Is This The Worst DIY Superstore In London?
When I used to live in Newmarket, I used the B & Q store in Cambridge a lot. This one in Leyton is my nearest DIY Superstore and it’s only about half-an-hour on a 56 bus.
Is This The Worst DIY Superstore In London?
The staff at Cambridge were helpful and knowledgeable, the store usually had what I wanted and the check-out was quick. On the other hand, Leyton had just one visible person in the store today, there was no-one to ask for what I needed and the check-out queue was long and not moving. So I put the stuff I’d wanted to buy, back on the shelves and left.
I suppose it does have a bus-stop in front, but I doubt I’ll ever go there again.
I’ve Now Got A New Ceiling
My hall had terrible lighting, so I decided to put a false one in to hold some decent lights and be able to take out Jerry’s awful wall lights.
You can see the lights in one of the pictures.
All it needs now is to be plastered and have the lights fitted.
The Cheesegrater
The Cheesegrater is another building under construction.
London seems to have a good naming systems for buildings these days. Do other cities and countries stick the definite article in-front of a nick-name.
London has or might have The Cheesegrater, The Gherkin, The Pinnacle, The Razor, The Shard and The Walkie-Talkie for starters.
The Pinnacle
The Pinnacle is another building going up in London.
Although as the pictures show, construction has halted for the moment. The Cheesegrater is in the background, with the wall of yellow scaffoulding.
The Back Of Moor House
I think this building with the distinctive windows is Moor House.
The Back Of Moor House
It does remind me of Oriel Chambers in Liverpool.
Oriel Chambers
But that building was completed in 1864 or 140 years before Moor House.
Cromwell Tower
I took this picture of Cromwell Tower from where I took the picture of The Heron and CityPoint.
Cromwell Tower
We used to live on the eleventh floor, which is just about the lowest floor visible in the picture.
Considering this tower was built at the end of the 1960s, it is still an iconic and distinct building.
The Heron And CItyPoint
This picture was taken from the Barbican.
The Heron And CItyPoint
CityPoint used to be known as Britannic House and it was a much plainer and brutal building, when we lived in Cromwell Tower. It has since been rebuilt. The Heron is a new residential block, yet to be completed.
The Heron Tower
The Heron Tower is a newly-built skyscraper in the City of London. I can actually see it from my front window, as some of these pictures show.
It is the tallest in London after The Shard. And I like the Heron Tower much better.
An Example Of Jerry’s Wiring
We found what was wrong with the heating this morning. Jerry or more possibly a tenant, has bypassed the controls and wired the underfloor heating valves permanently open.
In other words, they have been set to give someone a good boiling.
An Example Of Jerry’s Wiring
As the picture shows, it wasn’t even wired up properly. Note that the junction box was just screwed around the jumble of wires.
With the valves permanently open, the temperature will of course just rise and rise, as the individual zone controls can’t switch the water off.
Note for safety reasons, I’ve swirched the whole system off, using the big red knob on the right. Once boiled, twice shy.
Would You Live In A Church?
The Church of St. Andrew in Rodney Street in Liverpool has been a ruin for years.
Would You Live In A Church?
But now it’s being converted into a hundred student rooms. For a city with a deep religious feeling, it does seem to be very happy to use old churches for secular purposes. Many of my university exams were taken in redundant ones.
I do like this piece from Wikipedia about the church.
Adjacent to the church in the churchyard is a monument to William Mackenzie, a railway contractor who died in 1851. It is in the shape of a pyramid, is constructed in granite, and was erected in 1868. Facing the street is a blind entrance flanked by uprights supporting a lintel containing a bronze plaque. The structure is a Grade II listed building.
There is a tradition that, as Mackenzie was a gambling man, he sold his soul to the Devil, and that his body was placed in a seating position above ground within the pyramid, in order that the Devil may not claim him. His ghost is said to haunt Rodney Street.
So will Mackenzie be surprising students in their beds?
The Anonymous Widower 