After some discussion we agree to go to Greenwich, one of our regular haunts. Advantages: we can go all the way to Canary Wharf on the Jubilee line and we can make a stop part way at Green Park where J would like to check on the Canadian Memorial near Buckingham Palace, in part to see whether anyone maintained it after Conrad Black ceased due to legal difficulties.
Joe and Barbara’s semi-excellent adventure. Not precisely the journey we planned (word from the French ‘jour’ and meaning, originally, as far as one could go in a day).
Plan modifications begin almost immediately, with the announcement that the train will be proceeding very slowly as the line is partly suspended due to a fire at Canary Wharf. Passengers are advised to change to another line if possible. And indeed the train sits long enough at the next station, Finchley Road, that we and several other passengers take the advice and switch to the Metropolitan line, which is still going south at this point but will not continue to do so as far as Green Park.
So suggest that we divert and go to Bayswater, news of the fire at Canary Wharf not sounding encouraging. This actually a familiar route from previous years. Change at Baker Street and take the first train to Paddington. Could actually walk from Paddington. J demurs. But we get lost doing that. All right, tube to Bayswater - no problem. Circle, District, and Hammersmith lines all go to Paddington. Take whichever comes first. It’s Hammersmith.
Alight to change at Paddington. Become aware of unforced error. Could not have predicted fire at Canary Wharf. Could with any thought have imagined that a long weekend would be a convenient time for TFL to close lines for maintenance, as it has done with Circle and District lines. Hammersmith line not suitable for heading to Bayswater. We could walk?? First difficulty arises in exiting from station which has always had a confusing connection to rail station of same name and now seems to have had significant renovations since we were last here.
Exit to unfamiliar territory. Well, not completely unfamiliar - we are obviously immediately beside Paddington Basin, part of the canal that crosses London. And more or less diametrically opposite the place we would have preferred to have exited had we seen any method of doing so. Quite cheerful actually. Holiday spirit. Kayakers desporting themselves along the canal. Food and drink for sale. Small maps posted (You are here) showing how to proceed in any direction except the one we want. Could we circle the building? Not really. Helpful signs include ‘footpath closed’ and ‘weak bridge’ - though surely that must be advising motorists not pedestrians, for whom there seem to be no provisions at all for going a few blocks west.
So, follow the canal in the westward direction. We do know where we are basically, but the canal angles north at this point while we are trying to angle south. Have actually walked the canal as far as Camden Town in the past, but that’s well to the east of us. Find ourselves immediately in holiday carnival. Decorated canal boats, carousels, cakes. Pass a small statue of Paddington Bear and reflect that if he had arrived at the remodelled station he might have returned to darkest Peru from whence he came. But then he arrived at the rail station, much of which dates from 1854 and was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
Leave the canal bank and do some unhappy zigzagging to hit Bishop’s Bridge Road, passing a number of buses heading in various wrong directions. But at this point we know exactly where we are, a little more than half a mile from our destination. And eventually come to a familiar Waitrose (which sadly doesn’t have the particular Earl Grey tea we buy there each time we’re in London).
This is a neighbourhood we’ve stayed in many times over the past twenty-five years and lots of memories here. The first meal we had together was on Queensway thirty-five years ago, in a restaurant that disappeared long ago. In fact most establishments have gone or changed beyond recognition (an exception being the little Lebanese takeaway). Whiteleys, one of London’s first department stores, opened on Queensway in 1909. From 1989 until 2018 it was a shopping mall, which is how we always knew it. It then closed to be redesigned as posh apartments, a process that the doorman tells us is still in progress. Happily they have retained its classical facade. But for the most part the changes on the street are a little sad. No more goods spilling out onto the sidewalk. Much of the tough individuality gone. Many stores and restaurants are chains. As J says, more sterile.
Check the map when we get back. Our flat to Whiteleys is two and a half miles on foot by the most direct route. But we’ve had way more exercise than that.
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