Every Sunday we’ll pluck just one walk from the vast London Walks repertoire and put it centre stage.
You can check out the full schedule at www.walks.com.
But if you only
take one walking tour this week, why not make it…
Belsize Park Village – Exploring the White Cliffs of
NW3
Meet Karen at Belsize Park Station 2:30pm Saturday
12th March
It's all in the name. Belsize - it's derived from
Bel-assis - means "beautifully
situated." Beautifully situated - high up on the south facing slope of
Haverstock Hill - and beautifully curated.
The people who are fortunate enough to live here don't
just live here - they love the place, guard it, tend it, nurture it. Curate it.
Belsize Park Village is so fine, so fetching, so felicitous it's hard to find
something it doesn't have going for it.
It's venerable, indeed ancient. The sub-manor was
first recorded in the early 14th century. Belsize House in 1496. It's got bizarre, let alone fascinating
historical hand-holds (well, we are scaling the white cliffs of NW3 after all).
A choice example: in the American Civil War Belsize
Park was the roost for London-based representatives of the Confederacy. It's
got a Daunt bookshop. It's got an old fashioned cinema. It's got great shops. It's got fab street art on
the village square (Make Tea Not War). It's got a
"good-heavens-look-at-that" World War II bomb shelter. It's got
celebrity plumage - Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Hugh Laurie, Helena Bonham Carter,
Tim Burton, Sadie Frost, Agatha Christie, Jerome K. Jerome, Frederick Delius.
It's got a couple of fabulous old style village pubs.
It's got stucco to die for and Italianate
architecture that would do the Isle of Capri proud. It's got a village
green and lodges and villas and leafy streets and discrete mews (for servants
and horses, don't you know).
It's got a diminutive
village square. It's got continental-style cafes that are historical runes.
Runes that can - and should - be "read. Which is by way of saying, in the
1930s refugees from central Europe established a synagogue and a Viennese
theatre-club and opened "continental-style cafes" in the village.
It's a place where the living's good - its mixture of easy assurance and style
is pitch perfect.
Note: the stylishness - the architectural detailing,
for example, of Belsize Park richly repays special attention. Hats off to the
care Karen and Jan have put into the route and "the particulars" -
it's the walking tour equivalent of bird watching, knowing exactly which grove
to approach and where to direct the gaze. And that's by way of saying, here's
yet another London Walks "perfect fit" - world class guides for a
world class place. Say hello to Karen and Jan.
Belsize Park Village – Exploring the White Cliffs of
NW3
Meet Karen at Belsize Park Station 2;30pm Saturday
12th March
A London Walk costs £10 – £8 concession. To join a London Walk, simply meet your guide at the designated tube station at the appointed time. Details of all London Walks can be found at www.walks.com.










No comments:
Post a comment