Improving the High Street
I have two High Streets close to me, Upper Street at the Angel in Islington and the Kingsland Road in Dalston.
I would use them more, but the trouble with both of them, is that they are just too cluttered to navigate easily.
At the Angel the problem is chuggers, who always want to stop me. I just make sure, I don’t give to the charities they promote. On the Kingsland Road it’s the endless boards put up to block the pavements by the various money and pound shops.
I’m sure more people would go to the various High Streets in this country, if it was easier to walk between the places you want to go. Because of this, when I go to either the Angel or the Kingsland Road, I usually go to visit a specific place like Waitrose or the station and usually plan my walking route carefully, so I avoid the main road.
It is also interesting to compare the centre of Liverpool, with say Oxford Street. The former is pedestrianised and it is a joy to walk around with no traffic, whereas the second is a nightmare and no wonder it’s such a dump, with just a few good shops, like John Lewis, Selfridges and M & S, standing out from the dross.
I can’t remember the last time, I bought anything in Oxford Street, except at those stores!
Yesterday, Oxford Street had been blocked off and effectively pedestrianised and it was so much better.
An RF Bus and the Wombles
The only obstruction was this RF or Regal Four bus and the Wombles.
I didn’t actually buy anything though.
On the subject of buses, which are very important in getting people to the shops, at The Angel, they have two big lay-bys on either side of the road, which accommodate the bus stops. So if I’m going to say Waitrose, it’s just get off the 38, 56 or 73 bus, walk across the road on a light-controlled crossing and then I’ve just a few metres from the shop. Going home, I don’t even have to cross the road and just walk down a few steps to the bus stop. The system works well and could probably be implemented in many places. But then they’ve lost a few car parking spaces. But then how many normal unselfish people drive in Islington?
They could certainly improve the bus access and walking routes on the Kingsland Road, which would probably improve the interchange between the two Dalston stations.
The problem in both these High Streets, is that they can be improved, but usually the motorist is the one to be inconvenienced. I should say, that in both places, there are car parks, close to the High Streets.
Will I Look Like This If I Eat Beautiful?
I took this picture at the Angel in Islington.
Eat Beautiful
So if when the restaurant opens and I eat there, will I get to look like one of these lovelies?
Checking the web site of the company, itsu, it would appear they are being honest about allergies.
Reading the menu though, I doubt it will increase my 30 inch waist much. It’s been that ever since I left University and the doctor in Hong Kong, thought that my core strength helped me survive the stroke. I’m beginning to doubt that, as I think the stroke wasn’t as bad as it was painted at the time and they gave me the super-duper clot-busting drip in time.
The Beach at The Angel, Islington
I have taken a few pictures at the beach in the N1 Shopping Centre at The Angel.
Note that the eco-friendly deck chairs came made from sustainable timber.
It was certainly busy yesterday in the sun, after a rather wet start.
They Open a Beach at the Angel, Islington and It Rains
They opened a beach in the N1 Shopping Centre at Islington yesterday, complete with plastic Astroturf sand and grass, deckchairs and all the other things a beach needs.
Then it rained.
I’m Going Off The Angel
I don’t know why it is, but it seems to be getting impossible to go past the Angel these days without getting accosted by a chugger.
One day last week, it was a group wanting me to save the tiger. Of course, I want to save the tiger, but the way to do this is to put pressure on various countries that use tiger parts in quack medicine. So where are the protests in places like Beijing and Hong Kong? Annoying me, doesn’t help this at all.
Today it was more chuggers and a protest about saving the NHS. I was accosted by an obese man smoking a cigarette. When I said I don’t support protestors who smoke, I giot a mouthful of abuse. So I just walked on. The protest was also using the only dry place in the rain as a shelter, so we had to get very wet to get past. So not intent of just breathing smoke on us, they were trying to give us pneumonia.
The trouble is that to get across the road from the station to Waitrose, M & S, Chapel Market, the other main shops and the cinema, is that there is only one crossing, so you have to run the gauntlet of chuggers and protestors every time you do it.
Through The Angel,Islington On a 30 Bus
I took this video in the style of Mitchell and Kenyon, from the top of a 30 bus, as it went through the Angel at Islington.
Note the tram washing shed on the right, which is now the Jack Wills store and the statue of Hugh Myddelton on Islington Green.
In the end, I got off to go to the Carluccio’s on Upper Street.
The Angel, Islington Is Now Clean and Tidy
This picture shows how islington have cleaned up the Angel.
The New Pavements at the Angel
It must have impressed the BBC as they conducted interviews for BBC Breakfast one day last week on the pavements on the opposite side of the road to this picture.
Just before I took this picture, I had bumped into a person of the female gender, who had just got off the same 38 bus as I had. I won’t call her a young lady, as she’d debussed (does it have one s or two?) and immediately stopped to light up her cigarette. As I was close behind her, I walked straight into her. I apologised profusely, but got a mouthful. Whereupon I told her that she should stop smoking, as it will eventually kill her! Possibly it will be sooner than I think, as she immediately wandered in front of the 38 bus to cross to Islington Green. Luckily for her the driver was paying attention to the lights, which had turned red.
It must be very disheartening for the council, as the pavements were already covered with discarded cigarette ends and chewing gum.
Traffic Chaos at the Angel
I said on Saturday that I got very wet in the chaos at Highbury Corner due to road works disrupting the buses.
Today I went shopping at Waitrose at the Angel and getting there on a 38 bus from my previous call in Clerkenwell, I was held up by traffic jams caused by the extensive road works all over the area.
Afterwards, as I’d got a lot to bring home, I decided to take a taxi. the lady driver had to go all through the backstreets to get me home. Someone had told her, that Islington still has money to spend from the 2010-11 budget and are doing as much work as is possible before the deadline.
I certainly will be avoiding the Angel for the next week or so, unless I can do it on foot or by the Underground.
It’s funny, but in all my years, I’ve never hailed a black cab driven by a lady.
If this is true, it sounds like their project management skills are in line with the Cambridge Busway and the Edinburgh Tram.
Daura in the Angel, Islington Waitrose
The Estrella Damm Daura was there all the time, but rather hidden away at the bottom of the Free From section. The bottles and packaging are very red by the way.
I think shops need to think how they sell GF beer. Sainsbury’s put it with the special beers and Waitrose have done the opposite. Perhaps they need some clever stickers on the shelves to point people in the right direction.
The Angel Waitrose is very small, so they have a space problem. I’m sure there’s a labelling or web solution, which would help the stores and shoppers alike.
Along the Regent’s Canal to the Angel
I’m about a five or ten minute walk to the Regent’s Canal and today, I walked along the canal to the Angel as it was starting to get dark.
I can remember some of this area in the 1970s and to say it has improved is one of the biggest understatements, anybody can make. I even saw a Norwich City supporter enthusiastically spinning for pike.
This is the third time, I’ve lived near this canal.
In the 1970s C, myself and our young family lived in St. John’s Wood, just north of the canal and we would cross it by the London Zoo to get into Regent’s Park. You used to see the occasional narrow-boat or pleasure craft, but I don’t think there was any easy access to the tow-path. It would probably have been deemed to dangerous anyway to take three small children alongside the water. So when we decry Health and Safety for ruining our pleasure, there must be many more examples like the Regent’s Canal towpath, where different interests coexist together in complete safety.
And then, a few years later when we lived in the Barbican we would often walk up to the Angel to shop walking right past the City Road Basin on the canal. But sadly we never explored.
It is often assumed that canals like this ceased to be commercial arteries, when the railways appeared, but the Regent’s Canal was still busy with freight until the Second World War. It also has another purpose in London’s infrastructure in that under the tow-path for quite a way is one of the city’s main electricity distribution mains. Believe it or not, but the cables at kept cool, by using water from the canal.
The Anonymous Widower 