Two Knives From Sheffield At John Lewis
My kitchen knives are rather elderly and blunt, despite proper sharpening, so I thought I’d treat myself to some new ones from John Lewis.
Two Knives From Sheffield At John Lewis
Made in Sheffield, as knives should be! Just like my Sheba cutlery was in the 1960s
Signposts In John Lewis
I saw this set of signposts in the floor of John Lewis today.
Signposts In John Lewis
It’s a good idea. But would a polished brass plate on the pavement attract the light-fingered with crowbars?
What No Flamingos!
John Lewis has opened a roof garden with a little coffee and sandwich hut, high above Oxford Street.
Depending on the weather, it could be a nice place to have a snack.
Sadly they don’t have any flamingos, as Derry and Toms did in their famous roof gardens in Kensington.
I Want One Of These!
I saw this tap in John Lewis today.
I Want One Of These!
I’m going to have one in my kitchen. It’s a Franke Belfast.
My Sort Of Salad
I don’t really like lettuce and other green leaves in salad. This was my lunch yesterday of one of quiches from this post.
My Sort Of Salad
I eat a lot of cooked green vegetables, like spinach and cabbage. But when it comes to lettuce, it’s something that I’m happy to leave to the rabbits, so that they’re nice and large, when I eat them.
Think Quarts Into Pint Pots
London Underground’s Victoria line, may have been a technological triumph for 1968, when it opened as an automatic train line, where the driver doesn’t really drive the train. Although, he or she is the person in charge. Incidentally, when the line opened in 1968 a lot of the electronic control systems used valves rather than transistors. I can remember reading about the line in a copy of Simulation magazine when I worked at ICI around 1970. It was truly cutting-edge world-beating technology in its time.
But you can’t say much for some of the stations, which were built on the cheap and are very much sub-standard compared to the extensions to the Piccadilly Line built in the 1930s.
But now the trains are running at a maximum rate of 34 trains an hour for much of the day, as is reported in this article on Global Rail News. Here’s the first three paragraphs.
London Underground’s Victoria line is now operating 34 trains an hour – ‘the most frequent train service in the UK’.
Peak-time services have been incrementally increasing since the Victoria line upgrade was completed in 2012 from 28 trains an hour to 30, 33 and finally 34.
Passengers now only have to wait two minutes between trains and there are also more trains running the full length of the line from Brixton up to Walthamstow Central.
So in two years capacity has increased by over twenty per cent, mainly by good design and engineering.
I wonder what the engineers, who built the line in 1968, would think of their baby now!
You have to also wonder if by applying the principles used on the Victoria line. could be applied to other lines in the Underground. Upgrades on lines like the Piccadilly have been delayed, but I do think, we’ll see some more squeezed out of the current system.
There are of course things that are being done and as a regular Underground user you tend to feel that the system may be more crowded, but you seem to get fewer delays. Perhaps reliability of trains, power systems and escalators is getting better.
It will also be interesting to see what happens next Monday, when buses go cashless. It might be anywhere between a disaster and a triumph.
At the disaster end of the scale, it will load more passengers onto the Underground.
But if it is a triumph and speeds up the buses, as I think it could, will passengers who can, swap from the cramped and dark Underground to a lighter and more spaceous bus, if it only takes a couple of minutes longer. Living in Hackney with no Underground, I change my route according to which bus arives first. Since the 38 has been run by New Routemasters, it has been effectively cashless, with passengers using the closest and most convenient door and only the few who need to pay using the busier front door by the driver. Certainly, if I want to get to the Angel quickly, I’ll choose a 38, as against a 56, which goes the same way, but is often overtaken, by a succession of New Routemasters.
If cashless buses work well, this will surely hasten the removal of ticket offices on the Underground, with contactless bank cards, supplementing Oyster and Freedom Passes. What differences, will this make to the ridership on the Underground?
The only thing that is certain, is that more quarts will continue to be poured into pint pots all over London’s transport system.
A Taxi With A Phone Charger
I got a taxi home today, as I had a heavy parcel to carry and was surprised to see it was fitted with a mobile phone charger.
A Taxi With A Phone Charger
I didn’t need it, but I like the idea. It’s all described here. Apparently, Voafone, who’ve set it up, has a system, where the taxi fare can be charged to your mobile phone bill.
It’s ideas like this that will be the best defence against Uber, when coupled with the black cab driver’s knowledge.
The latter was illustrated recently in Edinburgh, where although it was a black cab, the driver didn’t have the knowledge that I expect from a driver.
I remember once, C and I were going to a house, in a tucked away square in South London. The driver dropped us in the next street and said there was a litle passage into the square. There was and it was just by our destination by chance.
You don’t get that sort of knowledge from a computer system!
Station Names On Bridges
Network Rail seems to be getting the blue paint out and slapping it on bridges.
As the pictures show, they’re also indicating the station name. Obviously Caldeonian Road and Barnsbury will need a much longer bridge, but The Cally will do.
I’ll add more as I see them.
A Pair Of Poison Free Quiches
Last week I had an excellent quiche from Marks and Spencer.
Today, at the Angel they had two different types; cheese and onion and Lorraine.
A Pair Of Poison Free Quiches
There is no provenance on the quiche Lorraine, but the ones with added poison are made in Yorkshire. So what with the Tour de France in the county next week, are they upping the anchors and moving across the channel?
But it was so nice to have a choice. I’ll have some of the Lorraine for lunch tomorrow and put the cheese and onion in the freezer for a very rainy day, when it’s too much to go to the shops.
The End Of The Line For Crossrail 2?
Southgate is famed in transport and architectural circles for its wonderful Underground station. So you would think, that New Southgate station would be even better and certainly newer.
But you’d be mistaken as these pictures show.
This is the station though, which is now being proposed as one of the northern terminals of Crossrail 2.
I suspect the station will probably be rebuilt, even if Crossrail 2 doesn’t use it as a terminus, as it must be one of the worst examples of corrugated iron stations in the country.
I can’t say I can remember ever catching a train from New Southgate Station, until today, when I returned to Central London. I also don’t think I’ve ever taken a train to the station either, although I’ve been on trains through the station countless times.
It does appear that there is space for another platform either side of the current station, which must be the minimum if the station is to be a terminus for Crossrail 2.
Travelling back in to London after taking the pictures, I can understand, the proposed change of terminus to the station from Alexandra Palace. There’s just so much more space to put a depot if one is needed. New Southgate would also allow a future development of Crossrail 2, to use the Hertford Loop as another branch.
Looking at the map, as New Southgate station is close to the North Circular Road and is generally surrounded by industrial estates, although there is some housing, there would be scope to probably create a really good transport interchange with a large bus station and perhaps even a tram line along the North Circular Road from Brent Cross to Enfield or Southgate. If nothing else, all of the work should result in the notorious bottleneck on the road being eased.
The Anonymous Widower 