Industrial Archeology. And Pan.
On Easter Sunday I went for an eight mile walk through north London, largely on disused railway tracks, turned into the Parkland Walk - a thin strip of woodland weaving between suburban terraced houses.
Much of the time the path's railway ancestry isn't clear, aside from its double- or single-track width. There are no real indications on the north path, running from Alexandra Palace (if you know where to look) to Highgate Woods, aside from the industrial bridges. The south path, though, has double tunnels at its northern, Highgate, end, and two platforms halfway along its length - the remnants of a station at Crouch End.
Just east of the former station are a series of brick arches, covered in some rather artistic and surprisingly attractive graffiti, like much of the brickwork and bridges along the walk. One of the arches houses a statue of Pan, hanging from the bricks: it is quite startling when you come across it unawares, a large figure emerging from the bricks.
The walk was created along two branches of the Edgware, Highgate and London Railway, which was meant to form part of the Northern line in the 1930s but never got fully connected.
Much of the time the path's railway ancestry isn't clear, aside from its double- or single-track width. There are no real indications on the north path, running from Alexandra Palace (if you know where to look) to Highgate Woods, aside from the industrial bridges. The south path, though, has double tunnels at its northern, Highgate, end, and two platforms halfway along its length - the remnants of a station at Crouch End.
Just east of the former station are a series of brick arches, covered in some rather artistic and surprisingly attractive graffiti, like much of the brickwork and bridges along the walk. One of the arches houses a statue of Pan, hanging from the bricks: it is quite startling when you come across it unawares, a large figure emerging from the bricks.
The walk was created along two branches of the Edgware, Highgate and London Railway, which was meant to form part of the Northern line in the 1930s but never got fully connected.
