Aesthetic question

Barky_Fox · February 2011

Is there any beauty in Stroud Green? Where?

kreuzkav · February 2011

Stroud Green Road is quite dull architecturally, but I remember back in the late 90s after a night at an all-night party and various psychedelics the walk up SGR from the FP made me see trees in the distance I'd never seen before. I think because it's such a busy and active road it's hard to see the detail at times.

Other aesthetic things I like are:

Crouch Hill from the Old Dairy up to Crouch Hill Station, especially on a hot summer's day. The Noble and Crouch Hill station are splendid in the heat.

The corner of Stapleton Hall Road by Londis.

Parkland Walk, especially in the snow (but also at anytime). I really like where it opens up just before the bridge at Stapleton Hall Road.

Ennis Road around The Faltering Fallback.

The middle of Tollington Park Road. There are a few lovely houses followed by a small old church on the way to grubby Hornsey Road. I know it's probably Tollington but it's SG area.

Marquis · February 2011

I find the silence in the mornings quite beautiful, at least in the residential side streets. SG is probably the quietest place I have lived in for the last 20 years or so. I second that many corners of SG can look very pretty in the snow.

miss annie · February 2011

Almost everything is improved by a dusting of snow. I find the top end of Charteris Road aesthetically pleasing, along with the panels depicting a day in the life of a dairy on the Old Dairy. I also like the interesting front garden on Oxford Road although it's not too everyone's taste. The boating lake is especially beautiful in the winter or when the sun is shining, and the view over town from the reservoirs on the UES is glorious.

Jenowl · February 2011

I like the little bell tower on the top of Stroud Green school, especially when it's silhouetted in the moonlight.

Also the far-reaching views from the higher points of the upper east side, before you walk down the hill to Crouch End.

In the park, the wide path alongside Seven Sisters Road towards Manor House - in the summer. It feels like a leafy boulevard with people skating, cycling, boarding, walking etc.

I like the Victorian wall tiles in the porches of some of the houses, there are lots that are intact and they are beautifully coloured and glazed, sometimes with pictures and sometimes just patterns.

Eliz · February 2011

Wray Crescent on a summer's day and St Mark's church (on Tollington) lit up with candles at Christmas time are both beautiful.

dorothy · February 2011

In a few weeks the cherry blossom will be out. Against a bright blue sky is always beautiful.

mikecabic · February 2011

Theres a point along Florence road, looking towards SHR, roughly around the corner of lorne or maquis road, where the houses on theright suddenly seem to curve up and around the (slight hill) in a pleasingly even set of blocks. Seems to vary with the light.

mikecabic · February 2011

The view out of my bedroom from my bed in summer is all greenery for 20 metres, no other buildings, feels very private and secluded.

poxy · February 2011

The view from my kitchen. I'm currently watching <a href="http://img.thesun.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00131/I_intprod1-8000base_131492a.jpg" target="tits">a pair of great tits</a>.

mikecabic · February 2011

Elyne road, with all its brightly colourd houses?

miss annie · February 2011

Long tailed tits twittering away in my garden. Extraordinary number of people online today!

Arkady · February 2011

Yeah you'd think it was Friday.

Arkady · February 2011

The Upper East Side in general. Street upon street of almost unspoiled Victoriana. The Woodstock-Perth Road Triangle – the oldest part of SG apart from the old centre at Fiveways. Very pretty indeed. Stroud Green Library – just beautiful. The view from Mount View Road, especially looking over the reservoir. Least pleasing – the SGR/Tollington Crossroads. A postwar streetscaping disaster.

mikecabic · February 2011

I wish they would find a way to make the reservoir on Mount View Road publicly accessible.

ADGS · February 2011

I agree with many of the beauties already mentioned, but even the most unpromising bits of the area have their moments. The transforming power of snow's already been noted, and I'm also a great fan of the bench opposite the WLM as changed by wind, rain and the streetlight (and it has to be all three) into what somehow looks like the most remote spot in the world.

Arkady · February 2011

@mikecabic - judging by the number of sledge-tracks over winter the lack of offical public access is not much of a deterrant. Also, I have witnessed people bonking there late at night. Loudly. At first - judging by the sound - I thought it might be a dog fighting a squid. But then I saw the perpetrators using a tree as a prop.

mikecabic · February 2011

Sometimes the block of houses opposite stroud green primary on woodstock road is oppressive, especially at night, but occasionally the uniformity is impressive in the morning. The single bay window that has been removed, then replaced by a wooden bay window is odd.

mikecabic · February 2011

Sodunds like it might have been barky_fox

Arkady · February 2011

There are a few curious post-war fixes on Woodstock Road. Mostly bad, but one or two I quite like. I’m also a fan of the end-of-terrace additions on Lennox Road (with the curved bay) and Florence Road (on the corner of UTP). They match the scale of the Victorian terraces but don’t hide their modernist credentials. Compare that to the modern addition in between the two sets of terraces on Woodstock Road (opposite the school, near the wooden bay window). It fails to match the surrounding scale, and has all kinds of awkward juxtapositions and odd angles.

slats · February 2011

The fullback garden in full bloom can be pretty pleasing to the eye..

Arkady · February 2011

Also displeasing to the eye; opposite the World’s End on SGR there is a bomb hole in-filled with two post-war reconstructions, currently housing the Garden House Chinese and the Angel Café. They appear to have been built by piling any old bricks that they could find on top of each other with limited recourse to mortar. There is even metal cross-bracing to stop them from falling down. I notice things like that.

Barky_Fox · February 2011

I have *never* had sex with a squid, nor used a tree as a prop. I've had some odd times but never that far.

dorothy · February 2011

I thought everyone was into tentacle sex!

mattleys · February 2011

I read this post on Twitter and thought, 'what??' Then opened the link, and I'm now beaming at the huge list of replies. So much beauty in this seemingly-tatty corner of London.

I'd add one: if you stand outside the cafe that used to be Marie e Monti at the bottom of Crouch Hill, just past the Old Dairy, and look up at the building opposite, it has 'Stroud Green Road' written in decorative brickwork. It's lovely.

Arkady · February 2011

I love that sign too. Proof that ‘Crouch Hill’ has encroached upon Stroud Green Road. I was thinking of starting a petition to have the stretch as far as Crouch Hill station renamed. Who’s with me? This has to be the most important issue Stroud Green faces today.

Mirandola · February 2011

The trees at the north of the Andover estate in spring, all covered in blossom.

Barky_Fox · February 2011

Sometimes looking up Stroud Green Road northwards, towards the tall block of flats on Crouch Hill, in the evening gloaming, with a mackerel sky. Magic!

Barky_Fox · February 2011

@Arkady. Woof! I'm with you.

taff bach · February 2011

I love my back garden in the spring 'cause I done it. Never thought I could. I know its a bit obvious but I never tire of the mural on the dairy.

Siolae · February 2011

Wray Crescent in the early morning in autumn or early spring when the mist hangs silently over the cricket pitch.

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