efog-blog
Recent outings and activities...
Visit to Highgate Cemetery
The forecast for Monday 23rd September wasn't good, but thankfully it mostly stayed dry for our tours of Highgate Cemetery. 
The grave of Douglas Adams - author of 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'Madeleine, Paul and I met, early(ish), at the East side and had a short wander, finding the graves of the actor Corin Redgrave, an avid reader called Horn (whose gravestone looks like a Penguin-published book), the author Douglas Adams (decorated with a potful of pens, ornaments bearing the number "42" - the number from which the meaning of life can be derived, per his 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' - and other items), the television and radio presenter Jeremy Beadle (a gravestone of giant tomes leaning against a bookend) and Malcolm McLaren, the rock-artist, clothes designer and boutique owner. We also encountered a black cat which, if you're superstitious, is supposed to mean good luck for 7 years.
The CatacombsWe then joined Brian, Kathy and Lynne in the courtyard of the West side, ready for the midday tour to start. Our guide, Peter, was excellent - entertaining, engaging and enlightening, although he had warned us at the start that, if he didn't know an answer to a question, he'd probably make it up. With him, we heard about Selby (a horse-carriage driver who won a bet, which is how a lowly carriage driver could afford to be buried at Highgate), saw the huge memorial commemorating various members of the Mears family (who had owned the Whitechapel Bell Foundry), stopped at "grave site number 1" (a lady who had died of consumption), visited the grave of Maria (whose husband based her tombstone on the top part of the Albert Memorial), saw a pyramid over a young child's grave and a gravestone carved with a pelican, symbolising a mother's sacrifice.Up the hill, we paid our respects to the singer/songwriter George Michael, learned a lot about polonium 210 at Alexander Litvinenko's grave marker, stopped at the largest grave plot in the cemetery (the family of a Naval man), laughed at a deep family grave that has the word 'Entrance' engraved on the front of the mausoleum (Peter doesn't know if the word 'Exit' is inscribed inside). We then visited the Egyptian Avenue and the Circle of Lebanon (minus the mature cedar tree, which had to be chopped down in 2019) and heard about Wombwell's touring menagerie (his mausoleum is topped with a marble, sleeping lion) before being able to enter the catacombs which are only opened to people on a guided tour. Amongst other coffins, we were shown Robert Liston's, the first surgeon in this country to knock patients out with ether when performing operations, leading to modern day use of anaesthetic. 
The Egyptian AvenueBack outside, we visited the tomb of Tom Sayers, a bare-knuckle fighter whose funeral was said to have been attended by 10,000 people; Lion, his faithful dog, had pride of place in the funeral procession and a marble replica of the dog rests in front of the mausoleum. Immediately next to it his great grandson is buried and, apparently, the family wanted his memorial stone to be bone-shaped, as a nod to the dog next to him; the conservative Trustees of the cemetery wouldn't allow it.Nearby we saw the 'horse grave', linked to Queen Victoria's horse slaughterer. Nice. Down the hill, we stopped at Michael Faraday's grave, which is probably far more pronounced and certainly has a bigger headstone than he seemingly wanted for himself, and gave thanks for his contribution to all our lives with regards to the application of electricity. Our tour finished, back in the courtyard, half an hour later than expected so we certainly got our money's worth. 
Tom Sayers' mastiff 'Lion'
We met with Sue, Ken, Diana, Fozi, Trevor and Eileen, briefly, ahead of them being on the 2pm Tour, then retreated to the cafe at Lauderdale House, in neighbouring Waterlow Park, for lunch and a cup of tea. Helpfully, we were inside when the heavens opened. We found out later that, as the 2pm Tour was only just starting, their guide gave his initial intro whilst they sheltered under the colonnade in the courtyard, so they didn't get too wet!
Karl MarxAfter lunch, whilst the 2pm Tour was underway, the rest of us toured the East side, starting with the area that Madeleine, Paul and I hadn't covered in the morning: the grave of Reynolds, who masterminded The Great Train Robbery, Karl Marx's newer resting place (the bust of him, on top, is unmissable), Paul Foot the journalist, Max Wall the comedian, authors George Eliot (whose grave has multiple pens pushed into the earth) and Andrea Levy and, after a lot of hunting, the (toppled) gravestone marking the spot where the actor Roger Lloyd Pack is buried, complete with a small doll holding a broom, depicting his 'Trigger' character from Only Fools and Horses, placed on it.
Whilst the others walked down to look at the graves that I'd seen in the morning, before heading for home, I went to meet the second group who were just finishing their tour and then had another walk around the East side with them. In addition to the graves mentioned above, we also saw Rod Stewart's parents, a pop artist called Patrick Caulfield (whose headstone has the word 'DEAD' carved in cut-out letters), the memorial to Sir Albert Barratt (who we can thank for licorice allsorts), Karl Marx's original grave (covered with stones, entry tickets from the previous day, money including coins, a £5 note, some dollar bills & Chinese yuan and a booklet with the word DETOX on the front) and the headstone marking the last resting place of William Foyle, who co-founded the bookshop. 
Patrick Caulfield's grave and headstone
Whist four of them headed for the cafe in Waterlow Park, Eileen and I popped back in to the West side; she wanted a longer look at George Michael's grave without the crowd around it, whilst I wanted to see the memorials to architect Edward Blore (who designed the facade of Buckingham Palace, which I visited only a few days ago), author Beryl Bainbridge and Charles Cruft, the chap who started Crufts Dog Show. As we left, three foxes were in the Courtyard, eagerly anticipating being fed by one of the staff.
A cup of tea / coffee, plus cake for some, at the cafe rounded off our visit, before we headed down the hill back to Archway station.
Jill S, 23rd September 2024
Tenpin Bowling at Collier Row.
Tuesday 10th September saw six of us at the tenpin bowling alley at Collier Row. Our “Nifty fifty” tickets cost £10 each and included unlimited play and a free drink.
A fun time was had, helped by the idiosyncratic machinery which handed out bonuses with gay abandon. Richard had a strike without throwing a ball and scores of 8 became spares a few times. But Peter Bianchi’s score in one game of 158, although helped a bit by the machinery, was well earned. Nobody came near that, Richard coming closest with 132.
We played three games and then Peter and Annick had to leave. The rest of us had one more game but we were tiring. Despite this, Richard had his highest score and three of us reached 100.
Overall total scores for the first three games were: Richard 353; Peter 347; Cathy 296; Brian 294; Kathy 289; Annick 205.
Scores for the last game were: Richard 132; Cathy 101; Brian 100; Kathy 80.
Four games, taking over three hours, and a drink for £10! A bargain.
Brian. 10th September 2024
Hampstead Heath Walk
On a slightly damp summer Saturday 24th August, 2024, three of us met at Stratford Station at the early (for some) time of 10am to catch the Overground to Hampstead Heath Station.
Although the basic walk idea was taken from ‘Hidden London Walks’, partly in light of the weather, I decided to skip some of the road sections which would have taken us past Keat’s House and Erno Golidfinger’s 1930s Modernist house amongst other sights. Instead we got straight onto the Heath at South Hill Park, heading towards the mixed bathing pond. Slightly surprisingly there were quite a few hardy souls swimming in the rain, but we didn’t join them. Instead we passed to the left of the ponds and followed the paths heading for Vale of Health Pond 2.
The Hill Garden, West HeathApparently in 1524 astrologers convinced much of London’s population that a flood was about to submerge the city and about 20,000 Londoners gathered on the heath in panic. However on the predicted day it didn’t even rain and the astrologers then ‘discovered’ that their calculations were out by 100 years. Monks and others apparently took refuge around the Vale of Health during the plagues of 1349 and 1665.
The view from Parliament HillFollowing a path just to the left of VH Pond 2 we headed for Whitestone Pond doing a minor detour to Hampstead Observatory. Just beyond the Pond is Jack Straw’s Castle – not named after the Labour MP, but a leader of the 14th C Peasants’ Revolt – it used to be a pub, frequented by Karl Marx, Dickens et al. Beyond the Castle we turned left towards West Heath, then shortly right to arrive at the Hill Garden and Pergola, a lovely oasis in the woods, which we wandered through. We then headed down to the Old Bull & Bush pub, immortalised in music hall song, and turning right alongside that headed towards the main Hampstead Heath. Seeing a sign for Kenwood House and knowing there was a café alongside we decided to head there rather than following the suggested route. This enabled us to have a warming cuppa and dry off a little, two of us also had a quick look around the house where there was a display of a modernist take on 17/18th C portraits. We preferred the originals.
By this stage the rain had actually stopped or at least taken a break, but having broken with the original route we took a bearing as straight as we could, given the winding paths, towards Hampstead Heath Station, but detouring up Parliament Hill for lunch with the view over London. On Parliament Hill road we passed one of George Orwell’s many London homes. At first sight from the plaque we thought he’d lived there 47 years 1903-1950, but on checking, the years given were his birth and death and he lived in that particular house just in 1935.
Just before arriving back at the station we did a quick detour in to what was sign posted as the ‘World Peace Garden’, a small urban wooded garden area backing onto the railway and adorned near the entrance with prayers and poems.
The walk was about 5 miles.
Richard. 25th August 2024
Durham – 8th-11th August 2024
On the morning of 8th August seven EFOGers set off for Durham, two by car and five by train. The race was on, who would arrive first? The plan was to meet at Crook Gardens at about 2.30 pm. However, there were a couple of diversions on the roads and the driver and passenger needed refuelling (the car was fine), so we suspected the train would be faster. However, with a change at York their connecting train was cancelled and so they had to await the next one.
Suffice to say that Cathy & I had a cream tea and a wander round Crook Hall & Gardens then met up with the other five a little later.
After settling into our rooms in the halls of residence, we had a stroll along the river, past the Kathedra (stone throne) and a single room dwelling once lived in by Josef Boruwlaski, an 18th C. Polish dwarf.
This was followed by a very welcome meal in a Lebanese restaurant just near the halls (though the centre of Durham is pretty small so everything is fairly near).
The next day was a trip to Beamish Museum where there were trams, trolley buses, a steam train etc, 1920s houses, bank, dentist etc, a colliery village, 1940’s farm. Staff are dressed for the eras and play the parts well, some really getting into character with banter and backstories between them.
That night we ate at a Thai restaurant down by the river and although we’d been told that some lights weren’t working it was light enough. The food was good, though Marian was rather surprised that her ‘Duck with Tamarind Sauce’ had rather more sauce than duck, but it wasn’t that there was a lack of duck.
Saturday was a trip to see The Angel of the North, which is certainly impressive when you are stood alongside, looking up at it.
Cathy & I having been there a few years before opted to walk instead to the Botanical Gardens, which are part of the University and were very peaceful and pleasant.
Trevor also opted not to see the Angel, but started off with a river walk, but then found a trail along a disused railway. Unfortunately at one point on his walk he was going up some steps and in looking down at the steps, failed to notice a branch at head height. Luckily, although it drew blood, there was no major injury, but now as well as the University dining room making us think of Harry Potter, Trevor had the Harry Potter scar on his forehead.
At lunchtime we met at the Cathedral Café and afterwards had a stroll round the Cathedral. We were very taken with a modern piece of artwork hanging in the main aisle consisting of thousands of hand-made paper doves tied to the dangling ribbons.
Evening meal was at an Italian restaurant called Uno Momento, whilst the food all tasted very nice, the pizzas which three of us had did take some effort to cut and chew.
On the Sunday Cathy and I headed to Lindisfarne whilst the others had a boat trip on the Wear, before which two real water lovers, Marian & Trevor hired a rowing boat. It was then back to the University to collect their luggage from reception, having had to vacate rooms by 10 am, then an Uber to the station and back to London.
Richard. 25th August 2024
Stratford to Walthamstow Wetlands Walk
A sunny and pleasantly warm Saturday 17th of August, just perfect for a river-side walk. We were meeting at Stratford Station by the ticket gates leading to Westfield at 11 a.m. and we had a good turn-out with 11 people, Cathy, Claire, Eileen, Jill S, Laurel, Louise, Madeleine, Nigel, Richard, Sue, and me (Trev). We headed off to the Olympic Park, by-passing Westfield shopping centre and its crowds seeking bargains.
Crossing the road into the park, we headed towards the London Stadium, crossing over the River Lea and turned right to head north with the River Lea on our right side, passing the new East Bank “cultural area” with new buildings which will house the V&A Museum, the BBC and Sadlers Wells. After a while we had left the landscaped gardens of the park and were walking along the bank overlooking the River Lea heading towards the Velodrome.
Crossing the A12 slip roads near Eastway we rejoined the river-side path. The path split into two with a surfaced footpath/cycleway or a natural track by the river. We took the riverside path through the trees, passing the football pitches of Hackney Marsh on our left and enjoyed the wildlife on the river, spotting ducks, cormorants and a good number of Little Egrets. After a while we reached Friends Bridge, a footbridge over the river and turned left towards the Filter Beds Nature Reserve, where we were going to stop for lunch.
On entering the nature reserve I spotted a large lump of concrete, presumably part of the old structures,but which now rather handily made perfect seating for 11 people, a stroke of luck! After lunch we continued through the reserve to a henge of stones, called Nature's Throne, and then joined and crossed the Lee Navigation. Exiting the towpath at the Princess of Wales, we turned right onto Lee Bridge road, eastwards for about 500 yards before turning right and right again onto a footpath and subway under the road and headed north along what used to be an aqueduct carrying water from the Walthamstow reservoirs to the filter beds.
We followed the pathway under the railway lines with the Walthamstow marshes on our left, to the car park at the end. Exiting the car park we ignored the low bridge beneath the railway, which was built so cattle could access the marshes, and turned right to enter the Walthamstow Wetlands Nature Reserve, continuing to the cafe at the visitor centre for some refreshments. Suitably refreshed we left the nature reserve heading for bus stops or railway stations to take us home.
The walk had been about 5½ to 6 miles and had taken about 3 hours including the lunch stop, and included a riverside section and two nature reserves, and if you turned up early you could even fit in some shopping at Stratford!.
Trev Eley. 22nd August 2024