Walking Along Tottenham High Road
From Bruce Grove, I walked up Tottenham High Road, intended to get as far as White Hart Lane station.
There is some sign of looting and arson.
The Gutted Aldi Store on Tottenham High Road
This Aldi store had seen its last, but on the other side of the road, things were different.
Opposite the Gutted Aldi Sore in Tottenham High Road
The criminality seems to have been very selective. This Grade II Listed building at 639, seems to have been untouched except for the windows.
639 Tottenham High Road
But had they been boarded up before? Let’s hope someone finds a worthwhile use for the building.
It was just opposite the Carpetright store, that is now completely flattened.
One thing I noticed was that the bus and location maps that are so common in Hackney and Islington seemed to be totally missing from the bus stops.
An Almost Information-Free Bus Stop
As this area gets more visitors than most because of Tottenham Hotspur, surely they should be on every bus stop. And whilst on the subject of buses, there are not too many light-controlled crossings in the area, which doesn’t make it the most pedestrian-friendly of areas, as often to get to your bus stop, you need to brave the traffic.
Hackney Downs Station
I wanted to go to Tottenham today, to answer a few questions that had arisen in my mind after the trip yesterday to IKEA.
I started at Hackney Downs station.
To say it is a dump would not be fair, as I suspect that staff try hard to keep a station that has lacked investment for years, working well.
It could be a very good station and I think it could be made into a major interchange by just a few changes and perhaps by borrowing ideas from the Overground.
The access to the platforms, which is by steep staircases, must be improved. I’m not disabled, but do appreciate the problems of those who are. In a wheelchair, unless accompanied by say four of Her Majesty’s squaddies, you wouldn’t stand a chance.
It is dark and dingy too and desperately in need of an imaginative repainting. Hackney has lots of artists, so perhaps they could help or design a scheme. Has a station ever been converted into an art gallery? I know the Musee d’Orsay was formerly a station, but they threw the trains out. Babies and bathwaters come to mind.
How about adding a food shop and a coffee bar?
The interface to the buses underneath the station is poor, as the picture in the gallery shows. There should be a light-controlled crossing over Dalston Lane.
But there is a lot going for the station.
It is close to the open space of Hackney Downs.
It is well served by services going to Enfield, Tottenham, Chingford, Cheshunt, Hertford and of course, Liverpool Street.
A walkway did link it to Hackney Central and this could be reinstated to create a true rail interchange for Hackney.
Getting To And From The Race
Getting to the cycle race in London today was easy. I just took a 38 bus, got off at Cambridge Circus and then walked through to The Mall.
Not at any time, was I told that the bus was being diverted, although once I got off, I realised this was the case as it didn’t go down Shaftesbury Avenue, but meandered around Trafalgar Square and on to Victoria via Whitehall.
It was coming back that I had the problem, as no-one had any clue where I could pick up a northbound 38 towards the romantic, Clapton Pond. There was one diversion sign for the drivers, but none indicating where the stops were. To make matters worse, entry to Charing Cross station seemed impossible.
In the end I decided to go to Tottenham Court Road and get a Central Line train to Bank. I did find a 29 bus that took me part of the way and dropped me north of the station.
I thought that at Bank, I could get a bus home, but the stop was closed, with the helpful sign, that it would close from the 2nd August until further notice.
A Helpful sign on a Bus Stop
It just said go to the next stop on the route. I was lucky in that a bus arrived and the driver let me on unofficially. But what if you’d been a lost tourist told to take a bus from the stop.
Transport for London must get their signage right when they divert buses. Not everyone knows the bus network, as well as I do!
A Saturday Morning Routine
There are two radio programmes, I like to listen to on Saturday morning; Danny Baker and the unsporting quiz, Fighting Talk, as they appeal to my unusual sense of humour.
The trouble is that if I’m going to football, as I am today, it doesn’t really leave much time for me to get to the shops, as I have to leave by about midday to get the train.
So this morning, I got to the Angel, by bus at just after 8:30. I actually took a seventy-free, as if you sit at the back and get out of the rearmost door, it’s much easier to walk to the four shops, Carluccio’s and the physio, that I visit at the Angel.
Today, it was just Boots for some rat poison, Marks and Spencer for some gluten-free sarnies for the train and a beef Stroganoff for tonight and Waitrose for two large carriers of heavy stuff like alcohol and Coke. I went to Waitrose first and found that if I shopped immediately, could get it delivered before the start of Fighting Talk at 11:00. I think I rather caught them on the hop, but hopefully it’ll come on time. But I do have two hours of total float in my critical path, so if they come by one I’m OK.
The only problem, was that Marks didn’t have the gluten-free sandwiches, but then I’ll pass three of their shops that stock them on the way to Liverpool Street. If they don’t have any, then I shall complain. If there aren’t any, it’s probably because they are too good and all those food fadists on a gluten-free kick have snaffled them!
I was back home listening to Danny Baker by ten o’clock.
It sounds like I’ll be repeating this on Saturdays in the future.
The routine could be even better, if Carluccio’s opened at 8:00 for breakfast on Saturday, as they do in the week.
Update at 11:20 – Waitrose have just delivered, so I have plenty of time to catch the train to Ipswich, after scouring Marks for some gluten-free sandwiches.
Thinking about this post. When C and I lived near Newmarket we would go shopping early, often visit one of our horses in traing and then we’d generally be back home around eleven.
I suppose, I’m only repeating what we did together by myself. In some ways, it was easier in Suffolk, as Waitrose opened earlier. But then I had to carry the shopping from the car to the hall. Here, that is all done by the van driver from Waitrose.
Who said manners and service are dead.
Fuel Prices
After my stroke, I gave up driving and moved to a highly-insulated house in Dalston.
If you don’t like fuel costs, then move somewhere, where you don’t need a car and your house has affordable and efficient central heating.
I do all my shopping either on the Internet or by bus. I even go to IKEA on a bus and that is real fun!
The Cambridge Busway at Cambridge Station
I went to Cambridge on my way to football at Ipswich yesterday. The infamous Cambridge Busway is now open.
As you can see from the pictures, there would appear to be a lot of work to do, to make the walking experience between the trains and the buses a lot easier.
Cambridge Busway Gets Smart
From the day it opens, the Cambridge Busway will have its own smartcard.
It was inevitable, as having two separate operators with their own systems was idiotic, as I pointed out months ago.
Let’s hope Cambridge integrates the busway into the new universal ticketing proposed by the banks.
Will Electric Cars Ever Hack It?
I'[ve always had my doubts about electric cars and on BBC Breakfast, Rory Cellan-Jones was showing a new charging system, to help you do long journeys in an electric car.
As someone, who used to enjoy driving but doesn’t now, I’m rapidly coming to the point, where I think in the next few years many people will come to my decision and almost abandon cars completely.
Electric cars will not be the solution, unless they dsolve the range and cost problems, so they will only be for those who just can’t break their habit of driving everywhere. They will also probably only work if they are small and I doubt we’ll ever see an electric Range Rover.
On the other hand, where electric power and more efficient hybrid power will work is in larger vehicles, like buses and delivery trucks. Where I live some of the buses are hybrid and people like them because they are smoother and quieter than normally powered buses.
But we will change our lifestyles much more than you think.
As an example, these are things I do to avoid driving.
- I get my big grocery shopping done at Waitrose in Upper Street in the normal way and then they just bring it round an hour or so later. Even if I had a car, it would be less efficient and I’d to drive several miles to find a supermarket with a car park.
- I walk to the end of my road to the Overground and can get a train or tube to virtually anywhere in London, quicker than I could drive.
- For local trips, there are several efficient bus routes.
- Larger deliveries are easy, as delivery vehicles can park outside to unload.
So whether electric cars do hack it, I suspect that there are so many ideas to avoid driving, that they won’t be needed.
First and Second Class Buses
The London bus route 73, is one of the last of the dreaded bendy ones and hasn’t got too much longer. Today I was going to the Angel and one of Ken’s chariots of fire arrived followed by a 476.
At the stop with me were several kids, who made their way down the bus so they could use the rear entrance of the seventy-free far from the gaze of the driver.
As the 73 was very crowded, probably with non-fare payers, I walked past it to the 476 behind and had the bus almost to myself.
Who says there is no class system on London buses?
Through The Angel,Islington On a 30 Bus
I took this video in the style of Mitchell and Kenyon, from the top of a 30 bus, as it went through the Angel at Islington.
Note the tram washing shed on the right, which is now the Jack Wills store and the statue of Hugh Myddelton on Islington Green.
In the end, I got off to go to the Carluccio’s on Upper Street.
