To put a London slant on it, here are 21 posts about 21s
(each about the length that my posts were when I started back in 2002)
1) Ride the 21 bus
Not many central London bus routes start and finish in the suburbs, not any more, but the 21 is one of these. It runs from Lewisham to Holloway, or at least it has since February when the Newington Green end was switched to allow TfL to kill off another bus route. If I were to ride the route I could then write 1000 words about traffic in New Cross, the relentlessness of the Old Kent Road corridor, the view from London Bridge, the endless reformation of the Old Street roundabout and the kebab shops of the Holloway Road, but it was a bit hot yesterday so I chose not to.
2) Jaunt down the A21
The A21 is the main road from Hastings to London via such Kentish delights as Tonbridge and Sevenoaks. It enters the capital near Knockholt, skirts Orpington, scores a direct hit on Bromley and crawls through Catford. And it ends in Lewisham, quite near the station, at a chasm of a road junction it's a misery to cross as a pedestrian. This tarmac scar is all traffic lights and disjoint crossings in suboptimal locations, and contributes significantly to my worldview that Lewisham's planners must really hate people. However do please admire my precision because the photo above shows a number 21 bus in the process of entering the very start of the A21, and quite frankly that is the holy grail for any blogpost about London's 21s.
3) Walk London Loop section 21 Section 21 is the northeasternmost section linking Havering-atte-Bower to Harold Wood and is about as out of the way as it gets. Would anyone outside Havering have ever heard of Pyrgo Park were it not for this long distance path? However there are long term problems with a decaying footbridge west of Noak Hill where, according to the Inner London Ramblers, "one of the poles has dropped considerably and the wooden slats have deteriorated so that it is now a balancing act to get across." The deer were good, but I confess I'm in no rush to return and rewalk this.
4) Explore N21
The N21 postcode appears alphabetically between Whetstone N20 and Wood Green N22, and therefore obviously covers Winchmore Hill. It's not the best-known part of Enfield, indeed I bet most Londoners couldn't locate Grange Park, let alone say which railway line it's on. But they're missing out on the delights of Grovelands Park, Highfields Pumping Station and the Houndsden Gutter, the last of which I've blogged about, not to mention Bush Hill Park Golf Club and the pubbish Waitrose at the top of Green Lanes.
5) Explore SE21
This is more like it, a prime slice of suburbia with Dulwich Park and Dulwich College at its heart. SE21 is where Margaret Thatcher moved after leaving Downing Street, where the capital's last tollgate charges vehicles £1.20 and where I once got the muddiest I ever got in London. I was in the postcode for about 21 seconds yesterday and my word those private school blazer badges are posh.
6) Ride the N21 nightbus
I have never felt the need to board this bus at Charing Cross after dark and ride all the way to Bexleyheath, but I imagine it's a very long way.
7) Visit National Gallery Room 21
This is the Van Dyck Room where you can see such famous paintings as Lady Elizabeth Thimbelby and her Sister, St Ambrose barring Theodosius from Milan Cathedral and the rather more famous Equestrian Portrait of Charles I. Impress your friends by knowing that all the paintings in Room 21 are by Van Dyck apart from the Portrait of Lucas Fayd'herbe which is possibly by Pieter Franchoijs.
8) Attend School 21
This free school opened close to Stratford Broadway in Olympic year, launched by a former senior advisor to Tony Blair. It's Newham's first all-through comprehensive and was founded on the premise that the national curriculum is inadequate and children should learn to talk and communicate more. It has a brand new headteacher who started this week, a companion institution on Sugarhouse Island called School 360, and if you have already enrolled then today's lunch menu is fish and chips or vegan sausage.
9) Cycle Sustrans route 21
This mighty trail runs from London to Eastbourne through a heck of a lot of Wealden countryside, and according to the blurb offers the chance to "spot swallows, deer, foxes, seasonal wildflowers and much more." I would hope so. A lot of route 21 follows the Cuckoo Trail, which I recently walked, but it doesn't enter the capital until the edge of New Addington. From Beckenham it follows the River Pool and then the Ravensbourne, making it the third 21 to pierce the heart of Lewisham, before finally depositing cyclists beside the Thames in Deptford.
10) Listen to a 21 gun salute
When certain royal events and anniversaries come round, 21 gun salutes are fired outside the Tower of London or in Hyde Park or Green Park (and also on the occasion of the state opening of parliament). But longstanding royal protocol dictates additional firings, specifically 20 extra shots for being in a Royal Park or Royal Palace, and at the Tower another 21 shots 'for the City of London'. So although 21 gun salutes may occur outside the capital, inside London they are in fact usually 41 or 62. And because today is the 1st anniversary of the accession, if you head to Green Park or the Tower this lunchtime you can count and check.
11) Take Crossrail to 21 Moorfields
A lot of modern buildings have street numbers in their names and 21 Moorfields is one of these. It's also the glassy office block immediately above the new ticket hall at Moorgate station, so simultaneously quite dull but also somewhere a purple train disgorges you so quite exciting.
12) Volunteer with Thames 21 Thames 21 are an environmental charity who exist to 'help communities reclaim their rivers'. In the past they've partially rewilded the Quaggy and uncovered the Gores Brook. This afternoon they're looking for river citizen scientists in Fulham and on 1st October you can join the Big Wet Wipe Count near Hammersmith Bridge.
13) Avoid ULEZ with a 21 plate
If your car has a 21 plate then your emissions are low and you need never pay the ULEZ charge. You can have that tip free of charge.
14) Laugh at 21 Soho 21 Soho is a comedy club in, unsurprisingly, Soho. Tonight it's Drunk Women Solving Crime - Live!
15) Grab a beetroot latte fron 21 West
They serve other drinks if an 8oz blend of beetroot and warm natural spices with steamed milk doesn't float your boat, and also a range of breakfast pastries and mostly vegetarian lunches, at this minimalist cafe in West Smithfield.
16) Eat desi vegi-bites from Street 21
If you're ever in Hounslow and find yourself craving a delectable range of dishes inspired by the streets of India as well as Indo-Chinese cuisine, perhaps Punjabi Choley followed by two pieces of Gulab Jamun, then you want Street 21 at 102 High Street where Indian street food is met with a desi adventure like no other. So they say.
17) Take the DLR to Pontoon Dock
The card game Twenty One is essentially pontoon, right? For this tangential reason I took the DLR to Pontoon Dock yesterday and did the things you're supposed to do while you're here, namely walking through the ripply-hedged garden in Thames Barrier Park and staring at the Thames Barrier. I can confirm that it's 80 steps up from the street to platform level, specifically four flights of 9 steps followed by four flights of 11 steps, so no wonder the lifts are popular.
18) Try to spot the original Pontoon Dock
To see what the station's named after, look to the north. This was originally the Victoria Graving Dock, an offshoot of the main Royal Victoria Dock, essentially a dry dock where maintenance could be undertaken. Vessels would be raised out of the water on pontoons using a system of hydraulic jacks, then moved into one of four finger docks for repair, hence the name Pontoon Dock. But alas you won't see anything of the dock today other than ridged earthworks and Silo D, a former grain store, because works have finally (finally!) started on transforming 50 derelict acres into a dense cluster of architecturally-bereft flats. Yes the developers have already described it as vibrant, and if you ever move into one of the 6000 hutches enjoy the aircraft noise but hey, apparently "an iconic east London neighbourhood awakens".
19) Buy a flat at Pontoon Reach
This bland stack of apartments is several blocks east of Pontoon Dock station, the wrong side for the original Pontoon Dock, because developers don't generally prioritise geographic accuracy over "a name that sounds good". With its structural skeleton covered with a brick fascia, a multiplicity of entrance staircases and a concierge to take deliveries, it's the quintessential 21st century residential experience.
20) Drop into the High Commission of Papua New Guinea
If your visa needs updating or you have an appointment to meet commissioner Winnie Anna Kiap, the place to go is 14 Waterloo Place in St James's. Please be aware they close between 1pm and 2pm for lunch, and also on PNG public holidays, the next of which is Independence Day on 15th September. And if you're thinking "hang on, what on earth has Papua New Guinea got to do with 21?", consider how many shillings there are in a guinea and you'll see how close I've come to scraping the bottom of the barrel.
21) Comment on a 21 year old blog
I know I've been wasting my time with today's post because experience shows that whatever I write on a bloggiversary is ignored by the vast majority of commenters, however lovely their praise. Hence the additional comments box right at the top of today's post. But if you have something relevant to say about the 21-part of today's post, the comments box below is the place for that, cheers.
