Bumping My Way Back To Civilisation
My friend had to go to see his MP near the Horniman Museum (Worth a visit I’m told!), so about three we took a bus, that would both drop him at the museum and take me to a station, that would allow me to get to hopefully Charing Cross, as I wanted to visit the National Gallery.
I got off the bus at Forest Hill, crossed the road and tried to find the station entrance. It was confusing and not very well signed. But it did have a brick flower bed in front, which I bumped into, as it was about knee-height and obscured by the other people in front of the station. If there had been flowers in the bed, I would have seen it. Luckily no harm was done! I then found the door, opened it and used my ticket to open the barrier and get myself on the platform. My friend had told me that I should take a London Bridge train and then walk over the bridge to get a bus or a tube train, as the Jubilee Line wasn’t running.
I didn’t wait long for a London Bridge train and before long I could see the familiar sights of the City.
Approaching The City
Note Tower Bridge peeping over the buildings in front.
I got out at London Bridge when the train terminated and started to look for someone who might know where I could get a train to Charing Cross. I couldn’t find anyone, but I did see this obstacle kindly placed in the middle of the platform.
Seats on London Bridge Station
Luckily I saw them and had time to get the camera out to photograph them. But to illustrate my hand problems, note the finger in front of the lens.
What idiot decided to put seats like that in a place where someone with limited visibility might miss them? If they had had seat backs or hand been occupied, then they would have been easier to see. As they would have been if they had yellow arms, like London Underground ones do!
When I found the platform for Charing Cross, I asked a helpful stationman and he said that the seats don’t have backs because of health and safety issues. Obviously not mine or others with limited visibility.
I suppose that yellow or orange arms, as that would break corporate colour-scheme rules!
An Expedition to the Deep South
London is a city split by the River Thames into two distinctly separate sub-cities.
If you were born and have lived a lot of your life in the north, then you rarely cross the river into the south. I’ve got friends in the south, who feel exactly the same about the north. Although, we would both admit that we might just cross the river to see the attractions just on the other side. I did think that this might be a white middle-class thing, but discussing it with a man of Caribbean extraction, who had lived most of his life in Tottenham, he felt exactly the same.
There are two big differences though between north and south.
The north relies heavily on tubes, such as the Piccadilly, Northern, Central, Victoria, and Jubilee Lines, whereas the south depends largely on the suburban electrics of the old Southern Railway, which wind their way everywhere in a pretty comprehensive manner. But the old Southern Railway never had the Underground’s organisation and welcoming corporate identity!
The north too, has a defined ring road, the North Circular Road, whereas the southern equivalent is just a signposted route on inadequate roads. So northerners going south, always end up getting frustrated and lost. Especially as most from the north only ever go to the south to get through it to go to places like Gatwick or Brighton.
You can also argue that most of the major attractions are in the north. If you take major sports venues, only The Oval and Wimbledon are in the south and both can actually be reached using the Underground, so you don’t have to fathom out how the electric trains work!
So it was with trepidation that I set out from Canary Wharf to visit some friends, who live in the deep south near Croydon. Their nearest station is Anerley, so that would mean taking the DLR to Shadwell and then walking a few yards to the East London Line station of the same name.
Shadwell Station on the East London Line
The new station is functional and pleasant, but suffers slightly because of a cramped site, penned in between Listed buildings and the Thames Tunnel.
Shadwell Station looking North
The platforms looked a bit narrow and they are certainly not as wide as those on the North London Line. But I suppose they are well within safety limits.
I had to wait about twenty minutes for my train to West Croydon, as I had just missed one, but soon I was off south through the Thames Tunnel and on to Annerley.
It was at Annerley that my problems started, as all the old prejudices about the impenetrable jungle of South London kicked in. I misread the map at the station and instead of turning left out of the station approach onto the main road, I turned right and walked a couple of kilometres before I called my friend for rescue. At least he realised what I’d done wrong and thankfully came to get me in his car.
So there was no harm done and a couple of coffees warmed me up and got me ready for the return.
An Affordable Breakfast With Style
When you are a coeliac and like me recovering from a stroke, you have to be careful where you go for a meal. You must be sure of the food and because you might get into a mess and drop something or even everything all over the floor or yourself, it is probably a good idea to go to an establishment with staff waiting at tables.
All of this was illustrated very well, when I turned up at Carluccio’s in Canary Wharf for a late breakfast or was it an early lunch?
It was sunny, so I sat outside and then ordered an Eggs Florentine without the bread and an orange juice. I’ve done this several times now in various of their cafes and no-one has minded, that I have modified their standard menu.
Gluten Free Eggs Florentine at Carluccio's
It was delicious and after adding cappucino, it cost me just £11.95, although I did add a generous tip for good service and such things like an extra serviette to make sure the mess was kept to a minimum.
I’m afraid that I tend to plan my trips around places where I know that I can eat well, easily and gluten-free. Unfortunately, not many places I hope to visit on my travels have one of Carluccio’s caffes. But it’s getting better as Leicester has no joined the list. But I suspect, I’ll be long gone before they reach Midlesbrough. They won’t be there for my trip in two weeks time.
Cinderella Will Take You to the Ball!
If ever there was a railway that was built on the cheap and was very much an ugly duckling, that has metamorphasised into a swan, it is that Cinderella of London’s transport system, the Docklands Light Railway.
It is a unique concept in the United Kingdom, in that the small trains are driverless and generally run between unmanned stations, to cut down both the capital and running costs. Each train has an onboard customer service representative for security as well as dealing with the passengers, He or she can drive the train in an emergency.
It may in some ways be a Cinderella, but over the twenty years or so it has been running, it has grown like Topsy from its original routes linking the City, Canary Wharf and Stratford to serve Lewisham and Woolwich south of the Thames and the City Airport and other places to the east.
Docklands Light Railway at Canary Wharf
Now that the Olympics are just two years away, this line has new and larger trains and will play a major part in moving people to and from that big party in Stratford. Even now, some of the best views of the Olympic Park are from the DLR.
Olympic Park From the DLR
I travel the DLR a lot if I can, as it is the best way to explore the east of London. Views are superb, as unlike the Underground, very little of the line is in tunnels and much of it is on viaducts or bridges raised above the ground. No trip by a tourist to London is complete without using London’s most unusual and unique transport system.
I can’t understand, why the concept has not been copied elsewhere. I feel that the badly-designed, implemented and built Cambridge Busway could almost now have been built as a smaller version of the DLR. Trains might be just two coaches and running at ground level from Trumpington, via Addenbrookes and the city centre all the way to Histon, Long Stanton and St. Ives. The DLR has shown that such a concept will work and in the end, people get to love it.
Proving I’m Not Tired of Life!
It was Samuel Johnson, who famously said, “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life!”
As there was little to do to keep me at home, I got a lift from one of the stud staff to the small station at Dullingham from where I got the local train to CAmbridge from the fast train to London.
Cambridge Train Arriving at Dullingham
For just £21.10, I bought a ticket that got me to London and allowed me to roam all over the city as far as Croydon in the South and Barking in the East. So I do have a Senior Railcard!
When I left I hadn’t too much idea about what I was going to do, but I had vague thoughts about travelling around seeing some of the sights and perhaps going to see some friends in South London.
Well, within an hour from leaving Dullingham, I was in Kings Cross, after an enjoyable journey chatting with three ladies of about my own age. The American lady opposite was at a legal Summer School in Cambridge and was intending to use the trains to explore London and places further, whilst in the city. I think she said that she’d bought a Senior Railcard in Cambridge to get the discount of a third on tickets. I hadn’t realised that the cards were available for non-UK citizens, but it seems fair and it will encourage tourists of the right type.
Tourism Will Increase by 60%
This report was on the Press Association web site.
The value of tourism to the UK economy is set to rise by more than 60% to £188 billion by 2020, according to a report.
The number of jobs supported by tourism is predicted to increase by 264,000 to 2.89 million in the next 10 years, the report commissioned by VisitBritain added.
The amount of spending per year by overseas residents is likely to almost double from £16 billion now to £31 billion in 2020.
It is all good news, but are places like Middlesbrough ready for it. In my travels recently, London, East Suffolk and Newcastle certainly are.
Buses, Trains and Walking
On Wednesday, I needed to get from Aldgate to Piccadilly Circus, so I took a bus. In London, you just look at the list of places on the shelter and then find out, which stop in the area is the one you want. In this case, I was lucky as it was the same shelter, but usually, it’s only a walk of a couple of metres. I think I waited perhaps a minute before my 15 bus arrived. I have a free pass, as I’m over sixty, so it was just a matter of showing the card, climbing upstairs and finding a seat. As I get tired, I find that buses are a convenient place to sit in towns like London. After a brief rest, I arrived at my destination.
Similarly, the trains are now pretty comfortable and for my journey home, after a second bus ride to Kings Cross, I was able to get a seat. As the train was busy, First Capital Connect were employing a firm lady to organise everybody in the carriage. We do things differently here to Japan, but she had the same effect, as she got everybody sitting orderly, by eliminating those, who feel that they are entitled to two seats.
I was quite refreshed by Cambridge, before my transfer to the train for Newmarket. There was a bit of hassle, as I had to exit the station to get another ticket, rather than purchase it on the train. They have now installed gates at Cambridge to clamp down on fare dodging, but they’ve also made it difficult to say go to the M&S in the station to get your supper, whilst you are waiting for your connection. They should think these things through properly.
I don’t really have a problem with walking, but where I was in London wasn’t too well provided with places to sit, to get the rest I need to take. So in some ways, I thought that it might be better to use my pass and just sit in a bus.
But at least I know I can manage!
The Middlesex Hospital Lives On!
To me, two London hospitals hold pride of place in my mind, St. Bartholemew’s or Barts, as it was the local hospital, when we lived in the Barbican and the Middlesex, as our oldest and youngest sons were born there.
The Middlesex is now just a bricked and boarded-up chapel, surrounded by a vast deserted building site, as it has long been demolished to make way for a hotel and housing.
But something from the Middlesex lives on; the art. Or rather some of the most amazing pieces of Victorian art, that used to be in the hospital reception area.The paintings are now on display at The National Gallery until October. See more here on the BBC. The artist was Frederick Cayley Robinson. Note that the link points to a French entry in Wikipedia, as there is no English one! What does this say about our views on artists?
Five Years On
It is now five years since the London Bombings of the seventh of July in 2005.
On that day, when it became obvious what had happened, I wrote the following :-
Tuesday, I went to the funeral of a friend. Alex died young at 48. Life is cruel. But even the funeral was not a sad affair! Alex wouldn’t have wanted it so and stated it probably many times before she died!
Wednesday, I was in Trafalgar Square, when my fair and beloved city, London, was announced as the winner of the 2012 Olympic Games. Life can be so sweet.
But then we have the bombings of today!
Thousands of times, I’ve travelled through the tunnels under London. Many times, I’ve done the stretch between Kings Cross and Russell Square, where most of the casualties occurred. Occasionally, I’ve used the two parts of the Circle Line, where the other two bombs went off.
Am I bitter? Angry? Sad? Vindictive?
Not sure!
Sad yes! As why would anybody want to do such a thing! How would I feel if one of my sons did that? I would know I had failed. How would I feel if one of my sons had got caught in the blasts. I don’t know! But thankfully they didn’t.
So it has to be sadness at the moment. Vindictiveness only follows the old eye for an eye maxim, which means that we all go blind!
But perhaps, the greatest thing we can do is just carry on, remembering those that died and vowing to be more vigilant so that it won’t happen again.
Fay would have done that. She worked for my father and during the Second World War, the shy girl from North London, worked as a conductor on the buses. One day, the bus she should have been on, was hit directly by a German bomb. Everybody died! She just remembered the tragedy, I suspect she cried long and hard, and then she carried on.
A few crackpots, who take the good name of Islam in vain, should never be able to bring London to its knees, when the evil Hitler and the Luftwaffe failed.
A last point for Bush and all those who think that the death penalty is a deterrent in these sort of cases. I’ll ignore the fact that the London atrocities may well have been suicide bombers, which are usually pretty difficult to execute. But as I am someone who has no belief in any religious being at all, I do believe that we should do all we can to preserve reasonable life here, as there is nothing more to come. So if we ever execute anybody, then we are losing our own humanity and descending below their level.
Carry on London.
Since then London has picked itself up, dusted itself down and started all over again. But it always does and looks forward rather than backward.
I might be in a worse state having lost my wife and son to serious cancer and suffered a couple of strokes.
But I must carry on.
The Anonymous Widower 