Major-General James Wolfe died a national hero in Quebec in 1759, having led British forces to a key victory over the French. Canada wouldn't be the country it is today without his posthumous victory. James had been born just 32 years earlier in Westerham, a town at the foot of the North Downs in the westernmost part of Kent, where his brief but illustrious story began. The house he grew up in was originally called Spiers but was later renamed Quebec House in honour of his triumph, then gifted to the National Trust by a Canadian philanthropist. And boy do they do Christmas.
NATIONAL TRUST:Quebec House Location: Westerham, Kent, TN16 1TD [map] Open normally: April to October Open for Christmas: 11am-3pm, Saturday & Sunday (until 21 Dec) Admission: £8.00
You can hear the carols from the street. They carry over the twiggy hedge and old brick wall, confirming to those approaching that they are indeed in the right place. Step into the timbered hall to see the first of the decorations and get your card scanned, if you have one, then set off round young James's old stomping ground where the great soldier once played soldiers.
Some rooms are fairly unadulterated. The drawing room on the first floor still has a fireplace, oak furniture and a basket of logs, although the fire extinguisher in the corner is plainly not original. The upstairs bedroom has a four-poster with authentic triple mattress, and a paint scheme retrospectively deduced by investigating wall samples down a microscope. Objects aren't labelled so you have to ask a volunteer what they are ("ah yes, that's James's Flemish lace shawl used to protect his clothes while powdering his wig"). But you really can't miss the Christmas intrusions because they're all over the house, even on the landings and up the banisters, and all on a particular theme.
This year it's 'A Georgian Operatic Christmas at Quebec House', so think scrolls of manuscript paper and soaring choral soundscapes. The drawing room contains an amazing stage with naval galleon adrift in a turbulent cotton wool sea. The bedroom has two bewigged ladies with shell bodices holding performing marionettes, and the Bicentenary Room contains a splendid puppet theatre. Perhaps most delightful are the crocheted eclairs (yes you read that right) scattered everywhere alongside other creamy pastries and woolly macarons. They took four months to make and I'm not quite sure what they have to do with opera, but what an original addition to Quebec House's festive dressing.
The smell emanating from the kitchen was divine, which turned out to be fresh-baked shortbread, with the finished biscuits on offer to visitors in the coach house along with a glug of sweet or spicy hot chocolate. I partook willingly. I'm told one particular volunteer takes control of the seasonal makeover each year and hasn't yet revealed to the others what next Christmas's theme is going to be. It's a lovely way of attracting visitors at the end of the year, a chance to enjoy all the usual Wolfe history at Quebec House with an intrinsic festive flourish... until next Sunday afternoon, then closed until Easter.
Westerham is miles from any station so the easiest way there by public transport is via the 246 bus.
246 - Westerham
It terminates here on Westerham Green beneath a sloping triangle of grass surrounded by teashops and cafes, also a statue of General Wolfe and another of Winston Churchill sat in a comfy chair. Just up the high street are a traditional butchers and a former coaching inn, and across the way is a characterful churchyard perched above the fledgling river Darent. This is lovely, I thought as I waited for my bus home, indeed Westerham Green might be TfL's most agreeable bus terminus.
Unless it's here.
464 - Tatsfield
This is The Old Ship in Tatsfield, terminus of the brief and quirky 464. The bus pulls up beside a village green complete with duckpond, old wooden fingerpost and flinty cottages, also a proper wooden bus shelter with a bookshelf in it and a small post office with hanging baskets out front. The bus driver even gets to nip into the pub to use the toilets, which is better than pissing in a metal shed at the arse end of Biggin Hill, and nothing's stopping passengers dropping in for a pint during the hour between buses. Maybe Tatsfield really does beat Westerham.
Or perhaps it's here.
146 - Downe
This is the village of Downe where the hourly 146 pulls up beside a medieval church amid a curl of cottages. It has a proper rustic feel, less a bus stop than a quaint turning circle around a tree with a memorial bench, like rural services used to be in the old days. The two adjacent pubs both have Tudor roots and boast Charles Darwin and Nigel Farage as former regulars, and all that's really stopping Downe from winning outright is the surfeit of parked vehicles and lack of rural view.
Or maybe there's somewhere nicer, more charming, more impressively throwbackly heritagely rurally peripheral. I'm thinking places that make you go "ooh this is surprisingly nice" as you get off at the last stop and survey your surroundings. I'm assuming they'll be somewhere in outer London or beyond rather than alongside a tourist trap in the centre. I've scoured the suburbs and come up with what I think are the next seven and wonder if you agree. Suggest a terminus and if it's in my list I'll reveal it, and if not I might add it. Can we come up with TfL's ten most appealing termination points?
• 464: Tatsfield - Duckpond, village green and Surrey pub is possibly unbeatable.
• 246: Westerham - A sward of green under Churchill's gaze, plus ubiquitous refreshments.
• 146: Downe - Historic village centre with unmodernised turnaround loop.
• R7: Chelsfield - I'm pretty sure this is fourth, outside The Five Bells in the old village.
• 404/466: Caterham on the Hill - Beside Westway Common, not amazing but all rather nice.
•
• 353: Forestdale - The top of an unusual estate alongside a gate into Selsdon Woods.
• 235: Sunbury Village - By The Three Fishes and Orchard Meadow, almost Thamesside.
• H13: Ruislip Lido - Gateway to waterside recreational nirvana.
• 375: Passingford Bridge - No terminus is more rurally middle-of-nowhere.
Honourable mention: 150 Chigwell Row, 161 Chislehurst War Memorial, 215 Lee Valley Campsite, 404 Cane Hill, 434 Ridgemount Avenue, K3 Esher
Sometimes you just want to go for a nice walk, nothing too taxing, a bit of a stroll, heritage underfoot, downhill all the way, quirky timbering, Roman echoes, fully leafleted, continuous retail opportunities, a bit niche, won't take long. So here's a brief high street trawl in Kent, nowhere near enough to make a day of it but a nice walk all the same.
Edenbridge is the westernmost town in Kent, i.e. very nearly in Surrey, located eight miles south of Biggin Hill. It's been a market town since 1279 and has a population of about ten thousand. It's named after a bridge across the river Eden, a major tributary of the Medway, which'll be the climax of our walk down the high street. And it's only 40 minutes by train from London Bridge should you want to head down, the more convenient of the two stations being Edenbridge Town.
The key thing about Edenbridge's high street is that it's perfectly straight because it overlays the London - Lewes Roman road. A bypass was finally built 20 years ago, chopping off the segment we're about to walk down, although it remains open to traffic throughout so best stick to the pavement. Station Approach delivers you to the top end where the key landmark is the Women's Institute Hall, because that's very much the sort of town Edenbridge is. It's already clear that the high street's going to be lined by some properly interesting buildings, but the Georgian presbytery and stained glass lantern are but a taster for what's coming later.
Things pick up properly below Boots where the first information board is, also Boyce's Bakery which is the epitome of proper family-run iced bun nirvana. Chain coffee gets a look-in at Costa opposite, the long white building formerly a coaching stop called the White Horse Inn with upper beams dated 1574. As for Magic Wok this started out as Mrs Tickle's teashop in 1860, then became a drapery, then the Co-op, now fried noodles. Follow the alley beside the stationery shop to find the former cattle market, now a car park, one end of which is reserved for town's weekly market every Thursday. I was expecting better, enticed by the website's offer to "soak up the season’s atmosphere", but in reality all I found was a very long fruit & veg stall, a table of artisan bread, some doggy treats and a glum man failing to sell any decorated reindeer.
My main reason for visiting on Thursday was that Eden Valley Museum was open (also Saturday, also Wednesday and Friday afternoons). It's based in Church House which is a 14th century, indeed upstairs you get to walk on original floorboards circa 1378. They describe themselves as a social museum and every room is packed with stuff, from hop-pickers' hoes to the old market bell, also cricket balls made locally for the 1999 World Cup and ten gold Iron Age coins unearthed nearby in Chiddingstone. I confess I never knew Winston Churchill won top prize for the best fat sow at the Edenbridge Fatstock Show in 1933 (one of his Blue and White crossbreeds, not the man himself). The place feels proper in a way that many glossier museums don't, also they retain an astonishing amount of local backstory in a full case of ring binders, also the volunteers are lovely, also it's all free.
The next building down is Ye Olde Crown Inn which is even older than Church House, still with a central gap where carriages would have been driven to the stables round the back. The pub juts out into the high street causing a long-term impediment to traffic, but on the positive side this means a narrower gap for its inn sign to span the street. The town square is similarly compact and perversely triangular, off which a short side street leads to the parish church of St Peter and St Paul. The font and Broach spire are 13th century, the door was locked and I'm afraid Edward Burne-Jones' stained glass window doesn't look so impressive from outside. Don't go hunting for the old tannery, once Edenbridge's largest employer, because that closed in 1974 and Waitrose has been built in its place.
You get quite blasé about shops in old buildings by the foot of the high street, even if they are just doling out tattoos or chips. Just past the final tandoori is the feature than gives the town its name, the Great Stone Bridge, although this is a Victorian replacement for the previous five-arch packhorse version. A trust set up in 1511 to maintain the bridge has since abdicated its responsibility to Kent council but still doles out its dosh to charitable causes. And at the subsequent mini-roundabout the bypass swings in from the right bringing this nice walk to a close. I hope you appreciate this photo because three black-clad teenagers on the riverbank took offence and started following me after I'd taken it, despite me having ensured they weren't in shot.
I had hoped to continue along the riverbank but that was an absolute mudbath so I thought better of it. It's a shame because the town council have published ten excellent walking routes in the locality, also multiple heritage trails around the town because where else do you think I got all the above information from? Leaflets are freely available at the museum and also at the station, indeed I've rarely been to a town as engaged with its heritage as is Edenbridge.
It's bad news for passengers on tubes and trains whose fares must increase by "inflation plus one per cent" (as agreed in the government Spending Review in July).
It's good news for passengers on buses and trams as fares are frozen (but only for four months after which presumably they'll increase).
What follows is my annual summary of TfL's fare rises, an analysis now in its 17thyear because having some historical perspective on this is important. I'll come back and update all this when the Mayor finally confesses all.
Sadiq would like to have frozen fares as he did in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2024, but the new government has forced his hand. We'll only help fund transport projects if you raise tube fares ahead of inflation, they said, so he has. Whitehall didn't specify anything about buses so he's left them unchanged, for now. tbc: The July inflation rate was 4.8% so inflation plus one is 5.8%, but we don't yet have the averaged-out fare rise for 2026.
Cost of a single central London tube journey
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
2026
Peak
£2.40
£2.40
£2.40
£2.40
£2.40
£2.40
£2.50
£2.80
£2.80
£2.90
£3.10
Off peak
£2.40
£2.40
£2.40
£2.40
£2.40
£2.40
£2.50
£2.70
£2.70
£2.80
£3.00
2026 sees another 20p on tube journeys around central London, the second largest increase of the Mayor's decade in charge. He's keen to emphasise "no single pay as you go Tube fare will increase by more than 20p", whereas I'd call this out as an above-inflation 7% increase. It's also a massive 29% increase since 2021, although also only a 29% increase since 2016 if you prefer to take a long term view. n.b. These are PAYG fares for Oyster or contactless users. No news yet on the cash fare.
Cost of a tube journey from Green Park to Heathrow
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
2026
Peak
£5.10
£5.10
£5.10
£5.10
£5.10
£5.30
£5.50
£5.60
£5.60
£5.80
£5.90
Off peak
£3.10
£3.10
£3.10
£3.10
£3.10
£3.30
£3.50
£5.60
£5.60
£5.80
£5.90
This year's rise is only 1.8% but follows a deliberate hike in September 2022 when the Mayor announced that travel from Z1 to Heathrow would always be charged at peak rates. This raised fares on the Piccadilly line by £2 to keep central government happy, raising revenue while not overly impacting on the daily life of Londoners. The tube fare from central London to Heathrow remains massively cheaper than the obscene £15.50 you'll face if you choose the convenience of Crossrail.
For travel to other stations in zone 6, not cash cow airports, the off-peak fare from zone 1 rises 20p to £4.00.
Here's where the financial pain is.
Off-peak fares outside zone 1
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
2026
1 zone
£1.50
£1.50
£1.60
£1.80
£1.80
£2.00
£2.20
2 zones
£1.50
£1.60
£1.70
£1.90
£1.90
£2.10
£2.30
3 zones
£1.50
£1.70
£1.80
£1.90
£1.90
£2.20
£2.40
4 zones
£1.50
£1.70
£1.90
£2.00
£2.00
£2.30
£2.50
5 zones
£1.50
£1.70
£1.90
£2.10
£2.10
£2.40
£2.60
As recently as 2020 all off-peak tube journeys in zones 2-6 cost just £1.50. Since then TfL's accountants have been sequentially distorting the fare scale to better reflect distance travelled, and last year finally stretched each of the five fares to a different price point. Now the Mayor's whacking another 20p on.
What's worse is that each of these five fares is rising by far more than the 5.8% baseline. An extra 20p for every journey across 1 or 2 zones equates to an 10% increase (for example Stratford to Canary Wharf or Wembley Park to Harrow), while off-peak journeys across 3, 4 or 5 zones rise by 8-9%. The shortest suburban journeys will now cost 47% more than they did six years ago and the longest 73% more, increases that are both extortionate and deliberate.
The Mayor's press team must be delighted that nobody's noticed quite how much they've screwed the suburbs.
Cost of a London bus journey
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
2026
£1.50
£1.50
£1.50
£1.50
£1.50
£1.55
£1.65
£1.75
£1.75
£1.75
£1.75
Bus fares, by contrast, see no increase at all.... for now. The Mayor is often kinder to bus passengers because they include the poorest amongst the electorate, so they'll continue to benefit from his prolonged fare freeze. The daily cap for bus journeys remains £5.25 (i.e. three single fares). We wait to see what'll happen in July when he either does or doesn't raise them properly.
National Rail fares aren't rising next year which means Travelcards will cost the same in 2026 as in 2025. That's excellent, but it's thanks to government intervention rather than Mayoral input.
Cost of an annual Z1-3 Travelcard
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
2026
£1520
£1548
£1600
£1648
£1696
£1740
£1808
£1916
£2008
£2100
£2100
As a result all daily/weekly caps for tube and rail journeys will also be frozen. For example travelling within zones 1-3 all day will still cost no more than £10.50. This may also mean, if you swan around London enough, that any fare rises on your individual journeys will be absorbed within the static cap.
No news yet on the cablecar.
Cost of a single Dangle
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
2026
£3.50
£3.50
£3.50
£3.50
£3.50
£4.00
£5.00
£6.00
£6.00
£7.00
tbc
It all starts in March with an increase in train fares, then a sneakier rise in bus fares in July which the Mayor can currently describe as a freeze. There's never been a year like it, and it isn't good but it could have been a lot worse.
It's time to kill off another London bus route, the fifth such erasure this year. Routes 347, 118, 414 and R6 have already been extinguished and at the end of this week it's time for the 283 to join them at the big terminus in the sky. Except it's all smoke and mirrors.
The actual route disappearing is the 72. TfL's cunning plan is however to retain route 283 but renumber it 72. This is because they've learned that Londoners complain more if double-digit numbers disappear, so it's better to kill off a three-digit number instead.
The 72 and 283 are both runty routes that operate between East Acton and Hammersmith, a distance of four miles. They used to run much further across Hammersmith Bridge, the 72 to Roehampton and the 283 to Barnes. But Hammersmith Bridge has been closed to traffic since 2019 so TfL have finally decided to bite the bullet and scrap one of them. Cutting the total number of vehicles will ensure a tidy saving. The issue for locals is that the 72 goes the quick way via Westfield and the 283 goes all round the houses, quite literally, so cutting the faster route helps absolutely nobody. I've been for a last ride.
London's next dead bus 283: Hammersmith to East Acton Location: west London, outer Length of journey: 4 miles, 30 minutes
We begin in the gloomy confines of Hammersmith's upper bus station, a glum glazed island encircled by double deckers. As many as four different routes follow the first leg of the route to Shepherd's Bush, so most potential passengers just hop on the first that arrives. My sole companion is a chatty lady with a lot of shopping who'll be deeply engaged in a telephone conversation for the next fifteen minutes. We exit via the concrete ramp and escape onto the gyratory, where I see Riverdance 30 is playing at the Apollo until Sunday. A glittery tunnel in the shape of a steam locomotive has been jammed into the entrance to the shopping mall for reasons not entirely apparent. The town centre remains busy with pre-festive shoppers, only a few of whom choose to board our 283 in preference to the 220 and 295 in front.
It's not hard to buy brunch at the foot of Shepherd's Bush Road, although it gets harder as the restaurants are followed by several public utilities and a school playing field. The stop at Brook Green marks the passage of the long-buried Parr's Ditch, whose path is now marked by a long recreational stripe dotted with planes and limes (the former trees, the latter bikes). Local residents are very much at risk of paying mansion tax on their £2m+ homes according to the Evening Standard, although that's the price you pay for living so close to bijou patisseries and indie cheese shops. An unhealthy man boards and chooses to sit in the seat immediately behind me while continuing his coughing fit, which immediately makes him my least favourite passenger. Gosh there's a lot of hotels along here.
Shepherd's Bush Green is a doddle to negotiate if heading north, but takes many minutes longer in the opposite direction because you have to crawl round the whole thing. I immediately take against the Hoxton Hotel for having the audacity to suggest that 'Friendsgiving starts here'. Route 72 currently continues straight ahead past Westfield and Television Centre but from next weekend will have to turn left and slum it down the Uxbridge Road where the entire economic outlook changes. The street here is lined by non-aspirational brands and hopeful independents like Sports Dimension, Vape Box and 99p Or Less, also the fruit-filled bowls of Shepherd's Bush Market. Ocean Collection isn't a bad name for a fishmonger but I wouldn't have chosen Sham Land as the name of my supermarket. That said this is now prime bus territory and a lot more passengers have piled aboard.
The 283 is now attempting to find the optimum road to turn right into the estates of White City. It can't take Loftus Road where the football stadium is because that's always been a dead end. It can't take Bloemfontein Road because southbound 283s come that way and there wouldn't be space to pass. It can't take the next six roads because they're too narrow and so we eventually find ourself negotiating into Wormholt Road, kindly flashed on our way by a patient Superloop driver. Here the houses are mere terraced semis, then genuine council houses, and because this is 283-only territory this is where many of those on board want to get off. It's farewell to the chatty shopper and the thoughtless cougher, also the slightly weird man who made a point of announcing "all the way" four times just before he sat down.
This is off-piste White City, a parade of shops adrift amid a maze of streets so contorted that the central bus stop serves route 283 in both directions. The retail offering includes takeaways and a laundrette but also a much-needed and well-disguised foodbank, The Hub @ 75. Tucked beneath a stack of modern flats is what was once a lido, then a council swimming pool but is now the Parkview Centre for Health & Wellbeing. One last turn should permit our escape, this past the ugly blue and grey hodgepodge that houses Queens Park Rangers football club. Only one of the letter 'a's is almost falling off. Anyone considering living locally should be aware that the Queens Tavern only opens on match days, so most of the time the only drinking options hereabouts are overpriced bars on the footprint of former BBC premises. One last push and we'll finally escape onto Wood Lane, twenty minutes down.
And here come the roadworks. The junction with the A40 Westway is currently a mess of cones and rubble so takes longer than usual to queue through. A set of temporary traffic lights then stalls us awhile before we can turn left into Du Cane Road, then another set stops us again barely a hundred yards later. We're now on the far side of the Central line, otherwise uncrossable for the best part of a mile, and barrelling due west for the second time. A lot of ugly things have been built here on the edge of Wormwood Scrubs, most notably an austere prison and a hospital whose multiple extensions would win no architectural prizes. TfL like to send lots of buses to hospitals and Hammersmith Hospital currently merits five. Those aiming for White City or Wood Lane stations can catch two but when the 72 disappears they'll only have the 272, a lesser service with an unhelpful 16-minute frequency. Squeeze in everybody.
Only three passengers remain aboard after HMP Wormwood Scrubs as we slip back into classier residential territory. This is the Old Oak Estate, an appealing cottagey nod to Ebenezer Howard's garden city movement, all terribly conveniently located around East Acton station. One last burst up Old Oak Common Lane will finish it, just two stops before bearing off into the commercial dead end of the Westway Estate. This is where they filmed Reggie Perrin's workplace Sunshine Desserts, but don't come looking because that's long gone and what's here now is a loop of cash and carries, food prep outlets and tool hire warehouses. The 283 terminates alongside the 72 at a bespoke pull-in stand complete with proper toilets, shared additionally with West-End bound route 7. From Saturday it'll be just the two routes, indeed they've already whipped off the 283 tile from the bus stop like it never existed.
London's actual next dead bus 72: East Acton to Hammersmith Location: west London, outer Length of journey: 4 miles, 35 minutes
What I did next was ride all the way back again but on the route that's really being killed, the existing 72. I assumed it'd be quicker because it goes direct but instead it got caught up worse in the roadworks, then took eight minutes to negotiate round Shepherd's Bush Green, then waited three minutes more for a change of driver. It was also much busier than the 283 I'd caught before, being particularly popular with hospital patients and the Hammersmith-bound, with all seats taken long before we reached Westfield. Those who haven't read the notices are going to be mighty perturbed when it hares off round the backstreets on Saturday, still labelled 72 but very much no longer the Wood Lane stalwart.
One nuance I haven't mentioned is at the southern end of the route where the existing 72 continues from the bus station to the north end of Hammersmith Bridge. The new 72 will be doing this too, so technically it's not a complete renumbering of the 283, it's a renumbering of the 283 plus one extra stop at the end. Only three of us made the pilgrimage to the terminus on my journey, everyone else bailed by the shops, but having one route that does this stumpy extra is useful for anyone thinking of walking across Hammersmith Bridge. Six years after it was closed to traffic, scrapping the 283 for a 72 that's really the 283 is seemingly the best way to go.
And a final word to whoever it is at TfL who maintains bus stop infrastructure, because the terminus at Hammersmith Bridge is a disaster zone of mis-signed stops, misplaced facilities and unhelpful information. Buses still terminate at a dolly stop on the edge of a roundabout with no indication of departure times and no shelter from the elements. Two former shelters remain 100m closer to the bridge, both now entirely useless because they're no longer served by buses, so if the closure's going to be permanent then maybe remove one and shift the other.
One of the defunct stops still has a '72' tile despite no 72 stopping there for six years, also a map of Bus changes from August 2019 that's now factually incorrect and two maps from 2020 falsely claiming that the bridge is closed to pedestrians. Meanwhile the Countdown display at bus stop S patiently displays all 72 departures despite the fact the bus stop doesn't display a 72 tile and drivers don't stop there, and if they did then passengers would be turfed off just 100m later at the end of the route. If anyone with half a brain stepped out of their cosy office and actually looked at the bus stop set-up north of Hammersmith Bridge I hope they'd be ashamed enough to do something about it, ideally soon.
What would London look like if it was the other way up?
It would look like this.
What I did
I took the Greater London boundary (red).
I rotated it through 180°, centred on Charing Cross. (click to embiggen)
Places that would no longer be in London
» Uxbridge, Ickenham, Harefield, Ruislip
» Enfield Wash, Enfield Lock, Chingford
» Collier Row, Harold Wood, Harold Hill, Hornchurch, Upminster
» Chelsfield, Green Street Green, Biggin Hill, Old Coulsdon, Chessington
Places that would now be in London
» Carpenders Park, Bushey, Oxhey, Radlett, Borehamwood, Cuffley
» Buckhurst Hill, Loughton, Grange Hill
» Purfleet, Dartford, Swanley, South Darenth
» Woodmansterne, Stoneleigh
» West Molesey, Walton-on-Thames, Sunbury, Ashford, Staines, Wraysbury
And how far would the tube stretch?
What I did
I visited a site called Trainspose.
It lets you superimpose maps of Metro systems on other cities.
I tried to keep the Circle line much the same. (you can have a lot of fun with this site)
North of the river there'd only be tube lines out to Leytonstone (Richmond), Southgate (Morden), Golders Green (Brixton) and Heathrow (Dagenham).
But south of the river the tube would stretch as far as Kempton Park, Cobham, Richmond Park, Croydon, Beckenham, Bromley, Eltham, Bexleyheath, Erith, Swanley, Lullingstone and Wrotham.
Some would say that'd be a big improvement.
Obviously if you rotate London and the tube through 180°, all the stations end up in the same place.
At London Bridge station ministers and designers mingled with the general public beside a Hornby train set, which is the largest train anyone's physically branded yet.
Lots of people on social media had thoughts about the new branding.
I've concealed my opinion amid 20 other comments I read yesterday.
• Looks like someone knocked over a pile of paint pots in B&Q.
• It looks great - an iconic British image for our publicly-owned railways.
• This looks faffy. And very garish.
• Not as bad as I feared but still looks like it was designed only with one train shape in mind.
• Controversy as I don’t hate the new proposed GBR brand and livery.
• "Designed in-house at the DfT" yeah... you can tell.
• There a lot to like here: Loving the return of double arrow and Rail Alphabet.
• Still think there needs to be some variation by speed and regionally.
• Sweet mother, GB News are operating trains now!
• The GBR livery seems to be the same shapes as TransPennine but with some fills changed in Paint.
• It's fine.
• Minimal would have been so so much better.
• Would be nice to see local trains in local colours with GBR kept for cross country services.
• Reminds me of the Olympic teams, which seems like an acceptable level of patriotism without going down the flag shagger route.
• To be fair I feared worse.
• I’m in favour of this, although it’ll look pathetic/insane on a two-car Class 150 pootling through Nunthorpe.
• The worst aspect has got to be that long diagonal white wedge. Imagine how jarring it will appear while the train is in motion.
• Awful corporate nationalist slop.
• Why isn't the double arrow symbol aligned so its horizontal bars match the x-height of the text?
• I'm afraid this livery seems more about vanity than it does about the needs of the passenger.
• Frankly I don't care what colour the trains are or what branding GBR is going to use. More importantly, do the trains run reliably?
Don't fret, this isn't the final design, it's work in progress. As Tim Dunn messaged yesterday...
Yesterday I nipped over to @transportgovuk to have a look at some #GBR branding development work. What's missing from the narrative of it being touted as a "brand reveal" is that it's more of a "look and feel": it certainly hasn't been finessed creatively yet. Reading between the lines yesterday is that these concepts will be developed by a GBR brand and marketing team; but since the org doesn't yet exist, and the people haven't yet been appointed, this is a loose starting point for them to work from.
If you have any thoughts, here's a special comments box for men over 50. comments
Everyone else, feel free to comment below.
I understand some readers weren't especially interested in yesterday's post.
Today I offer five different posts in the hope that nobody feels the need to complain again.
Is this London's most fractional speed limit?
Drivers entering Ruxley Manor are asked not to exceed 4¾mph. This seems an extraordinarily precise request.
Speed limits are normally a multiple of 5 and invariably whole numbers, so to request just under 5mph seems plain weird. Most cars can't register non-integer speeds anyway, and even on a dial the necessary nuance is impossible to distinguish.
The 4¾mph limit may be to encourage drivers to stay below 5mph. It may be a joke. It may be because the pedestrian approach to Ruxley Manor is dangerously substandard because the owners refuse to make room for pavements. It's not a metric conversion thing because 4.75mph = 7.64kmh which is even more fractional.
Whatever, I can't think of any other speed limit anywhere that's even "something and a half miles an hour", let alone this absurd "and three quarters".
DLR rolling stock debacle shortens more trains
Dozens of new DLR trains were meant to be in operation by now, their chief purpose to replace old rolling stock and increase capacity. Alas only three have made it into passenger service and they've since been withdrawn as a precautionary measure due to a braking issue in wet weather. This is becoming more of an issue because 18 of the oldest DLR units have already been sent for scrap and the remainder are almost life-expired, so TfL are trying to squeeze as much use out of them as possible.
In July all Stratford to Beckton trains were cut from the timetable, resulting in 10 minute gaps on the Beckton branch, and the frequency of trains between Stratford and Canary Wharf was reduced. These were meant to be temporary measures introduced to coincide with the start of the summer holidays, but five months later they're still in place. And now we have a new cut.
Trains between Bank and Lewisham are to be reduced in length from three carriages to two over Christmas and the New Year. TfL's official advice is to "allow extra time for your journey as trains may be busier than normal", also to consider travelling off-peak where possible. This sacrifice will help preserve the remaining time buffer on the oldest trains, but is also an admission of how close we're getting to not having enough rolling stock to run a safe timetable. Pray that any operational issues with the new turquoise trains are sorted soon, else more 'temporary' reductions in service will be needed before things get better.
Christmas at Ruxley Manor
Readers in southeast London and northwest Kent may be familiar with Ruxley Manor, the super-duper garden-centre-cum-retail-village on the Maidstone Road that's a massive draw at any time but especially at Christmas. Every autumn they clear out their usual stock and go all out on flogging festive goods across umpteen departments, and the hordes descend. Yes they sell Christmas trees but also Christmas gonks, warm white LED squirrels and Yoda-shaped infinity mirrors. Yes they have thousands of baubles but also winter-wrapped woodland creatures, microlight pinecones and faux china gingerbread houses. It's entirely superfluous and it's all being snapped up by beaming suburban folk with surplus cash to burn.
One highlight is the model railway layout bedecked with snow and miniature cottages, complete with two perspex domes where small children can creep under the table and pop up in the middle. It looks enchanting but is really a sales pitch to sell Lemax Christmas Villages, a twee nostalgic world assembled from collectable buildings including a Pop-Up Christmas Cookie Shop (£34.99), Santa Carousel (£79.99) and Ludwig's Wooden Nutcracker Factory (£99.99). Elsewhere the gold twist reindeer come with an exhortation to "consider lighting up your front drive", and if anything doesn't illuminate there's probably a more expensive version that does.
This is mainstream pickings for the outer suburbs, also catnip for those who only come to browse and admire. I can well imagine traipsing round something similar on the edge of Norwich. But the more I explored the more I sighed at the enormous amounts being frittered away on festive fripperies, and wondered what that money could provide if it were spent on something more useful. One can only admire Ruxley Manor's business sense, but if you ever need evidence that some people could afford to be taxed more without damaging their standard of living, you only need to head to the outskirts of London in December. And try not to come home with a Pre-Lit Snowy Yule Log or a Mains-Powered Bratwurst Market Kiosk.
What are boys called these days?
Sourced from the selection of names on the rack of personalised die-cast lorries at Ruxley Manor.
On Friday the Mayor made a big splash launching a new high-capacity electric ferry crossing between Rotherhithe and Canary Wharf.
It's his replacement for an over-optimistic footbridge that was never going to be built because it would have been cripplingly expensive. Now we have a new ferry and a new pier at less than 10% of the price, shuttling across the river every 10 minutes just like its diesel predecessor. This one's got space for 100 bikes, which is approximately the number that use the free Silvertown cycle bus every day so let's hope some cyclists actually turn up. I turned up.
Alas it wasn't running, the previous boat was. Apparently the electric vessel "will be progressively phased into operation, with full operation and exclusivity of the route targeted for Spring 2026." And they haven't even started route-sharing yet because, according to Tom Edwards, "the electric ferry will start carrying passengers early in 2026 after crew training." Maybe the Mayor should have launched it next year instead, because nobody'll be catching it yet.
location: Borehamwood, Herts WD6 1EB [map] open: noon-6pm Tue, Wed, Thu (or 10am-3pm Sat) until: 9 May 2026 admission: free 5-word summary: actual Walford props and memories see inside: on YouTube
They love a good local exhibition at Elstree & Borehamwood Museum, despite the challenges of a tiny room. In 2022 the volunteers focused on the unbuilt Northern line extension, complete with working model railway layout, and more recently a Tipsy Nipper formed the centrepiece of The Story of Elstree Aerodrome. At present they're offering a full-on celebration of EastEnders, partly because it's the show's 40th anniversary year but mainly because the BBC film their top soap just 200 metres away.
The big central object on this occasion is Martin's fruit and veg stall (which is no longer Martin's because [spoilers] he died in the live anniversary episode after the pub exploded). It's not the actual stall, it's a recreation knocked together by museum volunteer Tony, but these are the actual fruit and veg used on the show. It's all plastic to save money, obviously, but sufficiently convincing for television purposes. The boxed fruit selection doesn't allow you to handle Martin's plums but you can pick up his bananas and try flogging his lemons.
At the far end of the room is the Queen Victoria pub. They've had a bit of fun here and provided facemasks of Peggy, Grant, Kat, Alfie, Pat and Mick so you can pretend to pull a pint in character for selfie purposes, which I can confirm I have seen visitors doing. Again it's not the actual bar but those are genuine Luxford & Copley pumps, that is genuine E20 flock wallpaper and the bust of Queen Victoria is real too. Apparently the show's used more than one bust over the years so this may not be the precise Archie Mitchell murder weapon from 2009.
Household items used as violent weapons are however very much present in a separate glass case. Only afficionados will remember the candlestick Claudette nearly killed Gavin with and the carriage clock which Ravi used to kill his stepfather, both displayed alongside the foam version used during the actual head-thwack moment. A more significant presence is the two-pronged meat thermometer used to despatch Keanu on Christmas Day 2023, here presented on a scarlet cloth.
Sonia's trumpet has only ever been used to damage eardrums but is perhaps the most significant prop on display. Other costume icons include Dot Cotton's handbag and beige coat, a pair of Pat Butcher's earrings and the fluffy wedding dress Sharon wore on Meat Thermometer day. A few behind the scenes secrets are additionally exposed including the designer's mock-up for the pub interior following the 40th anniversary explosion and a looping video showing the cast preparing to broadcast live.
But what really caught my eye was this streetmap of Walford. And the more I stared at it it, the more I thought "You what?!"
It's a prop of some kind, possibly from one of the many cab companies that have been based in E20 over the years. I tried to date it but the adverts down the side don't match with any particular era of the show. Albert Square is in the middle, surrounded by Bridge Street, Turpin Road and Victoria Road in their approximately correct arrangement, But everything beyond that is fictional including dozens of additional streets, multiple railways and even a canal... and all I can say is I bet the cartographer never intended for it to be scrutinised up close.
• As well as Albert Square there's also Gladstone Square, Lower Square and Lindsay Square, identically-shaped and abutting the railway but disconnected which'll be why we've never heard of them. On the other side of the tracks is Cannon Square, bigger and glimpse-able across the allotments, but similarly never mentioned.
• A nearby grid of terraced streets is called the 'Emma Chant Estate', whoever she was.
• Walford General Hospital is less than 200m from Albert Square, so goodness knows why characters pay for taxis to get there and why ambulances take so long to arrive.
• The East Junction Canal passes through Walford, which is probably the most believable feature of the lot.
• There are two stations, not just Walford East but also Walford South which looks to be less than a minute away by train. Ridiculously the railway crosses the canal twice between the two stations.
• The railway branches into three different lines just south of Walford East station, two of these matching the viaducts that cross Bridge Street and Turpin Road on set.
The street names are weird too. Some sound eminently believable for an East End neighbourhood, like Lincoln Street, Cole Street, Parsons Road and Whiteside Avenue. Others sound odd like Spickle Road, Mustard Road, Filigree Street and Blanket Street. Most unnerving is that several streetnames appear twice on the map, no more than a few hundred metres apart. There are two Upper Parades, two Clay Roads, two Alabaster Streets, two Cole Streets, two Castle Parades, two Eastcoat Terraces, two Rowe Avenues and two Albert's Avenue. There are also two Arnold Crescents, both of which are straight, and two North Roads, neither of which runs north-south.
I can only assume that the map was only ever meant to be seen in the background and was knocked up fairly haphazardly by a graphic designer. If her name was Emma Chant, that wouldn't surprise me. It means we can't alas add this to the canon of official EastEnders cartography, which to the best of my knowledge consists of a)confirmation that Walford East station takes the place of Bromley-by-Bow on the tube map. b)confirmation that the E20 postcode lies to the north of E15.
My favourite quirk on the map is the compass rose which points north, straight up the map. If that's true then Bridge Street, where the pub and launderette are, must point west. However when the Albert Square set was built the real Bridge Street at BBC Elstree definitely pointed southeast. And when a new set opened for filming in 2022, now with proper buildings, it was reoriented so that Bridge Street points northeast. It means that even though BBC designers tried to make the new set look as much like the old set as possible, the sun rises and sets in a completely different direction so the shadows aren't consistent.
After my trip to the museum I crossed the High Street and walked up Clarendon Road for a couple of minutes to see if I could spot the two sets in real life. It's a dead ordinary terraced street but if you look beyond a short modern cul-de-sac, above someone's garage, you can see the rooftops of the flats on George Street on the old set. Meanwhile the new set can be seen up a short private access road very close by, signed 'BBC Elstree Studios' and with a turnstile at the far end where employees go in and out. That's the back of Dot Cotton's old house over the razor wire.
And for an even better look, head to the runty greenspace that is Clarendon Park. It has lovely gates, a carved grizzly bear and the odd bench, but also a heck of a lot of chimneypots visible over the back hedge. The nearest house belongs to Phil Mitchell, while the modern-looking wall is the back of the former B&B where the Truemans and Foxes live. Matt from Londonist visited in 2021 when the hedge was a lot lower and a lot more was visible, including the front of the Queen Vic. That's now better concealed but Albert Square is always visible, and all you have to do is pop down to Borehamwood and look up. Alternatively there's a much easier-to-see exhibition at the museum until 9th May, and every visitor gets to walk away with a free 40th anniversary beermat too.
45 Squared 43) WINCHESTER SQUARE, SE1
Borough of Southwark, 20m×20m
I've visited several very new squares for this feature but where is London's oldest? It might be here.
Winchester Palace was built on the south bank of the Thames, just west of Southwark Cathedral, so that the Bishop of Winchester had a comfy base when he came to London. An early incumbent was Henry of Blois, the brother of King Stephen, who held the bishopric for over 40 years in the 12th century. A magnificentpalace grew up around the original Great Hall, with subsequent clerics adding bedrooms, wine cellars, a brew-house, butchery, tennis court, bowling alley and pleasure gardens. A famous illustration from 1647 shows a chimneyed complex with two courtyards. The bishop also oversaw the Liberty of the Clink, an independent neighbourhood with its own brothels, theatres and infamous prison.
Alas the remains of the episcopal residence were mostly destroyed by fire in 1814 and the Blitz did it no favours either, so all that remains is the shell of the Great Hall and a rather splendid rose window. Passing tourists are often pleasantly surprised.
Winchester Square, meanwhile, hides generally unnnoticed on the other side of an intrusive postmodern office block. It looks little more than a cobbled car park, a dead end for deliveries, but this is no random backyard. Because it turns out Winchester Square exists on the not-quite square footprint of Winchester Palace's original inner courtyard, and that's why it might just be the oldest square in London.
The oldest thing here (other than the shape) might be the brick warehouse on the south side. Alternatively it might be the granite setts underfoot, which go on and on and might be the most extensive cobbly surface in London. Or more likely it's the cast-iron bollard in the corner, repurposed from a cannon and inscribed 'Wardens of S. Saviours 1827', which dates back to when this was a grimy alleyway leading down to St Mary Overy Dock. Other than that it's depressingly modern throughout... a lot of back doors, a lot of bins and the occasional discarded Lime bike.
I walked round the perimeter and it's not nice. The north side has a locked undercroft where forgotten hardware is stored, accessed via a keypad, also a pile of binbags and flattened cardboard boxes wrapped in yellow tape. The west side has smeared windows, a cluttered bin store and the fire exit from a Italian restaurant. The east side has a Basingstoke-style office block and a blue-clad apartment block called Tennis Court on the site of the bishop's tennis court. And the south side has yet more bin bags and the most authentic windows, having originally been one of London's two fruit auction houses. Its owners J.O. Sims were once fined £75,000 for excavating their basement without scheduled monument consent, an offence which came to light when a passer-by noticed material of archaeological interest being carried out to a skip.
The best known tenant here is Hawksmoor, the premium steak restaurant, who moved into the converted fruit warehouse in 2016. Patrons enter at the front on Winchester Walk and order £57 rib-eye with a £7 side of chips, or perhaps a renowned Sunday roast for under thirty quid. As feasts go it's decent but a mere echo of the grand banquets once held here in the bishop's palace, for example at the wedding of King James I of Scotland to Joan Beaufort in 1424. Meanwhile Hawksmoor's uncooked flesh gets delivered round the back in Winchester Square, which continues on its long decline from prestigious noble courtyard to somewhere all the rubbish gets chucked out after service. Ancient, but no longer distinguished.
The diamond geezer guide to England's games in next year's World Cup
Group stage
Wed 17 June:England v Croatia(Dallas, 9pm) Tue 23 June:England v Ghana(Boston, 9pm) Sat 27 June:England v Panama(New Jersey, 10pm) (we got lucky with those kick-off times, Scotland's first match starts at 2am!)
Round of 32
If England top Group L then.... Wed 1 July:England v Algeria or Argentina or Austria or Bolivia or Cape Verde or Colombia or Curaçao or DR Congo or Ecuador or France or Germany or Iraq or Ivory Coast or Jamaica or Jordan or New Caledonia or Norway or Portugal or Saudi Arabia or Senegal or Spain or Suriname or Uruguay or Uzbekistan(Atlanta, 5pm)
Otherwise... England v Colombia or DR Congo or Jamaica or New Caledonia or Portugal or Uzbekistan
...on Fri 3 July at midnight in Toronto (if England come second in Group L)
...or Sat 4 July at 2.30am in Kansas City (if England are one of the eight best placed third-placed teams)
(or England v National Shame if we've gone home by then)
Round of 16(one of the following)
Mon 6 July:England v Algeria or Argentina or Austria or Bolivia or Cape Verde or Colombia or Curaçao or Czech Republicor or DR Congo or Denmark or Ecuador or France or Germany or Iraq or Ivory Coast or Jamaica or Jordan or Mexico or New Caledonia or North Macedonia or Norway or Portugal or Republic of Ireland or Saudi Arabia or Senegal or South Africa or South Korea or Spain or Suriname or Uruguay or Uzbekistan(Mexico City, 1am) Mon 6 July:England v Algeria or Argentina or Austria or Cape Verde or Jordan or Saudi Arabia or Spain or Uruguay(Dallas, 8pm) Tue 7 July:England v Albania or Algeria or Argentina or Austria or Belgium or Bolivia or Bosnia-Herzegovina or Canada or Curaçao or Ecuador or Egypt or France or Germany or Iran or Iraq or Italy or Ivory Coast or Japan or Jordan or Netherlands or New Zealand or Northern Ireland or Norway or Poland or Qatar or Senegal or Sweden or Switzerland or Suriname or Tunisia or Ukraine or Wales(Vancouver, 9pm)
Quarter Final(one of the following)
Fri 10 July:England v any team except Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Canada, Haiti, Italy, Morocco, Northern Ireland, Qatar, Scotland, Switzerland or Wales(Los Angeles, 8pm) Sat 11 July:England v Albania or Bolivia or Brazil or Curaçao or Ecuador or France or Germany or Haiti or Iraq or Ivory Coast or Japan or Morocco or Netherlands or Norway or Poland or Scotland or Senegal or Sweden or Suriname or Tunisia or Ukraine(Miami, 10pm) Sun 12 July:England v Algeria or Argentina or Australia or Austria or Belgium or Cape Verde or Egypt or Jordan or Kosovo or Iran or New Zealand or Paraguay or Romania or Saudi Arabia or Slovakia or Spain or Turkey or United States or Uruguay(Kansas City, 2am)
Semi Final(probably a bit optimistic here)
Tue 14 July:England v any of 63 teams(Dallas, 8pm) Wed 15 July:England v any of 63 teams(Atlanta, 8pm) Sat 18 July:England v any of 63 teams(3rd place play-off in Miami)
Final(Emperor Donald Trump presiding)
Sun 19 July: England v any of 63 teams(New Jersey, 8pm)
I've been to see some art.
I needed a break from writing about trains.
White Cube (Bermondsey)
★★☆☆☆ Howardena Pindell: Off the Grid (until 18 January)
If you like spotty abstract canvases sparsely hung, Howardena's retrospective hits the mark. If not, don't expect to be here long. Howardena's largest works are made from tiny circles hole-punched from coloured paper, a ready resource she once described as "very small points of color and light". They form either a pleasing blur or a pixellated mess, depending, or occasionally what looks like badly-painted 1970s wallpaper. I admired her resourcefulness and tonal sense, if little else. White Cube (Mason's Yard)
★★☆☆☆ Beatriz Milhazes: Além do Horizonte (until 17 January)
As usual, two rooms. Upstairs a reflective floral composition incorporating a selfie-friendly gold leaf motif. Downstairs more traditional collage in psychedelic shades with textile-inspired chunks and popping eyes. It's no must-see but I've seen a lot worse here.
Serpentine Galleries
★☆☆☆☆ Peter Doig: House of Music (until 8 February)
The paintings are instantly forgettable, the only thing worth coming for is the music. A curated selection plays on salvaged sound systems and you can either mingle or take a seat at speakeasy tables. On Sundays real musicians turn up but you won't get in. I most enjoyed a curator explaining to a group of schoolboys what loudspeakers were. Quality of associated explanatory freebie: top notch.
★★★☆☆ Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley: THE DELUSION (until 18 January)
This is not normal art, this is a multi-roomed walk-through "video game" exploring contentious opinions and how best to confront them. It helps to read the instruction booklet before you approach one of the interactive exhibits, or just act on instinct and take the freebie home as an inclusivity primer. The general idea is to talk to people and express yourself as practice for real world engagement, perhaps by aiming a lampshade, rolling an imaginary ball or slamming the door on a malign influencer. Best visited when there isn't a school party hogging the Democracy Room.
Newport Street Gallery
★★★★☆ Fairey/Hirst/Invader: Triple Trouble (until 29 March)
Gallery owner Damien Hirst has collaborated with two street art pioneers in this blokey mishmash down Lambeth way. It's bold, brash and terribly self-indulgent, but not indulgently terrible. Hirst is still arranging objects in cases, Fairey likes to produce sloganed iconography and Invader just makes pixellated Space Invaders in a variety of formats. Put 'em together and you get, fairly obviously, a giant Space Invader in a tank of formaldehyde... but also Orwellian mosaics, spotty murals and raised finger icons. On my visit the mirrored case with shelves of tiny white pills, all stamped with a Space Invader, was getting all the attention. You'll either love it or hate it.
Barbican Curve
★★★★☆ Lucy Raven: Rounds (until 4 January)
You have to sit through a nannyish warning before they'll let you into this one, although admittedly the bright light was dazzling and the loud noise was abruptly cacophonous. Lucy's installation is in two parts, first an industrial-scale centrifugal spinner with a halogen blaze, quickly stepped past. The main act is a cinema with a bank of raised seating because you could be here for 40 minutes if you watch the lot. I got lucky and arrived just before the loop began again, otherwise the narrative would have been all wrong. I eventually understood that I was watching an "undamming", the sudden release of water from a dynamited Californian dam and the subsequent transformation of the landscape downstream. A brilliantly long sequence followed the front of a torrential wave as it rushed down the valley, instantly transforming quiet pools to a white torrent. I read this as a metaphor for irreversible catastrophe, whereas Lucy actually envisaged themes of global expansionism and cultural reappropriation. Mainly I enjoyed it because I like rivers, even all the way to the Pacific and back, and you may not have the patience.
