These areas have been described as Highgate and Hampstead's 'poor relation' but I shunned this as posh nonsense. People looking down their noses at the lowly, slightly rougher areas on the other side of Archway Road. But there were ancient woods and spooky pools and interesting history to get my teeth into. So I set off, snacks in bag, swimsuit and towel under arm, to revisit North London. I couldn't wait.
It started well. I left Archway tube station and headed straight up Archway Road to Archway Bridge, otherwise known as Suicide Bridge. It has been known as various things over the years, including the Bridge of Sighs (presumably for the same reason).
As I headed under the bridge and up the high street, lots of things were closed or a bit falling-down-y. One church looked a bit out of place, like the Pope had decreed that it must be built to look a bit like a cool casino, to try and attract more people, by convincing them it wasn't really a church. I expect just inside the door, there were huge plastic palm trees. I didn't look though.
I kept going and reached an amazing looking book store called Ripping Yarns, that I didn't trust myself to go in. There was also a hairdressers called E. Scissorhands, which I thought was quite cool. It was around this time that I received a text message from BBC News. It said that the UK had won a gold in the men's triathlon.... NO! NO THEY DIDN'T! NO! BECAUSE SOMEONE TOLD ME IT'S TOMORROW! I had planned to go tomorrow to watch it. If I had known I definitely DEFINITELY would have gone. Instead I was in stinky Archway, looking at closed down shops and odd churches. Damn! Damn it. I hate Archway. I hate the Lympits (as my cousin's son, Theo, calls it). I can't believe the Lympits let me down by being on the wrong day.
Ok, calm down, Laura. Stop freaking out. It's not the Lympits fault. It's yours, for not double checking what someone told you. Archway is lovely. Stop acting like a child. And stop stamping your feet and shaking your fists in the air. You're in public. Calm down....
After I had regained my composure, I searched online and found out that the next free event is on Saturday, it's the walking race. Most of the route is unticketed. I will go to that. Pheeewwwww! And that way I can get a photo at least, unlike the cycling, where I just got blurry colour streaks and crowds.
Shortly after my hissy fit, I turned off Archway Road into Highgate Wood and was plunged from slightly run-down high street into deep woods, full of animal sounds and tree varieties. Believe it or not, this wood has been here for hundreds of years. It was mentioned in the Domesday Book in 1087, as 'Hornsey Woods'. (The Domesday Book, for those who are sure what I'm talking about, was commissioned by William the Conqueror after he had invaded England to find out who owned what land etc.)
Another amazing bit of Highgate Wood trivia is that a Roman kiln was found here recently! This is the section they have in the small cosy visitor's centre. It was a kiln which had been in use between 140 and 160 AD which was, according to the blurb, the 'fourth and last phase of the Highgate pottery sequence'... Don't ask me what the first three phases of the Highgate pottery sequence are though.
Next to the visitor's centre is a playing field where Rod Stewart used to play football as a young man. The current football team who play there are not doing so well though. In 'Tree Top News', the Highgate Woods newsletter, this season is described as one where 'the wheels have come off the cart'....!
The woods have been carefully managed and have varieties of birds and bugs that are extremely rare in other parts of London, such as stag beetles (also bred with success on Putney Heath, a destination of another of my walks).
After trying two or three times to leave the park, I finally found a gate and crossed Muswell Hill Road and over into Queen's Wood, which made Highgate Wood look like an open field. The trees were so tense. Apart from the pathways, I couldn't see very far into the woods at all. I quickly descended from the busy, loud road, down to the dark spookiness of a deserted paddling pool, which has been fenced around for years apparently. What it is still doing there is a mystery.
Queen's Wood is alive with tumbling raspberry bushes...
..and beautiful plants which I had never seen before and had no idea of the name of. The trees formed a solid canopy over me with small spots of sunlight breaking gently through. After wandering about marveling at this ancient woodland for a while, I headed out and onto my next point of interest, the Park Road Leisure Centre lido. In I went, paid my £4.50 and asked which direction went to the outdoor pool. The woman behind the desk didn't seem that bothered whether I was there or not and mildly irritated that I should be asking her anything like the direction to the pool. When I got outside the pool looked huge! I got my camera out and took a few photos...
...when all of a sudden, from my right, a voice yelled "OI! STOP TAKING PHOTOS!" As though I were trying to break out of a maximum security prison unit. What? And who was this person without enough manners to come over and say "Could you stop taking photos please?" instead of yelling from the other side of the pool, as if we're thuggish teenagers on the street or something. It really threw me, given that on my Highgate walk, everyone was nice as pie and super generous. I was only a few roads away from Highgate... what had happened?
And that's when I understood what they meant when they described Crouch End as the 'poor relation'. Ohhh...... That's what they meant.
I put my phone away and went to the lockers, my lovely day of woodlands and history marred slightly by this unexpected rudeness. I changed and put 20p in the locker and got the key thing out. It was one of those which is attached to a bracelet which you can put around your wrist while you swim. As I tried to put it on, I realised it was broken. Dammit. I went back to the lockers, put the key in and waited for my 20p to come back out so I could put all my stuff in a different locker. But no, the 20p did NOT come back out. It didn't show any signs of even pretending to come out.
This was going rapidly downhill. The Crouch End/Archway walk now had two black marks against it's name, within the space of three minutes. It was annoying that it happened there, at the swimming pool. Usually that's the best bit in my day. Especially on a day out and being in a different pool, it's exciting. This swimming pool incident was not exciting.
Eventually I got in the (freezing) pool and started swimming. As it's much bigger than the outdoor pool I usually swim in and there were no little markers between any lanes, I had no way to tell where I was or which direction I was moving in when I was doing backstroke. Hence I proceeded to swim all over the place like an idiot. You'd think I was allergic to straight lines or something.
In the following diagram, I am the one at the top, ready to set off from the side of the pool. The person below me is a man who can swim in a straight line and must have been very annoyed/amused having to share the pool with such a moron.
After my first right turn, I heard shouting and looked up (the blob on the picture) and the lifeguard woman was shouting at me, "Wrong way! You're going the wrong way!"
"Thanks!" I shouted back, embarrassed and corrected myself. Just before I got to the edge of the pool, I checked again to see if I was going in the right direction. I was. So I leant back again and did a few more strokes to get to the edge of the pool. And a few more. And a few more again. Somehow, after checking my direction, I had turned widthways and was swimming across the pool instead of up and down it.
After this shambles of a length, I reverted to breast stroke for the remainder of my swim. At least I could see where I was going then. It was a really lovely pool actually. Shame about my first few minutes there being quite rubbish. As I left, I went to the woman at the desk and politely told her a made-up story about being a new resident in the area, I love swimming, I swim every day, I was looking for a new pool to go to every day, being yelled at by the lifeguards was not the nicest way to be welcomed, I had lost my 20p in the locker and while none of this was major or life-threatening and while I was not one to make complaints usually, I just thought I'd say that this had been a distinctly unpleasant first visit and I was quite disappointed. She said sorry and that she'd talk to the lifeguard but then again, she was the person who had been annoyed when I asked her how to get to the outdoor pool so I didn't think she cared that much. "It's ok, it's not your fault," I said, more graciously than I felt, and left to continue my walk.
I headed to Crouch End Broadway and found bakeries with lovely looking treats and more bookshops, which I didn't go in. It was hard though. I stayed on this road past the clock tower and just kept going, passing a school called Coleridge Primary School! He was everywhere up here. I even saw an old old fountain with a quote from him on it. I passed Faraday House, as in Michael Faraday, the scientist. He used to stay in the area a lot too.
I soon found myself out on top of Archway Bridge and it looked much higher up than it had looked when I was down on the road, looking up at it. The view into London was amazing. Again, it doesn't translate onto a photograph very well but here it is. You can see some of the tall buildings like the Gherkin and the Shard, that were in my photo taken from the viewpoint on Hampstead Heath.
After this, it was time to repay some of my debts. I crossed the bridge and continued down the road, coming out opposite Waterlow Park, which I had passed at the beginning of my last walk here. Turning right, I reached the bookshop in a minute or so. If anyone has forgotten, I bought some books in this bookshop which cost £23.95 but I only had £23.75. The woman wouldn't let me pay by card, but said I could just bring her the 20p later. I didn't get back to the shop before going home and haven't been in North London again since. I felt pretty rubbish about promising to bring it back then not doing so. So I was back to keep my promise. As I entered the shop, the was sitting behind the desk.
"Hi, I was here about three weeks ago..." I started.
"O! And you're back! How lovely!"
I was amazed. She remembered me. She knew exactly what I was talking about when I started to explain.
"Yes," I said, "I've brought the 20p, sorry it's taken so long!"
She was lovely about it, said hadn't been thinking about it and thank you for coming by again.
After this, I headed down Highgate Hill and back to Archway station and home, to sit around thinking about how disappointed I was about missing the Lympits triathlon.
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