Off Marylebone Road/Euston Road

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Today I scanned the next dozen colour slides from my Streets of London series, produced in August 2004. These locations are all off Marylebone Road which becomes Euston Road  at the junction with Great Portland Street.

MacFarren Place NW1 8.04

Given its proximity to the Royal Academy of Music, of which he was elected principal in 1875, I have assumed that MacFarren Place, NW1, is named after the composer George Alexander MacFarren (1818-1887). I have been unable to confirm this. The doorway and the brickwork are what attracted me to this wall. It had nothing to do with Douglas Adams’s ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy’.

The Park in question in Park Square Mews is Regents Park, one of the Royal parks. This mews still contains attractive cobblestones. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regent%27s_Park has a wealth of information on the park, which includes an outer ring road, known as the Outer Circle, measuring 4.45 km. During  my marathon training in the 1980s I regularly ran round this route, up to seven times in succession.

Park Square West NW1 8.02

Park Square West runs between Marylebone road and Outer Circle.

Longford Street NW1 8.04

Longford Street is home to the Regent’s Park Centre of Westminster Kingsway College. Has someone made an effort to have the modern building in the background blend with the older red brick on which the street name is fixed.

Laxton Place NW1 8.04

There are at least 32 flats (or apartments) in 9, Laxton Place, NW1. They cost a lot of money, but they do have small balconies and it is just a short walk to Regent’s Park.

Drummond Street/North Gower Street NW1 8.04

Drummond Street runs into Hampstead Road, where our friend Jessie once worked,  just north of Euston Road. Chutneys is a very popular and well reviewed North Indian vegetarian restaurant with vegan options. I enjoyed my one visit sometime in the 1990s. Here is their menu.

Charles Place NW1 8.04

Crossing Hampstead Road from Drummond Street you will reach Charles Place. The wisteria festoons a house in Drummond Street.

Starcross Street NW1 8.04

The Exmouth Arms in Starcross Street NW1, just behind Charles Place, could possibly be visible from there. Regular readers will know that The Head Gardener fully approves of the multitude of hanging baskets obscuring the name.

Euston Street NW1 8.04

Euston Street is parallel with Drummond Street.

Pancras Road NW1 8.04

There was much building going on in Pancras Road at the time these pictures were produced. Now St Pancras is a fully functioning international railway station.

This evening we dined on cheese-centred haddock fishcakes served on a bed of leeks, Jackie’s piquant cauliflower cheese, and crisp carrots and cabbage. Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I finished the Malbec.

30 comments

  1. Thank you for another fine tour of London. It is a sad day there today.
    The wisteria is beautiful. I’m sure I would enjoy a meal at Chutney’s.

  2. It is a sad day in London indeed! I just read of the strange attack on Westminster.
    However, your post is full of the good things in life and I would rather dwell there than in the insanity. The hanging baskets are fabulous! If you are going to hang baskets, hang them en masse like this – what a show!! And re MacFarren Place, of course it didn’t!!

    1. 🙂 Many thanks Pauline. The BBC programme Jackie was watching was interrupted for the attack. So often have I walked over that bridge at exactly that time

  3. Thanks Derrick.. I used to wander those parts often when I was doing some work in the Wellcome – it’s definitely one of my favourite areas of the non-east.

  4. Your title states Euston Road. the street signs says Euston Street, I have a dim remembrance of a Euston Road, but not a street, Now I’m all confused; which seems to be a normal state for me these days.

    1. Euston Road, a continuation of Marylebone Road, is the main thoroughfare running past Euston, St Pancras, and King’s Cross stations. Euston Street is a little one round the back. Thanks for reading and commenting, Brian

  5. What is my car doing on Longford Street? But then mine is grey. I went through the menu of Chutneys. I can assure you it will flood the mouth of most North Indian belles! My favourite is ‘Pani Poori’, or ‘Gol Gappa’, those hollow, crisp ellipses filled with stinging hot coriander, mint and chilly sherbet. I even wrote a poem about them. I am sure you would have enjoyed your visit in 1990s.
    Thanks for the wonderful, thematic journey.

    1. Many thanks, Uma. From Chutney’s website it looks as if they, and possibly the street, have had a makeover in the last 13 years. At first I thought the car was ours – also grey 🙂

  6. Sad to hear about the London attack… was working all day and knew nothing about it until I read some of the other comments. Now I’m up to speed…I’m so sorry, but glad you weren’t there today. Interesting to look back at all the construction. I bet it looks totally different from your photos today. The same construction craze is happening here in Portland, too, except not public transit improvements. Too bad – we could surely use some… Here it’s mostly private development.

    1. Many thanks, Anna. Rather eerily, I was writing the post as the news came on TV. I could so easily have been posting those streets we were seeing. Construction in the capital is mostly private, too.

  7. I love these strolls around different parts of London and find the memories of different moments in my life flooding in. This time it is a friend long-lost called Patrik Fitzgerald who was a punk poet-songwriter in the late 70-early80s period. Still is I think. He never quite made the cut like Billy Bragg but he was really good. I must try and find him. I remember his girlfriend was Italian and the daintiest delight of a lady … it was she that told me I would find my heart in Rome so I went searching …. memories. happy happy memories – thank you for sparking them. ON the flip side, that too was a time of gritty determination in the City – the IRA were in full swing and there were some dreadful times, as you will know too well. I wish London well in staying London … strong, closed to bullies and steadfastly spirited.

  8. Loved your referring to wisteria blocking the view of name of public locations. Gorgeous flowers and so irresistible and pretty! Thank you, Derrick, as this was my favorite this morning. 🙂 I like Indian food and wish we had such distinct breakdowns (North Indian) in choices of this particular ethnic food.

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