Stokey gets snowy!!

Well, it’s confirmed: it looks like it’s not just the tube

strikes that Londoners are going to have to battle with this season. With the

mayor’s Transport Advisor revealing a doubling of salt stocks in preparation

for road gritting, urbanites brace themselves for another bitter winter that

stands to bring the capital to a halt.

Today was Stoke Newington’s first taste of the white stuff and

unlike much of this frost-bound isle, we seem to have escaped pretty much unscathed!

Motorways were gridlocked in Kent and Essex, schools have been closed across

the country and further north people have been snowed into their houses. In

London travel has been made difficult yet again this week as the snow takes over

from the tube strikes and student protests to interfere with road access and public

transport.

We got snow here, sure, but we avoided that pavement

patchwork of slippery white ice and slushy wet stuff. Instead Stokey got the best

type: the type that barely settles and instead sticks to what it does best –

looking pretty in the sky. All the roads were clear and safe to drive, with

Church Street and the High Road looking totally untouched; but we still got those

gorgeous heavy snow showers – the kind that make you want to listen to

Christmas carols in November, and that make it okay for adults to wear mittens.

Off the main streets our little urban wonderland could be seen to full effect,

especially in the parks and – my favourite – Abney Park Cemetery where the snow

had settled out of harms way in a suitably Christmas card fashion (see the

gallery for photos of the cemetery and surrounding areas). 

On practical terms it looks like it’s not only the roads

that have stayed clear in Stoke Newington so far. Thankfully TFL and National

Rail are reporting uninterrupted services on trains from Stoke Newington and

Stamford Hill overground stations as well as bus routes through the area. So it

looks like for once, local transport has gone against the odds and resisted

being scuppered by the snow this Wednesday. Hoorah! However, there is supposed

to be heavier snowfall overnight so be sure to check before you leave tomorrow.

Good news for us worker bees then, and a suitably festive

way to welcome December. N16 can revel in having had the ultimate snowfall:

magical without being impractical. If anyone has any updates on the transport front tomorrow please let us know - sharing is caring at times like this!