Is This Building Too Good For A Shop?
The Ancient House is one of Ipswich’s eleven Grade 1 Listed buildings.
The Ancient House, Ipswich
But is it too good to be shop?
The tenant incidentally is Lakeland, so it must be their grandest shop.
Manchester To Get a Borken or Kenbor?
In my view the London Mayor has been a success. And I don’t just mean one of them!
They have fought for London and have won the battles to get improvements to London’s transport system.
Two years ago, I put forward my reasons why Manchester needs a mayor, with responsibility for the wider area.
Yesterday, George Osborne said he’d agreed that Manchester should have a mayor.
I’ll believe it when it happens!
But it is certainly overdue and also overdue in Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Nottingham and Newcastle.
I would also add cities and towns with a large population and transport system and probably major strengths or weaknesses.
So that would include at least Blackpool, Brighton and Cambridge!
Should UKIP Supporters Be Called Kippers?
Matt Ridley has an opinion in The Times entitled Spare me the selfishness of the eco-toffs. It is well worth reading, He says this at one point after looking at the profiles of green and UKIP supporters.
In Downton Abbey terms, Greens are a lady upstairs in the dining room; kippers are a footman downstairs in the servants’ hall.
Does this mean you have to be kippered to vote for UKIP?
Whatever it is, it’s a good choice of a word.
It should help Farage with his choice of neckware!
Who’d Be A Clothes Retailer?
According to the Daily Mail, winter clothes aren’t selling as it’s still warm. Here’s the first paragraph.
Indian summer hits M&S and Next clothes sales: Stores unable to shift winter boots and coats because of warm October temperatures.
It doesn’t bother me, as I wear almost the same clothes all year round. I’m always in a short-sleeved shirt, with or without a cashmere jumper from M & S. I do swap cords for chinos if it gets too hot, but I rarely wear shorts. And for nearly eight months now, I’ve worn the same lightweight bomber jacket, as it keeps me dry and has the right format of pockets.
If I’m going somewhere smart, I might wear a 25-year-old sports jacket, which is so unstylish that it gets admired all the time. I wore it at CERN.
I am finding that I’m spending less and less money on clothes. I did think that I might get some new expensive Daks cords for the winter, but when I went to try them on, I found that trendy designers had ruined the design. The fastenings were so complicated, if you had got taken short, you wouldn’t have been able to get your trousers down quick enough. So I decided to buy another pair from M & S.
Because of this inability to buy clothes, I now tend to be ruthless in taking unwanted ones to Oxfam and then buy a replacement in probably M & S.
The only thing I spend money on are belts and bags. I’m still searching for a perfect one of the latter. The trouble is they’re not designed by real people.
Goodbye Darling!
Or good riddance to the MP, who as Chancellor spent £45billion on a bust bank and then proceeded to ruin another one.
How come someone, who has that disaster on his c.v. is still held in such regard?
I wouldn’t trust the man to run my whelk stall!
But then that is politics for you. The mediocre and the downright incompetent get voted in. I’ve met a few MPs, but I’d trust only two with the bus fare home.
How many people, who’ve done real jobs like a doctor, engineer, scientist or teacher are there in parliament? We’re even short on sportsmen and women at present.
After Sol Campbell’s interview in Saturday’s Times, someone should sign him up!
But think about that wasted £45billion!
It is a £1,000 for every man, woman and child in this country.
It would have paid for the Northern Hub, Crossrail, HS3, Glasgow Crossrail and the upgrading of the Great Western Main Line and left quite a few billions over for other worthwhile projects, like training all the people to work on the projects.
The Battles Of Coronel And The Falkland Islands
Thebattles of Coronel and the Falkland Islamds were fought between the Royal and German Navies in the First World War. In 1927 a silent black and white drama/documentary was made telling the story of both battles called the Battles of Coronel and the Falkland Islands.
The British Film Institute have restored the film and on Friday, I went to see it at BFI Southbank.
It is a superb restoration to which has been added a modern score. Usually, when films of this age are restored you see the odd bit of blankness on the screen. But not with this film!
The film is also unusual in that no actors are given any credits, but the Royal Navy ships, who played the actual combatants in both navies are named.
It is a serious reconstruction of the battles, but it is not without dramatic and comic moments.
I thoroughly enjoyed it and it reminded me of when at about eleven or so, I saw the Powell and Pressburger film; The Battle of the River Plate, made about the battle in December 1939. I had seen the film in the Rex cinema in Station Road, Wood Green, which was close to my father’s print works.
It would be interesting to see that again to compare it with the earlier one. Both were made with real warships!
If you want to see the film, but can’t get to a screening it is available for download on the BFI Player.
How Often Do You Recycle?
Charles Clover in The Sunday Times has a thoughtful article about recycling. He says this.
There is an even more substantial obstacle to progress over the road in the shape of Eric Pickles, the communities secretary. Statistics show the best local authorities for recycling have certain things in common — one of them being fortnightly refuse collections. Despite all the evidence, Pickles gives grants to councils that keep weekly collections.
My council, Hackney, collects weekly, where they empty my wheelie bin and collect my green sack of recyclables.
But over the last couple months, I’ve happened to be out on bin day, so I make sure I put out the rubbish at least one week in two.
So is that fortnightly?
Is Blackpool On The Way Up?
In previous visits to Blackpool, I’ve found the place rather depressing and dirty. Generally, I’ve arrived by train, to give myself time to get to the match and then got the first train out afterwards. I have also called Blackpool the most pedestrian-unfriendly resort in the UK.
Also, when I mention I’ve been to Blackpool, like I did once to a lady on a bus in Leeds, I have often got a comment saying no-one goes there now!
But was it the fact that the sun was shining yesterday, that made the place seem so much better. But visitors and residents were adamant that the town had improved in the last few years.
The promenade is so much better and must rate architecturally with some of the best in Europe. Although, I would think that the obvious food offerings, are a bit too gluten-rich for me. If I go again, I might do a bit of searching, to see if anybody can cope.
But living in Dalston, an area of Hackney, that has been transformed by a refreshed North London Line, I would think that Blackpool’s refreshed tramway has done the same for the resort. After all, many of Blackpool’s visitors are like me and not in the best state they could be. Surely, a step-free low-floor tram is one of the best prescriptions, that isn’t available on the NHS.
I think to be fair, we haven’t seen the end of the rise of Blackpool. Just as Liverpool took more than a few years to rise from its nadir, Blackpool won’t get back to the top overnight.
The biggest thing that will happen is connecting the town to the electrified rail network as part of the North West Electrification. Network Rail’s report says this about progress in linking Blackpool to Preston by 2016.
A fully electrified route between Preston and Blackpool will connect the area to the west coast main line, the key rail artery linking the North West with London and Scotland.
We’ve upgraded all 15 bridges whilst carrying out safety improvement work to parapets. Overhead line equipment will be installed in 2015/16.
This electrification should improve the perception of the resort, as refurbished Class 319 trains are so much better and bigger than most of the trains working the line now.
It will also further improve the direct services to Liverpool, Manchester and London.
The tramway should also be linked to Blackpool North station in the next few years, as it should have been years ago. Nothing annoys me more, when I arrive by train in a town or city and find that the buses and/or trams are not connected to the station. Blackpool will rectify this omission, but I hope they get the tram capacity right, as many arriving by train will want to get straight on a tram to perhaps have a sightseeing run up and down the promenade.
One factor affecting the extension of the tramway to Lytham is the Open. Golf has staged its championship four times at Royal Lytham Golf Club in the last twenty-five years. As it last staged an Open in 2012, it should probably be due another. Ansdell and Fairhaven station is close to the course, so if another Open was to be staged at Lytham, then this station would probably play a large part in getting spectators to the event in a carbon-free manner.
I would suspect that Lytham are pushing hard for another Open and they are stressing the 2016-electrification to Preston in their bid. They can probably link an improved train or tram service to the course into the mix as well!
One interesting asset well connected to the trains and the tram is the old Blackpool International Airport, which recently closed. I’m sure that the town will use it to their advantage and I suspect various stakeholders have ideas in mind.
Blackpool has certainly had problems, but I would hope it is now on the rise!
Blackpool’s New Maps And Signs
I’ve criticised Blackpool in the past, as lacking maps and information. But they have at least got started on a visitor-friendly information system.
I think it is true to say, that most of the locals and visitors I talked to, said that the town had been getting better in the last couple of years.
These maps and signs should lead to fewer people getting lost.
But there were no signs pointing you to the trams at the station and the tram stops didn’t have any maps or even information about how you use the tram.
Housing
I have very strong views on housing. Partly I suspect because C and myself and our three boys had such difficulty finding a house in London in the 1970s. That was how we ended up in the Barbican, as we had enough income to rent a flat, but not enough deposit to buy a £7,000 house. Those who reckon today’s housing market is crazy, should read about how difficult in was in the 1960s and 1970s.
We lived in a variety of places including two rented modern flats, two large country properties, which we extended to my designs, another damp fourth floor walk-up flat and a new build estate box.
I feel strongly that housing should be matched to those who live in it, so one person living in a multi-million pound house could be just as scandalous as an empty one.
As a Control Engineer, I believe very much in stable systems and we’ve had a stable housing market bouncing on the bottom for decades, where houses are not matched to needs and because too few are being created, houses are far too expensive.
The general public like this status quo, as they can boast that their house has gone up £50,000 or so, whilst they made you cup of tea.
All new developments like new housing, high speed rail and fracking are opposed by the selfish idiot in the Chelsea tractor, as it might drop their house price.
So what should we do?
1. Every empty dwelling, should be brought back into occupation. Have you ever noticed how many empty flats are above shops?
2. We should give the building industry a good kicking, so that many of these empty dwellings are got ready.
3. Any empty dwelling should be heavily taxed unless it is in the process of being prepared for occupation. Those, who buy-to-leave should be taxed heavily so that they find renting the flat or house to someone who needs it, a much better alternative.
4. A person or family, who has more than one home for solely their personal use, should pay a special tax.
5. There should be no Council Tax discount for those living alone in large dwellings. Why for instance should I get one?
6.Perhaps too, like many European countries, we should pay Capital Gains Tax in some way on our houses.
7.Inheritance Tax drives too much of the housing market. Not only does it create worries for everybody, but it often condemns single elderly people to live in large draughty, energy-inefficient houses, when the best thing to do with the house is demolish it and create several new homes of which the elderly person has the pick! So let’s abolish the tax on principle recidences. However, whatever we do is going to be complicated with tax, so we had better get it right. The politicians who have done good impressions of Nero fiddling while Rome burned since the war, don’t stand a chance as they are all too tied to their vested interests.
8. But above all we need more new dwellings and a lot of those should be affordable. We have some of the best architects in the world in the UK, but underneath the top level, they just produce boring crap and much of it is just Pete Seager’s little boxes, where you park the car outside and live boring lives. C and I had a house like that in the country in the 1960s and we escaped to the damp flat in London.
Above all we must be radical. I was brought up in the suburbs of London and it was boring and bland. So why not clear some of these areas and create housing fit for purpose, that is energy efficient and doesn’t rely on every resident having their own personal car? In many ways, too many cars is one of the biggest problems in this country, as it necessitates that all houses must have space for two.
I don’t want this to turn into the rant of a bitter old man, which I am not! In some ways, it’s a fact that I made my money by inventing disruptive technology, so let’s disrupt the cosy cartel of those with homes, councils of fat-cat Tories or champagne Socialists, who like the certainty of getting elected and a building industry not fit for purpose, that likes big repetitive expensive contracts.
So if we are going to build more dwellings, where should we build them?
Although, it was done in a rather boring way, the development of the new Dalston Junction station, where flats were built over the station was very good. I have heard that Transport for London are rebuilding Dalston Kingsland station. They should be bold and effectively put the North London Line in a tunnel and build gardens and a new square over the top, with tower blocks providing the accommodation. C and I lived in a tower block with three children in the Barbican and it worked. At the present time, we have the architects and design skills to create housing, but those who live near-by don’t want it on their doorstep.
But imagine being a couple with two young children, living high above the city in a modern almost zero-energy flat in the clean air with superb views. To go shopping, you just take the lift to the shops and market below and to travel the same lift takes you into the railway station.
It was almost ideal like that in the Barbican, except that there was no supermarket, as there is today. But we had the market in Whitecross Street.
Every rail station, should have meaningful development over the top. Imagine putting the local hospital on top of a station, so that it is the easiest place in the city to get to.
We need more innovative solutions to our housing crisis, but most of the population still prefer what we have.
I sometimes think that the whole of the economics of this country is driven by the houses we own. Somehow we must break that link and allow everybody to purchase the dwelling that they need.
The Anonymous Widower 