EotL01: Jan 8th 2010: “I don’t want to go to bloody Cockfosters”

[David Scott]

Pictures

Snow had been falling for days. As I trudged towards the Arsenal tube station I thought of my namesake: Captain Robert Falcon Scott crossing the Antarctic. Scott would I felt sure have approved of our plan to have a beer in Cockfosters that night in spite of the rough weather. Had he not after all led a plucky team to the South Pole under similar conditions? Amundsen had got there a few weeks earlier of course... and they all died on the way back, but that was hardly Scott’s fault. Ok, some historians claim it was Scott’s fault but the point is that in a final diary entry he could say “Had we lived, I should have had a tale to tell”. I could only hope that Biggs and I would be luckier than he had been.

The trip north was speedy. As we passed through ever more rural sounding locations I could hardly contain my excitement: Wood Green, Bounds Green, Arnos Grove, Southgate, Oakwood...Cockfosters!



The snow had been even heavier out on the Edge and it made of Cockfosters a pretty wedding cake of a tube station. It’s very Deco Modernist. Downstairs there’s a place where you can have your shoes repaired while you’re away. If you close your eyes you can imagine Hercule Poirot dropping off a pair of black and white leather shoes to be picked up on his way home after solving a grisly murder in the city.

I cautiously made my way across snow and ice to the “Cock & Dragon”: a pub that’s ten minutes or so outside Cockfosters. It opened in 1798 and started serving Thai food some time later. I entered the pub. Ten minutes later Biggs joined me. He had Dim Sum. I had Poh Pia Phed rolls. The place was buzzing. We agreed this was a very good start to our adventure.

Cockfosterians seem to be an educated lot. The walls of the “Cock & Dragon” were covered with shelves that overflowed with books. I picked one up: Carol Vorderman’s “Detox for Life (I went down two dress sizes without counting calories)” Biggs is a big fan of Carol Vorderman so we took this as a good omen.

I mentioned to Biggs that I’d taken the liberty of typing up our previously agreed EotL Mission Statement. He said he didn’t remember agreeing any such statement. I assured him that he had. He continued to query this so I gave him a copy to read on my phone while I got a round of Guinness in. When I returned he said. “There’s two things I’m not with ...Clockwise?”

“That’s what we said. If you think it’s a big problem we could visit the stations in an anti-clockwise direction though. It’s not what we agreed but we shouldn’t fall out over such trifles. Not so early on.”

“No,” Biggs said.

“Of course not.” I took a sip of my pint.

“No,” Biggs said again. “I don’t want to do it anti-clockwise either. Why can’t we just visit them in any old order?”

“Any old order?”

“Yes.”

“No order?”

“That’s right.”

“At all?”

“Yes”

“But we might miss stations out”

“We could write them down. On a bit of paper, or the website or something. We could do like Wimbledon in June and Richmond in autumn. Fit the stations to the time of year. And do the big runs like Amersham in the summer when, you know, we’ve got daylight with us.”

“What’s the other problem?”

“It’s this ‘we will eat pub food and drink beer’ business”.

I looked at the food and beer on the table in front of us. “You are the bloke I had the conversation with the other week right?”

"I’m not saying that we don’t eat pub food and drink beer. We do. It’s just that there's more to it than that. It’s about getting to know the spirit of these places at the End of the Line. Getting to know the people that live there. Getting inside their heads.”

“But eating and drinking too?”

“Of course”

“Fine. I’m going to have a fag”

Outside the car park was one large sheet of ice. On the edge of it a woman in her late fifties was trying her best to stay upright. With her was an older woman. I don’t think it’s unfair to say they’d had a drink.

“I don’t want to go to bloody Cockfosters,” the woman was shouting into her phone. “This c*!t won’t come to pick us up mum” she said to the other woman.

“C*!t” her mum said.

“You call yourself a f*c!%ng taxi? You can f*c!%ng drive your car here then and f*c!%ng pick us up. Twenty years ago I wouldn’t have had this problem. Before you lot came over. Things were f*c!%ng better then I can tell you. My husband he’s from India. He’s a f*c!%ng c*!t too.”

I put my cigarette back in its pack and went inside. 

“I might focus more on the eating and drinking Biggs.”

[Ruth Scott]

Cool bruv - it must at least have reminded you a little of Glasgow ?????? x

[David Wright]

Accepted, graciously.

[David Scott]

Sincere apologies Mr Wright.

[David Wright]

It's not at all f*c!%ng Deco, Mr Scott. It's f*c!%ng Modernist.

[David Scott]

Very happy indeed to have not one but TWO EotL members now, not to mention a promise from Biggs of uploading a photo to his profile at some point. More excitement to come - Stanmore may be off the cards for now but the proposal instead is High Barnet and Mill Hill East both in the same night! Oh yes indeed.

[Marion de Voy]

It is a great honour to finally be an EotL member. I read the first two posts with a sense of anticipation, and I was not disappointed. It was all there - edge, excitement, even a little exotica. The next chapters promise much as the adventure unfolds. Go get 'em, tigers!!