Category: 'HOPE'

HOPE lost

16/2/2014

OK, so someone has painted out 'HOPE'. The rendition alongside the railway bridge as you head north up Highgate Road has gone. Just like that. A mass of black. And it's been done in the last few weeks. No laws broken - no act of sacrilege - but I miss the lost 'HOPE' all the same.

This is what it used to look like, on the right - one of scrappier renditions around here. If you look at the photo on the left above, you can just about make out the remnants of the 'H' and 'O'.

And if you are coming new to the subject of 'HOPE' in NW5 (and around), this is where to start reading.

The good news is that three other versions of 'HOPE' all within a short distance of the one now lost are still extant - and all the photos below were taken on this wonderfully sunny, almost spring like, Sunday afternoon.

From footbridge at the side of Acland Burghley

Near College Lane

Above DarCars, heading south down Highgate Road

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Another dash of HOPE

5/1/2014

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Hiding in plain view ... or maybe I just haven't been very observant. Anyway, I've found another HOPE. (If you don't know what I'm on about, then click here for the full HOPE chronicles, now updated with this latest find).

So the above HOPE - photographed on a grey and grimy January afternoon - is just fifty yards from two others. It overlooks DarCars just off Highgate Road - not the most accomplished version, with its rather awkward slender verticals and broad horizontal strokes, but very clearly part of the opus. And again alongside rail lines, just to the side of a bridge.

I'm still on the look-out for the full HOPE story - if you know, do share.

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The HOPE chronicles

8/12/2013

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UPDATED January 2014 with the discovery of another 'HOPE' - details and photo at the foot of this post

Across my part of north London, which is awash with rail lines from the mainline stations heading north as well as the more homely North London Line, someone, some time, for some reason, has taken to painting 'HOPE' on bridges and track-side buildings. In white paint ... in large capital letters ... without any obvious purpose. It's a bit of a mystery.

What follows is not the full story - but we're getting there. And if you have anything to share about these HOPE inscriptions please do get in touch. Whatever the story is behind them, I am keen to find out.

I've mapped and snapped the various renditions of 'HOPE' which have appeared on and adjacent to railway bridges or overlooking railway lines across Kentish Town, Gospel Oak and around. And below are pictures of them all - the three (the orange dots on the map) most imposing renditions complete with serifs, those little embellishments which make capital letters stand out; six plainer versions (red dots), one of which is almost entirely scrubbed out but still just visible; and two (yellow above) other 'HOPES' - one in a very different style, and the other what you might call the only legitimate 'Hope' in Kentish Town.

I'm still trying to work out why this fly painting, by whom, and when - asking around, the consensus is that these are intended to inspire and uplift rather than simply a tag. And all being close to railways lines? Well as I say, there's a lot of them around this manor - so perhaps that's not too significant.

If you know more, do tell me: <awkashmir@gmail.com>

HOPE - the big three ...

1 - Athlone Street off Grafton Road

2 - The southern end of Kentish Town Road, a little north of the canal

3 - Mansfield Road near Gospel Oak station

HOPE - the other six ...

4 - Highgate Road, near the Southampton Arms

5 - On the footpath north of College Lane

6 - Overlooking the foot bridge over the rail lines by the side of Acland Burghley school

7 - Midland Road, north of St Pancras station

8 - York Way

9 - The side of Kentish Town station, still visible but only just (and see below)

... and while we're on about HOPE ...

10 - Athlone Street, the other side of the rail bridge from no. 1

11 - Hope Chapel, Church of Christ, on Prince of Wales Road - and no, it's not them that did it and, yes, I have asked

And if you wondered what the now barely legible HOPE overlooking 'Kentish Town Square' (no. 9 above) looked like in its heyday, here's an old photo courtesy of the excellent KentishTowner:

,,, and a late addition, spotted in January 2014

Just a matter of yards from two of the 'HOPE's above (numbers 4 and 5 on the map), I've found another one - not a new inscription, just one that I have failed to notice - though really it's difficult to miss.

This one - photographed on a damp and grey January afternoon (and yes in colour, but it was one of those days when everything was grey) - is just off Highgate Road, alongside the rail tracks and overlooking DarCars garage. It's not the most accomplished version - the slender vertical strokes and broad horizontal strokes don't really work. But it is another 'HOPE' - hallelujah!

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A double lashing of HOPE in NW5

17/11/2013

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I've found HOPE - the one I've been looking for. And it was right under my nose. Thanks Simon for the tip off. This one is adjoining the rail bridge over Highgate Road heading north, as you go from Kentish Town towards the Heath. So just a short hop from both the Southampton Arms (closed today, otherwise I might have popped in to celebrate) and Little Green Street.

You can get a sense of this HOPE in its context here (thanks Simon for the photo) - indeed the lettering comes across more boldy from a distance.

Someone has made a fairly determined attempt to remove at least part of it, but HOPE survives.

And searching for this HOPE led me to another one - just fifty yards away ... a smaller inscription on the footpath under the rail lines as you heard north from College Lane - and if you don't know College Lane, parallel to Highgate Road, check it out! Here's a close up and an 'in context' shot:

So that makes eight 'HOPE' inscriptions located, all close to rail lines - plus one that's probably copycat - plus one that's been almost entirely removed. And the Dartmouth Park/Gospel Oak area is clearly the hot spot - this is where four of them have been found (or it could be that I've done much better searching round my home ground!)

If you click here, you'll find all my postings and ravings on the subject.

But what is it all about? If you know, please tell me. Please!!

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Finding HOPE ... and St Pancras Old Church

16/11/2013

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There's more HOPE - two more found, thanks to readers of this blog. The one above is at the Somers Town end of Midland Road, not far from St Pancras station. The one below is at the northern end of York Way, a couple of hundred yards before the junction with Agar Grove. So that's six HOPE inscriptions located.

But there's more to be discovered. Anyone know where this photo was taken - at the mast head of photographer Simon Di Principe's FB page?

And what was it all about? Who's behind HOPE?

And seeking for HOPE of course sends me exploring round parts of the city where all sorts of architectural delights can be savoured. Camley Street is particularly rich in industrial archaeology - some of which may just survive the area's redevelopment:

A short walk away lies Old St Pancras Church, small, delightful - the current structure largely mid-nineteenth century, but on a site with much more ancient history. Embedded in the altar is an ancient altar stone with crosses engraved, found on the site and believed to date from the sixth century. The centrepiece of the graveyard is the Burdett Coutts sun dial, in remembrance of all those whose garves and gravestones were removed when the area was landscaped. Among the handful of individual graves still marked is that of the feminist Mary Wollstonecraft and her partner William Godwin.

As I walked round the church this morning, a passer-by was belting out on the piano a fairly passable version of Elton John's 'Your Song' ... as I was photographing the more macabre aspects of the memorials around the church walls.

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Camden Road to West Kentish Town

10/11/2013

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I've been looking for Hope - big lettered 'HOPE' - across Kentish Town and around. As regular readers of this blog will know, I've found four - faint traces of a fifth - and there are at least a couple more out there. Today I zapped around by train from Upper Holloway to Gospel Oak, Camden Road to Hampstead Heath, to see if there was HOPE to be seen from the tracks - keep reading and you'll find out if I succeeded. And then I walked from Camden Road station to West Kentish Town sticking as close as I could to the rail line, wandering to and fro under bridges - and what a joy!

If you don't know the area - and I thought I did, but didn't really - this map may give you a feel for the streetscape (the photo above is Clarence Way, west of the tracks and facing east):

OpenStreetMap: Camden Road to West Kentish Town

First of all - do you know Ivor Street? If you don't, then don't waste time - get there before HS2 changes it out of recognition. At the western end near the junction with Prowse Place are three entirely wonderful early nineteenth century cottages (see for yourself below):

I came across one of the residents - these are watercress gatherers' cottages dating from 1836 when the Fleet river ran nearby, I was told. The Fleet certainly flowed very close to here, though I wonder whether watercress workers would have had the status that goes along with these fairly commodious double-fronted cottages. I guess the census records could provide the answer.

Prowse Place, still cobbled and with something of the feel of a film set, has one of the most astonishing arches under a railway bridge that I know of in this part of London. Then it's a matter of zigzagging in pursuit of the rail tracks until you chance upon another wonderful backwater.

Clarence Way - featured at the top of this posting - takes you along to a modern cul-de-sac, Harmood Grove, memorable for the most eye-catching piece of modern art I've seen on the outside wall of a north London home. I've been able to find out nothing more from the 'net - so if you know anything, details please:

Just yards away, on Harmood Street, is one of my favourite second-hand bookshops, Walden Books - the name comes from Thoreau and the stock is in that tradition, so good for politics (particularly libertarian - I've bought lots of great pamphlets here), modern fiction, and above all London. I fell for a Pan edition of Colin Wilson's Adrift in Soho, a book of wartime short stories which includes a piece by John Sommerfield, and a printer's reminiscences about Fleet Street and around in the Victorian era - so that was another £20 or so gone by the time I resurfaced.

Heading north, off the east side of Harmood Street, is Powlett Place - not a road but a path with houses on both sides leading to the dead end of the railway line.

The buildings date from the 1840s, though the name came a few decades later. It's difficult to do justice to the Place from the ground - you can probably get a better view from the tracks. It is, in the words of the Camden History Society, 'a pleasant backwater, with small, boxy two-storey Victorian cottages and well-tended front gardens.'

Weaving back to the eastern side of the tracks, Hadley Street is home to one of the area's best, and least well known, pubs - Tapping the Admiral.

The pub hasn't always gone by that name. For its first hundred years or so, it was the Trafalgar.

So Tapping the Admiral is a return to the original nautical theme after an unfortunate interlude where this fine and friendly pub was known as the Fuzzcock & Firkin. The '80s have a lot to answer for!

Avoiding the temptation of popping in for a quick one, the journey to West Kentish Town was all but done, but there was more temptation in the way. For the arches adjoining the station are now home to the Camden Brewery, and its award winning ales including Hell's Lager - there's a bar there too. From the station platform, you look down directly onto the brewery's loading area:

... but no more 'HOPE' and a denial of HOPE

The wanderings - by rail, and on foot - were a great way of spending a sunny Sunday morning. But alas, no 'HOPE' spotted. Indeed the only news to share is a denial.

One of my co-detectives in pursuit of 'HOPE' suggested that the neat, petite Hope Chapel on Prince of Wales Road might be behind the inscriptions. This is now part of the Churches of Christ - I sent them an email and with great courtesy they replied, saying no, not them, but they had noticed and rather liked the HOPE 'hallmark' around NW5.

'They would say that, wouldn't they', said my co-conspirator, a touch uncharitably.

So, we're still seeking HOPE.

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More HOPE in Kentish Town

2/11/2013

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Here's another one - a purple burst of HOPE, on the Athlone Street bridge facing west. It's in a very different style to the more emblematic HOPE around the place, detailed here, and I'm still seeking your help in locating more HOPE and finding out what it was all about.

Come on, someone must have some of the answers!

My favourite HOPE is on the other side of this same bridge - here it is again:

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Seeking HOPE in Kentish Town

29/10/2013

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From the footbridge over the railway lines at the west side of Acland Burghley

There's an awful lot of hope in Kentish Town. H-O-P-E style hope. In a locality criss-crossed by railway lines, with more rail bridges to the acre than anywhere else on the planet, someone, sometime, has gone round giving us all, well, hope.

Mansfield Road near Gospel Oak station

The lettering style broadly matches - but in all four cases I've come across, there's nothing beyond 'HOPE' to indicate purpose ... is this a name, a brand, an aspiration, an instruction?

Athlone Street off Grafton Road

Somebody out there must know more. Who painted these, when and why? How many more 'hopes' are out there - and how many have been lost to history?

This blog has a mission to find out - if you can help, do please comment or email (awkashmir@gmail.com)

Kentish Town Road just north of the canal

And then there's at least one case of losing hope in Kentish Town - high on the wall at the site of Kentish Town station overlooking the tracks. There used to be a very prominent 'HOPE' there. For no obvious reason, it's been scrubbed away - but if you look really hard you can just make out the lettering. So there's still, yes, a bit of hope!

A faint trace of 'HOPE' on the side of Kentish Town station

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Andrew Whitehead's
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HOPE lost

Another dash of HOPE

The HOPE chronicles

HOPE - the big three ...

HOPE - the other six ...

... and while we're on about HOPE ...

,,, and a late addition, spotted in January 2014

A double lashing of HOPE in NW5

Finding HOPE ... and St Pancras Old Church

Camden Road to West Kentish Town

... but no more 'HOPE' and a denial of HOPE

More HOPE in Kentish Town

Seeking HOPE in Kentish Town

Andrew Whitehead's blog

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HOPE - the big three ...

HOPE - the other six ...

... and while we're on about HOPE ...

,,, and a late addition, spotted in January 2014

... but no more 'HOPE' and a denial of HOPE

Andrew Whitehead's blog

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Andrew Whitehead's
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