Lets kick off a tour of seasonal street names with a trip to the top of the world. London's North Pole is in North Kensington, near Wormwood Scrubs, and has a climate much like the rest of the capital. The name derives from a country inn, originally The Globe, later The North Pole, built on the edge of fields beside a small stream off Scrubs Lane. The West London Railway was the catalyst for change, opened in the 1840s between Willesden and Kensington following the line of Counters Creek south towards the Thames. A wooden halt was added above the road in 1871, and housing followed. Air raid damage left the growing suburb without a station after 1940, but Overground trains still stop here because this is the point where drivers have to pause to switch voltage. [1897 map][2019 map]
North Pole Road now straddles the railway, two postcodes and two neighbouring boroughs, despite being barely 250m long. It kicks off at the top of Wood Lane, beside a muddy triangle dotted with plane trees and a row of flats where the old station used to be. Here too is The Pavilion, a hostelry built to serve rifle shooters on the Scrubs, now content to serve up Sunday Roasts and Pub Classics. At The Flower Works daffs are going for a pound, and holly wreaths for rather more. Patrons of a cafe called Cafe spill out onto the street. Homely businesses along the subsequent shopping parade include Mick's fish bar, Marion's ladies salon and Allen Foster's quality meats. And then there's the North Pole pub which, I remember... ah, it's no more.
This pub on the corner of Latimer Road was rebuilt in 1892, as a flowery date on the chimneystack confirms. It thrived for over a century, with a decent reputation, until the summer of 2012 when it was bought up by Riding House Properties and suddenly closed. They stripped out the interior, leased the ground floor to Tesco and converted the upper floors to flats, whilst leaving the exterior pretty much alone. Today a security guard stands watch just inside the door, beers are canned rather than draught, and the freshly-served food option has been replaced by a stack of ready meals in a chiller. Local people probably find the building more useful as a result, but less fun.
Another casualty of the 21st century is the North Pole Post Office, no longer a place of festive postmark wonder but a counter shunted into the rear of a convenience store. William Hill have recently closed the street's only betting shop, but less sleep may be lost over that decision. Overall the retail mix suits the desirable Victorian terraces you can see and the poorer council estates you can't, indeed there are all day breakfasts to suit all budgets. The street suddenly changes name just beyond the Taste Buds sandwich bar, this being the invisible line where the stream and thus the borough boundary used to run. St Quintin Avenue may boast fine villas and a brazen daytime fox, but its seasonal relevance is nil, so my report ends here.
Rudolph Road NW6
Though only half as long as North Pole Road, this street in Kilburn also manages to straddle two boroughs. The east side is in Westminster and the west in Brent, one flank packed with interest, the other seemingly devoid. You might know the area, it's just around the corner from Kilburn Park tube station, where all the KP-bound buses park up so their drivers can have a chat. But officially that's Cambridge Gardens, and we need Rudolph Road, and that starts where the trees stop. [1896 map][2019 map]
The Brent side is currently 100% building site, sheathed in sheeting, with red cranes rising from its midst. This used to be one end of the South Kilburn estate, a 60s warren of flats and towers now undergoing wholesale demolition and rebirth. Gloucester House and Durham Court is phase 3b, replacing 209 flats with 235 new-build units, just under half for decanted former residents and just over half for private sale. The first homes should be ready next summer, and in 2021 the unrelenting balconies and brickwork will be softened by an abundance of cherry trees, if the architects' drawings are to be believed.
The Westminster side of Rudolph Road is bordered by St Augustine's Church of England High School, an 1880s establishment in a 1960s building, and Bradley Wiggins' alma mater. Normally you wouldn't be able to just wander in, but on Saturdays a small admission fee gets you into the playground for the weekly car boot sale. All the basketball hoops get pushed aside to make way for racks of blouses, assorted sunglasses, tables of unwanted presents and other assorted jumble. I arrived at clearing-up time as final deals over lampstands were being haggled over, and all the unsold stock went back into boxes to reappear next week.
A short stub of Rudolph Road continues across Kilburn Park Road, just long enough to include the entrance to one of London's finest parish churches. St Augustine's is sometimes known as the cathedral of North London, its Gothic interior reminiscent of the 13th century despite being totally Victorian, and its 250 foot spire towering above the entire district. Thomas Hardy was a enormous fan, and Simon Jenkins still is. Normally you wouldn't be able to just wander in and goggle openly, but an Advent marketplace in aid of the organ restoration fund was held last weekend with cakes and jams and bric a brac... if only I'd arrived quarter of an hour earlier. I missed out big time.
Rudolph Road used to run a little further, down to Carlton Vale and the entrance to Paddington Recreation Ground, until a different postwar estate intruded. Now flat-roofed blocks encircle pigeony lawns, still named on the side in the original 70s lettering, with a busy footpath on the original alignment weaving inbetween. And it ends opposite a building you likely saw in the news, the Carlton Tavern, illegally demolished over the Easter weekend in 2015. Westminster council ordered the conniving developer to "recreate in facsimile the building as it stood immediately prior to its demolition", and nearly five years later it looks substantially complete. Charringtons Sparkling Ales and Famous Stout, alas, may never return.
