Olympia

Kensington (Olympia) is a combined rail and tube station. The station is managed by London Overground, hence the orange roundel instead of the more familiar red one of the Underground. On the underground it is the terminus of a short District Line branch from Earl's Court.  On the main line railway it is on the West London line between Clapham Junction and Willesden Junction avoiding the need to go through Central London.

The station has had many changes over the years. It began life in 1863 with the name Kensington and was connected to the West London railway.  Then the name was changed to Addison Road to avoid confusion with the other Kensington stations. In 1946 the station was renamed Kensington (Olympia) which is how it appears on the tube maps and station signage but it is announced as just Olympia on the District line tube. The station is positioned alongside its namesake Olympia Exhibition Centre.

In 2011, Transport for London decided that the District Line shuttle from Earl's Court would close on weekdays. Some services do run when there are large exhibitions on at the centre. 

I travelled to Olympia early on a Saturday morning, catching the shuttle from Earl's Court. The tube was empty as due to Covid all exhibitions have been cancelled.

As soon as you step off the tube you can see the large glass windows of the Olympia Exhibition Hall. Olympia is a collection of seven event spaces. It opened as a much smaller National Agricultural Hall in 1884 and became Olympia two years later.  

It is a huge building, the main hall being 10,000 sq metres.

Walking round the corner you can see this impressive entrance on Hammersmith Road. It was built in the 1930s and forms a façade to the original exhibition hall which lies behind.

Part of the complex is being transformed into a leisure and entertainment destination. The plan includes a four screen cinema, a 1400 seat performing arts theatre, a 4000 capacity music venue, hotels, cafes, restaurants and a 2.5 acres of public space which will include pedestrianised squares and a sky garden.

This is inside the Grand Hall. I was there in January for the Travel Show planning my 2020 trips. That seems a lifetime away now!

I walked around the Olympia complex and at the far end was this small garden  area, Lyons Walk. There was nothing special about it other than an information board to the right of the trees.  It noted that this was where 'LEO'(Lyons Electronic Office) was developed and first used. J. Lyons and Co. was Britain's largest catering company with restaurants and cafes all over the country. In the 1930s the chief accountant, John Simmons, wanted to find a way to automate some of the tedious, time consuming processes necessary to keep track of profit and loss. Each day the managers of the 200 Lyons teashops had to phone head office and notify them of any changes needed to the standard order of goods for the following day. Lyons was the first company in the world to see that computers could be used to make businesses more efficient. LEO took up all the space in a large room. It attempted its first business programme in 1951. It was called Bakery Valuations and computed the costs of all the ingredients that went into the bread and cakes produced at the Lyons factory in SW London. This was a world's first use of a real time office application. Soon afterwards LEO began to run the payroll from the Lyons Company. You can meet LEO at the Science Museum which in ordinary times I would have popped into the museum (which isn't very far away) to get a photo of LEO but that will have to wait till post Covid.

 I continued walking and came out on Blyth Road to see this incredible grand building known as Blyth House. It was originally built to house the Post Office savings bank. In 1963 the bank moved to Glasgow and the government purchased it to provide storage for galleries and museums.  Presently the building is being used by the Science Museum, the  British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. There are more than 170,000 objects stored here from the Science Museum. The Museum describes Blyth House as follows..'with the buildings blacked out to help preserve the objects, the building is now a dark and brooding space filled floor to ceiling with thousands of weird and wonderful things that most people will never see'. 

The centenary of the Savings Bank was celebrated in 1961 with a visit from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. The centenary gates show a crown on each post with the date 1861 on one and 1961 on the other.

At the corner of the building there is still a part of it belonging to the Royal Mail and that is the West Kensington delivery office.

This part of the building is Olympia Auctions. Pity it wasn't open as I would have loved to see inside.

I walked round to the other side of Blyth House. It seemed to go on for ever. The area is mainly residential so not much of interest out of the ordinary. It was mainly Victorian housing. 

As I wandered through the streets I noticed a number of people going into a primary school on Addison Road, so I followed them into the playground and was surprised to find a food market. I was hungry and ready for a sit down. Cafes now require booking in advance or are closed so this was the ideal opportunity for me to find something to eat for lunch. I chose a delicious homemade bacon and gruyere cheese tart followed by a berry tart. Far too much!!!  

There were wooden tables scattered around so I was able to sit down at a safe distance from others. Chatting to one of the stall holders I was told that the traders were all local people and the market had come together during lockdown when they were able to make local home deliveries of their food.

There was even music to listen to as I ate my lunch.

I thought it was a very enterprising venture as both the school and the local community will benefit.

I made my way back to the station and walked over the bridge to have a look at some gardens that ran alongside the station.

The notice said that they were community gardens where local people share the work and the produce. Another successful community venture. I am pleased to be able to visit the Underground stations once again but I am taking many precautions. I only travel early on Saturday or Sunday mornings when the trains into London are virtually empty. I try and walk as close as possible to the Underground station I want to visit. As far as using the tube network I am limiting my journeys so that I am never on the tube for more than 10 minutes. If the tube looks busy I will get off and walk. I feel these simple actions will help to keep me safe. Face masks are compulsory on all forms of transport.