Is London The Best Therapist In The World?
Today, I had to go for the MRI Scan to my arm and shoulder. I decided as the weather was so good that despite my hay fever and the high pollen count, I’d walk to the hospital from Great Portland Street station.
Flower Gardens in Regent's Park
As you can see Regent’s Park was at it’s glorious best and ready for the real summer. One Cypriot couple I met had come to the Park specifically to see the roses. Madame Tussaud eat your heart out! Who wants to see a lot of wax models? I don’t! Unless you can stick pins in them!
I walked past the Open Air Theatre and on to the lake, where mothers were doing what they have for hundreds of years and we used to do in the 1970s and that is feed the ducks and geese.
Feeding the Ducks in Regent's Park Lake
C had a phobia about large birds and I can remember her screaming madly, when a gaggle of angry geese almost chased her into the lake, not far from where the above picture was taken.
She didn’t fall in there, but she did have to jump in here to retrieve our middle son, who fell in throwing bread for the ducks on the other side of thec lake.
Where Our Son Fell In
Both survived without any harm, although it was rather wet walk home to our flat just north of the Park.
I was also pleased to see that the rails, I remember so well because of a photo I took, are still in place after forty years.
A Fence in Regent's Park
They say things don’t last, but memories and that fence do!
A few minutes later I was at the hospital on the other side of the Park.
It seems that in many places in London, I seem to come across items, buildings and bridges that remind me of my past, comfort me and tell me that I did the right thing to come home to the city of my birth and childhood.
She is my friend and therapist and she is always with me.
And for me, as I live in her bounds, all the consultations cost is a bit of effort and perhaps some rubber from my trainers. She is truly the best free therapist in the world! But then others will say that about New York, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Rome and masses of other places.
But it is only your home city that can reach the places in the mind that others can’t reach.
Chaos In Oxford Street
I needed to get some towels and a couple of lamps from John Lewis yesterday evening, so I took my usual route of Overground to Highbury and Islington station and then the Victoria line to Oxford Circus.
For some years now, getting out of Oxford Circus station has been a nightmare, so much so that I used to get there by taking a Central line train to Bond Street instead and then walking backwards.
That is not really an option now, as they are rebuilding Bond Street station and the narrow pavements cluttered by smokers outside the stores are not an easy route.
So it was a walk up the stairs to Argyll Street and then across the centre of Oxford Circus. At least that crossing works well, but then the north side of Oxford Street was cluttered with smokers and locked up stalls, that sell junk.
It is not good and it never has been in my memory.
Some years ago, I proposed an alternative which was published as a long letter in the Evening Standard.
I read with interest an article in the Evening Standard yesterday and feel I should comment about a proposed monorail for Oxford Street.
I should explain that I am an engineer with a lot of experience of transport projects around the world, mainly because the software I wrote, Artemis, was used to plan them.
I am also an inveterate traveller and have experience of a very large number of cities around the world. That experience is usually as a tourist and includes the Sydney monorail, the escalators of Hong Kong and the underground walkways of Perugia. I should also say that I visit the Oxford Street area at least once a month for shopping, eating or business.
I will agree with the plan, where the monorail gives the whole street a connection and a focus, but I believe that a moving walkway suspended over the street below would be much more flexible and inherently better.
1. It could be built in stages, with perhaps a spectacular star over Oxford Circus as a first phase to move people from say Regent Street North to Oxford Street East and West without getting involved in the fearsome crowds at road level.
2. Walkways are basically hop-on and hop-off. So if you see a shop or something else that interests you, then all you do is wait to the next hop-off point and exit.
3. As the walkway progressed down Oxford Street, it could rise and fall so that it was level with the floors of the major stores. How much would John Lewis pay for an entrance at first floor level?
4. Stops would be much more frequent than a monorail.
5. Walkways are a fail-safe system in that when the motor breaks, the system is still walkable. What happens when a monorail breaks down as the Sydney system did when I rode it?
6. Walkways can add spurs as required to Conference Centres, attractions and also to move people well away from Oxford Street.
7. As they would run effectively from Tottenham Court Road to Marble Arch, they would take the pressure off the Central Line.
8. Just as in Hong Kong it would be covered in a clear plastic roof. Video screens could be included under the roof to sell advertising.
9. Security is important and I’m sure the Police would like a high-level walkway from which to view the crowds below.
10. Bulges and platforms could be attached to the walkway, so that cafes and other attractions could be setup. If access is provided to stores on route, there would be no problems as to servicing these cafes.
11. The whole system has to be commercial. Imagine a platform just by Selfridges which sells the Wallace Collection, with a down escalator pointing that way.
Admittedly, it was published partly as part of their campaign against the then mayor, but I believe the idea of an overhead moving walkway would improve the movement of pedestrians around the area.
Thinking about it six years after the original letter was published, there are other factors that now apply.
- Tottenham Court Road and Bond Street are to become major stations on Crossrail and they will probably discharge more people into the area making it worse. Especially, as many will be long-distance travellers trailing mobile obstacles behind them. The pavements are just not big enough.
- The Eastern end of Oxford Street is scruffier now and who would want to shop there, when there are shopping centres at Westfield and the soon to open, Eastfield, just a few stops away on the Central line.
Certainly, I can’t wait for Eastfield to open, as then I’ll be closer to a John Lewis.
You will see I call the new shopping centre at Stratford, Eastfield. It’s what many of the locals do, despite the fact that it’s promoted as Westfield Stratford City.
But then East is east and West is west and ne’er the twain shall meet.
Christ Church Greyfriars
Tonight, I also had a look at Christ Church Greyfriars, the remains of which lies behind St. Paul’s. It wasn’t as lucky as its larger neighbour had been in the Blitz.
Like St. Luke’s in Liverpool it stands as a memorial to those who died and suffered in the Second World War.
St. Paul’s As I’ve Never Seen It Before
To me St. Paul’s is London’s church, if only because it stood unbowed to the Nazis as a symbol of defiance and hope.
Tonight though, in the evening sunlight, I saw it as I’d never seen it before in all its pristine beauty after a thorough cleaning.
The Newly-Cleaned St. Paul's
Thinking back, I don’t think I actually saw the cathedral until the 1960s, as my visits to Central London were usually fairly limited, despite living in the suburbs. As an example, I didn’t visit the Tower of London until I was probably twenty. And that was because I was showing a friend from University around.
A Piece of Concrete With a Lot of History
This piece of concrete in the Victoria Town Gardens behind the Palace of Westminster, looks like a very rudimentary and hurried repair.
A Repair to the River Thames Wall
But behind it all is a bit of forgotten history. This picture shows a steel girder, which could be a piece of railway line in the concrete.
Steel Girder in the River Thames Wall
And this shows that the detail on the river side, that is a feature of the Thames river wall is missing.
Missing Details in the River Thames Wall
So what is it all about?
I went to a lunchtime lecture at University College London about archaeology on the River Thames. The lecturer explained that during the Second World War, we identified that a serious break in the wall of the River Thames could have flooded much of the central part of the city. This would have probably flooded the London Underground as well.
So a top secret repair unit was set up to fix any breakages in the wall immediately. As the lecturer said, even today little is known about the unit. During the war they kept it quiet, as they didn’t want the Germans to know how vulnerable London was. After all, the Germans only needed to be lucky once.
But as you can see, even if the repair would not be acceptable today, it has fulfilled its purpose for seventy years.
A New Metropolitan Line Train
I took the North London Line today and changed onto the Jubilee line to get to Westminster today and was able to take this photo of one of the new Metropolitan line trains as it passed through West Hampstead station.
New Metropolitan Line Train at West Hampstead
I’m not sure how many of the new trains have been delivered, but from the outside it looked a lot better than the rather tired old trains you see on this and the other sub-surface lines.
A New Bus For London
Last night, I went to a presentation by Stuart Wood of Heatherwick Studio at the London Transport Museum of the proposed New Bus for London. Stuart is the lead designer, who is working in partnership with Wrightbus, who will actually be building the new buses.
A Routemaster, an RT and a New Bus for London
This picture shows the bus alongside two of its predecessors, the Routemaster and an RT. I probably travelled on more RTs, than any other bus, as I used the 29 or 29A to get to school for several years.
When I first saw pictures of the bus, I must admit I wasn’t sure that the three-door, two-staircase design would work. In fact, as the talk revealed, it is one of the design strengths as it enables all of the parts of the hybrid-drive system to be kept out of the useable space, with the battery and fuel tank under the front staircase, the engine/generator under the back one and the electric motors inside the rear wheel arches.
What did surprise me, was that some of the things, they’d have liked to have done, fell foul of the various regulations. For instance, they would have liked to have the handrails in bare metal, as on the original Routemaster, but regulations mean they must stand out, so that those with limited vision can see them. In the end they used a light yellow-gold colour.
Rear Lower Deck Layout
This picture shows the handrails in the proposed layout at the back of the lower deck over the rear axle. Note the high seat backs in this picture on the back-to-back seats over the rear axle. One of the design ideas here was to create some slightly better seats and as there are two groups of four, they also have the advantage of being suitable for families or friends travelling together.
In fact the interior design can be described as quirky in some ways.
- Both staircases are glazed, with the rear one being curved. They are infinitely better than those on the French TGV Duplex trains, which are straight and dark.
- I actually feel that for someone like me with a limited left hand, that I would use the rear staircase to ascend to the top deck, as this would mean I’ll be better balanced. I have climbed onto the top deck of a Routemaster since my stroke and found it not too difficult.
- The design also incorporates a love-seat at the top of the rear staircase, just like the old RT did. I can’t say, I’ve ever sat there on the top deck of a Routemaster, but did a lot on the old 29’s to and from school.
- The rear downstairs seating as the picture showed is definitely quirky with high-backed seats and groups of four. In a way the groups reminded me of how my mother would put me at the age of six on a 107 at Oakwood to go to my aunt’s for piano lessons, on the longitudinal seats of an RT. The conductor would look after you. Although the buses may have conductors at times, these seats might well become family seats, for say father travelling with three or more children.
- I said three or more children, but as the seats all over the bus, are of a bench design, three small ones could easily sit together.
- I also think that those like me, wo do their shopping on the bus, will like the seating, as a bench design will allow you to share a bench with your shopping. I do this regularly on a 56 or a 38 from the Angel, when I return from Waitrose, on the half-empty buses in mid-morning.
So have they designed a bus for all people?
- It has a large capacity that will mean it should be a good commuter bus.
- The large amounts of glass and good visibility might make it a sightseeing bus on central routes.
- The layout is family friendly in my view. For energy saving reasons we must get children to like public transport.
- I do a lot of shopping on the bus. Does it fulfil that role?
- The seating on the lower deck, might encourage people to use buses for longer distances. I used to go miles as a child on the 107 to visit relatives. Now, there is no way other than to drive. But if the bus is comfortable, quiet and spaceous, would people be tempted to use it, in these times of high-energy costs?
Only time will tell if the concept works. But I like it!
The Match Tax
I’d never heard of this, but whilst walking back to Bow Road station to come home, I saw this plaque.
Plaque Commemorating Opposition to the Match Tax
I’d never heard of the Match Tax. But of course, the old Bryant and May factory is just round the corner. It’s now up-market housing called Bow Quarter.
I can’t find much about the Match Tax on the Internet, except for this proof copy of the stamp that would have been used. It was never implimeted because of a public outcry.
The New Bridge at the Bow Interchange
I finally made it and about ninety minutes after I left Bromley-by-Bow station I arrived at the new bridge.
I shall return in a couple of months, when it hopefully will make crossing the busy roads at the Bow Interchange a lot easier.
Back to the Bow Interchange
I walked along the Greenway and then turned onto the towpath of the westernmost tributary of the River Lee. It was more about exploring than with any purpose, although I did think it would lead to my finding of the new bridge.
In the end I found it led to Bow Road and Bow Interchange, which is perhaps a kilometre from Bromley-by-Bow station.
The Anonymous Widower 