please empty your brain below
I have REALLY enjoyed these B-road accounts. When a reader clicks to visit the blog, I imagine that it is only AFTER their click that they can discover whether a B-road is that day's fare.

dg writes: Imagine again.

MartinG | 10.11.21 - 7:27 a.m. | #

The Tesco on Bethnal Green Road (a 4-digit A-road, sorry) says Est 1969 on the sign, which is by far the oldest I've seen. (I think the established dates only feature on Metro and Express stores, and the express concept is a 21st century thing, so none of them are going to be very old, and the Metro brand is being phased out.)

martin | 10.11.21 - 7:37 a.m. | #

I’m glad that you continually chase TfL about bus stop notices - they are incredibly bad at keeping these current, nowadays. I must take a leaf out of your book, and join the campaign.

Liz | 10.11.21 - 8:10 a.m. | #

Thanks for the trip down memory lane, Southgate Rd has scrubbed up nicely.

I could really have done with a deli across the road on my 1998 wages.

Kevin | 10.11.21 - 8:15 a.m. | #

Great little series.

JJ | 10.11.21 - 8:17 a.m. | #

I am enjoying the series. I think the miscellany that you encounter on these meanders is the very essence of the Diamond Geezer blog.

I wonder if the owner of Seaview Cottage is the same person who named an office in rural Oxfordshire that I once worked at "the old lighthouse"

Ian | 10.11.21 - 8:38 a.m. | #

Jade Jagger lives on the B102! High chance it may have featured in one of those Sunday supplements.

David | 10.11.21 - 8:41 a.m. | #

FWIW, I like hearing about streets I've never visited and never will.

Scott | Homepage | 10.11.21 - 8:43 a.m. | #

Was the rope-making side of the business wound up when the tent-maker folded?

Timbo | 10.11.21 - 8:57 a.m. | #

I've often wondered how Southgate Road got its name. I doubt if its because of the present North London suburb which was only a distant small village when the road was laid out. Perhaps it led to the south gate of a large house.

Jeremy | 10.11.21 - 9:02 a.m. | #

I presume only a minority of your readers arrive at your blog by clicking a link that includes that day’s subject.

Bryn Davies | 10.11.21 - 9:17 a.m. | #

Barrys Locks - I'd be impressed if the sign above the door advertised 01 as the phone number. But maybe even 0171 and 0181 are now thin on the ground.

I haven't spotted an 01 in several years, I wonder if any signs survive with that moniker.

Dave | 10.11.21 - 9:35 a.m. | #

I really enjoy these posts. I'm reminded that I met a girl in the late 70s whose family home was in the De Beauvoir town area, which was generally run-down with dilapidated properties, many of which were HIMO. Hard to imagine since it became so smart and desirable - as was Jackie.

Frank F | 10.11.21 - 9:35 a.m. | #

Went to the Rosemary Branch in the late 80's early 90's when it was a thriving live music venue. Can't remember who I saw but I do still have the fanzine with the listings. If only I knew which box it was in...

ap | 10.11.21 - 9:48 a.m. | #

Looking forward to the B515. The road where I grew up.

Terry Ash | 10.11.21 - 10:01 a.m. | #

No need to admonish your readers for failing to comment.

dg writes: I didn’t.

These are fascinating posts, and even more interesting to me as at present they include streets I knew reasonably well. The B102 was part of the 76 bus route from Waterloo to my home in Stoke Newington, and I travelled on its top deck on many occasions.

Charles | Homepage | 10.11.21 - 10:14 a.m. | #

Well, your recent B-road visits have coincided nicely with my recent movements - I happened to wander down Pitfield Street and around Shoreditch Park on Saturday, after I dropped my daughter off at the shiny new Britannia Leisure Centre. And I regularly do a bit of Southgate Road on one of my Sunday morning running routes. I tend to think about Hitchcock working at Gainsborough Studios as a young man when I’m in that neck of the woods, but will enjoy conjuring up the Bolshevik spirit from now on.

CJS | 10.11.21 - 10:20 a.m. | #

I've cycled that route a few times and wondered what the multi-hub place used to be. Thank you.

David (@DTL) | Homepage | 10.11.21 - 11:01 a.m. | #

I normally read via RSS, but just to keep you happy, clicked on the link to the actual blog today!

Nick | Homepage | 10.11.21 - 11:21 a.m. | #

My mother-in-law grew up in a house on Southgate Road. If I tell that just 10 years ago when she went back she was astonished that the houses all now seemed to have indoor loos, you will get a sense of how much it must have changed in the last 60-70 years.

Will | 10.11.21 - 11:25 a.m. | #

"Few points of interest...?" I can only assume you are having a laugh!! What with that stunning row of mock arc-lamps alongside a park, and a pub surmounted by eagles' wings, what could be more engrossing! Just one thing though, do be careful when walking the B4455 - I was warned by staff at Chipping Campden library against cycling it - so walking could present a degree of risk...

cau1khead | 10.11.21 - 12:56 p.m. | #

Penge Motor Spares still proudly displays an 01 number on their shop front, though they don't appear to have opened to customers in some years

Paul | 10.11.21 - 1:29 p.m. | #

Minor point of historical interest: Cary's New And Accurate Plan Of London And Westminster 1795 indicates Southgate Road is built along the line of a primitive track, the southern continuation of King Henrys Walk. Thrillingly, the point at which the Walk intersected the Balls Pond Road is surveyed as the very, actual, location of the legendary Balls Pond itself. The northern tip of Southgate road deflects slightly to the west, perhaps in order to avoid pondy dampness.

jpmac | 10.11.21 - 1:52 p.m. | #

Fewer readers on B-road days = their loss! I'm thoroughly enjoying it so far. As an earlier commenter said, I enjoy reading about roads I'll probably never visit as well!
My Nan's childhood home lies somewhere under Shoreditch Park!

Cornish Cockney | 10.11.21 - 4:04 p.m. | #

I'm always amazed at the links their are between Russia's revolutionaries and London. Have always been fascinated by Peter the Painter.

Tones | 10.11.21 - 5:14 p.m. | #

re Seaview Cottage. According to OpenStreetMap (I'm following all these walks on OpenStreetMap...), there's also a Coastguard Cottage. Have people in De Beauvoir Town had a memo the rest of us have missed? Did you spot anyone building an ark?

Matt | Homepage | 10.11.21 - 5:16 p.m. | #

Throughout the early 2000s, the De Beauvoir Arms was called the Northgate. I don’t know if that was its original name or not. I think it only became the De Beauvoir Arms after a pub of the same name, on nearby Stamford Road, shut and was converted into flats. Thankfully the old ironwork, which spell out De Beauvoir Arms in capital letters, remain intact above the two doorways to the former bars of that building as a clue to its history. I’m not sure how often pubs are renamed after another local neighbour/former rival.

DB | 10.11.21 - 5:17 p.m. | #

Every so often through today the thought has popped into my head that Joseph Stalin, Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky visited a supermarket on the B102.
A stunning moment in time.

Herbof | 10.11.21 - 5:35 p.m. | #

I'm wondering what the sign at the head of Baring St. means. It says "Match days only additional controls". Is traffic affected this far from Emirates? And the last sign, "Next match Not today" has me very interested. Do they change the sign each time there's a match???

dg writes: Yes they do.

Steven | 10.11.21 - 5:57 p.m. | #

If Southgate Road was widened for trams it would have previously looked quite suburban.

Sprout Eater | 10.11.21 - 8:45 p.m. | #

DB - The current Elephant and Castle pub at Elephant and Castle likes to call itself "the pub which named the area", but one look at it suffices to show that it isn't. The original was demolished in 1959.

Klepsie | 11.11.21 - 12:43 a.m. | #

For the record, despite all the lovely comments, today's post had fewer visitors than anything I've posted on a Wednesday since 2018.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 11.11.21 - 7:46 a.m. | #

Klepsie: that’s a good point. I’m trying to think of the pub you mentioned without Googling and whether the later onewas in a post-war building. What struck me about the De Beauvoir Arms is both pubs are of a “traditional” heritage (whatever I mean by that!). I imagine both would have stood near each other since Victorian times so it’s strange that one would take the other’s name.

| 11.11.21 - 9:07 a.m. | #

Missing visitors missing out: Without your post, I'd never have looked into the old maps of this route. I'd never have noticed the white lead works associated with the Rosemary Branch, then found Hackney History's article "Windmills to Rockets: The White Lead Works of Southgate Road." (There from 1786 until a V2 dropped in it in 1945). Completely unexpected. Novel windmills! And I'd never have learned of the process of white lead manufacture. Fascinating. Extra bonus, finding the Hackney History publications!

jpmac | 11.11.21 - 10:39 a.m. | #

Wonderful post. I understand that visitor numbers matter, but there are other values too you should consider when judging the success of a post. I moved to the area recently and learned more about it in this post than in any newspaper 'area guide' (who talk, at best, about Hitchcock at Gainsborough, and maybe celebs who popped into Holborn Studios). And I'll share the bits and bobs I learnt with others, incl the blog I got the info from etc. So there are downstream benefits to just providing high quality posts to readers who appreciate them! Keep it up matey

Ben | 09.12.21 - 10:17 a.m. | #











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