Esoteric London

Marylebone Flyover, Edgware Road, London, W2. Photo © Roger Dean 2011

Dickens’s Dictionary of London, An Unconventional Handbook – Charles Dickens (Jr.), 1882:

Edgware Road is the great north-western road. It starts from the west end of Oxford-st, and leads past Maida-vale, St. John’s Wood, and Kilburn to Hendon, and so north. It has much traffic, and is celebrated for the cheapness of its shops.

[The Marylebone flyover in this picture carries the Westway over the Edgware Road. Built between 1964 and 1970, it is a two-and-a-half-mile stretch of elevated dual carriageway forming part of the A40. I think it is the closest that London comes to a thrilling drive, especially if you are lucky enough to catch it relatively free of traffic and with the sun setting, when it gives the drive in to Manhattan from JFK a run for its money. Route 66 it may not be but The Clash, Blur, Dirty Pretty Things and Pete Doherty have all sung about it. R.D.]