Manchester and Macclesfield

A trip to Manchester which was as uneventful as these things always are, with a call on the way back at Macclesfield.

Macclesfield is up the hill from its railway station and a fairly steep climb it is too. A helpful map gave information about the surrounding areas but alas, Macclesfield itself is no great shakes. It was once a silk weaving town like Braintree, and like Braintree has a silk museum. Unlike Braintree it is housed in the former post office. Not really into silk so I didn’t visit.
The library is nicely housed in an old bank, very richly marbled.
“Bankers live in marbled halls
Because they encourage deposits and discourage withdrawals”.

There is a stump of a market cross in the market square and a classical town hall with two magnificent porticos. Arthur Mee regards the church as being particularly fine but as it was locked up I could not see the sedan chair that a lady had left in there 300 years ago (presumably on purpose). Nor could I see the vista of arches and the fine hammer beam roof. But I saw the outside through the rain.
Arthur Mee also tells of the Macclesfield boy who nearly killed the man who went on to father Queen Victoria, a rather extraordinary claim to fame that other towns might pass up. Although there was no plaque saying that he was born half way up a wall.

London Open House

Weekend long architecturefest. The top picture shows WillageLondon, some tube trains recycled into studio space for artists. The second picture shows the Queen Anne House in Grange Walk, Bermondsey. This house had been a pottery for many years leaving it virtually unaltered and a fine specimen of the style in architecture.

The third picture shows the oldest houses in Bermondsey.
I also visited the Hoxton Hall, the Geffrey Museum Almshouse and Lloyds of London.

St Albans

A visit to St Albans Abbey and Cathedral. St Albans is another romanesque abbey building, however some of the romanesque arcades fell down and was replaced by decorated gothic arcading. There are some fine wall paintings.

There has only been a cathedral here since the 19th century, as the diocese is of the modern foundation.

Evensong had another psalm calling for deliverance from enemies.

From Norwich it's the quiz of the week

Ignoring what NORWICH means at the foot of a letter* I had a day in Norwich today.

The title of this post refers to the Sale of the Century, a weekly 1970s quizfest from Anglia Television starring Nicholas Parsons and one of the few things they actually produced. Perhaps that's why the are still in business and other ITV stations like Southern and Meridian have folded.

I visited Norwich on the anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center [sic] and the Pentagon. Funnily enough six years ago I was in another Cathedral city, Salisbury, when the first news of these despicable acts by muslims came through.

Like Peterborough, Norwich Cathedral (the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity) is Romanesque but has some Gothic bits. One way to access the cathedral is through the Erpingham gate, which reminded me of Joe Orton's play 'The Erpingham Camp' concerning a holiday camp that's more like a prison camp.

The cathedral guide is more of a directed meditation than a guide book and doesn't give a lot away. There is a copper font, which was once a vessel used for making chocolate, now it gives new birth to Christians. The Bishop's throne (cathedra) in Norwich is behind the main holy table, where it would have been since the middle ages. It is a modern throne in oak and is set above what would have been a reliquary in pre reformation days, so that the influence of the relic would permeate the bishop. This is the sort of superstition the reformers had to contend with, and if they were a little over zealous at times, for example Thomas Cromwell's staff smashing stained Glass windows, the sentiments were good.

Edith Cavell seems to be following me around this week. She is buried in Norwich, and there is a sculpture of her near the Cathedral.

I went to find the Stranger's Hall, but this was surrounded by scaffolding so I couldn't take a picture. It was also shut. I didn't go into any museum or cultural attraction with the exception of the library. Many of Norwich's 52 churches were closed, but I went into one that had a Transport and General Workers Union banner for Norwich Busmen. Not sure whose church this was.

I didn't see the cell of Julian of Norwich. Julian of Norwich was a female anchorite who wrote of Jesus as 'she'. An early feminist.

This next picture shows Norwich market


After some aimless wandering round Norwich, including the bits they don't show the tourists, I went to Evensong in the cathedral. One of the psalms was 59, 'Deliver me from my enemies O my G*d,
Defend me from them who rise up against me'. This is quite a hard hitting psalm and seemed rather incongrous being warbled by a men and girls choir - Would have been better as a football chant.


*Nickers off ready when I come home. (Since you ask.)

A visit to Ealing and Kensington

I visited Ealing in the hope of going to Pitshanger Manor (see picture) but it was closed. Nevertheless, the Church of Christ the Saviour,Ealing was open. The church was deigned by Sir Gilbert Scott and later decorated in true Anglo Catholic style by the architect of Westminster RC Cathedral, G F Bodley. All the windows were blown out by a bomb during the second world war and replaced although a few fragments were incorporated when reglazed.


After this I went down to the Portobello Road, but it was not market day and most of the antique shops were closed, but the shops that were open were pretty rubbish, more souvenirs for tourists than serious antiques. Maybe won't visit again.

I then went to St Mary Abbots in Kensington, a chrch that was built in Victorian Gothic Style by Sir George Gilbert Scott, who estimated £35000 as the cost although it turned out to be £50000, Architects, eh!

It's a big parish church as befits a church with Kensington Palace in its parish and royal connections. Queen Victoria's daughter, Princess Louise, carved one of the monuments.

Twentieth Century churches of South London

A circular tour round some of the twentieth century churches south of the Thames.
Some were traditional in shape and others more radical. The best was St John's Peckham in Meeting House Lane. A truly beautiful church and dramatic setting for services.

The picture shows SS Philip and Mark, Avondale Square on a City Corporation Housing Estate on the Old Kent Road. Built in 1963 there are beautiful ceiling paintings although when I called after the service the incense was choking.


This is St John's Peckham, a very beautiful 20th Century church

This is St Katherines Eugenia Road

This is St Lukes Camberwell

Peterborough

Peterborough, St Peter’s town is an ancient city and designated new town on the Cambridgeshire - Nothants borders. I visited as part of my Cathedral Cities tour 2007. Starting out from Kings Cross I wondered if my day return would be valid on a GNER train, but I was fine, it was. I had a trip to Bretton to see the typically new town style suburb of Bretton and to see a library sale, which was rubbish. On the way back I got off the bus in a little village called Longthorpe. This had thatched cottages galore and a little church of St Botolph that had been built in the 13^th Century and extended in the 20^th. A pleasant little church. There was an English Heritage^TM tower in the village also, which was only open to pre booked groups. It has, allegedly, the finest medieval domestic wall paintings in the country.

Back to town to explore, visiting the Coöperative Department Store and the beautiful Romanesque cathedral, stopping on the way to take a picture of the guildhall with butter market beneath. The Cathedral Church of St Peter (Peterborough – geddit?) and St Andrew was shrouded in scaffolding so I couldn’t see the fine West front of the 11^th Century (the most magnificent portico in Europe allegedly). I could see the very fine painted ceilings, and it was worth going into the Cathedral for those. The paintings are not a Victorian painting like at Waltham Abbey but the genuine medieval article. The Sanctuary was entirely closed to the public but had Victorian mosaic work and a marble altar, although with a liturgically correct Holy Table in front of it (altarwise). Katherine of Aragon is buried here, as was Mary Queen of Scots who was dug up and reburied in Westminster Abbey. The Cathedral was very beautiful and worth a visit.

The Benedictine monks did not like the townspeople using the Cathedral, so the civic church of Peterborough is the Parish Church behind the butter market in a dip in the ground. Strangely this church wasn’t open so I couldn’t see in to it, but it looked big. The picture shows the Buttermarket.

I also visited St Mark’s Church which was in the Victorian gothic style having been built in 1855. There’s not much to say about this church, which was an averagely pleasant church with some workmanlike stained glass in the windows. I had a cup of coffee and a cake there at teatime, and good value it was too!

Edith Cavell was educated in Peterborough. She was later shot at dawn in 1915 during the first world war as she had assisted British and allied prisoners to escape.

I also visited the haunted Peterborough museum and allowed myself to be talked into going on the guided tour with the “visitor support officer”. I could have been round that museum in half an hour; the guided tour took two, although we did see the basement storage and the lab. The museum was an old town house that had been the Peterborough infirmary and there was evidence of that within the building, including slippery anti slip protection on the staircase and the site of a hoist used to lift immobile patients to the operating theatre.

The collection covers the story of Peterborough from earliest times to the present. Of the highlights there is a dinosaur discovered by one of the museum staff, the remains of a stone age murder, a bronze age sword, a Roman communion set, medieval stuff, some nineteenth century Prisoner of War art made with bone and a 1950s cooker. There’s a lot more than that of course and the Visitor Services Officer was a good guide, pointing out things that were particularly relevant and illustrating the building’s history. The lab was the old operating theatre from hospital days, and it was just about exactly as it was left.

The museums ghosts are numerous and include little girls, first world war veterans and a former scullion from the time when the museum was a grand town house. Most interesting. By then it was time to return home.

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Newcastle Upon Tyne - It always rains on Sunday

A visit to Newcastle on a wet Sunday and fine and dry Monday. The last time I visited Newcastle it was raining too. In fact staying in the newly trendy Quayside involves some extremely steep steps (as Newcastle isn't UPon Tyne for nothing) and these steps were turned into a water cascade last time, even though it wasn't as bad as that this time. Newcastle is a mostly stone built georgian city, although J Poulson and T Dan Smith corruptly redeveloped the city in the 1960s giving it the concrete jungle look as shown in Picture 3.

The first picture shows Bessie Surtees's House which is a Jacobean dwelling on the Quayside near the town hall. Bessie Surtees lived here and eloped with John Scott who was to become Lord Chancellor of England and first Earl of Eldon. The second picture shows the bottom of Grey Street, which I regard as an iconic view of Newcastle. Newcastle is picturesque in a sublime way but not particularly photogenic. The view shows the mighty railway bridge at the Scotland end of the Central Station crossing the street at high level. Sublime!
The third picture shows Holy Jesus Hospital, which began life as an alms house - a "Hospital for poor people by the expense of the citizens and leaders of Newcastle upon Tyne in the year of salvation 1683. Built by Timothy Robson, Mayor, John Squire Sheriff. Faith Hope and Charity, and the greatest of these is Charity." The building housed the Central Soup Kitchen, as shown by the plaque in the picture in the 19th Century and a museum (that was always closed) until 1994 when it was transferred to Newcastle Discovery. Now it is used by the National Trust on lease from the Newcastle Council.

I couldn't get away from Newcastle without a picture of the Tyne Bridge, opened by King George V with Queen Mary in the 1930s, so that's at Picture 4.

Newcastle is also a diocese of the modern foundation, a breakaway from Durham in 1882, with the Cathedral of St Nicholas. I thought I might attend evensong there on Sunday night after hearing the church bells ringing at quarter past five. I was hungry and going to eat (see below) but the service was at six and I couldn't wait that long. On the Monday morning I was out at 7:30 (hungry again) and the morning service was at 8:30 so I missed the service again. Frustrated in the Cathedral.
You can see the cathedral tower in the background of this picture of the new castle.


I should always remember that in the provinces people only get hungry between 12 and 3 and not at all on Sunday evenings. When I arrived in Newcastle I wasn't hungry but was at about 5 o'clock. No pub was serving food (or had any left - which is another way of saying the same thing) so had to go to an Indian restaurant, and even there they said the special wasn't available until six. As it was ten minutes to I said "it's nearly six, so that's what I'll have please". I think i was lucky to get it. I have to say that if I did leave London, eating by the clock is the thing that would irritate me intensely.

Places where they sing: Churches and chapels around Chelsea and Victoria.

What started out as a mosey round the City to take pictures of Unilever House, the Blackfriars pub and the Daily Express building turned suddenly (I don’t know how) into a march round the churches of Chelsea and Pimlico. After taking the pictures I wanted to take I set off (via Kings Cross – where I took some pictures of Levita House) for Sloane Square, with the intention of walking down the Kings Road and back up the embankment and other streets, to Victoria, taking some pictures all the way.

Update - Levita House, named after the then chairman of the LCC housing Committee has now been featured as the Twentieth Century Society's Building of the Month for September. http://www.c20society.org.uk/docs/building/0907_ossulston/oss_text.html. Remember you read it here first...


I saw the Church of Scotland Church of St Columba at the end of Pont Street that was the scene of Sapphire’s wedding in AbFab. I’m not totally ignorant of modern cultural references….

My first port of call was the “Cathedral of the Arts and Crafts Movement” Holy Trinity Sloane Street. A church where the sanctuary was alarmed, but the nave was calm and composed. The church was full of Tractarian chairs and the windows were full of William Morris glass to designs by Sir Edward Burne-Jones, the east window being filled with beautiful portraits of saints in glass, a most striking effect. The other windows were in those very strange arts and crafts colours that seem dull and glowing at the same time. The effect is pleasing. Leaving the church I went past the Peter Jones Department Store, an essay in modernism, and walked down the Kings Road, named thus as it was a means for the King to get from London to Hampton Court in the days when this journey was not nearly so easy as it is today.

I would have called into St Luke’s Church but a wedding was either awaited or departing so I did not go in. I didn’t take a photograph either although it would have looked good with the vested clergyperson in front – a reminder of the proper purpose of a church.

Continuing down the King’s Road I went down to the river via Beaufort Street, having had a glimpse into the grounds of the Moravian Church, a dignified protestant denomination who now inhabit Thomas More’s garden.

Beaufort Street has the original Chelsea Council Flats of 1904, all named after dukes. At the end of the street is Crosby Hall.

Crosby Hall has recently been restored, but was transferred to the Embankment in 1910 after standing since 1446 in Bishopsgate. Previously a club for women graduates, it is rumoured that the Crown was offered to Richard III under its roof. Now it appears to be in private hands again, having, since King Richard’s time been a prison, a meeting house, a warehouse, a concert hall and a restaurant.

Next to Crosby Hall is Chelsea Old Church, which was destroyed by bombing in the second world war but was rebuilt. A fine church that saved its chained library and some of its old glass, and these are now within the building. There are decadent sculptures of naked women on the embankment near the church.

Leaving the embankment and walking past Gordon Ramsey™’s restaurant I came to Christ church. Consecrated in 1839 it was built cheaply for £4000, (St Luke’s, built in 1824, cost £40000) to accommodate the servants who were starting to work in the large houses in Chelsea and Belgravia. The church had its own schools for infants and juniors (no seniors in those days). In the church I noticed some stained glass windows behind the font near the door of the church and some marble panels below. A small but pleasant place to worship although I was reminded of Betjeman’s
‘Oh cheerful substitution
Thou varnished pitch-pine’

Forward to the Royal Hospital Chelsea, another place where they sing. Founded by King Charles II and built by Sir Christopher Wren as a response to Les Invalides in Paris I always wonder if that king didn’t just carry on plans that had been made by Cromwell. Kings and rulers come and go but the Civil Service (and the military of course) goes on for ever. It doesn’t seem like a King Charles II gesture to me, as he was more interested in harlotry and vindictiveness than the welfare of the Kingdom. Still the Royal Hospital has considerable accommodation for army pensioners, although rather spartan in contrast to the grand surroundings. There is a little pub for them to socialise in and a dining hall linked to a chapel. The chapel had a rather martial scene of the resurrection painted over the holy table and was comfortably furnished. The dining hall was also homely with some pleasant fixtures. Hope the food’s good for the old soldiers.














The next church I spotted was St Barnabas Pimlico. A forerunner of the Tractarian movement it sported some high gothic art although built too early for Tractarian chairs in the 1840s. The windows were by Kemp with a wheatsheaf on them (I didn’t like to ask if it was part of the Coöperative – sure it wasn’t). Kemp revived the art of stained glass making and to him we owe the stained glass in our more recent churches. There were some beautiful mosaic panels but the main decoration, as is right in ritualist churches, was for the chancel, a place where they sing. The chancel was a riot of colour and pattern on every possible surface. I can’t really do justice to the exuberance of the decoration, including the reredos (six candlesticks), the organ, the floor with its brasses and everything. A glorious church! Then it was time to go home, at least on a high note.

The British Library and the Horse Hospital

Today is the anniversary of the death of Joe Orton who was bludgeoned to death by his jealous lover 40 years ago.

Jim Hollands, a very talented (in both senses of the word) filmmaker has made a film of the Associated Rediffusion television play of The Erpingham Camp. I went after seeing an exhibition on the similarities between Christians Jews and muslims at the British Library. I especially liked seeing King David depicted as Henry VIII.

Kew Gardens

A pleasant day spent in Kew Gardens with colleagues as an away day from work. The weather was beautiful as we sat on the train for half an hour outside Gunnersbury due to a buckled rail. Anyway we got to Kew and the first thing I saw was a horse and carriage driven by a good looking bloke in Jodphurs and hunting boots. Why he was wearing these when he wasn't sitting on the horse I don't know, but they looked good on him so I suppose...

After a picnic and team building exercise it was time to walk down to the Palm House and have a look in there.
 

The Palm House contained some very big palms and a beautiful marine display. It was fronted by stone efigies of the kings beasts. After the palm house I had a look round the lake which was most enjoyable.

Brighton Pride

A brief visit to work on the Coöperative membership stall at Brighton Pride. This is the third year I've done it and this year I was wearing a large heart (front and back) and giving out postcards Some readers may have seen me there. I also went down to the sea front with Mark. The journey (on the hottest weekend so far this year) was a predictable nightmare.
Haven't got a pic this time so here's a historical one when the west pier wasn't a piece of charred ironwork.

Brighton (and 'busses)

A visit to Brighton to see M & T and do a store visit. You'll have to look at the other blog for the info on that but on Sunday we went to Worthing for a 'bus rally. The first picture shows a Brighton Corporation 'bus in a fairly old livery, I remember the blue 'busses just before privatisation rather than blue and white.


The picture of the green van was formerly a coöperative mobile shop. After a brief look at the preserved 'busses it was time to get on board the special open top 'bus route which led out to the villages near worthing, our aim was to get to Findon. But about two miles short of Findon the 'bus engine conked out and smoke started rising from the engine compartment. Oh dear. The driver poured water in (which someone from Loughton advised me might crack the cylinder head and cause more trouble), and we were waiting at the side of a busy and narrow road for half an hour before our relief bus arrived. (see illustration).
After arriving in Findon we went for a sherbert in the Black Horse Inn with a mountain on its pub sign (why?). After this we walked into the village to partake of a sherbert in the extremely expensive pub called The Gun, and then into the helpful pub called the Village House. By this time my money had run out and the preserved bus to Worthing was due, so we waited for it, and waited and finally decided it wouldn't turn up. So we went back into the Village House where other refugees from the bus show had gathered, including the people from Loughton, who appeared to be a family with mother, father and son. Eventually we took the service bus (lucky on a Sunday there was a service bus) being the only people on it and returned to Worthing and thence to Brighton. I will draw a veil over the rotten journey home.

The other picture shows an unusual view of St Bartholemews Church.

Braintree, Temple Cressing and unwelcoming Witham

Braintree was home to the Courtaulds and the Crittalls, two well respected firms. I took the town trail from the Town Hall, paid for by the Courtaulds, round by the Courtaulds silk mill and up to the hostel and fountain provided by the Courtaulds as a memorial to King George V. The walk then led me through the modern shopping centre and past the original workshops where Crittall windows were made. Crittall's mother injured herself on a wooden window and he went to work on a lightweight metal frame with great success. He found a market in India and other places during the days of Empire, as the steel windows were light weight and not subject to destruction by insects or warping with heat. Even today Crittall Windows are produced in their original styles but with modern innovations such as double glazing for those who want to replace their windows. There was a good coöp department store in the town.


The town museum in Braintree is double price if you're not local, it's obviously a local museum for local people - nothing for me there!

After Braintree I went to Temple Cressing, a former Knights Templar monastic foundation dating from the 12th Century. However the monastic buildings are gone, except for the meadieval barns, the large barn for wheat and the smaller barn for barley. Intensive agricultural production is nothing new as these barns were enormous the barley barn being 36m long and the wheat barn constructed 50 years later being 40m long. Truly awesome inside and marvelous examples of oak construction. There is also a farmhouse (not open to the public) and a tudor walled garden. it's a pity the weather wasn't kinder but the barns could beat the weather any day.


I did not realise that Temple Cressing and Silver End, the village built for the employees of Crittall Windows were within a mile of each other, otherwise I would have visited it. Perhaps another day.

Unwelcoming Witham

Witham town was a long way from the station and I arrived there after 4. The first thing I noticed was the Labour Hall and the Conservative Party HQ glowering at each other across the road. The labour hall looked better being more up to date and modern. The town hall contained a museum about the town but I got the impression that they were about to close and my prescence was not desired. There were a few coöperative artefacts there. The town was bricky and 18th Century, and it seems that its claim to fame was that Dorothy L Sayers lived there. There is a Dorothy L Sayers centre in the public library. I went in to the typical 1960s coöp department store, an interesting look at coöp history.
Then it was time to go home.

Thaxted and Saffron Walden

Then raise the scarlet standard high
Within its shade we'll live and die
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer
We'll keep the red flag flying here.

A day out to Thaxted and Saffron Walden.

Thaxted


Thaxted had its market day today, but instead of the bustling 14th and 15th century market there were about five stalls that sold food and one that sold carpet. It did not seem to be a thriving market to me. The Post Office stores sold a lot of toys etc giving a real 1930s feel.

The guildhall or moothall of circa 1390 incorporates a lock up (for villains not a toilet see picture) and also has a museum closed Monday to Friday (except Bank Holidays). The real glory of Thaxted is its Church, remarkably free of memorials and very empty with tractarian chairs although laid out for a concert when I called. A sleepy village like this would be calming and extremely sleepy in the 1930s but Thaxted attracted its fair share of controversy. Rev'd Conrad Noel, who loved justice and hated oppression was vicar here from 1910 until he died in 1942. Prominent in the Christian Socialist Movement he was given an Irish tricoleur in the church to hang in the church alongside the flag of St George, and, as these represented nationhood he decided to raise the red flag to represent the one in many and the many in one with the inscription 'He hath made of one blood all nations'. This was not pleasing to cambridge students who came down to Thaxted to dstart a riot. Eventually an ecclesiastical court decided that Noel could stay as vicar but the flags should be removed and they have been.

The church also has a wooden font cover that envelopes the font and is most unusual. In the churchyard is an old chantry that Conrad Noel converted into a single dwelling in 1933 and a row of three extremly pretty almshouse cottages converted in 1975.

The town trail leads to John Webb's windmill, closed Monday to Friday (except Bank Holidays), and from this there were some good views.

The town trail leads back to the village and past a house where Morris Dancing has its origins from 1911, encouraged by Mrs Noel.

There was a shelter that had been presented to commemorate the coronation of 1953, but this was not at the bus stop. There wasn't even a seat.


Saffron Walden

The town shield bears tulips within a wall - saffron walled in - and saffron is the foundation of the town's prosperity. Our most complete medieval town it did not get the refurbishment that York got in the eighteenth and nineteenth century.

I followed the town trail here from the Town hall of 1792 with victorian gable via the corn exchange, covered in scaffolfding. The former Sun Inn with marvelous pargetting (see illustration) contained an antique shop and second hand bookshop with very expensive books (what I usually buy for £3.99 were on sale for £12.50 - the proprietor must love his stock).

The Church is large and peaceful, the benches dwarfed by the soaring height of the nave, aisles and chancel.

There is a beautiful garden, the former retreat of a quaker family with connections to the prison reformer Elizabeth Fry was extremely relaxing and enjoyable.

The finest building of the meadieval period was the youth hostel. An essay in English vernacular architecture of the period.

Bishop's Stortford home of the Empire Builder.

A brief visit to Bishop's Stortford, where Cecil Rhodes was born, although I saw nothing of his birthplace. There is a pleasant high street with some old houses converted into shops and what was the Wimpy Bar has been converted into a Zizzi. There is a six hundred year old church with a norman font and it was open strangely enough. The tower had been restorred in the 1990s. It was at this church that Cecil Rhodes's father preached.

I once came upon the phrase "There is no evidence that [Rhodes] was homosexual". Dose this mean that there was a lot of rumour and conjecture?

I also saw a little row of single storey cottages, the King's Trust Cottages. They had a medallion of Edward VII (perhaps) on each one.

A short period spent there but happy.

The New River path completed.

Call me no more O gentle stream
To wander through thy sunny dream
No more to roam at twilight cool
Above thy wier and glimmering pool.

It is with a sense of relief that I have completed this walk, which was mixed to say the least. The trip to the starting point for tonights walk was dreadful with a bus accident on the way that held me up for half an hour, and the rains came down with a vengance. But if I had waited for the fine weather I think I would have waited for a long time.
A lot of the sections on the banks of New River had not been made into footpaths so there were many houses in the 'by-pass variegated' style en route, and these had the usual quotient of skips and building work being done. I saw some perfectly good WC pans in these and just wonder why people put up with living on a building site as the home improvement squanderbug takes hold. When I got to the New River it was quite pleasant as it was fairly green. Via Enfield the River has been made into a water feature through the parks. This section is very picturesque with old houses on the other side of the river crossed by private bridges. I got lost through Enfield as the path was not well marked, but ended up seeing some curious residential streets, including flat roofed houses and green tiled Beverly Hills in Britain places. One point of interest was the clarendon arch which was built in the 17th century to take the Pymm's Brook, which we met on the loop, under the river. There are commemorative stones to say the Earl of Clarendon built the arch when governor of the New River Co and a commemorative stone for the building of the clay embankment and removal of the wooden trough that had carried the river for 173 years.

After Winchmore hill with its cricket club the river disappeared into a tunnel fairly quickly and I had to walk through streets. On one street a person asked me (in a xxx moment) who earned most money, footballers or golfers. I wasn't sure what would happen if I answered incorrectly, perhaps I would not be allowed to pass, so I hazarded that footballers earned most. I got the answer wrong, but was allowed to continue unmolested on my way.

The tunnel was marked above ground by NRC posts (New River Company). New river Company shares were sold for pence at the begining of the company but when the water was municipalised in the early twentieth century were worth six figures. It just goes to show if you hang around for 300 years you'll make money from shares.
Passing by the Alexandra palace I entered an unappealing area of bread and other factories but I knew the end was in sight Cutting through a curious sloping tunnel under the East Coast Main Line I went through a luxury estate built on a reservoir (no wonder London is now short of water) and saw the welcome sight of the pumping station now turned into a restaurant. It was supposed to be an art gallery but it looks more like a restaurant with pictures on the wall than aa gallery with a refreshment room. (see picture)

A visit to the O2

A visit to the O2 which was formerly known as the Millennium Dome.
I haven’t been in there for just over seven years so it was a bit strange going back. I’m not quite sure what to make of it. The main point of the O2 is to have a concert venue that with suitable commercial hyperbole is the biggest in Europe, although there is also a smaller arena which presumably is not. As always I am suspicious of superlatives, there being at least three smallest counties in England There has certainly been a lot of money spent on it with a large number of chain bars and restaurants, which I suppose are reliable. Chains predominate here, however there was a café called S & M although this was closed when I called. I dread to think what happens in there.

Even the bizarre range of sponsors are all international firms or linked to them. Why BMW, Nestle, and Vivitar are sponsors seems extremely bizarre. InBev and Pepsi Max are no doubt selling drinks and Credit Suisse is probably using up some numbered account that was last accessed 40 years ago and under Swiss banking law becomes the property of the bank.

I was quite impressed by the O2 in spite of myself, although the (chain) sushi bar had a very dirty floor. Clearly a lot of money has been spent here and it is arguably better than the Millennium Dome, which was glitzy where it should have been serious and serious where it should have been glitzy. The catering facilities are still as expensive as they always were but the hand driers in the lavatories were very effective: they almost blew your hands away.

There is a concession in this temple of Mammon to religion as there is a prayer room. I don’t know whether this has Christian facilities as I couldn’t find it. There were also facilities to make your own pop video.

So will it catch on – probably. London is under concert halled and new ones can only be better for everyone. But I wouldn’t want to live near it.

Waltham Abbey and Cross

The Eleanor Cross at Waltham (which comes under Cheshunt in my guidebook) was erected in the 13th century to commemorate one of the resting places of Queen Eleanor (not the overalls)on her way from Harby near Lincoln where she died to burial in Westminster Abbey. This is one of the surviving three original crosses and it is in the middle of a pedestrianised area with a red brick shopping centre nearby. It is one of the best of the eleanor crosses although the upper parts are pure 19th century.

The old Swan Inn has been demolished but its forlorn and pointless sign still crosses the now pedestrianised street from the shopping centre.




Crossing the border into Essex, Waltham abbey contains a fine Norman church of Holy Cross and St Lawrence, which is actually the old abbey nave. There is pure romanesque arcading with characteristic round topped arches and columns with decoration reminiscent of Durham Cathedral. The Abbey was built by King Harold. The ceiling of the church is painted with the signs of the zodiac. I came to the abbey five minutes before closure so only had a brief look round the crypt gift shop (described as a visitors centre but really a gift shop)and the church itself. From what I could see the church was well worth a return visit.

The Welsh Harp Inn acts as a lytch (or corpse) gate (although I have seen that word in a newspaper as a 'Lynch gate') and is a fine and picturesque black and white building, with the timbers having become askew.

The town was a typical small town, again well worth a return visit with what looked like pargeted shops and old ruins.

There is a coöp in the town, in the town.

To get to Harlow I found it was a mile along dual carriageway (hateful phrase - who thought that up?) to Waltham Cross Station or a mile along the Lee Navigation to get to Cheshunt railway station. I chose the latter and saw a heron on the canal, and some very charming boats. Cheshunt station also has more trains to Harlow.