Alexandra Palace
I went to Alexandra Palace station yesterday and then walked up the hill to Alexandra Palace itself.
Note if the visibility had been better, the views of the rest of London would have been very good.
How Various Nationalities Could Get to the Olympics
London has always been a multi-national and multi-cultural city, so there has always been large groups of various nationalities in various parts of the city. Where I live is just a stone’s throw away from where my French Huguenot ancestors lived and go a little bit further south and east and my Jewish ancestors could be found at the start of the 19th century. Even now, certain Caribbean groups have settled in places like Brixton,New Malden has been populated by Koreans and there’s an area of Camden with lots of Georgian restaurants. London is a complete jigsaw of nationalities.
So you can get a few mildly humorous rules about how the various nationalities might get to the Olympic Park.
The Koreans in New Malden, as do many, have an easy trip. They just take a train into Waterloo and then take the Jubilee line round to Stratford.
Remember the London Underground rule to estimate journey times; 2 minutes per station and add 5 minutes for an interchange.
The French should walk to the Park from West Ham or Hackney Wick stations, on top of the Greenway, as this walk and cycle path, sits on a major part of London’s sewerage system, which was built by a man called Joseph Bazalette, whose grandfather was French.
A few of the Russians will be very rich, so will be in VIP limos, but if they and their fellow countrymen do go by public transport, they’ll take the Olympic Javelin Shuttle from St. Pancras station. But one day they might like to go by the Central line and go a few stops past Stratford to look at Gants Hill station, which is to a design for Russia by Charles Holden. There’s some pictures I took of the station here.
The Orange Train for the Dutch at the London Olympics
London’s new Overground system is four lines, with a fifth to be added in October, later this year.
The Dutch will feel at home on these trains, as the colour scheme of the trains and stations is predominately orange and the line is shown in orange on the tube map.
The major line, the North London line, also travels across North London from the Olympic site at Stratford and connects to buses and trains to get to the Heineken House at Alexandra Palace. If you go further west you get to Hampstead Heath and Kew Gardens, two of the best places in London to get over a hangover.
I suspect that getting to Alexandra Palace during the Olympics may be difficult, as the two train routes from Kings Cross St. Pancras station, where the Olympic Javelin Shuttles arrive, the suburban rail to Alexandra Palace station and the Piccadilly line to Wood Green station, are crowded most of the time, even without the Games. If you can get to Alexandra Palace station, it’s a much shorter walk up the hill to the Palace.
So a better alternative might be to take the North London line from Stratford to Highbury and Islington and then take the suburban rail from there to Alexandra Palace station. It will certainly avoid the inevitable crush and wait at Kings Cross.
Basques Want to Join an Independent Scotland
I can’t work out if this was a Spanish joke or not, but it is reported in today’s Times. The leader of one of their political parties has said it and has also waxed lyrical about kilts and said that Edinbrgh should replace Madrid as their capital.
Probably it’s just another way of stating the old adage – You don’t have to be mad to be the leader of a political party, but it helps.
I actually think on a day of such miserable foreign news, the story lightens everything up.
On the other hand it could be a large publicity stunt on behalf of Bilbao-based company CAF, who are building the trams for Edinburgh’s tram system and they want to get it finished and of course get paid. When it does get finished, I suspect that a mixture of Scots, Basques, paella and Scotch will be a good recipe for a party.
The Tube
I watched the first part of this documentary about the London Underground on BBC2 last night and it was fascinating.
The thing that impressed me most, was how a very multi-racial staff acted as a coherent team and stood up so well to the hassle they got.
I shall be watching next week.
New Track for the London Overground
To connect the Overground from the two Peckham stations; Rye and Queen’s Road to Surrey Quays station, a new length of track has to be laid. These pictures show the Peckham end.
As the pictures were taken by a train going towards London Bridge, the new track is very much in the right background
This post shows the junction at the other end, where it joins the southern branches of the East London line.
Peckham Rye Station – A Station Designed By Several Committees
Peckham Rye station, which is is the next on from Denmark Hill station, looks like a station, that has been designed by several different individuals or committees, who had no idea what a team or a design brief was. All of these pictures were taken there.
It must have started better as the original station was designed by Charles Henry Driver, a noted Victorian architect. But I suspect the myriad companies, who have owned it since didn’t have a clue. Or it could have been a classic British Rail fix it without beauty job.
It’s also got the awful long staircases beloved of station architects until a few years ago.
Denmark Hill Station
Denmark Hill station is the next after Clapham High Street and is the station for Kings College Hospital and is a large four platform station. At the moment, the station is undergoing a major rebuilding as these pictures show.
Note that when it’s finished, the station will have lifts and a pub. Although at the moment, it’s rather a mess of scaffolding.
Incidentally, adding Denmark Hill station to the London Overground, will put a third major hospital on the line, after the Royal Free at Hampstead Heath and the Royal London at Whitechapel.
Clapham High Street Station
From Wandsworth Road station I walked to Clapham High Street station, which looked as if it had once been larger with more platforms and if you read the Wikipedia link it had. It had once even had overhead electric power for the trains. But no more, as these pictures show.
The odd thing is that two of these pictures contain light engines. In one it’s just a single and in the other two are coupled together.
Incidentally, Clapham High Street and Clapham North are considered an interchange on Oyster, so when the London Overground is fully open, it offers a simple way from the southerly parts of the Northern line to Hackney.
Wandsworth Road Station
Wandsworth Road station is a simple two platform station with an overbridge. I took these pictures on my visit.
Note that in the distance towards Battersea Power Station, you can see the junction leading off to the left towards Clapham Junction
The Anonymous Widower 