This is my most far-flung B Road yet, indeed all of the next fifteen are a lot closer to home. That said we're still only in Haringey, specifically cutting across the northwest of the borough from Muswell Hill to the North Circular.
n.b. This isn't the original B106, a designation initially applied to the short road past Stamford Hill station. But when that was reclassified as an extension to the A107, sometime in the 1920s, the B Road number became free and so was reused for a new suburban connection which hadn't existed at the start of the decade.
It's a pleasant road in a desirable area and with a lot more ups and downs than any of my preceding B Road reports. Stay tuned for Purity by Beatrice, an African freedom fighter, a listed station and another pre-Worboys road sign.
I'm starting my walk in Muswell Hill, not quite at the bijou summit but a bit further north on Colney Hatch Lane (a road classified as the B550 because it begins on the other side of the A1). The B106 kicks off at the traffic lights by the Shell garage, which naturally boasts a Little Waitrose because it's fairly well-to-do round here. The flats on the first street corner aren't typical of what's to come, but that's because they were built on the site of a large Victorian Methodist church whose congregation fled in the 1980s when its upkeep became too expensive. The nice houses start just round the first bend, both along the B106 and up a series of elegant avenues to either side.
The second bend is where Hornsey borough once crossed into Wood Green, but that's been administratively irrelevant ever since both were merged into Haringey. Here we find St Andrew's, a larger-than-necessary parish church who'd love to see you for their saint's day Mass on Tuesday evening (followed by "cakes and fizz"). It's also where the road starts to properly descend with an impressive view framed between the gabled villas to either side. The extensive flat valley beyond is that of the River Lea, those tiny tower blocks to one side might be the quartet at Ponders End and the green hills in the background are (checks map) ooh that's Epping Forest. Lovely.
This is Alexandra Park Road and we're entering the suburb of Alexandra Park, an Edwardian development laid out to the north of Alexandra Palace. It's so called because the much-loved hilltop park used to be much larger, including an additional northwestern flank with landscaped attractions including a chain of lakes, a tree-lined avenue and a circus ring, but all of that was swiftly swept away for housing. You can tell it's desirable housing by the content of the parade of shops at the foot of the hill in which consecutive units are taken by an organic grocers, an independent bakery, a gift boutique, a proper wool shop and a ceramics workshop (Don't Miss Our Christmas Firing Deadline!). Elsewhere calling your beauty salon Purity by Beatrice might raise eyebrows, but here it merely lifts them.
Alexandra Park Road bears off after the library, having been trumped B-road-wise by the newer Albert Road which forks left. Time was when the only building round here was Tottenham Wood Farm, the centre of a 450 acre agribusiness, but all that remains of the farmhouse is an isolated portico in the playground of Rhodes Avenue Primary School. A more obvious legacy is the park alongside where residents gather to play tennis, kick a ball or hide away in the pavilion cafe. It had always been the Albert Road Recreation Ground but in February was renamed O R Tambo Recreation Ground after anti-apartheid campaigner Oliver Tambo who lived in exile just up the road for over 20 years. Astatue of the great man wielding a metal charter, gifted by the South African High Commission, now greets those entering by the south gate.
Albert Road bears off after the football pitches, having been trumped B-road-wise by the newer Durnsford Road which forks left. The most significant building here is the Sunshine Garden Centre, whose large car park confirms a significant number of large gardens in the vicinity. It's just slipped into Christmas-tree selling mode (which is how the business started in 1989), but in the summer months the giant red barbecue out front summons would-be grillers from far and wide. The road is now climbing again with woody banks on one side and a gap in the relentless houses on the other. This is because the B106 is now passing over the East CoastMain Line, immediately above the portal where the tracks enter the Wood Green Tunnel (between Alexandra Palace and New Southgate). Those not in cars can enjoy the landscaped half-mile of Tunnel Gardens, an undeveloped strip which passes along the top.
When the houses restart they're almost cottagey, as befits later interwar development, and crouched behind a row of well-trimmed boxy hedges. The road is now descending again having crossed a watershed into the valley of the Pymmes Brook. I ought to mention the buses that ply this way (102, 184, 299) because this helps some of you visualise where we are, and because someone's again numbered them in a way that runs counter to the classification of the road. You may remember that the bus which ran the full length of the B105 was the 106, alas, and now here we are on the B106 and it's the 102. The road regains its transport mojo at the next crossroads which is dominated by the octagonal frontage of Bounds Green station (the last architectural triumph on the Cockfosters extension to be grade-something-listed).
The final stretch of the B106, Brownlow Road, is also the oldest. It starts with a shopping parade with split personality - one side bookmakers, fried chicken and minicabs, the other a cafe called Hot Milk and a bakery called White Fig. Come on the right day of the week and you'll easily identify the seemingly random point where the road passes from Haringey into Enfield because it's where the blue binbags start. The houses beyond are a bit more characterful, some with verandas and wooden balustrades. Expect a long queue of traffic before the final lights - I counted 50 - because all the adjacent backstreets have been dead-ended to prevent ratrunning. Outside the Palmers Green and Southgate District Synagogue is the pre-1963road sign I promised you, although worse for wear ever since the bottom panel pointing to Edmonton and Woodford disappeared.
And hey presto we've reached the A406, better known as the North Circular, where the B106 dissipates into congested vehicular flow.
That's six B Roads down and a total of six miles walked. In good news there isn't a B107 because that number was extinguished ages ago, but all you're missing out on is a five minute walk past Waitrose in Wapping so you're not missing much. Do come back for the much longer B108.
