please empty your brain below |
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Proof of the maxim that money cannot buy taste. Very interesting, DG.
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These are less expensive homes and more investments in trophy assets. As the tales of £100m -> £25m and repossession show, prices can go down as well as up.
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I remember reading the Guardian article on this when it was first published, and living not far from here, know the road well. It is a sad, frustrating sight walking up or down this road, knowing what housing crisis London is in and yet the majority of these properties are abandoned, sitting on huge plots of land that no-one else can use. I imagine if you do live on this road it is a very lonely existence - I doubt you even know your neighbours. I call the H3 bus you mention the 'cleaners bus' as this seems to be the only people that use it as it trundles round Hampstead Garden Suburb and down here. I've also always wondered why Bishops Avenue is one of the only residential roads in London (that isn't a trunk route) that is classified with a 40mph speed limit..?
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If I travel to London by car then this is the road I usually park on as I can leave it there for days without charge, this usually involves a walk from from West Hampstead where I normally stay. There doesn't seem to be any parking restrictions along the road and, like Rich mentioned, has a 40mph speed limit.
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I've only done the full length of Bishops Avenue on the H3 bus. I find it one of the most bizarre roads in London. You've captured the sense of the place very well in your post. The sheer waste of land and resources is pretty appalling given the problems we have with housing in London. Still no one is going to do anything about it - it'd cost too much, Barnet Council doesn't believe in social housing and there'd no doubt be some outrageously bad tempered campaign against "normal" people being housed in the area.
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When I as at school in the early 1960s one of our classmates lived in The Bishops Avenue and he invited a small group to visit him. His father was one of the staff for the 'big house' so although we walked through the main gates we never saw the interior of the house, although we had all hoped we may get a glimpse!
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I've been down The Bishops Avenue a number of times over the last 30-40 years. It's always puzzled me why it's rated so highly as it strikes me rather like an architectural jumble sale. And nowadays it seems half derelict.
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Given the housing shortage in London it would make sense to compulsorily purchase them and convert them into flats/social housing.
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It's just one big money laundering operation for corrupt politicians and Russian mafia, drives up the cost of housing for real people, and results in social cleansing.
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Been their a few times, used to drive along the road. Sometimes including a visit to the Phoenix cinema that is nearby. I have been in one of the houses, large rooms and billiard room, library etc. tennis courts in garden. That was back in the 1970's so probably been demolished and rebuilt now.
Another area for expensive houses, but just outside London, is St Georges Hill at Weybridge. Like Bishops Avenue, hilly and near a golf course. Although at around £12,000,000 they are half the price of Bishops Avenue. |
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Top deck views from a 102 bus along part of this road are interesting.
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I, along with thousands of others, have The Bishops Avenue as place of birth on my Birth Certificate.
Gracie Fields donated her home 'The Towers' to become a Maternity Home. She didn't get a mention above. so I thought I'd recall her generosity. She actually hated the place, lived in an unhappy marriage there. |
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