Finchley Road

Not sure if you ever set a foot on that street. Busy, dark, heavy traffic, old shops, a bit doggy... First time I was there, I found it dreadful. And, although it has improved a lot in the last years, it is not really a nice street, let’s admit it. But, somehow and without realising, I got to love it.

Maybe it was the fact that I had to cross it daily on my way from home to school or, because my favourite supermarket was located there, or perhaps it was the fact that I found there too a Sicilian bakery -with the best brioches ever-, or a French-Japanese patisserie, with cakes to die for. 

I loved all those places and I treasure as well many memories of my kids crossing the road in the mornings, usually involving some drama. I can still recall lots of afternoons, coming back home, kids sometimes happy, sometimes quite tired, sometimes just hungry. Further, we have crossed it in all sorts of weather, from sunny to pouring, in the middle of winter snowstorms and, we have being treated too with dramatically colourful sunsets over the domes of South Hampstead's Mansion Houses. 

Step by step, day by day, I was getting close to this street, without being aware.

Two summers ago, we left for good, and the next autumn, we came back again for our first visit in town. I was at the crossing of Goldhurst Terrace with Finchley Road, surrounded by people speaking different native languages and, I suddenly felt so deeply how much I was missing living in London. I longed for the international atmosphere, the diversity, and even the doggy, dark and busy Finchley Road.

I met later my friends and I told them:

-“I must be doing very bad, because, you know what? I felt so nostalgic at Finchley Road”. 

They were laughing, and me too. It felt ridiculously silly, but it couldn’t be more true.

I know it’s quite puerile, it didn't stroke me as hard in other moments, such us looking again at any of my favourite highlights -the Big Ben, or Tower Bridge-, or enjoying the Heath, or dreaming about the open green countryside and the beautiful lavender fields. 

It was Finchley Road that made me feel so homesick.