DURING THE LONG taxi ride from Kolkata’s airport to the city centre, I noticed an intriguing sign on a building we passed. It read: “Golders Green Complex”. The reason that this interested me was that I was brought up in a northwest London’s suburb called Golders Green.
I have no idea if the proprietors of Kolkata’s Golders Green Complex know of the existence of my childhood haunt in northwest London. The idea that someone might suffer from a malady named the Golders Green complex flashed through my mind. How this would manifest itself, I will leave to your imagination. In my case, the lasting effect of a childhood in Golders Green led me to write a book about the place (https://www.amazon.co.uk/GOLDERS-GREEN-HAMPSTEAD-GARDEN-SUBURB/dp/B0BHG873FB/ )
NORTH LONDON IS riddled with rivers, rivulets, and streams. Some of them have been covered over and built upon, and others are still visible. One of these is Mutton Brook, which rises near East Finchley, flows through Hampstead Garden Suburb, and then merges with another watercourse – Dollis Brook – to become the River Brent. The Brent flows from near Golders Green through northwest and then west London to its mouth at Brentford, where its waters flow into the Thames.Although I did not know it when I played beside the stream as a child, the tiny Mutton Brook helps feed the mighty Thames with water.Minute as it is, as far as watercourses are concerned, it made a large impression on me in my childhood.
For much of its course, Mutton Brook flows through open spaces, such as Lyttleton Playing Fields, Fletcher’s Gardens, Northway Gardens, and a long stretch of parkland flanking the south side of the North Circular Road. Despite being fringed by suburbia and busy roads, the Brook is well separated from them by nicely planted green spaces along which walkers can enjoy the feeling of being in the country despite being in the heart of northwest London.
Until 1907, Mutton Brook would have flowed through what was then rural Middlesex countryside – fields, meadows, and woods. From then onwards, Hampstead Garden Suburb was established, and its neighbour Golders Green grew from being a small hamlet to become a large, mainly residential urban area. My recent book (see: https://www.amazon.co.uk/GOLDERS-GREEN-HAMPSTEAD-GARDEN-SUBURB/dp/B0BHG873FB/) describes Mutton Brook in detail. It also as provides an informative description of life in Golders Green and Hampstead Garden Suburb past and present. These are places I know well because I was brought up in them, and lived there until I was thirty. My book also contains reminiscences of my life there as a child and a young man. I still visit the area frequently because some of my friends and family live there.
yamey 