Lights in London suburbs - Kingsbury near Queensbury

 Lovely lights in London suburbs. Driving around London in December, like driving around Singapore, or the USA, is a delight. Somebody in every street has outdone all the others with strings of lights and illuminated figures, such as trees, and animals such as reindeer. 

Delightful House Lights in Salmon Street. Kingsbury, near Queensbury. North London, England, UK. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Sometimes the lights are so delightful, that I ask the driver to stop the car so that I can photograph without car shake. Then I can get out and cross the road and photograph the lights from close up. Avoiding obtruding lamp posts, parked cars, hunchbacks walking along with tail-wagging dogs blurring the picture.

Somebody is hooting. Is that a demand that the parked driver move? Or simple to warn that a car is overtaking.

I run back to the kerb. But remember to pause so that I don't dash into the road in front of approaching vehicles from both directions, including invisible and silent bicycles.

Back home, I can edit the pictures, cutting out pavements, huge skies, unsightly litter and litter bins. Until I have the perfect picture.

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Burnt Oak, Colindale, Seeing Little Bucharest in London

ROMANIA

Problem
Where do you find Romanian food and language in London?

Answer
Go to Little Bucharest, the Burnt Oak and Colindale area. Where is Bucharest? It's the capital of Romania, in the south east, as you can see on the map below. You could go there for a short tip on Ryanair.

If you have already been and feel nostalgic, or have a trip planned, or considered, you might take a look at a Romanian restaurant or cafe or in London, England, at convenience store (often called a corner shop in London). I meet Romanians all over north west and central London, serving in restaurants and shops, in service industries such as building, plumbing, property maintenance, and at English language Toastmasters clubs which many foreigners in London attend to improve their English.

Harrow, on the way to Heathrow, attracts large numbers of foreigners and has the shops to cater to their needs. Only as recently as this week I discovered that the Burnt Oak and Colindale area of the Edgware Road is known as Little Bucharest.

Having been to Romania, discovered that the language is similar to Italian, but easier, more like Italian with phonetic simplified spelling, I was keen to peep into a Romanian cake shop.

Although the name of the business was Harrow Cakes, the words 

c o f e t a r i e  p a t i s e r i e  told me it was Romanian. I recognised the little boat shape sign above the a.

On the table was a Romanian language newspaper for people living in the UK. I could read most of it, certainly the advertisements and headlines straight away. 

The date was 15 J u l i e - July 15

24  p a g i n i - 24 pages

Before taking it I was able to see that it was

g r a t u i t - free 

In a nearby estate agent's business, (property agent) I was making conversation and mentioned the Romanian shops. The estate agent told me that in addition to Romanian cafes, Costa (which is Italian) does very well with the Romanians.  "They like to start their day with espresso."

I saw two Romanian businesses in the Colindale area, two more from the bus in Burnt Oak.

ROMANIAN WORDS

I looked at the pictures and the words underneath were obvious.

I am sure you will find it as easy as I do to understand:

casa in UK - home / house in UK  

r a p i d a t e - rapid / fast

C o n s u l t a n t a  a b s o l u t  g r a t u i t a - co n s u l t a t i o n completely free

i n s c r i e r e  l a  u n i v e r s i t a t e - inscribe in the university   

L o n d r a (Stonebridge Park) Manchester - London  Manchester 

I had to insert spaces because the automatic spell correction turned c o n s u l t a t i o n into 

c o n s o l a t i o n .

I could tell from the pictures combined with the caption

t o r t u r i  p e r s o n a l i z a t e  - personalised cakes (to order from the advertiser)

I was tempted to get out translate for the recipes:

b i s u i t i - biscuits

i n g r e d i e n t e   n e c e s a r e - necessary ingredients

m o d  de  p r e p a r e - method of preparation

I read the full page ad for a business offering Romanian food in Colindale or Kingsbury. 

I have not inserted the accents which you would need to say the words. 

Another business offered P a r c a r e  l i b e r a.

That sounds like free parking. But I had better check with google translate. 

To learn Romanian:

www.duolingo.com (Free lessons on the internet. Very easy. Pictures and multiple choice questions on which you click and click again to see if your answer is correct. (Also several other languages.)

I hope you have enjoyed this little look at Little Bucharest in London.

Harrow Cakes

7 Varley Parade, The Hyde, London NW9 6RR

Tel 02036 389 647

email Harowcakes@yahoo.co.uk

Harrow Cakes

276 Kingsbury Road, London NW9 OBY

Tel 02089 050 888

They offer free delivery 3 miles order min. £30.

An English person said to me, "We are sending a lot of money to Eastern European countries like Romania in the EU to help them rebuild. But we have no money left for ourselves to repair London and England. That's why we voted to get out of the EU - nothing to do with immigration." That's just one person's view. 

For more conversations, on this bus, read my later post.

Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. See my other posts on Bucharest and Brasov in Romania. Please follow, bookmark or share links to your favourite posts. 

London's Suburban Architecture: See The Semis, the Thirties and more

London Suburbs

On many road, and diverting out of the Wembley traffic jams in the morning and evening rush hour, down the residential side roads, you can also see London's distinctive London red brick houses. Terraces are also built of brick.

Brick decoration

Those brick walls are built from bricks using London's clay. Sometimes the red bricks are dirtied to a grey or brown. Other times the grey or brown bricks are the original colour, deliberately, creatively mixed with orange or red or other colours to create checkerboard patterns. Occasionally the entire wall is a pattern on grand buildings. On small houses, more often on borders or friezes or across the tops of windows like eyebrows and over doorways like moustaches or noses.

Semi-detached 'semis' in mirror image

Pairs of homes are called semi-detached, pleasing mirror image twins. When first built, and in the old days they were always decorated in matching styles. Now everybody paints their front doors different colours, installs double glazed windows in assorted styles. It's a h o t c h p o t c h. (Predictive text tried to insert hitch pitch). But, when you are visiting a friend, easier to find the house with the turquoise door.

Victorian Mock Tudor

In addition to the brick semis and terraces, you will see the black beams on white (in Singapore called black and whites) which are mock-Tudor, with sharply angled triangular gables. 

Thirties Curves

My favourites are the Thirties buildings are even more distinctive and attractive with their soothing curves. Many have pretty but impractical flat rooftops, which leak and eventually sink under rain. The smarter and better kept Thirties buildings, (some in Hatch End) sometimes have delightful green tiles on sloping roofs which allow the rain to drain off. Both styles have white fascias and wide widows with horizontal top windows.

P a v e d Gardens and Parking Places

Looking for a place to pull in to let a screeching police car and ambulance pass, or for a convenient place to park, you understand why so many homes have paved in their front gardens. The advantage to visitors is that you can park on your friend's front drive, if they don't have a car for every adult resident and already overflow their own available parking. 

Read more about Wembley in a later post.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, researcher, author and speaker.

A Tale Of Two Cities' Architecture: Singapore and London Landmarks and Skyscrapers

Returning to London from another city, such as Paris, New York or Singapore, you are struck by the Englishness of England and the layers of history. In the centre of the city you have the Victorian and Edwardian buildings. Around Regents Park are grand terraces of houses with columns, like the Nash Terraces. But out in the suburbs the semi-detached houses from the 1930s and landmark buildings and homes are equally delightful.

Driving through Wembley and Kingsbury, you pass two grand buildings, visible from many areas of London, the Wembley Arch, with its see-through centre. Close to it, when you are close up, you will see a modern building with two spiral towers. Unlike the regimented terraces of the 1800s, and the blocks of the 1950s, this is both modern and individual, totally unlike the stepped blocks beside it (to the left of the picture) attention-getting, like so many modern skyscrapers of Singapore.

On another route, if you plan carefully using an old fashioned map, or modern Satnav, you can pass the solid white Hindu Temple, intricately adorned.

Photos by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Read more in a later post.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.