Running City London 2019

Stage 1

31 1 Wellington Place  

51.531917, -0.169556 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

Green shed near the park entrance. Notice reading "A place of affluence and decadence".

Price

£5

Historical background

In the early 1875 Sir George Armstrong, the editor of The Globe, couldn’t find a cab — the weather was nasty, and cabmen were all hiding in a pub nearby, drinking and not ready to drive. This motivated him to set up a charity to open a chain of establishments for cab drivers, in which they could find shelter from the rain, eat hot food, and drink hot (non-alcoholic!) drinks.

These shelters were supposed to be located by the road (so cabmen could safely leave their cabs), so Metropolitan Police imposed restrictions — shelters should not be larger than a horse carriage. Despite such strict restrictions, there was enough space inside for a small kitchen and up to 13 visitors.

Like pretty much everything else in Victorian Britain, these shelters were not just a convenient utilitarian establishment, but also raised the social status of the cabmen: they could not drink alcohol, gamble, and, in some cases, even discuss politics in these shelters.

People of other professions were allowed in as well — and enjoyed it quite often (where else could you have breakfast at 3am?). Edward Dawson, decadent poet, used to have breakfast there in the middle of the night, not because he was hungry, but simply for the sake of nonconformism. In September 1888 one of the shelter visitors, who introduced himself as Dr Duncan, insisted that he was in fact Jack the Reaper (nobody paid attention to him though).

Today there are 13 of these shelters left in London. Like in the old days, they’re welcoming cabmen, however now it’s exclusive for licensed black cab drivers — general public and Uber drivers are left with a takeaway menu.

Besides the cab drivers’ membership fees and revenue from selling coffee, a significant amount of profit comes from Universal Studios — the company bought the rights to replicate the shelters in the Harry Potter theme park in Orlando to create “London-like” vibe in one of the park areas.

63 Primrose Hill  

51.539689, -0.161362 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

Inscription on the edging on the top of the hill.

Word after “the”

spiritual

Historical background

The land currently taken by Regent’s Park and the adjacent Primrose Hill used to belong to Eton College. It was bought by the Crown in 1841, and was turned into a park a year later: more and more people were moving to North London, and they all needed a nice place to take a break from breathing the polluted air from the railways once in a while.

Primrose Hill is one of six points with protected views in London: it’s not allowed to build anything that will obscure the view from there to the Palace of Westminster and to St. Paul’s Cathedral. Rising 50 meters above London, Primrose Hill does offer a great overview of the city. This was noticed by HG Wells, who in the “War of the Worlds” placed the last, most important Martian encampment on Primrose Hill. Life then mimicked fiction, and during World War II Primrose Hill was an important part of London’s defences.

65 42 Woronzow Road

51.538248, -0.171361 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

Plaque with a relief.

Architect’s surname

Bukhaev

81 11 Harewood Ave

51.523254, -0.16487 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

Door in the northern part of the fence around the building. Paper note on the letterbox.

First three characters of the bottom line

←←←

113 Macclesfield Bridge, Avenue Road

51.534724, -0.163035 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

Yellow plaque on the canal towpath to the north-east of the bridge.

Words in quotation marks

Blow up, Tilbury

122 146 Regent's Park Road  

51.541197, -0.156856 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

Сoats of arms above the graffiti on the building’s south-western wall.

Three words at the bottom of the coat of arms

make shit happen

Historical background

Unlike many other areas of North London, Primrose Hill was not a yet another village swallowed up by rapidly growing Victorian London. In 1840, the only large building here was the Chalk Farm Tavern (which, due to its distance from the city centre, was often used as a duelling ground). In 1842, by an Act of Parliament, the neighbouring hill was announced to become a park, and so development started in the nearby triangle formed by the Regent’s Сanal from the southeast, railway tracks from the northeast, and the future park from the west. The original plan included luxurious villas surrounded by large gardens, but the pollution from the railways, and the demand for housing near the traffic arteries did their job. So now instead of the villas, terraced houses were rising, only to be split further into apartments and rooms to be rented out to workers and their families.

All the more surprising that after going through the twentieth century without much drastic changes and remaining reasonably quiet, Primrose Hill started attracting British celebrities in the Nineties. Of course, famous people have called Primrose Hill their home before — take, for example, Sylvia Plath or Friedrich Engels — but none of them are associated with Primrose Hill as strongly as the so-called Primrose Hill Set. Jude Law, Sadie Frost, Kate Moss, Noel and Liam Gallagher, and many others lived and partied here. Over the past 25 years, many of them have moved out, but it seems that the star appeal of Primrose Hill won’t subside any time soon — the latest addition has been Stefano Gabbana, who bought a house in Primrose Hill a few years ago.

119 65 Gloucester Avenue

51.54017, -0.150762 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

Pub "The Engineer".

Find Running City representative

Bonus checkpoints

53 Primrose Gardens

51.547066, -0.163057 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

Metal plaque near the tree in the northern part of the gardens.

Number of words beginning with P

Bonus time 30 minutes

2

90 Parliament Hill

51.559624, -0.159774 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

Metallic panorama sign at the top of the hill.

Year below the picture of a tree

Bonus time 15 minutes

1897

92 394 Seven Sisters Road

51.568781, -0.097954 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

The largest sign facing Seven Sisters Road.

Reproduce the first two lines

Bonus time 15 minutes

Majeti htel

125 686 Holloway Road

51.562972, -0.127523 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

Floral cat sculpture on the opposite side of the road. Information stand near the sculpture.

Word in quotation marks on the second line from the bottom

Bonus time 30 minutes

greenspace

Stage 2

37 Kentish Town City Farm, 1 Cressfield Close

51.5522476, -0.1500463 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

Mosaic above the entrance.

Number of animals

4

85 7 Mount Vernon

51.557389, -0.18048 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

Black plaque to the right of the door.

First line of the plaque

Robert Louis Stevenson

89 59 Christchurch Hill

51.559881, -0.17628 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

Speed limit sign at the north-western end of the street.

Text below the sign

Slower speed is what we need

94 New River Path and Riverside Gardens junction

51.570141, -0.089725 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

Sign with a map near the junction.

Sponsor logos at the bottom of the sign. Text on the leftmost one

Hackney

97 Royal College Street and Camden Road intersection

51.542412, -0.138316 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

Structure near the pillar supporting the bridge.

Number of "&" symbols on the sign at the top of the structure

5

123 28 Canonbury Square

Green round plaque on the building.

The smallest number on the plaque

27

124 1-3 Crouch Hill

Pub "The Old Dairy".

Inscription under the rightmost mural

Present Day Delivery

126 59 Ferme Park Road

51.576816, -0.114917 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

Mount View Road bus stop. Sign above the information stand on the pole next to the stop.

5 digit code on the white background on the sign

48669

120 77 Castle Road  

51.545361, -0.146062 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

Pub "Tapping The Admiral".

Find Running City representative

Historical background

Beer has existed on the British Isles pretty much forever. When the Romans had arrived here at the beginning of the era, the locals had been already preparing drinks with fermented grains for hundreds of years. In the Middle Ages, beer was served with food instead of water - it was considered much safer to drink than water. In the 15th century brewing was mainly managed by monasteries, and at about the same time hops were introduced as a flavouring — beer without hops was called ale, and beer with hops was called, well, beer.

Beer has successfully won the popularity war with gin in the 18th century, being “healthier and more nutritious”, and in the middle of the 19th century the industrial revolution allowed to produce beer in much larger volumes. However, by the end of the 1800s, beer consumption started to decline — improved clean water supply and improvements to diet meant that beer was no longer necessary to quench thirst or to boost calorie intake. During World War One, strict restrictions on beer production, sale and consumption were placed (for example, it wasn’t allowed to buy rounds of beer). All of this led to a drastic decline in beer consumption, which dropped from 36 million barrels per year in 1913 to 13 million in 1919. Introduction of artificially carbonated beers, and increasing popularity of a new style of beer, lager, seemed to be bringing the end of traditional ales (which at that time meant just a top-fermented beer, with or without hops).

However, not everyone was ready to part with ale. In 1971, an organisation called The Campaign For Real Ale, CAMRA, was founded. For the last 50 years they have been promoting small breweries producing traditional real ales and ciders, and pubs selling such beers without artificial carbonation. After the peak of megabrewering in the second half of the 20th century, beer seems to be having a sort of a rebirth — number of real ale breweries nowadays is at its highest since World War Two, and beer from microbreweries (so called craft beer) has been consistently growing in popularity for the last decade.

Stage 3

02 10-12A Holmes Road

51.549464, -0.142227 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

Palm tree to the left of the police station entrance.

Serial number of the palm tree

05 32 Leverton Street

51.552025, -0.139753 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

Lowermost round stained glass window.

Mammal depicted on the stained glass

Whale

09 42-44 Gaisford Street

51.547996, -0.138894 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

Pub "The Lion And Unicorn".
Corner wall of the pub.

Number of lions around the shields

3

19 2 Greenland Road  

51.538935, -0.141857 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

Graffiti on the western wall of the building.

Number of foxes

2

Historical background

Camden Town began with a pub. When there was no settlement of Camden Town, just a crossroad, there already was a pub named Mother Red Cap, at the spot where World’s End pub stands these days. In 1791 the owner of Kentish Town manor, Charles Pratt, Earl of Camden, began building houses here, but the area really came to life in the middle of the 19th century, when first the canal between Birmingham and London, and then the surrounding railway stations made Camden Town a trading and industrial centre of London.

After the industrial revolution came the music one. In 1966, a former locomotive garage north of the canal was reopened as The Roundhouse club. The opening night was the first London All Night Rave with Pink Floyd as the headliners. Soon, the Roundhouse became one of the main rock venues in London: The Beatles, The Doors, The Who, Jefferson Airplane and Jimi Hendrix all performed here. When punk rock came after the 60s rock, the Roundhouse did not lag behind — in 1976, The Ramones played their first British concert there, helping the wave of British punk to rise to unimaginable heights.

Others followed suit. In 1973, The Dingwalls Music Hall opened in a former warehouse near the Roundhouse, and soon it was occupied by the likes of The Ramones and their British counterparts, The Sex Pistols and The Clash. A small arts & crafts fair has opened in the backyard of Dingwalls, which soon moved to the former stables building nearby, and has since captured all the covered buildings in the area, becoming what is now known as the Camden Market.

The former Camden Theatre building, where Charlie Chaplin has often performed at the beginning of the century, reopened as The Music Machine club in 1977. It did not focus on rock music only, and in 1983 then-uprising star Madonna played her first British concert there.

All these venues are still very much relevant today. The Music Machine re-opened under as Koko in 2004, and since then Christina Aguilera, My Chemical Romance, Katy Perry, Lily Allen, Amy Winehouse, and many, many others have performed there. Dingwalls, which is now located in the centre of the expanded Camden Market, hosted shows by Noel Gallagher and Mumford & Sons. The Roundhouse, which had been closed since 1983, was reopened in 2006 as a multi-arts venue. And even Mother Red Cap, that, as we remember, started everything, was split into a pub called The World’s End and a club called The Underworld, the latter hosting metal rock festivals on a regular basis.

22 Gasholder Park  

51.536893, -0.128274 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

Columns around the park.

Year on the foundation of the column closest to the canal

1883

Historical background

Until the 18th century King’s Cross was a quiet countryside location popular among the Londoners who sought an escape from the bustling city. It all began to change in 1756, when a new road appeared on the northern border of London (New Road, now Euston Road), which kickstarted the development of adjacent areas.

King’s Cross became an important transportation hub in 1820, when the newly built Regent's Canal connected it to major industrial cities of the north of England. Easy access to transport has attracted many industrial companies to the area — in 1824, the Imperial Gas Light and Coke Company opened gasworks to the south of the canal. Ecologically questionable industrial enterprises created a bad reputation for the area, and in an attempt to improve its reputation, a statue of King George IV was opened at one of the crossroads in 1830. The statue became a subject of ridicule and did not take root — it was demolished in 1842, but the name, King’s Cross, stuck.

The importance of King’s Cross as a transportation hub increased with the arrival of railways to London in the second half of the 19th century. The Great Northern Railway built a passenger terminal, gasholders, good yards and coal drops — the proximity of the canal made it possible to transfer goods directly from the trains to the barges. Constant growth of London population lead to multiple expansions of the station and warehouses and a rival railway company, Midland Railway, has built another station (St Pancras) literally twenty meters away from the existing one.

Despite the fact that the gasholders continued to work until 2000, after the WW2 King’s Cross lost its status as a poor but busy industrial area, and was half abandoned. In the Eighties, prostitution and drug trade flourished here, and politicians tried their best to pretend that King’s Cross didn’t exist. In the late Nineties some former warehouses became home to club nights and raves, but the gentrification was still far away.

The railways came to the rescue again. At the beginning of the millennium, HS1 project was started, connecting London and the Channel Tunnel with a high speed railway track, and in 2007 the Eurostar terminal was moved to St Pancras station. Office buildings began to grow in the wastelands, warehouses were reconstructed — and now the world-renowned design school Central Saint Martins is based in a former grain warehouse, canal towpath is a nice place to have an Aperol-Spritz while watching Wimbledon on a big screen, a new Google office is being built on the last empty bits near the railway tracks, and all of these are connected by an urban space somewhat akin to the High Line park in New York. Gasholders also came back after having been dismantled in 2011, and are now a beautiful industrial framing for apartments buildings and a park.

34 Hawley Mews

51.5424719, -0.1471053 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

Graffiti painting of a rose on house no. 5.

Artist signature in the top right corner

Origami Riots

52 Greater London House, Hampstead Road  

51.53349, -0.139523 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

Eastern side of the building.

Number of black cats in the decor of the building

12

Historical background

Those who took part in last year’s Running City London might remember point #144 located near the finish — a vintage advertising sign depicting a black cat. This actually was an advertisement for Carreras Black Cat cigarettes, which were extremely popular in the first half of the 20th century thanks to an aggressive marketing campaign: cigarettes started to come with gifts in the pack such as short stories and coupons, and in 1913 salesmen were giving out money to those who could present a pack of Black Cat in their pocket. During the early 1920s enthusiasm for the Black Cat was at its peak, with many people wearing badges and stickers featuring the cat and even going to fancy dress parties in black cat costumes.

To meet the demand, the Carreras factory had to expand production several times. In 1928, production moved from a small factory on City Road to a building on Mornington Crescent in Camden. The architects designed the factory building in the style of Egyptian Art Deco: just six years before that, Howard Carter’s expedition had found the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun, so the Egyptian style was wildly popular, and the huge bronze black cats in front of the building would not let people forget what brand of cigarettes they should keep buying. Influenced by the Hollywood movies of those years, the opening of the factory turned out to be quite an extravagant event: the pavement around the building was covered with sand during the opening ceremony, there was a procession of cast members from a contemporary London production of Verdi's opera Aida, and then a chariot race was held on the Hampstead Road.

Black cats in the decor of this building lasted until 1959, when the factory moved to a new building in Essex, and this building was converted into offices. Cats was removed from the building, with one being moved to the new factory, and the other — to Carreras factory in Jamaica.

In 1996, the building was sold once again, and the new owners decided to restore the architectural heritage. Copies of the original cat statues were installed in front of the entrance, and columns with lotus flowers decor came back. Now this building houses offices of many companies, including British Heart Foundation and Asos.

116 4 Redhill Street

51.53067, -0.143863 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

Inscription above the door.

Topmost word of the left half of the inscription

granted