Yesterday’s rain showers (which provided me with an excuse to stay at home) today gave way to dry weather and sunny intervals. I set out to see how the world was faring now that some restrictions have been lifted.

Traffic crawls in Pentonville Road

Reaching Pentonville Road, I found it busy, with traffic reduced to a crawl. I walked through to Chapel Market and found – unusually for a weekday – that the top end had been closed completely to vehicles.

Crowded tables at the pub

The reason was to make room for tables outside the pub, necessary because they can still serve customers only outside.

Busy market

The market was more or less back to its pre-Covid state and crowded.

Having become used to the quiet and peaceful lockdown world, I will admit that the new busy and crowded world came as an unpleasant contrast.

This looks better

I found a quieter environment by crossing through Sainsbury’s car park into Cloudesley Road. This is a residential area with at most one corner shop and no pubs.

Cloudesley Road

Though it is a fairly wide street, Cloudesley Road is quiet and lined with trees. It is composed mainly of Georgian style houses, most with their basement “area” still intact.

Georgian style houses

These mid-19th-century houses are typical of the street and, more generally, of the district that I have come to think of as home.

H. Wyld’s French Milinery

I have photographed this old millinery shop before but it’s good to see that it is still here, a placeholder for the neighbourhood’s history.

Holy Trinity Church

From here too, we have a view of Holy Trinity Church in Cloudesley Square. It is still undergoing restoration work and I shall be interested to take a look when it is finally finished.

Open space and bench

There are at least two benches in this street and both are situated, as here, in an open space made by expanding the pavement. I wonder whether any of the neighbours ever do sit here and pass the time of time with one another.

Thornhill Road Garden

Cloudesley Road led me to Thornhill Road Garden. Like many such, it was originally reserved for the use of local residents but in 1946, I think it was, it passed into the care of the Council. All the signs are that it is being actively maintained by the local community.

Thornhill Street Gardens

I sat on a bench for a while and admired the beautiful old trees.

Beautiful old trees

Then I walked slowly round the garden, noticing all the details and points of interest.

A pond in the making

In a sheltered corner, a pond is being constructed. It looks a bit rough now but I am sure it will come into its own eventually.

Wild flower garden – eventually

A notice tells us that this corner, which also contains the pond-to-be, is to be a space for wild flowers. I look forward to its completion.

Memorial to the First World War

The garden possesses its own memorial to the First World War.

Decorative false balconies

On the way back, I stopped to photograph these houses, all of which have decorative iron-work false balconies. Although Georgian style houses looked deceptively similar at a quick glance, there is in fact a lot of variety in the details. It’s almost as though the architects had added them to see whether we would notice them! Along the whole street there are variations in the design of ironwork in railings and window decorations.

Old Royal Agricultural Hall

Looking along Batchelor Street, we have a tantalising glimpse of the old Royal Agricultural Hall in Liverpool Road.

I was nearly home now but there was one last photo to take: today’s photo of pigeons! (You knew there would be one!)

Culpeper Park pigeons

Tigger is working Wednesday to Friday this week. I suppose i should not complain too much about that as we have the other four days of the week to ourselves.

I made myself busy at home with various things and went out only for a brief solo walk.

London’s smallest public garden?

I have previously photographed this miniature garden built round the base of a tree in Claremont Square. I have no idea who created it.

Miniature garden close-up

I don’t know whether it is being actively maintained but it has survived for quite a while.

In Cruikshank Street I met a tortoiseshell cat. She came to greet me amiably. We saw her once before, a long time ago. I wonder whether she remembers me.

Tortoiseshell cats are special. I discovered this from my first cat who was a member of this tribe. 99% or more of tortoiseshell cats are female so if you meet one, you can safely assume she’s female.

Tortoiseshell cats can be difficult because you have to accept them on their own terms. They can be affectionate but only when they want to be. Mine was very intelligent and understood a lot of words in both English and French. (I define “understand” to mean responding appropriately and consistently to a word or phrase). She also found ways to communicate her wants and needs to us slow-witted humans by using gestures and her very striking yellow eyes.

Goodbye!

This one is so much like my own cat (who died aged 21 at the turn of the century) that I found it hard to walk on. Perhaps we shall meet again soon.

Do-it-yourself wardrobe

This demolished wardrobe has been languishing outside a house for several days. The attached paper apprises us that it is awaiting collection by the Council but I imagine if someone wants a wardrobe and is ready to accept on in kit form, there would be no objection to them taking it.

And so to home to await the welcome news that Tigger has left the office and is on her way.

As I was writing the above words, a text arrived from Tigger saying she is on the bus bound for home. I’ll go and make the tea!

The first task we set ourselves was to go to Boots to buy an anti-fog cloth for our spectacles. If you wear specs, you will certainly have discovered that in cold weather, when you wear a mask, the lenses fog up making it difficult to see.

The various “remedies” suggested in the media are of limited effectiveness (a polite way saying that they are useless and a waste of everybody’s time) and the only sure way to beat the problem is to buy an anti-fog cloth. Above is the one we bought. Preliminary results are promising.

The High Street

Here we are on our way, amid busy traffic, along the High Street, en route for Boots.

Redemption Coffee

Our next decision was to buy our coffee straightaway, sit somewhere pleasant to drink it and go for our walk afterwards. For the coffee, we went to the local branch of Redemption Coffee.

We took our coffee to Duncan Terrace Gardens where we easily found a vacant bench. So far, the sky was overcast but, just for a moment, the sun came out so I took photos from our bench…

…first, this way and then…

…the other way. The narrow shape of these gardens, as you no doubt remember, is owing to the fact that they cover this section of the New River. Notwithstanding the odd shape, the gardens provide a pleasant environment in which to stroll or sit (providing the weather cooperates…).

Duncan Terrace and the Church of St John the Evangelist

The Gardens are in two parts, separated by a side street (Duncan Street). As we made our way from one to the other, I photographed the above of part of Duncan Terrace and the Grade II listed Church of St John the evangelist.

The second part of the gardens is even narrower than the first and is characterised by the presence of (artificial) rocks.

This section of the gardens has a different atmosphere from the first part, more that of a woodland with rocky glades. Both are enjoyable in their own way.

Looking back at a “glade”, currently beautified by the trees being covered in blossom.

Separated from the road

We then walked along this part of Duncan Terrace in which the houses are pleasantly separated from the road by… well, can you guess?

This is also the New River

Between these houses and the road runs an even narrower strip of garden but this too is part of the New River.

The river is still there, of course, but here it is confined to an underground culvert. Further on, it breaks the surface again and recovers its nature as a “proper” river though only for a while…

Doorway with face and lantern

I photographed this doorway because it has not only a sculpted face above the door but also a lantern over the entrance. All of the houses in this row had the face and the metal support for a lantern but this house was one of only two that still had a lantern in place. The other one had a modern replacement while this one has kept more or less the original form.

Flowering shrub

This beauty was one among the several trees and shrubs in flower over the course of the river.

Devonia Road

We went for a walk along Devonia Road, which runs parallel to the gardens. Curiously, this street was renamed in 1938 from Devonshire Street. It is unusual, not only in being a “road” rather than a “street”, but also in containing not one, but two churches, though, admittedly, one has been decommissioned and is now residential. The other (visible in the photo) is the Polish Church of Our Lady of Czestochowa & St Casimir.

Old pub?

It’s not only churches that can be decommissioned and assigned to other duties, of course. On the corner of Devonia Road stands this substantial residential block that, to my eyes, looks very much like a converted pub though I have not so far been able to find confirmation of that or what its name could have been.

The Regent’s Canal

Finally, we took a quick peep at the Regent’s Canal between the trees in the garden over the entrance to the Islington Tunnel, before turning for home.

On the way, we met one of the owners of Jusaka. It turns out that the “reliable” information we had received to the effect that Jusaka was closing down was incorrect – or has perhaps been superseded – and that they in fact hope to reopen at some future date though not straightaway. We look forward to seeing them back in action!

After drinking our coffee and pottering about for a while, we decided to go out for another walk. Although I enjoyed the walk and took some photos, I was not particularly inspired by these to write a detailed post.

We walked around the Liverpool Road and Angel Central area and saw that most shops were now open and that everywhere was crowded: there were queues at many of the more popular shops where security personnel were regulating entry.

After months of lockdown and the relatively quiet streets that this induced, I found the noise and bustle unpleasant, especially as many people have thrown caution to the winds and were not making any attempt to practise social distancing.

Via St John Street we made our way up Chadwell Street into Myddelton Square. In the peace of the lovely square I felt a lot better. When Tigger suggested cutting across the Garden, I was happy to concur. This is where I took the one photograph of the outing that I like. It features a pigeon (no surprises there, then 🙂 ).

Pigeon taking a drink

The old drinking fountain in the gardens has a lower receptacle where water had collected, probably from rain. A pigeon was taking a drink from it, and we were careful not to disturb him.

Welcome to the brave new world of April 12th. Although lockdown has not ended entirely, a certain easing of the rules is allowed from today.

The weather is still cold but, for our walk at least, it was dry and the sun shone with variable brightness throughout.

Queueing at the charity shop

While I was expecting to see activity at and around the shops, I was surprised to see so many queueing at the Fara charity shop in Pentonville Road.

Queueing at Saint Espresso

Less unexpected but still surprising for the numbers involved, was the queue next door at the Saint Espresso coffee shop.

Sunshine at the Angel crossroads

Looking at this picture, you might think it was a warm spring day but, despite the sunshine, the cold had a bite to it. We vaguely wondered whether Jusaka might have reopened (despite hearing from a reliable source that they had closed down) but no, the shop was locked up and dark.

Islington Makeup Artist – open

I have photographed this makeup shop in Chadwick Street several times, noting that its Christmas decorations had remained in place well into the New Year. Today, it was open and we could see inside an assistant attending to a customer’s nails.

Angelz Dry Cleaners – open
Photo by Tigger

In the same street, other shops were also open, such was this dry cleaner’s. Strange that open shops should strike us as a novelty!

The Shakespeare’s Head – open

The Shakespeare’s Head pub was open but only for customers sitting outside, according to the rules.

The pub grape vine

Seeing the pub open made me wonder about the grape vine in its garden. Could the magic of spring has happened here also?

Buds on the vine

Yes! The vine has begun to produce buds at last! Does it sound silly to say that I felt relief to see this? I had anxiously examined the vine each time we passed and had begun to wonder whether it was dead. Seeing the buds is then a pleasure and a relief.

Myddelton Passage wall

We passed through Myddelton Passage with its famous wall decorated, you perhaps remember, with 19th-century policemen’s badge numbers, and here too were signs of new life.

New leaves on the vine

Along the wall runs an ancient vine with a thick stem and a complex network of branches. It too has woken up and now boasts clusters of new leaves.

Two gulls talking

In these trees, were two lesser black-backed gulls. They are hard to see so here is an expanded view:

Two gulls talking

We watched them, intrigued by the fact that they were calling back and forth between them, obviously holding a conversation. What were they saying? Only they know…

Agitated crow

We also met this crow who seemed very agitated. He flew from one position to another, at each one emitting three loud calls. We concluded that he (or she) was trying to locate a mate. If so, the attempts were fruitless as no answering was heard.

Chairs and tables once more

Another welcome innovation was that there were once more chairs and tables outside Myddelton’s. It was too cold to sit there today (though two customers thought otherwise) but we will no doubt do so one day soon.

Gents Barbers – open
Photo by Tigger

The barbers’ shops were open – legitimately now, and…

Pennies Vintage – open

…so was this curious shop, Pennies, that sells “vintage” articles.

George and Monkey – open

Finally, to complete the set, the George and Monkey pub was open and serving customers at tables outside.

Personally, I was happy not to sit in the cold drinking cold liquids but to make for home where we could sit in the warm and drink hot coffee!

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