Somewhere New

Yesterday, since it's hard to be travelling right now,  I decided to go somewhere new. Get on the train, get off at some unfamiliar station, see what I could see.   So I got on the first mainline train that came along, got off at the first station I'd never noticed before, and found myself in Canonbury.  

So what was there to see in Canonbury?

The first thing I noticed were these handsome vintage iron railings fronting what were probably mighty expensive early Victorian houses.   I'd guess many of these houses fetch close on a million pounds.  But there again, on the next street, I found this car repair shop with a friendly lion in it  ...

He's so battered that he has stopped being fierce and just likes to sit there like any amiable old fellow watching the world go by.  He ought to have a glass of beer down there by his pile of tyres.

I quickly spotted a very elegant church down the road.   According to the sign outside, it was called St. Pauls, and when I looked it up later, I found it was designed by Charles Barry, the co-designer of the Houses of Parliament.

Take a look at the old photo I found just now.   I think the tower even looks a bit like the Houses of Parliament, or is that just my imagination?

It's now de-consecrated and used as a Steiner School. (click here for info about Steiner schools) 

This Steiner school was having its annual Advent craft fair, and I decided to take a look.  Many other people had the same idea, as you can see from this photo of them flooding in. The church was well decorated with brightly coloured dotty garlands hung all over the nave.



I would not have chosen a Steiner education for my kids, because it seems a bit up there with the fairies for me - but I like its emphasis on spirituality and non competitiveness.  I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, but when one of the mums told me they hope to restore the church, I could only think that they had a long way to go.  It's  in a bad state, the interior spaces divided up with wooden screens and plastic. You see below part of of the fine original reredos, but paint and plaster has all come off the ceiling and green plastic is keeping out the rain.

It's not exacty sad, because it's a spacious and interesting environment for the children.  Some of the parents had installed a little cinema and were showing the kids hand tinted film shorts  (such as this one).made by the Lumiere Brothers over 100 years ago.

In the nearby church hall, was a gigantic (and very inexpensive) buffet created by the parents.  Although there were huge crowds, it was well organised, with bright African print tablecloths on long trestle tables and lots of organic, wholefood and ethnic dishes.

And the kids were very well behaved, and some of them even tucked in happily to lentils and tomatoes. Most kids I know would have turned up their noses, but perhaps that's what a Steiner education does for you.

After lunch, I continued up the road towards the one-time village of Newington Green. Newington really does have what was once a village green in its centre. It's surrounded now by interesting shops and cafes, many of them Turkish, and a specialist Children's Cafe.  One of the buildings also sported a plaque to one of the world's first true feminists, the fascinating Mary Wollstonecraft.

Mary died young but she had an amazing life - read about her here - and she also wrote "A Vindication of the Rights of Women"  in 1792.  (Her daughter Mary - later Mary Shelley -  was also a writer, of a different kind - she wrote "Frankenstein".)

Here is a sketch of Newington Green (complete with sheep) during Mary Wollstonecraft's lifetime

and here it is now, minus sheep but plus a children's playground.   Recognisably the same, even though the little Dissenters' chapel has a new facade since the sketch was made  (if you count 1863 as "new" that is.)

Leaving villagey Newington behind, I kept walking, seeing all kinds of things.  A touch of surrealism in this old and faded mural, on the side of a house, and now overgrown by a tree.....

 Toy rats on display in a front window. Or are they mice? And firing a cannon?  Mysterious....

And this extraordinaryshop, haphazardly piled shoulder high with tools. Some of the tools were as old as the shop itself.   It did have customers, too. They were rummaging around in search of that perfect 1950s screwdriver, I suppose....

I liked this clock outside a builders' merchants, with numerals have been represented by builders items.

But I didn't like this scary nail salon which specialises in unusual nail treatments.

The nail salon is in Dalston, on the way from Canonbury to Hackney.   And to be honest, the nails weren't the only thing I found scary in Dalston. Not that anything happened to me, but when even the charity shops are trying to keep out the hoodies, things don't look too good.

But Dalston gets nicer as it shades off into Hackney, and Hackney is a very interesting place. Hackney  deserves a post to itself, though, and anyhow, it was getting dark by then.   So I hopped on the train and went home. I felt I'd had an interesting day.

The other thing I did was call over to our neighbour's daughter's 13th birthday.   Wow!  A teenager. And her mum made a brilliant cake.

So, a good weekend. And plenty of new things.