Archway

There are some nice parts of London; you can see them from here.
So opined Saint Etienne back in 1993 in Archway People. Typically, New Model Army go one step grumpier with Archway Towers:
I’ve tried to wrestle
Some unbalanced nightmare
Tell myself over that I
Don’t really live here
Although it’s clearly somewhere people are trying to get away from, [...]

Palmers Green

 
As a former resident of PG, this North London nook has been on my list to write up for some time now. The epitome to many of leafy suburbia, Palmers is really a ‘burb of two halfs – south of the A406 North Circular it lives up to its ‘Palmers Greek’ nickname, with the majority [...]

Hampstead & Belsize Park

 
There are whole swathes of London that are very pleasant indeed, but I just don’t bother going there. Why? You know very well why. Remember, three charity shops minimum. Sometimes it’s a shame, really, because these are nice enough places but there’s little to warrant actually going. Such is the case today, and so I’m [...]

Mill Hill

 
As our beloved charity shops hit the BBC for running out of stock, it’s time to have a quick look at a locale which didn’t offer me anything when I visited. Not that that’s really a problem – sometimes it’s nice to just pootle around – but it seems only appropriate.
Mill Hill is one of these [...]

West Hampstead

I first discovered West Hampstead a long while ago, driving through en route to Kilburn, trying out a new route via Temple Fortune and Golders Green. Trying to find my way back on purpose however, proved to be something of a different kettle of fish – the deeply unhelpful signs around Swiss Cottage and Finchley [...]

Southgate

We’re entering Amy Winehouse country here. That is, not only was the ironically-appropriate Rehab star born in Southgate, but everybody here looks a little like her. With a strong mixture of Cypriot and Jewish families around here, Southgate manages to be generally unappealing on some levels, and actually, not all that bad on others.
Historically, Southgate is [...]

New River Sports Centre flea market

A special dispatch today, just a quick one. We’re all bargain-lovers here, and we won’t discriminate when a bargain is found from a non-charitable source. I talk of flea markets. When I think of a flea market I first conjure up images of a North African bazaar, or a Turkish spice market, or somewhere else [...]

Wood Green

 
Wood Green has been the butt of as many “fashionable Wood Green” jokes as you can possibly imagine since I’ve become aware of its existence, so let’s clear this up right at the outset: Wood Green is not fashionable. It never has been. It likely never will be, such a wretched hive of scum and [...]

Crouch End

 
We’re in Yummy Mummy country this week. If ever there was a hive for these insidious equivalents of the ubiquitous American soccer mom, Crouch End is that. Despite being raised about a million cool points for being Simon Pegg’s home in Shaun Of The Dead, Crouch End is still mired in that post-gentrification yuppyism: like Muswell Hill, [...]

Tottenham

 
Tottenham is very dear to my heart. I’ve never lived there; I don’t particularly care for the football team; but I’ve spent a lot of time around N17, and there’s much to love. Of course, from a neutral perspective, there’s much to loathe as well: Tottenham’s one of the most deprived parts of the capital, [...]