Sunday – arrive at Edmonton Green
early bus – breakfast at Spoons, empty at 08:10 on Sunday – no seat reservations on train but most passengers respect the reservations that would have been – read the new Fortean Times – lunch from the new Sainsburys on Princes Street – pint of Alpacalypse at traditional London arrival pub, the Dolphin – pub busy with folk watching Crystal Palace beat Newcastle and Sunderland beat Spurs – Kings Cross pedestrain tunnel under Euston Road closed – Victoria and Weaver lines to Edmonton Green Travelodge – not the best fried chicken – unidentified building on Bridge Street – Polish coffee biscuits – Salmon Brook walk – allotment bonfire – packed graveyard – black and white cat on riverbank and ginger cat by flats – Jan saw a fox and we both saw ducks
Monday – Stoke Newington to Chapel Market
Fat boy breakfast, beans on toast with egg and sausage – train to Stoke Newington – Abney Park Cemetery – lion tamer, William Booth, finger to the sky – charity shops – Rochester Castle, the third ever Wetherspoons and the oldest that’s still open – Jamaican patty from The Bagel House – West Hackney Recreation Ground – Rectory Road and Shacklewell Lane – more charity shops – insanely cool jazz cafe – lovely Dalston Eastern Curve Garden and beer – Kingsland Road and on to the Regent’s Canal path – beer at The Rosemary Branch with resident cat to get out of the rain – along Duncan Road to Chapel Market – dinner with Christopher at Indian Veg, good value buffet, interior covered with vegetarian propaganda and slogans, lots of cabbage plus bhajis, dal, rice, salad etc. I liked it so much I bought the mug – walk up Upper Street to Highbury and Islington tube – back to the Travelodge for chocolate mint from Lidl and Face The Music on BBC4 – 22.2k steps
Tuesday – Bethnal Green and Hackney
late start after yesterday’s exertions – train to Cambridge Heath – Mighty vegetarian breakfast at City Cafe 2 (I think) – Sebright Passage and a look at the Sebright Arms recently namechecked by Morrissey (not open weekdays before 5pm) – insane Waste! store (also not open) – Hackney City Farm goats and donkeys – Museum of the Home – Fabrique coffee and chockaka – Kingsland Road – Regents Canal path (the other direction to yesterday) – sharks – Broadway Market and London Fields – Youngs beer at the Cat and Mutton: “Prey puss do not claw, because the mutton is so raw, prey puss do not tare, because the mutton is so rare” tiles – insanely hip shop – comics haul at St. Joseph’s Hospice shop – sat on an elephant to browse records at Spittalfields Crypt Trust charity shop – Windrush Generation fruit statues – Bullshit Corner in The Crown beer garden – amazing cherry crumble from Crumble Mania – train back to Edmonton Green, Asda hotel picnic, saltfish patty – 13.6k steps
Wednesday – Clerkenwell to Camberwell
train to Liverpool Street – Spoons breakfast, Jan’s porridge and whisky hack – two free pasta pots from Notto – Barbican, Spittalfields, Weatherall memorial – the Clerk’s Well in Farringdon Lane – pint of Spitfire at the charming Betsey Trotwood, apparently a favourite of Debsey Wykes – Bazalgette Embankment – Blackfriars Bridge – along the Cut to Waterloo Bus Garage, great value and great service, but just a mug of tea for me – Elephant and Castle massive, complicated roundabout – charity shop vinyl and cleaning products shirt – “Are you a dj?” – Shawarma Hut, not sure if it was table service (it is), big plate of chicken, rice, chips and salad for £5.99, just like in the YouTubes – more charity shops then turn into De Crespigny Park and zigzag to the site of the Camber Well, in a back garden in Grove Park (we didn’t try to get any closer than the road) – lovely, smart old houses – abandoned lp records on the railway embankment – along Windsor Walk to Denmark Hill station and the Phoenix for soothing, al fresco beer – Salvation Army headquarters and statue of William Booth – back to Edmonton Green for Lidl picnic – 22.1k steps
Thursday – Cheshunt and Walthamstow
another slow start after the previous day’s exertions – train North to Theobald’s Grove – flags on lampposts everywhere – many charity shops – Gina Lollobrigida and Henry Fonda – Sunday Pictorial Sports Parade from 1949 – unpleasant old drunks in Spoons – record shop – train and tube to Walthamstow – parakeet on a bicycle – William Morris gallery and garden – coffee and chai latte, brownie and flapjack – Salvation Army shop, John Otway and Wild Willy Barret lp – two buses back to Edmonton Green passing Walthamstow dog track and the river Lea, change at Angel Corner – mackerel in turkish bread with hot peppers and spicy chips from Captain – The Apprentice finale
Friday – home again, home again
train cancelled, oh noes – bus to Kings Cross through Tottenham, Finsbury Park and along Caledonian Road, passing Pentonville Prison and the Breakout cafe – young couple on the bus high on each other, “we go together like peas and carrots” – The Scottish Stores, lovely Magpie Best Bitter, the best pint of the trip, barstaff engrossed in cctv – Housmans Bookshop, Tony Blair Fabian pamphlet, Clod magazine, Crass badge – busy, busy Kings Cross station – Greggs train picnic – stand in the vestible all the way to Newcastle – tea and biscuits waiting for us at home
