diamond geezer

 Thursday, February 27, 2025

28 unblogged things I did in February

Sat 1: London Estates: Modernist Council Housing 1946–1981 is an absolutely gorgeous book, assuming you like full-colour photos of postwar flats from over 250 estates across London. I don't know how Thaddeus has managed to collect so many straight-on shots lit by the sun, often taken at height and with barely a person to be seen, but the end result is a perfect record of pre-'affordable' housing. Admittedly this slab of a book costs £26.95 but it is comprehensively covetable, plus I've just taken my copy back to the library so you might get lucky there.
Sun 2: If you're ever looking for a leftover copy of The Standard, the right-leaning weekly paper which appears in hoppers on Thursday afternoons and is generally whisked away by Friday, there were loads of unread copies outside Grange Hill tube station this morning.



Mon 3: Here's an astonishing sign by the ticket gates at East Croydon station. Please don't tap in with Oyster or contactless between 6:00am and 6:02am, it says, or you'll be charged a maximum fare. The reason given is that "the gates reset at this time". I wonder what's special about East Croydon and how many earlybirds get caught out. It must be particularly annoying if you're trying to catch the 0601 to Cambridge, the 0602 to Caterham or the 0603 to Bedford.
Tue 4: Scott Mills has settled into the Radio 2 Breakfast Show like a natural. He's in his second week now and it's cheery chatty stuff with deliberately upbeat tunes, easy to dip into and fit for a family audience. The Easiest Quiz On The Radio is genius. It's not for everyone but audience-wise it ticks all the right boxes.
Wed 5: My latest daily word challenge time-sink is called Squaredle. It's a bit like Boggle, hunting for hidden words in a grid. You only need to find the well-known words but it's surprisingly hard.
Thu 6: I went to Two Temple Place to see this year's exhibition which is Lives Less Ordinary, a visual celebration of working-class life. There were lots of great old photos and wry arty exhibits sourced from across the country, mostly post-war, which I thoroughly enjoyed. By contrast the audience wandering round were patently not working class, nor had ever been, so I enjoyed the contrast there even more. Until 20th April if you've not been yet.



Fri 7: Oh good, the probability of an asteroid hitting us in 2032 has increased to 2.3%. Given all the Trump stuff this may be just as well.
Sat 8: I always read the obituaries in case they include someone I know and today I turned the page and it finally happened. I knew him well, indeed he was one of my very first line managers, and yes I knew that particularly brilliant fact about his later career but I hadn't realised the full depth of the early stuff. I wish we'd spent more Friday lunchtimes down the pub.
Sun 9: It got the fewest comments of any post I've written this month, but it'll bring thousands of visitors to the blog via search engines so what do you lot know?
Mon 10: I don't know who's editorially in charge of the BBC News At One but they are relentlessly obsessed by interviewing the campaigning relatives of dead people. Every single hour long broadcast seems to include a lengthy segment where someone remembers a loved one and explains why they've started a campaign in their honour or why the law needs to change. Today's programme had three such segments (we need to bring the tech companies to account, I want one of these in every school, what happened to my sister must never happen again), and I've got to the stage now where I fast forward through. This stuff has its place and is often very worthy, but when it appears so relentlessly it's really quite cloying - I'm here to watch the News, not the One Show.



Tue 11: Stickers aimed at people with suicidal feelings have appeared at the end of several DLR platforms. They're nicely designed, especially the cat, but it's perhaps optimistic to hope that everyone in this terrible situation will be able to use a QR code. At least the actual website's named underneath (dlrcares.co.uk... a sadly splendid resource).
Wed 12: My new passport arrived today, exactly a week after I applied for it (and just five days after they received my old one). That's fast service, but that's February for you. I've signed it in black biro (and I hate the photo).
Thu 13: I paid for my last prescription today because next time it needs renewing I'll be old enough to get it for free. "Do you want the receipt?" asked the pharmacist, and handed it over with a smile when I explained why I did.
Fri 14: A nightmare situation... my hand got mucky so I dashed home, only to find my taps running dry so I couldn't wash the muck off. Thankfully they were running again in the morning but that was an uncomfortable night.
Sat 15: Today was the last day of the The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe at Honeywood Museum in Carshalton so you're too late to see the diorama in the billiard room, but what a great idea by the Hello Club to use weekly craft sessions for the over 50s to create a communal artwork everyone can feel part of.



Sun 16: The tide was really low in the Thames this morning, so from Fulham railway bridge you could see a huge stripe of riverbed on the Battersea side, plus a brave couple going for a promenade along a central sandy ridge.
Mon 17: It's London Theatre Week, which of course lasts 14 days, so I've myself booked a £20 seat at an iconic show. More of that next month.
Tue 18: You'll remember I told you 'Kennington' was missing from all the tube maps in Elizabeth line trains. Well it's back because all the maps have been reprinted and replaced, and I just wanted to tell TfL yes I had noticed.
Wed 19: It's amazing how ineffectual the emergency services are in TV soaps. After the Queen Vic exploded they took ages to arrive, failed to break through a thin door into a pub and then left a casualty with crushed legs to chat with his fiancée rather than treating his critical injuries. Disbelief has rarely been so suspended.
Thu 20: I received a message on Flickr from an Algerian astonished to see his father's poetry on a plaque by the Millennium Dome. "This man is my father and I would love to see this place in real life so I am contacting you to know if you remember the spot where the poem was located. I'm visiting London next week and this would be amazing. I heard a lot about my father's writings but never had the chance to really read anything as he was mostly a journalist for Algerian newspapers and those tend to be rare today." I was able to tell him that this was one of eight granite discs depicting poetry from the countries along the Greenwich meridian, and where it was located in a hotel car park, and I hope very very much he found it.



Fri 21: I went to the library hoping to take out Gary Stevenson's bestselling new book, The Trading Game. You've likely seen his shaved head staring out from posters on many a tube platform. Alas I don't think there's a single unreserved copy left in the system. However on my way home I spotted Gary cycling past Mile End station so I'm counting that as a win.
Sat 22: My train journey home from Hartlepool was significantly delayed by an 'incident' at Stevenage which had closed the East Coast Main Line since the middle of the afternoon. Thankfully we arrived just as things were reopening, but we were still train number five in the queue and ground to a lengthy halt. I thought I'd be in line for a 50% refund but no, the delay somehow contrived to be only 56 minutes and that doesn't count. Nigh all the inconvenience, none of the reward.
Sun 23: You may remember I said that you can apply for a 60+ Oyster card two weeks before your 60th birthday. It turns out this isn't true because I tried and you can't. I rang up the helpline to enquire and was told no, it's actually 10 days before not 14 because they changed it. They also said a lot of people ask about this, so perhaps whoever's in charge of the TfL website could amend it so future 59 year-olds don't have to phone the helpline too.
Mon 24: Oh good, the probability of an asteroid hitting us in 2032 has decreased to 0.004%. Apparently its chance of hitting the Moon is still 1.7% though, so watch for fireworks.



Tue 25: I've long been obsessed by May's Confectionery in Greenford, a throwback sweet shop that's been mothballed for over a decade with jars of bonbons on dusty shelves and faded Cadbury Snack and Freddo Caramel boxes in the window. When I went back in November I noted it had finally been converted to a fresh retail unit and that's now been filled by A.K. Food and Wine, a gleaming minimart specialising in smokables and drinkables. The entire postwar history of the high street could be probably summarised by the before and after, but Mr May would be absolutely appalled that the new lot have written CONFECTIONARY above the window.
Wed 26: To update my post on TfL scrapping timetable posters on the outer reaches of the Metropolitan line, I can confirm that stations now have proper up-to-date timetable posters again. They're all dated 13.1.25 at the bottom, the date of the latest timetable change, although they definitely weren't in place three weeks ago.
Thu 27: tbc
Fri 28: tbc

Finally, let's see how my annual counts are going...
Number of London boroughs visited: all 33 (at least four times each)
Number of London bus routes ridden: 216 (39%)
Number of Z1-3 stations used: all (plus I've now added all the tram stops)
Number of Z4-6 stations used: 0

 Wednesday, February 26, 2025

The major roadworks at the Bow Roundabout are reaching their peak. It's resurfacing week which means the roundabout has been descended upon by a huge hi-vis army of drivers, operatives, technicians, contractors, stewards and supervisors keen to get the job done as quickly as practical. Thankfully they're only descending overnight (from 9pm to 5am) else the disruption would be far worse, but it's still a major imposition and can't be much fun to live next to either.

Four nights have been pencilled in, two of which have already happened and two of which have yet to come... one tonight and one on Friday. I only know these precise dates and timings because TfL sent all local residents a letter - I haven't seen them anywhere else. The clever part is that only half of the junction is being worked on at a time. So far all the bitumen focus has been north of the flyover and for the rest of the week it'll be to the south. This means that one set of A12 slip roads is always open while the other set is totally closed. The flyover and underpass remain open at all times, so the only drivers being inconvenienced are those attempting to make a turn.



I went down on the first night to have a look, or at least I tried because the pavement had been closed as well as the road. "It's closed," said the operative positioned outside McDonald's, "you'll have to go round." Alas he couldn't explain how to walk to Stratford because he hadn't been told what the alternative route was, this being entirely non-trivial thanks to a river, a dual carriageway and a flyover carving up the landscape. There were supposed to be signs directing pedestrians back round the other side of the church, a good five minute detour, but the workmen responsible didn't start setting them up until 11pm, a couple of hours late. They also failed to come back later and take them down, so there was still a 'Footway Closed' sign in the morning even though it patently wasn't.



When I finally got round to the far side of the roundabout the hubbub was in full flow. At least half a dozen white trucks were in play, lights blazing, some tipping steaming black gloop onto the road surface and others flattening it down. Smaller niftier trucks were scuttling around or parked up waiting, two men were walking up and down blazing the new surface with blowtorches, and all attended by a considerable workforce because when you've only got four nights you really have to knuckle down.

Into this mêlée appeared an angry woman who didn't want to have to walk to the far end of the flyover and back to reach her flat. The barriers had just been opened to let out a huge lorry so she crossed the traffic and walked right in front of its headlamps, then dodged purposefully into the quarantine zone and strode brazenly across the worksite. Pretty much the entire workforce joined in chorus by shouting at her, and rightly so because big trucks and hot stuff aren't just a risk but a real and present danger, but she carried on regardless.



Also lucky not to get injured was a delivery rider heading down the cycle lane from Stratford. He'd followed what he thought was the right route only to suddenly find his way blocked by two blowtorchers in the middle of the carriageway. He stopped and wobbled, uncertain what to do next, then attempted to overtake only to proceed into the path of a reversing truck. A loud yell from a nearby operative prevented anything unpleasant, but I was a bit shocked at how poorly the route for cyclists had been signposted. It wasn't great for pedestrians either, not least because one of the sets of temporary crossing lights was inoperative so I could only second guess when it was safe to cross the stream of undiverted traffic. To be fair the layout of the Bow Roundabout is much more awkward than your average road junction, but it did feel they'd done more to support drivers than those of us on foot or in the saddle.



The roadworks were also causing considerable disruption to bus services, particularly those routes that couldn't simply sail over the flyover and avoid everything. Thankfully some yellow posters had been produced explaining everything, but they were extra-complicated because the works have been split into two halves and inevitably they included inaccuracies.

According to the poster Phase One of the roadworks is from 22:00 Monday 24 until 05:00 Wednesday 26 February, which makes it sounds like the whole of Tuesday was disrupted whereas in fact daytime services were untroubled.
According to the poster routes 25 108 276 425 D8 N25 and N205 wouldn't be stopping at 'P' by the Bow Flyover, which'll have surprised nobody because that stop's been closed since September.
According to the poster the nearest stop on route D8 southbound would be 'P' by the Bow Flyover or 'X' at Hancock Road. But 'P' is long-term closed - see above - and route D8 has never ever stopped at 'X' because that's a bus stand.
According to the poster the nearest stop on route D8 northbound would be 'H' in Poplar or 'W' at Marshgate Lane. But 'H' is over a mile away, so hardly near, and 'W' is temporarily closed which is why the 25 108 276 425 N25 and N205 aren't there stopping either.
According to the poster the Phase Two advice for routes 25 108 276 425 N25 and N205 is the same as for Phase One, except it won't be the same because 'W' will actually be open this time.
According to the poster 'buses will serve stops on diversion', in which case a lot of the advice about nearest stops is bolx, for example because Bus Stop J and Bus Stop M at Bow Church will be a lot nearer.

If you are the team that compiles these yellow posters then thanks for putting in a lot of effort to create a complex list for four overnights that hardly anyone will read, but a fair amount is either unhelpful or wrong.



While we're discussing Bus Stop P, I've kept quiet about this for three months to see if anyone would notice but nobody has. This is the westbound bus stop immediately before the roundabout and it's been closed since September because buses have been skipping it and hurtling over the flyover instead. According to an old yellow poster it was due to reopen at 18:00 on Friday 29 November 2024 but it never did, indeed the roadworks weren't scheduled to end anywhere near that early, so it's now been closed for 90 days more than they said it would be! It is astonishing how unaware TfL are of the out of date incorrect information here, especially given an operative must have visited recently to put the diversions poster up, or perhaps it's just par for the course.



When I went back to the Bow roundabout after the first set of overnight works, about a third of the roundabout had a fresh new tarmac covering. It'd didn't spread right up to the edge of the kerb and as yet no lane markings have been painted, only a single very-necessary stop line. But it looks like things might be on course to be finished in four nights flat, hopefully, if the mammoth resurfacing work continues apace. With a bit of luck the entire set of roadworks might be over by this time next week, or definitely in two, and then I can report back on what's actually been created here rather than griping about how they did it.

7pm update: Local residents have received a letter saying that carriageway resurfacing is being extended by two days. The resurfacing of the southern half of the roundabout will now take four nights instead of two. This is due to discovering "significant pre-existing damage to the carriageway of the westbound High Street", which I can confirm did look well dodgy. The existing dates were 26th and 28th February and the new dates are 1st and 2nd March. Resurfacing should now be complete by 5am on Monday 3rd March.

Previous updates: #0 #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 #16

 Tuesday, February 25, 2025

Gadabout: HARTLEPOOL

Hartlepool is a port town in County Durham, eight miles up the coast from Middlesbrough. Technically it's two towns, the extremely old one on the headland and the Victorian industrial new town across the docks, but since 1967 they've been administratively united as one. Like Sunderland it was once famous for docks and shipbuilding but has since had to reinvent itself, arguably less successfully, and in the 1980s had the highest unemployment rate in the country. But if you fancy a 4-bed detached house for £249,000, enjoy the marina life and like monkeys it could be the town for you. I was definitely intrigued, and as the first stop on my homebound train from Sunderland it seemed only right to alight and explore... [Visit Hartlepool] [23 photos]



I don't think the town gets many tourists because the Hartlepool Art Gallery and Tourist Information Centre is almost all art and barely any information. It's based inside Christ Church, once the liturgical centrepiece of West Hartlepool, now somewhat adrift in an oval piazza overlooked by the town's Wetherspoons and an Irish bar. I enjoyed what art there was, deigned not to join in with the craft activities in the chancel, and spent about half my visit giving answers to increasingly intrusive questions asked by a steward with a tablet. The two gentlemen depicted in the statues to either side are Ralph Ward Jackson (a coal-trading entrepreneur who bought the local sand dunes in 1839) and William Gray (owner of the largest Victorian shipyard), both of whom contributed significantly to the growth of the town.



Church Street was one of Ralph's and, judging by its width, would originally have been the town's commercial centrepiece. It very much isn't today, indeed as I walked down the mostly shuttered street I couldn't decide if was essentially dead or whether it was the socially essential quarter that 'came alive at night'. A gorgeous ex-pub - vacant. A cornerstone former bank - vacant. The original department store - a nightclub topped by student accommodation. The council had clearly tried to smarten up the street, and mostly succeeded, but you can't fight the forces of post-millennial commercial decline.



I hunted for a replacement shopping street elsewhere but everything was a bit subdued for a town the size of St Albans. Instead it seems everything retail's been subsumed into the slablike warren of the Middleton Grange mall, an overoptimistic redevelopment project from the 1960s that's now a very Iceland/Poundland/Primark/New Look/B&M kind of place. Outside I found the civic hub, which is an oversized war memorial opposite a 1970s brick town hall, but the only bustle was teenagers hanging out or pensioners heading home. The splendid Edwardian railway hotel has survived, the well-named Grand, and the derelict Wesleyan chapel is finally being renovated into a boutique hideaway for guests with above-average spending power. But I never really found a heart to Hartlepool, which is sadly ironic, and also hinted that all the best stuff must be elsewhere.



Hartlepool is very proud of its enormous marina and has been since 1993 when the Queen sailed in on the royal barge and opened it. It was originally the town docks and home to William Gray's mega-shipyard, surrounded by graving docks, warehouses, timber yards and a ridiculous number of railway tracks splaying out alongside lines of cranes. These days a horseshoe of offices and low flats rings the perimeter, small boats bob in the centre and a single stone column rises as a beacon to the old days. What brings modern punters is the lengthy strip of cafes, bars and restaurants on the far side, confirming that Church Street is no longer where it's at, and what perhaps keeps them away is the cost of parking. A complete circuit would be just over a mile, including a crossing of the lock gates at the entrance to the harbour.



A statue by the lock gates remembers the town's most unlikely mascot, a hanged monkey. An apocryphal tale from the Napoleonic wars tells how townsfolk found a uniformed monkey on the beach after a shipwreck and in their ignorance assumed it was a French spy, then when it refused to answer their questions hung it from a noose. This incident has provided generations of townsfolk with a derogatory nickname - monkey hanger - especially when hurled by supporters of an opposing football team. That said, Hartlepool FC's monkey mascot had the last laugh when the man inside the costume became the town's first elected mayor in 2002, and did such a good job that he was re-elected twice. The role was then abolished.



The marina is also home to Hartlepool's chief tourist attraction, The National Museum of the Royal Navy. It's not the main one in Portsmouth, it's the RN's other outpost, but it does boast Europe's oldest floating warship, a Horrible Histories exhibition and a recreated 18th century dockside. I arrived half an hour before closing time so it wasn't worth paying £12 to board HMS Trincomalee, but I was able to walk through the opposite door for free to tour the adjacent Museum of Hartlepool. It's been here since 1994 and blimey it looks it, a tired set of boards intermingled with oversized objects, malfunctioning buttons and occasional display cases. Local families were making the best of the child-friendly elements but I was back outside well before closing time, and you get what you pay for.



To end my visit I headed to the old town, now called Headland because that's where it's located. Were it not for the town's current docks it'd be a fairly short walk but they seriously get in the way so I took the bus. The headland's been settled since the 7th century, originally with a double monastery on a low hill looking out to sea lest there be Vikings. Its first abbess Hieu may be England's earliest recorded female boss, and its second abbess Hilda soon moved on to greater things at Whitby Abbey. In its place came St Hilda's church, a familiar sight on the Hartlepool skyline, which I was fortunate to visit in the right slot on the right Saturday afternoon so found it open. It's an Early English gem inside and also staffed by friendly volunteers who made sure to show me the pin-sharp 8th century namestone by the chapel and the herringbone-edged Norman arch in the porch. For centuries this used to be the main entrance, said the guide, but it's too cramped for a ramp so now everyone enters via the back of the Galilee Chapel.



Until the 19th century the entire town of Hartlepool, then more a fishing village, was tucked out here on the headland. You can still see part of the 14th century town walls along the waterside at Fish Sands, and descend a staircase through the Sandwell Gate to the beach if the tide's out. It's a particularly lovely spot an hour before sunset as golden beams illuminate the fine houses and pubs on the promenade, and was a treasured escape for many a local family, hence the remains of a bathing pool and paddling pool by the breakwater. Look out here for the jolly statue of Andy Capp, the fat-nosed layabout cartoon character created for the Daily Mirror by Hartlepool resident Reg Smythe... yes obviously depicted with a pint in hand.



At the far end of the headland is Heugh Battery, a former gun emplacement which is the site of the UK's only First World War battlefield. The date was 16 December 1914 and the Durham gunners at the battery found themselves engaging with a fleet of German battle cruisers, one of which managed to fire a shell killing a soldier on land. The site is now preserved as a small museum open four days a week, plus the inevitable Poppy Tea Rooms, with a "Pay What You Decide" policy on entry. The Heugh lighthouse lies outside the perimeter (it's still functional), as do the gardens where the WW1 memorial is topped by a garlanded representation of youth. It's an evocative spot and must be doubly so on Armistice Day, confirming that the best way to enjoy Hartlepool is to aim for its historic tip not its post-industrial heart.



» 50 photos of sunny Hartlepool and Sunderland
» 23 of Hartlepool + 27 of Sunderland

 Monday, February 24, 2025

Gadabout: SUNDERLAND

Sunderland is the second largest city in North East England, just behind Newcastle (which is a tad to the north). It's on the North Sea coast 240 miles from London, pretty much due east of Carlisle. It sits at the mouth of the river Wear and was once globally renowned for its shipbuilding. It was made a city in 1992 as part of celebrations for the Queen's Ruby Jubilee and in 2016 was the first place to declare for Brexit. It gets six direct trains a day from London but they all arrive after noon, except on Saturdays so that's when I went. It's also the most populous English settlement I'd never been to, or was until the weekend, and I'm very pleased to have put that right. [Visit Sunderland] [27 photos]



The best place to start a day out in Sunderland, unless you're off to the football, is the Museum and Winter Gardens on the edge of Mowbray Park. It's England's oldest municipally-funded museum and also one of the busiest, being centrally placed and cohabiting with the main library. The most striking feature is the glass drum of the Winter Gardens, added via a lottery grant in 2001 and duly opened by the Queen the following year. It's filled with tropical plants and towering trees, plus a fishpond and the occasional cracked dinosaur egg to give visiting children a thrill. Best of all a curving staircase allows you to climb up through the midst of the canopy, past a thrusting silver column whose surface flows with running water, to a looping treetop balcony allowing panoramic views and the odd vertiginous twinge. It's a fabulous space of the kind we hardly build any more, indeed just 15 minutes into my trip to Sunderland I was already thinking 'hell yes'.



The museum has several galleries arranged irregularly over three floors including one for shipbuilding, one for coal, one for pottery and one for motley objects. The natural history gallery includes Britain's only fossil of a gliding reptile, the earliest vertebrate known to be capable of flight, and also the stuffed walrus thought to have inspired Lewis Carroll's famous poem. The display of Pyrex glassware in the 20th century gallery includes several classic designs that made me properly nostalgic, plus an ordinary-looking fluted glass bowl labelled 'Last piece of Pyrex made in Sunderland 2007' (which was when production finally relocated to France). Upstairs I particularly enjoyed the temporary exhibition 'Coal Face' which couples Andy Martin's black and white portraits of former miners with Louise Powell's verbatim poetry to very striking effect, pondering the human impact of the Durham coalfield. Note to self: the associated series of podcasts is here.



The building also contains an art gallery displaying the some of the city's collection, most notably a wall of Lowrys to celebrate the artist's late-developing love for Sunderland which kickstarted at the age of 82 when he stopped off at a seaside hotel for lunch. By contrast the modern works on display are currently all glass-based, including a deadly but beautiful triptych of knobbly viruses by Luke Jerram. And OK the pottery gallery was closed to accommodate half term workshops, and the cafe operator's recently threw in the towel, and nobody's yet managed to raise the money to add a bronze carpenter beside the bronze walrus outside by the lake, but as municipal buildings go that's a strong start for Sunderland.



The city centre is the usual mix of 'grid of Victorian streets' and 'massive mall opened by minor royal in the 1980s', these located either side of the central station. It's by no means as rundown as some northern towns, indeed several shops sell designer labels and one offers an in-store trainer-cleaning service. But the splendid classical-fronted Marks & Spencer now lies empty, nobody's yet expressed an interest in the anchor Debenhams and a lot of the retail focus is now bargain-based and refreshment-focused. Beyond the shops lies Sunderland Minster, formerly the parish church, which sits on an ancient site but is a 19th century reconstruction. And close by is the city's great future hope, the redeveloped Riverside quarter, a massive site spearheaded by the new (and architecturally undemanding) City Hall. It's pencilled in for modern office space, 1000 homes and various cultural touchpoints including the National Esports Performance Campus, but I think I arrived a few years too early.



The lowest crossing point on the river is the century-old Wearmouth Bridge, a green-painted through-arch design with a broad steel span. The original at this location was the second major bridge to be built from cast iron - twice as long as the Iron Bridge at Coalbrookdale - but was mostly dismantled by Robert Stephenson in 1859. The railway bridge alongside is late Victorian and today provides a brief scenic interlude for Metro and Northern services. I accidentally timed my crossing for "15 minutes before a Sunderland match" so joined the red and white striped throng heading for The Stadium of Light, or at least the stragglers who were probably wishing they'd left the pub a bit earlier. And then I left them behind by following a precipitous stone staircase to the bottom of the gorge, following in the footsteps of generations of foundrymen and shipbuilders who'd have swarmed this way daily to the dockside.



Sunderland's last shipyard closed in 1988 and the lower banks are now occupied by a stripe of parkland, flats and public buildings. I imagine it's busier when the campus of the University of Sunderland is in full swing, but the disconnect in height gave the promenade a remote and eerie vibe. A sculpture trail has been added in an attempt to enliven the path and bring local history to light, which I was delighted to see had been curated by Chaz Brenchley, an author whose books I avidly stockpiled in the 80s and 90s. The first sculpture is called Shadows In Another Light and features a tree made of girders bursting forth from a plinth encircled by plaster panels. As a further nod to the city's ship-building past the two-tone paving alongside resembles the shadow of a lofty crane, and scattered all around are giant concrete nuts and bolts... riveting.



The site of the North Sands Shipyard is now home to the National Glass Centre, because Sunderland's glass-making heritage goes much further back than just Pyrex. This wedge-shaped building was opened in 1998, obviously glass-fronted but also partly glass-roofed, the idea being that visitors could walk up onto the sloping roof and peer down at some of the exhibits inside. I was expecting great things of the interior, particularly when I saw the size of the cafe, but the historical display was mediocre, the single exhibition gallery is currently devoted to ceramics rather than glass, the art gallery was a 2-minuter and I'd unfortunately missed one of the daily 30-minute glassmaking demos. Even the roof has long been barriered off for safety reasons. Alas the mounting cost of building repairs and the low number of visitors mean the National Glass Centre is now scheduled for closure next year, so if you want to see the site of Boris's celebratory Brexit Day cabinet meeting come soon.



Behind the NGC car park on Lookout Hill is a parish church surrounded by crocuses with a cafe bolted onto the back. But St Peter's is also one of the oldest churches in the country having been built as part of a monastery in 674AD, the outline of part of which has been marked out as a series of paved rectangles alongside. Its most famous monk was the Venerable Bede who was sent here at the age of seven to train for holy orders, but only for a few years before transferring to an even newer monastery in Jarrow where he spent the rest of his days. Only the west wall and porch remain from Bede's day, the tower being 10th century and the north aisle more like 13th, although that's still an amazing long-term survival. Saturday alas is not the day to see the interior, what with tours and the cafe being weekdays only, so I strode on to the seaside.



That'd be Roker, a North-Sea-facing suburb whose finest houses line the rim of a low clifftop. Up top is Roker Park which gave its name to Sunderland FC's former homeground, and which is now a bland set of millennial cul de sacs with names like Promotion Close, Turnstile Mews and Midfield Drive. Down below is a brief promenade of refreshment boltholes including a part-time chippy and the more dubious Grandpa Dickie's Shed, whose sun trap beer garden is not a draw in February. A sandy beach stretches north as far as Seaburn, Sunderland's most prestigious quarter, but I didn't get that far. I had hoped to walk out along the parabolic breakwater to Roker's iconic lighthouse but that's been closed since suffering storm damage in 2023 so I had to make do with admiring it from the upper foreshore and trying to line up the perfect photo.



Maybe it was the unseasonable fine weather or maybe I missed the insalubrious parts but I rather liked Sunderland, which just goes to show that actually visiting somewhere can sometimes undo all the bad press you've heard about it over many years.

» 27 photos of sunny Sunderland

 Sunday, February 23, 2025

A quick guide to the 60+ London Oyster Photocard

A 60+ card permits free travel
• after 9am
• before 4.30am
• any time weekends and bank holidays

on
• London Underground
• London Overground
• Elizabeth line (not beyond West Drayton)
• DLR
• buses
• trams

also
• National Rail within zones 1-6 (after 9.30am*)

but not
• Heathrow Express
• High Speed One
• Dangleway



* permitted 9.00-9.29am
  • c2c: Fenchurch Street to Upminster
  • Greater Anglia: Liverpool Street - Stratford
  • Great Northern: Moorgate - Finsbury Park
  • Thameslink: Elephant & Castle/London Bridge - West Hampstead/Finsbury Park
  • LNWR: Euston - Harrow & Wealdstone
  • Southern: Clapham Junction - Harrow & Wealdstone
  • Chiltern: Marylebone - Amersham, South Ruislip - West Ruislip


Essentially you can travel free to any station within Greater London
PLUS all tube and Overground stations outside Greater London
PLUS Elstree & Borehamwood; Brentwood, Shenfield (the only extras north of the Thames)
PLUS Thames Ditton, Hampton Court; Stoneleigh, Ewell West; Ewell East; Banstead, Epsom Downs; Chipstead, Kingswood, Tadworth, Tattenham Corner; Whyteleafe, Whyteleafe South, Caterham; Upper Warlingham; Swanley; Dartford

n.b. with a Freedom Pass, issued after the age of 66, you can additionally travel on the Elizabeth line to Reading

A 60+ card also provides
• 50% off river services
• 50% off Santander cycle subscriptions

A 60+ card requires
» a London address
» proof of age/identity (e.g. scan of passport, driving licence)
» a digital photo
» £20 admin charge
» £10 annual renewal charge

You can apply for a 60+ London Oyster photocard two weeks before your 60th birthday.
Once you get your 60+ London Oyster photocard you can use it straight away.
Hell yes.



Three press releases explaining the history of the 60+ London Oyster Photocard

Mayor restores free travel for 60-year-old Londoners with the 60+ London Oyster photocard
01 October 2012

Free travel on TfL services for all Londoners when they reach 60 years old will be restored from 1 November when the 60+ London Oyster photocard scheme goes live. The new scheme fulfils the Mayor Boris Johnson's pledge to bridge the gap for older Londoners since the age of eligibility for the London Council's Freedom Pass was raised by the Government.

More than 100,000 applications are expected before the new 60+ London Oyster photocard goes live, and a further 10,000 Londoners are expected to become eligible for the scheme each month.

Eligibility for the Freedom Pass, for both men and women, was raised by the Government in line with the state retirement age for women since April 2010 and means Londoners currently have to be at least 61 years old to qualify.

The 60+ London Oyster photocard scheme will mean Londoners once again become eligible for free travel on all TfL services and some national rail services 24 hours a day, seven days a week, from their sixtieth birthday. Just like the Freedom Pass, it will also allow them free travel outside of morning peak hours on other national rail services in the capital.

Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: 'Londoners who have grafted all their lives and expected to receive free travel on retirement just as those before them quite rightly felt cheated when the age escalator removed the Freedom Pass from their grasp. I promised to restore this right to travel for free on the capital's transport network for every Londoner from their 60th birthday.'


Temporary changes to Older Person’s Freedom Pass and 60-plus Oyster card
04 June 2020

TfL has today set out details of the temporary changes affecting users of the Older Person's Freedom Pass, 60+ Oyster photocard and English National Concessionary Scheme in London as part of the response to the pandemic. The temporary changes, to take effect from Monday 15 June, are being introduced as part of the recent funding and finance agreement with Government.

They will mean that all passengers with an Older Person's Freedom Pass, 60+ Oyster photocard or English National Concessionary Scheme pass will not be able to use those passes during morning peak hours in order to help support social distancing on the public transport network and help control the coronavirus.

From Monday 15 June, changes to the ticketing system will mean these cards are automatically set to be not valid during the morning peak period (04:30 to 09:00) Monday to Friday. They will continue to be valid at all other times on weekdays and all day on weekends and Bank Holidays.


Proposed permanent changes to free travel arrangements for older Londoners
18 January 2023

The Mayor has confirmed that the temporary travel time restrictions on 60+ Oyster and Older Person’s Freedom Passes, introduced due to Government conditions, will have to become permanent from today, Wednesday, 18 January.

TfL were also having to consider a proposal to increase the age of eligibility for the 60+ concession on a phased basis so that the start date of eligibility would increase incrementally by around six months every year. Today the Mayor has confirmed funding from City Hall will be used prevent this change and protect the concession for Londoners over 60.

These changes to the London concessions will still mean that the offering in London remains more generous than that available to older people across England, as well as for under 18’s.

 Saturday, February 22, 2025

I'm off on a long-distance trip today, one I bought a ticket for several weeks ago. I have thus become very invested in what today's weather might be because a miserable outlook can wreck a good day out. My visit to Durham in 2015 was destroyed by heavy rain all day, my 2024 trip to Rugby left me soaked through and my 2018 spring break in Cornwall annoyingly coincided with The Beast From The East. What weather would Saturday 22nd February 2025 bring?

The BBC's weather website provides a forecast up to 14 days in advance, so on Sunday 9th February I refreshed the page and went "oh". Cold and wet, no sun, not ideal.



But the next day the BBC weather website had changed its mind, the rain had been downgraded to drizzle.

And then it changed its mind again on Tuesday (full-on sunshine) and again on Wednesday (wet).

And again on Thursday, again on Friday and again on Saturday.

Here's a summary of how the BBC forecast for today's weather changed over the space a week.



Regarding temperature there was a clear trend in that the weather on Saturday 22nd February looked to be getting warmer. Hurrah! But in terms of what the weather would be I'd been presented with the full gamut from overcast and wet to cloud-free and sunny, i.e. the forecast looked pretty random. I was no clearer knowing whether today's visit would be dry and fine or a total washout.

That was two weeks ago. I then carried on checking throughout last week.



And this time it's been a very consistent message that Saturday would be dry, sunny and mild. Hurrah!

Obviously it's a lot easier to forecast the weather as the day approaches, but to have got it right six days in advance is pretty good going. It's particularly good given that today is a brief sunny respite between two wet days, with yesterday seeing a heavy band of rain cross the region and tomorrow promising the same but with gales. It would have been all too easy to get the precise timing of these frontal systems wrong, but the BBC weather forecast has correctly identified 'Friday wet, Saturday dry, Sunday wet" since five days ago.

I've also been religiously checking the Met Office weather forecast for today at my chosen destination. They don't provide the BBC's forecast any more, theirs is separate and has been since 2018. They also don't provide a forecast until one week before a particular date, not two.

And they've had a very consistent message too, ever since last Sunday when the first sunny icon appeared.



So consistent has the message been, from both the BBC and the Met Office, that I've known since Sunday that I'm in for a dry mild day trip today. Hurrah! It isn't always this cut and dried, nor are both forecasts always in agreement, but they've both played a blinder over the last week in getting today's weather right.

However only the last week was good, the BBC's forecasts over the previous week were more like a meteorological roulette wheel and best ignored.

Indeed if I were to draw your attention to just one fact, it's that long-range weather forecasts are usually bolx. This is especially true if you work for a clickbait website and spot that some unreliable forecast has promised a slight snow flurry in six weeks time - please put your keyboard away and stop trying to hoodwink us with ill-judged certainties. But even the BBC's weather forecast can't be trusted two weeks out, it's just a low-probability best guess, which'll be why they never ever look that far forward on TV.

One week ahead, though, might just be spot on... which is why I'm currently speeding out of London towards sunny and mild, hurrah!

The major roadworks at the Bow Roundabout continue, which is worrying because the final resurfacing works are due to begin on Monday night. Instead the inside lane on Stratford High Street is still coned off for much drilling and scraping, so they'd better get a move-on.



In better news buses on route 8 have just returned to Bow Church, literally in the last two hours. This is after six months terminating early, which should have been five months given the roadworks started late, and should have been extended by one more week given the roadworks are finishing late too.

Also I found the road closure notice for next week's resurfacing works at the back of the local paper and it's quite complicated. It takes seven paragraphs to explain that the entire roundabout and all its slip roads will be closed, then four more to explain that access to McDonalds will be maintained by marshals waving traffic the wrong way along the bottom of Bow Road.

The Works Notice also details the precise routes of five detours traffic will need to make when the roundabout's closed, the scariest of which is accessing Stratford High Street from the A12 southbound which will involve a 5 mile mystery tour via Poplar, Canning Town and Plaistow.

Reassuringly 'works will be phased such that some restrictions will only apply at certain times', so traffic may get off lightly on certain nights. Less reassuringly 'the Order will be effective between 24th February 2025 and 24th August 2025 every night 9:00 PM to 5:00 AM, or until works are completed, whichever is sooner', which is a six month period rather than the actually-planned four nights. I guess TfL's legal team prefers to over-estimate so they only ever have to place one Works Order in the paper, but that is a serious over-over-over-estimate.

Whatever, don't drive or catch a bus anywhere near the Bow roundabout next Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Friday night, and fingers crossed all the resurfacing and line painting will be finished by 1st March, not 24th August.

Previous updates: #0 #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 #15

 Friday, February 21, 2025

When writing about dining out, the media tend to focus on restaurants, independent cafes and bijou little nooks, also pubs, hotels and takeaways. But there's one place you're always guaranteed a hot meal at a bargain price and that's a supermarket cafe, the unsung destination of choice for many a prudent diner. Assuming you can still find one, that is.

Supermarkets didn't used to have cafes, not until the bigger out-of-town superstores decided to put aside space for a hot counter and some plastic tables as a means to attract more punters. Instead cheap canteen-like restaurants were the general preserve of the high street department store, often on an upper floor to tempt you past ladies fashions and home furnishings on the way. I well remember, after a tough morning of being taken shopping round Watford, being led upstairs to a stark white room above British Home Stores to select from a school-dinner-like menu, then watching while it was doled out from a succession of metal tureens before edging my wooden tray along the bars towards a till where some white-hatted matron would tot up each item individually and present my Mum with a bill. It's not like that now.

The supermarket cafe is usually to be found in a quiet corner somewhere near the entrance, just past the trolley park, the rack of magazines and the backs of the checkouts. Here a long counter awaits the weary shopper, perhaps several, with an array of packaged goodies, plated treats and hot cooked staples awaiting your delectation. The range is generally limited and traditional - all the elderly crowd pleasers - often with a proper breakfast option if you arrive early enough. The drinks machine has long been a fixture just before the till, but these days more likely to generate something frothy than a pot of tea. Warm desserts with dolloped custard were alas phased out long ago in favour of something ready-sliced. And when your tray's full just pay the bill, pick a table and enjoy a leisurely natter, safe in the knowledge your meal out hasn't broken the bank. As long as you go to the right supermarket, that is.



I went to Asda on the Isle of Dogs where the supermarket cafe is still a pleasingly retro experience. Step behind the rack of flowers to discover a single white counter, lightly-staffed, and beyond that a puce-walled corner with perches, banquettes and proper tables. The food queue starts by a stack of brown plastic trays, then come the wraps and baguettes (would you like that warmed?), then the slices of sponge under plastic domes with tongs on top. The selection on the hotplate looked very limited but if you wanted the battered cod or lasagne you'd be able to select a portion straight away. By the till are more cakes plus a rack of Walkers crisps and a pleasingly old-school Coca-Cola dispenser, and if you insist on ordering tea there are six options but they're all Tetleys. What's not to enjoy?
Asda hot menu
Mains (all £6.75): cod and chips, scampi and chips, lasagne, stew & dumplings, chicken tikka masala, beef chilli, cheeseburger, double chicken burger
Veg options (£6.50): mac & cheese, sweet potato & spinach curry
Fry-up (£6.10): cooked breakfast/all-day brunch
Soups (£3): tomato, creamy chicken, hearty veg (all served with roll and butter)
Sides: garlic bread, chips, fries, peas, baked beans, side salad, onion rings, chicken nuggets
It could still be 2005 with that list, maybe 1995 but probably not 1985. Also I note that a lot of the mains don't require a lot of chewing.

And the cafe was still popular, this Asda superstore perhaps doubling up as a community meeting place. Two grey-haired ladies took the closest table, their tartan shopping trollies parked up close by. Beyond them an Asian family were enjoying a good value half term lunch (Kids Eat For £1 - All Day, Every Day!), a young couple in furry anoraks hugged a hot drink and a blonde in a blouse grazing on a sweet treat tapped away on her phone. I suspect it's busier on a Wednesday when the over-60s get 10% off, but I'm not sure I'll be availing myself of the opportunity on a regular basis.

Your supermarket needs to be a certain size before its worth having a cafe, so large sites with big car parks are the most likely locations. In rural Norfolk there are plenty, for example, although you have to drive a fair way to get to them. The edge of any provincial town will have an in-store cafe offering, or indeed that retail park by the bypass, such is the culinary allure of the out-of-town supermarket. But Tower Hamlets is not well blessed with the things, so I wondered where my nearest cafes were at other supermarket chains.
Tesco cafe
Typical lunch items: Chilli Con Carne Jacket Potato, Brunch Burger with Hash Brown Bites, Scampi and Chips, Harissa Chicken and Chorizo Toastie
My nearest: Beckton (5 miles), then Woolwich, then Meridian Water.

Sainsbury cafe
Typical lunch items: Chicken Tikka Masala, Steak & Ale Pie, Sausages & Mash, Avocado & Eggs on Sourdough
My nearest: There are none in London, the nearest being at Northfleet in Kent (ah, I see Sainsburys have plans to close all 61 of their remaining cafes, sad face emoji)

Morrisons cafe
Typical lunch items: Gammon, Egg, Chips & Peas, Ultimate Mixed Grill, Crispy Breaded Falafel Burger, Battered Sausages, Chips and Mushy Peas
My nearest: Stratford (1 mile), then Chingford (because proper cafes are rare)

Waitrose cafe
Typical lunch items: Beef Bourguignon, Mozzarella & Pesto Salad, Chicken Tikka Flatbread, Goat’s Cheese, Fig & Caramelised Shallot Quiche
My nearest: Canary Wharf (1 mile) (but it's a bit posh and they also have an olive bar and I don't think this properly counts)
It seems my best options for cheap comfort food and chatter are Asda at Crossharbour and Morrisons in Stratford, and that's about it within easy travelling distance. Other low price sit-down locations are of course available, but a bite at Wetherspoons or a perch at Kebabish will never match the retro canteen experience. The supermarket cafe lingers on and is much appreciated by many, but the days of piling up your hot meal on a tray may already be numbered.

 Thursday, February 20, 2025

Attend inauguration, take Presidential oath, act as "a peacemaker and unifier", label Mexican cartels as terrorists, rename the Gulf of Mexico, rename Mt McKinley, pledge to an expanding nation, take back the Panama Canal, send astronauts to Mars, suspiciously-Nazi salute, sign order to withdraw from Paris climate agreement, sign migrant detention bill, unconditional pardons for Jan 6 attackers, roll-back on trans rights, roll-back on gender identity, redefine birthright to US citizenship, withdraw from World Health Organisation, make federal workers easier to fire, federal regulatory freeze, impose tariffs on Mexico, impose tariffs on Canada, delay ban on TikTok, drill baby drill, introduce External Revenue Service, establish Department of Government Efficiency, end government support for electric vehicles, end Green New Deal, axe education department, launch cryptocurrency, video call with Chinese President, appoint vaccine sceptic as Health Secretary, recommit to death penalty, put diversity staff on leave, deploy troops to Mexican border, suspend refugee programme, pause foreign development assistance, end 'corrupt' DEI policies, human rights start at conception, scrap FEMA, back biblical claim to Palestinian land, fire independent watchdogs, make claim on Greenland, reinstate troops who refused vaccination, eliminate DEI in military, curtail gender transition, offer federal employees payouts if they resign, reopen Guantánamo Bay, blame plane crash on diversity, impose tariffs on China, sack USAid workers, take control of federal payment system, revoke deportation protections, delay tariffs on Mexico and Canada, stake claim on rare earths in Ukraine, shrink US government, propose wholesale removal of regulations, plan for US to own and redevelop Gaza Strip, plan to relocate all Palestinians from Gaza into Jordan and Egypt, attend Super Bowl, ban trans athletes from women's sports, eliminate anti-Christian bias, sanction international court, remove Federal Election Commission chair, reverse ban on plastic straws, cut medical research funding, speak to Putin about Ukraine, 25% tariffs on aluminium and steel imports, propose Canada as 51st state, end production of one cent coin, call for end to Gaza ceasefire, cosy up to Russia, speak to Putin about Ukraine ceasefire, make premature concessions on Ukraine, fire air traffic control staff, attempt to rehire traffic control staff, rebuke Europe and its leaders at security summit, fire National Park workers, question the legitimacy of judges, liken oneself to Napoleon, threaten tariffs on foreign cars and semiconductors, fast-track fossil fuel projects, plan cuts at the Pentagon, layoffs at the Internal Revenue Service, face-to-face peace talks with Russia, blame Ukraine for war with Russia, claim Putin can be trusted, call Zelensky a dictator, launch new world order.

And that's just the first month.

As an East London resident I've received a 20-page booklet through my letterbox about the opening of the Silvertown Tunnel in April. If you didn't get a booklet you can download one here.

I like the graphics. I hate the maps.



Eight pages are given over to information for drivers, which makes sense given most of the tunnel's users will be drivers. The eight pages are mostly about what you have to pay and whether you have to pay it. You might therefore expect that one of the maps in the booklet would be aimed at drivers. Not so. There is such a map, it's on the TfL website and you can see it here. But it never made it into the booklet because someone thought two maps aimed at bus passengers and cyclists would be sufficient.

This is the bus map which spans pages 4 and 5, and I fear TfL's Let's Make This Bus Map Unnecessarily Complicated department has been at it again.



It shows the three routes which make up TfL's commitment to running 21 buses an hour through the two tunnels. One is the existing 108 through the Blackwall Tunnel, one is the extended 129 and one is the new Superloop SL4, both of which will use the Silvertown Tunnel.

As a bus passenger what I really what to know is where these buses will stop. Instead the map chooses to shows all the roads these buses will serve, because TfL's LMTBMUC department is obsessed with routes rather than stops.

I don't care which bore of the Blackwall Tunnel the 108 will use, nor all the ridiculous twiddles the 108 and 129 have to make to enter the bus station at North Greenwich. I might care that the 108 makes several extra stops northbound on its detour to the tunnel but the map doesn't show where they are, nor does it have arrows to show which way the loop goes.
I don't care about the twiddles on the 129 either, whereas I would really like to know where the first stop beyond the tunnel is going to be and how far it'll be from anywhere useful. I'd also quite like to know where the 129 goes next but the next four miles through Newham are not shown, only a box saying that the route terminates at Great Eastern Quay. I bet most people have no idea where that is and the booklet doesn't enlighten them.
I can see where the SL4 runs but because it's a limited stop route I really need to know where I can catch it, and on that there's nothing. That's key because on the north side of the tunnel it won't stop anywhere in Newham, only in Tower Hamlets, and heading south it won't drop anyone off in North Greenwich, only two miles away up the A2. The next page of the booklet does at least say "Express service stopping in key town centres between Westferry Circus in Canary Wharf to Grove Park via Silvertown Tunnel". But it doesn't say what those key town centres will be, nor does it mention the three-mile non-stop section, and you're not going to attract any passengers like that.

As for the cycle shuttle map on page 16, it too is obsessed with routes instead of stops.



Cyclists don't care what ridiculous one-way circuits the shuttle bus has to make, they only need to know where to board and where it'll drop them off. The red blobs alas get somewhat lost amid the red lines.

The map also shows the paucity of well-connected cycleways hereabouts. It also shows that the northern shuttle stop won't be alongside a segregated cycleway, you'll have to follow "shared pedestrian/cycle routes" to reach one. A special slow handclap to whoever added a box showing a link "to Future Morden Wharf Development", a route no cyclist will be taking in the next five years.

What is it with TfL and overcomplicated underinformative maps? Drivers, bus passengers and cyclists who might use the Silvertown Tunnel would really like to know.


<< click for Newer posts

click for Older Posts >>


click to return to the main page


...or read more in my monthly archives
Jan25  Feb25
Jan24  Feb24  Mar24  Apr24  May24  Jun24  Jul24  Aug24  Sep24  Oct24  Nov24  Dec24
Jan23  Feb23  Mar23  Apr23  May23  Jun23  Jul23  Aug23  Sep23  Oct23  Nov23  Dec23
Jan22  Feb22  Mar22  Apr22  May22  Jun22  Jul22  Aug22  Sep22  Oct22  Nov22  Dec22
Jan21  Feb21  Mar21  Apr21  May21  Jun21  Jul21  Aug21  Sep21  Oct21  Nov21  Dec21
Jan20  Feb20  Mar20  Apr20  May20  Jun20  Jul20  Aug20  Sep20  Oct20  Nov20  Dec20
Jan19  Feb19  Mar19  Apr19  May19  Jun19  Jul19  Aug19  Sep19  Oct19  Nov19  Dec19
Jan18  Feb18  Mar18  Apr18  May18  Jun18  Jul18  Aug18  Sep18  Oct18  Nov18  Dec18
Jan17  Feb17  Mar17  Apr17  May17  Jun17  Jul17  Aug17  Sep17  Oct17  Nov17  Dec17
Jan16  Feb16  Mar16  Apr16  May16  Jun16  Jul16  Aug16  Sep16  Oct16  Nov16  Dec16
Jan15  Feb15  Mar15  Apr15  May15  Jun15  Jul15  Aug15  Sep15  Oct15  Nov15  Dec15
Jan14  Feb14  Mar14  Apr14  May14  Jun14  Jul14  Aug14  Sep14  Oct14  Nov14  Dec14
Jan13  Feb13  Mar13  Apr13  May13  Jun13  Jul13  Aug13  Sep13  Oct13  Nov13  Dec13
Jan12  Feb12  Mar12  Apr12  May12  Jun12  Jul12  Aug12  Sep12  Oct12  Nov12  Dec12
Jan11  Feb11  Mar11  Apr11  May11  Jun11  Jul11  Aug11  Sep11  Oct11  Nov11  Dec11
Jan10  Feb10  Mar10  Apr10  May10  Jun10  Jul10  Aug10  Sep10  Oct10  Nov10  Dec10 
Jan09  Feb09  Mar09  Apr09  May09  Jun09  Jul09  Aug09  Sep09  Oct09  Nov09  Dec09
Jan08  Feb08  Mar08  Apr08  May08  Jun08  Jul08  Aug08  Sep08  Oct08  Nov08  Dec08
Jan07  Feb07  Mar07  Apr07  May07  Jun07  Jul07  Aug07  Sep07  Oct07  Nov07  Dec07
Jan06  Feb06  Mar06  Apr06  May06  Jun06  Jul06  Aug06  Sep06  Oct06  Nov06  Dec06
Jan05  Feb05  Mar05  Apr05  May05  Jun05  Jul05  Aug05  Sep05  Oct05  Nov05  Dec05
Jan04  Feb04  Mar04  Apr04  May04  Jun04  Jul04  Aug04  Sep04  Oct04  Nov04  Dec04
Jan03  Feb03  Mar03  Apr03  May03  Jun03  Jul03  Aug03  Sep03  Oct03  Nov03  Dec03
 Jan02  Feb02  Mar02  Apr02  May02  Jun02  Jul02 Aug02  Sep02  Oct02  Nov02  Dec02 

eXTReMe Tracker - Free Website Statistics
jack of diamonds
Life viewed from London E3

» email me
» follow me on twitter
» follow the blog on Twitter
» follow the blog on RSS

» my flickr photostream

twenty blogs
our bow
arseblog
ian visits
londonist
broken tv
blue witch
on london
the great wen
edith's streets
spitalfields life
linkmachinego
round the island
wanstead meteo
christopher fowler
the greenwich wire
bus and train user
ruth's coastal walk
round the rails we go
london reconnections
from the murky depths

quick reference features
Things to do in Outer London
Things to do outside London
London's waymarked walks
Inner London toilet map
20 years of blog series
The DG Tour of Britain
London's most...

read the archive
Feb25  Jan25
Dec24  Nov24  Oct24  Sep24
Aug24  Jul24  Jun24  May24
Apr24  Mar24  Feb24  Jan24
Dec23  Nov23  Oct23  Sep23
Aug23  Jul23  Jun23  May23
Apr23  Mar23  Feb23  Jan23
Dec22  Nov22  Oct22  Sep22
Aug22  Jul22  Jun22  May22
Apr22  Mar22  Feb22  Jan22
Dec21  Nov21  Oct21  Sep21
Aug21  Jul21  Jun21  May21
Apr21  Mar21  Feb21  Jan21
Dec20  Nov20  Oct20  Sep20
Aug20  Jul20  Jun20  May20
Apr20  Mar20  Feb20  Jan20
Dec19  Nov19  Oct19  Sep19
Aug19  Jul19  Jun19  May19
Apr19  Mar19  Feb19  Jan19
Dec18  Nov18  Oct18  Sep18
Aug18  Jul18  Jun18  May18
Apr18  Mar18  Feb18  Jan18
Dec17  Nov17  Oct17  Sep17
Aug17  Jul17  Jun17  May17
Apr17  Mar17  Feb17  Jan17
Dec16  Nov16  Oct16  Sep16
Aug16  Jul16  Jun16  May16
Apr16  Mar16  Feb16  Jan16
Dec15  Nov15  Oct15  Sep15
Aug15  Jul15  Jun15  May15
Apr15  Mar15  Feb15  Jan15
Dec14  Nov14  Oct14  Sep14
Aug14  Jul14  Jun14  May14
Apr14  Mar14  Feb14  Jan14
Dec13  Nov13  Oct13  Sep13
Aug13  Jul13  Jun13  May13
Apr13  Mar13  Feb13  Jan13
Dec12  Nov12  Oct12  Sep12
Aug12  Jul12  Jun12  May12
Apr12  Mar12  Feb12  Jan12
Dec11  Nov11  Oct11  Sep11
Aug11  Jul11  Jun11  May11
Apr11  Mar11  Feb11  Jan11
Dec10  Nov10  Oct10  Sep10
Aug10  Jul10  Jun10  May10
Apr10  Mar10  Feb10  Jan10
Dec09  Nov09  Oct09  Sep09
Aug09  Jul09  Jun09  May09
Apr09  Mar09  Feb09  Jan09
Dec08  Nov08  Oct08  Sep08
Aug08  Jul08  Jun08  May08
Apr08  Mar08  Feb08  Jan08
Dec07  Nov07  Oct07  Sep07
Aug07  Jul07  Jun07  May07
Apr07  Mar07  Feb07  Jan07
Dec06  Nov06  Oct06  Sep06
Aug06  Jul06  Jun06  May06
Apr06  Mar06  Feb06  Jan06
Dec05  Nov05  Oct05  Sep05
Aug05  Jul05  Jun05  May05
Apr05  Mar05  Feb05  Jan05
Dec04  Nov04  Oct04  Sep04
Aug04  Jul04  Jun04  May04
Apr04  Mar04  Feb04  Jan04
Dec03  Nov03  Oct03  Sep03
Aug03  Jul03  Jun03  May03
Apr03  Mar03  Feb03  Jan03
Dec02  Nov02  Oct02  Sep02
back to main page

the diamond geezer index
2024 2023 2022
2021 2020 2019 2018 2017
2016 2015 2014 2013 2012
2011 2010 2009 2008 2007
2006 2005 2004 2003 2002

my special London features
a-z of london museums
E3 - local history month
greenwich meridian (N)
greenwich meridian (S)
the real eastenders
london's lost rivers
olympic park 2007
great british roads
oranges & lemons
random boroughs
bow road station
high street 2012
river westbourne
trafalgar square
capital numbers
east london line
lea valley walk
olympics 2005
regent's canal
square routes
silver jubilee
unlost rivers
cube routes
Herbert Dip
metro-land
capital ring
river fleet
piccadilly
bakerloo

ten of my favourite posts
the seven ages of blog
my new Z470xi mobile
five equations of blog
the dome of doom
chemical attraction
quality & risk
london 2102
single life
boredom
april fool

ten sets of lovely photos
my "most interesting" photos
london 2012 olympic zone
harris and the hebrides
betjeman's metro-land
marking the meridian
tracing the river fleet
london's lost rivers
inside the gherkin
seven sisters
iceland

just surfed in?
here's where to find...
diamond geezers
flash mob #1  #2  #3  #4
ben schott's miscellany
london underground
watch with mother
cigarette warnings
digital time delay
wheelie suitcases
war of the worlds
transit of venus
top of the pops
old buckenham
ladybird books
acorn antiques
digital watches
outer hebrides
olympics 2012
school dinners
pet shop boys
west wycombe
bletchley park
george orwell
big breakfast
clapton pond
san francisco
thunderbirds
routemaster
children's tv
east enders
trunk roads
amsterdam
little britain
credit cards
jury service
big brother
jubilee line
number 1s
titan arum
typewriters
doctor who
coronation
comments
blue peter
matchgirls
hurricanes
buzzwords
brookside
monopoly
peter pan
starbucks
feng shui
leap year
manbags
bbc three
vision on
piccadilly
meridian
concorde
wembley
islington
ID cards
bedtime
freeview
beckton
blogads
eclipses
letraset
arsenal
sitcoms
gherkin
calories
everest
muffins
sudoku
camilla
london
ceefax
robbie
becks
dome
BBC2
paris
lotto
118
itv