When in London last week we wanted to visit a particular pub in Kentish Town but found that the tube station there was closed, so, we went to the next station on the line and walked back to our destination. I wasn't quite sure where to go and we found ourselves walking through a rather grim 70s housing estate, bland concrete boxes, the kind of place that the current King used to call "carbuncles". Anyway, to our surprise we emerged from the estate into a little cobbled street leading down to the Hampstead road. It's called "Little Green Street" and made us feel like we'd suddenly stumbled onto the set of an Oliver Twist film, amazing contrasts like this are becoming rarer but when you find one it always causes pause for thought. Apparently this Georgian street (c1750) never used to be residential and the bowed windows were once shop fronts, which makes sense. Interestingly, the only reason it still exists is that the houses sit on top of a cut and cover railway line built by the Midland Railway company (now disused) and the lack of demand for high density housing so close to the railway put developers off.
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