Enfield Lock
Old army community's attempt to be modern and shiny
ZzzzzzIIIPPPPP!! go the trains through this station, taking holiday-makers off to Stansted Airport, a place that if it were described in zonal terms, would be at least Zone 73. It makes for a very noisy, windy station. As it's on a level crossing, the only real shelter here is the boarded-up old pub next door and the buildings that look as if they've come from a concrete Ikea parallel universe. But since the Stansted Express and Cambridge trains go past so often, you can spend an entertaining afternoon watching drivers get pissed off again and again as the crossing gates fail to open, waiting for the next train.
Enfield Lock isn't actually a place as such, although there is a river lock about three-quarters of a mile away on the quite picturesque Lee. The station sign says "Change Here For Innova Business and Science Park", a place that is so technologically advanced that it is depicted by three blue triangles that look like the spaceships from Asteroids. It is to this that we first turn. It is 20 minutes' north of the station, so consider taking the Prince of Wales Walking Bus. According to the stop sign drawn by a local kid, it looks like this:
Bad house and garden decorations en route to Innova Business and Science Park
- Stone cladding (at least twice)
- Fake skunk/cat/pigeon 'drinking' out of pond
- Twinkling windmill with statue of badger
Innova Business and Science Park is an awful place and a total waste of a greenfield site. A bus goes in through the gates, round the roundabout, feels bored, and leaves again. The only business that looks like it actually does anything is an enormous balloon warehouse; hardly scientific, unless they're RFID-trackable balloons blown up by nanotechnology.
An example of a pointless-looking company behind glassy windows which just seems to exist to take up space is something called 'BIC'. Does it make biros? No! It's the Business Innovation Centre. It doesn't seem to do anything useful. In Innova you can also find a huge TravelInn, and the world's least convincing pub, the 'Inn on the Park'.
Both are on a roundabout where the flags seem to have wind chimes, of all the terrible things ever spawned by hell. If Innova Business and Science Park was financed by the 'European Community' they've obviously not had the time to come and see how their money was spent.
The other interesting part of the world near Enfield Lock is Enfield Island Village, which is reached over an enormous bridge over the River Lee. The centrepiece of the village is a fifty-foot monolith (right) that looks like it came out of an Elizabeth Gaskell novel.
The island is 99% composed of housing built on the old Royal Small Arms Factory, an army munitions factory that opened in 1816 and closed as recently as 1987. Hopefully, all the nasty heavy metals were cleaned from the land before it was redeveloped in 1995 into 1,300 beige crate-shaped homes.
There's an enforced sense of community here; one could say an almost military atmosphere. People are all on this island because they are, and let's all knuckle down and live with it. There's a brief town centre made out of redeveloped warehouses, from which small roads and pathways spider out to the new-builds. In the centre, there's a Tesco Xpress, as well as Island Fitness, Island Drycleaners, Island Video and Greek Island Restaurant. (See a theme here?)
Inside the centre you can peek through windows and look at shiny guns in a small exhibition of Enfield Island Village. You've got to call in advance to touch them, though. Some other attempts have been made by residents at making their own entertainment; one of the featureless buildings has A4 paper letters stuck to the window that read: "ENFIELD IS AN YOUTH LUB".
Residents of Zone 6, #18 – Enfield Lock
 | Reprogramming his car radio with a great deal of concentration and precision. He's probably casting spells to get it to work. |
Military-themed road names in Enfield Lock
- Ordnance Road
- The General's Way
- Manly Dixon Close (!?)
The area around Enfield Lock station, which represents just east of Enfield Wash, is mainly Victorian terraces, and at first guess was probably where the workers in the Royal Small Arms factory lived. If you like sky blue paint, tatty old Union Jacks flown from working men's clubs and bicycle shops that sell cigarettes, this is the place you need to be. But even in a place like this you can find mystery and intrigue. The shop, apparently a hairdresser's, called the VENUS BERBER SALON. What's all that about?
Statistics
Last train to Zone 1 Mon-Fri 0004, Sat 0013, Sun 2216
Time to Zone 1 25 mins on One (Liverpool Street)
What to do if you get stuck in Enfield Lock after the last train to Zone 1
Turn right out of the station and wander down Ordnance Road, away from the river, till you get to the main street. N279s to central London have been reputed to turn up there occasionally.
