I recently had occasion to drive to Kentish Town. The journey was quite uneventful until I reached Kentish Town Road, northbound from Camden.
Then suddenly what had been a quietish journey turned into a nightmare of diesel fumes, belligerent bus drivers, hooting horns, and little or no progress.. In fact, it took me almost 30 minutes to travel some 400 yards along the aptly named A400, and I was even overtaken by some old boy with a Zimmer frame.
And the reason? Road works, of course. Except they weren’t so much road works as a tiny depression in the gutter, which, presumably, some council loony had decided should be fenced off in the name of Health and Safety. The patch in question could not have covered an open magazine, yet the fence around it could have contained several cows. In consequence, the road width was reduced to that of a single bus.
Mind you, the fenced-off area appeared to have trapped all the rubbish that normally tumbles down Kentish Town Road, blown by the winds from the Highgate foot hills. For a change, the place looked quite respectable, and the wag who doctored the local Northern Line sign may soon regret maligning such a clean and tidy neighbourhood.
