h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Why has this printed only four or five words to a line ? (lots of space left for when we get pictures?)
The conventional spelling is "Hasidic" and I think you mean bisect rather than dissect. Otherwise this is fun. You paint a happy picture of a place you obviously like

Mmm... I'm not quite sure why you're only seeing four or five words a line. It looks OK from here. And as for 'Hasidic' and 'bisect'... you're dead right. Much obliged to you for pointing them out. I've now made the changes.

With regards to the straightness of of Kingsland Road/Stoke Newington High Street/Stamford Hill/Tottenham High Road, I figure that it must have been a Roman Road, but not being a history scholar.....
I enjoyed the entry very much, and am very glad that after 13 years of being a removal man around north London, I will never have to drive along Kingsland Road nor hump furniture up and down all those narrow staircases in the Hackney and Islington area ever again.
Oh, and this might be construed as advertising by the moderators, but I can't praise highly enough the services of JC Motors, a Volkswagen mechanic (I think 123 Kingsland Road). If you have a VW, especially a VW van like an LT 35, he's your man

That's fine, that's not advertising, that's a personal recommendation. Not the same thing at all.

So Yay, JC Motors... Good hot tip that, my car needs an MOT too.

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Oops that was posted by me, when I was moderating some stuff in another window. I forgot who I was for a minute. Anyway excuse the weird name. It was me.

Peta

"Adult Material"? I don't know if I really want to go into that one any further Peta But thanks for the clarification. And it's some years since I used JC Motors, I hope they're still there.

I really don't know why I didn't spot this before, but is your geography quite right in the opening paragraph Sam?

"This road, without so much as a kink or a break, morphs into Kingsland Road and continues its Roman-like route through Dalston and on towards Shoreditch. For the purpose of this entry, we shall take a little walk from approximately where Kingsland Road begins, straight down until we take a left onto Ridley Road where we'll find, awaiting us, the inspirational Ridley Road market."

Unfortunately, I don't have an A-Z in my possesion any more, but I recall that Kingsland Road is only the bit between Old Street and Dalston Junction. If you're taking a left into Ridley Road Market, you must be coming from the north, but as far as I recall, starting at the southern end of Stamford Hill, it goes like this - Stoke Newington High Street, then Stoke Newington Road as far as about Shacklewell Lane, which then becomes Kingsland High Street down to Dalston Junction, where Kinglsand Road truly begins (or ends, depending on which way you're facing ). All of the places you mention in the entry are, to the best of my recollection, therefore on either S.N. Road, or Kingsland High Street.

I know this area like the back of my hand because of all the work I used to do for a Turkish shipping agent, picking up cut cloth or rolls of fabric from little sweatshops in Stoke Newington Road, Ridley Road, Dalston Lane, Shacklewell Lane, Arcola Street, Beatty Road, Manor Road, Kingsland Road itself, and many others I can't remember now, to be taken to Heathrow and put on a plane to Cyprus or Turkey, which a few weeks later came back as finished garments. As I mentioned in a previous post, I also got my van serviced at JC Motors, and even before that, I used to buy a lot of pine from the NTC Lumber Company (which stands for Nearest The City in case you've ever wondered, and it's not quite true, because there are - or were in the mid 80's - a few other timber yards even closer to Old Street) when I had a workshop in Pitfield Street. I lived in Belfast Road for a short while too Man, can you believe it... all of a sudden I'm actually getting a bit nostalgic and homesick for this traffic-choked area