This blog post is going to be a great test of the memory box! It was the penultimate stop on the Great Bear adventure that began in August 2018 and this visit to Chalk Farm station was on December 17th, 2022. I cannot believe this was over 2 years ago and I’m only just writing about it. But as Groucho Marx once said
For those who don’t know, when I was sitting on the loo once at my friend Tracey’s house, staring at her poster of the artwork The Great Bear by Simon Patterson (here’s a snapshot),
I had a brainwave. The tube line map was used in this artwork but all the stations were renamed. The Northern Line Stations were all named after movie stars. Why not visit each one with an appropriate foodstuff? We kicked off with a Pola Negri Banana Trifle at High Barnet… right at the top of the Northern Line.
then worked our way around the whole of the northerly branches of the line over a couple of years – ending up at Camden Town.
In the final post I’ll do a big old round-up of ALL the stations and movie star fodder we ate there, but for now, here’s what we had at the penultimate stop. Jane Fonda’s Granola!
We took granola in one thermos flask, and in the second thermos was our dish for Camden Town – we did a double, Peter Fonda’s dish will be revealed in the final post. Until then, here’s some granola shots.
Saluting the roundel as per tradition.
Mr R liked the granola!
Here’s the recipe – ignore the scribbles!
Mr Rathbone’s Chalk Farm Facts
There is some debate as to the origins of the name ‘Chalk Farm’. There was a farm, which reportedly had buildings and other structures that had been rendered white with a chalk based whitewash. Another theory is that the name derives from the middle English ‘Caldecote’ meaning ‘cold cottage’. This then evolved into ‘chalcotts’ and eventually ‘chalk’ by the mid Eighteenth century. What we do know for sure, is that the area is not built on chalk, but rather the London clay which was much favoured by the architectects of deep level tube lines.
The station opened in June 1907 as the first stop on the Charing Cross, Euston & Hampstead Railway’s new branch between Camden Town and Golders Green. Here it is in all its splendour shortly after opening.
With entrances on both Adelaide Road and Haverstock Hill (the latter has been disused for some time) it serves the northern end of Camden Town, with its pubs, clubs and legendary Roundhouse venue and has always been a fairly busy station.
…and tying in with the area’s many musical connections, the station was fittingly immortalised on the front cover of local heroes Madness’ second LP Absolutely – seen here with its rarer alternate photo from the album’s first issue..
Thanks, Mr R.
I absolutely LOVE Madness, but just in case you are not familiar with their genius, here’s Baggy Trousers in all its splendour.
Books packed with star-spangled recipes!
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