I don't know about you but when I'm out and about I often see things I wouldn't have done. Sometimes I sigh, sometimes I tut, and sometimes I just take a photo so I can write a self-righteous blogpost later. Whoever did these things might have had a perfectly good reason for doing them, but I don't know what that reason is so in the absence of background information I assume the perpetrators are idiots. Oh to have the self confidence to be right all the time.
This is the Holly Tree pub in Forest Gate, right on the corner of Wanstead Flats. It's had an external spruce-up of late which included painting smart gold lettering around the rim of the roof Fine Wines & Spirits I can understand. Czech Lager is a bit odd. But Hand Pumped Cellar Cooled Cask Ales is ridiculous. Thousands of pubs across the country store their beer in barrels, thousands store that beer in a cellar to maintain an appropriate temperature and thousands serve that beer through proper pumps. It's really nothing special to do all three. I get that the Holly Tree is trying to signal it's not a tacky pub and that they take their alcohol seriously, no doubt at a premium price. But shouting from the rooftops that you serve Hand Pumped Cellar Cooled Cask Ales is taking the piss. I would never have done that. I fail to understand why they did.
This is a humped footbridge at Republic London, a private office development built in the old East India Dock. It's perhaps best known as the home of Tower Hamlets Town Hall, but they're sensibly moving out next year to save on rent. What concerns me is the sign on the footbridge which I think may be the most risk averse sign I have ever seen. The bridge's hump is minimal, maybe a foot high, as it passes over an ornamental pool. The bridge's width is enormous, easily broad enough for a netball team to cross side by side. And yet a slip hazard sign has been added saying Please Hold The Side Rails At All Times Whilst On The Bridge, and that is absobloodylutely ridiculous. The gradient of the bridge is almost nothing so it'd need extreme weather conditions before this became a death trap. Insisting that you stick to the edges at all times means a huge space in the centre has effectively been made redundant. Even if were icy you'd have to be perversely neurotic to hold onto the rails rather than simply walking a bit further up the waterside and crossing on a flat bridge instead. I should also mention the sheer impracticality of holding on At All Times because that's really really hard, more something you do when climbing a rockface than crossing a pathetic bridge. Being really pernickety, their request to Hold The Side Rails (plural) is physically impossible. Clearly someone's slapped up this sign as a legal get-out clause, so that should anyone ever fall over on slightly-inclined ice the landowner can claim they were told not to. But how utterly stupid for the authorities to stick this absurd sign on a bridge which, had they been genuinely worried, they'd never have built in the first place. I would never have done that. I fail to understand why they did.
This is a 'Travel Safe' poster that's been stuck up at various DLR stations, probably all of them, for the last few months. It lists seven measures introduced To Help Keep You Safe, one of which I reckon is nothing of the sort. Increased messaging, one-way systems and hand sanitiser, fine. Social distancing and face coverings are legally required anyway. The Passenger Service Agent keeping out of your way, sure. But as for introducing cashless payment machines, a measure taken across the network last August, how on earth is that making us safer? For the vast majority of passengers who never use the machines how they operate is irrelevant. And for the minority who were using them, making them cashless doesn't make them safer, only less convenient. Feeding in a £20 note was never dangerous, just a different type of 'contactless' transaction. The DLR's reticence to handle cash is actually about the perceived safety of its backroom staff, not To Help Keep You Safe, if indeed the virus can be transmitted via notes and coins which is debatable anyway. It doesn't deserve to be on this poster. I would never have done that.
This is a fenced-off patch of grass in Victoria Park, close to the gate into Grove Road. It's inaccessible because the grass has been reseeded to allow it to regrow after it was covered over last winter. The culprits were Pines and Needles, a Christmas tree supplier who appropriated this spot to sell the people of Bow and south Hackney hundreds and hundreds of rootless spruces. They paid the council to be here so it was all totally above board, but they left behind a large muddy expanse after they'd gone. Now in June they're making good and the area will As Good As New In A Month Or Two. But then they go on to say they'll be back again this winter, which presumably will kill off all the grass again, which means the revamped corner will only last from August until November when they return. It's all just greenwash, a corner of the park that's only pristine for three months a year so a private company can shamelessly exploit it. I would never have done that, whatever the unknown reason which allowed it to happen.
It's easy to see things and decide they must be wrong. It's easy to wade in and wag a finger when it wasn't you that made the decision. It's easy to jump to conclusions when you assume you know more than the experts. I would never have done that.
