Today, on the 5th November, is the day that political blogger, the Old Holborn takes a casual wander down Whitehall in the guise of V, from the film to present a Carson Rose to the police at the gates of 10 Downing Street.

Once the group got to the gates, the lead V leant over to present the rose, but the police were noticeably uncomfortable and didn’t want to play along. After a few attempts, V carefully placed the rose on the barrier as a gift, pointing out that he had paid his taxes on it.

As the group processed down Whitehall to a pub, some speculated about the future fate of that rose and wondered aloud if it was about to be dealt with as a potential bomb.

I had to leave them at the pub, although they went onto Parliament later to seek entry as a member of the public is entitled to do. I popped back to Downing Street, but the rose had already been removed.

I also arrived late, so missed them congregating at the pub. Opps!

Some photos at my usual haunt on Flickr.

The website hadn’t been touched since 2004, but being hosted by GeoCities it lingered on untouched, until last week when Yahoo decided to shut down the Geocities service at last and the site ceased to exist.

Fortunately, I had taken a copy of the site (although I curse myself for missing another website!) but I haven’t been able to contact the author, Ivor Hoole. However, although I don’t have formal permission, I think the information is so valuable, that I will upload the website and host it here for those who would find such things useful – at least until the author does emerge to slap me on the wrist.

Although the last update was in 2004, it seems that most of the pages were originally created in 1996 – so expect some (many?) changes in the real world.

I have put the website at http://www.ianvisits.co.uk/london-alleys/.

Enjoy!

The official fluff reads:

Take a trip back in time to see 1950s London through rare and original archive film. Reminisce about life as used to be in the capital and remember the events that shaped the 1950s; from the lights returning to the post-war Piccadilly Circus and the Festival of Britain; to the last presentation of debutantes and the coming of motorways.

Anyone who went to see the B&W films in Trafalgar square recently, or with a general interest in London history will probably find this of interest.

You can reserve up to 4 free tickets at the Archive Film Shop website.

Pathé News has also been making its archive easier to view – and some of my personal selection is here.

October 31st – Bit windy and damp, but went out for a nice walk.

November 1st – Blowing a gale and pouring down with rain. Deciduous trees perform synchronised leaf-drop (3:18pm) carpeting the pavements in brown detritus. First red breasted robin seen in the estate’s communal garden.

How clever of the weather to switch from autumn to winter exactly on the 1st Nov.

On Wednesday, a couple of authors who have recently written a book on the subject gave a talk on the subject and I wandered along to the Shoe Lane Library to have a listen.

Ghosts are, despite their ethereal nature, quite a contentious topic and not unlike Marmite, they evoke very strong emotions in many people. Indeed, the authors had sometimes faced problems researching the book as people were worried about describing their experiences lest they be mocked in the staff-room.

My personal take on them is that unless you presume lots of people are lying, then something odd is going on – and I would love to understand the science behind the phenomena.

Interestingly, a survey from a couple of years ago by fairly well respected pollsters, Gallup found that belief in ghosts is higher now than at any time in the past 50 or so years.

Anyhow, the talk itself was a quick run though various hauntings and I’ll briefly summarise a few of them below:

They started off with a fairly notorious sermon by the Rev. John Cumming, who was not at all keen on the subterranean railways.

“…the forthcoming end of the world will be hastened by the construction of underground railways burrowing into infernal regions and thereby disturbing the Devil.’”

Certainly there were the odd complaints of this nature about the deep tunnels, but the Victorians were digging deeper coal mines at the time without bumping into Hades or its ilk, so their pronouncements of doom were generally ignored.

One more famous incidents occurs at Aldgate Station, where allegedly there is a log book for ghost sightings. Sadly, getting a glimpse of this log-book proves as elusive as the spectres they detail.

At the station, it was reported that a worker was knocked unconscious after accidentally touching a live power rail and as another worker went to assist him, the ghost of a lady was seen stroking the unconscious man’s hair. Some stories claim the lady saved the man’s life, but it seems more that she simply comforted him while help arrived.

Another station, with a similar name is the now disused Aldwych Station, which was built on the site of a theatre, and the ghost of an actress has occasionally been seen in the station.

Amusingly, a TV show did a series of investigations into hauntings, and the physic reported seeing in Aldwych the event that had (allegedly) occurred in Aldgate. I suspect someone was doing a bit of reading beforehand and mixed up their stations!

Bank Station is also noted as a site of hauntings, and as the ticket hall is actually the former burial grounds of St Mary Woolnoth Church, many researchers cite that as the possible cause.

The most noted of the Bank hauntings though is nothing to do with the old burial ground – being the ghost of Sarah Whitehead. Her brother, who worked at the nearby Bank of England was hung for fraud and she spent the next decade or so visiting the Bank each day to ask for her brother until she in turn eventually died.

Neither were buried in the former graveyard.

Over at Bethnal Green is one of the more sombre hauntings. The station entrance was the location for one of the most serious civilian losses of life during WW2 when a panicked crowd tried to seek shelter during an air raid, and 173 people died in a crush by the stairway entrance. What made it more tragic was that the air-raid sirens were a false alarm, and the panic caused by a loud booming sound, thought to be a bomb, was actually a new anti-aircraft gun that had just been set up in nearby Victoria Park.

Since then, there have been repeated reports of unsettling sounds and people feeling uncomfortable in the station.

For reasons that are not fully understood, there is a known tendency for low-frequency sounds to make people feel uncomfortable, and the tube tunnels are certainly replete with plenty of machines that cause similar effects.

However, when a worker reports the clear sounds of women and children screaming in the booking hall, and that it went on for a period of at least 10 minutes, you have to wonder what could possibly cause that effect.

To lighten the mood, back down the Central Line to the old British Museum station – which is a disused station between Holborn and TCR – where the ghost of a mummy was reported to have been seen. The reports of this haunting are, to put it mildly, dubious and can be discarded as urban myth.

Incidentally, you can still see what is left of the station as you pass though it on the Central Line. Regardless of which direction you approach it, peer out of the right-side windows and although the platforms have been removed, you can make out the empty remains of the station structure.

One of the more unsettling ghostly experiences is had by staff at Elephant & Castle station where the Bakerloo Trains end their travels and prepare to return northbound. Late at night, a lady is sometimes seen getting onto an empty train which is to be returned to the depot, and when staff go to remove her, the carriage is empty again.

Incidentally, and a sign possibly of how our imaginations are important in ghost sightings – when it comes to ghostly trains, people rarely report the sound or sight of diesel engines. It’s always a steam train that is heard. You’d have thought some diesels would have got in on the act by now, but it seems not. Or maybe we humans cannot imagine a “modern ghost” and expect ghostly trains to be only from the steam era?

Back up to the Central Line – which seems to be overly generous with its hauntings – and we get to the up escalator at Marble Arch station. Here, several people have reported leaving a late train to ascend the escalator and feeling that someone is standing on the step right behind them, and leaning uncomfortably close towards them. Anyone turning around will find the escalator is empty. One lady reported that out of the corner of her eye she noticed him wearing a hat and smart black overcoat – and annoyed by his closeness when she also turned to confront him, the escalator was empty. She now wont use that station unless with friends.

The Screaming Spectre of Farringdon is quite famous and thought to be Anne Naylor, a girl adopted by hat maker, Sarah Metyard and cruelly treated until eventually she was murdered. Metyard’s attempted to disposed of the body into the sewer at Chick Lane, but parts of the body were discovered.

Eventually identified as the murderer, after her daughter turned her in, she was convicted at the Old Bailey in 1768 and sentenced to death. Her body, as was the norm at the time for murderers was handed to the Surgeons’ Hall to be dissected for students to study then put on public display.

The ghost was thought to haunt the region of the sewer for some years, but is now heard quite distinctively at Farringdon Station. That she moved to the station is a bit odd, as the sewer in Chick Lane lead down to the River Fleet, and while the road no longer exists, it was on the site of the now derelict Smithfield meat market buildings – a good hundred yards away from the station.

Finally – one I was quite interested in.

The Kennington Loop is a bit of track that enables trains on the Northern Line to turn around at Kennington. Passengers are never allowed on trains going round the loop, and drivers are said to quite dislike the tunnel.

Not only is it very noisy as the tight curve makes the wheels squeal on the tracks, but sometimes trains are held at the end of the loop waiting for space at the platform. Here, in the silence, drivers have reported hearing people talking in the carriage behind them and the sounds of doors slamming as if someone is walking through the train, even though they had checked to make sure it was empty before starting round the loop.

I’ve have the pleasure of taking the Kennington Loop, and in a 1938 tube train, but sadly we didn’t stop at the spot to listen for the sounds of passengers long lost to history seeking to commune with us.

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That’s a quick run though of some of the ghosts mentioned at the talk, and I have dug a bit deeper into the Farringdon Ghost story to find the location of the streets involved. The book they have written is Haunted London Underground.

Booking for all these events opens today, Thurs 29 Oct from 2pm.

Exchanges at the Frontier
Thursday 5 November, 19.00-20.30
Tejinder Virdee works on the Large Hadron Collider project (CERN). Join him in conversation with AC Grayling to find out more about the most powerful physics experiment ever built. More info

Should We Stop Breeding?
Thursday 12 November, 19.00-20.30
We debate the arguments for and against curbing human numbers and explore the history of overpopulation fears, from Malthus to eugenics. This event will be BSL interpreted. More info

Evolving Words
Thursday 19 November, 19.00-20.30
Bringing together young people, poets and scientists from across the UK to create spoken-word performances and films inspired by evolutionary theory. More info

James Graham: Doctor of love
Thursday 26 November, 19.00-20.30
Lydia Syson discusses her work on the charismatic James Graham who is widely regarded as the world’s first sex therapist.  More info

Exchanges at the Frontier
Saturday 28 November, 11.30–13.00
Rajendra Pachauri is the Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Join him in conversation with A C Grayling to find out more about the danger of global warming.  More info.

While absolutely a publicity stunt by Jameson Whisky, who am I to complain when they hire a venue, put on a film and supply the drinks – all free of charge?

Nonetheless, the choice of a Gothic style church as the venue was inspired, and my love of cult movies was amply sated.

Although they have a few films on this week, I opted for An American Werewolf in London as it is a favourite of mine, and it had been ages since I had seen it.

Also, as a bit of a tube geek, I was particularly keen to see the tube scene in the film and see where it was filmed, as I couldn’t really remember the details. Impressively, it wasn’t filmed in a derelict station, but in a pre-mosaic Tottenham Court Road – although the victim seemed to leave the Northern Line platform and walk down the Central Line corridor. I guess that is Hollywood for you.

Also, considering it was set in a late night empty tube station, a digital clock was seen noting that it was actually just after lunchtime! One thing that came out from the chase scene down the corridor is how almost every inch is covered in adverts. If you think the tube is ad-heavy now, it is nothing compared to the late 1970s.

The film is a semi-comedy, although some of the more serious parts are now just hysterical to watch as they are acted straight, but just come across appallingly badly to our more jaded ears.

They have a few more film nights coming up, and you can still reserve tickets via their website.

There is quite a long wait between getting in, and the film starting though, so be advised about that, and I didn’t notice this until I was sat down, but the upper pews are also open and they might offer a better vantage point.

Tomorrow (Fri) is Dracula with Christopher Lee, and considering the difficulty faced by vampires with Christianity, I suspect that watching Dracula in a church could be quite a good, and slightly bizarre, experience.

Next month I am off for an evening of horror films being shown in the Petrie Museum, actually amongst the old Egyptian relics. Wonderful!

There was already a South Quay station, but it couldn’t be extended for the new 3-car length trains, so they built a brand new station a hundred yards or so further along the line.

And a rather nice station it is – and not just because it is clean and still devoid of black chewing gum spots. Being built over a link between two docks, people waiting on the platforms will have very nice views across the water.

The escalators are also low-energy in that they run slowly when no one is using them, then speed up when someone approaches. Seen it before and while a bit weird when you first use them, it is something you get used to quite quickly.

One issue in the design which may be a problem, or not – is that there is a concrete “barrier” right next to the up escalator on the southbound platform – and will surely be jumped over by most passengers. Expect another barrier to be installed there when some idiot hurts themselves, then complains it was the fault of the DLR.

The old station is already being demolished.

The fluff piece from TfL is here.

A few photos:

More photos over at Flickr – and some photos taken the weekend the station was originally expected to open.

Fortunately, there is a website that – with a bit of post-production editing – can generate the Obamicon posters automatically for you from a source image.

For indeed, a few hundred people had turned up to watch a selection of old film clips about various transport systems in London captured on film over the past hundred years – with the silent movies wonderfully accompanied by a live piano performance.

I am quite a fan of these old clips as they look almost like a different world, even though the time being shown is only a few generations ago. Most of our grandparents would recognise some of the scenes being shown last night.

However, one aspect that never comes across in silent moves – for obvious reasons – is the noise of Victorian London. We watch the film clips and the past seems not only monochrome, but also very quiet. We listen to the modern city and bemoan the loss of peace and quiet. That is a myth – Victorian London was noisier than it is today.

We forget that horses clattering over stone cobbles are actually quite noisy, not to mention the iron shod wheels of the trolley buses. The din caused by road transport was such that many attempts were made to dull the noise. Posh hotels would often cover the road with straw in the morning so that early traffic wouldn’t disturb their guests, although after a couple of hours the straw would be beaten to a flattened pulp. There were also experiments with using wood instead of stone for the street cobbles, and even some attempts to cover the wooden blocks with India rubber.

Add in the industry that dominated London – and you have a very noisy city. But last night, we watched an eerie silent city that was presented as swift moving vehicles to the sound of a pianist.

Oh, there was one bit of noise – the idiots behind me in the crowd who TALKED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EVENT. What part of silent did they have problems understanding?

I left the event after about 40 minutes, which is when the talkies started, as I had work to get on with, and trying to listen to talkies with my background commentary going on would have been intolerable.

Of the films shown, some of the memorable notes.

Following a barge along the Regents Canal – might be fun to redo the same journey and see how things have changed. (YouTube link)

The Fire Brigade rushes out of Southwark Fire Station – apart from seeing the old horse drawn fire engines, what I noticed is that there was a large crowd watching them, and each engine got a round of applause as they left to race to the fire. Can’t really imagine that happening today. (BFI Link)

Ealing from a Tram – thought to have been taken just after the tramway was opened due to the amount of bunting and union flags hanging all over the place. Also was noticeable was that every shop had a canvas canopy over the front. I used to work in a shop that still had them, and they are far more useful than the modern tiny canopies that some shops pointlessly use. (YouTube link)

Gas powered cars – tried out when petrol was in short supply and included footage of buses with vast “balloons” on their roofs to hold the gas supply. Raised quite a laugh.

Then on to a colour film shot in 1926, and even though we are used to colour TV/films now, thanks to the 30 minutes of b&w footage, to see colour “for the first time”, was actually still quite surprising, and I did feel some of the excitement those original audiences must have felt when seeing colour for the first time. (YouTube link)

Overall, the whole evening was hugely enjoyable – save for the gossiping idiots behind me – and the BFI plans to run a series of London themed film evenings starting next April(ish).