Applying For London Olympics Tickets
I have just completed my application for tickets for the London Olympics next year.
It was not a complicated process for someone like me , but I could expect people like C to have lost patience with the system, as there are just so many tickets to apply for in the initial ballot. I’ve tended to go for between two and four tickets for a large range of events, going for slightly higher price tickets in events I really want to see. I’ve also put in a bid to see some tennis on the centre court at Wimbledon, as there is no other way, I’ll ever get to see anything in that iconic venue.
It will be interesting to see how many tickets I get! In some ways I’m not bothered too much, as I suspect that the best way to see some events will be to go to the Olympic Park or Victoria Park and watch it on the big screens.
Remember too, that modern stadia such as Wembley and The Emirates don’t have many poor seats, so you can probably expect that even a seat in the Gods in the Olympic Stadium will be a lot better than some I’ve paid a lot of money for in various football grounds this year.
World Heritage Sites
Listening to the warm-up to the Grand National today on Radio 5 this morning, it struck me that none of the UK’s historic racecourses are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Liverpool city centre is but surely one of Aintree, Ascot, Epsom and Newmarket should be listed.
After all Newmarket and the Heath have been associated with horses since the time of Boudicca. Newmarket is actually a corruption of New Horse Market. And every thoroughbred horse can trace its ancestry back to the small town in West Suffolk.
And when it comes to other places that should be listed, the Forth Bridge is rightly on the provisional list, but Joseph Balzalgette‘s historic London sewers are not!
Coal Hole Covers
There are a few coal hole covers still left in Hackney and Islington.
Sadly many of these nice pieces of Victoriana have been collected or stolen and then melted down for the metal.
I don’t have one as my house is new and there are none down the road, as they have the wrong type of cellar.
Homes for Bugs
When I go to Waitrose at the Barbican, I walk through Bunhill Fields from the bus stop, where I get off a 21, 76 or 141 bus.
Just inside the entrance I saw this strange object.
A Home for Bugs
It is actually a home for invetebrates and was the winning entry in a competition organised by the City of London.
Leon Restaurants
I had lunch in the Leon restaurant in Spitalfields today.
I had a mackerel and beetroot salad with a home-made lemonade.
The restaurant is definitely worth a return visit.
The Biggest Hole in London!
The pictures show the hole being created for the new Crossrail station at Canary Wharf.
Is it the UK’s first underwater station?
The Cathedral of Sewage
Abbey Mills Pumping Station was built by Joseph Bazalgette to pump the sewage all the way to Beckton. It stands as a glorious monument by the side of the Greenway that leads across the Olympic Park. Although, at present due to the works for CrossRail, you can’t actually get to the park directly along the Greenway.
It dominates the skyline and can be seen from West Ham station, looking more like a mosque than a cathedral of sewage.
There does appear to be some tidying up going on, but surely this impressive building should look its best for the Olympics.
Do We Need WikiPlates?
I think I know London and its various sites very well. And as I have read the excellent book; The Great Stink of London: Sir Joseph Bazalgette and the Cleansing of the Victorian Metropolis
But I was caught out on Wednesday, when I went to the Olympic Park, in that I hadn’t realised that the Greenway sat on top of Bazalgette’s Northern Outfall Sewer.
But there was nothing to tell me, that I was walking on the creation of a giant!
Obviously, a proper information board would be best, but these get damaged and if you made them from metal, then scrap thieves will take them.
But surely in this age of the Internet, all that is needed is a simple plate, which points you to the relevant place on the web.
If they linked to Wikipedia, through say a reference number, they could be called WikiPlates.
The possibilities for a simple system are endless, especially if you bring in smart phones and SMS messages.
Through the Olympic Park on the Greenway
From the Top of the Morning, I had two choices. I could either walk to Hackney Wick station on the North London line, or try to find the Greenway that continued through the Olympic Park to Pudding Mill Lane on the Docklands Light Railway.
I chose the latter more in hope than expectation, as I felt that building or security considerations on the Olympic Park might mean the Greenway would be closed.
About a hundred metres south of the pub, I found this welcoming sign.
Entry to the Greenway
So I’d made the right choice.
Incidentally, the Greenway is built on top of the eastern end of the Northern Outfall Sewer, which was built in the mid-1800’s by Joseph Bazalgette, to take London’s sewage to the works at Beckton.
The Greenway gives good views of the Olympic stadium of which this is typical.
The London Olympic Stadium
Obviously, landscaping and a few other things need to be done, but it is now virtually complete.
You can also see the ArcelorMittal Orbit and the Aquatics Centre.
ArcelorMittal Orbit and the Aquatics Centre
The Orbit structure has aroused controversy, but seeing it close to, I found it rather fascinating. You can also see all of the bits lined up like groups of acrobats ready to climb into position in the tower.
I’m Ready to Ascend!
I suspect that like the Eiffel Tower has for Paris, it might end up as an icon of East London after the Games.
The one think you can’t say about it, is that it is boring! The only things that should be boring are some machine tools and tunnelling machines.
One thing that has been got right is the information for visitors, as this picture shows.
Olympic Park Panorama and Information
Do you think that the far-sighted Joseph Bazalgette had realised that his enormous sewer would one day be used as a grandstand for a construction project, of which I’m sure he would have proud? Obviously not, but with so many things he did, he got them absolutely right. And right for possibly a thousand years!
No walk is complete without a cup of something and at the south end of the portion of the Greenway that crosses the Olympic Park, there is this cafe and viewing point called ViewTube.
The ViewTube, Olympic Park, London
I had a good cappucino and a rest before walking on to Pudding Mill Lane and the DLR, where I took this final picture.
The Olympic Park from Pudding Mill Lane, DLR Station
All in all, this walk took about two hours including refreshments. On a good day, it should easily be possible to do it in the same time from the Angel at Islington to the ViewTube cafe.
But I suspect it’ll get busy!
The Anonymous Widower 