Crouchended
Life in Crouch End, bikes, trying to be green and other randomnessArchive for London
Greene & co guide to Crouch End
Greene and Co Estate Agents recently opened a new branch in Crouch End, not that you might think that Crouch End needs any more estate agents. However, a couple of things have caught my eye. Firstly they produce an area guide that is available both online and in hard copy from a small box outside the office. They have also been distributing small canvass bags for shopping that zip up very small when you are not using them – handy!
Onion Selling Frenchman
On Friday at around 5pm there was a man stood by a bicycle in crouch end outside Woolworths, on the bike were bunches on onions and shallots. There was a small notice on the bike saying “stop me and buy one” so i did. The man had a ridiculously thick French accent, which led me to think he wasn’t actually French, but regardless he has plaited bunches of shallots and pink sweet onions for sale for £2. I bought some shallots, and very nice they are too (here they are hanging in my kitchen). No one else i know has seen him there before – did anyone else stop and buy onions? I should have taken his picture, but it was Friday night, I wanted to get home….but Paul kindly has taken a picture and put it on his site!.
Pumpkins
Kids have been wandering the streets in Halloween garb, there were fantastic fireworks at Alexandra Palace last night – this is the time of year when you get some amazing winter squash and pumpkins. There were some incredible huge examples at Borough Market on Saturday – some of these are the size of a small child!
Project 104 Mountview
Finally I have tracked down the Myspace site for Project 104, i was doing some digging for a friend who is interested in the project – here’s the myspace page
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=181079872
And there’s a flickr page with lots of photos of what’s inside -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/micheeky/sets/72157600060228076/
There doesn’t seem to have been much more info past what was going on April 29th.
Thanks to Micheeky for the photo
Hornsey Road Baths
I was inspired to dig a bit deeper after seeing this picture come up on my Flickr feed of the Haringey Flikr picture pool (which has some severe reflection on it if you look closely!). It’s a photo of a painting that has been sat in a painting shop in Crouch End for about a year, and i’ve often stopped to look at it. The actual state of Hornsey baths is less impressive, in fact the painting alludes to the bath’s heyday whereas now they look much like this shot from Derelict London, and if you sit on the top deck of the 91 bus coming north you can get a good look at the site on the right hand side of the road as you begin the climb up Hornsey Rise.
A bit more digging reveals that the baths are due to be turned into flats – despite some campaigning to keep them as a leisure facility.
Chew on this! – Ben Wilson displays in Crouch End
Although the work was done a few weeks ago, residents of Crouch End can still find works by Ben Wilson on the Broadway. There are four works outside Budgens, and one more at the base of the Clocktower. There may be more around but it’s not obvious where they are….
Ben’s medium is chewing gum – he is a pavement artist, but at some point in time Ben became aware that painting on the pavement is illegal, whereas you can do whatever you like to chewing gum that is stuck to it – at least that’s what I overheard Ben saying to some teenagers who seemed completely captivated by what he was doing.
Ben lives in Muswell Hill and is a bit of a local celebrity of sorts – there’s a fair few articles about him in the local press, next time i see him working I’ll ask if he can create something just for me.
What Ales thee?
My current favorite beer is St Peter’s Brewery’s Old Style Porter and their Cream Stout – both of which are locally available from Crouch End Budgens, but also from a stall at Borough Market. The beer comes in a distinctive flask style bottle, but more than this being a gimmick, the beers focus on a traditional taste (thus the excellent Porter and Stout) rather than catering for the modern sweeter palate.
The beer I see most often is their Organic Ale, which is a pleasant mild flavored hoppy bitter. What I didn’t realize until i checked out thier website is that the Jerusalem Tavern in Clerkenwell is run by the Brewery – i think it has to be worth a visit!
I see famous people
Crouch End is famous for people being famous. There’s even a blog about spotting them in the area. I once saw Simon Pegg outside Woolworths, but aparently he’s beginners level c’leb spotting.
Neigborhood Fix It
Neigborhood Fix It is a website launched by MySociety, an organisation that believes in using the web to build social capital .
Here’s the entry for Crouch End. In theory Haringey council shoudl respond to anything that is resported in the borough.
Recycled shoes
I’m now the proud owner of two pairs of recycled shoes. The first pair were a bit of a novelty, 
they are a limited edition Worn Again Big Issue pair that are a little off the wall, especially the bright green laces…. However, the new pair
are much more normal looking – so much so that i can even wear them for work. This is quite a big improvement on some of the other recycled shoes i have seen, which are ok as fashion shoes but would struggle in a more formal setting. It’s vital that products that are sustainable are affordable and comparable in quality to similar products – and these shoes are although that’s largely because they were half price in the sale. I’ve nominated Terra Plana, who sell and make the shoes for best environmental products in the Observer sustainable awards, because i’m so impressed with the shoes and the rest of their range. They also make sure that their packaging is recycled and their bags are fabric.Their bags are either luminous green or dreary red – not so good
