please empty your brain below
Fascinatingly diverse locations. Grandad's family might have been more comfortable in a limousine.

DavidC | 28.04.19 - 6:29 a.m. | #

Love these posts - thank you DG.

I am reminded how 'Ally Pally' has been THE most significant and ever-present location throughout my life: from pre-school age bus rides to summer picnics with family on the slopes, via numerous firework displays, teenage dates, pitch & putt, rowing boats, the dreadful fire, living and commuting under it's gaze, ice skating and ice hockey, picnics with my own family, many and various gigs in The Great Hall, snooker and darts tournaments, and more recently classical music in the theatre. Even though I live many miles distant (and have done for years) I'm certain to be drawn back there in years to come.

Frank F | 28.04.19 - 7:20 a.m. | #

"Thameside West" and "Thames Wharf" appear to be names intended to give virtually no indication of where they might actually be located.

dg writes: Thames Wharf, at least, is authentic.

kev | 28.04.19 - 8:17 a.m. | #

Dock Road is on one of the running routes we use (you have to have a bit of authentic east London on a run).

Let's hope Bidder Street isn't cleaned up too soon. We'll miss dodging the trucks.

David @DTL | Homepage | 28.04.19 - 8:21 a.m. | #

Ditto,Frank F, ditto ... at this rate, your trek north will take you into my old home's back garden, at 7 miles, and my old school's former playing field at 8. too much nostalgia for a Sunday morning...

PJS | 28.04.19 - 8:56 a.m. | #

I saw a Red Kite when I was walking through Ally Pally park the other day. And that Plane tree on Streatham Common is definitely not dead if it's the one in the picture - they come into leaf a bit later than many trees. These random place posts are great, DG.

Johnny Topaz | 28.04.19 - 9:09 a.m. | #

By my guess, your location six miles north of Charing Cross must be very close to where BBC Gardeners' World began it's life on the slope down from the Palace.

dg writes: The exhibition in the East Court confirms this.

As I recall, it was fronted by Percy Thrower. As a small boy, I used to lay on the grass, and look up at the clouds racing overhead.

Brian | 28.04.19 - 9:23 a.m. | #

My first flat in London was just round the corner from Cromwell Close, and my second was just down the hill from Ally Pally. Quite glad I didn't move round to the next compass point for my next one.

martin | 28.04.19 - 10:13 a.m. | #

While the regeneration of Acton Town Hall (6 miles west) isn't providing any social housing, several units are available under various 'affordable' schemes. Also, this, and other development schemes in Acton Town centre, helped fund the new library, leisure centre and swimming baths that we've now got in another part of the old Town Hall building.

Ealing Council recently changed their policies so as to prioritise the development of social housing on any council owned sites they no longer need. Until recently it's been virtually impossible for local authorities to fund the building of social housing, so they've had to do deals with developers to get any new homes built at all.

ActonMan | 28.04.19 - 10:26 a.m. | #

I love this series of posts. It's interesting to see what difference a mile makes in each direction.

Cornish Cockney | 28.04.19 - 12:23 p.m. | #

DG, whenever you're done with the compass point series, would you consider compiling each direction (N, E, S, W) into its own collection? Would be a similarly interesting comparison.

Leo | 28.04.19 - 2:12 p.m. | #

These are very interesting posts indeed, thanks. Suggest you keep going until you hit the sea?

Kevin | 28.04.19 - 5:39 p.m. | #

And on Monday and Wednesday evenings at Ally Pally you may well see me staggering past that very spot, at the back of a group of my fellow Be Military Fitters, exhorted to speed up by the combat-trousered Jane, our excellent trainer. Glorious views by day and night. I joined eight years ago at the age of sixty two and it’s changed my life.

Keith | 28.04.19 - 7:49 p.m. | #

Am I the only one who's bugged by Thamesside being spelled with a single S?

Gregg | 28.04.19 - 10:03 p.m. | #

Kevin, I suggest that DG's quest in the Westward direction might stretch beyond his lifetime, if the current frequency is to prevail. And that's not to be taken as suggesting that DG's span is subject to premature termination :-))

Petras409 | 28.04.19 - 10:58 p.m. | #

The clocktower of Acton Town Hall isn’t “redbrick”. It’s faced with Portland stone (or so it appears to me from my photographs of it). The building as a whole is a mixture of brick and stone. I look forward to my appearance in your next summary of pedantic corrections.

Baldassaro | 29.04.19 - 7:30 a.m. | #

Wow, it's an earlier-than-usual post!

Anonymous | 29.04.19 - 7:33 a.m. | #











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