9th June 2020(Robert Milligan)
Yesterday, it turns out, was Robert Milligan's final day. His statue on West India Quay had started attracting attention, initially from activists leaving placards and an online petition led by a local councillor. By lunchtime the Mayor of Tower Hamlets had asked for it to be removed, in the afternoon the Canal & River Trust and Museum of London agreed, and by 7pm workmen were in place with a JCB to take him down. A politer response than Edward Colston got in Bristol, but the same end result. His plaque was covered over as he hung at an angle by the dock edge, and then off he went into cold storage. He's been there before, between 1943 when he disappeared from the Main Gate and 1997 when Docklands was redeveloped and someone decided to put him back. We've yet to learn whether the statue will reappear inside the museum or not. But blimey, events move fast. Yesterday morning barely noticed. This morning front page news.
7th June 2020(out of date food)
I haven't yet risked opening the tins of sweetcorn or carrots, because I might need them this winter, but I did open a sachet of jelly crystals and make up a bowl of low sugar raspberry. It was very tasty. I was also inspired to reach to the back of the cupboard and finally open a jar of Raspberry & Apple Jelly I bought at St Laurence, Upton-cum-Chalvey in 2015. That's Slough to you. I'd been given a lengthy guided tour by a churchwarden, including an opportunity to see the tomb of the man who discovered Uranus, and it seemed only right to pay them back by lightening their table of preserves. I'm glad I did, I've been scraping it across toast for lunch this week and it's gorgeous.
6th June 2020(nine million visitors)
Just before nine o'clock this morning the number of visitors to this blog should reach 9.01 million. Obviously that's nowhere near as interesting as 9.
5th June 2020(McDonald's drive-through reopens)
I thought you might be interested in what the new limited menu at my local McDonald's actually includes. Only three types of burger appear, plus the chicken sandwich, McNuggets and that questionable slab of fish in a roll. Vegetarians needn't rush. No McRibs, McWraps or McSpecials have made the cut. There are no breakfast items either because the restaurant doesn't open until 11am, as I had to tell a disappointed cabbie yesterday morning.
31st May 2020(sunshine hours)
London's period of record sunshine has collapsed in the last week, from two perfect days at the start of the month to drab overcast days ever since. Don't get your hopes up of an improvement soon.
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
Sun
Mon
Tue
15
14
0
1
4
4
4
2
4
23rd May 2020(lockdown rules)
I had ten lockdown rules back then, but I've only kept one of them.
✔ avoiding all transport (85 days)
13th May 2020(lockdown box)
You may remember that I spent the first 50 days of lockdown inside a quarantine box 1 mile wide and 2½ miles deep. I have since burst that box by walking further in several directions, and its dimensions now measure 2½ miles by 4. Rest assured I've been doing a lot of walking inside that boundary - a total of 45 miles just last week, for example. But I still haven't ventured more than 2½ miles from my home since all this started.
16th December 2018(High Street Deathlist)
Our high streets were in trouble long before coronavirus came along, as I said in 2018. I also wrote that "Debenhams are desperately slimming down, which makes the new store they opened in Watford last month somewhat inexplicable." Watford's was supposed to be a flagship Debenhams, complete with gin bar and beauty clubhouse, and was also the cornerstone of the extension to the town's Intu shopping centre. But Intu have been in financial dire straits for months, so Debenhams haven't been able to negotiate down the rent and hey presto the store which closed in March will neverreopen. The site used to be home to the town's covered market, which was forced to relocate to a scrap of land behind the flyover and essentially died in the process, so it's been doubly disastrous all round. There are going to be a lot of holes in our High Streets when we eventually get back to them.
20th August 2014(Stroudley Walk Post Office)
When Bow's gloomy Post Office closed in 2014 and relocated to the back of the Nisa supermarket on Bow Road, a lot of us wondered what the old building would become. If you had 'M.A. Halal Grocery Meat & Fish Bazar' in the sweepstake, you have been proved correct. You can also have a prize for 'Stroudley Walk Grocery' because the post office's customer waiting area has been transformed into a separate unit with an almost identical offering. The chip shop nextdoor is long gone and now specialises in grilled chicken.
30th May 2005(Big Brother - the housemates)
In its early years this blog was a lot more interested in Big Brother than you were. So I'm wildly excited to discover that Channel 4 are to rescreen ten classic episodes to celebrate the show's 20th anniversary, five next week and five the week after. They'll actually be on E4 rather than C4, so don't worry you won't be forced to watch them, but I will be glued at 9pm with a big grin on my face. [trailer]
9th June 2020(Robert Milligan)
I'm disappointed in you. Yesterday I copied the inscription on Robert Milligan's statue - A Merchant of London To Whose Genius, Perseverance and Guardian Care The Surrounding Great Work Principally Owes It's Design, Accomplishment And Regulation - and not one of you queried the rogue apostrophe. Usually we're ten-a-penny with grammar pedants, but yesterday either nobody noticed or they were too busy expressing entrenched opinions with wildly misplaced certainty. Don't worry, the plaque's since been boarded over and the apostrophe is no longer visible, so that's one bit of history everyone'll be glad to see erased.
