PAUL COLEMAN'S LONDON

Elsenham: A bear trap in the woods known as Network Rail

2012-01-31T21:17:00.008Z

@font-face { font-family: "Times New Roman"; }@font-face { font-family: "Verdana"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Verdana; }table.MsoNormalTable { font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } A friend asked me not so long ago, ‘what past event would you want to return to and change?

Tottenham: The Riots, a play by Gillian Slovo, at the Bernie Grant Arts Centre

2012-01-09T09:34:00.007Z

I saw The Riots in Tottenham last week (Wednesday, 4 January). This thoughtful play is the result of the Tricycle Theatre Company’s own investigation into last summer’s unrest in London and the rest of the UK. Writer Gillian Slovo* based The Riots on 56 hours of interviews with rioters, riot victims, police and politicians. For instance, well-known actor Cyril Nri plays both Superintendent Leroy

You Me On the 2012 Bum Bum Train?

2012-01-01T13:26:00.001Z

This neon flash, advertising a temporary London theatre show on New Oxford Street, seemed to sum up the global crisis as 2012 dawned. If you want to know how Londoners are coping with the crisis during 2012, visit www.londonintelligence.co.uk Photo: Copyright Paul Coleman, London 2011 Paul Coleman, London, January 2012.

Crisis? What Crisis? City, St Paul's, Students, Tony Benn and Tea

2011-11-12T10:28:00.006Z

Salvador Dali, the artist, might've liked how London turned surreal again last Wednesday (9 November).At the Guildhall in the morning I listened to property developers, planners and architects ponder the City of London's office development pipeline.* After a lunch attended by the outgoing Lord Mayor of London, I sauntered to St Paul's Cathedral to see if thousands of students marching against

Thames Hub hubbub, starring Lord Norman Foster and the City of London

2011-11-11T23:57:00.005Z

Breakfast this morning proved expensive. £50 billion came up at one point. Early birds at the New London Architecture breakfast briefing heard Lord Norman Foster, architect behind the Gherkin and Wembley Stadium, stir up a hubbub about the Thames Hub - a potential new airport and high speed rail terminal in the Thames Estuary, east of London. A carbon neutral Thames Hub would be powered by

Meerkats fight Russian money battle in London court

2011-11-02T13:02:00.002Z

I'm sure the £3.1 billion compensation High Court battle between Russian oligarchs Boris Berezovsky and Roman Abramovich - the owner of Chelsea Football Club - is all very entertaining but why is the case being heard in London and not in Moscow? My eager legal beaver friends offer a couple of reasons. Firstly, Berezovsky apparently fell out with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin and

Film of three jets circling over north London

2011-09-09T22:46:00.003+01:00

Click on the link below and take a look at the short impromptu film I made earlier tonight (9 September, 2011) from the platform at Grange Park railway station in north London. Here's the film; Jets over London. Sorry, it's a bit jerky as it's not edited. Just run it for a few seconds and the planes will soon appear. I'm not an aviation journo but planes and helicopters always intrigue me.

Marchmont Community Garden: London's new green enclave

2011-09-03T22:38:00.004+01:00

The band played. People clapped. A dog barked. Bees buzzed on freshly planted lavender. The September morning sun smiled and bounced off the new garden's white walls. Normally, I go to Marchmont Street to get my haircut at Gino. But this morning I attended the official opening of the Marchmont Community Garden, the first new public garden to be created in the north London borough of Camden for

Heddlu - Croeso to the streets of London

2011-08-21T13:25:00.000+01:00

Police from Wales are patrolling London's streets. I first saw them in Bloomsbury Square. Their vans and police cars, marked 'Heddlu', Welsh for 'police', showed they were from Gwent. The Welsh officers are in the capital providing additional support to London's Metropolitan Police after the riots and looting that rocked the city a fortnight ago. South Wales Police sent 54 officers to London.

Facebook reveals character of London rioters

2011-08-12T23:03:00.000+01:00

Facebook has provided police officers with insights into the thinking of at least one young person who was arrested, charged and sent for trial for taking part in the riots that hit London. One teenager, now awaiting trial after a serious attack on the police, quoted song lyrics on Facebook back in July. The lyrics went: "All I care about is money...ima sip until I feel it. ima smoke until its

London's Riots: Seven Days Later

2011-08-11T13:22:00.000+01:00

A week is a long time in rioting. Last Thursday (4th August) at 6.15pm, I emerged from a cosy conference room in central London - about the same time as armed police confronted Mark Duggan in Tottenham Hale, I checked my Blackberry phone for messages and thought about buying a doughnut. At about the same time, Mark Duggan reportedly sent a message from his Blackberry to

The London Riots: The Question of Why?

2011-08-09T15:15:00.002+01:00

I bought a Greater London Streetfinder Atlas the other day but terrifyingly it's already out of date. Sony's massive distribution centre in north-eastern Enfield shows up on page 105 as a big orange rectangle. But in the wee hours of this morning the vast building itself exploded and was raised to the ground in a huge fire set by looting arsonists. Twelve hours or so later, at 1pm today (

Tottenham to Enfield Town and beyond: looting across London

2011-08-08T10:09:00.003+01:00

For several troubling hours last night, people in sleepy Enfield Town didn't need to switch on their TVs to see what was making the news. They just looked out of the window. Rampaging teenagers were throwing house bricks at riot police outside Enfield Grammar School, where I looted some 'O'-Levels decades ago. Shocking scenes flared elsewhere, particularly the car burning on Gentleman's Row,

Tottenham 2011: the background from 1985

2011-08-07T11:00:00.001+01:00

"On 5th October 1985, four Tottenham police officers entered the home of a Black woman, Mrs Cynthia Jarrett, and searched it. During the course of the search Mrs Jarrett collapsed, and soon after she died. "On the following afternoon a demonstration outside Tottenham police station passed off without any serious incident. But during the evening and night of 6th October, a violent disturbance

Council vote rejects development for Wards Corner, Tottenham

2011-07-22T22:30:00.000+01:00

Councillors in the north London borough of Haringey voted late on Wednesday night (20th July) to refuse planning permission for a controversial housing and retail development at Wards Corner in Tottenham, north London. If you'd like more details please visit my news story on the 24 Housing website. Paul Coleman, London, July 2011

John Mellencamp, Live at Hammersmith, London: It can get...No Better Than This

2011-07-03T11:38:00.002+01:00

Recklessly, I missed John Mellencamp's last live gig in London. So, nineteen years later, I wisely reckoned I should get down to Hammersmith last night (Saturday, 2 July). Mellencamp, one of heartland America's most highly regarded singer-songwriters - and an Obama family favourite - doesn't often do London. On stage, Mellencamp's gravel diamond voice delivers lyrics that sketch a life thorned

Tim Jennings speaks on curse of social media at New London Architecture's 'London's Workplaces' event

2011-06-23T11:52:00.001+01:00

Self-confessed "grumpy old man" Tim Jennings thrusts an embittered yet sharp riposte towards "social networking media evangelists" who tell him how many apps he can get for his smart-phone. "They're on a mission to make non-users feel inadequate," chides Jennings. "I don't even have a smart phone." Jennings, md of architecture and design firm, ttsp, passionately pleads for Londoners to "cherish

The Shard: bigger by little, each day

2011-06-20T19:59:00.002+01:00

Maybe one day, most Londoners won't even give the Shard a second glance. But, for now, Europe's tallest building grows difficult to ignore. Architect Renzo Piano describes his creation as "a city in the sky". Fellow architect Ptolemy Reid describes it "as more interesting in construction". Prince Charles dismissively slurs the Shard as an oversized salt cellar. Personally, London's tall,

Marconi House blaze on Strand and Aldwych

2011-06-16T08:08:00.001+01:00

"The fire and smoke was incredible yet frightening," said Ivan. "They were turning back buses on Waterloo Bridge." Ivan watched the drama unfold as he served tea, coffee and cake from the garden café on the roof of the South Bank's Queen Elizabeth Hall. He was talking about Tuesday's fire on the north side of the river which badly damaged the roof of Marconi House, a 10-storey building

A Raincoat with a View

2011-06-14T10:05:00.000+01:00

A woman wearing a fawn raincoat spoilt my great view of London from an airship...more on this coming later this week. Photo: Copyright Paul Coleman, London, 2011. No authorised use without permission. Paul Coleman, London, June 2011

London 2012 Olympic Games: Olympic Park, Stratford - the view from Hackney Wick

2011-06-10T06:39:00.001+01:00

My train is stuck in the station under a snotty hankerchief sky. Trains are backed up between Hackney Wick and Stratford at the congested end of the North London Line. The doors stay open so I get off and snap a few photos. In truth, I'm a little wary. I only narrowly avoided being mugged and dunked in the River Lea during my last trip down the Wick. The floodlights on the roof of the new

TSSA rail union calls for Elsenham public inquiry

2011-05-17T18:48:00.005+01:00

The coalition government's Transport Secretary Philip Hammond is being urged this week to hold a public inquiry into why Olivia Bazlinton and Charlotte Thompson were killed by a train at the Elsenham level crossing in 2005. Gerry Doherty, general secretary of the transport union TSSA, called on Hammond to act when opening the union's annual conference held in Norwich. Delegates heard Doherty

Ai Weiwei: Circle of Animals at Somerset House

2011-05-14T11:06:00.002+01:00

Yesterday (Friday, 13th May) London's pigeons bathed in Somerset House's cool fountain waters and sated themselves on the crumbs falling off the tourists' paninis. The birds didn't seem impressed by artist Ai Weiwei's twelve bronze animal heads but at least they hadn't embellished the sculptures with their trademark tags. However, tourists and human rights activists are flocking to the Fountain

Elsenham tragedy could lead to level crossing closures

2011-05-11T23:58:00.001+01:00

The Times today (Weds, 11 May) reports that David Higgins, the recently installed chief executive of Network Rail, has ordered measures designed to cut deaths at mainland Britain's 6,452 level crossings. In an article written by transport correspondent Philip Pank, supported by a commentary by Chris Bazlinton and by an editorial, The Times reports that the deaths of teenagers Olivia Bazlinton

Renzo Piano's Central St Giles and The Shard

2011-05-11T23:33:00.000+01:00

I donned the PPE gear and squeezed into the service lift with eleven other souls this afternoon. We zoomed to the top floor of architect Renzo Piano's orange, green and yellow Central St Giles development. It wasn't the sunniest of days but the views from the penthouse were spectacular. I thought it wise to take a photo of Piano's other stamp on the London skyline, The Shard. As you can see, The