Decided to go for a walk up the Edgware Road (what used to be Watling Street).
Started at Marble Arch, one of those odd bits of nowhere in London, left isolated by traffic. Even at lunchtime on a sweltery day there's almost no-one sitting on the grass. I've always wondered what the hell this thing is, until I just found out - that it was originally the entrance to Buckingham Palace. It got moved up here by Victoria and Albert. You can see what's going on around there by looking at the BBC London jamcam.
The road starts with a fantastic area of Arabic culture. Lots of cafes with blokes smoking hookahs (is that what they're called?) And there's all these fantastic shops selling odd stuff - luxury goods, electronics, fruit, lots and lots of phones.
How did they ever go out of business with a fantastic strategy like 'everything for everyone at discount prices'? How do you lose with that? This is just down from the Metropolitan as featured at eggbaconchipsandbeans.
I love these shops selling phone cards and internet access and calls and stuff. Basically they're not selling anything. Just air. Yet, as this shows, it's all about knowing your audience, knowing their needs, knowing their language. And obviously, graphic design.
And then there are other businesses which never need to change anything.
After a little while the Arabic dynamism gives way to the sleepy mansions of Maida Vale. Huge blocks seemingly full of little old ladies with tiny dogs.
But then, and this is what I love about London, as soon as an area decides it might be a bit fancy the council come along and erect a load of estates. There's huge bits of the road where you have dead posh mansions on one side of the road and huge estates on the other. That's stirring the melting pot.
So you get an actual tradesman's entrance on one side...
...and some great 70s type on the other.
Then, you're into Kilburn.
Ellie's Cafe, as featured in a good place for a cup of tea and a think.
How long must this have been in the window?
Hmmm, just noticed I seem to stop taking photos at this point, for quite a while. Perhaps that tells you something about the stretches through Cricklewood and Shoot-Up Hill and all that. Which are just kind of average. Until you suddenly pass through a little furniture district and then emerge into all these retail sheds and you realise you're in Brent Cross.
More enterprising behaviour. Selling England flags at the side of the road.
Staple's Corner, the bottom of the M1, is not the nicest bit of town.
Of particular note is this enormous pile of wood. You can just see it beyond the trees. It's always been a talking point for us when we head up North. Presumably it's some scrap thing, but it never seems to get any smaller, and always seems on the point of collapse.
This is a sign on the bridges around Brent Cross, maybe this kind of sign is on loads of bridges, I've never noticed. But it seems somehow less than thorough. What do you do if the bridge collapses at the weekend?
Ah, those elegant North Londoners and their love of nature.
