The Clash were a huge rock band in the late 70s and 80s, selling millions of records. Even though their music is before my time, their songs always seem to be there. Not long ago I was binge-watching Stranger Things on Netflix, set in the 80s of course, and their song ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go’ came up in scenes repeatedly. As an Arsenal fan, I often go to the Emirates Stadium and hear ‘London Calling’ play at the beginning of every game before the players come out. In Pamplona, I remember hearing ‘Spanish Bombs’ whilst out in a bar, a song about the Spanish Civil War. Joe Strummer was their lead singer and years after his work with the Clash, he wrote a very different kind of song - a light and mellow piece - with a title that caught my attention.
'Willesden to Cricklewood' was written and recorded by Joe Strummer and his last band the Mescaleros in 1999, three years before his death. The song title grabbed me for two reasons; the first is that I went to secondary school in Cricklewood and am always in nearby Willesden having grown up just down the road; the second is that Willesden and Cricklewood are areas of London generally not associated with glamour; far from it. Rock stars who sell millions of records don’t come here. In fact, no one comes here. An article in the Telegraph inaccurately described the area as
A North London suburb that has no library, no town hall and not even a solitary park bench.
This is a place where people perch on walls or else pester street corners.
© Photo: Adam L. Maloney (The 266 bus on Willesden High Road, North West London)
In the same article, Cricklewood is also referred to as ‘’dirty’’ with ‘’nowhere to go’’. This kind of snobbery is nothing new to me. What’s rare however, is to hear the likes of a multi-platinum selling rock star see a decrepit kind of beauty in this overlooked North West London area that only local people could understand; and to turn these observations into somewhat of an urban lullaby. This type of humble romanticism for the ramshackle is the same kind of sentiment found in songs such as ‘Dirty Old Town’ written by Ewan MacColl but made popular by the Dubliners, where romance occurs "by the factory wall". It’s a fondness for the unheeded, like that of ‘Penny Lane’ by the Beatles, a song in which they affectionately refer to the simple surroundings of their boyhood years in Liverpool, from barbershops to bus shelters and roundabouts.
© Photo: Adam L. Maloney (Mock-Tudor houses on the corner of Walm Lane & Willesden High Road)
So what connection does Joe Strummer have to this area? According to his biography 'Redemption Song', Joe Strummer would often walk from Willesden to nearby Cricklewood to meet someone there who would sell him cannabis. Along this short journey, he would take in his surroundings whilst reflecting on his life, as summed up in lyrics such as
From Willesden to Cricklewood. As I went it all looked good. Thought about my babies grown. Thought about going home.
© Photo: Adam L. Maloney (Willesden Green tube station beside more Tudor Revival architecture)
The Willesden to Cricklewood area of London has its own identity, one that snooty writers from the Telegraph would fail to appreciate; it was bombed heavily in the Second World War and became a home for Jewish refugees and Irish labourers, then migrants from the Caribbean, India and more. Following the footsteps of Joe Strummer, I took a walk from Willesden to Cricklewood, listing some of my favourite places; from the Romanian, Brazilian and Portuguese area of Willesden High Road to the village-esque Walm Lane by the tube station and finally onto the perhaps even more culturally diverse Cricklewood Broadway and its many pubs.
© Photo: Adam L. Maloney (The 332 bus on Cricklewood Broadway)
Places to check out on Joe Strummer's route
Willesden High Road
No. 8
305 High Rd, London NW10 2JT, UKWalm Lane
The Queensbury
110 Walm Ln, London NW2 4RS, UK
Beer and Burger
88 Walm Ln, London NW2 4QY, UK
Big Bite
39 Walm Ln, London NW2 4QU, UK
St Gabriel's Church, Cricklewood
Walm Ln, Cricklewood, London NW2, UKCricklewood Broadway
The Crown
152 Cricklewood Broadway, London NW2 3ED, UK
The Elementree
108-110 Cricklewood Broadway, Cricklewood, London NW2 3EJ, UK
The Beaten Docket
50-56 Cricklewood Broadway, London NW2 3ET, UK
Abyssinia
9 Cricklewood Broadway, London NW2 3JX, UK“I don't have any other message than don't forget you are alive” – Joe Strummer (1952 - 2002)
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Adam L. Maloney
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