Irene’s Law – Estimating Tube Journey Times
I may have talked of this before.
If you want to get an estimate of how long a journey will take on the London Underground, you count the number of stations and multiply by two, before adding five for every interchange.
That is then an estimate in minutes as to how long a journey will take.
My mother and I used to do quite a few long journeys on the Tube and it may have been something that she developed to keep me interested in the journey. We certainly always played lots of mental arithmetic games all the time. But then she’d been a comptometer operator at Reeve’s in Dalston and that was a job all about memory and mental and manual dexterity.
Incidentally, with the introduction of the Harry Beck map for the Tube, the counting became a lot easier, so was this law something that evolved as people learned to use the new map?
Incidentally, most of our journeys were up and down the Piccadilly line, where because it is long with lots of stations, the rule will work pretty well.
The rule seems to work for the DLR and the Overground too!
Wish Me Luck!
I’m leaving soon to go to Charlton to see Ipswich play.
How I’ll get there I’m not sure of at present, as ASLEF are having their usual Christmas party, a day late.
I think if London had a referendum on driverless trains, there’d only be one result.
What A Load Of Old Rubbish!
This sculpture is by Canning Town station.
What A Load Of Old Rubbish!
But it does have a rather unusual charm.
Canning Town Has A Flying Rat Problem
I photographed this mess at Canning Town station.
Canning Town Has A Flying Rat Problem
They need to get the eagle out to deal with the flying rats. A wash and brush-up would be helpful too!
Sex On The Underground
What would Mary Whitehouse have thought about these two posters at Angel station?
On the other hand, who’s to know what Mr. and Mrs. Whitehouse got up to in the privacy of their own home.
I’m a bit surprised that the web site sexytimesRus.com is using that URL. Perhaps, they are expecting to be sued, so they get a lot of free publicity.
Avoiding The Rain
I went to the football at Ipswich yesterday and the rain was so bad, I didn’t feel like walking to the bus stop to get a 141 bus to Liverpool Street station.
So I walked to the closest stop and got a 56 bus to the Angel. It wasn’t any better there.
A Very Wet Angel
But at least I got there in the dry and was able to walk into the Underground, to get a train to Liverpool Street with one change at Moorgate station. Normally, I’d have walked from Moorgate, but it was just that wet.
Coming back, the weather was just as bad, so I used an unusual route to keep dry. I took a Metropolitan line train to Barbican station and caught another 56 back to my house.
At least the rain seemed to have abated slightly in Ipswich, but the game wasn’t a good one. There were so many mistakes and I suspect precise control was difficult. So many simple passes were missed by both sides. Perhaps football yesterday was summed up by the result at Peterborough, where the home side beat Bolton by five goals to four.
How To Rip Off Amazon?
With all the fuss about the tax Amazon doesn’t pay I like this advert.
How To Rip Off Amazon?
It’s boldly displayed in Angel station.
Rekindle is defined in a dictionary as to arouse or cause to be aroused again.
What Goes On Near Here?
This tiling is at Oval station on the Underground.
What Goes On Near Here?
We need more art on the Underground and generally in public!
The Northern Line Extension Exhibition
Today, I went to a Transport for London exhibition about the new Northern Line Extension to Battersea.
It was at the Oval cricket ground and is there for the rest of today and tomorrow morning.
It was well laid-out and informative. If you have any interest in how the new stations will affect you, I would recommend you go.
As it’s in an excutive box, you get a superb view of a cricket ground in winter.
Farewell To Central London’s Biggest Eyesore
Years ago, I wrote a silly but quite funny love letter to C. At least she told me it was funny. In it I mentioned Battersea Power Station and how it was used as a last line of defence, with platforms on the chimneys. That must have been about 1966 or so, and in those days the power station was still generating electricity as it did until 1983.
It has not been a lucky building since!
London’s Biggest Eyesore
Like many power stations of the era, it was built for a short life and a productive one. I remember going over Cliff Quay power station in Ipswich, and being told that these buildings were built in brick without the soundest of foundations. Often though, like Battersea and Cliff Quay, they were designed by good architects and often featured decorative features inside. Strangely, the one building of this type, we have left, Bankside power station, doesn’t have an elaborate interior, although now it is the superb Tate Modern. Although according to Wikipedia, that could have gone to Battersea.
Scott’s other London power station is at Battersea and is widely considered a more iconic design, with its four towers. Battersea Power Station was proposed for the Tate Modern but, due to financial constraints and less dilapidation, the smaller Bankside building was chosen.
Scott was Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, the designer of the red telephone box and the architect of Liverpool Cathedral. So perhaps it s fitting that one of his more utilitarian buildings is a home for modern art and design.
Does anybody know if there are any good examples of reusing power stations buildings around the world?
I can find two; one called The Power Plant in Toronto, Canada and another called The Power Station of Art in Shanghai.
But Battersea Power Station has not been served well by fate. It is almost falling down these days and I do wonder if it can be rebuilt economically. It seems to have disastrous affects on its developers.
But at least with George Osborne’s announcement of funding for the Northern Line Extension in the Autumn Statement, its days as an eyesore may well be numbered. But don’t uncross your fingers!
The Anonymous Widower 