Improving the High Street
I have two High Streets close to me, Upper Street at the Angel in Islington and the Kingsland Road in Dalston.
I would use them more, but the trouble with both of them, is that they are just too cluttered to navigate easily.
At the Angel the problem is chuggers, who always want to stop me. I just make sure, I don’t give to the charities they promote. On the Kingsland Road it’s the endless boards put up to block the pavements by the various money and pound shops.
I’m sure more people would go to the various High Streets in this country, if it was easier to walk between the places you want to go. Because of this, when I go to either the Angel or the Kingsland Road, I usually go to visit a specific place like Waitrose or the station and usually plan my walking route carefully, so I avoid the main road.
It is also interesting to compare the centre of Liverpool, with say Oxford Street. The former is pedestrianised and it is a joy to walk around with no traffic, whereas the second is a nightmare and no wonder it’s such a dump, with just a few good shops, like John Lewis, Selfridges and M & S, standing out from the dross.
I can’t remember the last time, I bought anything in Oxford Street, except at those stores!
Yesterday, Oxford Street had been blocked off and effectively pedestrianised and it was so much better.
An RF Bus and the Wombles
The only obstruction was this RF or Regal Four bus and the Wombles.
I didn’t actually buy anything though.
On the subject of buses, which are very important in getting people to the shops, at The Angel, they have two big lay-bys on either side of the road, which accommodate the bus stops. So if I’m going to say Waitrose, it’s just get off the 38, 56 or 73 bus, walk across the road on a light-controlled crossing and then I’ve just a few metres from the shop. Going home, I don’t even have to cross the road and just walk down a few steps to the bus stop. The system works well and could probably be implemented in many places. But then they’ve lost a few car parking spaces. But then how many normal unselfish people drive in Islington?
They could certainly improve the bus access and walking routes on the Kingsland Road, which would probably improve the interchange between the two Dalston stations.
The problem in both these High Streets, is that they can be improved, but usually the motorist is the one to be inconvenienced. I should say, that in both places, there are car parks, close to the High Streets.
Six Arrests in Phishing Scam
I was pleased to see this article on the BBC web site.
I suspect it might have been the result of one of the two phishing scams aimed at students, that I flagged up earlier in the year.
Both were fairly well designed scams and the success, shows how people are vulnerable, when they are embarking on a new phase in their life.
The perpetrators were caught this time, and hopefully new students will be more careful next year.
Jams In The West End
There has been a lot of controversy lately about the City of Westminster, bringing in parking charges in the evenings and on Sundays. Here ‘s a report from the Telegraph.
It seems to me that most of the opposition is led by celebrities such as Peter Stringfellow, who claim they are worried about jobs and of course where to park their own limos and excessive people carriers.
As I said the 38 bus was delayed getting to Shaftesbury Avenue and it took half an hour to travel the last bit from Bloomsbury. My progress after alighting from the bus, wasn’t helped by the fact that a coach was parked on the pavement, making both walking and driving difficult.
After the play it was worse and getting back up Shaftesbury Avenue was not easy, as drivers were blocking pavement and trying to go at speed into and out of the side roads. It wasn’t helped by the fact, that a large number of police cars and ambulances were trying to get through.
I finally got to the stop for the 38 bus and after checking by text, I found I had seven minutes to wait.
Whilst waiting you realised that what was holding up the traffic was the vast number of cycle rickshaws, which were illegally touting at the bus stops. A guy in the queue near me, who had the aura of a taxi-driver, said that mos of the rickshaws aren’t insured and he wouldn’t go near them. He was actually a van driver, who’d had a nght out with his family and was also waiting for a 38. There’s more on illegal rickshaws here.
It was also a night, when I wished I’d had my camera with me, as I would ave got a picture of a 19 bus, seemingly pushing a rickshaw slowly along the road.
Finally, I got my 38 back to the local stop.
So what would I do to improve matters?
It would appear that the 38 bus, might be one of the first routes to get the new Routemaster in 2012. Certainly, as they are quicker to board and exit, they should help a bit. Banning the rickshaws from bus lanes would also help.
I’ve always been in favour of pedestrianising Oxford Street or perhaps building a raised walkway above the middle of the street to speed people from Tottenham Court Road to Marble Arch and perhaps relieve the Central line. Although a bit to the north of theatreland, it would make it easier to get to Soho and then come south to Shaftesbury Avenue. My thoughts on the walkway are in this post.
I think I would make a large area of Soho a pedestrian only zone, as this would increase the capacity of the area dramatically. And the more visitors it gets, the more money gets spent. Perhaps, small electric buses could be used on the north-south routes to move people about.
But perhaps what will help most is already being built; CrossRail. Although it only goes to Tottenham Court Road and Bond Street stations, the high-capacity trains will probably run later than the Underground and they will at least get a lot of West End traffic away after the theatres and shows finish. I would run a shuttle service through from say Stratford to Heathrow to aid those, like essential workers, who had to travel in the middle of the night.
It has always puzzled me why there is no Underground station at Cambridge Circus. Perhaps the walking routes to Leicester Square and Tottenham Court Road stations need to be improved.
The Ladykillers
I went to see The Ladykillers last night.
Shaftesbury Avenue is very easy for me, as I just got on a 38 bus all the way. Although, I did think of walking the last kilometre or so, as the traffic was so bad, as all the world and his wife, seemed to be driving into the West End.
The play was really worth seeing, with one of the most spectacular and innovative sets, I’ve ever seen in the theatre. The story and script stuck very much to that of the film, although with a few modern changes. I hadn’t realised before but the original very English screenplay had been written by an American, William Rose, who dreamt the whole thing and then wrote it down with the help of his wife, when he awoke. He later went on to write Guess Who’s coming to Dinner?
Bankers Get Their Just Desserts
I like this story in The Times about how Bob Diamond has fired some of the jerks in Barclays. Remember that Mr. Diamond has dual British-American nationality so he obviously knows the British equivalent of jerk. I wonder if he called them all a wunch of bankers as he gave them their P45s.
I particularly liked this bit.
Mr Diamond referred to an infamous episode in 2002, when six Barclays bankers celebrating their bonuses spent £44,000 at the London restaurant Petrus, as “the no jerk rule personified”.
“That was embarrassing,” he said. “It was taking advantage — we have a responsibility to our colleagues and to have acted that way in a public place was inexcusable.”
The bankers consumed a 1982 Montrachet costing £1,400 and three bottles of Petrus Pomerol, the 1945 at £11,600, the 1946 at £9,400, and the 1947 at £12,300. There was also a dessert wine, costing £9,200. The restaurant threw in the food for free.
They may have got their food free, but did that include desserts. There’s more details of it here on the BBC.
30 Pieces of Spam
This morning the blog had thirty inappropriate comments, that all linked to stes, I would only endorse with large amounts of crinkly blue notes in a brown paper parcel.
As ever the WordPress spam filter trapped them all. And I have just despatched them to cyber-oblivion.
Boris on the Euro Crisis
Boris Johnson is always quotable, but this is one of his best.
The EU’s move to protect the euro might “save the cancer rather than the patient”.
Where would newspapers be without Boris?
The Olympic Torch is Going to Dublin
I didn’t realise this, until I read this article in the Irish Times.
But then the Irish always like a good party.
And I’ve always found, that the English often get on better with the Southern Irish, than they do with the Scots and the Northern Irish.
Hampstead Heath Station
I went to Hampstead Heath station on the North London line yesterday.
It has been updated with some original artwork. The work is entitled Evenings’ Hill and it is by Clare Woods.
Whilst I was waiting, two freight trains passed through in opposite directions. Not unusually on the North London line, but it did seem a bit strange. One was full of new Ford vehicles.
All the station needs now is a pair of lifts. But it’s a big improvement on the station I first used about ten years ago.
Technology Means It Would Be Easier to Leave the Euro Than It Was To Join
When I wrote the piece about Michael Spencer’s thoughts on the drachma, I didn’t think the whole thing through. I didn’t think about all the new notes that would need to be printed and the conversion of cash machines.
But this article sets it all out. It also contains this interesting paragraph.
“It also rather depends on how individual institutions adapted their systems to the original change-over to the euro,” says Lewis. “My guess is that many organisations in Greece might simply have put a converter around their existing systems, rather as some UK companies did when we went decimal in 1971 – we discovered in the run-up to the year 2000 that at least one major insurance company’s accounts were still running in pounds, shillings and pence!”
So we were still using £sd in 2000. I’ll also admit that in some of the systems I’ve programmed, where we displayed data in Iranian dates or Korean currency, what went on underneath wasn’t pretty. But it worked!
So how did I find the article. A friend told me that De La Rue were printing drachma notes. So I used Google and found that Greece would probably use its own security printer.
Although the De La Rue share price was up by one percent today.
The Anonymous Widower 