Kensal Green Cemetery Open Day is the perfect excuse to collect Kensal Green station. Arriving at the dismal platform of bland cream tiles, I can't imagine any other reason for coming here:




It's a souless, characterless 'nowhere' station - the only enlivening detail is the overhead graffiti, which even then speaks of boredom and damage.  Outside is little more than a wooden box; yet more Thatcherite inspired cheap architecture . It's clearly not the original 1916 station building.  




The whole area has a poor reputation for gang and gun crime.  I realise that the graffiti which seems the only flowering of art and colour here might appear more sinister to the locals who use the station daily. A campaign by the local MP means that following muggings and murder here, the place is at least staffed while trains are running.  Even better TfL have a motion sensor that plays classical music when triggered which apparently deters loitering...I envisage gangs of hoodie-clad chavs driven from the station, fingers in ears, screaming 'oh no, not the Mozart!'  Somehow, I don't think it's that simple.

Still, misery seems to have seeped into the woodwork but thankfully we are not going hanging out here long enough to trigger sonatas from the tannoys. Even though I've never been here before it's easy enough to find the way to the cemetery by following the small band of fellow darklings in rustling taffeta and lace teeterring along under parasols in buckled platform fuck-me shoes... As I have left my parasol behind in Peckham, I slather on the SPF60 as we stroll - you can tell a proper goth as at the first sight of sun they whip out sunblock powerful enough to stand on the surface of Mercury with nothing but shades on.

Gingerbread coffin biscuits and tea; now that's civilised:

I had a train to catch back to Paddington, and with the service on the Bakerloo being highly suspect we erred on the side of caution and relectantly began tracing steps homeward around four in the afternoon.  Of course, Fate laughs at us, and we get to Kensal Rise to find the trains are running perfectly.  I seize the opportunity to plug another annyong hole in the map, and instead of hopping out at Paddington, we stay on board to collect Regents Park.

We are alone in the carriage all the way from Kensal Green to Marylebone, giving us ample opportunity to muck about with the camera...(pics to follow from home PC).