Sunday Times Where Was I? Holiday Competition

Not much of a challenge this week, the Eastender Himself used to live in North London and knows this area well. Near as I can figure it, the most likely answers seem to me to be :

Q1. Wood Green

Q2. Alexandra Palace

The initial clues place us in the metropolis, in the north London district of Wood Green (an aborescent sounding  suburb), which was where the late great Jack Hawkins was born (c1910). Hawkins played captain Ericson in a film called 'The Cruel Sea'. There is a 'new river' passing close to the tube and overground rail lines here and according to the references I looked at, it was constructed c 1609, to bring water from Hertfordshire into the city. The Lido referred to is most likely the Park road pool, which used to be called Hornsey Lido and was built c1929 (The Eastender Himself used to go swimming there on Sundays, when he lived in the big smoke).

Not too sure who the author was, Barry Took co authored a radio show/books called 'Beyond Our Ken'  with Eric Merriman (born c1924) and he was born in Muswell Hill c1928 (not sure if Muswell Hill can be considered part of Wood Green). There was also a book about Ken Livingston, also called 'Beyond Our Ken' co authored by Ken Livingston (born c1945) and David Morrison. David Copperfield's aunt, Betsey Trotwood, hated donkeys and I found a few references which claim that her husband was buried in St Mary's churchyard in Hornsey. From the satellite pictures, It looks like you can see St Mary's CE school and a churchyard and church tower next to it, from the train. According to the 'Friends of Hornsey Church Tower' website, this site was called St Mary's.

Walking south west from Wood Green takes us to Alexandra park (196 acres) another favourite with the Eastender, following your Sunday swim, you could get a pint of Guiness at the bar in the Ally Pally and sit out at the picnic tables on top of the hill, enjoying the views of London as you sipped it in the warm sun, IIRC there was also a very nice cafe at the Garden centre there, with a deck, where you could get a piece of cake and a cup of tea and also enjoy a pleasant seat in the sun as you read the papers.

One of the architects who designed the Alexandra Palace was Alfred Meeson (born c 1808). Meeson also did some work on the houses of Parliament. The theatre in the Ally Pally could according to some sources, seat 2500 people and it had a pipe organ in it (The Grand Willis Organ), which was built by a Henry Willis (born c 1821). The organ has had a somewhat chequered history, it had some of its pipes removed by squaddies and refugees (presumably sold for scrap) following the first world war and during world war two, somebody dropped a doodle bug (a type of primitive cruise missile) close to the Ally Pally. The resulting explosion took out the windows and the organ became exposed to the elements and suffered further damage, it was then vaporised in a fire c1980 before being partially restored by a descendant of Henry Willis in the 1990s.

Link to the competition

Where Was I? competition