If You Want To Know The Time Get On A Bus
I was on three big red taxis today and they’ve had a software upgrade on the information display.
I haven’t noticed the time before, but I was away Tuesday and Wednesday and only took one bus yesterday.
Since I created this post, I’ve been on about six or so buses. All were showing the time! Even a very elderly example! I did see a New Bus for London pass and it looked like this was showing the time as well.
It will be interesting to see the indirect effects of this technology change!
Will people be on time more, as they should spot they are late, even when they’ve left their watch at home?
Will it cut watch thefts, as people might wear them less on public transport?
Will there be a clamour for more clocks on the Underground, the Overground and trains?
The Pollution Didn’t Seem To Be Too Bad!
To check on the forecast pollution, I took some pictures this morning and early afternoon.
I started by taking a 56 bus, which is one of the Dalston omnibuses, to St. Paul’s, where I mounted on One New Change.
I then took the DLR from Bank to Royal Victoria, from where I took the cable car to North Greenwich.
I finished the journey by taking the Underground to Chalk Farm from where I walked to the top of Primrose Hill.
I also found this page on the DEFRA web site, which gives a pollution forecast.
Not Everything Goes Up!
I’ve just got my new Council Tax bill. There is no change for Hackney and the London charge has actually fallen by -1.3%, which means my total bill comes down by 0.3%.
Not much, but all contributions are respected.
The Connection Between The First Tanks And The Classic Routemaster Bus
At first glance, it would appear that there would be little connection between Little Willie, which was one of the prototypes leading to the first tanks of the Great War and the classic Routemaster bus of the 1950s.
But I’ve just read this article on the BBC’s web site about how the tanks were developed in Lincoln. The article talks about the two designers.
The work needed more than technical experience, it needed two very particular men – William Tritton and Lieutenant Walter Wilson.
“Tritton was a brilliant engineer,” says Mr Pullen. “And he was a brilliant leader. He got things done.
“He turned Foster’s around with new ideas and new markets.
“Couple him with Walter Wilson, who was also a good engineer but a genius with things like gearboxes, and they made a brilliant partnership.”
It goes on to describe how they locked themselves in a hotel room and scribbled designs on envelopes and fag packets.
And the rest as they say is history!
Walter Wilson went on to form a company called Self-Changing Gears, that developed pre-selector gearboxes. I never drove a vehicle with one of these gearboxes, but I’ve sat just behind the driver on many a London Transport RT-bus and watched the driver select the gear and then hit the gear change pedal to engage it. The use of this type of transmission, was to make the effort of the constant stopping and starting easier on the driver.
Routemasters , it would appear had a fully-automatic version of the transmission, linking them back to the original tanks.
A Walk Along Oxford Street
From Portals To The Past, I decided to walk along Oxford Street to Marks and Spencer, to see if they had any short-sleeved shirts.
It is not the easiest of walks and after the exhibition, I wondered what effect Crossrail will have on this walk.
One of the guides at the exhibition had told me, she’d walked one of the new stations a few days ago and because of the 200m length of the Class 345 trains for Crossrail, the stations have very long platforms. So one problem, Crossrail will get when it opens, is that passengers will complain about the endless walks. But as you can walk inside the trains, as they are effectively one coach with lots of segments, you will align yourself with your exit, when you do a regular journey. I do this walking along the train regularly on the Overground, as I’d rather walk in a warm train, than a cold platform.
I do wonder that as Crossrail gets used more and passengers learn how to use it, they will find there best and quickest routes and especially in bad weather will walk underground, thus taking a percentage of walkers away from Oxford Street.
The double-ended stations may also end up as rat-runs for those, who know their London and have Oyster Cards or Freedom Passes to bypass large sections of crowded pavements.
Hopefully too, Crossrail will take passengers from the Central line, so that walkers will use that if going from say Tottenham Court Road to Marble Arch.
I did get my short-sleeved shirts and after exiting the shop, the heavens opened with a vengeance.
Summer came on Sunday, as the pictures of the Thames Barrier showed and now it’s gone!
London Buses To Go Cashless
It’s been announced that from this summer, London buses will go cashless.
Since Transport for London announced their consultation in August last year, there has been little discussion anywhere on the proposal in the media. Which makes me think, that most users of London buses are not bothered at all.
I’m very much in favour, as often my bus is delayed as groups of young people are using cash. Strangely, I’ve never seen anyone my side of forty, buying a ticket recently. They all seem to use either Oyster or a Freedom Pass. Could it be that most younger people only use buses as a last resort and many actually haven’t, as they always use their cars or have been driven around by their family?
Clapham Uncommon
This company was featured on the BBC London News. It concerns the growing of speciality vegetables and herbs in one of the deep level air-raid shelters under Clapham. Wikipedia says this about the shelters.
Each shelter consists of a pair of parallel tunnels 16 feet 6 inches (5.03 m) in diameter and 1,200 feet (370 m) long. Each tunnel is subdivided into two decks, and each shelter was designed to hold up to 8,000 people.
So they’re quite large! And there’s eight of them in total! But some have already been used for other purposes!
Too Many People In Oxford Street
This is predicted to happen, when Crossrail opens in 2018 in various media articles over the last couple of days. Look at articles on the BBC and in the Standard.
I have just added this comment to another article.
What Oxford Street needs is a moving walkway along the street at first floor level, with escalators up and entries to the shops at that level. It could be covered over much like the long escalator in Hong Kong. It could also be expanded as time goes on with cafes and stalls, and sub branches down Bond Street and Tottenham Court Road and towards Soho, Hyde Park and the British Museum.
Underneath would be for buses, taxis and cyclists, and for pedestrians going to and from the various stations.
All it needs is a bit of vision and Oxford Street would be the envy of the world, rather than the overcrowded gutter it is today.
This may be an old idea of mine, but I think even more that its time has come.
Around Smithfield
There was an article in The Times yesterday, about the redevelopment of some of the market buildings in Smithfield.
So I went and took some pictures.
the main Smithfield Market was rebuilt some years ago, but the western end, is a mixture of dereliction and the worst of 1960s architecture. Surely, any modern sympathetic development would be better.
After all the area is surrounded by some good watering holes and first class tourist attractions, so perhaps an artisan market and craft workshops might be better than what is there now.
As the area is close to Farringdon station, which when Thameslink and Crossrail is complete will be one of London’s major interchanges, it must surely be an area with potential visitors.
Ariel On The Bank Of England
I’ve never thought that the actual building for the Bank of England, was much more than a functional one. Wikipedia says this about the building.
The Bank moved to its current location on Threadneedle Street, and thereafter slowly acquired neighbouring land to create the edifice seen today. Sir Herbert Baker‘s rebuilding of the Bank, demolishing most of Sir John Soane’s earlier building, was described by architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner as “the greatest architectural crime, in the City of London, of the twentieth century”.
I’d thought it was much older.
As you walk alongside the building up Princes Street, it looks very much like an over-grand prison.
There is though, a gilded sculpture on the roof.
Ariel On The Bank Of England
Surely this isn’t the best place to put a work of art!
The Anonymous Widower 