If I went to your borough yesterday, here's some news from it.
Barnet
I arrived in Cricklewood after a seriously heavy downpour and the road outside The Crown was awash, so much so that I could only get across the pedestrian crossing by stepping into a nasty cambered puddle which swiftly proved that my shoes weren't waterproof. The other side of the road, in Brent, had been fine.
Brent
I could spend most of today's post moaning about inadequate weekend transport, but I'll just do this one. I had to catch a replacement bus service from Willesden Junction because the line to Richmond was closed, but the driver of the terminating-early train didn't mention it, and I never spotted a poster for it at the station, and only when I checked Citymapper at the bus stop did I realise it existed, and it was supposed to run every 15 minutes but one bus was inexplicably cancelled and the next was 5 minutes late, and it said 'Richmond all stations' but it didn't stop at South Acton, except apparently it did (at a stop 600m from the station) but there were no announcements, and instead I ended up at the next stop which turned out to be Turnham Green, and there were no trains there either.
Camden
I've always thought Brondes Age is a brilliant name for a restaurant in Brondesbury. However the management have just used the same name for a pub they've rebranded on Camden High Street so I'm suddenly much less impressed. Also Tripadvisor reckons that Brondes Age is #14,524 of 15,760 Restaurants in London so I'd definitely give them a miss.
City of London
In 2017 they introduced temporary pavement barriers along London Bridge, for depressing security reasons, and six years later they're still there. Westminster Bridge has since introduced a better cycleway/bollards solution, but London Bridge alas remains ugly and unprofessional.
Ealing
The last remaining building in North Acton with any character, The Castle pub, is currently a hole in the ground awaiting transformation into a 32 storey block of flats. What a horrible place North Acton is becoming, a dense stack of architecturally vacuous towers, even worse than Colindale, like a poor man's Nine Elms.
Greenwich
The old Greenwich Magistrates Court by Deptford Bridge has been purchased by London Hotel Group with an eye to becoming a 293 room boutique hotel. It'll retain two existing buildings and a facade so they can claim it's "sympathetic to the Ashburnham Triangle Conservation Area", but the stuff behind is just little brick boxes. That said, the development's had planning permission since 2019 so maybe it'll never happen.
Hackney
It's not quite as inexpensive as you'll find on Brick Lane, but the Happening Bagel Bakery on Seven Sisters Road has much the same cheap and cheerful vibe, and menu. Think tuna bagels, almond croissants, large wholemeal loaves, apple slices and salt beef options. It also stays open from 5am to midnight seven days a week, so might be exactly what you need for a low cost carb boost out of hours.
Hammersmith and Fulham
They've started sticking up monthly updates along the walkways at Hammersmith Bridge, which has now been closed to traffic for 4½ years. October's says "Our engineers are checking on the condition of the bridge's 200 year-old pier foundations using a barge and additional equipment on the riverside." No chance of it reopening for its bicentenary next year, then.
Haringey
I still prefer Haringey's original starburst logo to its later incarnations, so how lovely to find an example still in situ at the entrance to the borough on Stapleton Hall Road.
Hounslow
In the time the tube-replacement bus took to drive 300m down Turnham Green Terrace the tube could have got you all the way to Earl's Court, if only it was running. The traffic always seems a lot worse round here since they added the nice cycleway along Chiswick High Road and rejigged the junctions.
Islington
The white plastic letters on the front of Finsbury Park station, above Pret, currently read rea o thern Electrics icto ia and Piccadilly lines. The first 'a' has slumped through 90 degrees, the 'N' at the start of Northern has slipped and been caught by the 'a's underneath, and the 'c' and 's' in Electrics are only hanging on because the sign's behind netting.
Kensington and Chelsea
The roundels at West Brompton station include a unique 'crossed W', as every tube nerd knows. But I hadn't previously spotted that the roundel includes the shortened name of a West Midlands football club. Other Championship teams who don't quite appear on a tube roundel include Preston North End, Queens Park Rangers and Leicester City.
Lambeth
The sparkling wine stall at the Southbank Centre Food Market (behind the Royal Festival Hall) has temporarily rebranded as The Mulled Wine Tavern, so I guess Christmas is more imminent than I thought.
Lewisham
The Job Centre on Deptford High Street, a bar which used to be a job centre, has rebranded this month as Jam Circus. On the last Sunday of every month they host a free Jazz and Jam Session from 4-7pm organised by the Unity Music Art Team, but you've just missed October's which was setting up by the window as I walked past.
Merton
High on the front of Wimbledon station, either side of the main entrance, are black and white artworks depicting two sets of spectators watching some kind of event from behind a fence. I presume it's tennis related, it usually is round here, but I'd never noticed them before and Google hasn't managed to answer my basic question 'what on earth is this?' Update: It's by Bruce Williams, it's called Concourse, it is indeed tennis-related and it's been there for 25 years, which just goes to show how observant I am.
Newham
Just off Station Road in Forest Gate I stumbled upon Dimond Close, which I guess I've never noticed before because it's one letter away from something I'd definitely have noticed. One side has undistinguished postwar council flats and the other has insufficient parking and binstores that look like outside loos. You've been saved from me writing a lengthy post about my almost-namesake because there is nothing else of interest to say.
Redbridge
The thing about the pigeons beside the Jubilee Pond on Wanstead Flats is that you can walk right up to them and they don't fly away. You'd expect that from the parallel infestation of geese but it's unusual in pigeons... perhaps a learned behaviour or perhaps because so many people pass by all the time.
Richmond
The Thames was really high under Hammersmith Bridge yesterday lunchtime, even with high tide still over an hour away. You don't normally see rowers passing underneath quite so close. Another couple of feet and it would've overtopped the banks on the Richmond side.
Southwark
It may not be Hallowe'en yet but partying hordes from Bromley and Kent were already trickling off the trains at London Bridge mid-afternoon. Some were dressed as extras from The Munsters, some pretended to be computer game characters, some had full-on face make-up and the less-inspired simply wore t-shirts splattered with a few dollops of red paint.
Tower Hamlets
Over the weekend hundreds of pro-Palestine stickers have been stuck to the street furniture along Bow Road, each with a QR code link to the website of a 'pro-justice organisation with an Islamic ethos'. The pillar box has four stickers, the pedestrian crossing has six and the shelter at Bus Stop M has a dozen. Bus stops A and B each have 20 stickers arranged in the shape of the Palestinian flag. They peel off lampposts really easily. They don't peel off glass without making a right mess.
Waltham Forest
Harrow Road has been closed this week while the council installs an enhanced speed bump outside number 243. It'll be closed outside number 193 from today while they install another, and outside number 183 next week while they install another. It's a heck of a lot of disruption just to slow down the traffic.
Wandsworth
The Original Fish And Chip Shop in Southfields has flowers and decking out front but otherwise looks like a fairly standard chippy, so I was shocked to see they charge £12 for cod and £15 for cod and chips. When I did my chip shop survey recently the average for cod and chips in E3/E15 was more like £10-£11, but I guess folk in SW19 are willing and able to pay a lot more.
Westminster
I went back to look at the clock on Shell Mex House and they hadn't put it back an hour, it still said five to four when it was really five to three. So it's also Britain's largest incorrect clockface.
