Will Young Talks Sense
Will Young writes an opinion in The Times today, that everyone should read. Here’s the second paragraph.
There are so many theories being bandied around as to why young people reacted as they did. Modern Britain is a blamocracy: people look to pass the buck. Governments, we are told, have created a society of idleness, in which a mood of entitlement has fermented. Add to this the onward march of capitalism, family breakdown and a fettered education sector and things look bleak.
I bet he doesn’t get called in by David Cameron.
He’s so right about how we all live in a blamocracy.
Getting On Our Bikes
According to this report on the BBC, cycling is booming, with several millions of extra cyclists.
This can only be good. It’s certainly taking off down here in london, but it taking off in the same way everywhere. It would be nice to see a breakdown of the statistics by county and city.
Let’s Get Gaddafi To The Hague
I suspect that the cruel and idiotic Gaddafi has a few tricks up his sleeves yet. But wouldn’t it be a victory for everybody, especially the Libyan people, if he felt the respected justice of the International Criminal Court.
If they’re short of cells, he could share with some of the other dictators and war criminals under arrest in The Hague. They all deserve each other.
The Man Who Could Have Changed History
I’m half watching a play about Hitler. But I’m finding it a bit difficult to follow, probably because of the hay fever’s effect on my hearing.
It is set in or about 1930 and I am reminded of another tale. It is in Lord Howard de Walden’s obituary in The Guardian.
He inherited 120 acres of London’s west end and bred and owned the 1985 Derby winner, Slip Anchor. But the story he loved to dine out on was when, as a young Cambridge student fresh out of Eton, he was driving a new car in Munich when a man walked out in front of him and was knocked down. “He was only shaken up,” recalled de Walden. “But had I killed him, it would have changed the history of the world.” The man was Adolf Hitler.
I never actually met him, but I knew a few people who worked for him, who never said any word about him that wasn’t complimentary. My last vision of him was shortly before he died, sitting in state in a wheel-chair at Newmarket races, immaculately turned out ciomplete with apricot coloured socks; his racing colours as suggested by Augustus John.
The Overground Connection to the Lea Valley Line at Seven Sisters
I tried to take a picture of the Gospel Oak to Barking Line of the Overground, as I passed over it, just before I got to Seven Sisters station whilst travelling to Bruce Grove today.
The Overground Passing Under the Lea Valley Line South of Seven Sisters
It was not good and neither was the one of the I took of Seven Sisters South junction that connects the two lines.
Seven Sisters South Junction
Some might argue that an interchange station here would be a good thing. Or perhaps that some trains from Enfield might use this junction to get to Barking and other places in East London.
I wouldn’t! But I would make the walk from Seven Sisters station to South Tottenham station as easy as possible. According to Wikipedia, there is a shorter route that is not well signposted.
So often improvements in many things can be brought about by decent signs, maps or a few litres of well-applied paint. Perhaps when we signpost an area, we should involve the teenagers. They know all the short-cuts and those places that are dangerous.
Personalised Spider Bus Maps
London’s spider bus maps are good and are starting to be copied by other places. This is the one for Bruce Grove and Bruce Castle.
I think it would be rather nice if you could create personalised ones, so that you could show all the routes to or from your house or business.
Returning from Bruce Castle
I didn’t come back by train, but took a 243 bus direct to Dalston Junction station.
A Well-Appointed Bus Stop at Bruce Castle
As you can see, the bus stop by the museum was well appointed.
The buses are so much easier than the trains. And also the climb up the stairs is optional and only is used to get a better view from the front.
Memories of Wood Green
I walked up to Bruce Castle Museum from Bruce Grove station early this afternoon. It was not a difficult walk and there are some buildings worth looking at on the way.
Luke Howard, Namer of Clouds Lived Here
This rather derelict building being refurbished was the home of Luke Howard. He seems to have been an amazing man with a wide degree of scientific interests, who should be remembered for a lot more than his classification of clouds. He must also have been the only pharmacist praised in a poem by Goethe.
But Howard gives us with his clear mindThe gain of lessons new to all mankind;That which no hand can reach, no hand can claspHe first has gained, first held with mental grasp.
I suspect too, that he might have been the Howard after whom the local telephone exchange in Enfield was named. Enfield Rolling Mills, who were my father’s biggest customer and where I worked for a couple of summers, had a phone number of Howard 1255. There is a list of all the old London exchange names here.
I enjoyed the museum, as it brought back some happy memories for me. I will be back.
- C’s godmother and her sister had worked at the Gestetner factory in Tottenham Hale and had a flat which would have been in the middle of the riots, although it looked like no damage was done. They were a lovely pair of sisters, who’d had a hard life, but who always remained cheerful to the end. They both lived into their eighties and still had all their marbles when they died. But I think, if they’d had the sort of healthcare that we get now, they might have had a few more years. Both seemed to keep falling over and breaking thighs and other bones.
- One memory the museum brought back was a tale from my grandmother about the Belgian refugees, who were put up in Alexandra Palace after the First World War.
- I can also remember the Monday evening crowds swarming past my father’s printworks on Station Road to the racecourse. Someone used to setup a Crown and Anchor board to fleece punters before they even got to the races, outside the works on Station Road. If the police turned up he allowed them to duck inside, provided they put a couple of notes in the charity box my father had on the counter.
- I also saw the inside of a pub for the first time at about eight, when my father used to take me for lunch on Saturdays to the Jolly Anglers in Station Road, when we both worked in the works.
- When we were at school, we often drive to Ally Pally to have a drink, as no-one seemed to bother how old you were in the bar there. You would then take your drinks out and sit on the grass to admire one of the best views in London.
- In the museum was a display, which had some stationery from Ward’s Stores at Seven Sisters. In the early 1960s, I used to work in a paper shop, who delivered them to Mr. Ward. Rumours had it, that he was dying of something and was getting a bottle of Scotch a day on the NHS.
Next time I visit, I’ll have a serious look at the archives.
More Dangerous Staircases
I went to Bruce Castle Park again today to see the museum. I took a few more pictures of staircases to go with the previous ones at Stoke Newington and White Hart Lane.
I had a brief chat with one couple with a baby in a buggy. They weren’t impressed with the staircases either.
Perry Is George Bush on Steroids
That was said by John Morgan, a professional impersonator as he sees Perry as an equally rich seam to be milked for all its worth. Here’s the story.
Good luck to him! But not to the odious Rick Perry!
I like this quote on Rick Perry, by Bruce Bartlett, who was an advisor to Ronald Reagan.
Rick Perry’s an idiot and I don’t think anyone would disagree with that.
It’s funny how in United States politics, the scum always seems to float to the surface.
The Anonymous Widower 