Treading over old territories I began on Lisson Grove, the actual road that is. The area also goes by the name Lisson Grove and is sandwiched between Edgware Road and Marylebone. I started at the Marylebone end. Sunsnacks cafe where the punk legends The Clash used to frequent is still a feature as is Seashells fish and chip restaurant.
As I pushed on there's a turning off to the right where the famous Sylvia Young Theatre school is situated, opposite is the large Lisson Green social housing estate. The theatre school remained a mysterious place to childhood me, but I found the confident pupils coming and going from the old church building intriguing when waiting for my bus. The stop where I took the bus home from my school was located outside the old 19th Century church school building. Boarding the bus whilst in transit on the corner of Lisson Grove was a regular occurrence due to it being an old route master with the open back. The thought of jumping on the back of a moving bus doesn't fill me with confidence now, but when you're twelve it doesn't seem like such an obstacle. Another building close by worth a mention is Portman Gate, an estate built in 1987. The estate replaced The Portman Buildings which were large Victorian residential blocks built in 1887 by the Artisans Workers' and General Dwellings Company. It's interesting to think of what the buildings and residents were like in the 1880's and by the mid 1980's.
Church street is located just off Lisson Grove, as you enter you can see the market going all the way down to the Edgware Road. This end of Church Street has numerous high end antique shops and the treasure hunters paradise of Alfies indoor antique market, which is located in an old art deco department store. Spread over 3 floors, this treasure trove of a building sells everything from 1920s soviet Christmas decorations to vintage jewellery. The hustle of the street market intensifies as you shuffle further along it. The market featured in 'The London Nobody Knows' 1967 documentary directed by Norman Cohen. The actor James Mason narrates and wanders the streets in sublime fashion during this period of change in London. Despite London's rapid change in this era the market stayed true to its Victorian history, a long straight road full of characters selling all sorts of goods. The documentary is based on the book of the same name by Geoffrey Fletcher. The street is still full of great bargains and has been a feature here in some shape or form for almost 200 years. The area remains a heterogeneous mix of cultures and classes tied together by the market. The fictional character Eliza Doolittle, the flower girl resided here in the play Pygmalion: "How do you come to be so far East? You were born in Lisson Grove", "Oh what harm is there in my leaving Lisson Grove? It wasn’t fit for a pig to live in". The area was notorious for extreme poverty throughout the 19th century and the neighbourhood also features in Jack London's 'The People Of The Abyss' which details London's poverty at the time.
The fruit and vegetable stalls still pitch up in the middle of Church street by the crossroads, and various stalls selling homeware, clothes, food and bric-a-brac still line the street and remain inextricable to the foundation of the area. The Traders Inn pub is still holding up as a proper locals boozer, along with various businesses serving the immediate community. As with everywhere in 21st century London the area is looking like it will be redeveloped in the coming years, demolishing a lot of the council homes which encase the market. This will also impact the local shops and 'rejuvenating' the old market will likely mean it's aimed at a different clientele. If it were possible to elicit the true desires of the haughty developers and local authority I doubt there would be much of a passive acceptance to the plans. This road like many others in London has a deep meaning to the community. Let’s hope the character is not abstracted from the market in the future. An estate in the heart of the neighbourhood which might be demolished is known locally as 'Library Flats' as it has a library inside the estate. I played football here a few times as a kid in the concrete lowered pitch, often with a crushed can of coke if nobody had a ball.
Penfold street leads down to the listed 70s built school which used to house North Westminster community school lower house. Opposite are fine examples of Peabody housing, although not to James Mason's taste in 'The London Nobody Knows' documentary. The layered architecture shown in the film documents the newly built 1960s tower blocks, the Peabody dwellings and the original old building rooftops with chimneys. There are plenty of shiny new edifices to add to that tapestry now. An alley at the end of the narrow street leads you onto the Edgware Road opposite the old Paddington green police station which was recently demolished, having been occupied by anarchist group the Green Anti-Capitalist Front since 2020.
Joe strummer from The Clash links to the area were commemorated by the underpass being renamed Joe Strummer subway. The subterranean octopus like underpass slithers below with various neon lit tentacles leading out to different sides of the encompassing pavements. The concrete tunnels sit directly below the Edgware Road and the beginning of the Westway meaning the rattle of the overhead cars and trucks is felt down there. A small shop used to be located in the middle of the underpass like a square metal heart. Since then there has been an art gallery where the shop once stood. Now it appears to be closed and filled in. All traces of the underpass and its entrances vanished as if it never were. Perhaps an archaeologist will rediscover the concrete punk octopus one day.
Close by to the beginning of the Westway flyover used to be the glorious grand Metropolitan Music Hall, which by the time the poet John Betjeman made the documentary 'From Marble Arch to Edgware' in 1968 it had already been demolished conscientiously and replaced with a dreary 60's carpark. As a boy I remember frequenting an old cafe with faded 50s decor close by called The Metropolitan cafe. It's a vague memory as it closed not long after.
I started to feel haunted by side street ghosts as I carried on along a road I have walked many times in my life but never as consciously. There are lots of shisha bars and Arabic shops adding flavours, colour and tasty food. A pawnbrokers caught my attention due to it's fantastic old school lit up signage, which appears to indicate being established in 1797. There's a pub called The Royal Exchange just off the main road on Sale Place where the bass player from The Clash, Paul Simonon Dj's sometimes. The pub also host a Latin night with Chicha music, which is of interest having seen Peruvian legendary band Los Mirlos at Dingwalls last year. I wonder which of the streets was the location to 'The Home of The Silent Film' theatre in Graham Greene's short ghost story 'A Little Place Off The Edgware Road'. I can picture Craven the protagonist in the story darting off the main road, on a dark rainy night into the cinema, escaping the rain and the taunting apparitions. However, I moved on with my amble stroll and left him there to contend with his own mind and the fate that awaits him.
I continued the walk cutting down Crawford place and turning off at Cato Street, which is an old mews. The first house on the right was the location of the Cato Street conspiracy, where the revolutionary organisation conspired great political rebellion in 1820. The group were known as the Spencean Philanthropists and the conspiracy was a plot to murder all the British cabinet ministers and the Prime Minister Lord Liverpool. The plotters were caught and five were transported to Australia and the other five executed, possibly at the close by Tyburn tree, although I can't say for certain. This leads me on to my final destination.
This particular perambulating of the Edgware Road has an eerie end. I stopped at Marble Arch on the corner of Edgware Road and Oxford Street and got caught in the hustle of this section of central London. 'The heart of London' as John Betjeman called it in his 1968 documentary. This junction was once the home to the famous Tyburn gallows, also known as the Tyburn tree, used for capital punishment for many years. The site is marked by a small plaque on the pavement. Were the Cato Street conspirators executed here?
I crossed over the road to Hyde Park to escape the hectic area to the expansive oasis. But it was busy at the section I entered. Loud with a large gathering of people having their voices heard at Speakers Corner. I sat down on a bench with my sandwich and listened to them, then walked through the Royal Park.