Looking Around Docklands
I sometimes think that I’d like to have a flat in Docklands. I have so much junk, that it might be a good idea to live with the minimum of baggage. Especially, if I was going to travle a lot.
So I went and looked at a flat out of interest.
The flat was nice, with large rooms and great views of the Dome. But the parking for the Lotus was not good enough.
But I liked the area and especially as there is a Carluccio’s nearby.
The Middlesex Hospital Chapel
Two of our children were born in the Middlesex Hospital; one on the day that Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins that Ap0llo 11 left for the moon.
It is now quite sad to pass the site of the former hospital, which has been almost completely demolished.
The Middlesex Hospital Chapel
There is just the chapel and one wall of the old hospital shown behind and to the left in this picture. The chapel is on the English Heritage at-risk list.
I only popped into the chapel a couple of times, but let’s hope that when the site is finally developed, that they allow full access to one of London’s little gems.
I searched Google and found this project to model the chapel in 3D.
General Sikorski
I was walking from Regent’s Park to Oxford Circus when I passed the statue of General Sikorski in Portland Place.
General Sikorski
Gritting Priorities
It was interesting to hear on Radio 5 last night from Alistair Kight of GRITIT and the fact that people are stealing salt supplies. He was also very critical of local and national government, who only had very inadequate supplies and have thus added to the chaos.
He has a point.
Surely, we should have enough supplies to keep all the main and most of the secondary roads open for a month. Where I live I’ve never seen a gritter at all on the fairly steep up and down, that leads to the main road. Surely, it should have been done at least once, as the road leads to some elderly and seriously ill people.
But then we vote Conservative in this area, so there are no votes for Prudence in giving my council enough money to provide adequate services.
I was in London yesterday and they were gritting the paths of Regents Park.
Gritting in Regents Park
So at least we have our priorities right!
John Betjeman at St. Pancras
There is also a charming status of John Betjeman, who did much to save the station from demolition in the 1960s.
John Betjeman
The Meeting Place at St. Pancras
I like sculpture and I often think it is the dominant art form, as it can be placed in the open so that everyone can enjoy it. The Meeting Place is by Paul Day and it is in St. Pancras in London.
Rebuilding King’s Cross
Nearly all of the transport projects for the 2012 Olympics in London are now in place. The last one is the rebuilding of King’s Cross.
The station will be opened fully by 2012.
Crystal Palace 3 – Ipswich 1
Selhurst Park is a dump. It looks like it’s been nicked from all sorts of places and to me sums up why as a North Londoner, you rarely venture far south of the River. Whoever’s idea it was to put the river in the centre of London had a good one, as it creates a proper barrier between what is worth seeing and what is not. Selhurst Park is definitely in the once seen, why did you bother category.
Selhurst Park
This picture shows the bad view from the visitors’ stand, but it doesn’t do justice to the old wooden seats, the cramped conditions, the bad screen and the general dereliction of most of the ground. The pitch wasn’t good either.
The football was ruined by the sending off of Jon Stead. The foul was bad, but as he’d just been upended by a Palace player I suspect, he was too angry to think about what he was doing. It was the sort of foul though, that some referees would have been lenient with.
So I left a few minutes before the end and struggled to get back to civilisation, eventually taking a bus and then a train from Penge. And that was cold, but then all trains south of the Thames seem to be much colder than those north of the river.
I’ve now woken up and found I have a splinter in my palm. From those dreaded wooden seats no doubt!
My first London Tram since the 1950s
I can just about remember the original London Trams.
My paternal grandmother used to take me on trips around London in my Cumfifolda push-chair and I have seen pictures of us as the Dome of Discovery and the Skylon at the Festival of Britain site on the South Bank of the Thames in 1951. The only building that remains is the Royal Festival Hall.
I can also remember dark images on a winter’s day from a very low height of a wide street with trams travelling down the centre. I’ve always believed that this was the Holloway Road and as trams on route 35, ran through the Kingsway Tunnel to Archway and Highgate until April 1952. I can remember climbing aboard and travelling. But where I do not know!
Yesterday, I went to see friends in South London on the way to see Ipswich play Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park. On way to get across was to take a bus to Wimbledon and then use the London Tramlink to West Croydon.
London Tram at Wimbledon
It was busy and just like any other tram all over Europe. We need more in the UK.
If you ever want to see something like the old London Trams then go to Hong Kong. Long may they survive.
By Train to Oxford
When I went to Oxford on Saturday, I could have driven. But I parked at Blackhorse Road station on the Victoria Line and then took the tube to Paddington changing at Oxford Circus, as it is only a short walk between the platforms. From Paddington it was just an hour by train direct to Oxford.
The journey worked out well and I didn’t wait long in either direction and there were no delays. Taking the train also allowed me to do some shopping in Oxford Street and have coffee with an old friend on the way back.
Going it was just a typical Networker multiple-unit, but coming back it was a proper High-Speed Train.
High Speed Train at Paddington
The High Speed Train or HST was a stop-gap design that has been in service for over thirty years and it is still one of the fastest, if not the fastest, diesel train in the world. Like good wine they are getting better with age! Not bad for something designed in eighteen months.
What is not generally known about the HST is the name of the designer; Terry Miller. At least East Midlands Trains have now put his name on a power car of one of his outstanding trains.
They will soldier on for at least another decade until they are replaced by electric units. But will these be as reliable? And good?
Whilst at Paddington, I took this picture of Brunel’s roof.
The Roof at Paddington Station
It needs a proper St.Pancras treatment!
The Anonymous Widower 