Walking Britain's B Roads: the B120 Globe Road
[Tower Hamlets] [0.5 miles]
The B120 is half a mile packed with nothing especially interesting. It runs north/south through the hinterland between Bethnal Green, Mile End and Stepney. It's better known as Globe Road, but not especially better known unless you're local, and even then maybe not. Nevertheless I have still somehow strung out today's post to 1200 words, so please remember I'm not forcing you to read any of them.
The B120 (Globe Road) starts on the B119 (Roman Road), and this is what it looks like if you take up position outside Bethnal Green's old fire station. The supermarket on the left, according to the lettering above the burglar alarm, is Globe Road's Co-op. The building site on the right used to be a council block's car park, but Tower Hamlets recently realised they could squeeze in some social housing so eleven flats are going up instead. The chief point of interest is the brick tower supporting the skeleton of a globe, not because the road is Globe Road but because this is the entrance to a neighbourhood called Globe Town. Both were named after a pub we'll get to later, but had the road kept its original Tudor name of Theven Lane the area might have been named after petty larceny instead.
If you're interested in looking at a variety of unremarkable council estate architecture, Globe Road is a must-visit. Only a handful of buildings survived the Blitz and subsequent redevelopment, and none whatsoever at this northern end. The postwar Rogers estate spreads along one side of the road set back behind a protective flank of later bungalows. The long block opposite is called Stafford Cripps House, as is the entirely separate block alongside, which must have made sense when they named them both in 1952. On one balcony I spy a line of hastily-slung brightly-coloured saris, and on the balcony beneath a line of neatly-pinned underwear in shades of white and blue. My attempts to photograph the road's attractions draw the attention of a dustman walking over to the Co-Op for sustenance, who smiles and waves assuming he's my camera's main target. I smile back so as not to disabuse him of this notion.
The first sliver of surviving Victorian terrace runs from 161 to 171, of which only 171 looks like it's always been a house. Number 161 is Lala Bazar, the local grocery store, and one of those where Lycamobile gets joint billing on the shopfront. Peer over the stack of bottled water in the window, past shelves packed with rice and eggs and other quick meal options, and the shopkeeper can be seen illuminated in his lair at the rear of store in front of a backdrop of tobacco. A little research confirms that this building used to be a pub called the Lord Nelson, that the bungalows in the last paragraph replaced a pub called the Britannia, and that the Co-Op in the first paragraph was originally the Rising Sun.
If you could travel back in time 150 years, not only would there be more pubs but Globe Town would be a slum with a notorious reputation. It's the age old story - Huguenots set up a weaving district in open fields, the middle classes move in and then the whole thing descends into a miserable rookery. Pre-Dickensian author George Reynolds was not a fan.
When compared with even the worst districts of the metropolis, Globe Town still appears a sink of human misery which civilisation, in its progress, has forgotten to visit. The majority of the streets are unpaved, rugged, and broken. The individual who traverses them in the summer is blinded by the dust, or disgusted by heaps of putrescent offal, the rotting remains of vegetables, and filth of every description, which meet the eye at short intervals; and, in winter, he wallows, knee-deep, in black mud and stagnant water. But even in the summer itself, and in the very midst of the dog-days, there are swamps of mire in many of the streets of Globe Town, which exhale a nauseating and sickly odour, like that of decomposing dead bodies. (G.W.M. Reynolds, The Mysteries of London, 1846)
Next it's time to duck beneath the railway. The Great Eastern Railway once had a station here called Globe Road & Devonshire Street, but it closed in 1916 (due to competition from a tube station we'll reach later) and no trace remains today. To the north of the viaduct is Globe Road's only church, although it was never more than a Methodist mission hall and is currently occupied by a swaying Baptist congregation. The railway bridge is also the former dividing line between the boroughs of Bethnal Green and Stepney and is where Globe Road E2 becomes Globe Road E1. While I'm pondering this disconnect the council dustcart sweeps past and I receive a wave from the cab, because it seems you make friends for life on the B120.
Globe Road's main shopping parade includes a couple of convenience stores, a couple of salons and a jarringly modern juice bar called Quench'd. The most intriguing outlet is Tad's Coffee Offie, a coffee shop by day and a liquor shop by night because that's the way to maximise your beverage outflow. Its front window confirms it sells cold juice (in direct competition with one neighbour) and bus passes (in direct competition with the other). I appreciate the unbridled optimism of the owners in placing a Wall's ice cream advert outside on the pavement in January, and question the motives of the council in locating a bench immediately facing its front door.
More flats follow, the few non-council offerings identifiable by ridiculously inappropriate names like Elysium Apartments. Three original terraced houses survive on the corner of Cephas Street, close to a black and gold fingerpost which dates back to the time the Liberal Democrats were in charge of street furniture. One arm points to the Globe Town Neighbourhood Recycling Centre, a litter-strewn recess where all four bins are missing. Across the street a dog pauses to urinate on a discarded Christmas tree. Further vanished pubs include the Prince Regent and the Prince of Wales, in case you're taking notes. What looks like a secondary school, and used to be, is now Alternative Provision for 100 of the borough's more challenging students. For those who like to know which bus route we're following, it's the 309 all the way down.
The Horn of Plenty is Globe Road's last surviving hostelry, and the only pub I know which holds a 'Rock Paper Scissor happy hour' every Friday. Coffee and snacks can be purchased from Cafe Au Lait, which is so small it only has room for one table inside and one out on the pavement. The Sainsbury's Local across the road offers more snack-related choice but no seating whatsoever. Globe Road draws to a close at a T-junction on the A11 Mile End Road, with Stepney Green tube station on one corner and a Ladbrokes betting shop on the other. The bookies used to be The Old Globe, and before that unsurprisingly The Globe, but the pub closed in 2010 after three centuries of service thereby erasing the reason Globe Road and Globe Town were originally called what they were.
The B121 starts 300m away. It is, thankfully, jam-packed with interest.
