diamond geezer

Cambridge South

2026-06-29T07:00:00.000+01:00

A new station opened yesterday, possibly the most significant since Crossrail.
It's CAMBRIDGE SOUTH and I have taken far too many photos of it. [42 photos]
(I actually took 255 but managed to narrow it down)

The station's two miles south of Cambridge city centre, a location formerly best reached by bike or guided busway. It serves the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, a cluster of scientific excellence, and also the lucky suburb of Trumpington. It balances out the new station at Cambridge North which opened in 2017, bringing much better connectivity to the city. It's in a really good place network-wise so is served by as many as four different train companies (Greater Anglia, Great Northern, Thameslink and Cross Country). It gets up to 20 trains an hour whereas previously they all sped straight through. It's a few months late because a contractor went bust. And it's also the very first station to be specifically Great-British-Railways-branded, not that I could entirely tell.

What we have here are four platforms - one central island and two either side. They're long because some trains go as far as the south coast, and they're covered at one end and not at the other because it'd be too expensive to do the lot. Architecturally the most interesting thing is that the canopy swooshes up at the northern end, which is both pretty and allows a blanket of solar panels to be placed on the downward slope. A green roof has also been created, a tad anaemic at present but some less stifling weather might boost the station's eco-credentials even further.

The platforms are well lit, repeatedly loudspeakered and heavily surveilled. They have signage using Rail Alphabet 2, the official GBR font, also pushbutton customer interfaces including disruptions and times of next trains. The platforms are spacious enough that even if 50 rail enthusiasts turn up on opening day to make a fuss of being here, everyone can reasonably spread out. And they're liberally scattered with a variety of yellow-edged quadrilaterals, these the ramps that staff bring into play if step-free access is required. The challenge here is the wide variety of different rolling stock stopping here, a consequence of four operators serving the station, hence the choice of ramp has to match whatever's arriving next.

The best place for an overview is the open footbridge at the south end of the station, provided to prevent very long walks if a train suddenly has to arrive on an unscheduled platform. From up there you get a fine view of the boxy Biomedical Campus on one side and a large undeveloped meadow on the other, because this is very much the edge of the developed city. Intriguingly the footbridge only links platforms 2 and 3 to platform 4, either for reasons of cost or for some other operational reason involving headroom. Having listened in on a few excitable adolescents talking at their phones, I expect every single YouTube video churned out yesterday will mention the fact that "the footbridge doesn't connect to platform 1".

The station has two entrances, one facing the Biomedical Campus and the other facing a lot of grass, which is less busy. Connecting the two is a covered overbridge with the biggest 'oooh' quotient, required if your train's not departing from the closest platform. Twisty metal staircases connect top to bottom, also pairs of lifts because just one wouldn't be sufficient to cope with future demand. The stairs are bold orange and wind round beneath a gridlike wooden canopy so are impressively photogenic, from all sorts of angles. They also host what I presume is Cambridge South's main artwork, a long poetic phrase (AND RISE AND FORM AND BOND AND HOLD... and 44 more ANDs) which because it's on the outside of the staircase is only visible on the way into the station and easily missed on the way out.

Great British Railways branding seems to be mostly restricted to pairs of adverts on the sides of stairs and platforms. No ticket office has been provided, only several blue ticket machines, also these dispense bogroll barcodes rather than card because GBR isn't here to bring back the good old days. Demand for caffeinated beverages was met yesterday by a gourmet coffee truck, which may or may not be permanent, but there are also free GBR-branded water dispensers inside the gateline. And if you arrived early enough yesterday they were dishing out attractively designed Cambridge South tote bags and double-arrowed pin badges. I note that the date on the badge was 'June 2026' rather than a specific day because openings only ever get 100% confirmed at the last minute.

That's the station, but what's eminently more interesting is the location it serves. The Cambridge Biomedical Campus is an extraordinary collection of very modern-looking buildings inside which near miracles are carried out daily. The vibrant blue oval is Papworth Hospital, the acclaimed cardiovascular hub whose staff and patients relocated here in 2019. Some of them can be found taking a break outside by a small pond near the helipad. The spiky glass fortress, from above resembling a triangular doughnut, is the global research and development facility for pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. Behind all this is Addenbrookes Hospital - equally important but far less attractive - and beyond a mix of building sites, multi-storey car parks and empty plots awaiting a reason for development. It's not yet clear if the slew of buses that feed in to keep 23,000 jobs ticking over will still be needed now the station's open.

The other side of the station is incredibly different, it's all meadow. Cambridge City Council bought these arable fields over a decade ago and have rewilded them, thus you can wander almost freely across 80 acres of grassland (bar the drainage pond that's fenced off as a bird reserve). Amazingly none of this is pencilled in for development, the jagged roofs of Trumpington's new Clay Farm estate stopping dead at the far edge. I'm not sure how attractive it'd be in winter but at midsummer the long grass was alive with colourful flowers and a skylark shot up into the sky to offer season's greetings in warbling song. I explored the other local sights (Byron's Pool, Grantchester Meadows, Jeffrey Archer!) on a visit in 2019, and can confirm that yes it is hugely easier to get here now they've built an excellent new station in the vicinity. Whether you're in Birmingham, Brighton or Broxbourne you now have direct rail services to Cambridge South, and one day you may be glad of that connection.

» 42 photos in and around Cambridge South station on Flickr

Ealing rebrands

2026-06-28T07:00:00.000+01:00

The London borough of Ealing has updated its logo.

It used to be this tree with a black stripe, and had been since the 1990s.

The most recent tweak had been the addition of the council's web address.
That would have looked really cutting edge in 2002.
It looks less cutting-edge now.

More serious issues were identified.

• The council no longer had a licence to use the font.
• The font was not deemed to be fully accessible.
• The shade of green also failed accessibility tests.
• The shade of green did not match the council's new corporate green unveiled last year.

Fundamentally the old logo failed to meet the national Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, a legal requirement.
So it had to go.

The usual grumble at this point is that updating a municipal logo is an unnecessary waste of money.
The task was thus delegated to the council’s design team because they're already paid for.
Obviously the usual grumblers grumbled anyway.

Several potential logos were produced.
The shortlisted designs were tested by an external accessibility panel.
Other local government design experts took a look.
A final option was selected and developed.
And eventually the council's cabinet said yes.

Here's what they agreed to.
What do you think it represents?

It's a tree, if you weren't certain.
The tree is a link to the former logo, which itself is a reference to the oak tree on the borough's coat of arms.
In developerspeak it "reflects the previous council brand".

The tree is formed of seven curves and there's a reason for that.

"The tree has 7 components, reflecting the 7 towns that comprise the borough."

The seven towns that make up Ealing are Acton, Ealing, Greenford, Hanwell, Northolt, Perivale and Southall.
They have very different populations, and the curves are all different lengths.

But as well as a tree you're also supposed to see something else, a fingerprint.

"The distinctive ‘fingerprint’ shape reflects that, while the council supports those distinct 7 towns and their communities, it also believes in respecting the diverse individuality of each of the people it serves and the council’s obligations to them."

It's a brave move to think that people will see a fingerprint and think human diversity.
A lot of grumblers have instead seen police, crime and the surveillance state.

"The title London Borough of Ealing, rather the previous marque’s Ealing, reflects the whole borough rather than one town. So it is a logo for the area as much as for the organisation."

A lot of London boroughs are named after one town rather than the broader extent.
Harrow's another, ditto Barnet, Croydon, Wandsworth, Enfield, Hackney and Camden.
This is an attempt by the borough to say 'hey we're not just Ealing', and I bet hardly any residents notice.

The grumblers' biggest grumble is that the changeover will be unnecessarily expensive.
The council are thus only introducing it as and when necessary, also online.

It doesn't cost to replace the logo on websites and digital products so the fingerprint tree is there already.
But they're not ripping out street signs, repainting bin lorries or replacing all the boards in parks.
They'll only get the new logo when they need to be replaced, i.e. no additional costs will be incurred.

Merton and Harrow took a similar approach when they updated their logos in 2023.
Out and about in Merton you generally only see the new logo on posters and banners, not street furniture.
In Harrow a scattering of replacement streetsigns have the posh new logo, but not many yet.
Harrow did splurge out on big new purple signs at entrances to the borough, but that's about it.

I did however find the new Ealing logo in place in the one place you might expect, on Ealing Broadway outside the town hall.

The council offices have two slabby signs out front, so new that the display space is still empty.
Both have the fingerprint tree up top, also the words London Borough of Ealing in the two official fonts, Nunito regular and Montserrat extra bold.
Any passing shopper might notice and wonder what the strange splodge is.
They might also spot the previous logo immediately behind on a poster about cost of living support, because that hasn't changed.

It's going to be a long time before this new logo is everywhere, or even in quite a lot of places.
The old logo will linger on thousands of bins and hundreds of streetsigns across the borough for decades.
But keep your eyes open and you might spot it soon, or eventually, and maybe not even grumble.

» Reminds me of the Spotify logo.
» The Old Logo Was So Much Better.
» This is just corpo reductive.
» And what did that cost us?
» You have felled a great oak.
» It’s giving shigella in a petri dish.
» How is this a priority right now????
» How can some squiggles in the vague, possible shape of a tree be more accessible than, er, an actual tree???
» Literally looks like a fingerprint. Just awful.
» Passes the "doesn't look like a bum hole" test. So props for that.
» Anything but filling in the potholes.
» That's it, I'm moving to Hounslow.

London's rainbow plaques

2026-06-27T07:00:00.000+01:00

London has seven rainbow plaques, the vivacious alternative to blue that commemorates significant people and places in LGBTQIA+ history. The most recent was unveiled last week remembering broadcaster, comedian, drag queen, dog lover and national treasure Paul O'Grady.

Should you want to track down all seven this Pride month🏳️‍🌈, here's where they all are. [8 photos]

🌈 Victoria Mansions - South Lambeth Road, Vauxhall

Paul O'Grady's plaque appears on a mansion block in Vauxhall, informally known as Vicky Mansions. He moved into a council flat here in 1985, the same year he gained a Thursday residency at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, and moved out in 1995 because it wasn't convenient enough for The Big Breakfast. The plaque's immediately beside the staircase to flats 70-93, which probably wasn't protected by a sturdy security door at the time, and like all the rainbow plaques has an information panel alongside to explain more than can be shown in a small roundel. It was unveiled last Friday by his widower in front of an appreciative audience including the writer of a new musical about Paul's life (who's also responsible for plaque number seven). And it's just a three minute walk from here to plaque number two...

🌈 My Beautiful Laundrette - Wilcox Road, Vauxhall

My Beautiful Laundrette was written by Hanif Kureishi, starred Daniel Day Lewis and Gordon Warnecke and bubbled up in the early days of Channel 4. It told the story of a young Asian entrepreneur taking on a small business with the help of a punk former classmate, back when Pakistani home life and mixed race gay couples weren't normally the stuff of mainstream television. The laundrette Omar and Johnny transformed into a neon-lit palace was called Powders and it was located in the area called Little Portugal, just opposite where Nine Elms station is today. I blogged about this rainbow plaque in 2022 when it was still embedded in the pavement outside the shuttered unit where filming took place, but also noted that the council's intention was to replace this lowly parade with a stack of 22 affordable flats. That rebuilding is now almost complete, none of the flats are affordable and the plaque has been moved to a more visible location beside a non-evocative fire exit. It's not yet clear if any of the ground floor units will be occupied by a laundrette but I seriously doubt it.

🌈 Oscar Wilde - on platform 10 at Clapham Junction station

London's first rainbow plaque appeared in 2019, following a long campaign by Wandsworth LGBTQ+ Forum, and hundreds of people stand beside it every day while waiting for a train. It's on platform 10 at Clapham Junction, near the stairs, and commemorates the occasion in 1895 when Oscar Wilde waited for a train while on his way from Wandsworth Prison to Reading Gaol. He'd been convicted of gross indecency with men, an offence which would remain on the statute book until 1967, and sentenced to two years hard labour. What made this moment particularly character-sapping is that a crowd of people recognised him, jeered and spat for half an hour until the 2.30 train arrived.

Of all possible objects I was the most grotesque. When people saw me they laughed. Each train as it came up swelled the audience. Nothing could exceed their amusement... For half an hour I stood there in the grey November rain surrounded by a jeering mob.

It wouldn't have been called homophobic abuse at the time, but it was traumatic enough that Oscar wept in his cell at 2pm every day for a year afterwards.

🌈 London Lighthouse - Lancaster Road, Ladbroke Grove

In the 1980s an HIV diagnosis was often a death sentence so money was raised to build a hub to act as both health centre and hospice. The London Lighthouse replaced a derelict primary school in Ladbroke Grove and was formally opened by Princess Margaret in 1988 (Princess Di preferring to make private visits). Upstairs were facilities for 23 patients and downstairs were day-care and drop-in, also a cafe space and shady garden. Advances in treatment in the 1990s meant the focus shifted to lifelong support and in 2000 the charity merged with the Terrence Higgins Trust who stayed until 2013. The current downstairs tenant is the very excellent Museum of Brands, hence the cunningly wrong-branded artwork painted across the front of the building. But anyone can walk in and use the Lighthouse Cafe, which is definitely pleasanter than most, and also wander through to the garden where many former residents had their ashes scattered. For a reflective visit take a seat by the rosebed and admire the dense shrubbery, now fully mature, whilst also checking out whose memorial bench you're sitting on.

🌈 Jackie Forster - 46 Warwick Avenue

Jackie Forster was an actress, news reporter and Border TV presenter, also one of 200 people who took part in London's first official Pride march in 1972. That same year she founded Sappho, a social group for lesbians (based in a Notting Hill pub) and also published a monthly magazine of the same name. Few lesbians were publicly visible at the time and Jackie's media training made her an excellent campaigning ambassador. It took me a while to find her house because there's a massive gap between 42 and 44 Warwick Avenue, and then I sighed because the curse of 'historic home under scaffolding' had hit again. It means Jackie's rainbow plaque is currently covered by grey tape for its own protection so if you want to see where she lived for 21 years best come back when they've finished.

🌈 Black Lesbian and Gay Centre - Bellenden Road, Peckham

The BLGC started out in 1985 in Haringey, a strongly supportive borough, and was founded in response to "the overwhelming whiteness of the 'mainstream' LGBTQ+ scene". In 1992 they leased this converted railway arch just beyond the end of Peckham Rye station, and used it for a library, a telephone helpline and a safe social drop-in space. The first centre of its kind in Europe, in its three year history it was involved in many groundbreaking campaigns and managed to spread its influence far beyond the capital. These days the arches instead focus on MOTs, artisanal butchery, Jiu-Jitsu, pottery and the maintenance of dumbwaiter systems, so quite a change. It's also unclear whether anyone was ever amused by the Centre being in Bellenden Road, which is now a seriously gentrified street.

🌈 Beautiful Thing - The Greenwich Tavern

And finally to a pub on the corner of Greenwich Park which appeared in a key scene in a seminal film released 30 years ago this month. Beautiful Thing started out as a stage play, then was adapted by writer Jonathan Harvey as a film for Channel 4 and filmed almost entirely in Thamesmead. The chief exception was Ste and Jamie's first date at The Gloucester, a bus ride away in SE10, where the schoolboys were duly purred over by the drag queen. The pub's since changed its name to The Greenwich Tavern and embraced a mainstream tourist clientele, serving up gourmet burgers rather than catty backchat, and when the menu says 'Onion Ring £6' I think that's deliberately singular. Of all the seven rainbow-rimmed plaques it's the highest-up and hardest to read, but I guess they couldn't put it in Thamesmead because barely any of the filming locations are still standing.

There's supposed to be one more rainbow plaque at Haringey Civic Centre, remembering the borough's innovative Lesbian and Gay Unit and its campaign against Section 28, but the building's been undergoing major redevelopment since 2020 and maybe they'll add it when they're finished.

University Challenged

2026-06-26T07:00:00.000+01:00

It's exactly forty years since I finished university. Forty years since I discovered that I didn't know as much as I thought I did. Forty years since I stopped drinking coffee at three in the morning and wondering who'd nicked my milk from the fridge. Forty years since I packed away my books and waved goodbye to certainty. All in all forty years since I've been out here making a go of things on my own. And I was lucky, I got through the system back when it pretty much guaranteed you a job, not a long-term five figure debt.

My last term at university passed in a blur. Most students get stuck into a decent social life at the beginning of their course, then tone things down at the end for revision purposes. I went the other way, slowly upping my number of friends until my college room was the heart of our social circle. Making friends with the second years who didn't have big exams to prepare for helped keep the visitors flowing, as did a never-empty jar of Nescafé and one of the few television sets in college. I'd never before managed to hold down quite so many close acquaintances as I had I that final term, and my social life's never been as busy since.

The examination dates for my subject stretched beyond the end of term. My college was keen to throw everybody else out of their accommodation to make way for a far more profitable conference of grown-ups, but those of us with late exams were permitted to stay on within the dwindling community of remaining students. The weather during exam week was ridiculously hot so I was literally sweating over every question, and the World Cup was on too, so Maradona's Hand of God was a most unwelcome interruption during my last night of revision. I'm not convinced that doing any additional revision that evening would have made a difference, but it's convenient to be able to blame Argentina for my subsequent performance.

It's forty years since my very last university exam. I had a good stab at question 25 and a fair attempt at 61 but ground to an unconvincing halt partway through 62. When time finally ran out it was evident that my degree wasn't going to be a stunning one, so the alcoholic celebrations at the end of those last three hours were more in relief than exuberance. Someone had brought spray string, which took forever to remove and which I understand is banned these days on pain of death. We partied, we went out for a late night pizza, and then we attempted to stay up until dawn to make the most of every last second. I was at least sober enough to be pissed off by my fellow examinees spraying fizzy lager all over my room, and thankfully managed to prevent the lunatic in the corridor wielding a fire extinguisher from gaining entrance.

My last 24 hours at university were a bit of a rollercoaster. I was trying to lap up the last few hours of the university experience, only to realise that normality had already departed. I had no more revision to do so browsed round WH Smith, Our Price and the market. I retrieved one last camera film from the chemist but discovered that it hadn't wound on properly, so the memories contained in my last college photographs were all superimposed and therefore useless. I welcomed hangers-on to my balcony and turned down the offer of a final game of Trivial Pursuit. I overdid the wine at the farewell dinner, proving I'd learnt nothing about climbing higher in society. And in my pigeonhole I received yet another rejection letter from yet another company who didn't want me - more my loss than theirs, I suspect.

It's precisely forty years ago today since the last day of all, much of which was spent packing. I took down all my posters and spent ages peeling all the Blu-Tac off the wall, because the college were really obsessed about that. My last canteen lunch was the same as my first - sausages and beans - but eaten in the company of people I now knew inside-out. I dished out certificates to the friends who'd visited my room most often that year, with the winner scoring 339 (and the student I wished had been the winner with just 150). Eventually my Dad arrived to cart away all my belongings and I got one last chance to say goodbye to everyone who'd barely be part of my future again. As we drove off in the family's new Fiat Uno I had absolutely no idea where any future career might be heading, just that life would never be quite so easy ever again. Nor quite so much fun.

I rarely communicate now with the university friends I used to know so well. I exchange Christmas cards with a few of them, in which we often scribble how nice it would be to see each other again but never do. I've forgotten virtually everything I was ever taught as part of my three year course, although I still keep folders of now-incomprehensible lecture notes in my spare room. And nobody comes round for coffee until three in the morning any more, which is probably just as well because I realise now that we could never put the world to rights anyway. Few moments in my life were quite so much of a jolt as that sunny June day forty years ago when, with a tear in my eye, I walked out of the known into the unknown.

I'm still not sure how much my university degree helped me in what followed. I think it impressed a couple of people at interview time but it was never particularly useful in any job on a day-to-day basis. Looking back the thing that really changed my life was getting into university, not the score I achieved getting out. I think I enjoyed my three years more than I truly made the most of it, both in terms of subject development and life experience. I would of course totally do things differently if I ever had a second chance, but equally I'd never cope with the academic side now so be careful what you wish for.

We students had it so much easier in those days. We took on courses because they interested us, not because of their future market worth. The government paid some of us to be there rather than the other way round. And we didn't have to worry that we might be damning ourselves to a lifetime held back by debt, because back then we weren't. It's easy now with my working life behind me to see that investment in my higher education paid off several times over, but that's not generally the case for today's would-be graduates. Too many excellent students won't be getting what I got, they won't risk it, not now that a place at university brings fear of potential long-term financial burden. Blame my generation who got everything scot free, because we're the ones making the big political decisions forty years later.

The phantom closure of Bus Stop M

2026-06-25T07:00:00.000+01:00

The phantom closure of Bus Stop M has ended, to the relief of many Bow residents.

It closed on Saturday for roadworks that never happened, reopened sequentially on Monday morning and was finally given the digital all-clear on Wednesday evening after a slew of impressively unhelpful messaging.

Friday evening

Bus Stop M is operating normally.

Saturday morning

Bus Stop M has been coned off and buses are not stopping. There are no 'Bus Stop Closed' signs but it's fairly apparent buses won't be stopping because of the cones. I speak to the police officer doing this morning's speed trap and he says he's spoken to the bus garage and drivers have been told not to stop. Locating a speed trap at the precise point where cones narrow Bow Road from two lanes to one seems a bit pointless, but I don't say that. I should have asked why Bus Stop M has suddenly become a favoured speed trap location over the last few weeks but I don't ask that either. There are no roadworks, just cones.

Saturday afternoon

Bus Stop M is still coned off but it does now have 'Bus Stop Closed' signs. It has a yellow sign on the flag, yellow posters on the panel and an electronic message on the Countdown display. None of the messages are as helpful as they could be.

Please use previous Bus Stop is all very well, except on route 8 because this is the first stop so there isn't a previous one. Also you have to know where these previous stops are, which has been made harder since 2020 when Bus Stop M's spider map was taken down and never replaced. Thankfully there's a poster to explain more.

Unfortunately it's a bad poster.

From: 6/20/2026
Until: Until further notice
Buses are not stopping here
This bus stop is closed due to Thames Water Works

Firstly the date's been written the American way, which is not normal TfL style. Secondly this says "Until: Until", suggesting it's been compiled slapdashly. Also 'Until further notice' sounds somewhat dramatic although it's really ignorance. I went online to the one.network site and within a minute confirmed that the Thames Water works were supposed to last five days from 23rd-26th June, so not actually starting on the Saturday at all, but whoever had produced the poster can't have been party to this information.

Customers should catch their bus:
Route 8, First stop in Parnell Road.
Routes 25, 425 and 488, at the previous stop on Bow Road.
Route 108, from Campbell Road.
Route 276 from Fairfield Road.

But route 8's new 'first stop in Parnell Road' is a 1km walk away, so hardly convenient. The easiest way to get there would be to cross the road and get the 276 or 488 from Stop J but that's not mentioned.
But route 488's previous stop is not on Bow Road, it's on Fairfield Road. Also the route terminates at the next stop, Bow Tesco, so you'd be much better off walking there (500m) than going back to Fairfield Road (400m) and waiting for a bus.
But route 108's previous stop is on Bow Road, not Campbell Road, so you don't need to walk the extra 130m.
Also routes N25 and N205 are not mentioned.

That's a bad poster in my book.

Sunday morning

There are still no roadworks. There is however a truck from Hatton Traffic, the company TfL have outsourced to close the road. They "deliver safe, compliant traffic management solutions" and have sent a man round to check the cones are still in the right place. They're not, a lot of them have got knocked since they were laid out yesterday, so the man nudges them all back into place. I'm quite impressed by this attention to detail.

However cyclists continue to ignore his hard work because the cones are bloody silly. The cones want cyclists to ride out into the main traffic which is now restricted to a single lane, protected only by a sign that says 'Narrow Lane - No Overtaking Cyclists'. However the bus stop bypass at Bus Stop M is plainly empty and there are no roadworks, so every approaching cyclist weaves through the cones and uses the normal cycle lane instead. The lack of joined-up thinking here is endangering cyclists unnecessarily, or would be if cyclists were stupid enough to believe the unnecessary cones. The man from Hatton Traffic drives off, his ticklist complete.

Monday morning

There are still no roadworks. There are also no cones because the man from Hatton Traffic has been round and removed them all. It seems the Thames Water works have been cancelled, postponed or perhaps never existed. Buses are now stopping as normal and it's almost like the two-day weekend fever dream never happened. However it lingers on.

This morning's second visitor has arrived in a white van from TfL's Bus Incident Response Unit. He's removed the yellow cover from the bus stop to indicate everything's open again. He's also opened up the timetable panel and removed the not-very-helpful yellow posters that were giving poor advice. I have a chat with him and ask what's been going on. He tells me there have been roadworks here over the weekend and I assure him there haven't. He tells me he's been getting the stop back to normal and I thank him on behalf of local residents who've had two days of unnecessary hassle.

The impractical thing here is that the people who do the cones are not the people who do the notices. Thus the cones appeared first thing on Saturday with no explanation, but the posters and closure notices appeared hours later in a different van. Everything remained in place on Sunday because neither party realised there weren't any roadworks. Then on Monday the cones disappeared early and only later did all the closure notices come down. This may well be the most cost-effective way to do things but it does risk sending very mixed messages to passengers.

Tuesday morning

You'd think everything'd be sorted by now but there's one more team who haven't got the message and that's whoever programmes the Countdown display. Normally it'd be showing the times of all the next buses, given dozens are stopping at Bus Stop M every hour as normal. However instead it's displaying a closure notice, just like it was yesterday, with a message that's entirely untrue.

Bus Stop Closed until 17:15 24 June 2026
Please use next or previous stop to catch your bus

The electronic system still believes the stop is closed until teatime tomorrow so that's what it's telling everyone who waits here. This is also the case on all the apps and on the TfL webpage. None of this is correct.

Incidentally 'please use next stop' is worse advice than 'please use previous stop' because the next stops are even further away. That's the trouble with generic default text, it misses all the local foibles an individual bus stop might have. It wouldn't be quite such bad advice if there were a yellow poster to go with it but a) all the yellow posters were removed yesterday b) they weren't very good posters c) they're unnecessary because the stop is back open.

Wednesday evening

I wondered what would happen at 17:15 on 24 June 2026 so I made sure I was standing at Bus Stop M at the time. At 17:14 the display still showed the rubbish about the bus stop being closed. But on the stroke of 17:15 the message disappeared and was instantly replaced with the times of the next buses.

8 Tottenham CT RD due
25 Ilford due
488 Bromley-By-Bow 2 min

I was duly impressed, it really did happen to the second. The closure message on apps and the TfL website disappeared at the same time. Admittedly it took 2 minutes for the number 8 to arrive and 5 minutes before the 25 appeared round the corner, but that's fairly standard for Bus Stop M. The real issue is that no Next Bus info was visible beforehand even though it should have been. It's brilliant that a closure message can switch off at 5.15pm precisely but far less brilliant that it had been out-of-date for three days and nobody noticed.

And I mention all of this not because it's important or of consequence, but as an illustration of just how balls-ed up the closure of a bus stop can be. Bus Stop M is nothing special, it's just a bus stop I know well and whose shortcomings I can document in depth. But London has 19,000 bus stops so this kind of thing is always happening somewhere across the network, an ill-informed lack of joined-up thinking leading to a sub-par customer experience. If your local bus stop doesn't have irrelevant cones, invisible roadworks, inaccurate posters, ignorant decisions and sloppy messaging it may just be a matter of time.

Cool Spaces map

2026-06-24T07:00:00.000+01:00

In this (ridiculously) hot and humid weather, the Mayor is again promoting his Cool Spaces map.

If you are out and about in the city and start to feel too hot, the Mayor’s Cool Spaces map will help you find a welcoming place to sit down, rest and rehydrate.

What a good idea to identify places Londoners can go to cool down, or so you'd think.

But is the map a useful solution on a sweaty day or just a motley collection of venues thinly spread across the capital? I've been out to check.

The big dots on the map are Cool Spaces, "indoor venues open to all where Londoners can take respite on hot days".

For example, if you're around King's Cross the nearby Cool Spaces are the British Library, Pancras Square Library, the St Pancras and Somers Town Living Centre and Somers Town Community Centre. Four decent air-conditioned boltholes with water on tap, indeed I've hidden away in one of them on a hot day and it was a very wise choice.

But they're not very well spread out and it turns out some boroughs are Cool Place deserts.
» Kensington & Chelsea 7 Cool Spaces, Hammersmith & Fulham 0.
» Richmond 13 Cool Spaces, Hounslow 1.
» Greenwich 16 Cool Spaces, Bexley 2.
» Lewisham 11 Cool Spaces, Bromley 2.

Six boroughs have only 2 Cool Spaces - Barnet, Bexley, Bromley, Harrow, Havering, Hillingdon
Five boroughs have only 1 Cool Space - Ealing, Enfield, Hounslow, Newham, Sutton
And six boroughs have no Cool Spaces at all - Barking & Dagenham, Croydon, Hammersmith & Fulham, Kingston, Lambeth, Redbridge

Half the boroughs in London appear in that list, including astonishing omissions like Lambeth and Croydon. It turns out this is because of the way the map was compiled, not by proper research but by asking for submissions.

Cool Spaces have been put forward by boroughs, community groups, faith-based and other organisations following an invitation to register by the GLA.

Wandsworth for example put forward 11 libraries helping the borough to a total of 14 Cool Spaces. Haringey put forward 1 library helping the borough to a total of 5 Cool Spaces. And Redbridge have 11 libraries but didn't put forward any of them, which is one reason for their grand score of zero Cool Spaces. It's all very inconsistent.

There are also two tiers of Cool Space...

Tier 1 Cool Spaces have all the key amenities to cope in hot weather: lower temperatures than outdoors, free seating space for rest and recovery, free drinking water and toilets. They are accessible to disabled people, open at least five days a week and at least from 10am to 5pm.
Tier 2 Cool Spaces may not be accessible to disabled people, may not have toilets and be open less frequently, but at least two days a week.

For example the borough of Havering has just two Cool Spaces, one from each tier.

Tier 1: Rainham Foodbank (on the 1st floor of Mick Fury House, South Hornchurch). Well done to them for being willing to take in sweaty folk five days a week, but they don't have air conditioning just a room with fans.
Tier 2: St George's Church (near the main shops in Harold Hill). They don't have aircon or fans, just natural ventilation, and are only open 10am-2pm Mondays and Thursday so are no use whatsoever if there's a heatwave on a Wednesday.

Also those two spaces are in opposite corners of the borough meaning the vast majority of residents live nowhere near either. Indeed today there's only one Cool Space in the whole of Barking & Dagenham, Redbridge and Havering and it's near Beam Park, a station that hasn't yet been built. For millions of Londoners the Cool Spaces map is a distant irrelevance.

I wanted to test the map properly so I focused on my local borough. Tower Hamlets has four Cool Spaces and I've been to all of them. I wouldn't necessarily go back.

Cool Space: Museum of the Royal College of Pharmacy (Tier 1)
66 East Smithfield E1W (near St Katharine Docks), Monday-Friday 9am-5pm
Free drinking water, air conditioning, toilets available, max seating 20

I wasn't aware that the museum was open to walk-ins, I'd only ever been on an Open House tour, so that was good. It's open eight hours a day because it's essentially a lot of glass cases in the Royal College's reception, but some very interesting glass cases all the same. One's full of lovely blue and white porcelain jars apothecaries would have used, indeed a lot of the exhibits are old pharmaceutical containers. Nobody would prescribe mercury ointment, arsenic complexion soap or belladonna plasters today, nor claim that "Britons never shall be slaves if they take Beechams Pills', but times change. I loved some of the contrived brand names (Nolvadex, Rynocrom, Snophenicol) and all the ways pharmacists had of counting pills efficiently.

But as a location to sit out a heatwave I'm unconvinced. Yes it's air-conditioned and that was lovely, but once you've spent 15 minutes looking at the cases there's only a handful of sterile white tables more normally used for greeting visitors to the building. The drinks chiller is clearly labelled as not for visitors, and whilst I'm sure the receptionists would offer water if asked this isn't really somewhere to hang around.

Cool Space: The People's Letters (Tier 2)
395 Cambridge Heath Road, Bethnal Green, daily 11am-7pm
Free drinking water, natural cooling/ventilation, max seating 30

In complete contrast this is a "worker-led, cooperatively-run bookshop born of resilience, solidarity and the refusal to be silenced", or more snappily "a space where literature and activism coexist." You can tell it's a place of protest from the posters in the window and the steel shutter behind the door, but inside is a crammed cosy space with old and new books for sale. The second hand stock is labelled 'pay what you can (don't take the piss)'. Zines and on-message greetings cards are available, also leaflets about drugs and a syringe exchange, also resources for the full range of the LGBTQIA+ spectrum especially the T. They describe it as a no-pressure space and it did feel like that, right down to the bloke asleep on the comfy sofa.

It's not a naturally cool space but they are giving it a try with a number of fans around the room, one of which was blowing over a tray of ice cubes. You can tell they'd be amiable with glasses of water as required but I'm mystified why they're on the Cool Space list, other than being 110% community-focused and welcoming to everyone. Were you seeking a cool bolthole nearby the obvious place to go would be the Young V&A or perhaps Bethnal Green library but they were never put forward. If you are the kind of reader who'd appreciate a visit to The People's Letters, don't feel you need to wait for a heatwave to do it.

Cool Space: St Paul's Way Centre (Tier 1)
83 St Paul's Way E3, Bow Common, Mon-Sat 9am-5pm
Free drinking water, air conditioning, max seating 30

Here's one of those modern community centres they slot under flats when they regenerate an area, indeed the first of two in my borough's Cool Spaces list. Here they got the developers to pay for an IT suite, meeting rooms and a multi-purpose hall, but what most local residents interact with is the cafe space just inside the entrance. It's had more than one operator since 2013 but the current crew are Bow Brew who offer a really very good value menu including £6 cooked breakfasts and one-quid toast-and-jam. Expect plenty of space to spread out amongst the clientele, a refreshing chill and no insistence that you buy anything.

Cool Space: Feldy Centre (Tier 1)
18 Aberfeldy Square E14, Poplar, Mon-Fri 9am-5pm
Free drinking water, air conditioning, max seating 30

This one's much newer, an attempt to recreate a community hub as they replace the Aberfeldy Estate with denser, higher buildings. The former Community Centre is currently mid-demolition, with the gorgeous existing shopping street due to face the wrecker's ball imminently - the riotous decoration will have lasted just six years. The Feldy Centre is somewhat drabber inside with fewer seats than St Paul's Way and a smaller cafe offering, but just as busy. They'd be in trouble if too many local residents hid here from the heatwave, which I guess rests on whether the newbuild flats are appropriately cooled or little ovens.

Of the four Cool Spaces in Tower Hamlets three are air-conditioned, two are community cafes and two are a bit odd. All would offer you a cool glass if you were in need but only two are places you'd choose to hang out for a lengthy unsweaty period. They're plainly not the best cool spaces in the borough - I could suggest any of the five Idea Stores, the London Museum Docklands, Rich Mix, the shopping centre under Canary Wharf, even shuttling back and forth on the Elizabeth line. But at least we have four Cool Spaces which is more than half the boroughs in London do, because the Mayor's Cool Spaces map is not the heatwave alleviation masterstroke it's promoted to be.

noon update: The map has been updated since first thing this morning.
There are now 10 Cool Places in Newham (formerly 1) because all the libraries have been included, not just Beckton Globe.
There are now 6 Cool Places in Lambeth (formerly 0) including four libraries and the lobby of the Streatham Ice Centre.
There are now 2 Cool Places in Kingston (formerly 0), 5 in Hounslow (formerly 1) and 5 in Sutton (formerly 1).
There are now 4 Cool Places in Harrow (formerly 2, one of which was the Royal Albert Hall, now correctly relocated).
There's now 1 Cool Place in Hammersmith & Fulham (formerly 0).
Still zero in Barking & Dagenham, Croydon and Redbridge, but we're getting there...

6pm update: Croydon now has a Cool Space (at South Norwood Community Kitchen).

All the big news

2026-06-23T07:00:00.000+01:00

It's all going on!

KEIR STARMER RESIGNS

This is the sixth time a Prime Minister has resigned in the last ten years.

24 Jun 2016: David Cameron
24 Jul 2019: Theresa May
07 Jul 2022: Boris Johnson
20 Oct 2022: Liz Truss
05 Jul 2024: Rishi Sunak
22 Jun 2026: Keir Starmer

Note that only Rishi Sunak resigned as Prime Minister on these dates, the others resigned as leader of their party forcing a leadership election.
Only Rishi lost a General Election, the others were all personal decisions.

Note that all but one of these PMs resigned in June or July, only Liz Truss didn't.
Other than Liz, every PM since Margaret Thatcher has resigned in May, June or July.

These are the days the Prime Minister actually changed.

13 Jul 2016: Cameron → May
24 Jul 2019: May → Johnson
06 Sep 2022: Johnson → Truss
25 Oct 2022: Truss → Sunak
05 Jul 2024: Sunak → Starmer
?? ??? 2026: Starmer → ???????

Note that we haven't actually had seven Prime Ministers in 10 years, not yet.
That will only happen if Sir Keir's successor starts in the job before 5pm on 13th July.

Note that recent Prime Ministers have served brief tenures.

50 days: Truss
2 years: Sunak, Starmer
3 years: May, Johnson

Before that...

3/4 years: Heath, Callaghan, Brown
6/7 years: Major, Cameron, Wilson
10/11 years: Thatcher, Blair

Since 1721 the average Prime Ministerial term has been 3 years and 4 months.
The last PM to exceed this median duration was David Cameron.

When this year's Remembrance Sunday commemoration takes place, expect ten living PMs to be in attendance.

Major/Blair/Brown/Cameron/May/Johnson/Truss/Sunak/Starmer/?????

That'd be 17% of all Britain's Prime Minsters (i.e. 1 in 6)

Have we all become incredibly impatient with Prime Ministers that don't deliver?
Or have the last half-dozen Prime Ministers all been very poor at their job?
Or have international crises made improving the British economy impossible?
Or is there a foreign trollfarm somewhere successfully destabilising everything?

comments

IT'S THE 10th ANNIVERSARY OF THE BREXIT REFERENDUM

Ten years!

Ten years since David Cameron launched a referendum assuming we'd never vote Leave.
Ten years since Jeremy Corbyn wasn't overly engaged in campaigning for Remain.
Ten years since lies on a bus and discrediting experts struck a chord.
Ten years since it wasn't explained what would happen if we left.
Ten years since just enough people decided they wanted some kind of change.
Ten years since London, Scotland and Northern Ireland didn't vote Leave.
Ten years since 52%/48% became an accursed ratio.
Ten years since politics ruptured along new tribal lines.
Ten years since Nigel Farage's greatest triumph... so far.
Ten years since an ill-explained ego-driven leap in the dark, disastrously followed through.

I invite you to present your own "Ten years since..." completed in ten words or fewer.
No longer than that, and just the one, thanks.

comments

IT'S GOING TO BE THE HOTTEST JUNE DAY ON RECORD
(or tomorrow is)

The five hottest June days on record
1) 29 June 1927 (35.6°C) Camden Square
1) 28 June 1976 (35.6°C) Southampton
3) 27 June 1976 (35.5°C) Southampton
4) 26 June 1947 (35.4°C) Horsham/Dereham
5) 21 June 2017 (34.5°C) Heathrow

June is normally the least hot summer month because the sea hasn't fully warmed up yet, ditto the land.
That'll be why the temperature's only ever topped 35°C four times in June, and not since the fabled summer of 1976.

That 50 year record looks likely to be broken today...
...and tomorrow absolutely shattered, perhaps by a margin of 3°C.

The five hottest July days on record
1) 19 July 2022 (40.3°C) Coningsby
2) 25 July 2019 (38.7°C) Cambridge
3) 18 July 2022 (38.2°C) Northants/Suffolk
4) 31 July 2020 (37.8°C) Heathrow
5) 01 July 2015 (36.7°C) Heathrow

All five of these are hotter than any days in June.
That's because the hottest days tend to be in late July - land and sea have warmed up and there's still a lot of daylight.
What's extraordinary this week is that we're about to see these temperatures a month earlier than we've ever seen them before.
Just like in May when we saw temperatures more typical of June records but a month early.

Here again is my table of the years in which the UK's monthly temperature records were last broken.
For June that's currently 1976 but is about to be 2026.

When the UK maximum monthly temperature record was last broken
*Jan*	*Feb*	*Mar*	*Apr*	*May*	*Jun*	*Jul*	*Aug*	*Sep*	*Oct*	*Nov*	*Dec*
2024	2019	1968	1949	2026	1976	2022	2003	1906	2011	2015	2019

Years in the 21st century are underlined. There are eight of these, and are about to be nine, i.e. three-quarters of our monthly records have been broken since the millennium. Six have changed in the last ten years.

What's truly exceptional is breaking two monthly records in one calendar year, indeed less than four weeks apart.
And not just breaking them, but smashing them.

And we still have two summer months to go.
Imagine what 2027, 2030, 2040 or 2060 might feel like.

We've long known climate change is coming, just perhaps not appreciated how strongly and how fast.

What's really important today isn't the change of Prime Ministers or 10 years since Brexit, it's that our climate is doing extraordinary things prematurely and will continue to do so because we're letting it slip out of our control because no global consensus has been achieved on the best way to stop it because politicians only seem to be able to make short-term self-interested decisions and stuff the future.

If you expect to be on this planet in 30 years time good luck to you, whoever the Prime Minister is.

Wednesday update: 36.1°C at Gosport (Hants) breaks the record for the warmest June day ever. 1976 has been trumped.
Thursday update: 36.7°C at Merryfield (Somerset) breaks the record again. 36.7°C was the UK's hottest temperature record from 1911 to 1990.
Friday update: 37.3°C at Santon Downham (Suffolk) is the new June maximum. That's 1.7°C higher that the previous 1976 record.

M is for Marks Gate

2026-06-22T07:00:00.000+01:00

LONDON A-Z
M is for Marks Gate

Barking and Dagenham is an oddly-shaped borough with a narrow two-mile protuberance up north, which is where Marks Gate is. All was open countryside until the 1920s when Eastern Avenue carved through, the same A12 that also destroyed the flat calm in Gants Hill, Little Heath and Aldborough Hatch. A large council estate followed in the 1950s, this the undistinguished warren I'm about to spend several paragraphs walking round, though thankfully with occasional flashes of history within. If you've ever driven through you may know the Moby Dick Carvery and the minigolf with the open-jawed whale, although both of those are on the Chadwell Heath side of the dual carriageway and thus out of bounds for today's post.

Let's start way back. In medieval times all that was here was a moated manor called Marks, named because it was built by the de Merk family in the 14th century. This sat on the edge of Hainault Forest beside one of the few official entrances to the hunting grounds, which duly became known as Marks Gate. In Tudor times one of its owners was Francis Bacon, though there's no evidence he ever stayed here, and later it was taken over by the Mildmay family (whose lands did indeed include the Islington estate where an HIV hospital would one day give its name to an Overground line). Alas the manor house was demolished in 1808 and only its hipped-roofed barn survives amid the scrappy environs of Warren Farm, just north of the Moby Dick crossroads, where unkempt used cars are now the going concern. They also run the Bonzer Car Boot Sale every Thursday and have done since 1994, although this will never be "the best midweek car boot sale in Essex" for obvious geographic reasons.

The main road north through Marks Gate is Whalebone Lane, previously blogged, but so named because a pair of cetacean jawbones once formed an arch beside a tollgate down in Chadwell Heath. My favourite leftover lurks in a roadside hedgerow just north of Warren Farm, a pair of squat boundary markers that once marked the edge of the Liberty of Havering. Both are inscribed Marks Stone and the taller additionally Sept 1642, which is impressively old, and these were the final thing I blogged as part of my random jamjar project. Alas the undergrowth has thickened since 2012 and the Marks Stones are now much harder to find, also the earthen field boundary behind has been replaced by fierce spikes labelled 'Warning - Quicksand danger of death', but if you start your hunt beside by a sapling planted in the pavement you might be able to force your way through.

Other things to see up Whalebone Lane
• Chadwell Heath Cemetery, laid out in the early 1930s by Dagenham Urban District whose insignia appears on the entrance gates. The central chapel is early Modernist and Grade II listed, also very slim, also "the centrepiece to a highly idiosyncratic cemetery landscape" of yew trees, fountains and orbital avenues.
• Warren Nursery and Farm Shop, which turned out not to be as large as the plethora of signs outside suggested, but they did have a fine range of bedding plants and were doing a roaring trade in gas bottles. If the Five Sisters van is in residence, a cheeseburger meal is only £7 and tea and coffee are just £1.20.
• A grim footpath leading through rubbish-strewn woodland to a questionably-blocked stile into reclaimed land that used to be gravel pits, should you fancy risking a walk out to the WW2 gun emplacements. Don't come to Marks Gate for the countryside.
• The McDonald's drive-in where the tallest windmill in Essex used to stand. It was a six-storey octagonal smock mill used to grind corn, but last used in the 1890s and dismantled in 1919 after becoming increasingly derelict.
• The non-descript T-junction where the entrance to Hainault Forest used to be, also a few cottages that were once the heart of the hamlet of Marks Gate, all now backed onto by businesses selling pallets, fences, used tyres, gas cylinders and white vans.
• A cul-de-sac of 13 detached eco-homes built before the developer went bust, the new owner now desperately seeking retrospective planning permission, there always being a hint of the Wild West on the Havering fringes.

When Dagenham built their council estate they chose instead to centre it along Rose Lane, a byroad leading to two farms, both now fully swallowed. Up some streets they built houses but a lot of the stock is short three-storey blocks of flats, a fairly decent attempt at densification for the Fifties. A lot of folk got a small balcony ideal for the airing of laundry, although even today shirts and rugs are still left out to dry downstairs on communal lines. The horriblest accommodation must be the pebbledash blocks at the top end of Padnall Road which have all the allure of an army barracks and look out onto a central expanse of dog-squat grass and concrete, inexplicably unimproved. David Essex spent much of his teens living on Padnall Road, his family having moved out from Canning Town for a greener life, hopefully in one of the less miserable homes further down.

A newsreel filmed during the creation of the estate shows a hall-like church with what looks like a small lighthouse on top. St Mark's was however recently demolished and replaced by a ground floor worship space with three floors of flats on top. If it's the 5th Sunday of the month, Reverend Alexandra gets the morning off. The newsreel also allows me to compare the shopping parade then and now, so the London Co-Operative Society is still a Co-op and the Chemist is still a pharmacy, but the Butchery is now a halal mostly-chicken takeaway. Nail bars, accountants and tropical fish were not part of the original retail offering.

The draped-flag contingent is very prominent on the estate, although it's hard to say how much of this is normal and how much is World Cup related. Football-focused residents must feel particularly hard-done-by at present because Marks Gate has somehow lost both of its pubs. The Crooked Billet at Padnalls Corner closed in 2011 and has been replaced by a run of eight mews cottages, definitely out of place amid all the postwar ordinariness, and The Harrow at Roselane Gate shut for lockdown in 2020 and has never reopened. A lot of small green spaces interleave the street pattern but the only decent kickabout space is Tantony Green, a large central playing field that's twice been upgraded with public money and finally looks decent.

The most recent dramatic change is a row of very modern council homes squeezed into a long thin gap alongside the A12. The site was formerly open space as a buffer between the original estate and a dual carriageway, but needs must and if you build your modular housing properly you can minimise any acoustic issues. About 60 flats and narrow townhouses have been squished in so far, with a few hundred more due if phase 2 ever gets off the ground. The project also includes a jaggedy-roofed energy centre to boost its eco credentials and an underused community centre that can't even attract an evangelical church on a Sunday. The best part is the linear lake at the far end which was originally ornamental water in the grounds of Padnall Hall, where ducks, butterflies and a dipping platform have been given precedence over B&D housing targets.

The most atypical offering in Marks Gate is right up north where the 62 bus terminates, as I'll be explaining in my birthday blogpost next year. Two branded globes overlook the roundabout and between them is an access road that passes down a palm tree avenue bordered by astroturf. This is The City Pavilion, a "modern luxury venue" built in the late 1990s that's essentially a very expensive shed. Its central atrium drips with ostentatious decor, its banqueting rooms are ideally suited to extravagant weddings and its restaurants cater primarily to Pan-Asian tastes. I doubt many folk from Marks Gate drop in, it's more a hospitality magnet for subcontinental TOWIE types, but the 34-lane bowling alley is perhaps on the more affordable shortlist.

And across the street is the edge of an utterly vast arable expanse, at least a dozen fields strong, which has somehow managed never to be developed. Stand on the edge and you can see all the way to the City, also fields of wheat, corn and nothing much, almost like the prairie came to East London. I've argued before that this farm would make an excellent site for 20,000 homes, certainly less contentious than Crews Hill, if lacking decent transport links being some way from any station. Here no roads encroach upon an area greater than a square mile and just one remote public footpath, which I suspect is used only for the there-and-back exercising of dogs. I wandered out to the first hedgerow and mused on how Marks Gate could have been three times the size, and maybe still could be, given this is exactly how the existing estate used to look.

I'm now halfway through my unsung alphabet: Aldborough Hatch, Blackfen, Cranford, Downham, East Bedfont, Grove Park, Hanworth, Ickenham, Joydens Wood, Keston, Lamorbey, Marks Gate

Summer puzzles

2026-06-21T14:00:00.000+01:00

Summer puzzles
(all about sums, i.e. addition)

1) Use addition signs and as few '4's as possible to total 500.

2) 143+528=731
One digit in this sum is wrong. Correct it.

3) 9 + 8 + 7 + 65 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 1 = 99
Keeping the digits in that order, and using only addition signs, find another way to total 99.

4) [6 12 15 20 21 33 44 45 66]
Select numbers from this list to make a total of 100.

5) Substitute digits for letters so that ONE + ONE + ONE + ONE = TEN.
6) How many solutions are there to TWO + TWO = FOUR?

7) If you add Queen Elizabeth II's birth year and death year you get 1926 + 2022 = 3948.
Which monarch totals a) 3720? b) 3038? c) 2356?

8) Write 80 as the sum of consecutive integers.
9) Now do a) 84 and b) 88.
10) What's the only number between 100 and 200 that can't be written as the sum of consecutive integers?

(no more than one answer each, thanks)

Stripes of solstice daylight

2026-06-21T04:40:00.000+01:00

The summer solstice occurs today at 9.24am BST.

It's the day of the year with the earliest sunrise and the latest sunset, hence the greatest length of daylight.

If you check when that sunrise is you get a single time for London... my diary says 4.43am.
If you check when that sunset is you get a single time for London... my diary says 9.21pm.

But it's not quite as simple as that because London is a large city approximately 35 miles wide and 28 miles top to bottom.
And that's large enough for sunrise not to be at the same time in Upminster as it is in Uxbridge, indeed you may be surprised quite how large the difference is.

The first place in London to see the sun rise this morning was J28 of the M25 near Brentwood at 4.40am.
In central London, say at Trafalgar Square, the sun rose two minutes later at 4.42am.
The last place in London to see the sun rise this morning was Malden Rushett south of Chessington at 4.44am.
That's a four minute difference from one side of London to the other.

And here's what that looks like across the whole of London.

The yellow stripe, where a clock at sunrise would show 4.40am, includes Romford and Upminster.
The 4.41am stripe includes Enfield, Ilford and Bexley.
The 4.42am stripe includes Edgware, Westminster and Bromley.
The 4:43am stripe includes Uxbridge, Richmond and Croydon.
The 4.44am stripe includes Heathrow, Hampton and Chessington.

The red lines should actually be slight curves but my drawing software's not up to that, sorry.

Note how the stripes are parallel and just over 10 miles wide.
I explained why back in March at the spring equinox.
Back then the stripes were roughly north-south, but for the solstice they're very much NW/SE.
That's because the direction of sunrise shifts north as the solstice approaches.

You might expect something similar for sunset tonight.
And you'd be right, but also wrong.
Here's how that looks.

These stripes run NE/SW not NW/SE because the sun sets tonight in the northwest.

The light blue stripe, where a clock at sunset would show 9.20pm, includes Erith and Bromley.
The 9.21pm stripe includes Barking, Greenwich and Sutton.
The 9.22pm stripe includes Walthamstow, Westminster and Richmond.
The 9:23pm stripe includes Barnet, Harrow and Heathrow.
The 9.24pm stripe only includes Harefield and a few hamlets to the north.

I calculated these times using an online mapping tool called SunCalc.
This gives the precise time of sunrise and sunset anywhere on Earth to the nearest second.

For example at the Tower of London today sunrise was at 04.42:21 and sunset will be at 21.21:55.
Meanwhile at Trafalgar Square sunrise was at 04.42:33 and sunset will be at 21.22:07.
That's a 12 second difference for two places just over two miles apart.

Sunrise and sunset times are so place-sensitive that there's an 8 second difference from one end of Oxford Street to the other!

2026's earliest London sunrise (at M25 J28) was this morning at 4.40am and 25 seconds.
2026's latest London sunset (at Mill End nr Rickmansworth) will be tonight at 9.24pm and 17 seconds.
If you travel from one to the other you can enjoy London's longest period of daylight (16 hours 43 minutes and 52 seconds).

The longest possible period of daylight in one location is on the M25 near Crews Hill.
From sunrise at 04:41:31 to sunset at 21:23:09 is 16 hours 41 minutes and 38 seconds.
This is precisely because it's the northermost point in Greater London.

In December this motorway hard shoulder also has London's shortest possible day (7 hours 48 minutes and 45 seconds).
You can of course easily beat that by going to St Albans, or indeed Birmingham, or indeed Inverness.
But let's not get ahead of ourselves - enjoy the longest day across London today!

Preferred Sources

2026-06-20T09:00:00.000+01:00

Here's an optimistic plea I saw on MyLondon, the exaggerative clickbait portal.

Google now offers an option to make certain websites appear more often in your search results. A lot of news portals are very keen on it. The Evening Standard puts a graphic above its articles. My local newspaper pleads for preferential online treatment. Secret London reckons it "should be your first choice". Even the BBC has a page explaining how you can make its news pop up more frequently.

You can now personalise your Google settings to select the BBC and any other publication or news source you'd most want to see when you visit Google websites and apps. These are your Preferred Sources.

Preferred Sources are websites you select in your Google settings that Google will prioritise when showing news and content. When you add a site as a Preferred Source, Google is more likely to show you articles, videos and other updates from that site.

This makes sense if you want to see more of what you prefer. It makes sense if there are news sources you wish Google would hide less often. But it also risks biasing your search into more of a bubble, perhaps counteracting the fact Google is trying to bias it differently.

You might choose to make use of this feature or you might not. But I can't imagine how gullible you'd need to be to add MyLondon as one of your Preferred Sources.

Here are 15 'news' articles that have appeared on MyLondon over the last week, along with a spoiler as to what it's really about.

• London's 'most historic' church that survived plague, fire and bombs faces new threat: parking charges [St Brides, now on Sundays]
• Tiny museum less than two hours from London named the best in the UK [the Micro Museum in Ramsgate, chosen by Time Out]
• I had three-course meal at Savoy Grill and was shocked when bill arrived' [a YouTuber was charged £158.50 per person]
• 'I've shopped at 1000 supermarkets in 150 countries - 2 British staples were in every one' [Twinings and Nescafe, not actually in every one]
• The 3 London stations with same name that must be nightmare for tourists [they're Canary Wharf, Canary Wharf and Canary Wharf]
• London could get Eurostar services to 3 new European destinations [Zurich, Basel and Geneva, 'sometime in the course of the 2030s']
• Wellbeing event to be held on hill for Summer Solstice [it's up Ivinghoe Beacon, 15 miles from London]
• London cafe with 'one of best breakfasts in the world' hasn't been changed since 1940s [says exaggerative influencer about the Regency Cafe]
• Pilot names European city that's 'the most beautiful place to land' [it's Barcelona, should anyone care]
• The underrated commuter town under hour from London with 'excellent trains' [it's Haddenham on Chiltern]
• Major travel update issued for Brits flying from Gatwick Airport this summer [two extra Gatwick Express trains will run around 4am]
• Pretty seaside town 90 minutes away with UK's 'best coastline loved by stressed Londoners' [Margate, according to a local councillor]
• Surprising appliance can help keep bedroom cool at night during heatwave – not a fan [it's a dehumidifier]
• Aldi announces 16 new supermarkets opening across the UK including 4 in London - full list [Hoxton, Orpington, Marble Arch and (ahem) Watford]
• Beloved theme park closed forever after rollercoaster tragedy killed 5 children - now off limits [Battersea Park Funfair, closed 1977]

Be careful what you prefer.

Constable in Hampstead

2026-06-20T07:00:00.000+01:00

A new thing in an old place: Burgh House

Sometimes we've been to a place more than once and we think we've seen it so why go back. But some places try to keep things fresh by adding new things in an attempt to get visitors to come back, indeed to keep coming back, by creating a new thing in an old place. Exhibitions are a good way to do this, an updatable area where new stuff can be curated, ideally several times a year, all of which keeps the shop and the cafe and the donations box ticking over. So it is at Burgh House, an old house in Hampstead which nevertheless always has a programme of new things, indeed more new things than it ever used to have because they've very much slimmed down the 'museum' aspect. It's now much more about local history through local art, and you can't get much more local than beloved landscape painter John Constable who lived in Hampstead for six years and now has a new exhibition here, which is the new thing in an old place I mentioned earlier. What's more the exhibition opened last week on the 250th anniversary of Constable's birth, this of course not in Hampstead but in Suffolk near that pond with the Hay Wain in it, not that it was there at the time.

The exhibition's called Constable in Hampstead and it's in the Wells Room, not the Heath Room where you'll find Women Artists of Hampstead nor the Marie-Louise von Motesickzy Gallery where you'll find the Donald Towner retrospective. Instead you want to head upstairs at the front of the house, not a packed room but with several cases and prints, also one special actually-painted-by-Constable painting. It's Hampstead Heath with Rainbow, although not the actual painting which is at the Tate but an oil study for that painting, and notable for not actually having a rainbow because that was only painted into the final work. The windmill is fictional too, it couldn't have been dramatically lit by cloudbroken sun because it never existed here, it's been transplanted from the Downs near Brighton. Also the Tate doesn't currently have this painting on display so your only chance to see it in all its splodge-painted glory is here in Hampstead where John was no longer living when he painted it.

The room contains other objects like letters Constable wrote when he wasn't very well and couldn't get back to Hampstead near the end of his life, also mezzotints Constable inspired, also a portrait of his doctor's wife in a bonnet, also other objects. It doesn't take too long to look at to be honest but the couple before me managed ten minutes, mostly while critiquing to each other in loud voices before walking through into the adjacent gallery and bitching about the modern art in there. Your trip to Burgh House could still be a long one if you treat the five other exhibitions with the devotion you afford to Constable, for example I liked the bright cheerful takes on Love in the Peggy Jay Gallery out back, but it's also perfectly possible you'll spend most time downstairs in the buttery with a signature fruit scone, indeed it seems most grey-haired Hampstead residents treat Burgh House more as a cafe than a space for culture. To be fair it is a very good cafe but it didn't seem to have changed since last time I frequented it and I was really here to enjoy a new thing in an old place. The Constable micro-retrospective with an NW3 bent continues until mid-September and is free to visit, not every day of the week, if you want to enjoy a new thing in an old place too.

Regulated by nannies

2026-06-19T07:00:00.000+01:00

I alighted an Overground train at Shepherd's Bush this week, intending to interchange to the Underground.

And was somewhat perturbed to see this sign in the Overground ticket hall.

Central from Shepherd's Bush
Estimated walking time: 7 min

No way, I thought, is it a 7 minute walk to the Central line station.
It's only across the road, it's 60 metres max, so 7 minutes is ridiculous.

Admittedly it's further to go down the escalator and walk to the platform.
But it's not 7 minutes, that is the product of a insane imagination.

Obviously what I did was time it to see how long it really took.

I exited the Overground station, crossed the road, entered the tube station, passed through the gateline, walked down the escalator and walked down to the platform.
2 minutes precisely.

Admittedly I got lucky with the traffic lights.
Admittedly I'm fit and can walk at a decent pace, but I didn't rush or run.
Admittedly I walked down the escalator but the sign said "walking time" so I thought walking was perfectly reasonable.
No way would it ever have taken seven minutes, not without a serious mobility issue.
It took two.

What's more a Hainault train was 2 minutes away when I arrived on the platform.
I caught it with ease.
But it hadn't been on the display in the Overground ticket hall because someone had assumed I couldn't catch it.

What it should have said on that display was
Hainault 4 min
but instead it said
Epping 9 min
which was the second train due, not the first.

Obviously you don't want to be told that the next train is
Leytonstone 1 min
because you wouldn't have a hope of catching that.
Some sort of cut-off is sensible - maybe 3 minutes, maybe 4.
But whoever set the cut-off at 7 is a pessimistic jobsworth.

This issue is particularly prevalent at Bank/Monument.
Next time you're walking round Bank/Monument take a look at how prematurely next trains disappear.
(not on the platforms themselves - they're fine - but on displays elsewhere around the station)

Here's a display in the DLR passageways leading to the District line.
It makes it look like the next trains in both directions are 7 minutes away.
But the next trains were not 7 minutes away, the earlier trains had had been deviously hidden.
And I easily caught one of them.

On another occasion I entered Monument station from the street.
Next District line train 8 minutes, said the display in the ticket hall.
I walked down the stairs which took less than 30 seconds.
Hey presto the next District line train was actually 1 minute away, followed by another 2 minutes away.
Trains disappear off the upper display after 3 minutes, despite the fact you could easily catch them.

What I think's going on is that TfL are worried people might run, slip and fall.
See a display saying Upminster 2 min and you might rush and injure yourself.
You probably won't but the risk is there and the organisation is incredibly risk averse.
No matter that you could easily walk down in 30 seconds, people still dash when they see a low number and dashing is the risk.

This only happens at some stations, others show the correct next train times all the time.
But in some places like the DLR (oh god the temporal reticence on the DLR!) nearby trains are hidden much too early.

I once did an entire week of posts about Next Train Indicators installed by cretins.
I could easily do an entire week of posts about Next Train Indicators regulated by nannies.

One final example - I went to catch the Bakerloo line from Paddington station.
Elephant & Castle 5 minutes said the display in the ticket hall.
I stepped onto the escalator which promptly stopped running.
Everyone sighed and started walking down the escalator - a slow but patient crocodile.
And I still got down to the platform and caught an earlier train which hadn't been on the display upstairs.
That's how over-cautious some of these cut-offs are.

Someone somewhere at TfL is programming Next Train Indicators to deliberately hide the next train, or trains, on the basis that a tortoise might not be able to get to the platform in time.
And I wish they'd stop.

The Heights of Olympia

2026-06-18T07:00:00.000+01:00

A new street has opened in Kensington, 50 feet off the ground.
It's on top of the roof of the Olympia exhibition halls.
It's open to the public so you can totally go up there and walk through.
And it's utterly extraordinary, in a nakedly commercial way. [12 photos]

Olympia has been a building site for the best part of a decade, and still is in places, but the wraps have just come off the premier new feature which is a massive development on top of what was previously here. The owners thought "where can we add new stuff on a limited footprint" and decided the best place was on the roof, then went full turbo getting as much up there as possible. Restaurants and bars, two hotels, offices and a music venue have all been perched on top, not yet all open but Mexican-inspired bites and Self Esteem are already an option. My gob was well and truly smacked.

You get up there on a whopping outdoor escalator which is the first WTF moment. There you are walking down the side of the tube station past the usual exhibition entrances and suddenly this celestial glide appears in a gap between buildings. It goes all the way to the top in one go which is a long way, indeed if you choose to take the stairs instead it's 82 steps from ground level. Confirmation it's high comes when you pass the statues of Triptolemus, Demeter and Persephone on the roof in front of the Great Hall. Annoyingly I only ever went up this set of escalators, not down, because I imagine the unbroken view back across west London must be something else.

At the top is a cluster of restaurants collectively called Canopy. The name refers to the shell of 520 glass panels that curves over the top, but not fully so some of the diners on the outer terraces could get wet if the weather turns. The canopy's also retractable, which might be a clue that this whole architectural caboodle has been concocted by Thomas Heatherwick, who else? The dining selection includes Bar Arriba (the aforementioned Mexican option), Lillie's (who do small plates and English wines) and Wolves of Japan (cuisine hopefully obvious). For those with less dosh a food hall called Arbour does fried chicken, smash burgers and forkbowls, all decked out in various shades of brown, plus there's the obligatory cafe with artisanal coffee and three flavours of choux bun.

You might wonder who'd eat here but I saw several suited gentlemen emerging from their exhibition sessions and gliding up for a business lunch between the potted shrubbery, also slimmer commercial associates poking a salad. I think I turned up a few hours before some glitzy opening extravaganza so also saw PR women fussing around near microphones and chefs emerging from dark kitchens clutching something liquid in the general direction of a temporary stage. The occasional glimpse between buildings reminded me I was several storeys up because it's all too easy to forget that Emberton Walk - the name given to this artificial linear concoction - is really a street in the sky.

The walkway then enters a boxy tunnel, this because they also built on top of the terrace they built on top of Olympia. Three glass towers rise above, these kitted out as offices marketed as One Olympia and as yet up for grabs. No flats are included which is odd because any penthouse with those views would command extreme prices, but private accommodation was never in the planning documents. Also the tunnel's not yet lined with shops, though it looks like it ought to be eventually, only bland black doors through which Olympia staff occasionally emerge. The wow factor here comes from the roof which is covered by a long thin tongue of LED screens, presumably to distract from the vertical tedium. The display spent a few minutes as a collage of branded red balls, then suddenly switched to a bright blue sky... something you could have seen for real a few steps outside.

At the far end is an unexpected sight, a digital sign saying Box Office (alternating with 'Show Your Tickets Using The Official Venue App"). That's because they've also slotted in a 3800-capacity music venue, and this has already opened with back-to-back nightly performances from the lyrically deadpan Self Esteem. Branding rights have been sold to a blue chip company which is why it's called the British Airways ARC, and their Venue App is essential because you won't be admitted unless your ticket's on it. British Airways have also sponsored a 1500-seat theatre that won't be opening until late next year, the largest of its kind in London since the 1976, although this'll have an entrance at ground level rather than being yet another Heatherwick floater.

The other way up, which is the way I went down, is another set of mega-escalators at the far end of the long walkway. Again it comes with 82 steps alongside, seemingly built to cater for post-performance crowds, although there's also an express lift if you hunt around carefully enough. This sloping artery connects to a freshly-spruced pavement on Hammersmith Road, not yet fully exposed, only a slim slot of which is visible on the way down. If you cross the road and look back you can see how beautifully scrubbed the exterior of the original building is - as creamily Art Deco as any facade dated 1929 might be - but now a peculiar stacked hybrid with Heatherwick's glass/metal storeys squatting on top.

A lot of new projects claim to be 'destinations' but this is going all out to be, with multiple forms of upmarket entertainment packed into a limited block of prime real estate. Olympia's not just the Ideal Home Exhibition and trade fairs any more, it's culture, cuisine and co-working space, and all watched over by a minor army of security staff because the non-paying public's only here on sufferance. It may or may not be for you but at some point you need to experience this Dubai-like bubble amid the rooftops of W14 and climb to the heights of Olympia. You may not meet gods but your awe will be struck and your jaw will drop at the sheer commercial chutzpah of it all.

Unflickrd Chelsfield

2026-06-17T07:00:00.000+01:00

Even with 20,000 photos uploaded to Flickr there are still some parts of London where I've never uploaded any. I filled eight of the largest gaps yesterday and today I'm plugging the largest of all. It's just south of Orpington and contains the minor outposts of Green Street Green, Tubbenden and Goddington, also much of Chelsfield. I have thus been out for a wander and have chosen ten photographs to best represent the space where formerly there were none.

New photo: Orpington War Memorial
The R7 driver gave me such a hard stare while I was taking this photo, perhaps wrongly assuming my focus was him rather than Armistice commemoration. Orpington's War Memorial has a very prominent position amid the roundabout at the south end of the high street, which as a downside makes it extremely dangerous to walk out and inspect. To combat this they've listed all the war dead on a roadside panel by the Village Hall, a lengthy list (although only casualties from WW1 made it onto the main obelisk rather than an adjacent slab). This junction was more of a crossroads before WW2 forced the expansion of the War Memorial from upright to circular, an evolution that's wrought considerable subsequent traffic congestion. Every Orpington bus route orbits the War Memorial, some of them four times, which must totally muck up local travel options during the Remembrance service in November.

New photo: Orpington Methodist Church
The town's first Methodist church was a tin tabernacle at the top of the High Street, switching to this site on Sevenoaks Road in 1933. That building is now the church hall because a larger church was built alongside in 1953, then in 2022 this shiny geometric concourse was added inbetween. It allows them to be more of a community hub with games afternoons and a cafe, and also makes pretty reflections when a red bus goes by which is the sole reason I've uploaded this to Flickr. I was instead going to show you the Conservative Club across the road with its bright blue timbers and large photo of MP Gareth Bacon out front, but a small child on a scooter entered the frame so that was instantly off-limits.

New photo: Christ Church, Orpington
It's not all going to be churches on today's list but when you're exploring deep suburbia the most interesting buildings tend to be either religious or alcoholic. Christ Church is also 1950s and has a rather nice circular mosaic out front which gives its name to the Wednesday morning cafe. Sundays are more about "a live band, modern songs and a relaxed atmosphere", so perhaps that gives you some idea whether this "spirit-filled community" is for you. Bus-obsessed readers will already know that the stop outside has been served by route R7 since 2017, previously the rejigged R3 from 2001 and originally the R8 in 1992, because they do love a terminus switcheroo in Orpington.

New photo: Goddington Park
Sorry if I've been over-reporting obscure suburbs recently but Goddington is right up there, a last burst of leafy streets before the fields of Kent kick in. For centuries all that was here was a medieval manor, then its replacement which still hides away up a private drive subdivided into flats. The park is public with ancient hedgerows, also full of recreational spaces including bowling greens, non-turf cricket and a two-lap Parkrun loop. The anchor tenant is Westcombe Park Rugby Football Club, so named because they were incomers from Shooters Hill in 1990. My photo shows the information boards in the car park because that's visually more interesting than a meadowy landscape with trees - the opposite way round to real life.

New photo: Chelsfield station
Here's a classic example of a railway station causing a geographical shift. Chelsfield station was originally just a halt a mile to the west of a tiny village, and it's still tiny because all the new houses, shops and services were built closer to the station instead. The building's from the 1970s so a dull glass box, although you can see how it would have looked in the 1920s in a splendid model railway cabinet by the ticket window. I chose a photo up the line towards the skew arched road bridge rather than a photo down the line from that bridge because usually it's best to go with which way the sun is shining.

New photo: The Chelsfield
With suburbia came this splendid Art Deco pub, a chunky brick watering hole immediately beside the station. The website's so syrupy it might put you off but the interior looks authentically 1930s and the lanterns out front are top notch. From here a lengthy parade of shops climbs Windsor Drive, the busiest of these on my visit being Little Big Treats, an extraordinarily twee cafe with chintzy floral decor. Potential incomers should note there are no coffee chains or kebabberies here, although the chip shop does advertise 'S.F. Chicken' so fried meat options are available.

New photo: Glentrammon Recreation Ground
Developers retained a chalky hump of grass when all the surrounding land became avenues, and very nice it is too. If you're a child you'll run for the adventurous playground at the summit, or if older the chuck-a-ball courts behind the trees. I preferred the view from the top of the slope, a patchwork of roofs and gardens with just a hint of something tower-blockier on the very far horizon. Alas my iPhone's poor at zoom so all I ended up with was a thin greeny-brown stripe, hence my decision to run with something arboreally framed instead.

New photo: Crescent Way
Down in Green Street Green the main retail draw is a big Waitrose, adoringly frequented, but for everything else the focus is the half-crescent on Crescent Way. This Mock Tudor parade's more mock than most, Elizabethans not being well-known for their long blocks of three-storey pastiche. A Co-op is as close as things come to national brands and a launderette called The Launderette the closest things come to retro, that is unless you count a chippy called the Seabream Fish Bar.
New photo: The Buff
Why did Greene King call their pub on Crescent Way The Buff? It's after the world famous chicken the Buff Orpington which was first bred by local farmer William Cook in the 1890s, although he actually lived in St Mary Cray so it's a few miles out. If you want to breed one for yourself you start by mating a Gold Spangled Hamburgh with a Buff Cochin, then mate the offspring with a Dark Dorking, then mate the offspring with a Buff Cochin. There is no evidence that the Katsu Chicken at The Buff is actually buff.
If you're wondering why the Crescent looks distinctly unTudor in this photo it's because I uploaded a different shot to Flickr, similarly my photo of The Buff is front-on rather than side-on. This is a shameless attempt to get you to look at the full-size photos there and not make do with the teensy 500x375 pixel versions as per usual.

New photo: Orpington Bus Garage
Unless you're a keen bus-grifter there's no interest in looking at a yard of double deckers from the wrong side of a wall. To be fair there's not much interest in showing you pubs you'll never drink in or churches you'll never worship at either, let alone recreational spaces with grass that could be anywhere. But sometimes I get lucky and on this occasion a local tattooed man with a pony and trap drove past, having just clogged up the traffic by the village sign, and hurrah the juxtaposition of horse power old and new makes for an unrepeatable shot. Now 20,025 Flickr photos and counting, and hopefully thousands more to come.

Unflickrd 20000

2026-06-16T07:00:00.000+01:00

Last week I uploaded my 20,000th photo to Flickr. That is a lot of photos, the equivalent of 18 photos a week over 21 years, and also a lot of effort trimming, labelling and geolocating them all. One day someone'll pull the plug on Flickr and it'll all have been wasted, but for now it's a marvellous resource as well as an amazing time capsule of places past. The 20,000th photo was of the Network SouthEast clock outside Victoria station, by the way.

One thing Flickr allows me to do is look on a map to see where all my photographs are located. It doesn't allow you to do this, that facility was withdrawn years ago, but I'm allowed a map so that I can drop every fresh photo onto its correct geographical location.

I wondered if there were any parts of London I hadn't photographed, so I used Flickr to cobble together a giant map of the capital and started looking for the gaps. Last time I tried this (for 15,000 photos) the largest circular gap had a diameter of three miles. I plugged all of those in 2019 and today the largest gap is more like two miles across. I should say only gaps that fall within the Greater London boundary are included.

Altogether I found nine large gaps where, inexplicably, I had still never uploaded a photo. I had been to all of these places and generally taken photos, just never stuck any of them on Flickr. Sometimes the area was a bit dull, sometimes the weather had been miserable and sometimes I just decided not to upload one. But today I thought I'd raid those unFlickrd photos to fill in the gaps, and to see if I could tempt you to take a look at ten belated shots.

Gap 1: Between Ruislip and the A40, mostly around RAF Northolt
Why the gap? Highly secure airfields are obviously off limits. Walking alongside the A40 here is strongly ill-advised. I have yet to blog about the Yeading Brook.
New photo: The seriously unlovely entrance to Ruislip Gardens station. The tube station opened as a temporary halt in 1948 but this boxy frontage dates to 1962. Originally it featured a concrete butterfly canopy but that's long gone and the only note of interest is the wall of vertical grey Westmoreland slate strips. John Betjeman's famous poem ("Gaily into Ruislip Gardens runs the red electric train...") was written in 1954 so preceded this characterless portal. [photo taken 2019]

Gap 2: East of Hadley Wood up the Cockfosters Road
Why the gap? Other than the mansion avenues of Hadley Wood, away from the station, most of this area is open farmland in the valley of the Salmons Brook. My photos of the Trent Park obelisk and Camlet Moat on London Loop section 17 came out badly.
New photo: Spring daffodils along the side of Cockfosters Road, quite near the end of Ferny Hill. I used this photo in a blogpost about the demise of the 84 bus while testing out the ridiculous 399/299 alternative, but never uploaded a large version to Flickr. [photo taken 2022]

Gap 3: Enfield Highway, between Brimsdown and the Great Cambridge Road
Why the gap? The former A10 is fairly monotonous and this isn't its most interesting section. Hereabouts is non-stop interwar suburbia and not in an exciting way. Enfield Wash and Ponders End I've been to many times but mainly only passed through Enfield Highway.
New photo: Some of the shopping parade, also the tips of St James' tower (1831), also the sadly-closed Sporting Green pub (shuttered 2024), also the substation in the next photo, also the local Co-op. I always associate Enfield Highway with the Co-op, the Enfield Highway Co-Operative Society once being one of London's largest with several stores, thousands of members and a brief penchant for house-building. Alas the modern store is called "Hertford Road's Co-op" so no nod to the past there. [photo taken yesterday]
Another new photo: The North Metropolitan Electric Power Supply Company brought electricity to the Lea Valley between 1900 and 1948. Their bricky substation is part-shielded behind another historic throwback, an annotated map of the 90 stores along the length of the Enfield Highway Shopping Centre. [photo taken yesterday]

Gap 4: Seven Kings, between Ilford and Goodmayes
Why the gap? Seven Kings is one of the more featureless Crossrail stations. When I walked the Loxford Water, a proper minor unlost river, none of my photos made it to Flickr.
New photo: I didn't take a great selection while river-walking but approaching ducks in the lake at South Park is probably the best. [photo taken 2019]

Gap 5: The godforsaken lanes on the edge of Havering beyond Rainham
Why the gap? It's grim out here in what I like to call the Hacton void, a nomansland of landfill and backlanes with occasional scrappy homesteads. I've only explored the area once on a snowy November day and have no burning desire to go back. This was one of my 3-mile Unflickrd gaps back in 2019, and the three photos I added still left a two mile gap.
New photo: Flytipping in Little Gerpins Lane, a backway to the council tip that Havering sometimes blocks off so the despoliation doesn't get worse. [photo taken in 2017]

Gap 6: Coombe, the affluent avenues between Richmond Park and New Malden
Why the gap? Inexplicable. I've been to Norbiton station, Kingston hospital and the Ladderstile Gate several times. I've walked private Warren Road to see the fourth telegraph station on the way to Portsmouth. I've had every opportunity to fill in this larger than average Flickr gap but never have.
New photo: Many years ago as part of Heritage Open Days I got to look inside Coombe Conduit, a springhead used to pump drinkable water three miles to Hampton Court before Henry VIII moved in. English Heritage open up for a few hours on the fourth weekend of the month (Apr - Oct) and it's free to take a look. [photo taken in 2010]
Another new photo: Dickerage Road. If I piqued your interest yesterday, here's a chance to enjoy an erection by the mini-roundabout (over 16s only). [photo taken in 2022]

Gap 7: Upper Woodcote Village, north of Coulsdon
Why the gap? They're not keen on visitors here, a lot of the lanes west of Purley being luxuriantly private. Other suburban avenues north of Coulsdon have names like The Grove, The Ridge, The Vale and The Wend, and unless you're passing through on the 434 bus there's no reason to intrude. Wow, I really should have dropped in before.
New photo: William Webb built a pioneering Garden Estate here in the 1890s, followed by a Model Village with a four acre green surrounded by unfeasibly large rustic houses. It's a gorgeous spot complete with fake stocks and what looks like a pub in one corner but was actually a temperance house and still doesn't serve alcohol, just a lot of froth, cakes and eggy brunch. My photo is of the Lord Roberts On The Green beside the war memorial, packed behind very necessary free parking, and I absolutely have to come back to tell the story of this premium enclave properly. [photo taken yesterday]

Gap 8: Off-arterial suburbia between Erith and Barnehurst
Why the gap? I think because I genuinely hadn't been before bar changing buses once. The backend of Bexley is unremittingly residential in a lowbrow manner, with just the one tower block and occasional glimpses of the QE2 Bridge at the end of a semi-detached canyon. The joy of Unflickrd is discovering London still has neighbourhoods left to reveal even after two decades of full-on exploration.
New photo: It's quite flaggy out here but this house on Hurstwood Avenue excels itself - one full-on St George's cross, a lot of bunting and a questionable amount of fake topiary almost like they buy another leafy bauble on every visit to the garden centre. [photo taken on Sunday]

Gap 9: we'll do this tomorrow, in full

• my 10 gap-filling photos (which is the entire point of today's post after all)

New social media restrictions

2026-06-15T07:00:00.000+01:00

🚫 Regrettably you have been locked out of diamond geezer pending age verification protocols.

You may be UNDER 16 YEARS OF AGE and therefore you must not read anything here UNTIL YOU CAN PROVE THAT YOU'RE NOT.

The government is taking urgent action to ensure that children are no longer able to access harmful social media apps. At the personal behest of the Prime Minister a raft of carefully thought-through definitely-not-rushed non-kneejerk policies designed to restrict inappropriate content is to be introduced forthwith.

There is some absolutely terrible stuff online, much of which has already tarnished the minds of innocent youth. It is therefore imperative that all potentially terrible stuff must now be wrapped in a secure plain cover and placed on the digital top shelf. It's for everyone's own good.

diamond geezer has been accessible to minors since 2002, indeed had a toddler in nappies surfed by in its earliest days they would now be 25 years old and could have been entirely corrupted by the content. There are confirmed reports of young teenagers taking an inordinate interest in public transport and outer London suburbs, both plainly unhealthy obsessions, and we must not let a new generation become similarly tainted.

Under 16s must therefore be kept away from all electronic content with the potential to damage their young minds, existing instead in a 20th-century-style bubble of larks, japes and old-fashioned fun. Children should not be infinitely scrolling when there are still Enid Blyton books to read, conkers to flick and board games to play. Simple ID protocols are thus to be introduced, an additional layer of government interference because that's easier than trying to get multinational companies to regulate what they do.

The government intends to call time on a system that fails our young people by taking bold action to give every child the best possible start in life. The only practical way to do this is to assume that everybody in Britain is under 16 and place the onus on everyone else to prove they're not. This may affect your ability to access sites you've used without incident for many years, suddenly hiding everything behind an irrational screenlock, but the Prime Minister must be seen to be doing something important and you are merely sideswiped collateral.

Any blog can become a gateway to permissive or inappropriate material. Self-publishing bloggers have no editorial safeguards, just a daily news template to fill, thus could potentially publish something a 15 year-old should not read. No matter that this has never happened, save perhaps that filthy post about Dickerage Lane, therefore we must ban all social media equally including entirely wholesome material.

To commence the authentication of your diamond geezer ID account, please stare into this roundel so that your age can be directly verified.

One sure way to prove that you're an adult is to send a live image of your face to a foreign company. Never mind that this entire issue exists because children were sharing personal images inappropriately, we now need everyone to activate their camera and hope nobody shady is keeping a sneaky record. Another way to prove you're an adult is to give your bank account details to a stranger. It's long been drilled into us that we should never do this but you need to think of the children, otherwise you'll end up being treated as one.

Self-certification will not be permitted, nor the fact you've been reading diamond geezer since 2009 therefore must be over the age of 16.

It's scandalous that Facebook sets an age limit of 13 in the UK so we must unilaterally increase this to 16. It's appalling that adults share their innermost thoughts on Snapchat, a service no cool teen would ever use. It's disgraceful that Instagram includes AI slop and distorted political narratives, but Meta can't possibly be expected to weed those out. It's reprehensible that Tiktok has more visibility in teenage lives than non-Chinese media, so let's close that door before communism takes hold. And it's abhorrent that some 15 year-olds use YouTube to learn about the world and revise school subjects when they could be watching the racist violence this government initiative will shut down.

Purchasing the Daily Mail will remain legal across all age groups.

A particular danger occurs where children are allowed to enter unsupervised chatrooms with anonymous adults. The comments on this blog will therefore face the fiercest restrictions, ensuring that nostalgic anecdotes and nitpicking pedantry cannot be accessed by young impressionable minds. Therefore in future comments boxes will not pop up unless you are over 16 (or our ID software mistakenly thinks you are) as you can easily test here. comments (17)

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Children are renowned for following rules so will not attempt to find ways around these restrictions, neither will they be able to. Evidence from Australia suggests that only 43% of children were able to find ways to avoid new age-gating systems, and Britain's children are surely more resourceful so this percentage will be lower. All onboarding features will thus be designed to incorporate foolproof child locks which are nevertheless transparent to adults, for example by asking questions like "Do you remember watching the London 2012 opening ceremony?" or "What shape is a banknote?"

It would of course be preferable to go back to 2006 and encourage the tech entrepreneurs to incorporate content moderation policies and practical age verification protocols from the get-go. However it's taken almost 20 years for anyone to notice this ghastly loophole and no company bosses have any intention of listening to a few furious British parents whose offspring have been irreparably harmed. The government is thus insisting that social media companies introduce specific intrusive measures solely for a UK audience, for example adding spy software everywhere on everything, and will scream impotently should this Orwellian imposition not happen within three months.

The government is determined to take the side of parents against the big technology companies, mainly because it's entirely impotent against the latter. People rightly expect action and any action will do, not necessarily capable or practical action just whatever's been cobbled together in the fortnight after a public consultation. Never mind that adults can be just as corrupted by the evil propaganda and racist tropes they see online because this cannot be stopped and the downfall of civilisation is assured. To protect our children it is therefore essential that you do not read anything on this blog until you've been checked out, no matter how impractically stupid it may seem.

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What could possibly go wrong?

an L of a lot more

2026-06-14T07:00:00.000+01:00

London has an L of a lot more unsung suburbs starting with L.

L is for Leaves Green

We're in Bromley, just north of Biggin Hill and rather closer to the airport runway. A few big houses back onto a long village green bookended by two pubs, only one of which serves Turkish humus kavurma. They like their coal tax post so much they put it on their village sign. I've written about Leaves Green before, obviously.

L is for Lessness Heath

We're in Bexley in an area better known as Upper Belvedere, but not much better known otherwise you'd now know where it is. Roughly halfway between Abbey Wood and Erith but up a bit if that helps. Most local businesses actually plump for the Belvedere name, also the local library and parish church, while The Fox pub instead claims to be part of Nuxley Village. But there is a Lessness Heath Primary School and also a long back history, indeed the Hundred of Little and Lesnes was the name of the northernmost part of Kent as far back as the Domesday Book, the spelling 'Lessness' coming into vogue by the start of the 19th century.

L is for Little Heath

We're in Redbridge, just off the A12 to the north of Goodmayes. The main reason people come here is to visit King George V Hospital, a utilitarian collection of clinicky blocks where I was disturbed to see the collection of vehicles parked out front comprised five ambulances and an ice cream van. Little Heath was an isolated hamlet until Eastern Avenue cut through in the 1920s and scored a direct hit on St James's chapel. The village green survives as a grassy triangle opposite a further education college and is the terminus of the EL3 bus, destination Little Heath. The Hawbush pub closed in 2006 and is now 14 flats, sadly, because there's bugger all else to do here. Barley Wines Supermarket is so named because it lies on Barley Lane, not because it specialises in strong beers.

L is for Little Stanmore

We're in Harrow, barely a mile west of Edgware, at the upper end of the Jubilee line. What we now know as Stanmore was originally Great Stanmore and alongside was Little Stanmore, this rather closer to the station now called Canons Park. Cannons was a significant country estate belonging to the Duke of Chandos and here we find the parish church of St Lawrence Little Stanmore. It has a medieval tower but the interior is pure Georgian, indeed Grinling Gibbons did some of the carving and the actual George Frederick Handel was employed here to play the organ. Note that the sign outside also calls this area Whitchurch, a name that's fallen out of favour but is still referenced in the main road being Whitchurch Lane. For more background info try this Voicemap tour of Canons Park.

L is for Little Woodcote

We're in Sutton in fields south of Carshalton, quite near that lavender farm everyone goes nuts for in summer. Immediately after WW1 79 weatherboarded 'Homes for Heroes' were built here, each surrounded by a smallholding to permit veterans some dignified independence. Last time I looked some still had polytunnels and greenhouses, also veg for sale, but many are now fortified fiefdoms with Range Rovers and guard dogs. As a sparse grid of off-grid lanes nowhere else in London compares. I've written about Little Woodcote before, obviously.

L is for Locksbottom

We're in Bromley, a couple of miles west of Orpington. Locksbottom has an amusing name and would have been an excellent choice for my unsung suburb, but it also abuts Farnborough and Keston which were my F and K so I didn't want to go again. Let's just say it has a big hospital, a smart Mock Tudor parade, a Michelin-listed restaurant, a large open space called Tugmutton Common and a cafe guarded by a six foot cuddly bear dressed as a policeman.

L is for Longford

We're in Hillingdon, immediately to the northwest of Heathrow Airport. So close alas that if the 3rd runway ever gets built Longford will cease to exist, a complete demolition job including ten listed buildings because progress beats heritage. The greatest loss may be The White Horse, a former coaching inn, not least because it serves Sunday roasts and Nanny Marge's Fish Pie. Until 1928 the Bath Road passed through, this being a key bridging point for the River Colne, but then the Colnbrook bypass opened and the crooked high street became much quieter until someone built an international airport nextdoor. I've written about Longford before, obviously.

L is for Longlands

We're in Bexley but only just, at the western end of the Sidcup bypass. Longlands gets its name from a big house whose lodge was roughly where the shopping parade now is, a bit nearer Charlie's Barber than Carnivore butchers. Here we find a branch of the excellent retro J Ayre bakery, also a comfortingly tame Italian restaurant called Limoncello. A few streets away are Longlands Primary and Longlands Rec, while Longlands Road stretches down to Sidcup station. Tesco have strange ideas about what that area's called because it's their Longlands branch whereas most people call it Sidcup and last week I argued it was really Lamorbey.

L is for Loxford

We're in Redbridge, marginally north of Barking. Here we find a stream called the Loxford Water, previously blogged, also a park called Loxford Park with its deflowered sunken garden. A road called Loxford Lane starts at Loxford Polyclinic and leads to Loxford School, formerly Loxford School of Science & Technology. Loxford Hall was recently converted nicely into two flats and horribly into four more. I wrote about Loxford five years ago in a feature I actually called 'Unsung London suburbs', so obviously I was never going to write about it at length this time.

Now test yourself and see how many unsung Ls you can correctly locate.

Lamorbey
Lampton
Leaves Green
Lessness Heath

Little Heath
Little Stanmore
Little Woodcote
Locksbottom

Longford
Longlands
Lower Morden
Loxford

(answers in the comments box)

Off-message transport news

2026-06-13T07:00:00.000+01:00

Off-message transport news

Most transport news you read in London originates from an approved stream of TfL press releases. I don't play that game.

⚡ It's always exciting when you accidentally stumble across the launch event for TfL's Press Release Of The Day. Normally you have to be invited to these things, but if you're passing Hatton Cross station and happen to spot a kerfuffle round the back you can drop in unannounced. They've been building a snazzy yellow-roofed electric charging station here for some time, and yesterday they finally got round to opening it. Lots of top brass turned up because EV charging is the future, and so did several PR folk because it's important the correct message gets out. Here is that somewhat convoluted message from the top of the press release.

First ultra-rapid EV hub in Fastned & Places for London partnership lands near Heathrow with a week of free charging
The Fastned and Places for London partnership has officially opened its first state-of-the-art ultra-rapid electric vehicle (EV) charging hub at Hatton Cross Underground station, marking a major milestone for London's green transport infrastructure. Launched by Seb Dance (Deputy Mayor for Transport), Mete Coban MBE (Deputy Mayor for Environment and Energy), and Andy Lord (London's Transport Commissioner), alongside Fastned Co-founder, CEO Michiel Langezaal and UK Director Tom Hurst the event also featured a zero-emission capable black cab, ambulance, and TfL van, showcasing the growing range of electric fleet capability now available. To celebrate the official opening, new Hatton Cross charging hub will offer five days of free charging, from Monday 15 June to Friday 19 June 2026.

Fastned sounds like a Beano character but is actually a Dutch company. Places for London is a TfL offshoot that attempts to make money out of real estate. A charging station at Hatton Cross is of zero use to most Londoners but well positioned beside a very busy road for maximum uptake. 24 more sites are in the pipeline including a biggie at Hanger Lane, but only five have so far entered the planning process. Three-quarters of London households lack private off-street parking so the provision of charging points is a particularly important challenge.

What you won't read in the press release is that every 90 seconds a huge aeroplane roared past on final approach to Heathrow, totally cancelling out all the climate change benefits of the charging station. Also a special tent had been set up to dole out Fastned goodies, specifically thick colourful Fastned scarves which many of the fifty people present were wandering round wearing. Also a coffee van had been provided to dole out refreshment which several attendees were clutching. I checked the Vauxhall Movano's numberplate and confirmed it was a diesel van so couldn't actually be plugged in here. More embarrassingly the van didn't meet emission standards so had had to pay £12.50 to attend the event, Hatton Cross being just inside the ULEZ boundary, so this wasn't quite the showcase green launch they said it was.

📶 The roll out of 4G and 5G mobile signals continues, having this week reached 60% coverage underground on the Underground. The newest sections are on the Bakerloo, Metropolitan and Circle lines but it's all a bit bitty as the accompanying map shows. For example on a Northern line train you get get coverage from Morden to Stockwell, then lose it to Oval, then regain it to Kennington, then lose it again to Embankment, then get it back until Hampstead, then lose it until you emerge from the tunnel at Golders Green. Meanwhile the Bakerloo line has two disjoint 4G sections, the Jubilee and Piccadilly lines also have two, the Victoria line has three and the Circle line has five. Essentially if you risk a phone conversation it'll likely cut out somewhere, at least until the end of the year when they hope to have every tunnel wired up.

🚡 Would you like a free trip on the cablecar? Well the good news is it's Loneliness Awareness Week so the Chatty Cabins initiative is back in partnership with the Marmalade Trust, Strangers In The City and Camerados. Pick from one of the following...

• London Chatty Cabins (15-19 June, 10am-noon): Book a slot, grab a hot drink and enjoy a 20 minute round trip trapped in a gondola with a stranger while hopefully having a nice chat about something.
• Games Night (16 June, 6-9pm): A couple of fun icebreakers, then a ride on the London Cable Car, then a few team games back down on the ground. Amusingly "if you're scared of heights, don't worry, the cable car ride is optional." Also fully booked already.
• Public Living Room (17 June, 10am-4pm): The Greenwich terminal becomes a "no agenda space where people can chat with others, put their feet up and get some company." Walk-ups are welcome, but only those who pre-book get a free dangleway roundtrip.

🚇 The latest extension of automatic signalling on the District line has been postponed. The plan had been to introduce it this morning, which would have meant no service on four Underground lines before 10.30am. However TfL sent out an email yesterday afternoon saying "Planned works affecting the Circle, District, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines on Saturday 13 June have been postponed due to last minute technical issues." That's disappointing, given this date had been in the calendar for some time. Also it's quite hard to reverse a closure at the last minute so the email continued "we are working hard to restore as much service as possible, but unfortunately we will not be able to restore a full service in the morning." Hopefully SMA10 and SMA12 will be introduced soon but expect further disruption when they eventually are.

⭕ According to papers accompanying next week's TfL Finance Committee meeting, it's proposed to increase toll charges through the Blackwall and Silvertown Tunnels in September to take account of inflation. That's 5p more for motorbikes, cars and small vans, 10p extra for large vans and another 25p for HGVs. Future increases, when necessary, are expected to occur in March alongside the annual TfL fare rise.

🚌 Yesterday morning I saw a red TD bus carrying passengers down Surbiton high street, a day early for today's Route 213 Heritage Day. Route 213 never went to Surbiton but it definitely said 213 on the front, and sorry but I didn't get a photo.

🚉 Barons Court's eastbound platform has reopened after five months of canopy repair and it looks very splendid. They've seriously spruced up the woodwork, replaced the glass in the roof and repainted the chunky benches, also added white DDA bands to the light green pillars. You can really see the contrast if you look across to the shabby westbound platform (which'll be closing on July 6th until December for its own upgrade). I hope the tennis crowds flooding into Queen's are appreciating it.

🚌 Yesterday on Reddit they asked "Where can you find the most consecutive bus route numbers at one bus stop?" This was accompanied by a photo of the bus stop at Oxlow Lane, one of many stops in Dagenham displaying routes 173 174 175. That's three consecutive numbers and is equalled by 160 161 162 in Chislehurst. If you allow lettered routes then you can also have K2 K3 K4 K5 in Kingston and S1 S2 S3 S4 in Sutton for four, also U1 U2 U3 U4 U5 at Hillingdon Hospital for five. Orpington High Street used to have eleven(!), namely R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8 R9 R10 R11, but last year route R6 was withdrawn so that's now two consecutive runs of five.

Three adverts at Bank

2026-06-12T07:00:00.000+01:00

Here are three adverts I saw at Bank station.

Hang on what, Sky are moving into smart doorbells? I thought they did TV, broadband and phones, so why move into front door snoopery? It's not a gizmo you'd think they'd ever sell, it feels a bit off from their central proposition. I feel uncomfortable about smart doorbells anyway, forever scanning the street and watching things, specifically watching people, like some kind of vast privatised intrusion of privacy. I get that doorbell cameras are really useful in certain situations like if a delivery arrives and you're not in, then you can tell the driver to hide it behind a fence rather than leaving it on the doorstep. Or if it's Hallowe'en and you want to see if it's your pizza being delivered or some oiks who'll desecrate your property if you don't offer them Haribo. Apparently this one "comes with a chime so you'll always hear the door go", yeah just like every other doorbell for the last 100 years. Also a camera's probably better than one of those peepholes people have drilled in their doors because those have very limited vision, but at least they're free after you've installed them whereas this demands a monthly subscription. I see Sky are charging £15 for this up front but then it's £5 a month or they'll brick it so that's £60 a year, also it's a minimum 24 month contract so you are in fact agreeing to a £120 charge, or £135 including the camera. That's only £45 less than a TV licence and at least with a TV licence you get huge amount of programming content from all around the world whereas this camera will only ever show you exactly the same bit of street, occasionally with some people in who aren't even very good actors.

Personally I don't see the need for a smart doorbell, can't you just open your door and see who it is? Admittedly it might be someone you wish you hadn't opened the door to like a Jehovah's Witness or that nosey neighbour who's always poking his nose round, but "just opening the door" is a lot easier than getting your phone out to see who it is, also by the time you've checked they might have walked away. Admittedly I don't need a smart doorbell because I live in a flat, indeed it's literally not an option, I have to make do with a temperamental entryphone with no chance to actually see anybody, also most times when it buzzes it's not for me it's someone trying to gain entry to the building to meet someone else. Also I don't like the idea that everywhere is being filmed these days, you can't walk down your high street without some electronic system knowing where you are, and yes they tell us nobody's collecting everything in some Big Brother database but who's to say a future government won't routinely collect all this civilian surveillance "to keep us all safe". Sure it's potentially invaluable if someone gets robbed outside your front door or if a meteorite flares across the sky in that precise direction, but most of the time it's recording pointless nothingness or keeping track of everyday innocents. Dystopian fiction says this never ends well, and sure a burglar might walk away if they thought they were being filmed by a smart doorbell but I'm uncomfortable gifting this level of national oversight to a corporate entity like Sky under the pretence of convenience and security.

Sheesh really, Bud 0.0% is the official beer of the World Cup 2026? What is the point of a football tournament beer containing no alcohol, where is the joy in that? Also have you ever tasted Bud, it's like watered down gnat's piss, so I imagine the alcohol-free version is even worse. I'm not averse to an overly artificial lager, I do drink Beck's out of choice, but even I draw the line at Bud somehow being a decent beer. I'll only order it if I'm in a bar and there's absolutely no other bottled option, and even then only under duress because people are expecting me to be drinking something to keep up with them. I've even ordered Bud in the USA and it tasted dire there too, I'm not just whinging about a substandard European variant. The very idea of anyone choosing to order the low alcohol version is abhorrent, it has all of the sour aftertaste and not even a proper kick underneath, so if you're driving why not buy something that's intended to be naturally hop-less instead. I also hate the fact that 0.0% beers cost the same as their alcohol-packed namesakes, and yes I understand a lot of them have to be made the same way and then have the alcohol removed, so if anything they cost more to make, but it's shocking to be charged well over a fiver for a liquid that basically has nothing in it. Being the World Cup I guess a lot more Bud will actually be consumed in cans at home rather than in pubs, but again why fork out for a 0.0% version that'll bring you no joy whatsoever and still taste like Gianni Infantino pissed into a vat before being diluted down by greedy exploitative homeopaths.

Obviously Bud are only promoting their 0.0% beer because TfL have rules about alcohol in adverts, otherwise they'd be pushing the 4.5% version that alters your mood as well as filling your bladder. Nobody's paying FIFA millions merely to promote the weakest of their beers, but on the tube they have no choice. The very concept of World Cup sponsors is laughable anyway, obviously they aren't really the best brands just those willing to stump up the most money. Other companies willing to schmooze the football dollar include Frito-Lay (official snack food partner), McDonald’s (official quick-service restaurant sponsor) and Mengniu Dairy (official dairy sponsor) so not even healthy sport-friendly options, also Unilever (official personal care sponsor) like Lynx Africa is somehow better at cancelling out soccer musk than any comparable chemical spray. I note that Budweiser have been the Official Beer Sponsor of the FIFA World Cup™ for 40 years so they do have genuine skin in the game, alternatively I could query how many pence out of every bottle of Bud goes on crass marketing strategies like 'Let it Pour', an exhortation to "amplify the call to come together and experience the intensity that defines the tournament". It is astonishing the amount of effort that goes into making one beverage seem more culturally relevant than another in the hope that consumers will purchase more of it to absorb the sporting vibes while watching the team they love drink none of it because it has zero relevance to playing football.

"Effortless living at the city's new pulse"? Oh get over yourself Elephant Quarter, what meaningless drivel is this? Effortless living is not a thing, not even if you rent a space in the most concierged of towers. As for being the city's new pulse what does that even mean, other than perhaps a misguided opinion that a de-gyratoried road junction in SE1 is somehow the heart of London's cultural life and not just a choked-up hi-density people farm at the arse end of the Bakerloo line. What they're really pushing here is an accommodation model so heavily reliant on added extras like gymnasiums, residents lounges and co-working spaces that tenants end up paying for services that look great in the brochure but which percentagewise they'll barely use. I look with horror at the monthly rental being demanded even for a studio flat, a minimum of £2450 per month for a teensy living space, a two-hob kitchen and a shower room, plus a bedroom you couldn't swing a cat in nor would you be allowed to. It's particularly grim given the site was formerly the socially-inclusive Heygate Estate, a neo-brutalist haven admittedly with a reputation for crime and dilapidation but the replacement is all beige surfaces, poor doors and posh gits sipping Nespressos, and damn the resident population who could no more afford an apartment in Elephant Quarter than imagine Daddy paying the rent for them.

I also despair for the future of the English language as we descend further and further into marketingspeak. A whole new industry appears to have opened up requiring the ability to write fatuous guff because it sells a project and not because it fundamentally means anything. You see it at most new housing developments, a snappy buzzphrase melding generic phrases to try to make a neighbourhood sound better than the place nextdoor. Apparently Lampton TW3 is "a place where you can balance wellbeing and opportunity" - like hell it is. Apparently Bromley-by-Bow E3 is "more than just a neighbourhood" - oh get over yourselves. Apparently Dagenham RM9 is "a green oasis with everything you need" - it's a bleak outpost on a former car plant. Apparently Stonebridge Park HA0 is "a welcoming neighbourhood shaped by thoughtful placemaking where what began as a vision has evolved into a dynamic mixed-use community where people truly enjoy living, connecting and thriving" - maybe put down the thesaurus and get a real job! There are graduates out there who hoped for a fulfilling career but instead ended up concocting word salad for corporate paymasters with undersized apartments to flog, churning out interchangeable platitudes that could apply equally to anywhere and ultimately mean nothing. 'A destination where energy meets creativity' my arse, Elephant Quarter's just one more housing policy screw-up and if you copywrite this bolx I hope it pays well enough to afford a skyhutch of your own.

L is also for

2026-06-11T07:00:00.000+01:00

For my A-Z safari of unsung suburbs I chose Lamorbey near Sidcup. But I also road-tested a couple of other Ls in case they were better, which they weren't but let me tell you about them anyway.

L is for Lower Morden

Before we go lower, best start with Morden itself. Everyone knows it as the southern terminus of the Northern line but the original village of Morden was a kilometre to the southwest around St Lawrence's Church. Lower Morden was another kilometre further on, hence even further off-radar, with a couple of farms, a scattering of cottages and a duckpond on a long village green. Only in the 1930s did the Mock Tudor invasion advance and hey presto, everything rural was wiped from the map.

At the village centre today is the weirdly-named Hatfeild Primary School, not a spelling error but a nod to Gilliat Hatfeild the last Lord of the Manor of Morden. The school was built on the site of Lower Morden Farm whereas Peacock Farm has been replaced by the large but intimate Lower Morden Garden Centre. Here the horticulturally-blessed of Merton and Sutton drive for emergency compost or perhaps a nice day out perusing secateurs and begonias before a cuppa in the cafe. Between the two is an alley called Bow Lane which leads swiftly to the HQ of the 1st Lower Morden scout troop, not that there's a 2nd but it does confirm this location genuinely exists.

The new centre of Lower Morden is the five-way roundabout by the Baptist Church, formerly the junction of two very minor country lanes. The dominant building is The Morden Brook pub, formerly The Beverley, whose inn sign depicts a much-too-scenic river that locally doesn't exist. By rights it ought to be called The Pyl Brook and show a drab culvert hemmed between lock-up garages but presumably reality wouldn't sell so many pints. The local shopping parade starts with a Co-op and ends with a Pet Grooming Spa, indeed there are more salons here for dogs than humans, but also a salt-of-the-earth cafe and a betting shop. Three bus routes link Grand Drive to Morden station, escape generally being the better retail option.

Easily the most interesting place hereabouts is Morden Cemetery, 70 respectful acres opened in 1891 when this was still the middle of nowhere. Entrance is through two turrety gates, beyond which a long straight tree-lined avenue leads to a Gothic chapel which squats like a bat on the horizon. Only hearses and limousines are permitted to drive all the way to the far end, and even then they have to wait at a strategically positioned traffic light before starting their final approach. The grounds are lovely, especially the rose garden by the cloisters which is currently at its tributeworthy best. What's odd is seeing signs everywhere referencing Wandsworth Council, this because the cemetery was originally built by the Battersea Burial Board so ownership resides with a non-local borough. Equally counter-intuitively the chapel contains the North East Surrey Crematorium, and that's because back in 1958 this wasn't London.

Find the gate out the back of the cemetery and you can walk to this L's farthest extremity which is the Lower Morden Equestrian Centre. They've found a remote spot where Green Lane meets Pig Farm Alley, erected some sheds and now offer popular equestrian services like pony rides and walkouts. In their main ring I watched a hard-hatted novice receiving instruction in how to trot in circles, and over in the scrappy paddocks tried to work out whether the white horse grazing in front of the gasholders was Elsa, Lance or Rose. From here to the tube station is two whole miles, just so you know how Lower this particular part of Morden is.

Had this been a full length alphabetical round-up I'd also have told you about the extra cemetery that swallowed up the Common, the meadowy glories of Morden Park and the upcoming appearance of Soul II Soul. But I still have a second L to bring you so let's hop across the Thames to another swallowed village you're less likely to recognise.

L is for Lampton

If you live in the London borough of Hounslow you may know Lampton Services as the council-owned company that collects the recycling, maintains your parks and builds affordable homes. But Lampton is also a place, a quiet village once surrounded by orchards and market gardens which in the 1930s took a direct hit from the Hounslow bypass and will never recover.

It's hard today to imagine rural Lampton as a small knot of lanes with a pub, a pond, a manor house and a few runs of terraced cottages. But this unlucky hamlet was in the way when the Great West Road was driven through in an unrelenting straight line, hence the northernmost farm became a Tudorbethan shopping parade, one row of cottages morphed into a hotel for Heathrowgoers and the duckpond is now a BP garage. Two fine villas survive as a nursery school and a cafe but the manor house itself is long gone, replaced by a squat office block also called Lampton House. I was surprised to see a square orange logo on the front but this is indeed an outpost of Orange Business Services, the French mobile company, hiding out beside the A4 in Lampton.

The local watering hole is The Black Horse but can't be the original village pub because it makes a big fuss of having been established in 1926. It may receive a lot of custom from Lampton Garage, a Metroline bus depot, but obviously only after drivers on the 81, 120 and H32 have finished their shifts. We're less than a mile from the centre of Hounslow so I'm surprised the place needs quite so many takeaways, these especially for grilled goods but also peshawari and vegetarian pizza because the half the local population are from the Indian subcontinent. Incidentally the reason why one short stretch of Jersey Parade bends away from the main road is because that's what the original country lane did, which is also why it's hard to see Kebab O'Clock through the trees.

Lampton's one nice spot is Lampton Park, 40 acres of mostly grass but with a few patches of woodland at the far end. It was opened by George Lansbury MP in 1930 and once boasted a significant ornamental rose garden, these days alas a rose-free zone surrounding a somewhat choked circular lily pond. The lump of rock that looks like a weird indented sculpture is actually a genuine sarsen stone discovered in a gravel pit a few hundred yards away in 1926. It's been on display near the tennis courts since 1951, hence the explanatory text on the metal plaque is very much of its era... Half a million years ago, perhaps, the stone may have reached the position in which it was found, by some natural means that can only be conjectured.

In the 1970s the allotments by the park were repurposed as the site of Hounslow Civic Centre, the new borough's new seat of government, comprising four linked lowrise glass and concrete pavilions. This lasted 40 years before the council decided a smaller shinier block closer to the town centre would be more efficient, then sold off the original site for housing. The new estate is called Lampton Parkside and is now nearing completion, a dense warren of vernacular blocks and bricky terraces, a tiny minority of which are actually beside the park. If you truly believe "it's a place where you can savour the city, delight in nature and live life with more vitality" then I hope you'll be very happy there, but the real benefit is being just a four minute walk from Hounslow Central station. They could have called it Lampton South instead, but perhaps best they never did.

Network SouthEast 40

2026-06-10T04:00:00.000+01:00

40 years ago today, on 10th June 1986, Network SouthEast was launched.

This was a bold attempt to rebrand the British Rail network around London, a vast area stretching from Exeter to King's Lynn and covering over 900 stations. Its logo was three lozenges in red, blue and grey and they cropped up everywhere from station signs to trains and timetables, also the maps designed to tempt passengers out onto the railways.

The brand remains much loved despite lasting only eight years, ending prematurely in 1994 when the Conservative government privatised the railways and split NSE into eleven franchises. But a few fragments survive if you know where to look, so I've been out across London to see how many different types of remnant I could find.

These are the platforms at Barking.

Several of the signs are still NSE originals in white and blue, especially the numbers denoting platforms 1 to 8. The logos underneath are generally faded and/or scraped off, but some like platform 8 remain mostly intact.
Why's it still here? Barking is one of the few tube stations not run by TfL. A lot of the station signs have been upgraded in c2c purple, but platform 2 is only served by the Underground so there was no imperative to update it.

This is the platform edge on the Waterloo & City line at Bank.

There are approximately ten of these along the edge of each platform, and there used to be more before part of each platform was raised to provide level access. It's a bit annoying that the yellow safety line goes over the top of the logo, indeed you'd think they'd have stuck it further back for safety reasons, but trains are never going very fast here.
Why's it still here? Modernisation of the Waterloo & City line began in 1989 with trains and the two stations refurbished in NSE style. The rolling stock remained red, blue and white until 2006.

These are the ticket machines at Marylebone station.

It's a very prominent central spot and still with perfect Network SouthEast branding around the upper edge. If you look to the right of the photo you'll see another NSE logo by the tube gateline, indeed there are two.
Why's it still here? Marylebone got £85m for modernisation after being reprieved from closure in 1986, right at the start of NSE's tenure. Chiltern Railways chose to keep the colour scheme when they took over, indeed embraced it. You sense today's station bosses would rather replace this former tube ticket office with a food outlet but while it still has two ticket machines they can't.

And have you ever looked up outside the station and seen the brown Network SouthEast logo attached to the wall above the main arch? It really ought to have been removed by now, it's 32 years out of date, but it would leave an asymmetric mess so they've left it in situ.

This is one of the classic Network SouthEast digital clocks.

Everyone loves these red boxes with their chunky yellow digits, arguably one of the great British railway clocks. The NSE branding is only subtle, three stripes bottom left, but maybe that's why it works. I first went to Charing Cross hoping to find one of these but they've all been replaced by modern electronic displays, I think relatively recently. So it was a joy to find this one still ticking over beneath the canopy in front of Victoria station, almost hiding in plain sight. Next time you're walking in from the tube station or the bus station do look up and smile.
Why's it still here? Good question. I guess it just works, also it is very high up, but it wouldn't surprise me if someone replaces it with that new digital Rail Clock one day.

This is the southern entrance to City Thameslink station.

Big blue letters on a white background was always the NSE way, here alongside a proper red British Rail double arrow. It's a shame they've had to slap two step-free notices on either side but I checked Streetview and these didn't cover over anything. You get a lot more blue lettering as you move through the station, from platform signs to help points, this because the station opened in 1990 in the middle of Network SouthEast's existence and they threw everything at making it on brand.

Even the decoration on the uplighters has red and blue colouring. These hoops are all along the platforms, and those platforms are very long. You get the sense somebody was really trying to make a point to City passengers.
Why's it still here? When City Thameslink was upgraded in 2010 to cope with more through services, the original contractors retrofitted the station interior with enamel wall panels that fitted the original design specification.

We have to end up at Essex Road. It's where the magic lingers.

Even outside, look, the Network SouthEast logo remains underneath the double arrow. It wouldn't originally have had pigeon spikes but otherwise it's like the 1990s again.

We then head down into the depths via the clunking lift, the grubby passageway and the grim grim stairs. The platforms are almost more oppressive but wow, there are still NSE signs all the way down the outer walls. They used to be all the way down the inner walls too but in 2020 all this was replaced with modern branding and pure white tiles. They did the same at Moorgate, Old Street and Highbury & Islington too, wiping away all that heritage in an attempt to make the stations feel nicer, indeed a lot of people were quite upset about it. The replacement tiling isn't even very good, they couldn't get the blue lines straight.

But at Essex Road they did at least leave the far walls alone, including two absolutely fabulous line diagrams. This is the small one showing two stops to Moorgate complete with pitch perfect Network SouthEast branding up top. The northbound sign is hugely larger and hugely more complicated, basically the shrine you need to kneel in front of if NSE is your creed.
Why's it still here? I don't know why they left Essex Road's outer walls alone, perhaps it was just cheaper than replacing the signs with modern line diagrams, but thank goodness they did.

Oh, and there's an NSE train to look out for too.

It's not original, it's a Networker specially vinyl-ed to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the railways last year and named after Chris Green, the BR executive who brought NSE to life. It operates on Southeastern so you might see it out and about anywhere, because Network SouthEast is the brand that refuses to die.

» A Flickr group of 4000+ Network SouthEast photos
» The actual Network SouthEast Design Guide from 1986
» A Network SouthEast clock emulator you can have running wherever
» 100s of NSE leaflets appear on networksoutheast.net - amazing!
» If you're near platforms 10/11 at Waterloo between 10am and 3pm today, the Network SouthEast Friends will have a small display
» Downham Market station was deliberately NSE-ed in 2017 for heritage reasons
» Other Network SouthEast leftovers exist

L is for Lamorbey

2026-06-09T07:00:00.000+01:00

LONDON A-Z
L is for Lamorbey

A surprisingly high number of obscure London suburbs begin with L so this was hard to narrow down, but in the end I plumped for one of four in the borough of Bexley. It's large enough to have a park, a parish church and a residents' association, but also very much overshadowed by the town that bled into it. It's called Lamorbey, and today I'm pleased to be able to take you on the Lamorbey Town Trail [pdf] compiled by the Lamorbey and Sidcup Local History Society. Starting at Sidcup station.

The thing about Sidcup station is that it was originally in Lamorbey, not Sidcup. But when the Dartford Loop line opened in 1866 this was the closest the line came to the town, linked by a long country lane to the south, so they called it Sidcup anyway and Lamorbey's fate was sealed. At the time nobody lived inbetween but that mile was swiftly infilled so there are now essentially two Sidcup town centres, the one with the decent shops and the one with the trains. A lot of people feel the need to catch a bus from one to the other.

In 2012 a hideous gold building erupted beside the station, The Fold, with a startling level of architectural bling for a borough more used to low-rise avenues. I was surprised not to be able to spot it given it really used to stand out, and then I noticed the drab brown building with a stripe of gold trim at rooftop level. It seems most of the frontage was brass which has oxidised and darkened to a deep chocolate colour, precisely as intended, while the curved brass façade was made from the same alloy as a £2 coin and has retained its colour. Across the street is an uglier concrete block called Marlowe House, this the tallest building in the borough, originally built in 1966. The Met Police bought it 20 years ago and amongst the units housed across its 17 storeys is the Metropolitan Police Museum (not the really grim exhibits because they're at Scotland Yard, and no you can't come in and look, and the whole building's smothered in scaffolding anyway).

When the station opened the closest buildings were those of a farm complete with oast houses, this being deep Kent at the time. In 1931 the farm was replaced by an Art Deco style Odeon cinema, then replaced again in 1964 by a swimming pool called Lamorbey Baths. The latest rebuild is a green-tiled block of 30 flats and you can probably guess which of the three previous incarnations they chose to name it after - deposits are now being taken at urbanpicturehouse.com. Refreshment opportunities along this end of the parade include the Chunky Teapot, the Hackney Carriage Micropub and The Iron Horse, a pig ugly pub on the site of the former Station Hotel. Tiny railway needs are taken care of by Invicta Model Trains, a walk-in emporium at number 130. And if things sound fairly drab so far fret not, Lamorbey gets older and more interesting as it nudges north.

The local chapel needed an upgrade in 1879 so they built Holy Trinity, a three-aisle Gothic ragstone number. It was meant to have a tower but they ran out of money, hence the bell still hangs in plain sight on the front of the building. The church hall across the road at least managed a spire but it's ridiculously thin and maybe only has space for a couple of pigeons. The main point of interest is that both church and church hall have boards outside saying 'Holy Trinity Lamorbey', thus confirming that this L-place really exists because up until now you might have been wondering.

Another name to throw into the mix is Halfway Street, formerly a hamlet on the backroad from Eltham to Sidcup, though not exactly halfway. It's special because it contains the oldest building in the borough of Bexley, a timber-framed yeoman's cottage dating from the 15th or early 16th century (so more Henry VII than Henry VIII). It has whitewashed roughcast infill, a hipped tile roof and wattle-and-daub partitions, also a ring of thick wisteria skirting above the ground floor windows. Neighbouring cottages are rustic but not as old, and Ye Olde Black Horse Inn may say 1692 on the exterior but is actually a rebuild from 200 years later.

The odd thing about Lamorbey Park is that it has no sign on the main road telling you it's here, just a gap in a low wall and a path leading off into the trees. They're excellent trees, many of them lofty pines with a scattering of cones on the needled grass underneath. They date back to 1926 when a Greenwich businessman bought the hotel beyond the lake and decided to create grounds worth staying in. Sorry I've not mentioned the big house yet but walking the Lamorbey Town Trail delivers all the sights in a narratively unsatisfying order. The big house is key to everything but also annoyingly bloody hard to see because it's shielded by fences, trees, more trees and an adult education college on almost all sides. I managed these really paltry glimpses across the lake, not helped by it being summer rather than winter.

The estate's first recorded owner (in 1495) was Thomas Lamienby, Deputy Reeve of the Manor of Bexley. He was originally from Lamonby in Cumbria and that's where the peculiar name of the big house originally came from. At least three 18th century owners had strong links to the slave trade, the last of these a Scottish laird additionally associated with the Highland clearances, confirming that aristocratic history is often murky. It was in 1837 that the manor house gained its finer Jacobean twiddles and an additional storey, and around 1910 that the owners lost interest and offloaded it as a hotel. That's the short version of the backstory but there's a 2000-word version here, the level of detail I suspect because the Lamorbey and Sidcup Local History Society started out as an evening class at Lamorbey House.

The coniferous stripe the public can walk through is called The Glade and features one old wall that used to be the edge of Lamorbey House's kitchen garden. You can't get out to the south because that's Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School, a purple blazered haven, and you can't get out to the north because that's the domain of the Lamorbey Angling Society. The long thin finger of a lake is a former tributary of the River Shuttle ornamentalised 250 years ago and the LAS have exclusive dangling rights on the opposite bank. The duck-infested water breaks briefly just before the golf course, which used to be 18 holes before the Chis and Sid halved it, and here our loop heads back.

The fortress-like boundary around Lamorbey House is because it's now the domain of Rose Bruford College, a drama school founded in 1950 by the eponymous Rose after the council offered her a peppercorn rent. Over 600 students now study for degrees in the performing arts here and the campus has since expanded into studios upon studios upon studios. The roll call is stupendous with alumni including Gary Oldman, Pam St Clement, Stephen Graham, Jessica Gunning, Anthony Daniels and Tom Baker. I checked the motivational message emblazoned across reception and it says PROCEED FOR HOPE IS EVERGREEN, this at the back of a very large car park, also term ends this week so expect Lamorbey's showboat quotient to reduce over the summer.

Burnt Oak Lane is a meandering leftover from the days when all of this was fields, now repurposed as a mile-and-a-half-long suburban wiggle. And on the first bend are grand gates into another world, because it's always good to have an 'I never knew this was here WTF' moment when you go exploring. In 1902 the grounds of a country house called The Hollies were transformed into the Greenwich and Deptford Children's Home, a self-contained workhouse village for 500 waifs and orphans. Boys were accommodated in three-storey houses while girls got cottages, all named after trees and arranged in institutional loops amid open coniferous parkland. Later renamed the Lamorbey Children's Home it closed in 1989, after which the estate was transformed into really nice flats with modern infill and a slew of surrounding cul-de-sacs.

At the centre is a fat clocktower which originally contained water tanks, and alongside is the swimming pool where children got their exercise. In a sharp reversal of clientele the pool is now the heart of The Hollies Countryside Club, a private leisure establishment exclusively for residents of the estate complete with tennis courts, sauna and yoga classes. The estate's all very nicely done, if to modern eyes a shocking waste of space, and something of a contrast to the 1930s semis that abut on both sides. You may never have been to Lamorbey, nor felt the need to visit, nor even heard of it, but it's somehow comforting to know that London is so vast that everywhere are forgotten corners that a lucky few call home.

Thames Ironworks

2026-06-08T07:00:00.000+01:00

As part of the London Festival of Architecture there was a one-off opportunity to visit a unique site at the mouth of Bow Creek - not Trinity Buoy Wharf but the derelict post-industrial wasteland on the opposite bank. It's a site with historic links to shipbuilding, maritime catastrophe and top-level football, also Dame Helen Mirren, mega-nightclubbing and a new DLR station. It's the Ironworks, originally home to the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Co (1857-1913), and how amazing to get the chance to look inside. [15 photos]

The entrance to this decrepit wonderland is immediately alongside the northern entrance to the Silvertown Tunnel. This landscaped maelstrom of swirling traffic is crisscrossed by pedestrian crossings almost nobody yet needs, but that's forward planning for you. On the riverward side a straight stretch of DLR viaduct has been safeguarded as the future site of Thames Wharf station, a halt on the Woolwich branch. It's been on the drawing board for years, indeed it was already in the dot matrix system in 2011, but remains unfunded and won't be built until there are flats nearby to serve. Ian Visits has more details and photos from the front, and I can now add a photo from round the back because the security guard unlocked the gate beneath the viaduct and welcomed us inside.

Here we met Nick Hartwright, site owner and social entrepreneur, jauntily booted like he'd just stepped out of a Britpop video. He's the CEO of Projekt, a company that repurposes redundant buildings for creative purposes, and the more they look like a derelict shell or a Brutalist lump the better. His portfolio includes the Silver Building at Silvertown, the roofspace above Smithfield Market, an arts hotel in Wood Green and the former council offices in Bracknell town centre. The Ironworks have been on his books for almost a decade, the rationale being that it's better to get some temporary use out of the site rather than let some housing developer hog the land for years without building on it.

The road into the site is called Scarab Close, perhaps a deliberate nod to the mucky recycling of the waste management industries that most recently lurked here. If you ever rode the cablecar in its earliest years you'll have looked down and seen huge corrugated sheds piled with overflowing salvaged metal, most since cleared away to create space for the Silvertown Tunnel worksite. But the farthest reclamation shed is still standing, its interior empty behind a screen of flapping canvas strips and seemingly not part of the upcoming Ironworks project. It's also a relative newcomer built across the footprint of two dozen railway tracks curving in towards the dockhead, this because repurposing has long been part of the waterfront experience.

Through further gates you reach a scrappy courtyard dotted with portakabins. Its surface is now all irregular concrete but this was once the site of two dry docks, one long and one even longer, where the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Co built their ships. One of the first of these was HMS Warrior in 1860, the first iron-hulled armoured frigate and at time of launch the world's largest warship. But the most infamous launch was that of HMS Albion in 1898, attended by huge crowds and the future Queen Mary who inauspiciously failed to smash her bottle of champagne three times. As the great ship plunged down the slipway a large wave washed over a pontoon packed with spectators and 34 spectators drowned, their cries initially drowned out by loyal cheers. It's still one of London's worst ever maritime disasters and incredibly the whole thing was filmed, thankfully focusing on the ship rather than the watery carnage.

Although both dry docks are now filled in, the last few metres of the longest survives as a brief steep slope emerging between sheer brick walls. The most evocative leftover is the top of a list of Roman numerals marking tidal height, approximately XXII to XXVII, alongside a small recessed bearing from the original dock gates. A single mooring post lingers closer to the mouth of Bow Creek, and beside it a black plastic chair where I suspect a bored security guard sometimes sits and checks their phone or smokes a fag. The real treat here is being able to look down the Thames from the outside of this giant bend and seeing the Isle of Dogs one way, the Dangleway the other and the Millennium Dome bang opposite.

It's very nearly the same view you get from Trinity Buoy Wharf which is the other side of Bow Creek. But the unique sight is of Trinity Buoy Wharf itself, its lighthouse and container stacks fringed by three historic ships including the SS Robin. Admittedly it's all somewhat overshadowed these days by the Toytown upthrust of Goodluck Hope, a residential Ballymore aberration, but the actual tip still oozes quirky character. I've stood over there several times and looked across the mouth of the Lea at this inert post-industrial wasteland but never once did I think I'd ever get inside for a semi-free wander. I did however get brambles stuck in my orange jacket while I was trying to take this photo, also do keep your eyes peeled for loose strands of barbed wire.

If you're wondering why on earth a social entrepreneur would have his eyes on this desolate site, the answer's just round the corner. It's a 78,000 square foot warehouse, a four-bay shell with nothing inside bar several steel pillars to keep the roof up. It's a vast echoey space so ideal for holding loud musical events, thus it's just been announced that six electronic bleepfests will take place here in October. No specifics have yet been released other than that the venue can hold 7000 people so expect quite the rave up. Remote warehouses are getting harder to find since the demise of the Drumsheds in Enfield and Printworks in Rotherhithe, so the promoters plan to take full advantage of there being zero homes within a 200m radius.

Nick expounded on his plans while we gawped down to the far end of the shed across beneath two acres of furrowed roof. The Paramount TV series Mobland filmed its first two series here, one of which has yet to be screened, and they'll be back again in the winter to film a third. An international fashion brand has expressed an interest in hiring the shed during London Fashion Week because who wouldn't love a catwalk of pouting models contrasted against a dystopian void with authentically discoloured walls. An international sports brand intends to start a 10K run here in the autumn with participants running to the far end of the City Airport runway and back. I suspect the fact a London Festival of Architecture tour was allowed inside in the first place is all part of the Ironworks starting to open up.

The ultimate destiny for all of this is of course as flats. Plans are advanced for a riverfront neighbourhood called Thameside West packing almost 5000 flats along this stretch, because ultimately it's the only landuse that makes commercial sense. The artist's impression I've seen depicts an execrably bland wall of glass towers entirely erasing the dockland heritage underneath, 80% funded by a developer based in the UAE. On the positive side it'll open up the waterfront with a public path all the way from here to Canning Town, finally completing the Lea Valley Walk. But until anyone gets this pipedream off the ground the Ironworks will continue to innovate on a long-term temporary basis, and if you ever get the chance to slip inside then do.

n.b. the Helen Mirren connection is because she appears in the TV series Mobland.
n.b. the football connection is because West Ham FC (the Irons) have their roots in a team started by employees of the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Co in 1895.
n.b. 15 photos on Flickr

Pivot

2026-06-07T07:00:00.000+01:00

Some days you get lucky.
Some days you accidentally meet the man who changes everything.
Some days your life pivots and sends you off down a completely different path.
Such a day was 25 years ago today.

Thursday, June 07, 2001

The rest of Britain remembers this day as the first General Election of the 21st century. Tony Blair was defending his first term legacy against the combined onslaught of William Hague and Charles Kennedy, and the outcome was never in doubt. But I remember it as the day I kickstarted my escape and everything got better, not that I realised at the time.

To set the scene I'm living in a Suffolk village and two years into Job 3, my penultimate career option. I've been doing it for two years and am not really enjoying it, indeed of late it's become increasingly untenable. I only took the job because a relationship necessitated it, and since splitting up have been trapped somewhere I didn't really want to be doing something I didn't really want to do. Finding a way out is an increasing priority.

Job 3 involves three things I don't particularly enjoy - feigning expertise, being judgemental and driving. It's bearable because it pays well, the hours are unusually flexible and my colleagues are great... or at least they used to be. Two months ago my wonderful boss retired and his replacement, who's from Lincolnshire, is alas an obnoxious bell-end. He grins enough that most people really like him but he's also lazy, unreliable, full of bluster and prone to offloading work at a moment's notice. Last week (for example) he organised a two-day residential for the team, failed to turn up until mid-afternoon and then waffled late into the evening while handing out tasks he'd concocted on the hoof. "What the hell am I doing here?" I now keep thinking, and I'm not the only one.

My first task this Thursday morning is to walk down to the tinroofed village hall and cast my vote. It's my fifth General Election and the sixth time I'll have voted for someone who wouldn't become my MP. It's also county council election day and so rural is my ward that there are only two choices, one with a blue rosette and one with orange. I then face a long drive west because today is entirely atypical, I'm sneaking off from my actual job to get paid cash in hand for helping to run a conference near Cambridge. Sssh, not a word to the boss.

Friday, May 11, 2001

Zipping back a few weeks, this was the first time I agreed to do the private conference thing. I wasn't terribly comfortable with the idea but my colleague Jean who was organising it assured me it was fine and everyone else had agreed to do it too. It went well, the audience liked me and a few of them said I should come over to their place of work and they'd pay me off the record for that too. Perhaps not.

When I eventually got home I found a job application form on the doormat. I'd requested it over a week ago, leaving my address on an answerphone and hoping it'd arrive soon. It didn't and when I saw the envelope I realised why. Whichever berk had transcribed my address had ended it IPSWITCH SOUTHWARK, rather than Ipswich Suffolk, and the Royal Mail had clearly been somewhat bamboozled. This left me hardly any time to complete the form before the deadline so I dashed it off fairly quickly, assuming they were bound to invite me to an interview. They didn't, and that was my one chance to get Job 4 in London totally blown.

Back to June 7th, and a long drive down the A14 to meet my colleagues before the conference kicks off. We are already gossiping about how much we dislike the boss. I have two sessions to run this morning and one this afternoon. The first is about seasonal issues and endangered animals. The second is about Job 4 and includes a lot of my own in-depth analysis. The third is more of a stretch but I manage to keep the audience on side. And the day rounds off with a talk from a special guest who just happens to be the boss of the team where Job 4 was... and that's where I get really lucky.

The pivotal moment turns out to be the mid-afternoon break. Jean gets a phone call from the boss saying he's noticed she's running a conference without his permission and perhaps she'd like to think about resigning. Much spluttering and eye-rolling ensues. But Jean still finds time to nudge me over towards the special guest and suggests we have a chat. I liked that session where you did the in-depth analysis of the work we do, he said. I applied to your team last month and didn't get an interview, I said. We had 40 applicants and your form lacked depth, he said. But give me a ring at the office because there might be another job going.

At the end of the day the special guest dashed off and we sat in the lounge and discussed the boss's angry explosion. Four letter words were used, all our preconceptions of his bastardness confirmed. But there was also uncertainty because those of us who'd only spoken rather than running the conference didn't know how much trouble we were in, so we took time to get our stories straight. I had a lot to mull over on the long drive home... an increasing desire to quit my job, an impending fear I might get pushed out and the inkling that I might have the means of escape after all.

I still had work to do when I got home, also phone calls to field from concerned colleagues. But at 10pm I switched the TV on and caught the exit poll, seemingly another thumping majority for Tony Blair and very little change since 1997. I only managed four hours sleep and yes, when I woke up it was indeed another landslide. I took time over breakfast to ring Job 4 and request an application form for their latest role, one rung higher than I'd applied for before, taking special care to enunciate my address really carefully this time. It worked.

Friday 8 June: Watch Big Brother, the first eviction of the series, unaware that within three months I'll be living just round the corner from the footbridge Penny just walked across.
Monday 11 June: Jean resigns. The boss calls me in for a grilling, all smarm and sneer but thankfully with zero long-term consequences.
Thursday 14 June: Take the plunge and ring the London office about Job 4, and my next boss advises me "what to write next time".
Saturday 16 June: The form arrives and this time I spend the weekend filling it in very carefully. Operation Escape From Ipswich is underway.
Thursday 28 June: Yay I have an interview next Thursday!
Thursday 5 July: Yay I have a job! In London!

...and I would not be here now had I not bumped into precisely the right special guest at a conference I shouldn't have gone to 25 years ago today.