This morning we were treated to thunder and rain. Our neighbourhood escaped with a wetting though there were warnings of possible flooding and even power cuts. By the time we went out around 2pm things had calmed down though there was still a threat of rain.

White Lion Street

For a change, we started to the north of Pentonville Road instead of the south as we usually do. We went down Baron Street and turned right into White Lion Street. It is a one-way street for traffic, leading to Islington High Street. There are quite often tailbacks here but the number of vehicles indicates that the roads were quite busy in contrast to their emptiness during the early days of lockdown.

White Lion Street, incidentally, is named after an inn of that name that existed here from 1714 and no doubt much earlier. It would have done a large part of its trade with drovers bringing live cattle by road to their sinister journey’s end at Smithfield Market. The inn is recorded as having a bowling green among its attractions.

Angel Station

This is a not very good photo of the entrance to Angel tube station. It has two entry arches, one that you can see and the other at right-angles to it on the left (not visible in the photo). As you can probably see, the visible opening has no-entry signs attached to it, no doubt in order to help staff regulate the flow of customers during busy times.

The neighbourhood is officially called The Angel but Transport for London has a well known penchant for suppressing the definite article in names and so the station is known as plain “Angel” on station and bus signs.

Busy at the crossroads

As we approached the crossroads, there was plenty of traffic here as well. If you look to the immediate left of the number 38 bus, the corner building is the site of our friends at the Jusaka juice (and coffee) bar, where we were heading.

Committing an offence

Tigger noticed this motorcyclist emerge from White Lion Street. Emerging traffic is required to turn left but this person not only ignores that rule but compounds the offence by riding down the main road on the wrong side of the road (as seen here) before swerving sharply across the road to turn left at the junction. If any police officer happens to read this, please free to use the photo and text as evidence.

The Angel Building

Before crossing to Jusaka for our coffee, I took this photo of our favourite Angel building from a different angel from the usual. Because I was so close to it, the photo showed a severe case of “converging perpendiculars”. The iPhone’s photo editor now has a function for correcting this. It’s not perfect but is pretty good. I couldn’t correct it completely as doing so would lose valuable parts of the picture off the edges of the frame but I was able to do a reasonable job, don’t you think?

When we reached Jusaka, we found that they had been worried about us because we had not appeared for 5 days! Happily, we were able to reassure them that our absence was owing to temporary setbacks (see yesterday’s post).

Not so happily, we commiserated with them over the fact that during the night, a vandal had smashed one of their windows. Unbeknownst to him, no doubt, the idiot has perfectly recorded himself committing the act on two cctv recorders. All being well, this will lead to his eventual comeuppance.