Hurrying to Portman Road
The weather today was awful and I didn’t take my time or any detours from the station to Portman Road. I also needed the toilet urgently. But at least the latter are very good compared to some grounds I’ve visited.
Surprising Barnsley
Some of the places I’ve visited on my travels like Scunthorpe and Middlesbrough could not be described as places that make the most of what they’ve got.
What I would find, as I went north on my train from St. Pancras, I did not know.
I actually travelled north with three young Millwall supporters, who were supporting their team at Sheffield. When I said, that I’d had a stroke, one of them said his brother had too. At just 16 too! So we can’t all be too careful, can we?
But the Interchange station at Barnsley was a surprise.
Barnsley Interchange
Very often, stations are badly designed and in the wrong place in the town, with poor interchanges to other modes of transport.
Cambridge is a classic example, in that it’s some way from the city centre, the buses to get aren’t obvious and also for the amount of trains that call at it, it isn’t big enough. I suspect too, that the ill-fated busway will have a terrible interchange, when surely one of the reasons for the busway, should have been to get passengers to the trains. But trains and buses operate under different budgets and compete with each other, when they should be complimentary.
There is no such problem in Barnsley in that the station lies alongside the town centre and contains not only the train station, but the bus station as well. The football ground, Oakwell, is a ten minute walk the other way.
Barnsley Signs
Signage, as so often could be better and more numerous, but then it’s difficult to miss Oakwell. But at least in Barnsley the signage is there, which can’t be said for Edinburgh, which is supposed to be a tourist destination.
You actually walk up a hill to the ground and then approach it downhill, through what is a grassed car park.
Walking Down to Oakwell
In some ways the approach is more like one you find at small non-league stadia, rather than one that incoprates 23,000 spectators.
The football was a bit disappointing in that Ipswich gave away a winning lead in the last minute.
But all-in-all, it was a good day out! I felt especially good as I walked up the hill towards the station without a hint of being out of breath. Perhaps it was the sun, that we’d enjoyed all day.
Living on a 30 Bus
One of my friends has commented that I always seem to be on a 30 bus. It’s just that it’s so useful to get to and from the Angel, Islington, Kings Cross, St. Pancras, Euston and the Selfridges end of Oxford Street, especially as the stop is just around the corner and has one of those displays which tell which buses will arrive soon.
Yesterday on my trip to see Ipswich at Barnsley, the journey didn’t start with a small step, but it started and finished on a 30 bus.
A 30 bus was involved in the London bombings and 13 passengers tragically died in Tavistock Square. But it isn’t the only tragedy connected with the route.
Memorial Garden at Highbury Corner
This picture shows the memorial garden at Highbury Corner. The plaque commemorates the 26 people who died in a V1 attack on June 27th, 1944.
But the route isn’t all about sadness, as at Islington Green, you pass the statue of Hugh Myddelton, one of those who shaped our city.
Statue of Hugh Myddelton on Islington Green
Every time, you use water in the city, there is a chance that some of that water has arrived courtesy of the New River; Myddelton’s project from the early seventeenth century that transformed London’s water supply.
From the Angel, I then travelled down Pentonville Road to Kings Cross, getting off just before the station and crossing the maze of roads into Kings Cross.
Arriving at Kings Cross on a 30 Bus
Hopefully, when they create the new public square in front of King’s Cross station they’ll make this pedestrian access a lot better.
At least though work inside the station seems to be progressing well, with the pedestrian bridge and the associated lifts seeming to be taking shape under a newly restored roof.
Coming home too, I was lucky in that I walked through the station after buying a Cod Mornay for my supper from Marks and Spencer in St. Pancras and had to wait just two minutes before a 30 bus appeared to take me home.
There’s Only One F in Shefki
The news this morning is that one-time Ipswich favourite, Shefki Kuqi, has joined Newcastle until the end of the season.
West Ham Appear to Have Got the Use of the Olympic Stadium
But the arguments will continue, as I indicated here. I said this in an e-mail to BBC Breakfast.
I’ve watched football in Moscow and it didn’t work there.
But as we have some of the best architects in the world and engineering and methods are getting better all the time, I’m sure that we can come up with a well-executed British compromise, of which we can all be proud.
Every difficulty should be looked upon as an opportunity, not a defeat.
The Gluten-Free Championship
i have been perhaps a bit hard on Barnsley, but how do all the other towns with clubs in the Championship stack up?
Here’s a list based on the current clubs in the Championship.
- Barnsley – I’ll post after Saturday, Not heard from the club about their executive catering. I’ve since found they do.
- Bristol City – Judging by the map, it would appear that there are many restaurants, including a Carluccio’s, within walking distance of the station and the ground.
- Burnley – I’ll be going on the second of March, so will report later.
- Cardiff –
- Crystal Palace – Restaurants including Carluccio’s on the way down
- Coventry – Nothing I can find except Pizza Express in the city centre. I must admit last time I went, Coventry was shut.
- Derby –
- Doncaster –
- Hull –
- Ipswich – Pizza Express, Loch Fyne and a couple of good Indians. Gluten-Free Meals Available in stadium restaurants
- Leeds –
- Leicester –
- Middlesbrough – Nothing I saw, but I ate with friends
- Millwall – Restaurants including Carluccio’s on the way down
- Norwich –
- Nottingham – I have found an excellent French bistro in the city.
- Portsmouth – There appeared to be nothing around the football club.
- Preston –
- QPR – Restaurants including Carluccio’s on the way over
- Reading –
- Scunthorpe – A gluten-free-free town
- Sheffield United – I’ve had a gluten-free meal before the match in a Greek cafe.
- Swansea –
- Watford –
I could add a few notes.
- I have eaten in football club restaurants before and like racecourse catering, they are expensive for what they are. I had one good meal in the main restaurant at Ipswich Town, but that was not football-related. So on balance, I will avoid them, unless I’m entertaining a friend or client.
- I’ve never yet found anything gluten-free in the normal catering outlets at a football ground, except perhaps Coca-Cola and coffee. It should be stated here, that Wembley is particularly unfriendly, which is a complete disgrace for England’s premier stadium.
- Carluccio’s is expanding and provides a gluten-free menu in all of their outlets. There are places too, with Pizza Express, where a gluten-free salad can usually be obtained.
- I should also add that some stadia like, Ipswich, Norwich, Burnley, Crystal Palace and others, are close to open spaces, rivers or canals, where you can sit and have a proper picnic.
But as you can see, the standard in some places just about scores zero out of ten.
What Do We Do With the Olympic Stadium?
The row about what to do with the Olympic Stadium in Stratford after the Olympics rumbles on apace.
The original plan to turn it into a smaller 25,000 seat stadium might be a wonderful legacy for athletics, but would it be the best use of it after the Olympics. There are perhaps a couple of meetings a year that could fill such a stadium, unless the World or European Championships are held in London. And knowing London and Londoners like I do, 25,000 seats would probably be too small. So we might have a white elephant that would require lots of continuing funding.
To have a dual-use stadium as West Ham propose may not be a good idea. Fans don’t like watching football over an athletics track and I can understand why. I watched Ipswich play in the old Olympic Stadium in Moscow and the view was atrocious. Especially, as I had forgotten my binoculars. I also went to Stamford Bridge, when it still had the dog track in place and that wasn’t good either. So I can understand the views of fans and Harry Redknapp, when they say football and athletics don’t mix.
But there is a more fundamental problem and that is that football (and cricket and rugby for that matter) rely heavily on providing a lot of corporate entertainment with boxes, restaurants and fast food bars. Athletics crowds are different, probably more knowledgeable and have different and conflicting needs. They also stay longer making a whole day of the trip.
There is probably only one mixed use stadium that works and that is the Stade de France in Paris. In some ways this illustrates the problems, in that the French stage football, rugby and athletics, whereas, in England, rugby has Twickenham and football has Wembley.
The question has also to be asked if athletics wants a spiritual home like football, rugby and cricket.
It probably does, but a 75,000 seater stadium would be a white elephant, costly to fund.
It could also be argued that it has a spiritual home at Crystal Palace, which has been the scene of some great days of athletics. But it needs to be knocked down and rebuilt, preferably to a size of 30,000 seats that could be temporarily expanded to stage World or European Championships. One of the other problems of the stadium, was that it didn’t have good transport links direct from North and East London. But this has been partly solved by the new East London Line.
In fact, it would be good for South London if the whole Crystal Palace site was properly developed as a sport and leisure park, to compliment Stratford. Very little has been done since the original palace burned down before the Second World War. And if Crystal Palace is properly redeveloped, why not do the same at Alexandra Palace? The famous race course is still there.
What we need is a proper strategy for London, that is properly thought through. In fact this is the main problem with the Olympic stadium in that it was built to a cost for a limited life, rather as part of a whole strategy.
I have just Karen Brady, the West Ham, Vice Chairman, on BBC Breakfast and she put a convincing case for their mixed-use plans, which would include cricket. So is this just one part of a strategy, which should include plans for North, South and West London as well.
And then there is the elephant in the room; Chelski. Arsenal have a 60,000 seat stadium and Tottenham will have one, whether they move to Stratford or not. They wouldn’t be able to develop at Stamford Bridge, but what about a new stadium, where HS2 connects to Heathrow at Old Oak Common?
So the problem is a lot bigger than just what you do with Stratford.
The Anonymous Widower 