Sunday Times Where Was I? Holiday Competition

Near as I can figure it, through the possibly flawed perceptual filters of my own reality tunnel, the most likely answers this week, seem to me to be:


Q1. Hendon Central


Q2. Claude Grahame-White


The initial clues seem to place us in a part of the world the Eastender knows very well, having lived in north London for many years, ie possibly at Hendon Central tube station, which is three stops from the end of the Edgeware branch of the Northern Line. The tube station, according to some of his biographies, was designed by an architect called Stanley A Heaps (born c 1880).

The cricketer Denis Compton was according to some of his bios, born on the 23rd of May, c 1918 at 20 Alexandra Road, Hendon and this does not look to be too far from Hendon Central tube station (around three hundred metres or so, as the crow flies, on some maps). The Eastender does not understand cricket at all but found a reference that claims Compton scored seventeen centuries in test matches.

The entrepreneur who ran the Times, is probably Thomas Tilling and he was not an editor of the Times newspaper but rather someone who ran a horse drawn omnibus company, whose service was so punctual, that it gained the nickname 'The Times'. Some of Tilling's biographies claim that he was born at Gutter's Hedge Farm, in Hendon c 1825. The runner up in the 1963 Grand Prix was Graham Hill and some of his biographies claim that he was educated at Hendon Technical College.

Wandering north west out of Hendon, would bring us into the suburb of Collindale and this was where the British Library kept their newspaper archive until c 2013. It is also where Hendon Police College lies, which fits in with the puzzle author's direction of travel and the 'Lawful in a manner of speaking' clue.

Crossing Aerodrome Road and turning north east, would bring us onto Grahame Park Way and this is named after a famous aviator called 'Claude Grahame-White' (born c 1879). Some of Grahame-White's biographies state that he bought Hendon Aerodrome c 1911 and developed an aircraft there called 'The New Baby'. He also won an aviation trophy called 'The Gordon Bennet Aviation Cup', a joke name which upon hearing it, is guaranteed to provoke mirth and laughter in any indigenous inhabitant of the big British island. I found several references which claim that RAF squadrons 24, 600 and 604 were based at Hendon airfield, a dangerous place to be during world war two, as the locale was hit by several doodlebugs, which resulted in some fatalities. The RAF Museum is located off Grahame Park Way.

N.B. due to the number of people who normally write poison pen letters in green ink posting on his page, the Eastender has moved to moderated comments but rest assured, if you have a non abusive quip or comment relating to the puzzle and its solution, he will endeavour to publish it.