What Is Happening At Highbury Corner?
Highbury Corner is a notorious junction, which I used to avoid when I drove, as it could often cause a lot of delay.
These pictures show barriers going up and the crossing outside Highbury and Islington station.
It would also appear that a new crossing is being built about fifty metres up Holloway Road. The guy in the paper shop told me that the main crossing will be closed and that the old Post Office will be demolished. I found this summary of the works here on the TfL web site. All the work is to replace a weak bridge and it says this about the old Post Office in particular.
The empty Post Office building needs to be demolished, and we expect to start work in the week beginning Monday 5 January 2015. The demolition work will be completed by March 2015.
We will make every effort to minimise the impact of noise and dust during the demolition.
The footpaths next to the old Post Office will remain open, although hoardings around the demolition site will make the footpaths narrower. This might create some crowding at busy times, impacting journeys in and out of the station.
In 2015, the main works to replace the bridge will begin.
I think it will be a good idea for pedestrians and drivers to avoid the area until 2017, when the article says that the bridge works will be complete.
The station is at a location where development would surely be worthwhile. Especially, if it put right all of the mistakes of the 1960s, which produced a Victoria Line station for the fit, agile and young. Below ground it’s a dump!
At least though it would appear that the western side of the roundabout will have reduced traffic levels and bus/Underground/Overground connections will be easier. The centre of the roundabout with its trees would also be opened up to the public.
My hopes for the bus/train interchange would include.
1. The 277 bus go right around to terminate in front of the station, ready to pick up passengers arriving at the station.
2. Easy interchange at the station from the 277 to either the 43 or the 271 to go north up Holloway Road towards Archway, Highgate and Barnet. At present you need to use two light-controlled crossings to cross two busy main roads, to affect the change.
3. The reverse journey on a southbound 43 or 271 to catch a 277 eastwards is probably more difficult, unless the buses cut through the western side of the roundabout.
But I think, I’m asking for too much!
I doubt though the development will be as grand as the original.
The Old Highbury and Islington Station
The entry on Wikipedia says this about the history of the station building.
The NLR station was damaged by a V-1 flying bomb on 27 June 1944, however, its main building remained in use until it was demolished in the 1960s during the building of the Victoria line. The original westbound platform buildings remain, as does a small part of the original entrance to the left of the present station entrance.
The Victoria Line might have had world leading automatic train operation when it opened, but most of the architecture and building of the stations, was some of the worst in the UK in the 1960s.
A Must-Read For All Ipswich Fans
This interview in the East Anglian Daily Times with Luke Chambers gives a deep insight into the team and its dynamics.
Reading this, I do sometimes wonder that Mick McCarthy’s biggest skill is finding players that will get on with the others.
I think this season, I’ve hardly seen a difference of opinion on the field between players, even when they’ve given away a silly goal or even lost!
I believe that if this spirit stays they might even be able to at least draw at Carrow Road! To many fans a result against Norwich City is more important than promotion.
An Impressive Visualisation
The Croxley Rail Link is a major project to improve the links of the Metropolitan line into Watford and connect the line to Watford Junction station.
Out of curiosity I looked at this 3d visualisation of the new link.
I found it very impressive.
Note the following.
1. After Croxley station, the line bends away to the right on a viaduct.
2. At present the line goes straight on at this point to the current Watford station. This line will become a siding, when the Croxley Rail Link is built.
3. As the Grand Union Canal is crossed, this is in the area of this post.
4. Ascot Road station shown in the visualisation is now to be called Cassiobridge station.
5. The next station is Watford Vicarage Road, which serves the football ground and the hospital.
6. The existing Watford DC Line of the London Overground joins before Watford High Street station, from where the two lines share the same track to Watford Junction.
Hopefully, I’ll still be here and can try this route for real to get to the football ground in 2017.
But I don’t think that the project will be implemented as is currently planned. The Watford Observer is reporting that London Underground is taking over the responsibility for the project and I think this will result bin some changes, most likely for the better.
1. Some parties want Watford station to stay open. As it will be possible to run trains from the Croxley Rail Link through Rickmansworth and on to Amersham, could a shuttle be introduced between Amersham and Watford stations? There is a precedent for this type of arrangement in that there is a shuttle between Dalston Junction and New Cross stations on the East London Line. The main purpose is to increase the service frequency on the core of the line through the Thames Tunnel.
2. Both Amersham and Chalfont & Latimer stations are served by Chiltern Railways, who may want to put their view forward.
3. Could the changes mean that costs rise further and a delay is introduced into the project?
Is Teddy Bishop Like Ray Wilkins?
Not my idea, but in this report on the BBC, Ipswich legend; Mick Mills compares Teddy Bishop to Ray Wilkins.
“He’s like a quarterback,” Mills told BBC Radio Suffolk.
“He’s so young to be doing that sort of thing. I remember playing with Ray and that is all he would do – never going beyond the ball but always supporting.”
I never saw Wilkins play so I can’t judge Mills’s statement.
However, the build-up to the second goal against Middlesbrough, where Bishop exchanged several close passes with David McGoldrick amongst others, and then the pinpoint curving and teasing cross was exactly what you might have expected from a certain David Beckham in his prime. But then so many of today’s young players have grown up watching Beckham, so how many have decided to follow his example?
One of the most important parts of football is the taking of corners and free-kicks, as properly taken they can lead to a goal and if taken badly they just give the ball away.
This season, Ipswich have improved in this area, with several players now taking corners that have led to quite a few goals. But the biggest surprise was one match, where Bishop was assigned to take the corners. In all my years of watching football, I’ve never seen the baby in a team given that job. Did Beckham and Gerrard take the corners, when they broke through into the first team?
The taking of corners, says that he has already earned that most rare of accolades from his team-mates; trust!
He’s certainly one of the best eighteen-year-olds, who’s come through the youth system at Ipswich.
How far he’ll go only time will tell!
Bills Gluten-Free Restaurant
I’ve passed Bill’s Restaurant at The Angel several times on the bus, but as it’s not on any of my walking routes between the tube station, the buses and any of the shops I use regularly, so I’d never checked it out.
Then today, I was looking for some string bags for Christmas present bags and I found that the restaurant sold them at a couple of quid a time. So I popped in to get them and try out the food at lunchtime.
I shall go again, as it’s well-placed for the M&S, Boots and Waitrose, I use several times a week. It’s also got decent wi-fi and is ideally placed to visit if I’m coming home on the bus from say Euston or Kings Cross.
The great thing about this chain, is that they have branches everywhere!
Only In Liverpool
I like this story of a grey seal that has been found in the middle of a field in St. Helens seventeen miles from the nearest coastline.
Liverpool is a city, where fun is never far from peoples’ minds.
As it contains a video of a man with a broom trying to move a large sea mammal, everyone in the city will be trying to write an appropriate joke.
When the story broke, someone high-up in Boots was on the radio and he suggested that some of their up-market trout pate would be good for the seal.
Two Nose-To-Nose Turtles
Turtle seems to be becoming the nickname for the new Class 68 locomotives.
Two Nose-To-Nose Turtles
I spotted these two in the sidings alongside the Chiltern Line. There will be a total of twenty-five delivered to the UK in the current order and they will be followed by the Class 88, which is a locomotive than can either use electrical or diesel power.
The purpose of the unusual power arrangement of the Class 88, is so that on a journey say from Felixstowe to Acton, it can use electrical power for most of the journey with short runs using the diesel engine at the start and finish. In passenger duty they could be used on a run like London to Norwich under electrical power and then under diesel power to Great Yarmouth.
The politicians may have dithered over electrification, so engineers have come up with an electric locomotive, that can jump the gaps.
Merry Christmas From Chiltern Trains
I photographed this at Marylebone.
Merry Christmas From Chiltern Trains
I’m surprised I haven’t seen this before as the Class 165 trains were built twenty years ago and have been refurbished since.
Decadence?
I took this picture with my waterproof camera this morning of the newly installed Aquavision television in my bathroom.
Decadence?
What the picture doesn’t show is the two naked blonde handmaidens giving me glasses of champagne and gluten-free bacon sandwiches!
Would Extending The Gospel Oak to Barking Line Unlock Land For Development?
If the Gospel Oak To Barking Line (GOBlin) is extended to Hounslow, it looks like it will branch off the current line at Junction Road, to join the Midland Main Line through West Hampstead Thameslink and on to the Dudding Hill Line for Old Oak Common and Acton.
This map shows the lines to the east of Gospel Oak station towards Kentish Town.
Railways Between Gospel Oak and Kentish Town
The GOBlin runs across the top, with the other orange line being the North London Line. Across the bottom of the picture there is the Midland Main Line. The link between the GOBlin and the Midland Main Line is clearly shown., but note that the area to the east of this link is industrial. It is the headquarters and main London site of the Murphy Group.
Think about the area in the triangle defined by the railways to the east of Gospel Oak station and further east towards Kentish Town.
1. In my A-Z, the area is a big white space.
2. When Thameslink is complete, there will probably some release of land near Kentish Town station.
3. An extended and electrified GOBlin could have a station in this area, giving any new developments better transport links. This station could also give an interchange to the North London Line. This would be a better interchange than the current one at Gospel Oak station.
4. One of the reasons given for linking the GOBlin at Junction Road to the Northern Line at Turnell Park tube station, is to link the GOBlin to a North-South route. But an extended GOBlin going through a properly sorted West Hampstead Interchange, gives passengers access to a multiplicity of North-South routes, including Thameslink, Chiltern, North London line and the Underground.
5. Unless it is needed for freight trains, the stub of the line to Gospel Oak might be closed.
6. The northern part of the site could be linked in a sympathetic way to Parliament Hill Fields. There could even be a green walk to the new station, if one is built.
7. There used to be a link to allow trains coming west on the GOBlin to go South on the Midland Main Line. If there was a need for it, then it could be reinstated.
There is every reason to believe in the next few years, Transport for London will extend the GOBlin and if they do, this site’s development potential could be fully unlocked.
The Anonymous Widower 