Going Overground - Riding the Goblin Barking → Gospel Oak
10:38 My District line train is pulling into Barking station, platform 2. As I watch from the window, a two-carriage purple runt of a train chugs out from platform 1 and disappears up a nearby branch line. Bugger, I've missed my Overground connection. It's going to be a 29½ minute wait. 10:39 Barking I am not alone. A dad and two kids cross the platform with me and slump dejectedly onto a bench. An elderly lady completes her slow walk down the stairs from the ticket hall and sits beside them. She's seen it all before. We hang around in the sunshine between the pink-painted pillars as a small crowd slowly gathers. And gathers. 10:58 The next train rattles up the single track and halts in front of the gloomy buffers beneath the station building. A horde of northeast Londoners ooze out of the jam-packed carriages, and we stand back as they outpour. With only two two-carriage trains an hour, even Saturday morning is rush hour. 10:59 I have a seat, squashed in between a motley assortment of old couples with shopping, oversized blokes in trackies and yawning migrants. I also appear to have picked the seat in front of the nutter. "Ya me so solid me can hear ya rok," he yells into his mobile phone. "Serious serious serious!" The wait isn't over yet. 11:08 A panting mother with a double buggy just manages to climb aboard the train before it departs. She beams with unspoken relief. The growling diesel paws its way out from the platform... over a wiggly river, under a roaring arterial road and off into the suburban wilderness. 11:11 Woodgrange Park When I moved to London I nearly bought a flat next to this unloved pair of bleak platforms. Lucky escape, I think. Two Oyster ticket readers stand shrouded beneath bright blue covers, waiting for the dawn of a new era. 11:14 Wanstead Park We're gliding on an elevated Victorian viaduct at chimney-pot level across a Mary Poppins skyscape. If only this were Putney, these rather pleasant residential terraces would sell for at least half a million. 11:17 Leytonstone High Road Two-thirds of this platform lies crumbling and abandoned beyond a cost-cutting barrier. The other third of the platform, decorated with plastic-flowered hanging baskets, is sufficiently long for our little train. 11:20 Leyton Midland Road The nutter is still in full flow... "well safe safe safe safe, yeah, ring me back ring me back." Shame, because otherwise this has been an unexpectedly scenic ride across the rooftops of Newham and Waltham Forest. 11:22 Walthamstow Queens Road Blimey, somebody's (very recently) built a gleaming new waiting room on the eastbound platform. It looks like a weatherproof glass portakbin and it has push-button sliding doors, one of which appears to have jammed open. Two glum local residents are waiting next to it. 11:25 Blackhorse Road This is the only other station on the line with a tube connection, so half the train escapes and switches to the Victoria line. Hurrah, the nutter gets off! Boo, a smelly woman sits behind me instead. 11:26 And now for a scenic interlude. The line slips between two raised reservoirs and over several braided streams as it crosses the Lea valley. Look, there's the Gherkin and Canary Wharf in the distance, seemingly light years away. A goods train rumbles slowly by on the opposite track. 11:29 South Tottenham The peace and quiet is shattered by two freshly-boarded toddlers who proceed to bounce and sing as we progress westwards. Haringey fades from view behind a leafy screen. 11:33 Harringay Green Lanes Only a stubby platform remains here, along with a forest of concrete pillars that once supported a structure suited to lengthier trains. And then, as the contours rise around us, we enter the first deep cutting of the entire journey. 11:35 Crouch Hill Blimey, aren't the passengers different all of a sudden? We've entered the muesli-eating organic/yoga zone, and the clientele heads distinctly upmarket. The latest toddler on board has a rather super pushchair and is called Oscar. He's wearing a brown corduroy coat and stripy woollen hat, and is clutching a teddy bear named Bear. Mum has a sharp black bob and a buttoned scarlet overcoat, and probably lives in one of those very smart terraces backing down to the railway. 11:38 Upper Holloway Even the council blocks look posher round here. The station sits at the bottom of a red-leaved autumnal bank beneath a tall church tower- we're a world away from the concrete and grime of distant Barking. 11:42 Gospel Oak And slowly, finally, the train veers round a curve at the foot of Hampstead Heath into platform 3 at Gospel Oak station. It's all change here if you fancy going further, but it's a damned long walk down the narrow stairs to street level and back up again on the other side of the tracks. There'll be a Richmond train along in ten minutes, if you can squeeze aboard, and then only another 12 stations to go. Say what you like about this new-fangled London Overground, it's still going to be a long time before you can get to nowhere fast.
It's all change on the railways this weekend. Four of the train companies serving London and the Midlands cease to exist tonight, and are replaced tomorrow by four new companies owned by different conglomerates run by different boardrooms of grey-suited financiers. Customers will probably notice no immediate difference but gradually, over the next year or three, all the stations and rolling stock will be repainted, re-signed and rebranded in lovely new corporate colours. And then the new companies will raise their ticket fares to pay for it, because that's how non-nationalised railways work.
One of the expiring train companies is Silverlink. From tomorrow their backwater suburban "Metro" services will become part of Transport for London's empire, branded London Overground, and you'll be able to use your Oyster card to swipe in and out. From tomorrow (probably) these lines will appear on the London tube map, strangling its once-classic design "like an evil tangerine octopus". [More on the important topic of tube map "information pollution" on Radio 4 this afternoon, on iPM at 5:30pm, sandwiched between features on Pakistani politics and mental health blogging]. But Underground passengers inspired to switch to the Overground may be sorely disappointed. The trains are slow, messy, short, overcrowded and infrequent, which means a lot of hanging around on platforms waiting for something ramshackle to turn up. And it could be years before TfL investment starts to improve things.
Here's the dg guide to the new London Overground, should you plan to risk using it.
That's what I wrote on this blog back in November 2003 when the idea of an Olympic Stadium just outside Stratford was first mooted. Four years on, not only is this stadium set to become reality but we also now have the first plans of what it'll actuallylook like. The Olympic stadium will be a big sloping circular amphitheatre with a sports field in the middle, a bit like a giant gooseberry tart. There'll be room for eighty thousand seats around the rim, with several pebble-like pods scattered outside the perimeter for selling fast food and branded souvenirs. The stadium looks nothing like the funky muscled design that London 2012 published in their bid book back in 2004. In fact this newly launched structure isn't in any way a thriller, is it? Compared to other Olympic stadia of recent years it's really a bit dull. And, I must say, thank Zeus for that.
Last time the 2012 team launched something vibrant and cutting edge they were ridiculed across the globe. This time they've offered a safe, solid solution with an eye to the future, and reaction has been rather more muted. No vitriolic rants or sighs of disappointment, except in the usual quarters. This is a functional design solution, with one eye on the public purse and the other on 2013 and beyond. The new stadium will be, the organisers hope, the embodiment of sustainability. And those of who live round here are rather pleased by that.
There are few larger white elephants on this planet than Olympicstadia. Half a billion pounds is being pumped into London's, and for what? The Games themselves will last no more than five weeks, and the stadium itself for an ever shorter time (11 days for the main games and 11 for the Paralympics). During that time, if past events are any guide, its 80000 seats will be full on only three occasions. Once for the opening ceremony (because, you know, it would look wrong if 79999 people held up their special coloured cards and there was a gap in the middle). Once for the men's 100 metres final (an event less than 10 seconds long, for heaven's sake). And once for the closing ceremony (at which point spectators may turn to one another and ask "bloody hell, what are we going to do with this arena now?").
Never fear. After the Games that top tier of seating can be removed, cutting the stadium's capacity down to a rather more sensible 25000. That fabric wrap around the edge of the arena will be taken down and turned into souvenir bags (see, and you thought the Games would never make a profit). And a new owner will be given custodianship of the slimmed-down facility to ensure that this enormous engineering project has a proper legacy after September 9th 2012. Except that, erm, nobody's quite sure who that legacy client might be. West Ham were interested until they were told that the maximum capacity of 25000 was non-negotiable. Leyton Orient are still interested, sort of, although they really don't like the enforced athletics track round the edge because it distances spectators from the pitch. And rugby clubs like Wasps and Saracens might be interested, possibly, although East Londoners aren't renowned for their support of elongated ball games. Never mind, somebody'll turn up and be interested in buying the place, won't they?
In the meantime, demolition on the Olympic stadium site continues. I've been back to the Greenway bridge severaltimes since the rest of the Lower Lea Valley was sealed off, and every time I go back something else has disappeared. Two weeks ago [photo] everything to the left of Marshgate Lane had been razed and levelled, while piles of crumbled brickwork littered the ground close by to the right. Gone, gone, gone, gone. And, if I view the BBC's latest aerial shots correctly, during the last fortnight every other building on "Stadium Island" has been wiped out of existence. I would go back and check for myself, but it's November and it's dark so I can't be certain (until the weekend) that the salmon factory and net curtain warehouse have been destroyed.
In four years time I'll have a semi-decent view of the Olympic Stadium, once it's (hopefully) finished, without leaving my flat. I'll see its lights twinkling in the distance and be able to watch the opening night firework display from the comfort of my own sofa. I can't wait. But, for the needs of the local community, it's more important that the stadium has a long-term use for decades into the future. Let's hope that the gooseberry tart doesn't end up a gooseberry fool.
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
St Pancras reborn
It's a busy life being Queen. In the morning you go to the Houses of Parliament in your gold coach and read out a tedious speech to cynical MPs, and in the evening you get to reopen a station. Not just any station though, this was St Pancras, surely the most magnificent rail terminus in London. Over the last few years its soaring glass roof and Victorian brickwork have all been painstakingly restored ready for the arrival of Eurostar services next week, and last night the Queen officiated at the officialreopening ceremony. Two Gothic masterpieces in one day.
Once only the great and good were allowed to attend opening ceremonies, but things have changed. This time we were all invited, and we didn't even have to leave the house and sit on a draughty platform. All we had to do was log on to a streaming webcast, kindly provided by development partners London & Continental Railways, and we could watch all the festivities for ourselves. If only the Queen had thought to do the same she could have saved all that dressing up, and watching rather a lot of promotional videos too.
In an inspired piece of stagemanship St Pancras's Master of Ceremonies for the evening was William Henry Barlow, the engineer who constructed the great vaulting train shed. Not the real WHB, obviously, because he died a century ago, but Victorian lookalike actor Timothy West. In his top hat and trademark whiskers he delivered a well-disguised history lesson recounting the trials and triumphs of the station's construction. His audio-visual presentation went on a bit, but it had been good to give the original builders due respect for their architectural innovation. Eventually somebody out of sight flicked a big switch and all the lights came on. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra fiddled and scraped, and the assembled dignitaries applauded politely.
Further schmaltzy muzak heralded the arrival of a trio of Eurostar & Javelin trains. A billowing cloud of dry ice obscured most of their entrance, but the three nosecones eventually poked through the mist to give a really good view of the name of a train manufacturer's website plastered across the front. There followed several further films on the big video wall erected for the occasion. Some concentrated on the legacy that the High Speed 1 link will bring to East London and to Kent, while others were shameless promotional epics which you could easily imagine being screened during a Channel 4 commercial break. "Mr Barlow" linked each together by following a well-plotted script, although occasionally this sounded more appropriate to a very posh shopping centre than an international station. Rail and retail - such a dual-purposed fate will be the future of split personality St Pancras.
At last Her Majesty strode up to the lectern to deliver her speech. She sounded almost convincing as she spoke of "bringing people together" and looking forward to the 2012 Olympics. But there were just a few too many marketing buzzphrases slipped into her words. I bet that London & Continental Railways' chief PR guru had a minor orgasm when he heard the sovereign describe St Pancras as "not just as a station but as a destination". This particular word has been at the heart of St Pancras's mission statement for several years, and here was the Queen giving it her unbiased endorsement. Ah yes, this was less an opening ceremony and more a celebratory rebranding.
Who more perfect to sing the praises of the new station than cosy opera diva Katherine Jenkins? She warbled her way through a short medley of Beatles songs (mainly Ticket To Ride, of course), accompanied by popstrel Lemar for added R&B cool. A series of multi-coloured lights duly blazed across the roof of the Barlow Shed, and the great clock on the wall ticked round to "just over an hour since the ceremony began". Time for beardy William to bid us farewell, and for the VIPs to head downstairs for "supper in the undercroft". I'm sure that Gordon and Boris and Ken and Liz enjoyed their grand evening out, witnessing the glorious rebirth of a great Victorian architectural treasure. I sort of enjoyed watching it, even without the canapes afterwards, but it wasn't quite the same as actually being there. The public are invited back inside St Pancras next Wednesday for the first day's services and some special celebratory arty stuff (and, the owners hope, lots of shopping and drinking too). I'm looking forward to going back. Meet you there?
Lucky old Greenwich. By being at the heart of global astronomy back in the mid 19th century, a committee of scientists selected it to be the most important place on earth (longitudinally speaking). All eastward and westward measurements around the planet start from here, along a line through the middle of a telescope set up in the famous Observatory in 1851. This is otherwise a very ordinary line, its location completely arbitrary and artificial. But, if you know where to look, the meridian has been marked across the face of London in several different locations. There are plaques and monuments, and sundials and statues, and even hedgerows and footpaths that precisely follow the dividing line between the western and eastern hemispheres. I've told you all about them before. Three years ago I took you on a week-long journey up the zero degree line of latitude from Greenwich to the M25, stopping off at all the places where the PrimeMeridian has been marked in some way. But I didn't have a Flickr account at the time, so I couldn't show you as many photographs as I'd have liked. Today I'm making up for that earlier omission by presenting 50 assorted photographs for your perusal and pleasure. They're all of deliberate "Meridian markers", and not of random places and objects that just happen to lie on the 0° line.
So please enjoy today's special pictorial tribute feature - Marking The Meridian.
See also: • Marking the meridian - my blog from three years ago, with oodles of meaty detail • Greenwich Meridian Trail - take a walk along the meridian through Greenwich and Greenwich Park (with a nice map to print out) • On The Line - An Oxfam website comparing and contrasting the eight countries found along the meridian • The Greenwich Meridian laser(sorry, that's the one photo I didn't get)
Thursday, November 01, 2007
Londyńskie Wiadomości Operatywny wydanie 1 - Listopadowe 2007
Tam są tysiące Polskiego lud w Londynie. Teraz będę pisać dla mojej Polskiej publiczności. Mam nadzieję co wy cieszycie się wiadomościami.
CHODZENIE PODZIEMNY Tunele metra nie są dostępne dla każdego. Obowiązują ostre restrykcje. Żeby się tam dostać, trzeba tam pracować. Na szczęście jest tam Łukasz Wiśniewski z Krakowa. Dzięki niemu dowiemy się, jak wygląda praca w tunelach, dlaczego bilety za przejazd są takie drogie i co było powodem niedawnego wypadku na Central Line. Łukasz mieszka niedaleko stacji Ruislip Gardens, w piątej strefie. Przeczytany artykuł tutaj.
HOROSKOP Skorpion (23.X - 21.XI) W nadchodzącym tygodniu klopoty ze zdrowiem mogą pokrzyżować Twoje plany. Jeśli tylko gorzej się poczujesz, wybierz się do lekarza. Nie licz na to, że te objawy same miną. Praca pochlaniać będzie sporo Twolej energii. Nowy, ważny projekt wymaga Twojego nadzoru. Wolny czas po pracy przeznacz na odpoczynek.
Mieszkanie Wynajmę SOUTH EALING. Studio flat z osobnym wejściem w pobliżu Piccadilly Line, autobus E3 65 H91. Cena £170/tydz. z rachunkami + 2 tyg. depozytu. Tel 07960186777 NEASDEN. Flat £1400/miesiąc, na 1 piętrze, 4-5 sypialni, salon, kuchnia. 2 lazienki, ume-blowane, doestępne od 5.11. Tel 07869280348 Patrycia PERIVALE: Dwuosobowy pokój do wynajęcia. Tel. 07828257232 Romek
PO CZYM POZNAĆ POLAKA? Ogolony na łyso, odziany w dres prymityw, albo krótko ostrzyżony osobnik z wąsami, które maskują braki w uzębieniu. Polka – na głowie pasemka, krótki top z dekoltem po kolana, złota torebka, złote buty, złoty pasek. Tak Polki i Polaków widzą inni... Polacy. Kpimy z „drespoli” i „disco-Polek” irytując się, że kompromitują nas w oczach Brytyjczyków, że utrwalają w oczach Wyspiarzy nasz negatywny obraz, ale zaraz, zaraz... skąd mamy pewność, że w tym różnorodnym, wielobarwnym tłumie nasz rodak czy rodaczka jest w stanie zwrócić na siebie uwagę czymkolwiek? Przeczytany artykuł tutaj.
Wlazł Kotek Na Płotek I Mruga Wlazł kotek na płotek i mruga, i mruga, ładna to piosenka niedługa, niedługa.
Nie długa, nie krótka, lecz w sam raz, lecz w sam raz. Zaspiewaj koteczku jeszcze raz, jeszcze raz. Śpiewają po tutaj.
PLANOWE PRACE REMONTOWE METRA 03-04.11 Linia Circle: W weekend nieczynna Linia District: W weekend nieczynna pomiędzy Mansion House i Whitechapel Linia Jubilee: W weekend nieczynna pomiędzy Wembley Park i Stanmore Linia Northern: W weekend nieczynna pomiędzy East Finchley i High Barnet oraz pomiędzy East Finchley i Mill Hill East Linia Piccadilly: Brak remontów Linia Victoria: W weekend nieczynna pomiędzy Walthamstow Central i Brixton Skończony informacja tutaj.
London Journeys: the Willett Way
Part 1: Petts Wood → Petts Wood
If you enjoyed your extra hour in bed this morning, then the man you need to thank is a builder from Chislehurst. His name was William Willett and he's the visionary genius who, exactly a century ago, first proposed the idea of Daylight Saving Time. William noticed that late-sleeping Britons were wasting valuable daylight every morning and, in 1907, started a national campaign to put the clocks forward. And he came up with his idea whilst riding through Petts Wood. Let's go for a commemorative walk (in pictures)...
The people of Petts Wood in southeast London are understandably proud of William Willett. Look, here he is commemorated on the town sign in Queensway, just outside Woolworths [photo]. The sun and moon in the lower right quarter represent Daylight Saving (and then there's a horse representing Kent, an old coat of arms and an Elizabethan galleon built from local timber). And it's beneath this sign that a very special walking trail begins - the Willett Way. This three mile walk [pdf] has been put together by a local historian as part of a special centenary exhibition at the Royal Greenwich Observatory [link]. It's not a terribly exciting walk, just a trudge down suburban avenues and through a bit of woodland, but there's a certain charm in following in the footsteps of the man who invented BST. And this weekend would be perfect, because you've got an extra hour to do it.
Cross the railway by Petts Wood station and you'll find a matching sign, and a pub. The pub has been named in honour of William Willett (as have a lot of things round here - you'll get the hang of it as we proceed) and it's called the Daylight Inn[photo]. They do beer and food (and a trivia quiz on Tuesdays) just like any normal pub, but they also specialise in badly-repainted pub signs. The sign may look quite impressive, featuring a big smiling sun flanked by two clocks, but only until you peer a little closer [photo]. In the original pub sign one of the hour hands pointed to twelve and the other to one, representing the one hour time difference that's at the heart of Daylight Saving. But the brainless cretins who recently repainted the sign have set both clocks to noon, representing bugger all. Which is a shame. Don't stop to drown your sorrows, there's a long walk still to go.
Onward past a parade of half-timbered Tudorbethan shops (more 1935 than 1539) where the bored daytime wives of Petts Wood go to fritter away their husbands' salaries on tanning salons and interior design. And onward into the leafy avenues that surround the station, into one of the finest garden suburbs in southeast London. A typical avenue, off to your right beside the church, has been named Willett Way [photo]. It's full of exactly the sort of houses that William himself would have built, had he lived 20 years longer [photo]. It's a long street of black and white executive villas with pristine lawns and well-trimmed rose bushes. It's a privileged commuter haven complete with two-car garages and diamond latticed windows. It's the top of the property ladder, or at least as top as most of us could hope to aspire. It's extremely Metroland, apart from being on the wrong side of the capital. And there is, to be honest, absolutely no reason to walk down it apart from its name. Seen enough? Contain your seething jealousy, retrace your steps and head back towards the local recreation ground.
Yes, obviously, this is the Willett Recreation Ground, what else? Within its hedges you'll find the Petts Wood Bowling Club (please take great care - the path to the pavilion is slippery) and the Petts Wood Cricket Club. Surely some mistake there - two sporting facilities that haven't been named after our favourite Edwardian celebrity. But there's a treat in store embedded in the grass by the cricket pavilion [photo]. It's a very special memorial sundial, the hours marked out by colourful Roman numerals designed by pupils at a nearby primary school. There's no central spike - you have to stand in the middle and see which way your own shadow points [photo]. And, rather delightfully, this is a British Summer Time sundial. During the summer months it tells the correct time, while from November to March it runs an hour ahead of GMT. Unlike normal sundials this one tells the correct time for more than half of the year, and for the part of the year with maximum daylight too. Our William would be justly proud.
The Willett Way continues up a side alley, underneath the railway and out into deep green woodland. This is what's left of the ancient forest of Petts Wood, the bit that hasn't disappeared beneath a carpet of suburbia. The wood was bought by public subscription in 1927 and handed over to the National Trust, and has since acted as a buffer against unfettered housing development [photo]. And it's rather delightful. Twisting tracks and muddy bridleways lead beneath a leafy canopy, with the occasional view out across sheep-infested fields. And it must have been much the same when local builder William Willett took his morning constitutional 100 years ago. He was riding his horse through Petts Wood early one morning when he noticed that all his neighbours were still asleep in bed. What a waste of daylight, he thought. What if we could shift an hour of summer daylight from the morning to the evening? Being a man of action he went home and wrote a polemic pamphlet entitled "The Waste of Daylight", and campaigned to get his timeshifting plans forced through Parliament. And what do you know, he was actually successful. Eventually.
Introducing British Summer Time took rather longer than William Willett expected. The first Daylight Saving Bill was introduced in 1908, but struggled to get through Parliament despite support from a majority of MPs. It took a world war to focus Europe's attention on the importance of saving daylight, and therefore fuel, and Germany was first to take the plunge. A coal shortage forced Britain to follow suit shortly afterwards, and on 21st May 1916 a bemused nation turned its carriage clocks and fobwatches forward by 60 pioneering minutes. In 1925 a permanent British Summertime Act was passed, and the grateful people of Petts Wood erected this memorial sundial in honour of its trailblazing inventor. It stands in a silent clearing in the middle of the wood [photo] and commemorates William as "the untiring advocate of Summer Time" [photo]. It's another very special hour-ahead sundial, running on BST rather than GMT, with the Latin phrase beneath the dial translating as "I only keep the Summer hours" [photo]. I arrived in the clearing when the sun was almost exactly overhead, so the shadowed time in my photograph indicates 1pm BST rather the more normal 12 noon GMT. Of all the sights along the Willett Way, this was the most special.
But William never lived to see his ideas come to fruition. He died in 1915, just a year too early, and was buried in the churchyard at St Nicholas's in Chislehurst [photo]. The Willett Way passes his burial site, and you can slip beneath the lych gate into the churchyard and search out his grave in the southeastern corner. It's a sorry sight, at least in comparison to some of the more upright memorials close by [photo]. William's marble cross headstone has been snapped off and now lies folornly across the top of a bare earth grave [photo]. Some of the plot's low stone borders have also toppled over, and the text on what's left of the gravestone is barely readable. You wouldn't ever imagine, looking at this mess from the pavement outside, that here was the last resting place of a man once so revered that he had his own waxwork in Madame Tussauds.
The Willett Way terminates just up the road at William's self-built home - The Cedars [photo]. It's an impressive detached pile overlooking Chislehurst Common, and Bromley Council have placed a plaque by the front door to commemorate "the initiator of British Summer Time". Thank goodness a few people still remember William Willett - the ordinary man whose early morning horse-ride ended up changing the world. Ah, if only changing all those clocks back an hour didn't take so long! Damn you William, damn you!
Everyone appreciates the long light evenings. Everyone laments their shrinkage as Autumn approaches, and nearly everyone has given utterance to a regret that the clear bright light of early morning, during Spring and Summer months, is so seldom seen or used. Nevertheless, Standard time remains so fixed, that for nearly half the year the sun shines for several hours each day, while we are asleep, and is rapidly nearing the horizon when we reach home after the work of the day is over. There then remains only a brief spell of declining daylight in which to spend the short period of leisure at our disposal. Now, if one of the hours of sunlight wasted in the morning could be added to the end of the day, many advantages would be gained by all, and especially by those who would spend in the open air, whatever time they might have at their disposal after the duties of the day have been discharged. The Waste of Daylight, William Willett (1907)
Tube Week ExtraUpdated tube map Typical. I run a whole blogweek all about the tube, including lots about the tube map and how it needs updating, and then over the weekend TfL only go and update it. It's one of the biggest updates for years, and incorporates the newly rebranded London Overground lines into Harry Beck's once-elegant design. It's all getting terribly overcrowded. Someone somewhere must have decided that the map has to contain as much information as possible, and with every update there are more symbols, more blobs, more angles and more text. Much more inclusive, but far less accessible. For the time being you can compare the old (jpg) and the new (pdf) on the TfL website. See if you can spot the difference.
Here's what I've spotted... • The London Overground: Wham, a big tangerine octopus has suddenly grabbed hold of the old tube network. The North London line may have been on the tube map for years, but now it's bright orange and unmissable. The Gospel Oak to Barking line appears for the first time, although with no indication of how infrequent the service is. The Watford to Euston line reappears (the north end's been on and off the map several times over the years) while the West London line is brand new (ending south of the river at a rather forlorn looking Clapham Junction). All four lines have been inelegantly embedded onto the map with rather too many bends and several over-long stretches. All in all, not lovely. • Four brand new stations: They're opening "soon" and they're new on the map. They're Wood Lane (on the Hammersmith & City line, "station under construction"), Heathrow Terminal 5 (on the Piccadilly line, "under construction"), Shepherd's Bush ("London Overground station under construction") and Langdon Park (DLR, "opening November 2007"). • 19 other stations that weren't there before: All of them are Overground stations, including such backwater dumps as Leytonstone High Road, Kilburn High Road and Hatch End. • 10 new step-free stations: Don't get excited, they're all on the Overground and they were all step-free before. • Three new airport connections: Maybe TfL were listening to our conversation last week. Harrow and Wealdstone now has a red airport symbol , as do new arrivals Watford Junction and Clapham Junction. • Two big orange boxes: one warning of special fares north of Hatch End, the other announcing the demise of the East London line in December. • The longest station name just got longer: Kings Cross St Pancras is now "Kings Cross St Pancras for St Pancras International". You know, just in case you couldn't work that out for yourself. • Lots of superfluous extra text relating to British Rail connections: It doesnt say Moorgate any more, it says "Moorgate no weekend service". Same thing at Old Street and Highbury & Islington. Like anybody cares. It's even wordier at Sudbury Hill on the Piccadilly line, which now reads "Sudbury Hill Sudbury Hill Harrow (no weekend service) 150m". Whatever happened to clarity? • Lots more squashed-up station names: The northern end of the Bakerloo line is a lot more tightly packed. Acton Central almost crashes into the H&C line nextdoor. Turnpike Lane's been bumped nearer to Wood Green. Which of those three neighbouring stations is Blackhorse Road? And whose idea was it to shoehorn the London Overground lines onto a map where they don't really fit?
Pray that your eyesight never gets worse, because future tube maps can only be uglier, more cramped and even less legible. Someone needs to try to convince TfL that increasing inclusivity doesn't always help Londoners get around.
Friday, October 26, 2007
And so ends diamond geezer's fifth annual tube week. I continue to be amazed by how much interactive interest the London Underground inspires, even amongst people who rarely or never use it. And I'm also surprised, every year, that I don't run out of new tube-related stuff to write about. I mean, five years on and I still haven't written a tube week post about disusedstations. Maybe next year...
Tubewatch (25)yet more tube links • If you love all this tube-related stuff, then you ought to consider joining the London Underground Railway Society. They hold monthly meetings and publish a detailed monthly newsletter(all yours for just two quid a month) • Here are a couple of wet and wonderful not-quite-tube-maps, one showing London's waterways, the other London's underground rivers and sewers(both splendid) • Admit it, you've often wondered how many 1930s Grand Union Canal narrowboats share their name with a tube station. • Everybody has to learn how to use the tube the first time they travel. Luckily there are some animated teaching materials at Transport School(where you can also learn about taking the bus, the DLR, a tram, and even a taxi) • You thought they were just litter bins and CCTV cameras, but no. According to TfL's offical Product Standards they're an essential element of a "well designed, confident and consistent visual identity". (mmm, see how "the lack of horizontal surfaces" on that bicycle rack can "discourage the build up of litter and prevent the concealment of suspect packages") • The capital's latest public transport projects are regularly updated at London Connections(where else are you going to find details of the new pedestrian subway at Kings Cross, or see photos of the over-narrow platforms at the new Shepherd's Bush station?)
Tube quiz (25)Going Overground Within the next two months the London tube map is going to change quite dramatically, twice. • In two weeks time, on November 11th, the LondonOverground is born. That's a motley collection of four suburban railway lines (currently run by Silverlink Metro) which will be relaunched and rebranded under the TfL umbrella. The four lines in question run from Richmond to Stratford, from Gospel Oak to Barking, from Willesden Junction to Clapham Junction, and from Watford Junction to Euston. They won't be part of the official Underground network, but they will all appear on the tube map marked by a double orange stripe. It's a welcome shot in the arm for these previously neglected lines, but it's going to make the tube map look a bit of a congested mess. • In two months, on December 22nd, the entire East London Line will close for major redevelopment work. When it reopens in 2010 it'll be part of the East London Railway (from Dalston to Croydon) and part of the new London Overground. Which means that six current stations are about to disappear forever from the official Underground network. They're Shadwell, Wapping, Rotherhithe, Surrey Quays, New Cross and New Cross Gate. Their days are numbered. Their days are 58.
Tube geek (25)World metro systems London's not the only world city with a "metro" rail system. But it does have the biggest (and was, arguably, the first). For the lowdown on which city has what (with lots of lovely photographs, and data, and anorakky facts) there's the wonderful Metro Bits website. Using which, I've come up with the following international Top 5 Metro lists...
» Longest: London (421km), New York (370km), Tokyo (292km), Seoul (287km), Moscow (278km) » Shortest: Haifa (1.75km), Rouen (2.2km), Newark (2.2km), Volgograd (3.3km), Gelsenkirchen (3.7km) » Oldest: Mumbai (1853), London (1863), Chicago (1892), Budapest (May 1896), Glasgow (Dec 1896) » Youngest: Palma (April 07), Valencia (Oct 06), Daejon (Mar 06), Torino (Feb 06), Valparaiso (Nov 05) » Most stations: New York (468), Seoul (298), Paris (297), London (274), Madrid (219) » Most lines: New York (27), Paris (16), Köln (15), Tokyo (13), Madrid (13)
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Tubewatch (24)Towards an accessible tube It's only been 14 years since wheelchair users were finally permitted to travel on deep level tube trains. Now TfL make every decision with the needs of disabled passengers in mind, and that includes providing step-free access at underground stations. But it's a slow process. There was no DDA legislation a century ago when most of London's tube stations were built, so steps and passageways and escalators provide insurmountable obstacles for two-wheeled traffic. But TfL are trying, slowly and expensively, to turn the entire tube map blue and blobby. Currently only 47 tube stations are rated step-free (one sixth of the total), but there are plans afoot to increase that fraction to one quarter by 2010 and one third by 2013. That'll be the easy stations converted - then it gets much more difficult.
Which is why TfL are currently holding a public consultation to decide what to do next. With limited money to go round, what should be London's step-free priority after 2013? It's a very important issue and, for those of us who might end up in wheelchairs or pushing pushchairs in the distant future, a very relevant one. There are two options on the table, each very different in its priorities, and we're being asked which we prefer.
Approach 1: Journeys Model – focusing on the highest number of step-free journeys "This approach maximises the number of step-free journeys possible with the funds available. This means adding further to the number of step-free stations in central London at the expense of a greater number of step-free stations in the suburbs. It doesn't take account of where disabled and older people live, and ignores the fact that modern buses already make central London reasonably accessible." This would mean, for example... • half of all stations accessible, and half of all tube journeys • 11 of the 21 stations inside the Circle line step-free • no new step-free stations on the Met beyond Harrow-on-the-Hill • neither of my local tube stations step-free
Approach 2: Demographic Model – focusing on where people live, work and shop "This approach concentrates on stations that are close to where people who would most benefit from step-free access live rather than concentrating on the number of step-free journeys. This means adding to the number of step-free stations in suburban London at the expense of central London stations." This would mean, for example... • two thirds of all stations accessible, but only a third of all tube journeys • only 3 of the 21 stations inside the Circle line step-free • 10 new step-free stations on the Met beyond Harrow-on-the-Hill • both of my local tube stations step-free
Read full details of the consultation here, including a 40 page pdf with some blobby maps of two potential futures. The consultation ends on 31st December 2007, so there's plenty of time to make your voice heard. What's your preference?
Tube quiz (24)NSEW Which is the most common compass direction to appear in the name of a London Underground station? Is it North (Harrow), South (Harrow), East (Acton) or West (Acton)? Here's the full list, and North is the winner! North: Acton, Clapham, Ealing, fields, Greenwich, Harrow, Lambeth, olt, Wembley, wick Park, wood, wood Hills [12] South: Clapham, Ealing, fields, gate, Harrow, Kensington, Kenton, Ruislip, wark, Wimbledon, Woodford [11] West: Acton, bourne Park, Brompton, Finchley, Ham, Hampstead, Harrow, Hounslow, Kensington, minster, Ruislip [11] East: Acton, Aldgate, cote, Dagenham, Finchley, Ham, Hounslow, Mill Hill, Putney [9]
Tube geek (24)First and last So much for those late running tube trains that TfL had hoped to be bringing us by now. The unions aren't playing ball, and until they do it'll never happen. It was only going to be half an hour later at weekends, nothing seismic, but enough to keep thousands of Londoners off crowded nightbuses. And an hour later on Saturday mornings too, just to balance things out, condemning thousands of early risers to nigh-empty nightbuses. But half an hour later than what? How many of us actually know what times the first and last trains go, because we're never on them. So I thought I'd pick three typical central London stations and use TfL's first & last timetables to find out.
BAKER STREET
First train
Last train
Bakerloo ←
0551
0037
Bakerloo ↓
0550
0027
Jubilee ↑
0545
0040
Jubilee ↓
0521
0040
Circle ←
0600
0001
Circle →
0540
2346
H & City ←
0511
0046
H & City →
0457
0034
Metropolitan ↑
0520
0043
TOTTENHAM COURT ROAD
First train
Last train
Central ←
0555
0031
Central →
0549
0031
Northern ↑
0546
0041
Northern ↓
0553
0031
HYDE PARK CORNER
First train
Last train
Piccadilly ←
0548
0036
Piccadilly →
0545
0031
So, first trains tend to start running just before six, and last trains depart the centre of town just after half past midnight. The Circle line starts latest and stops earliest, which is a bit rubbish. But at least the Hammersmith & City line does the opposite to make up for it. One day, just maybe, all these trains will run a bit later. Until then remember, don't miss the last tube, because minicabs cost a fortune and nightbuses smell of puke.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Tube geek (23)Change here Not everyone in London wants to travel on the tube all the time. There are other means of transport, and the tube map now uses little tiny symbols to show where it's possible to change from one to the other. Just for major forms of transport, that is, not for weedy things like buses or bikes. Even so, the tube map is awash with little tiny symbols, which apparently help travellers to change mode. I'm not convinced.
This little tiny symbol represents a connection with National Rail services. There are 56 of these in total. Not every interchange is labelled (especially where tube and rail lines share the same tracks), but all the Central London termini are included, as well as such far flung interchanges as Greenford, Blackhorse Road and Balham (just in case these ever take your fancy). But watch your eyesight. If the rail station is a short walk from the tube, then the symbol (and the distance) has been written so small that no bifocal could ever read it. Text that's only half a millimetre high? So much for accessibility, TfL! This little tiny symbol labels all the stations where you you can change for riverboat services. Because we all do that, don't we. We all hop off the tube and rush down to the Thames to wait for half an hour on a freezing pier for an empty boat to nowhere. Well, squint at the tube map carefully and you'll spot six places between Westminster and Greenwich where you can do precisely this. But not at Putney Bridge or Temple, apparently, even though the riverboat map says you can. So much for reversible connectivity, TfL! This little tiny symbol represents interchange with National Rail Services to airport. Not one of the three special airport stations (such as Heathrow Terminal 4) whose symbols are black not red. No, a red plane means "change here for the Algarve". And there are 12 of these. Not that there's any clue which station leads to which airport, which is a bit useless. If a tourist laden with three wheelie suitcases picks up a tube map and heads for the red plane symbol at Kentish Town, they're going to wonder where the train to Heathrow is. Sorry mate, we can only offer you Gatwick or Luton. So much for being fit for purpose, TfL!
Here, for the benefit of any frequent flyers, are the London airports that the red plane stations connect to. But I think there's at least one connecting station they've missed out. See if you agree. So much for completeness, TfL! Heathrow: Stansted: Gatwick: Luton:
Tube quiz (23)Name that station Here are the names of 26 tube stations with all the consonants removed. Can you identify them from just the vowels?
A) -A--A- B) -A--I-A- C) -A--I-- D) -A--I---O- E) -A---A-E- F) --A----IA-- G) -A--- -I-- H) --A-- -A-- I) ---A--O-- J) -E--E- K) -E---E L) --E--A- M) -I---A-E
Tubewatch (23)On your bike With all the emphasis there's been from Mayor Ken on riding your bike to work, you might expect the tube to be more bicycle-friendly. But no. Only 113 tube stations have parking for bikes, and it's of very variable quality. My local station at Bow Road is one of the 113, apparently, although I don't ever remember seeing anyone risk leaving their two-wheeled pride and joy outside. So, if you can't leave your bike at the station, can you take it with you on the train? The answer is yes and no, depending on when and where you're going. Bicycles aren't allowed in the morning and evening rush hour, they're not allowed on escalators, and they're not allowed on any "deep level" tube lines. These restrictions lead to some strange anomalies, especially at the northwest tip of the Northern line. You can take your bike almost all the way from Golders Green to Edgware, which are five stations apart, but you have to get off and ride between Hendon Central and Colindale because the train goes through a short tunnel beneath the A41. Potential safety risk, apparently, should there be a major subterranean disaster (although I'm willing to bet that cycling along the Watford Way is far more dangerous than commuting underneath it).
Here's a very brief summary of where you can take your bike on the tube and where you can't. Everywhere: Circle, District, East London, Hammersmith & City, Metropolitan Somewhere: Bakerloo, Central, Jubilee, Piccadilly, Northern Nowhere: Victoria, Waterloo & City (and DLR)
Tube geek (22)Bank/Monument I made the mistake yesterday of changing at Bank to get to Monument. In particular I made the mistake of following the signs from the Central line to the District line, down into a tortuous subterranean assault course, which took aaa-ages. Whereas I should have gone via the Northern line platforms, or maybe even exited the station and walked along King William Street instead. While puffing down yet another passageway I realised that I don't understand the layout of Bank/Monument station at all, and I really ought to. So I've had a go at researching it, and simplifying it, and I've come up with the map below. It's not a perfect representation of up and down, it's merely diagrammatic, but it's helped to crystallise the layout in my head. And I shall never walk 3-5-6-8-12-13-11 again.
[1] Bank station concourse: Up to street level (several exits); down travelator to [2]; down escalator to [3]; along passage to [4] [2] Waterloo & City line platforms: up travelator to [1]; along long passage to [5] [3] Central line platforms: up escalator to [1]; up staircase between platforms to [5]; down spiral staircase and along passage to [7] [4] Lombard Street entrance (peak hours only): up to street level; along passage to [1]; down stairs and along passage to [5]; lift down to [7] [5] Upper junction: along long passage to [2]; down stairs to [3]; along passage and up stairs to [4]; down escalator to [6] [6] West junction: up escalator to [5]; along short passage to [7]; down escalator to [8] [7] East junction: along passage and up spiral staircase to [3]; lift up to [4]; along short passage to [6]; down stairs to [9] [8] DLR platforms: up escalator to [6]; stairs up to [9]; along passage and up escalator to [12] [9] Northern line platforms: up stairs at north end of platforms to [7]; stairs down to [8]; along passage at south end of platforms and up escalator to [10] [10] District line underpass: down escalator and along passage to [9]; up stairs to [11]; up stairs to [12] [11] District line eastbound: down stairs to [10]; up stairs to [13] [12] District line westbound: down stairs to [10]; down escalator and along passage to [8]; up stairs to [13] [13] Monument ticket hall: up to street level; down stairs to [11]; down stairs to [12]
Tube quiz (22)Halfway stations Some stations are exactly halfway along the line. Catch a train one way and you can get to exactly the same number of stations as if you cross the platform and travel in the opposite direction. Can you identify each of the 12 Underground lines from its halfway station? (n.b. if halfway is halfway between two stations, I've only listed one of them)
A) Baker Street (Jubilee) B) Bank (Central) C) Canada Water (East London) D) Euston (Victoria) E) Farringdon (H&City)
F) Hammersmith (Piccadilly) G) Warwick Avenue (Bakerloo) H) South Kensington (District) I) Waterloo (W&City) J) no halfway station (Met, Circle, Northern)
Tubewatch (22)Oyster offers Is it really only four years ago that I swapped my annual season ticket for an Oyster card? No more trying to feed scrunched up cardboard rectangles into the ticket barriers, now we just beep and go. It's been quite an electronic revolution, hastened by Mayor Ken's insistence on making Oyster fares considerably cheaper than paper travel. Well, now there's a new reason to appreciate your Oyster card, because it can save you money - in some cases a lot of money - at a variety of London events and attractions. Just so long as you've got someone else to go with. A selection of offers are below (and the complete list is here). • 2 for 1 at the London Eye(Mon-Thur 3pm-8pm, until 10 Jan 2008) • 2 for 1 at the London Aquariumand London Dungeon(until 31 Mar 2008) • 2 for 1 at Madame Tussauds(until 15 Jan 2008) • 2 for 1 on selected West End shows (Chicago, Avenue Q, etc) (until 31 Mar 2008) • 20% off at the Ski & Snowboard Show(opens at Olympia tomorrow, runs until Sunday) • 2 for 1 on Fulham FC tickets(home matches against dull opposition only)
NDGoing Overground - Riding the Goblin
11:08 A panting mother with a double buggy just manages to climb aboard the train before it departs. She beams with unspoken relief. The growling diesel paws its way out from the platform... over a wiggly river, under a roaring arterial road and off into the suburban wilderness.
11:35 Crouch Hill Blimey, aren't the passengers different all of a sudden? We've entered the muesli-eating organic/yoga zone, and the clientele heads distinctly upmarket. The latest toddler on board has a rather super pushchair and is called Oscar. He's wearing a brown corduroy coat and stripy woollen hat, and is clutching a teddy bear named Bear. Mum has a sharp black bob and a buttoned scarlet overcoat, and probably lives in one of those very smart terraces backing down to the railway.
Going Overground
Olympic update
That's what I wrote on this blog back in November 2003 when the idea of an Olympic Stadium just outside Stratford was first mooted. Four years on, not only is this stadium set to become reality but we also now have the first plans of what it'll actually look like. The Olympic stadium will be a big sloping circular amphitheatre with a sports field in the middle, a bit like a giant gooseberry tart. There'll be room for eighty thousand seats around the rim, with several pebble-like pods scattered outside the perimeter for selling fast food and branded souvenirs. The stadium looks nothing like the funky muscled design that London 2012 published in their bid book back in 2004. In fact this newly launched structure isn't in any way a thriller, is it? Compared to other Olympic stadia of recent years it's really a bit dull. And, I must say, thank Zeus for that.
In the meantime, demolition on the Olympic stadium site continues. I've been back to the Greenway bridge several times since the rest of the Lower Lea Valley was sealed off, and every time I go back something else has disappeared. Two weeks ago [photo] everything to the left of Marshgate Lane had been razed and levelled, while piles of crumbled brickwork littered the ground close by to the right. Gone, gone, gone, gone. And, if I view the BBC's latest aerial shots correctly, during the last fortnight every other building on "Stadium Island" has been wiped out of existence. I would go back and check for myself, but it's November and it's dark so I can't be certain (until the weekend) that the salmon factory and net curtain warehouse have been destroyed.
It's a busy life being Queen. In the morning you go to the Houses of Parliament in your gold coach and read out a tedious speech to cynical MPs, and in the evening you get to reopen a station. Not just any station though, this was St Pancras, surely the most magnificent rail terminus in London. Over the last few years its soaring glass roof and Victorian brickwork have all been painstakingly restored ready for the arrival of Eurostar services next week, and last night the Queen officiated at the official reopening ceremony. Two Gothic masterpieces in one day.
Marking the meridian
Londyńskie
Wlazł kotek na płotek i mruga,
The people of Petts Wood in southeast London are understandably proud of William Willett. Look, here he is commemorated on the town sign in Queensway, just outside Woolworths [photo]. The sun and moon in the lower right quarter represent Daylight Saving (and then there's a horse representing Kent, an old coat of arms and an Elizabethan galleon built from local timber). And it's beneath this sign that a very special walking trail begins - the Willett Way. This three mile walk [pdf] has been put together by a local historian as part of a special centenary exhibition at the Royal Greenwich Observatory [link]. It's not a terribly exciting walk, just a trudge down suburban avenues and through a bit of woodland, but there's a certain charm in following in the footsteps of the man who invented BST. And this weekend would be perfect, because you've got an extra hour to do it.
Cross the railway by Petts Wood station and you'll find a matching sign, and a pub. The pub has been named in honour of William Willett (as have a lot of things round here - you'll get the hang of it as we proceed) and it's called the Daylight Inn [photo]. They do beer and food (and a trivia quiz on Tuesdays) just like any normal pub, but they also specialise in badly-repainted pub signs. The sign may look quite impressive, featuring a big smiling sun flanked by two clocks, but only until you peer a little closer [photo]. In the original pub sign one of the hour hands pointed to twelve and the other to one, representing the one hour time difference that's at the heart of Daylight Saving. But the brainless cretins who recently repainted the sign have set both clocks to noon, representing bugger all. Which is a shame. Don't stop to drown your sorrows, there's a long walk still to go.
Onward past a parade of half-timbered Tudorbethan shops (more 1935 than 1539) where the bored daytime wives of Petts Wood go to fritter away their husbands' salaries on tanning salons and interior design. And onward into the leafy avenues that surround the station, into one of the finest garden suburbs in southeast London. A typical avenue, off to your right beside the church, has been named Willett Way [photo]. It's full of exactly the sort of houses that William himself would have built, had he lived 20 years longer [photo]. It's a long street of black and white executive villas with pristine lawns and well-trimmed rose bushes. It's a privileged commuter haven complete with two-car garages and diamond latticed windows. It's the top of the property ladder, or at least as top as most of us could hope to aspire. It's extremely Metroland, apart from being on the wrong side of the capital. And there is, to be honest, absolutely no reason to walk down it apart from its name. Seen enough? Contain your seething jealousy, retrace your steps and head back towards the local recreation ground.
Yes, obviously, this is the Willett Recreation Ground, what else? Within its hedges you'll find the Petts Wood Bowling Club (please take great care - the path to the pavilion is slippery) and the Petts Wood Cricket Club. Surely some mistake there - two sporting facilities that haven't been named after our favourite Edwardian celebrity. But there's a treat in store embedded in the grass by the cricket pavilion [photo]. It's a very special memorial sundial, the hours marked out by colourful Roman numerals designed by pupils at a nearby primary school. There's no central spike - you have to stand in the middle and see which way your own shadow points [photo]. And, rather delightfully, this is a British Summer Time sundial. During the summer months it tells the correct time, while from November to March it runs an hour ahead of GMT. Unlike normal sundials this one tells the correct time for more than half of the year, and for the part of the year with maximum daylight too. Our William would be justly proud.
The Willett Way continues up a side alley, underneath the railway and out into deep green woodland. This is what's left of the ancient forest of Petts Wood, the bit that hasn't disappeared beneath a carpet of suburbia. The wood was bought by public subscription in 1927 and handed over to the National Trust, and has since acted as a buffer against unfettered housing development [photo]. And it's rather delightful. Twisting tracks and muddy bridleways lead beneath a leafy canopy, with the occasional view out across sheep-infested fields. And it must have been much the same when local builder William Willett took his morning constitutional 100 years ago. He was riding his horse through Petts Wood early one morning when he noticed that all his neighbours were still asleep in bed. What a waste of daylight, he thought. What if we could shift an hour of summer daylight from the morning to the evening? Being a man of action he went home and wrote a polemic pamphlet entitled "The Waste of Daylight", and campaigned to get his timeshifting plans forced through Parliament. And what do you know, he was actually successful. Eventually.
Introducing British Summer Time took rather longer than William Willett expected. The first Daylight Saving Bill was introduced in 1908, but struggled to get through Parliament despite support from a majority of MPs. It took a world war to focus Europe's attention on the importance of saving daylight, and therefore fuel, and Germany was first to take the plunge. A coal shortage forced Britain to follow suit shortly afterwards, and on 21st May 1916 a bemused nation turned its carriage clocks and fobwatches forward by 60 pioneering minutes. In 1925 a permanent British Summertime Act was passed, and the grateful people of Petts Wood erected this memorial sundial in honour of its trailblazing inventor. It stands in a silent clearing in the middle of the wood [photo] and commemorates William as "the untiring advocate of Summer Time" [photo]. It's another very special hour-ahead sundial, running on BST rather than GMT, with the Latin phrase beneath the dial translating as "I only keep the Summer hours" [photo]. I arrived in the clearing when the sun was almost exactly overhead, so the shadowed time in my photograph indicates 1pm BST rather the more normal 12 noon GMT. Of all the sights along the Willett Way, this was the most special.
But William never lived to see his ideas come to fruition. He died in 1915, just a year too early, and was buried in the churchyard at St Nicholas's in Chislehurst [photo]. The Willett Way passes his burial site, and you can slip beneath the lych gate into the churchyard and search out his grave in the southeastern corner. It's a sorry sight, at least in comparison to some of the more upright memorials close by [photo]. William's marble cross headstone has been snapped off and now lies folornly across the top of a bare earth grave [photo]. Some of the plot's low stone borders have also toppled over, and the text on what's left of the gravestone is barely readable. You wouldn't ever imagine, looking at this mess from the pavement outside, that here was the last resting place of a man once so revered that he had his own waxwork in Madame Tussauds.
The Willett Way terminates just up the road at William's self-built home - The Cedars [photo]. It's an impressive detached pile overlooking Chislehurst Common, and Bromley Council have placed a plaque by the front door to commemorate "the initiator of British Summer Time". Thank goodness a few people still remember William Willett - the ordinary man whose early morning horse-ride ended up changing the world. Ah, if only changing all those clocks back an hour didn't take so long! Damn you William, damn you!
Tube Week Extra Updated tube map
, as do new arrivals Watford Junction and Clapham Junction.
no weekend service". Same thing at Old Street and Highbury & Islington. Like anybody cares. It's even wordier at Sudbury Hill on the Piccadilly line, which now reads "Sudbury Hill
And so ends diamond geezer's fifth annual tube week. I continue to be amazed by how much interactive interest the London Underground inspires, even amongst people who rarely or never use it. And I'm also surprised, every year, that I don't run out of new tube-related stuff to write about. I mean, five years on and I still haven't written a tube week post about disused stations. Maybe next year...
Tubewatch (25) yet more tube links
This little tiny symbol labels all the stations where you you can change for riverboat services. Because we all do that, don't we. We all hop off the tube and rush down to the Thames to wait for half an hour on a freezing pier for an empty boat to nowhere. Well, squint at the tube map carefully and you'll spot six places between Westminster and Greenwich where you can do precisely this. But not at Putney Bridge or Temple, apparently, even though the riverboat map says you can. So much for reversible connectivity, TfL!
Blue: station entrances
