As one of the quietest London termini, Marylebone Station (1) is often used as a filming location. The opening scenes of the Beatles' A Hard Day's Night were shot there in 1964.
Er, that’s it about the station itself.
Even trainspotters would be underwhelmed. But there’s lots more to see in
Marylebone itself; and this is only Part 1 of 2 ….
This
estate agents (above) was formerly The Apple Boutique, a retail shop
located at 94 Baker Street (4). It
opened on 7 December 1967 and closed on 31 July 1968. The store concept was
that everything in it was for sale, mostly fashion garments and accessories. It
was one of the first business ventures by The Beatles' fledgling
Apple Corps.
34
Montagu Square (5):
The basement and ground floor flat were
bought in 1965 by Ringo. He lived there briefly, as did Paul and then Jimi
Hendrix in turn before John and Yoko moved in.
It was in 34 Montagu Square that the
famous nude photographs of John and Yoko were taken for the Two Virgins album
cover. The cover
provoked an outrage, prompting distributors to sell the LP in plain brown paper
bags. The
“experimental” album was slammed by critics, failed to chart in the UK, and
only reached 124 in the US.
The flat was raided by police on
October 18, 1968. They found traces of cannabis and John was subsequently
convicted for possession. He always claimed the drugs were planted as he’d had
a tip-off beforehand and removed any the evidence.
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Novelist Anthony Trollope also lived in Montagu Square, at number 42 (6). Trollope wasn’t exactly Dickens
but holds a special, if slightly uncomfortable, memory for me.
Trollope’s ‘The Pallisers’ was adapted as
a 26-part period drama by the BBC. The stars were Susan Hampshire and Philip
Latham and I was working on Nationwide the day they were guests. Before the
show production assistant Patsy Wilcox had selected clips from The Pallisters
which we’d compiled onto one tape to play into the show. Patsy had already
gone home before the programme started. Bob Wellings was the interviewer and
led into the first clip which should have featured Philip Latham. But he
wasn’t in it. Susan Hampshire should have been in the second clip but wasn’t.
The third and fourth inserts were also wrong so the whole feature, which was
live, was totally chaotic. As we were having our own post-mortem in
VT - concluding it was all Patsy’s fault - Sportswide had just got under way.
“Run VT” rang out from the talkback and I pressed ‘play’ as Des Lynham said,
“Let’s just remind ourselves of what happened when these two teams last met”.
Unfortunately I’d forgotten I was still cued on a fifth Pallisters clip,
which had been dropped. So you can guess what happened next. For 11 million
Nationwide viewers, it was hilarious. For yours truly it wasn’t so funny,
especially when people started calling me Susan.
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A
few weeks later, I was working on Nationwide again. This time I was the senior
engineer so, thankfully, not directly responsible for playing in the VT
inserts. Bob Wellings (again) was interviewing a government spokesman about the
proposed Channel Tunnel. Bob led into VT and the vision mixer cut to 20 members
of the West Norwood Red Indian Appreciation Society doing a war dance.
57 Wimpole Street (7):
Paul lived from 1964 to 1966 in the top
flat at 57 Wimpole Street, the family home of his actress
girlfriend Jane Asher.
Whilst living there Paul wrote Yesterday
(Scrambled Eggs, before he came up with the lyrics).
He gifted World Without Love, a song he’d
written when he was 16, to Jane’s brother Peter Asher. It became a huge hit for
Peter and Gordon (Waller) and was the only Lennon/McCartney chart-topper the
Beatles never recorded themselves – John didn’t think much of the “Please lock
me away” opening line.
To evade fans encamped outside the front
of number 57 Paul had an arrangement with a family at the far end of the
terrace whereby he came and went via a connecting passage through the rooftops.
Paul and Jane split up in 1968 after a
five-year relationship.
It wasn’t just Paul who fancied Jane, most
of us teenage lads did – probably still do, especially as she now runs her own
fancy cake business.
She is married to satirical cartoonist
Gerald Scarfe whose work includes the animations for Pink Floyd’s The Wall.
A
Beatles walk wouldn’t be complete without a visit to Abbey Road - just one tube
stop (St John’s Wood) from Baker Street
(8) ….
Abbey Road Studios are still producing hits
and continue to be the mecca for Beatles pilgrims.
During the pandemic the local council took
the opportunity to repaint the well-trodden crossing …..
March, 2020
Today, January 31, 2021
www.abbeyroad.com/crossing for live webcam
The front wall is normally painted over
every three months …..
Confusingly, there’s an Abbey Road station
which is nowhere near St John’s Wood….
"Thoughtfully", Transport for London have
provided a jokey sign redirecting disgruntled tourists finding themselves in zone 3.
It’s a pity TFL weren’t a bit more thoughtful in 2011 when they named the
station. I’ve put on my Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells hat and emailed TFL
suggesting now would be a good time to rename the station. (Apologies to Alec
who actually is from Tunbridge Wells and rarely disgusted).
UPDATE: Never
heard back from TFL
The Wallace Collection (9):
One of the world’s best private art
collections, with , furniture, weapons, armour, porcelain and Old Masters including Frans Hals’
Laughing Cavalier. It’s free.
….. and a brilliant place for brunch, lunch or
afternoon tea in the stunning courtyard ....
Royal China (10) 24-26 Baker Street – a
favourite place for dim sum. They also have branches in Queensway and Canary
Wharf. I think this is the best of the three, although you can eat alfresco at
Canary Wharf.
One day we must try Le Relais de
Venise L’Entrecot (11) at 120 Marylebone Lane. Unfortunately I don’t think
they take bookings. But I also like the look of the Angel in the Fields pub
next door which would be a handy place to steak stake out L’Entrecot.
Update (Wednesday, March 8, 2023) Le Relais de Venise L’Entrecot was very busy at lunchtime, but no queue. I suspect there would have been one had the weather not been so foul. It turns out your steak can be only medium or rare; not medium-rare or (heaven forbid) well-done. The price has gone up since I copied the menu from the web - it's now £28. But you get two servings for that price - the waitress refills your plate. So there's no room for dessert - a shame as there's a good selection. Oh, and the food is delicious - but how hard can it be?
PS The Angel in the Fields is ok but has stained glass windows so you can't monitor the restaurant queue.
Half my lunch .....
.... I now wish I'd asked if you can order one meal to share between two.
I decided against asking the waitress if she had anything without steak in it as she was too young to remember this ....
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bW4vEo1F4E&t=63s
Use of the term Spam was adopted as a tech term for unsolicited email was drowning out normal discourse, just as the singing Vikings drown out conversation in the Monty Python sketch.
Hormel, who introduced Spam in 1937, tried to sue various tech companies for using their trademark. But they eventually gave up and actually ended up sponsoring Python's Spamalot musical. I now wonder how Monty Python got away with the Spam sketch in the days when the BBC forbade any reference to products by name. Many of you may recall how Sellotape was always referred to as 'sticky back plastic' on Blue Peter. At that time it was essential for all BBC sports producers to carry a roll on gaffer tape around - for covering logos on athletes clothing.
For numbers 12 onwards, see Marylebone 2
Some postscripts:
Whilst Paul McCartney was living in number 34 Montagu Square he used it as an experimental recording studio to make demos including Eleanor Rigby.
This is nice, thanks Steve ….
Hi Mick,
I enjoyed your Marylebone/Baker Street tour, especially as it was the area my Dad grew up in, so is part of my DNA. He lived in a street near the station and the Sea Shell fish and chip shop, which wasn't there then, of course. It's on Lisson Grove, where Eliza Doolittle also hailed from. My Dad used to tell me about delivering newspapers as a boy to the posh apartments flanking the Marylebone Road. He also used to rent cushions to fans arriving at Lord's Cricket Ground and dive with his friends into the canal near Regents Park and collect pennies from onlookers. I like to think he was the inspiration for Just William. Lord's used to have its own tube station, which I think became a Holiday Inn. Pity. It's interesting you should have picked up on Le Relais de Venise L'Entrecote. It's been one of my favourites for a number of years. The gravy-covered chips are a particular delight. We really must arrange a trip there when things have sorted themselves out.
Take care,
Steve
Rats! I forgot about the Sea Shell. So I missed the chance of eating takeaway cod, chips and mushy peas on the bench inside Marylebone Station where Macca sat with his granddad. I haven’t been to the Sea Shell for over 30 years but remember the long queues on the pavement, even in the depths of winter; when they would pass bowls of piping hot chips along the line. I also have very fond memories of Steve’s dad Alec, especially the day he nearly got us into a punch-up at QPR.
Lord’s tube station closed in 1939. The intention was for it still to operate on match days. But the war intervened and that never happened. It was demolished in 1960.
Some tasty trivia to finish with: St John's Wood is the only London Underground station to share no letters with the word 'mackerel'. Life is too short for me to verify this.
March 22, 2023
Finally I get round to
revisiting The Seashell of Lisson Grove, more than 30 years after my previous
visit when it was the Sea Shell ….
Founded shortly after WW1, London’s most
famous chippy has been in Lisson Grove since 1964.
Prices have certainly gone
up since my last visit - £22 for haddock and chips is not cheap – but they did
give me a £3 side salad ‘on the house’.
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