Neighborhood Love

The other day while driving to St. Pancras station I passed a building on North Road I've never seen before: a white clock tower set far back from the road. So on my way to another destination today (which I never reached) I decided to check it out. Here's the tower:

The tower stands in the middle of Caledonian Park, surrounded by council estates and a few ageing buildings. Turns out this was the site of the Caledonian Market, opened by Prince Albert in 1855 and built on the site of Copenhagen House, a tea room and 'pleasure garden' (no, not like that) [update: actually, it may have been exactly like that - thanks MiddleWay!] that was on the site since the 1600s. The market is long gone, having departed after World War 2. It was originally a livestock market as it was on the terminus of the Great Northern Railway, and there were several pubs in the area named after livestock. I passed by one, The Lamb hotel, which has been (recently, it appears) boarded up for refurbishment.

The park is a nice and fairly hidden slice of forest and grass, for Islington anyway. The clocks still seemed to be keeping perfect time. The tower was nifty and these little mysteries are part of the reason I love London so much: how else can you find out that a park by your house was a 17th-century tea room that became a cattle market?

Foxy!

Sometimes strange things happen in London. On my way home, I was looking out the window and noticed a large cat pacing the bus, which is unusual in and of itself because cats don't normally run down the sidewalk past London double-deckers. A careful look revealed it wasn't a cat at all, but a fox! In the middle of the city! In Islington!

I tried to whip out the Flip but by the time I got it out, the bus had gone ahead. Then fate intervened: the bus broke down and they ordered us off. The fox was down a side street watching.

So I chased him a bit with the Flip and got this. He doesn't really show up until the end, and you can see him run from behind the car to the yard. For some reason I sound like a girl in half of this video, I think the sound recording was a little screwy.

Here he is, the London fox!



Update: Apparently foxes are common in London, kind of like raccoons in the US. Shows I'm still a bit of an American Newbie. Thanks to autolycus in the comments section (and my bemused coworkers) for pointing this out.

April Snows Bring.. ?

Snow

I rolled out of bed this morning and was halfway through getting ready for my morning walk when I happened to looked out the window and noticed a lot of cold, wet white stuff falling from the sky. Somehow, on April 6, it was cold enough to snow - and snow real proper snow. Big, wet white flakes rather than the kind of anemic little balls of slop I've seen so far here.

That was two hours ago. It's stopped now and it's already starting to melt - it never stuck to the streets but it did stick to the trees, as you can see - but it was beautiful while it lasted.

A Londoner Am I!

My, it's good to be back!

I got in yesterday and spent the better part of today getting my things in order. I have, in no particular order, been to the bank, been to the grocery store, been to the chemist (drugstore for you scrub yanks out there,) ridden the tube several times, walked around Islington, walked around Holloway Road, been to a pub, watched people betting on horseraces, eaten double Gloucester cheese, met our new neighbors, met our new neighbors again in a grocery store, and let (rented for you scrub yanks out there) our flat.

London seems pretty much as I left it, and I didn't expect anything less. It's off to the pub for a pint or two and then back here to pretend I'm not really getting sick.

Also I have a 9 am meeting on Monday. Glad I checked my work email!