I had an appointment this morning at the clinic in Hornsey that I mentioned in Holloway and Crouch End. Tigger waited for me in the same coffee place and afterwards we went for a stroll along Hornsey Road, which is a very long thoroughfare.

The district, like the road, is called Hornsey. While there is general agreement that Hornsey and Haringey both derive from the same Anglo-Saxon original, there is some uncertainty about the exact meaning of this. A plausible etymology joins the proper name Hæring and the word hæg, “enclosure”, to give “Hæring’s enclosure”. We might note that hæring also meant “herring” (the fish) but that is probably irrelevant.

Part of Hornsey Road

As I said, Hornsey Road is very long and no single picture can give a true impression of it. Here we are looking back along the way we have come.

The Glass Shop

In passing this shop (which seems to be closed), I noticed an amusing detail. It has an unusual way of indicating its name.

Shop name

They have had a name panel made that imitates the official street name panels in London. Here is a genuine one for comparison:

Street name panel

We passed through a tunnel that is part of a bridge crossing the road.

Railway bridge

That this is a railway bridge is obvious but more than that I cannot say as I have not so far found any useful references to it. It is also in a somewhat neglected condition to judge from the plant life that has taken root on it.

Emirates Stadium

Nearby is one of the area’s landmarks, the Emirates Stadium. The local football team is a well known one: Arsenal. Needing a new home ground, they obtained sponsorship from the Emirates airline for the building of a new stadium, which was duly completed in 2006. That’s about as much as I know since I find following football about as interesting as watching paint dry.

New wall, old gate

We noticed this intriguing anomaly. The wall is obviously modern and yet the gate bears a date of 1896. The most likely explanation, I think, is that, having demolished the Victorian wall, the builders rescued the stones of the old gate and incorporated them into the new structure. How exact a recreation is it? The uneven ends of the lintel suggest to me that the original gate was wider than this one but that could be a misapprehension on my part.

Blue apartment blocks

I noticed this row of drum-shaped apartment blocks because of their unusual blue colour which shone in the sunlight. Their round shape is also a little uncommon and they remind me of a row of kitchen canisters marked “Flour”, “Sugar”, “Coffee”, etc.

An old pub, perhaps?

By now, Hornsey Road had given way under our feet to Benwell Road. On a corner, my attention was attracted to this building. Was it perhaps an old pub, now repurposed?

Once the Montague Arms

A view around the corner dispels all doubt because there the name still survives, the Montague Arms. The pub’s history goes back to at least the late Victorian period. When it closed down, I do not know, but it has been converted as a residential property.

The Montague name, as you probably guess, came to Britain with the Normans, the original settlers having come from Montaigu-Les-Bois in Coutance, in Normandy. The name of course means “sharp (i.e. pointed) mountain”.

Upper Street

We now caught a number 43 bus which carried us back to the Angel. We left the bus at Islington Green, beside which runs the long and busy thoroughfare called Upper Street. (If there was ever a Lower Street, it no longer exists.) It is lined with shops but particularly with cafes and restaurants, making it in the evenings a haunt of diners, a fact that caused some wag to call it “Supper Street”, a nickname that has gained general currency.

Islington Green

I took the above photo over the railings of Islington Green, a popular green oasis and also the location of the Islington War Memorial. In the background is the building that now accommodates the Waterstone’s Bookshop and was once the site of Collins’ Music Hall.

Crêpe Affaire, Camden Walk

As it felt like lunch time, we went down Camden Walk to this place, Crêpe Affaire. We went in and found a table (number 1, as it happens).

Inside Crêpe Affaire

This restaurant bills itself as “contactless”. What this means is that glued to each table is a QR code which you use with you mobile to access their website. You first log in with your name and email address (all restaurants in the UK are required by law to keep a short-term list of all customers so as to be able to inform them if it later turns out that an infected person accessed the premises at the same time). Then you consult the online menu and choose your food and drinks items and, finally, use your mobile to pay. The order is then placed. When it is ready, it is brought to your table (so it’s perhaps not quite contactless).

We chose coffee and “Eggs Florentine Crêpes”. The latter were tasty enough but only lukewarm by the time they reached us.

Stall, Antiques Market

The Antiques Market still runs on Wednesdays and Saturdays and this stall, just in front of Crêpe Affaire, was part of it.

However, we decided that it was time to return home and so made for a nearby bus stop. Thus ended today’s adventure.