Six other things to see in Southgate (that's old Southgate by The Green, not the upstart civic centre by the tube station)
1) Village stocks!
Time was when every village had its stocks for punishing local miscreants by chucking stuff at them, indeed a statute in 1351 insisted on it. Such behaviour is now deemed unacceptable and has been since 1872 when stocks were last used in anger in Berkshire, but who's to say they'll never come back into use. Southgate's alas aren't the original because those went missing during WW2 and are instead a Coronation gift in 1953, themselves heavily restored in 2002 because the oak had rotted heavily. Other London locations with stocks include Havering-atte-Bower, Ickenham and anywhere else someone might know about.
2) A nice fingerpost!
Everyone loves a good fingerpost and Southgate Green has an excellent one. It marks the junction of the A1003 and the A1004, two distinctly minor A roads, and dates from an era when quarter miles were still a significant distance measurement. One finger points towards New Southgate which is very much not old Southgate like what this is. From my wanderings I'd say there are far more nice fingerposts in north London than south, notably in the boroughs of Enfield and Barnet, and I wonder if future generations with satnavs will one day wonder why we ever needed to know where towns are.
3) Blue Plaques!
Rarely have I been more disappointed by a blue plaque than the inscription on the cottage at 40 The Green. As I got closer I saw it read 'In 1881 this house became the first seat of local government in Southgate', and sorry but the separation of Southgate from the Edmonton Board of Health is not an exciting heritage fact. Of more interest is the plaque down the road marking the house where Benjamin Waugh lived in 1884 when he founded the NSPCC. Admittedly Waugh was honorary director under Lord Shaftesbury as Chairman, and admittedly the NSPCC was founded at Mansion House rather than here, and admittedly Waugh's house has been demolished and replaced by a bank which is now a nursery, but it's still more interesting than the blue plaque at number 40.
4) A Very Old Pub! The Cherry Tree has had the plum spot opposite The Green for over 300 years. The former coaching inn now has Victorian brick frontage and a Mock Tudor porch but at its heart is a much earlier timber-framed building. If you ever need a dull fact about Southgate, be aware that the Loyal Adelaide Lodge of Manchester Unity of Oddfellows held their meetings here for over 100 years. Until last year it was a proper pub but then Mitchells & Butlers turned it into a generic brasserie called Brown's, not Ye Olde Cherry Tree, and local drinkers were nonplussed. A Telegraph journalist even published an article subtitled "The 17th-century inn has lost all of its character, with no chance of a decent cask ale or even an interesting bottle", and if nothing else a grey hard-to-read inn sign has since been added bearing the proper name.
5) That postwar typeface
You see a lot of that nice 1950s typeface around Southgate Green, the slanting serif much used on postwar buildings, for example on this block of flats and on this sign referencing H Miller & Sons, longstanding Plumbers and Decorators. But what precisely is it called? I went down a font-based wormhole and it turns out there are lots of very similar styles including Stymie Bold Italic, Clarendon Bold Italic, Profil, Egyptian Italic and Festival Egyptian (an official style of the Festival of Britain). But I'm not sure any of these perfectly match the As and Os I saw here in Southgate, so maybe I'll just go on calling it That Nice 1950s Typeface and at least you'll still know what I mean.
6) Dionysus!
Pre-Crossrail if you wanted fried sustenance at the end of a West End night out you stopped by Dionysus, the Greek chippie in the prime corner spot outside Tottenham Court Road station. Many's the hangover quelled by one of their special kebabs or salty bags. But in January 2009, in advance of station redevelopment, they were sadly forced to close. As I blogged at the time, "I watched as staff gutted the interior, then piled sinks and ovens into the back of a hired van and drove off to start anew elsewhere." Well, likely that elsewhere was Southgate because here they are in a smart cafe with the precisely same logo above the door. Given they were "established 1969" this may alternatively be the original Dionysus and TCR was merely a branch, but if you ever fancy a nostalgic takeaway then head straight to N14.
