So we are looking at the Go ! square here. Equidistant between Mayfair and Old Kent Rd. I thought therefore it would be interesting to see what was equidistant between Mayfair and Old Kent Rd in real life.
However Mayfair is a whole area not just one street and the Old Kent Rd is a really long road, so how to decide from where to measure ?
Well, Annabel’s the high end club in Mayfair seemed to me as good a place as any to start. It represents the essence of the area: it’s exclusive, it’s elite, you need a good wad of spare cash if you want to spend time there, it’s a good place to hangout if you like celeb-spotting and if you like your supercars. All of those statements could apply to Mayfair in general and do apply to Annabel’s in particular.
Established by a typical Mayfairite in the 60s as a place to party AFTER an evening of gambling and named after his wife Lady Annabel Vane-Tempest-Stewart (obvs) it is symbolic of the high end feel of Mayfair.
After all this is an area rich in royal connections. The club is located on Berkeley Square and coincidentally the Queen Mother’s favourite song was reportedly “A Nightingale sang in Berkeley Square”. Or perhaps not so coincidentally since her eldest child, Elizabeth (the future queen) was born almost exactly opposite the club on the other side of Berkeley square (21 April 1926 on Bruton St just in case you didn’t know).
Annabels is also reputedly the only nightclub Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II ever went to and it’s where her tabloid-favourite son the Duke of York had his stag night (apparently Fergie and Diana tried to gatecrash disguised as traffic wardens but were turned away because not dressed smartly enough !)
So I’m dropping my first pin on the doorstep of Annabels.
The Old Kent Rd is a different world. Although property development and creeping gentrification are driving up prices and bringing in the coffee bars there are still 3 of the top 10 most deprived wards in London bordering right on to the Old Kent Rd.
Former Bricklayers Arms
So to simplify matters I just took the most interesting thing I could find at the northern end of the road in Bermondsey. This is called the Bricklayers Arms roundabout. This sounds like it could be interesting doesn’t it – maybe one of those genuine old London pubs with timbered floors and a clientele of chirpy Cockney ex-gangsters ? Sorry no – it’s just a roundabout (there was a Bricklayers Arms not far away, but that was long ago replaced by a really ordinary looking block of flats).
However right next to the Bricklayers Arms roundabout there is a Russian T34 tank !
Now that’s got to be worth a look. This bizarre and eccentric landmark is painted on an irregular basis by local artists in an array of colours. Sometimes it celebrates artists like Mondrian, sometimes it is used to commemorate things such as the NHS during COVID. But why on earth is it here ?
It turns out to be connected to the property development boom, because a property developer had bought the plot of land where it sits intending to build. However Southwark Borough council thought differently and planning permission has been impossible to obtain. Hence he bought the vehicle in 1995 – ostensibly a present for his 7 year old son’s birthday – and installed it with the barrel of the gun pointing towards to Council offices ! Pin dropped !
Now there will be a full post on the Old Kent Road next time (and Mayfair much later), but for now let’s take the Bricklayers Arms and Annabels and draw a straight line between the two.
Then look at the point equidistant just as on the Monopoly board we and find….. Leake Street Arches. Street Art Underground !
This little-known mecca for street artists is definitely worth a short detour if you’re ever in the Waterloo area. The big established names don’t go here preferring the Shoreditch/Spitalfields bubble. But it changes all the time here as street art should. If street art is anything, it is ephemeral by nature – here today, gone tomorrow.
Perhaps that was the point Banksy was trying to make with his recent auction stunt. The artwork had been installed with a hidden shredder and at the moment it was sold the work slowly began to be shredded in front of the audience – including the slightly shocked buyer.
The buyer needn’t have worried though since it’s now on sale again with a few extra millions added to its value. So Banksy can’t really be said to be upholding the sense of street art being valued for its ethereal nature. But at Leake St Arches – although it is legal – there are artists just doing it for the buzz. In fact the last time I was there I got chatting to a tagger in his 30s who was “returning to his first love” after having a couple of kids out in the suburbs. Apparently he caught the train up from Guildford to spend the day spray painting on walls !
So there it is:- equidistant between the two worlds of Mayfair and Old Kent Rd – a typical hidden joy of London – a street art gallery !
Email me on londontownwithmrbrown@outlook.com to arrange a real life walking tour of any London area.
