Ward Road, a left turn off Junction Road, just before you reach Tufnell Park Station, is a quiet little enclave of 1970s flats. It's a convenient cut-through to Tufnell Park Road and is gated at the Junction Road end to prevent cars using it as a rat-run.


But I was on foot so I turrned in and walked down the curve between the flats.



I didn't meet any people although I did encounter a couple of cats strolling up the driveway from the garages.



Ward Road itself is a cul-de-sac, terminating in a row of gates leading into the back gardens of Huddleston Rd (N7).
See all photos from Ward Road


To reach Tufnell Park Road, I turned right into Warrender Road.


Initially it's a continuation of the modern flats.


But as it approaches Tufnell Park Road, these give way to older terraced houses.
On the corner the former Georgiou's Delicatessen was shrouded in scaffolding.


This used to be a lovely old green-tiled corner shop and I have on the odd occasion in the past shopped in there. I was sad to see it closed in 2012 when I took this picture but I hoped the green tiling would survive. Peering through the scaffolding I could see that was not the case.

I'm not sure when the shop closed but this Google street view shot, taken in 2009, shows it was still open then.
See all photos from Warrender Road

As I crossed Tufnell Park Rd I noticed a row of little dancing figures painted on a wall.

I find these odd little pieces of street art fascinating and always wonder who? Why?
I decided not to take in Tufnell Park Road itself on this walk and so turned in to Lady Margaret Road.


Three/four storey terraced houses run up to Brecknock Rd. The road then continues on the other side to Leighton Rd in Kentish Town but that part is NW5. There was a fading 'Save the Whittington' poster in a front window. The hospital, just round the corner from me, often seems to be under some threat or other.


This street is named after is Lady Margaret Beaufort who founded St John's College in Cambridge in the C16. The houses of course are much newer than this but the land used to belong to the college, hence the name.
I walked to the end of the street and then turned left into Celia Road.

Who was Celia? I found myself wondering. The website of Camden Estate agents, Camden Bus, informed me that the street name is possibly derived from the wife or daughter of the developers. Although that does provied an answer it left me wanting to know more about her. Yet another bit of research for the list! The first thing to find out is the surname of the builder concerned. I wonder if any of his descendants still live in the area?
The Camden Bus website also includes brief descriptions of each street with the aim of encapsulating their character to guide potential house-buyers. It describes Celia Road as a quiet and short "pretty residential street ....full of elegant Victorian architecture..." which seems to me to be a fair summary.
Tidy porches...


Many of the houses are three-storey with semi-basements and steps leading up to the front doors. Melted tarmac ran down the front steps of one making it look slightly risky to walk up.

Although I met no people, I did encounter two more cats; a fluffy one jealously guarding her perch amid a hedge...


... eyeing up a tabby who would probably have liked to be up there too.

See all pictures from Celia Road

Celia Road led me to Corinne Road, an L-shaped street running between Lady Margaret Road and Brecknock Road.



I might have been tempted to imagine that Corinne was another of the builder's daughters had the Camden Bus website (proving to be a mine of information about the origin of local street names) not informed me that it "had been suggested" (guide-speak for 'no-one really knows but it's an interesting speculation') that the name was derived from a novel of that name written by Madame de Staël in 1806. As I knew nothing about her I turned to Wikipedia (a good source for quick and dirty information that can be verified by further research at a later date!). That informed me that she was a celebrated European Romantic who had been born in Paris in 1776 and was one of Napoleon's principal opponents. Yes, she did write a novel Corinne ou l'Italie, (1807 according to Wikipedia) but has no apparent connection whatsoever with Tufnell Park. Perhaps she was the favourite bedtime reading for the builder and his wife?

The majority of the street comprises Victorian terraced houses, four-storey running down the hill from Brecknock Road turning to three-storey as the road bends left at the bottom but there's a small development of modern (80s?) flats at the Brecknock Road end. The letterboxes suggested that these were local authority-built but possibly some may have been sold by now.
A blue door proclaimed that the property was 'Protected by Canine Security Services', but this was clearly not enough to deter leaflet deliverers as the hand-written sign below exhorted 'No junk mail or take-away leaflets.' Perhaps the deliverers could be trained to put their leaflets directly into the recycling box as I'm sure that's where most of them end up.



There was a bit more life in this street; people coming home or going out and children playing. Two were scooting up the hill to Brecknock Road with their mother.


At the corner there was a house which should never have need to buy a Christmas tree. I wonder if they do adorn it with lights come the festive season. Must try to remember to go and take a look.


On the opposite side of the road was a little enclave of slightly dilapidated garages.


Getting in and out with a vehicle looked as if it would be tricky and I wondered if anyone actually now uses them to store their car. Probably not unless it's an off-road restoration job. Street parking now seems to be the norm and is more convenient despite the expense of resident parking permits. There could even be enough room to squeeze a house in here which would be a nice little earner if this recent sale in Stoke Newington is anything to go by.

See all pictures from Corinne Road

I turned back after walking a short way along the bottom 'L' of the street and turned into Hugo Road.


Named, apparently, after Hugo the builder who sat by the fire reading French Romantic novels with his wife... (or possibly daughter...). A short, well-kept street with much the same feel as Celia Road to which it runs parallel.
Wisteria clad houses...


... trainers left outside...


Mr Spock guarding someone's front door.



Toward the end of the street a notice tacked to a tree requested that people would desist from feeding a cat that had to be fed a special diet. It looked vaguely like one of the cats I had seen in Celia Road. A bit impossible really, unless you keep it in all the time, to prevent a cat from finding things to eat even if other people are not deliberately feeding it.


See all pictures from Hugo Road
I was now back in Lady Margaret Road. I turned right down to Tufnell Park Road then left and left again into Southcote Road which makes a triangle along the back of the station to Brecknock Road.
This faded old street sign, showing the postcode simply as 'N' was high up on a house wall although there were more modern signs lower down.
Relating to an area where racing pigeons used to be housed is as good a guess as any about the origin of this street name and I can't find anything more definitive. It's another street of Victorian terraced houses, three storey with semi-basements and steps leading up to the front doors. As most other streets in this area, it's tree-lined and this Audi owner was certainly going to regret parking under one - he'd have been better off in one of those Corinne Road garages!

As I turned in, a father and son were heading out along Tufnell Park Road for a Sunday bike ride with their dog.

See all pictures from Southcote Road
I continued up the road and came out at Brecknock Road.


The road stretches for over half a mile between Tufnell Park and Camden Road. It forms the boundary of two boroughs; Camden to the west and Islington to the east. It also runs the gauntlet of two postcodes; the Camden streets, such as the continuation of Lady Margaret Road, are NW5...


... and the Islington streets, after Corinne Road, become N7.




Brecknock Road itself remains N19 until just after Leighton Grove when it too becomes N7.

Continuing north from Tufnell Park, Brecknock Road merges into Dartmouth Park Hill and south of Camden Road it becomes York Way. These three streets together were once known as Maiden Lane, an ancient route north from London - the covered reservoir in Dartmouth Park Hill is called the Maiden Lane Reservoir although there's no sign indicating this. The name Brecknock Road dates from 1869 and is named after the Marquis of Camden who also had the title Earl of Brecknock. The majority of the Victorian terraces at the Tufnell Park end of the street probably date from around this time. On the west, Camden, side they are tall and imposing built up atop tall steps at the front to accommodate the slope of the ground behind.
Nestling amid the wisteria outside number 185 is a hand-made blue plaque. "Charles Pooter, diarist and nobody, 1848-1913, lived here." Charles Pooter is the London clerk whose diary is the subject of George and Weedon Grossmith's Diary of a Noboby. The diary starts when he and his wife have just moved to a new home at "The Laurels", Brickfield Terrace, Holloway. There is no real Brickfield Terrace and I've read claims that the model for the house in the book is one in Pemberton Gardens but someone, at some time, obviously thought it should be located here. I'll have to re-read the book and come to my own considered opinion.


Further down on the Camden side there's a tall, narrow house, set back from the street, that's usually covered in ivy. From time to time it's removed but it always grows back and gives the house a slightly spooky feel. I'd love to know who lives there - or even be invited in. I'm always fascintated by it when I pass on the bus.


Just past that house there's a street within a street, Carleton Gardens.


But to avoid any confusion, another street sign on the wall below, informs you that this is 'part of Brecknock Road'.


It's a striking terrace of painted houses with an almost oriental feel; round windows in the top of the pointed gables with a little domed triangular window below.



Both this terrace and Carleton Road (N7) opposite are named after Mary Carleton, the rich wife of William Tufnell who inherited the Tufnell Park Estate in the early C19. I imagine the houses pre-date the other houses in the road but as yet have not managed to find out much about them.
On the opposite side of Brecknock Road is the red-brick Brecknock Road Estate built by the LCC in the 1950s. But, like Anson and Carleton Roads that bound it, it's also N7.


Having reached the south-west limits of N19 I turned and headed back along Brecknock Road and up Dartmouth Park Hill to home. Grey clouds were starting to loom and I wanted to avoid the possibly imminent rain.

See all photos from Brecknock Road

< Part 7