Lost League Grounds (14) : White City

Interesting pictures Budleighgull, I just zoomed in on the one with the bus in it and I swear its merse driving

Yep... maybe I failed to mention the full address.. it was sometime ago! No.14, LOWER Addison Gardens.... As you say Merse, the wrong side of the street...

I'd quite forgotten this discussion when, on the way to Wembley yesterday, I suddenly decided to change trains at Clapham Junction and make for Wembley Central via Willesden Junction.

For starters, I was astonished by the number of people on the 1105 off platform 2 crowding on to one of those London Overground trains with relatively few seats and plenty of standing room. Then, I was taken aback by something called Imperial Wharf. What would my dad, who went to school in nearby Upcerne Road, have made of that?

But where were these people all going? People who, I must admit, were making me feel even poorer, uglier and older than usual. I know London is a city of constant change, but has Willesden morphed in a way I was unaware?

Then we stopped at the Bush and the train emptied. Ah, a shopping centre....

Here's a question for you Barty ~ or your long time girlfriend "Ann Orwrack"

Just by Upcerne Road there is a street called Stadium Street and it's name has always fascinated me. Was there once a stadium there? Does it have Roman connotations? Everyone I asked around there just looked at me as if I need certification, but I would love to know..........................over to you then, Bamber!

.................and if Bixieupnorth is still persevering with this site: explore this thread back to it's roots in January 2009 and you get a fine example of just why this is the quality site......................not just of Torquay United orientation, but one of the finest and most diverse anywhere on the Internet and just a little too demanding of the intellect for some.

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Thanks too, Merse, for the background regarding Imperial Wharf. I must go and investigate next time I’m in the area. [/quote]

"Vice & Disorder"....................now you tell me, seems like I missed the boat!

I do know Christine Keeler lived on the Blantyre Estate accross Cremorne Road in one of those huge brown tower blocks....................what fabulous views those flats must command, and Mica Paris lives in the area around your dad's old school ~ not that she's in anyway connected with V&D.

Although divided by the railway ever since it's development, Imperial Wharf has only just had a station opened as part of the London Overground project of which only yesterday the re-establishment of Dalston Junction (a famous old name that the public just never let die) became a reality after thirty or so years of inactivity when the Broadgate (Liverpool St) High Level line was closed. The Outer London Overground Circle is now nearing completion and it is already possible to travel from Clapham Junction northwards via Olympia (change for Watford or Brighton!) Willesden Junction (all sorts of interchanges possible) Gospel Oak (change for Highbury & Islington and east to Stratford and the Olympic Park)) Tottenham Hale (for Stansted or south to the City) Barking (for the mad and interchange for Southend and Lakeside) Trains can (and do) divert via Highbury & Islington for Dalston Junction and the East London Line route south via The City (at Shoreditch) under the Thames for Surrey Quays and New Cross Gate and then on towards Crystal Palace and West Croydon with just the link back north towards Clapham Junction to be completed now........................phew!!!!!!

I can't wait to top up my Oyster Card and go for a "play" on the system and jump off around the Croydon Tramlink Service for a ride up into the Addington Hills to see if Ronnie Corbett has any "little" things he needs doing.

Who needs a car!

Some time back in the late eighties, I found myself renting a bedsit off Kensal Rise. Being only familiar with tubes in those far-off days it took me a few days before I discovered Kensal Rise station, and a bit longer before I realised that it would take me to Camden Market by way of Camden Road station. It was a wonderful journey: quick, bright (in the summer) and comfortable, plus it opened up new spots of interest from Camden Road station to the market by the back route along Hawley Road.

Since then I have either worked, lived or co-habited by Clapham Junction, Olympia, Richmond, Gunnersbury, Acton Central, Willesden Junction, Brondesbury Park, West Hampstead and Gospel Oak, and the "North London Line" has taken me to the vast majority of places that I wanted to go, either directly or via a connection

It's a wonderful and under-used line in my opinion, usually punctual, often empty except for commuter times when it can get packed and around Westfield where the entire train appears to get off. It cuts right across the top of London with most stops giving easy access to some fascinating part of London from Kew Gardens, to Ladbroke Grove (a medium stroll from Kensal Rise), Kilburn High Road, Hampstead Heath, The Forum in Kentish Town, the aforementioned Camden Market, Upper Street, Hackney, Victoria Park; as well as fantastic connections at Stratford and Willesden Junction.

You can get excellent views across London from some of the vantage points and I find it redresses the balance from how I usually feel when I burrow upwards from the tube system, blinking into the daylight like a mole.

I like London when I'm on the North London Line, even when its raining, and to learn that it will sometime soon become an Orbital route makes me start thinking of a day-off with an all-day travelcard..