please empty your brain below
An A1 envelope would be nearly 3 foot long. Flipchart size. And what on earth is gizzard suya?

Malcolm | 03.07.19 - 7:49 a.m. | #

Thanks, quite near where I live but I've never felt the desire to explore this area in any great detail!

The railway sidings are a massive barrier here, indeed this distance from central London has a lot of depots and sidings (e.g. Hither Green, Hornsey and Willesden Junction), all crucial but not attractive and a bit of a blot on the local area

Mikey C | 03.07.19 - 10:00 a.m. | #

Not even Google maps shows Cricklewood Millenium Green and Clitterhouse Playing Fields as green spaces!

This would have been my Dad's stomping ground. As a small boy he moved from Hoxton to Cricklewood Lane just before the outbreak of WW2, and its history might explain his lifelong passion for aeroplanes ever since!

Indeed when my grandparents then moved a few miles further north just after the war it was to where the old De Havilland site off Stag Lane in Kingsbury stood!

Some of my earliest memories include learning to ride my bike at a quiet aerdrome while my dad was taking Saturday morning flying lessons!

Cornish Cockney | 03.07.19 - 10:20 a.m. | #

Wasn't there a superstore (Safeway?) on the site of the Holiday Inn, or was it next door where the retail park is?, it didn't seem to last long and was derelict for what seemed like ages.

Hendon dog track roughly occupied the site where the M1 roundabout is as well as part of the Brent Cross car park, and there is still a Stadium Road.

From a rail point of view there was a loop which ran under the Midland Main Line, so it was level with the North Circular, it allowed engines to access/leave Cricklewood without crossing the Midland Main Line on the level.

Still Anon | 03.07.19 - 1:01 p.m. | #

The Safeway's was where the retail park is now.

The Safeway and the nearby Tesco opened within months of each other, which was crazy really, both even had petrol stations.

Mikey C | 03.07.19 - 1:54 p.m. | #

I do like an interesting report on an uninteresting place!

From a map, you would expect the central roundabout to be an architectural focal point, but in reality it is mostly bounded by the blank fences of back gardens, hence the 'no fly tipping' signs.

I find it interesting how in some places, there remain enough front gardens to maintain something of the leafy-ish Metroland look, and when the concreting-over hits more than about 1/3 or consecutive properties, it makes for a bleak and depressing environment - quite a blight in the streets around Brent Cross station too.

NickW | 03.07.19 - 2:18 p.m. | #

As a Cricklewood resident since the early Eighties, I remember the Express Dairy depot next to Cricklewood Station and the Cricklewood Trading Estate further down which was totally destroyed by fire.

DG mentions the 'Golders Green Estate' (typical estate agent parlance)as possibly being at the heart of North Cricklewood, but there is the Clitterhouse Estate (where ex Local Authority houses are fetching nearly £500,000) opposite the erstwhile Hendon Football Ground and 3 tower blocks further down towards Brent Cross which I suggest was the 'original' North Cricklewood.

I hope the good folk of North Cricklewood get a fair deal from the new re-generation.

richard | 03.07.19 - 4:50 p.m. | #

On the edge of North Cricklewood is Brent Terrace which is one of the oddest streets in London. From the street you see the backs on the houses, they front on to the railway yards!

RogerP | 03.07.19 - 8:58 p.m. | #

We always knew the area as the Golders Green Estate and have family friends on Cotswold Gardens. My Dad told me The Vale was used as an airstrip but I don't know if that's an urban myth.

There are anomalous postcode areas of both NW2 and NW11 in the vicinity.

Helen D Vecht | 03.07.19 - 9:24 p.m. | #

I can see why the urban myth prevails!

The 'office block' near the southern end of The Vale is the last surviving building from the Handley Page factory.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 03.07.19 - 9:28 p.m. | #

If you Google North Cricklewood the only thing that flags up is TFL bus routes to this destination.
Although as a local resident I know where it is, I wonder whether at the moment it actually exists at all!

dg writes: If you check the OpenStreetMap link in the first paragraph, there it is.

richard | 03.07.19 - 10:27 p.m. | #

No Fixed Abode, Cricklewood. The residence of Graham, Tim & Bill

JD | 03.07.19 - 11:41 p.m. | #

Malcolm: A1 envelope size would seem to be an American size of 3 5/8" x 5 1/8", rather than one of the ISO sizes we now use in the UK. Envelopes made to fit the ISO A series of paper sizes are classified as C sizes. So a C4 envelope of 229 x 324mm fits an A4 paper size of 210 x 297mm.

Charles | Homepage | 04.07.19 - 12:05 a.m. | #

'A1 Envelope Merchants' was a company operating out of Unit 2 on the Claremont Road estate. They made envelopes. They did not make A1-sized envelopes.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 04.07.19 - 7:05 a.m. | #

RogerP, that's really interesting. I guess everyone has to either access their "front" doors via the back alley or go in the "back" door.

Most be really confusing for delivery drivers!

Mikey C | 04.07.19 - 10:23 a.m. | #

A quick Google earth view of Brent Terrace shows what looks like 5-7 blue pools in some of their "front" gardens too!

Cornish Cockney | 04.07.19 - 11:37 a.m. | #

I used Schleppers to move my personal effects in one of my many house moves; it would have been rude to use another firm! They were fine.
My abode in Stag Lane, Edgware has its 'twin' on Brentfield Gardens NW2. The houses have a slightly more interesting appearance than neighbouring properties. The man who lived next door and had been there since the house was newly-built in 1932, said the builders from Golders Green had gone bust.

Helen D Vecht | 04.07.19 - 2:16 p.m. | #

I only know of North Cricklewood through LT/TfL - before Brent Cross bus station became a 24/7 concern it was normal to truncate BC services at the nearest practical terminus outside of opening hours. For the C11/189 that was 'North Cricklewood, Tilling Road'.

Nico | 10.07.19 - 6:53 p.m. | #











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