Gong & Giea Publishing is an independent children's book publisher based in Hampstead, London.Founded in 2026, we take our name from a fictional tech company and a made up cat. A small, deliberate note of playfulness at the heart of a very serious commitment to making good books that tell great stories.Our first title Gabriel and the Somewhere Station is out now, with further books in progress.
Gabriel and the Somewhere Station
Published July 2026
A rhyming picture book about a little boy and his Granny who accidentally step off the Tube at a long-forgotten station between Hampstead and Golders Green — and have to find their way home with the help of some unlikely friends. Illustrated in watercolour by Jesse Brown.Hidden beneath Hampstead Heath sits a Tube station that was never finished, never opened, and never used. North End Station was planned, partly built, and... abandoned.Northern line trains pass through it to this day without stopping.
This is where the thinking happens.We’re calling it The Gong.Half after our name, half because a gong is what you strike when there’s something worth coming in for.Notes on the books we’re making, the ones we love, and the people who write, draw, sell and read them.Click on the gong to enter.
The Story We Found Beneath Hampstead
How a walk to school, a forgotten Tube station and a collaboration with the artist Jesse Brown became Gabriel and the Somewhere Station - and then an independent children’s publishing house.
By Daniel MarshGong & Giea Publishing, London began with a book I wrote for my son. But this is not only the story of how Gabriel and the Somewhere Station was made, it is the story of how a walk to school, an abandoned Tube station and a creative partnership became an independent children’s publishing house.There were three essential ingredients: a real place hidden beneath Hampstead; a story with help from Gabriel (and a little inspiration from John Betjeman, but more on him in a bit); and Jesse Brown’s pictures, which showed me that this could become something larger than a single book.The beginning, however, was bedtime stories.Reading to Gabriel rekindled something I had almost forgotten: the wonder of a story shared between an adult and a child. The safety of it. Which allows the opening of a door to a different world.Then, on our walk to school in Hampstead, we found a door of a different kind.
The unremarkable-looking building on Hampstead Way that led us to the Somewhere Station. Photograph: Iridescenti/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
We passed this unremarkable-looking building again and again. Sometimes we could hear a whoosh and catch that unmistakable warm, metallic smell of the Tube rising through the shaft. Like generations of local children and parents, we wondered what it was!The answer was as exciting as I’d hoped. We all love an abandoned underground station it seems…The station that never openedHidden beneath Hampstead Heath, right on the edge, is North End station, sometimes known as ‘Bull & Bush’ because of the nearby pub. Work began in the early twentieth century, but the housing development it was intended to serve didn’t happen as it was meant to. I get a little confused here, because Hampstead Garden Suburb definitely did happen. However, the station was never finished and never opened.The trains still pass through it today, between Hampstead and Golders Green, without stopping. If you know when to look, the lights outside the carriage disappear for a few seconds as you travel through the abandoned platform spaces.Here was a real place beneath our feet that felt invented: a station built for passengers who never came, hidden away nicely.And so the question arrived: what if a train stopped there when it shouldn’t?A similar question had actually been thought of elsewhere - in a 1951 prose piece first broadcast on BBC Radio, Sir John Betjeman imagined a passenger stepping off a train by mistake at the closed South Kentish Town station. The train leaves, the platform is empty, and his character must climb 294 steps through the darkness to find a way out.Our station would be North End. Our travellers would be a little boy and his Granny. Their climb would be 200 steps, accompanied by… well you can read it and see… and the darkness would give way to warmth, colour and home.
Beneath Hampstead Heath: the unfinished passenger walkway at North End station. Photograph courtesy of London Transport Museum. Source: North End: the hidden history of the station that never was
A boy, his Granny and 200 stepsGabriel and the Somewhere Station grew from that.
Gabriel and the Somewhere Station, written by Daniel Marsh and illustrated by Jesse Brown.
In the story, Gabriel and his Granny are travelling home from the fair on Hampstead Heath. (The real fair we go to, down the bottom of the heath) They have only one stop to go, but when the train makes a stop it shouldn’t, as they’re chatting away, they step onto an empty platform. No staff. No other passengers. And the trains rushing through will not stop to take them home.Their way out lies at the top of 200 twisting steps, with help and encouragement from some unlikely friends along the way.I loved knowing that our story belonged to a longer tradition of wondering what might happen in that forgotten space.
The real descent into North End—and the staircase that helped inspire the journey back to daylight.
Gabriel and Granny climb towards daylight. Watercolour by Jesse Brown.
Making the book togetherAlthough I wrote the words, Gabriel was part of every important decision. The book was shaped by his curiosity, his love of stories and his honesty - and by our family life here in Hampstead. My wife, Nicola played an important role as ‘editor’!We talked about the characters and what should happen next. We watched an idea from our daily walk turn into a physical book we could hold. By the end, Gabriel quite rightly felt that he had made a book too.Gabriel and the Somewhere Station is an adventure, but it is also a small record of his childhood: of the questions he asked, the stories we shared and the place we called home.
Gabriel was involved in the decisions throughout—and quite rightly felt that he had made a book too.
Finding the picturesA hidden station needed an artist who could make it feel mysterious without making it frightening.We already owned some of Jesse’s work: a set of his watercolours of Regent’s Park, which is our family’s favourite place on earth. So when it came to bringing this world to life, I already knew the visual world could only really be his.Jesse Brown, a North London illustrator and artist, did exactly that. Working in watercolour, ink and pencil, Jesse gave the book its atmosphere: the shadowy platform, the rush of trains, the fox and frog on the stairs, and the warmth and humour that carry Gabriel and Granny upwards.
From Gabriel and the Somewhere Station. Watercolour by Jesse Brown.
From Gabriel and the Somewhere Station. Watercolour by Jesse Brown.
Work in progress by Jesse Brown
His illustrations did more than accompany the story. They really are the story. And, eventually, part of the identity of Gong & Giea itself.
The Gong & Giea identity, hand-painted by Jesse Brown.
Gabriel and the Somewhere Station featured in the Ham & High, September 2026.
Gabriel and the Somewhere Station featured in the Ham & High, September 2026.
Since then, what began as bedtime reading and a curious walk to school has continued to grow. More Gabriel stories are taking shape, new books are in development, and Gong & Giea is beginning to welcome other authors and artists into its world.
From a private project made together to the first book from Gong & Giea Publishing. In the window of Daunt.
Welcome to 'The Gong'
This is where the thinking happens. We’re calling it The Gong, half after our name, half because a gong is what you strike when there’s something worth coming in for. Notes on the books we’re making, the ones we love, and the people who writ, draw, sell and read them.
Gong & Giea started with a bedtime story. Many of them, in fact. Every night!And then one I wrote for my son, with his help, inspired by something close to home, here in Hampstead. It became a passion, then a proper obsession, and eventually a small publishing house, built for authors and illustrators and anyone who believes in the wonder of telling a story.
Gabiel and the Somewhere Station. Opening scene. Jesse Brown.
Gabriel and the Somewhere Station. With the fox on the stairs. Jesse Brown.
Each week on 'The Gong', Jesse Brown - the artist behind our first book Gabriel and the Somewhere Station, and Gong & Giea’s Artist Partner - will share a piece from the golden age of illustration, or something he loves: a photo, and a little on the author, the illustrator, and the work behind it.Alongside that: the odd word from me, news of what’s coming next from Gong & Giea, and every so often a chance to celebrate the authors, illustrators, bookshops and readers who support them.
MORNING COMMUTE Illustration in ink and watercolour.. Jesse Brown