JIM BLAKE was born at the end of 1947, just five days before the ‘Big Four’ railway companies, and many bus companies – including London Transport – were nationalised by the Labour government under Clement Attlee.
Like most young lads born in the early post-war years, he soon developed a passionate interest in railways, the myriad steam engines still running on Britain’s railways in those days in particular. The busy North London Line on which locomotives of both LMS and LNER origin could be seen was just five minutes walk away from his home, and he can still remember being taken to a bomb site overlooking Canonbury Junction in his pushchair to see them.
However, because his home in Canonbury Avenue, Islington was also just a few minutes walk from North London’s last two tram routes, the 33 in Essex Road and the 35 in Holloway Road and Upper Street, which ran through the famous Kingsway tram subway to reach Victoria Embankment and south London, Jim developed an equal interest in buses and trolleybuses to that in railways, and has retained both until the present day. In addition, Jim’s home was in the heart of North London’s trolleybus system, with route 611 actually passing his home, and one of the busiest and complicated trolleybus junctions in the world at The Nag’s Head, Holloway, a short ride away along Holloway Road. Here, the overhead wires almost blotted out the sky!
Jim was educated at his local Highbury County Grammar School, and later at Kingsway College, by coincidence a stone’s throw from the old tram subway. He was first bought a camera for his fourteenth birthday at the end of 1961, which was immediately put to good use photographing the last London trolleybuses in North West London on their very snowy last day a week later. Three years later, he started work as an administrator for the old London County Council at County Hall, just across the road from Waterloo Station, where in the summer of 1967, the last steam engines hauling passenger trains in the south of England would run.
By now, Jim’s interest in buses and trolleybuses had expanded to include those of other operators, and he travelled throughout England and Wales between 1961 and 1968 in pursuit of them, being able to afford to travel further afield after starting work! These journeys tied in perfectly with visiting engine sheds up and down the country, particularly in the northwest England where the last steam engines would run in 1968. He also bought a colour ciné-camera in 1965, with which he was able to capture what is now very rare footage of long-lost buses, trolleybuses and steam locomotives. Where the latter are concerned, he was one of the initial purchasers of the unique British Railways Standard class 8, No 71000 Duke of Gloucester, which was the last ever passenger express locomotive built for use in Britain. Other preservationists laughed at the group which purchased what in effect was a cannibalised hulk from Barry scrapyard at the end of 1973, but they laughed on the other side of their faces when, after extensive and innovative rebuilding, it steamed again in 1986. It has since become one of the best-known and loved preserved British locomotives, often returning to the main lines.
Following the demise of British Railways steam engines in 1968, Jim began to take a more specific interest in London’s Underground railway. In particular, the short and isolated Northern City Line, which literally ran beneath his original home on its way from Finsbury Park to Moorgate but which should have been greatly extended to cover the London & North Eastern Railway’s branches from Finsbury Park to Highgate, Alexandra Palace, East Finchley, High Barnet, Mill Hill and Edgware, became a ‘pet theme’. Work on this extension had to be put in abeyance during Second World War, and despite much work having been completed on it, the scheme was abandoned in the early 1950s and as much as £3,000,000 (at 1939 values) of public money thereby wasted. With co-author Jonathan James, Jim published the first definitive book on this scandalous waste, Northern Wastes, in 1987 and that book has subsequently gone through three reprints.
Although Jim spent thirty-five years in local government administration, with the LCC’s successor, the Greater London Council, then Haringey Council and finally literally back on his old doorstep, with Islington Council, Jim also took a break from office drudgery in 1974/75 and actually worked on the buses as a conductor at London Transport’s Clapton Garage, on local routes 22, 38 and 253. Working on the latter, a former tram and trolleybus route, in particular was an unforgettable experience! He was recommended for promotion as an inspector, but rightly thought that taking such a job with the surname Blake was unwise in view of the then-current character of the same name and occupation in the On the Buses TV series and films, and so declined the offer and returned to County Hall!
By this time, Jim had begun to have his transport photographs published in various books and magazines featuring buses and railways, and also started off the North London Transport Society, which catered for enthusiasts interested in both subjects. In conjunction with this group, he has also compiled and published a number of books on these subjects since 1977, featuring many of the 100,000 or so transport photographs he has taken over the years.
Also through the North London Transport Society, Jim became involved in setting up and organising various events for transport enthusiasts in 1980, notably the North Weald Bus Rally which the group took over in 1984, and has raised thousands of pounds for charity ever since. These events are still going strong today.
In addition to his interest in public transport, Jim also has an interest in the popular music of the late 1950s and early 1960s, in particular that of the eccentric independent record producer, songwriter and manager Joe Meek, in whose tiny studio above a shop in Holloway Road (not far from the famous trolleybus junction) he wrote and produced Telstar by The Tornados, which became the first British pop record to make No1 in America, at the end of 1962, long before The Beatles had even been heard of over there! When Joe died in February 1967, Jim set up an appreciation society for his music, which has a very distinctive sound. That society is also still going strong today, too.
Jim also enjoys a pint or two (and usually more) of real ale, and has two grown-up daughters and three grandchildren at the time of writing. He still lives in North London, having moved to his present home in Palmers Green in 1982.