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Edging towards a new place
Mar. 18th, 2014 10:23 pmOn the weekend we explored yet another corner of London I'd not seen before. It would be more engaging if there weren't a deadline to find a new place to live.
Nevertheless, it reminded me of how so many communities are in this city - that in a suburb built in the 1930s in NW London could have several waves of migrant generations of Londoners in it: the 'original' locals, the Asian (read: Indian) migrants, the Greek cypriots of the 1970s, the Romanians now moving in.
We toured Queensbury, which has a definite 1930s feel to it in the housing and layout, and then walked south to Kingsbury. Funny how the latter is described as being in the Domesday book, whereas the former is built on a disused airfield, and its history appears to start in 1930s.
The area has connections to early aviation - on the Queensbury highstreet there's a little 'history trail' of sites associated with early pilots, inventors and other folks connected to de Havilland or to the old RAF airbase. The RAF museum is nearby, about 1km walk from the Tube station I use right now.
We ate lunch at a 'Rose restaurant' on the Kingsbury highstreet, which boasted the best of Indian and Chinese vegetarian cuisine, featuring 4 levels of strictness of vegetarianism, up to Jainist (the folks who avoid stepping on insects).
We could do worse than have this as a local; the food is fresh, brilliantly flavoured and reasonably priced - like my favourite kind of Chinese or Vietnamese restaurant, where they waste nothing on decor and table settings, and spend all the money on the food.
It reminded me that there was a Rose cafe in Ottawa (2 branches, in fact), which I loved dearly, that also served dosas and lassis.
While well served by the Tube, this part of London is emphatically not bike friendly the way Hackney is: it's heavily car-dominated. The houses in these 'burbs used to have little front yards, but the majority are now paved to add more parking space, which is what happens when 1 car families become 2 car families. Lots of car traffic.
There are still sidewalks, but I saw only 3 bikes on the whole visit. No green bike lanes, no blue bike superhighways: they're a fiction (nothing to keep the cars out of them), but at least they're an accepted fiction in the city and our current location.
There's a honking great hill between this area and my workplace: it's brisk-walking distance or an easy cycle, except for the damn hill. Will have to invest in maps to find the best way round.
The nearest Sainsbury's are not walking distance but are cyclable, and are both big; we get to test out the more local Morrisons, and will probably at least look in the Aldi, and as usual look past the Iceland, which are both closer still.
We have a line on a 'flat' - in quotes because it's not really a flat, but not quite a conventional house either. We viewed it on a whim on Saturday, and were pleasantly encouraged by the price and the condition of it, after the disappointments in S. London. So far, mention of Haggis has only raised the deposit cost, not the rent, which is also encouraging. Hoping hoping to sort this week.
Nevertheless, it reminded me of how so many communities are in this city - that in a suburb built in the 1930s in NW London could have several waves of migrant generations of Londoners in it: the 'original' locals, the Asian (read: Indian) migrants, the Greek cypriots of the 1970s, the Romanians now moving in.
We toured Queensbury, which has a definite 1930s feel to it in the housing and layout, and then walked south to Kingsbury. Funny how the latter is described as being in the Domesday book, whereas the former is built on a disused airfield, and its history appears to start in 1930s.
The area has connections to early aviation - on the Queensbury highstreet there's a little 'history trail' of sites associated with early pilots, inventors and other folks connected to de Havilland or to the old RAF airbase. The RAF museum is nearby, about 1km walk from the Tube station I use right now.
We ate lunch at a 'Rose restaurant' on the Kingsbury highstreet, which boasted the best of Indian and Chinese vegetarian cuisine, featuring 4 levels of strictness of vegetarianism, up to Jainist (the folks who avoid stepping on insects).
We could do worse than have this as a local; the food is fresh, brilliantly flavoured and reasonably priced - like my favourite kind of Chinese or Vietnamese restaurant, where they waste nothing on decor and table settings, and spend all the money on the food.
It reminded me that there was a Rose cafe in Ottawa (2 branches, in fact), which I loved dearly, that also served dosas and lassis.
While well served by the Tube, this part of London is emphatically not bike friendly the way Hackney is: it's heavily car-dominated. The houses in these 'burbs used to have little front yards, but the majority are now paved to add more parking space, which is what happens when 1 car families become 2 car families. Lots of car traffic.
There are still sidewalks, but I saw only 3 bikes on the whole visit. No green bike lanes, no blue bike superhighways: they're a fiction (nothing to keep the cars out of them), but at least they're an accepted fiction in the city and our current location.
There's a honking great hill between this area and my workplace: it's brisk-walking distance or an easy cycle, except for the damn hill. Will have to invest in maps to find the best way round.
The nearest Sainsbury's are not walking distance but are cyclable, and are both big; we get to test out the more local Morrisons, and will probably at least look in the Aldi, and as usual look past the Iceland, which are both closer still.
We have a line on a 'flat' - in quotes because it's not really a flat, but not quite a conventional house either. We viewed it on a whim on Saturday, and were pleasantly encouraged by the price and the condition of it, after the disappointments in S. London. So far, mention of Haggis has only raised the deposit cost, not the rent, which is also encouraging. Hoping hoping to sort this week.
