jo Brand as an obvious comedy foil.
Apart from Vernon Kay's gurning face, the only bits I don't like are the musical interludes with over enthusiastic dancers and divers, and sometimes a bit of synchronised swimming thrown in too. Those girls might look daft, but they are super-fit. I know that from personal experience because I have watched them from the comfort of my sofa.
I think the media is upset about Splash! because perhaps they think our Tom can be seen to be belittling or diregarding his Olympic status by taking part in such a show. Perhaps they are worried he might be as embarrassing as Victoria Pendleton on Strictly Come Dancing? There, there love.
Well I think it's good and I want Linda Barker to win. And if Splash! gets some fat kids off their arses and into the swimming pools, that's a good thing. Though not all at once mind, because that would cause too much water displacement.
Here are some London diving and swimming related images from my wanders around London. Check out the three panels on the middle row showing two shifty skinny dippers in Westminster. Ooer!

Top: Hornsey Rd, Kentish Town, Haymarket, Holborn
Middle: Tufnell Pk, Westminster x3
Bottom: Holloway, Parliament Hill, Hoxton, Kentish Town

*A ref to Celebrity Big Brother. This latest series is highly amusing. I have been half-watching here and there... Speidi (Heidi and Spencer, who for those of you who don't know, count as one person on this show) are 'proper' reality stars from the US (go figure!). They have been playing it as a game, making up stories etc, lying and cheating in order to confuse the others and they have also stated that they want to win. And that they have no interest keeping in touch after the show. How refreshing. The others in the house don't like it one bit and are banging on about how 'real' they, themselves, are whilst preening their hair and sucking their cheeks in, yet being devoid of any thoughts, ideas or personality except to gossip and backbite. They are all awful. It's roadcrash TV of the best kind.
The gossipers ought to admit that they would at least like to win or, better still, be honest/real and say "I am here on CBB to improve my profile/ratings". To say it's just for the experience and how you want to be seen as a 'real' person is a big fat lie. Getting all upset about nominating is potty too as it's the most important part of the bloody show/game. And then there's the nonsense about letters from home, which all say the same thing anyway; "we miss you blah blah blah". It's not like they are going to contain anything juicy, personal or revealing such as "I have left you for someone else", "our daughter is gay" or "the dog just died".
Anyway, how can you be real in a house full of cameras? How on earth do these people cope in the outside world?.

Summer in the winter beer garden on the South Bank

For 3 days we can forget winter, cold weather and Christmas, and instead hang out within the heated dome of the 'Corona Extra Summer' pop-up bar on the South Bank's Riverside Walkway (between Waterloo Bridge and Gabriel's Wharf) from Thursday 15th to Saturday 17th December.

Well, hell, why not? What's not to like?

Inside the Human Body

That marvellous Michael Mosley has done it again and made some more wonderfully informative TV programmes called 'Inside The Human Body'.

If you missed them, hunt them out on replay or find selected excerpts on the web.

Our bodies are magnificient machines and we take them for granted. I have learned that we effectively get a new skeleton every 10 years, new skin every month and our stomach lining replaces every 3 days. And we don't even notice that all this is happening. We really are amazing.

Hunting for these pics, some of which may appear to make no sense at all unless you have seen the programmes, reminded me that I put together some collections of body parts a while back... here and here.... and in December my own body was letting me down. But my personal mini-army of repair bugs fixed me... Wow!

Top row: Paddington, Stepney, Wapping, Homerton

Middle row: St James's, Gray's Inn Rd, Caledonian Rd, Bloomsbury Sq

Bottom row: Smithfield, Bloomsbury, Haymarket, Highgate

Eastenders

I accidentally caught 10 minutes of the omnibus edition of Eastenders on Sunday; a programme I haven't watched in a long time. For those of you who aren't aware of this programme, it's a soap opera on BBC1 about the people who live in and around a make-believe square in London's East End. It's been going since February 1985.

Anyway, as I tuned in just The Vic (pub) had burned down and it was the following day...

Peggy went into the burnt-out Vic in a white jacket. She touched and stroked blackened objects and walls. She even sat on the stairs. Yet she left with clean hands and only a tiny smudge on her shoulder.

Crackhead Phil went out onto the street. His face and clothes were covered in soot. Billy, also filthy, told him to go back to bed. Have these people not heard of baths or showers?

After 10 minutes I changed channels.

Then on Tuesday I went to my local cafe for lunch and found a copy of The Sun to read. (It's been a really high-brow few days!). In his TV column Ally Ross had written a long piece on Eastenders and it seems had I tuned in earlier on Sunday I'd have seen a few other gems. Such as, when the fire started, Dot was told to go home and call the fire brigade, as if no one had heard of mobile phones. And Phil had been boarded up behind an inward-opening door!

Add to this why no-one ever works outside the square, owns a washing machine, and much more... it's no wonder the pedant in me doesn't usually watch it.

Top row: Queensway, Victoria Palace, King Street, Tottenham High Road.

Middle row: Holloway, South Tottenham, Highgate, Whitechapel.

Bottom row: The real East end; Mile End Road, Hackney and Stepney

Football crazy; football mad

My life is already, through no choice of my won, dictated by football; living 5 mins from Arsenal's Emirates Stadium, yet not caring a jot whether they win or lose, I always have to check the fixtures list or the signs at the bottom of my street to see if my visitors can park outside my home without getting a parking ticket.

Due to the traffic disruption it can be a bit frustrating trying to use the bus or tube just before or straight after a match. During these times hoardes of "fully grown" men dressed as overgrown toddlers in three-quarter length trousers, bumper boots, multi-coloured logo'd polyester T-shirts and hardly any hair, fill the streets and pubs and chant rhymes. Ah bless 'em.

Have you noticed that sports news, at the end of the 'real' news on the TV, is really only football news? I fail to see why there even has to be a sports section within the news at all. Surely if people want sports news, sorry, football news, they can tune in to a sports channel? After all we don't get an arts news section on there, for instance.

And now the World Cup is upon us. Oh deep joy.

Actually, what am I saying? I don't mind the World Cup at all. To ignore the World Cup would be daft. It's like not being interested in horse racing and having a bet on The Grand National. Likewise athletics and The Olympics, and tennis and Wimbledon.

So I will be watching some of the matches wearing my stylish cotton T-shirt with 3 lions on it.

C'mon England!!!

World, cup, foot, balls, team

Boots, players, matches, posts, marks

Half, 3 lions, boot scraper

Passing, dribbling, crossed, tackle, stadium

(locations upon application)

Luther; a wonderfully preposterous TV cop drama

I was a bit late finding Luther. I watched the first two episodes back-to-back on iPlayer and was hooked. Idris Elba, in the title role, is great. And Ruth Wilson, as Alice, is sublime. Paul McGann must be good too, because I despise him in it.

It's all so ridiculous that it's compelling. And I love recognising all the different places around London, like Blackfriars Bridge and Daniel Libeskind's building in Hollway Road, used as a place where Paul Rhys's creepy character held a press conference. Also interesting that his character's macabre art gallery was at 73 Leonard Street, an address that I am sure a company I used to work for moved to. The Shoreditch area, specifically Leonard Street, is used a lot in the programme and is in real life littered with art and art galleries, one place even has a suitable macabre name to tie in to this piece.

Top row: Cornhill, Old Broad Street, Leonard Street, Little Newport Street.

Middle row: Leonard Street, The Blackfriars pub, Holloway Road, Upper Street

Bottom row: Blackfriars Bridge above and below, Praed Street, Bow Street Police Station