One of the quirks of living on Bow Road is that Bow Road is also the A11.
I wondered whether any of you live on an A road...
...and in particular whether any of you live on an A road with a lower number than me.
This comments box is just for people who live on A roads. A road comments
Not near an A road, or round the corner from an A road, but properly on one.
All other comments at the foot of today's post, thanks.
Road classification was introduced in the UK in the early 1920s. A roads were the major through-routes at the heart of the road network, B roads weren't quite so important and the vast majority of roads were unclassified. If you'd like to read about how it happened, try here. For a road numbering FAQ, try here. For official government guidance, try here. If you'd like to see a map of the road network in 1956 try here.
There are nine one-digit A roads, the most important of all. Six of them head out radially from London and the other three from Edinburgh. If you live on one of these then you have beaten me in today's challenge.
A1 London to Edinburgh (409 miles, originally the Great North Road) A2 London to Dover (77 miles, originally Watling Street) A3 London to Portsmouth (74 miles) A4 London to Bristol (130 miles, originally the Great West Road) A5 London to Holyhead (270 miles, originally Watling Street) A6 London to Carlisle (282 miles, actually started in Barnet) A7 Edinburgh to Carlisle (101 miles) A8 Edinburgh to Gourock (67 miles, via Glasgow) A9 Edinburgh to Wick (273 miles, via Inverness)
Most of the A1 is dual carriageway, but a few stretches at eitherend are ordinary single carriageway roads. From St Paul's Cathedral to Hendon and across the eastern suburbs of Edinburgh, for example, several sections of the A1 are faced by housing. If your flat merely overlooks the A1, or your postal address isn't the A1 but a separate access road, I'm going to claim that I still beat you anyway.
The A2 includes the Old Kent Road and New Cross Road as well as a thin slice of the Medway region. The A3 kicks off from London Bridge, so you might well live on it in Kennington, Clapham or Wandsworth before it goes all arterial. The A4 is possibly your best chance to beat me because much of it follows its original route, the M4 having taken most of the traffic. If you live on the Great West Road through west London, or on main streets in Slough, Reading, Bath or Bristol, then I have lost.
I'm less worried about you living on the the A5, which heads to Holyhead without troubling too many houses, but the A6 hits some meaty chunks of the Midlands and North West on its way to Carlisle. I used to live two streets away from the A6 when i lived in Bedford, but as we've already ascertained two streets away doesn't count. As for the As 7, 8 and 9, they may run for miles across Scotland but again it's Edinburgh where the highest chance of residential readers exists.
I live on a double-digit A road. Double-digit A roads fill in the gaps between the spokes of the single-digiters. Officially they're less important, although the A34 is considerably busier than the A7 so that doesn't always work.
More to the point, I live on a very low numbered double-digit A road. This is because I am fortuitous enough to live in Sector 1, between the A1 and the A2.
The Numbering of Roads (Michelin Guide, 1921)
For the purpose of numbering the roads, Great Britain has been divided into nine sectors, six of which radiate in clockwise order from London, and the remaining three similarly from Edinburgh. Sector I includes all the roads situated between roads A1 and A2, and so on clockwise for the remaining sectors. Note: an exception occurs between road A2 and the estuary of the Thames which is part of sector II and not sector I. All roads take their initial number from the sector in which they start, eg A12 and A17 start in Sector I, A36 and A310 start in sector III. A road does not necessarily terminate in the same sector in which it begins. The commencement of a road is determined by the end of it which would be reached first by the hands of a clock radiating from London.
Sector 1 covers England east of the A1 and includes most of East Anglia, Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire. Within this zone the lowest one-something A roads stretch out radially from London and are numbered in a clockwise direction.
A10 London to King's Lynn (90 miles) A11 London to Norwich (112 miles) A12 London to Lowestoft (129 miles) A13 London to Southend (42 miles)
I nearly live on the A12, because the A11 meets the A12 at the Bow Roundabout. It didn't always, they used to split in Leytonstone, but the road was renumbered following completion of the A12 extension in 1999. The A11 now has a whopping 40 mile hiatus between Bow and Great Chesterford in Cambridgeshire, with the M11 nominally plugging the gap.
The remainder of the teens are further from London and were originally numbered according to how far away they were.
A14 Felixstowe to Rugby (127 miles, previously Royston to Alconbury) A15 Peterborough to the Humber Bridge (96 miles) A16 Peterborough to Grimsby (78 miles) A17 Newark to King's Lynn (62 miles) A18 Doncaster to Louth (58 miles) A19 Doncaster to Newcastle (124 miles)
After the A19 come eighty other double digit A roads. They range (clockwise) from the A20 in Kent to the A69 out of Carlisle, then from the A70 to Ayr to the A99 to John O'Groats. If you live on any of those, I win.
The A road system continues to three- and four-digit numbers. If you live on one of those then you beat most people, but I still thrash you by living on the A11.
The A11 is beatable. My mum's aunt had a house on the Great Cambridge Road opposite the Spurs training ground, for example, so she lived on the A10 which trumps me. But whichever A road you live on, if you do, let me know in the comments box at the start of the post. The rest of you on your B roads or (more likely) unclassifieds, if you have any comments then they need to go in the usual box below.
A new tube map has just appeared at stations. What's unusual is that it's the May 2020 tube map, and we're now in July.
There wasn't much point releasing the new map in May when hardly anyone was travelling, so here it is two months later. But the network still isn't back to operational normality so this is more an aspirational tube map than a practical one. It still shows trains serving Heathrow Terminal 4, for example, whereas that loop of the Piccadilly line has been closed since May 9th.
The only significant difference since the last edition in December is blob related. Cockfosters and Mill Hill East are now shown as step-free, as are Taplow, Iver and Hanwell on TfL Rail to the west of London and Harold Wood to the east. This still leaves eight future Crossrail stations which are yet to gain step-free status (Ilford is the sole east London straggler).
The blobbification of Hanwell has created a particularly ugly conjunction with neighbouring station Southall. Both are in zone 4 so both have to fit within a thin stripe of barely-perceptible grey, hence they've been shunted less than one millimetre apart rather than equally spaced. It's one of the tube map's unspoken rules that station names must remain within their zone, and slavish adherence has created this otherwise entirely unnecessary squish.
TfL no longer produce a separate Night Tube map, but the normal map does include a small blue panel to explain where it runs. Unfortunately the Night Tube isn't running at the moment, having been closed to save money until at least March 2021 which is beyond the lifespan of this map. That closure began two months before the date on the front of the map, which just goes to show how prematurely large printing jobs have to go to press. Dated May, released July, but already out of date in March.
Cover artwork:Fantasias by Elisabeth Wild (died Feb 2020, aged 98) Thinness of paper: total bleed-through Number of blue daggers: 2 Discussion thread:here
22 stations have been picked out as especially busy as well as seven sections of line.
The TfL website lists them rather than providing a map, because lists are easier, but I thought I'd knock up a map because maps are more interesting. It's a rubbish map, sorry, but it is much better at showing what's going on.
The thick yellow lines are the busy sections of line. The Victoria line, the Jubilee line extension and the eastern end of the District line all feature. The short section of the Central line which runs underneath Oxford Street is particularly busy. Other than the Overground to Willesden Junction, west London is not affected.
The red blobs are stations where you might have to queue to gain entry or when interchanging between lines. North Acton, Clapham Junction, Canada Water and West Ham are busy for interchange only. Many of the busy stations are at the ends of lines, such as Brixton, Walthamstow and Lewisham. The borough of Newham has as many as five red blobs, with another two fractionally outside. Northeast London is disproportionately affected, while west London again gets off very lightly.
A special link has been provided to help passengers identify quieter times at every TfL station. This isn't hosted on the TfL website, it's a Microsoft Power BI data visualisation tool, so the graphs it displays can't be viewed in one go without scrolling and can only be accessed via a frustratingly cumbersome dropdown menu. But the data does at least seems to be up-to-date (stations which are currently closed, for example, do not appear).
The webpage rounds off with a list of 25 locations where queues for buses may be longest. Again there isn't a map, so again I've made a bad one.
London's 25 bus queue hotspots are almost all in zones 2, 3 and 4, with central and outermost London less affected. The only bus queue hotspot in zone 1 is at Elephant & Castle, while Bromley and Croydon are the sole representatives of zone 5. Haringey and Greenwich each have four red blobs, whereas no other boroughs have more than two. Again the western half of London is considerably less affected than the east.
In conclusion it seems Central London isn't busy, neither are the outer suburbs, and east London has more crowded public transport than west.
"A number of benches distributed throughout the Park will display plaques describing a fact. Nuggets of knowledge, from astrology to zoology, will be drawn from the broad experience of the local community and global specialists from a variety of fields. These will be statements to excite, bewilder, inform and inspire."
The facts were gathered from the public during a series of workshops in spring 2011, and also from experts including Sir Patrick Moore and Johnny Ball. Over 2000 facts were submitted and about 50 made the cut. Here's my favourite fact, stuck to a bench on the City Mill River facing the Olympic Stadium.
I remember learning this distance as a small child, but is it correct?
The Earth's orbit is famously elliptical, being closest to the Sun in the first week of January (at perihelion) and furthest in the first week of July (at aphelion). Aphelion this year was on 4th July, i.e. last Saturday, at which point Earth was 94,507,600 miles from the Sun. You could call that 95 million miles, or better still 94½. Perihelion was on 5th January when the distance was 91,398,200 miles, which you could call 91 million miles, or better still 91½. These distances vary slightly each year, but the average of the two is always around 92,955,000 miles, or as near to 93 million as makes no odds.
At time of blogging, it being the start of July, this Olympic Park bench is actually 95 million miles from the sun. On average however, and working to the nearest whole number, 93 million is perfectly OK.
A surprisingly high number of these plaques are astronomy-related. Perhaps Sir Patrick Moore submitted a job lot, or maybe really big numbers make for particularly fascinating facts.
Again let's check the data. Voyager 1, which was launched in 1977, is indeed Earth's most distant manufactured object. It beats its sibling Voyager 2 by four billion kilometres, and is currently about 22½ billion km from home. It was somewhat closer in 2011 when the plaque was made, but careful wording on the part of the fact writer means that "more than 17 billion kilometres away" remains perfectly true. A further example of how things have changed since 2011 is that no right-minded Olympic project these days would ever use the word "man-made", but society wasn't programmed to complain at the time so there is is.
This is more like it, and makes a pleasant change from the usual fact about Eskimos having fifty words for snow. Horses are at the very heart of Mongolian life, which may explain why the Wikipedia page 'Horse culture in Mongolia' is over 9000 words long. Mongolians never give their horses individual names, apparently, but describe them instead by their characteristics. At least 100 words are used to describe the different colours horses can be, including 63 for 'brown horse' and about a dozen for red. Then there are 48 words to describe how horses move, such as galloping, trotting, sprinting, loping, etc, and all I can say is thank goodness we Britons don't name our cats and dogs in the same way.
No, I'm not having this. It reads less like a fact and more like a ghastly motivational platitude, or maybe the phrase inside a particularly lacklustre Valentine's card. What's more, it's not true.
Here's my proof. Suppose everyone is someone's favourite. Then there exists a one-to-one mapping from the entire human population onto itself such that each person both has a favourite and is somebody else's favourite. But somewhere on earth is a popular human being, let's call them X, who is the favourite person of more than one individual. This means there aren't enough one-to-one pairings left to match up everybody else, so at least one person will be left over, i.e. there must be at least one human being who is not someone's favourite, QED.
I'm not etnirley cvnoinecd by tihs etiehr. It's fnie so lnog as you olny jggule the itneranl lretets aruond a bit, but ocne you iatporrncoe woslleahe rnamernearegt of cnibrdealosy ltheegnir wdros tehn clebrinshoeptiimy bmocees clagglennilhy ptbmaliorec.
This is less a fascinating fact, more a recipe for ragù alla Bolognese. Whilst I have enormous respect for the ability to squeeze an entire set of ingredients and instructions into so few characters it is really quite hard to decipher, and who the hell needs a recipe for pasta while sitting on a bench anyway? I feel I've done some kind of public service by taking a photo and uploading it to the internet where it might be more useful.
Back to the proper facts. I wasn't previously aware of the shape of goats' pupils (the rectangular slit apparently creates a sharp panoramic view ideal for spotting carnivores across a broader field of vision). The banana fact is based on sequencing genomes, and could have featured a higher percentage (chicken 60%, mouse 85%, chimpanzee 96%) but bananas will never not be funny. As for Dolbear's Law this dates back to 1897 and was originally derived in Fahrenheit, but this is the correct metric version. That's not how you spell Celsius, though, and you won't be hearing any crickets in the Olympic Park no matter how long you listen.
The benches in the Olympic Park feature several more of these Fantastic Factology plaques, but alas no longer the full 56. The metalwork's only thin, and not especially rigorously attached, so dozens of the plaques have disappeared over the last eight years. I've only managed to find 13, which is barely a quarter of the original total. Furthermore the Fantastic Factology website which used to catalogue the project has also been extinguished so it's no longer possible to skim through the whole set. But if you want to know where you might smell cis-3-hexenal or how fast a woodpecker pecks, the answer is still out there on a bench.
We hear a lot about the decline of the high street, but some High Streets really are a shadow of their former selves. Here are three near me where the rot set in decades ago.
Bromley High Street, E3
The village of Bow grew up in medieval times astride the main road to Essex. As the village grew a separate lane looped off to the south, rejoining the main road by Bow Bridge, and this eventually became Bromley High Street. The village green was built over with a string of shops. Several pubs opened to support a rising population. A large brewery grew up closer to the Lea. The thrum of commercial activity was high. And yet Bromley High Street today has become an insignificant backwater, and all it took was 20th century redevelopment.
A photo taken on this spot 100 years ago would have included a bakery, laundry, dining rooms, undertakers and cats' meat dealer. Today there's only a long wooden fence shielding a row of flats, while over on the right-hand side are more flats where an umbrella maker, tobacconist and greengrocer once traded. The Rose and Crown now serves peri-peri chicken, the former Bromley Dairy fixes smartphones and if a single market stall turns up on the piazza to sell fruit and veg it counts as a busy day. At least there's still some retail activity hereabouts on Stroudley Walk, but the thinning out of Bromley-by-Bow's local shops has been brutal.
After Bromley High Street bends left to run parallel to the main road no further businesses survive. This is mostly thanks to the LCC who turned much of the heart of Bow into mansion blocks in the 1930s, and Poplar HARCA who filled in the gaps half a century later. A parade of empty retail units below the tower block is now permanently shuttered. The BlueAnchor pub was demolished last year and is currently arising as flats. The Moulders Arms across the road was considerably unluckier and has been reborn as a small car park.
Hardly any traffic passes this way these days, although the D8 bus still deviates through (in one direction only) to pick up hardly anyone. The chief culprit is the A12 which swallowed up the eastern end of Bromley High Street in the 1970s, not to mention the parish church, so the road ends abruptly amid an excessive number of parking spaces. I often have to remind myself that I live in a medieval village because East London's relentless need for housing and roadspace has ripped that history away. On Bromley High Street it's almost impossible to imagine at all.
Poplar High Street, E14
In Roman times Poplar High Street was part of a causeway linking Londinium to the river at Blackwall, and by 1600 was lined by a few red-roofed cottages (if a pictorial map of the time is to be believed). The coming of the West India Docks brought it to greater prominence, this neighbouring street being ideal for living, drinking, spending... and likely whoring too. A fine Greek-style church was built to the north, followed by more pubs, a public library, a post office and all the usual palaver. But the new East India Dock Road proved a better draw for through traffic, and Poplar High Street now has a somewhat bypassed feel.
The road starts a little further east than you might think, as part of the cul-de-sac leading to Blackwall DLR station. This end of the street is very much in residential flux, with highrise showhomes to boot, but for the time being half of Robin Hood Gardens still overshadows the entrance to the Blackwall Tunnel. Beyond Poplar High Street's first junction comes a minor shopping parade, which peaks with a Tesco Express but could also sell you a car battery, all day breakfast or mobility scooter. Most traffic turns off at this point, but those who cycle ahead will see the road change completely.
From this point onwards Poplar High Street feels more 1980 than 2020, courtesy of Tower Hamlets' postwar flat rebuilding programme. Occasionally you'll see the shield of the LCC on a building signifying something older, and the old brick GLC Coroner's Court really stands out, and you can't miss the octagonal dome of the heritage Lansbury Hotel, and the Georgian almshouses nextdoor are a deservedly listed building, but the overall vibe is of quiet lowrise council estate suburbia.
It only takes a quick glimpse between the buildings to pierce the illusion and spot the intruder on the skyline. Canary Wharf's lofty towers are unnervingly close, but also cleanly segregated behind a railway and a dual carriageway with minimal access between the two. Somehow Poplar High Street has become the dividing line between ordinary Tower Hamlets and financial hothouse Tower Hamlets, an unspoken boundary that bankers very much prefer to live south of. There's nothing high about this street any more.
Stepney High Street, E1
Stepney is the original Tower Hamlet, once the sole village amid the fields immediately to the east of London. Its church was founded in the year 972 and for centuries had a parish which covered most of what's now the East End. The area surrounding St Dunstan's remained mostly openfields until the early 19th century, with a ring of cottages along the lanes encircling the churchyard. What's now Stepney High Street ran down the western edge, from the tip of Stepney Green to Lady Mico's Almshouses, becoming more important as the village was eventuallyswallowed on all sides by housing.
Other than the road's name, you'd never guess its former importance today. What's left of Stepney High Street is a stunted 100 metre link road squished between two sets of railings, and with barely a building to its name. One side is still St Dunstan's churchyard, with the backside of a youth centre squeezed in for good measure. The other side, once brimming with terraced houses, shops and at least three pubs, failed to survive the onslaught of the Luftwaffe and postwar planners and has been left as empty space.
Stand here and your nose will soon confirm that this is Stepney City Farm, founded in 1979 on the site of a bombed out church. Its pungent acres are home to sheep, goats, rabbits and donkeys, but no longer cows because the engineers at Crossrail needed their field for a major engineering project. A ventilation shaft marks the precise point where the purple line's two eastern branches diverge, which explains why construction workers have been busy here for the best part of a decade. Their archaeologists also found the remains of a Tudor manor house on site, mostly unshafted, whose history should one day be showcased at the City Farm's swish new Visitor Centre.
The land to either side of Stepney High Street is therefore brimming with historical interest, from a church with a starring role in the nursery rhyme Oranges and Lemons to a subterranean railway junction bursting to the surface through a marquis's moat. But Stepney's high street itself is a miserable non-entity, several rungs below Poplar's and lower even than Bromley's. To ensure the decline of your local high street, start early.
Hello from the 39th best blog in London. I might have hoped for better, but in a city of 9 million people 39 is actually damned good.
This is an independent ranking from Feedspot, a site that exists to aggregate other people's content and make a little money on the side. They've been around for several years, since the era when RSS readers looked like they might democratise the web, and are based in California. I don't recommend you sign up for Feedspot because nobody needs to view the blogosphere through a commercial filter, but their London rankings are interesting and might just have a dash of objectivity. Let's see.
Feedspot's list of Top 100 London Blogs & Websites by London Bloggers is regularly updated, maybe every couple of weeks. I was number 27 earlier in the year, have since slipped as low as 43 and last Wednesday scraped back to 39. Various criteria are used to shuffle the order, including relevance, frequency of posting, social media engagement, domain authority and Alexa Web Traffic Rank. Essentially it's a magic box which generates a list, nothing more, nothing less. But perhaps that list will contain some other blogs you'd be interested in reading in addition to reading this one.
If Londonist weren't top of the list you'd assume something was wrong. Feedspot tells us they have 1.4m Twitter followers, 900K Facebook fans and 271K Instagram followers, a combined total no other London blog comes near. Feedspot also notes that Londonist are currently averaging "one post a day", rather than the usual eight, because it's hard to maintain a commercial focus during a pandemic. London On The Inside(2) and Secret London(3) are more unashamedly experience-related, focusing on events, venues and (especially) refreshment opportunities the capital's younger residents might enjoy. If A Huge Beer GardenIs Coming To Walthamstow, then you'll read the reworked press release here.
Secret London writes with more hyperbole, LOTI feels more promotional and Londonist is more likely to slip a report on heritage bollards inbetween. But it's an inescapable fact that London's three big-hitters each exist primarily to suggest where you might go to spend some money.
London Remembers(5) is a remarkable catalogue of the capital's plaques and memorials, though hardly designed to be enjoyed sequentially, blog-style. The London Historians' Blog(7), Mapping London(9) and London Cycling Campaign's news page(10) are blogs even you might be interested in reading, and also proof you don't need to be commercial (or abundant on social media) to be in this Top Ten. Meanwhile London Eater(8) specialises in restaurant reviews, but has only posted twice this year so I'm not entirely sure how it merits eighth place. It is however by far the highest placed foodie blog - surprisingly there are only twoothers in the Top 50.
What there are a heck of a lot of in the Top 50 are luxury lifestyle blogs. Absolutely London(4) is one such, officially "for the benefit of the city’s stylish cosmopolitan residents", i.e. much like an upmarket online version of Time Out. It's run by a sizeable team who specialise in fashion, beauty, food, travel and interiors, whereas The Londoner(6) is the domain of a single Instagram influencer living her very best life in front of the camera. Tens of thousands lap up this stuff because it's perfectly pitched. If you're a 67 year-old man who likes recounting vintage bus anecdotes, however, I doubt you'll find anything of interest here.
Scattered throughout the Top 100 are some really weird entries. At 12 is Ably Realtime, the blog of a digital API platform service with no London relevance whatsoever. At 13 is City Falcon, the blog of a fintech dashboard based at Canary Wharf. At 20 is London Beep, which isn't a blog of any kind, more a succession of crass gift ideas. As for Crises Control at 33, this one's for you should you want to "keep up-to-date with the latest news updates and tips on incident management, mass notifications and business continuity plans". I know my blog is somewhat niche, but what it's doing below all of that lot I do not know.
You may by now be wondering where the good stuff is, by which you mean the blogs most likely to pander to your own personal interests. Well, Ian Visits is at 16, Spitalfields Life at 29, A London Inheritance at 44 and London Reconnections at 48, and I'm guessing they'll be more up your street. See also Brixton Blog at 40 and Kentishtowner at 54, although other local news blogs appear to have been overlooked in favour of cosy chats about cabaret and cupcakes. Cabbie Blog(65) and Deserter(71) provide useful correctives further down the list, but promotion-free blogs are very much in the minority.
And there I am at number 39, this week at least. "An east-end based London blogger who covers everything from new and quirky places to explore in London to city travel updates, in a distinctive and addictive style!" That's very kind of them. I'm a Feedspot rarity in having no Facebook presence whatsoever, which won't have helped my ranking, although I do apparently have a perfectly-middling Domain Authority of 50 out of 100. I rest one place below Mini Adventures, A Travel, Food and London Lifestyle Blog(38), but two places above FortySeven, "helping our clients to scale up their business by using .Net, Java, PHP and C++ technologies" (41).
So yes, I know all of this ranking business is meaningless marketing bluster, but if nothing else it demonstrates quite how much blogging has changed. Ten or fifteen years ago a similar list would have brimmed with personal musings, local newsfeeds and semi-professional collectives. Today the most highly-rated blogs exist to showcase personal brands and flog refreshment experiences. Times change. But dig down and the blogs you'll want to read are still there.
NHS quiz
To celebrate the 72nd anniversary of the National Health Service,
here are 20 words containing the letters N, H and S (in that order).
I've surgically removed all the other letters.
How many 'NHS' words can you resuscitate?
For example, *N*H*S would be INCHES. (but I've tried to avoid plurals)
Sometimes weekend engineering works get their teeth into one part of town and refuse to let go. These are the planned closures on the District, Hammersmith & City and East London lines until the end of August.
weekend
District line
Hammersmith & City
East London Line
4, 5 July
Tower Hill to West Ham
entire line
entire line
11, 12 July
Tower Hill to West Ham
entire line
entire line
18, 19 July
Tower Hill to West Ham
entire line
entire line
25, 26 July
Tower Hill to Dagenham East
entire line
entire line
1, 2 Aug
Earl's Court to West Ham
entire line
entire line
8, 9 Aug
South Kensington to East Ham
Baker Street to Barking
entire line
15, 16 Aug
Tower Hill to Dagenham East
entire line
entire line
22, 23 Aug
Tower Hill to West Ham
entire line
entire line
29, 30, 31 Aug
Tower Hill to West Ham
entire line
entire line
To confirm, that's no tube service between Tower Hill/Liverpool Street and West Ham for nine consecutive weekends, and also no Overground service on any part on the East London Line.
Thankfully the rail replacement buses get a rest during September, but then in October they start up again.
weekend
District line
Hammersmith & City
East London Line
10, 11 Oct
Earl's Court to Upminster
entire line
entire line
17, 18 Oct
South Kensington to East Ham
Baker Street to Barking
open Shadwell-Surrey Quays
24, 25 Oct
Tower Hill to West Ham
entire line
open Shadwell-Surrey Quays
A fortnight's breathing space follows, followed by three more closures to round off the year.
weekend
District line
Hammersmith & City
East London Line
14, 15 Nov
Tower Hill to West Ham
entire line
open Shadwell-Surrey Quays
21, 22 Nov
Tower Hill to Upminster
entire line
open Shadwell-Surrey Quays
28, 29 Nov
Tower Hill to West Ham
entire line
open Shadwell-Surrey Quays
That's fifteen weekends between now and the end of November with no service at either of my two nearest tube stations, and ten weekends with no Overground service whatsoever between Highbury & Islington and Clapham/Croydon/Crystal Palace. That's an astonishing run of serious closures. It's clearly ideal to be doing this at a time when fewer people are travelling, but less good to be turfing people off socially distanced trains onto double decker buses.
The majority of these weekend closures are needed because Crossrail isn't finished yet. Specifically Whitechapel station still isn't ready, so closing the railway lines over the top allows them to get on with finishing works underneath. It remains a scandalous embarrassment that two years ago we were still being told Crossrail would open in December 2018, and yet here they are still doing necessary engineering works until November 2020.
Other closures are likely related to the Four Lines Modernisation programme, a long term project to significantly upgrade signalling on the sub-surface lines that's also running disastrously behind schedule. Section SM3 (Euston Square to Stepney Green) was originally due to be commissioned in February 2020, then got kicked into July, but further software issues (and coronavirus) have stalled it again so the proposed launch date is now Easter 2021. A deadline for section SMA6, beyond Stepney Green, isn't even on the horizon.
These seemingly endless closures for Crossrail works and signalling upgrades will all be worth it on some far-flung distant day when a step change to London's transport network has been delivered. But brace yourself, East London, because there are so many more weekend engineering works still to come.
• global cases pass 10m, global deaths pass ½m
• non-essential shops open in Scotland
• "the worst is yet to come" (WHO)
• virus spike sees Leicester locked down
• Broadway to stay dark until January 2021
• infrastructure programme to boost the economy
• planning laws loosened
• UK death rate returns to normal
• 'expect more Leicesters'
• thousands of job losses announced
• EU borders reopened to 15 'safe' countries
• two Southampton theatres to close permanently
• face coverings must be worn in Scottish shops
• number of UK cases falls 10% after reclassification*
• England lifts quarantine from 'low risk' countries
• "grab a drink and raise a glass" (HM Treasury)
• "let's not blow it" (PM)
• hairdressers and pubs reopen
• many rush to drink and/or eat out
• nine Melbourne tower blocks totally locked down
Worldwide deaths: 495,000 → 530,000 Worldwide cases: 9,900,000 → 11,100,000 UK deaths: 43,514 → 44,198 UK cases: 310,250 → 284,900* FTSE: down 0.03% (6159 → 6157)
Today's the day that England's pubs finally reopen. But not all pubs, because many aren't ready yet and others don't have enough room for efficient social distancing anyway. So I thought I'd go on a safari to the 10 pubs closest to my home to see if they're opening, when they're opening and how much outdoor space they've got. I don't think it's too much of a spoiler to say that E3's pubs aren't well blessed with spacious beer gardens.
Is it opening? Looks like it. The windows are full of signs about social distancing, posters about extra hand sanitiser stations and reminders that the contactless limit is now £45. A blue plastic square has been stuck on the pavement just outside the door saying Queue Here. The only genuinely useful signage, however, is the laminated arrow advising punters to use the side door for takeaways. When's it opening? Good question. Nothing on the exterior of the pub provides any help whatsoever. The pub's website remains convinced the place is closed. Only if you go to the Bow Bells Facebook page do you discover it's opening today, 4th July. How much outdoor space? Six tables out front, awkwardly close to the pavement and to each other. Basically, the same as normal. I would have no confidence whatsoever sitting out here (and it's not clear anyone will be allowed to).
Is it opening? Looks like it. The pub's windows are unusually clean, the lights are on again and I could see rolls of red and white striped sticky tape stacked up on the bar. When's it opening? Good question. I would assume today, but there's nothing in the windows to confirm this, and the chalkboard outside still displays the time of the last Sky-screened football match. Of course it'll reopen - this place has been doing dodgy Saturday night lockdowns behind closed shutters for years - but because the pub has zero social media presence I can't say when for sure. How much outdoor space? A medium-sized garden out back (alas only accessible by walking through the saloon).
Is it opening? Looks like it. The biggest clue was the truck from the Wingtip Brewing Company parked up outside to deliver some barrels. You don't get fresh beers all the way from Ashurst in West Sussex unless you're expecting to sell some. When's it opening? Good question. Again there are absolutely no clues on the exterior of the building, which is turning out to be a bit of a theme here. Instead you need to resort to Twitter or to the pub's website to discover it's opening today, 4th July. "We kindly ask all customers to arrive wearing a face mask." "Individual lockable unisex toilet cubicles will be in operation for all guests." "Your contact details will be kept on file for 21 days and then destroyed," Sounds fun. How much outdoor space? The 'pretty beer terrace' out front is very narrow so doesn't support table service, sorry.
Is it opening? No. The windows are covered with black plastic sheeting, the only signs in the window apologise for closure in March and the website merely says "our beer garden is taking shape, and we have loads of fun stuff planned for it during the winter." Don't turn up any time soon.
Is it opening? I don't think so. The exterior's nicely spruced up, but all the chalkboards are rubbed clean and no informative signage is visible. When's it opening? According to Facebook they're hoping to host their next gig on 21st August, but that may be optimistic. How much outdoor space? A few tables out front and a large smokers' snug out back with leather sofas. But as a pub that thrives on live music, indoors, these may not be enough to bring The Beehive back to life.
Is it opening? No. The chairs in the Wellington Lounge are stacked upside-down on the tables. All the pink-potted plants have wilted. A handwritten sign stuck to the door says Nothing Valuable Left On Site. The staff left so quickly that March's menu is still pinned up outside. When's it opening? The problem with being owned by a pub company, in this case Antic, is that you have to wait until management tell you you can open. This weekend twelve larger Antic pubs have been given priority, so when Sam and the team say "It’s been a real shit without you" it's easy to share their pain. How much outdoor space? A scrappy terrace overlooking the A12 that normally manages eight tables, but might now max out at five.
Is it opening? No. Again it's a pubco thing, with Young's holding out for at least another fortnight in the hope that the government drops the 'one metre plus' rule to a more profitable 'one metre'. When's it opening? On 20th July, according to a faint message on the chalkboard beside the front door (and all relevant socialmediachannels). In the meantime, in case you were thinking of breaking in, a sheet of A4 paper warns This Pub Is Occupied With Live In Management. How much outdoor space? A small terrace out front with maybe a dozen too-close wooden tables. The interior's quite spacious though, at least by E3 standards.
Is it opening? No. Worse than that, it's actually still boarded up and all the hanging baskets are dead. Greene King moved in to secure the property in March, according to a letter signed by Head of Risk Mike Gore which has been pinned up over the menu outside. For a classy joint, the pub's current appearance comes as a bit of a shock. When's it opening? No idea. I'm sure it will, but the pubco is being a bit vague with a "from 6th July" reopening target, and it definitely won't be that soon. How much outdoor space? A couple of shelves facing the street to leave a beer glass on, plus a 'secret garden' round the back (which it plainly isn't).
Is it opening? Yes. I spotted a busy member of staff behind the bar, a wide selection of cleaning materials on a table and a roll of green safety stickers waiting to be affixed somewhere. When's it opening? Today, 4th July, at noon. Unbelievably the Green Goose is the only pub in my list to be opening today and to have signs in the window announcing this. Admittedly the poster says "Been dreaming of meeting your mates after work for a pint?" and includes the execrable phrase "Well prepare yourself because we're back baby!", but I suspect their target audience is at least twenty years younger than me. How much outdoor space? A rear garden you likely wouldn't guess was there, hence the enormous Come & See Our Garden mural chalked up on the side wall.
Is it opening? Yes. But I only know this because I stopped to take a photo of the 'Match Day Pies' poster and the landlord came out and eyed me suspiciously, so I asked him about the opening date in an attempt to lighten the situation. When's it opening? Today, 4th July, as it turns out. For some reason the pub's only social media presence, a Facebook page, hasn't updated since March 2018. I've been astonished while compiling this list how poorly the majority of pubs advertise their presence, almost as if they assume their regulars will turn up anyway and nobody else needs to know. How much outdoor space? One picnic bench, inconveniently placed to cover the trapdoor to the pub's cellar. All the other seats (and the Sky Sports screens) are in a single room inside, but that'll be how the workers on the surrounding light industrial estates prefer it.
Annoyingly for blogging purposes, the eleventh closest pub to my home looks to be the best prepared. The Lord Tredegar in Lichfield Road has hung a big banner out front announcing We're Back (plus time, plus date), as well as attaching a friendly Queue This Way sign to the railings. If I wanted to go back to a local pub today I reckon The Lord Tredegar would get my vote, if only because it looks competent, clean and welcoming. But I won't be going back today because I don't reckon downing a pint of beer is worth congregating indoors for. If your local pubs are as cramped as mine, perhaps best stick to a can at home.
With public transport capacity severely compromised and vehicle usage on the rise, several urgent schemes are being introduced to prioritise bicycles and pedestrians. Cycle lanes, widened pavements and low traffic corridors are all part of TfL's £45m Streetspace programme, and various local councils have also been getting in on the act. One of these is Hackney, the London borough with the highest concentration of regular cyclists, who are demonstrating that an effective intervention needn't cost the earth.
This is the top end of Ashenden Road in Homerton, in normal times a link between two grids of Victorian terraced streets [map]. But not any more. On 11th June the council closed off two parking bays at the junction with Glyn Road and replaced them with chunky timber planters under an Experimental Traffic Order that runs for the next six months. The proper term for this intervention is a modal filter, permitting percolation by bikes and pedestrians but not motorbikes and cars. Physically there's absolutely nothing to stop a vehicle passing through, the gap being rather wide, but the threat of a camera is supposed to warn them off. If that camera exists, I didn't spot it.
This is the middle of Barnabas Road almost immediately outside Homerton station [map]. It too has a modal filter, and this one was delivered a couple of weeks earlier at the end of May. Again it's been very cunningly located, occupying a narrow strip whose closure has broken the link between two sets of residential streets. Councils have been doing this kind of thing for years, repeatedly closing off access points until estates resemble labyrinths it's possible to weave out of but not drive through. The latest plans create even smaller subsets of streets, lowering vehicle density and speed by pushing more traffic to main roads elsewhere.
I stood and watched the Barnabas Road filter in operation for five minutes, during which time the following occurred. Several cars approached the planters, paused and then turned away, aided by convenient sidestreets on either side of the barrier ideal for manoeuvring away. But three van drivers approached and then simply drove straight through the middle, indeed one seemed to speed up simply to make a point. It would be wrong to characterise all van drivers as selfish twats who think the rules don't apply to them, but these three certainly were. Meanwhile just one cyclist rode through the gap during the five minutes of my observation, so the final total was vans three, bikes one. I'd not chalk that down as a success.
Meanwhile in Bow, Tower Hamlets council are having another go at introducing a Liveable Streets scheme. They attempted this for the first time last July and had to abandon the changes on day one, partly because the taxi lobby turned up and growled, but mainly because the implementation was ill thought-through and poorly organised. 2020's scheme is mostly completely different, which we're told is the result of improved community engagement, which just goes to show they should have done a lot more of that the first time.
Bow's new Liveable Streets proposals are up for consultation for the next four weeks. A 12-page booklet will be dropping through every letterbox in Bow, including a very detailed map, or you can download everything now to see what's been proposed. A heck of a lot is proposed, from pavement widening to school streets to replacing mini-roundabouts with T-junctions. In fact so much is proposed that I've had real trouble understanding what's going on at a high level, so this summary map is my best attempt at explaining. The green blobs are the current entrances to the pink zone. The yellow lines are the main roads. Adding the red blobs will divide off Bow (west) from Bow (east).
The biggest change is that they've shifted the proposed location of the bus gate. Last time it was on Tredegar Road, deterring traffic from the A12, but this time they intend to position it centrally on Roman Road itself. It'd be just to the west of the traffic lights, opposite the entrance to the market, breaking the connection to Grove Road. Only buses and cyclists would be allowed through, but it's up for grabs whether that's a) permanently, b) 7am to 7pm on weekdays or c) with an extra break between 10am and 2.30pm. This is why consultations matter. As one of the 70% of Tower Hamlets residents with no access to a car, I'd suggest 24/7.
Elsewhere an intriguing feature is that the 'temporary' blockage of Old Ford Road is to be made permanent. Planters were dropped either side of Skew Bridge in the early stages of lockdown, aiding cyclists and pedestrians trying to skirt Victoria Park, and this should now continue. The other big intervention is to seal off Coborn Road beneath the railway bridge, again with a three-way choice of timings. We already have some idea of what this might look like because it was part of last year's scheme, although this time we might get proper recreational facilities rather than astroturf and pink deckchairs.
I can already sense cabbies' hackles rising and cyclists cheering, but as ever the devil is in the detail. The car park by the bus gate will be reduced in size, but very few parking spaces elsewhere will be removed. Drivers on the eastern side of Bow appear to be getting off lightly. If I've scoured the map properly the intention is to add just four cycle hangars and one cycle stand across the whole of Bow, which seems a pitifully low ambition. And I'm so unnerved by the proposal to "update the signal timing at the junction of Fairfield Road and the A11 to allow for a pedestrian crossing" that I need to blog about that some other time. Plans to improve walking and cycling are always compromises, so we should always check they're the best compromise they can be.
Six months from now it'll be 2nd January 2021 and we'll be in one of these eight alternative futures. But which one?
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
LOCKDOWN
NEW NORMAL
HARD BREXIT
DEAL
HARD BREXIT
DEAL
TRUMP
NOT
TRUMP
TRUMP
NOT
TRUMP
TRUMP
NOT
TRUMP
TRUMP
NOT
TRUMP
Pick a number, and leave your prediction here. predictions
To be clear this isn't the future you want, it's the future you expect.
• Lockdown: I'm defining LOCKDOWN as anything tougher than the new regime that starts on Saturday (e.g. how things were in April, May or June) and NEW NORMAL as anything better (e.g. pubs and restaurants being open). Hopefully the virus will be under greater control by January, but it'll also be midwinter so perhaps more likely not.
• Brexit: The UK's transition period can't officially be extended now that 30th June has passed, so either a deal will be struck with the EU or we're going to crash out on New Year's Eve on WTO terms. If you think the deadline will (somehow) get extended (again) into 2021, pick Deal.
• Trump: Donald's up for re-election in November but won't go down without a fight. By January we will, or should, know whether he's staying for another four years or not.
I'm asking because we're notoriously bad at predicting the future, and because when that future arrives we often forget how bad we were at predicting it. Brexit/Boris/Trump feels like normality today, but four years ago when I presented you with a similar eightfold choice you didn't see it coming.
Predictions above, please, and any general comments in the normal comments box below.
And then on 2nd January 2021 we can look back and see whether we saw it coming this time.
Is there a way in which I could apply to change the name of a bus stop? I work for a business on a road where there are 3 bus stops, and no other businesses. The bus stops is named after the road and I'd like to have the name of it changed to be that of my business if possible.
12th June 2020
Yours faithfully,
RM
Hi
I hope you’re well and keeping safe.
Thank you for getting in touch with us with your request to change the name of a bus stop. We’d be more than happy to look into this further for you, however, please confirm the bus stop in question.
12th June 2020
Hi Lauren,
Kind regards
Lauren
Amazing! Thank you so much. There are three bus stops on the road so it would be great if they could all be changed? The bus stop name is 'Clayton Road'.
17th June 2020
Thank you!
RM
Hi
I hope you’re well and keeping safe.
Thank you for getting back in touch and confirming the bus stop name as Clayton Road. We’ve had a look into this, however, we found several bus stops called Clayton Road in different areas. If you could provide us with the full address, we’ll be more than happy to investigate further.
17th June 2020
Hi Lauren,
Kind regards
Lauren
Of course, its for bus stops K and J on Clayton Road, Peckham, SE15.
Thank you!
29th June 2020
RM
Hi
I hope you’re well and keeping safe.
Thank you for getting back in touch.
We’ve been in touch with our Asset Operations team and raised and discussed your request to change the bus stop’s name and they’ve advised that bus stop names are in place for route of travel and/or location.
Unfortunately, we don’t allow business names or for use of advertising.
Kind regards
Lauren
There's so much to enjoy here.
» RM asking their question in public view, via an FoI request, rather than by private email.
» RM forgetting to mention where the business is based.
» Lauren patiently probing to find out where the bus stop is.
» RM's excitement that this request might just be a goer.
» RM being unaware that London might have several Clayton Roads.
» RM first asking for one bus stop to be renamed, then three, then two.
» Lauren wasting two replies before checking whether renaming bus stops is actually allowed.
» Renaming bus stops for advertising purposes not being allowed.
Several bus stops are of course named after businesses, for example Harrods, Perivale Tesco, The Spaniards Inn and Chelsea Football Club. However the vast majority are not, and all continue to be named for the convenience of passengers rather than for the benefit of the highest bidder. You will not be alighting at The Prince of Peckham any time soon.
Mon 1: Supermarket update: Enjoyed the quietest lockdown-shop yet, but that's Monday mornings for you. Also hurrah, cheap bagged carrots, I have missed you. Tue 2: During the process of changing my email address I've received a folderful of automated emails either asking me to confirm settings or telling me that my email has been changed. The most trigger-happy organisation was Nectar, who sent four, closely followed by HMRC, TV Licensing and Southeastern who despatched three each. Eurostar only sent one, but had by far the most error messages during the attempted changeover process. Wed 3: Conkers are growing on the horse chestnuts on the East Marsh. It's great to know that autumn is on its way. Thu 4: Discarded atop one of the grassy ridgetops in the Olympic Park: a tub of French yoghurt (unfinished); a jar of Turkish olives (still half full); two plastic bags (wind-swept). Fri 5: Ever since 21st April, when I bit into a Wagon Wheel and it tasted funny, I haven't properly been able to taste anything sweet. Other flavours have all tasted fine, but chocolate biscuits, Cornettos and even strawberry yoghurts weren't quite right, just sadly bland. But today I had a slice of apple pie with custard and it suddenly tasted normal again, so that was a relief. Sat 6: Full marks to the children on Mabley Green engaging in socially distanced football practice, and zero marks to their parents clustering on the touchline while having a good gossip. Sun 7: Until today I hadn't bought anything for home delivery since lockdown began, but it struck me some cloth masks might be useful, so I supported the local economy and bought a couple from Studio Masachuka at the other end of Stratford High Street. Super-stylish, numerous Japanese designs available, six quid each. Mon 8: My six-month-old boiler broke down today leaving me without hot water again. Nobody wants to see a heating engineer at a time like this, so I was fearful things might get rather awkward. Thankfully modern boilers are smart, so when I read out the error code to an engineer he talked me through which two knobs to twiddle and the system reset itself.
Tue 9: If you live in the E3/E15 area and have an urban garden in need of restocking, hurrah for @theboatwithplants. This is moored up on the River Lea between Three Mills and Bow Locks with trays of seedlings on its roof, alongside a sign saying Get A Plant For Your Garden, Pay As You Feel. Wed 10: Supermarket update: While bagging up I had a long chat with the cashier about all the planned schemes to rebuild the store that have fallen through over the last few years. No immediate sign of the latest "rebuild it a quarter of the size on the other side of the road" plans, thankfully. Thu 11: A hand sanitiser dispenser has appeared outside Pudding Mill Lane DLR station. Better late than never. Fri 12: My attempts at comprehensive spring cleaning have stalled with one and a half rooms to go, partly because I'm no longer staying indoors quite so much, but mainly because I may need something to keep me occupied through the winter.
Sat 13: Discovery of the day was a pair of roadsigns in Poplar directing traffic towards the A102(M), a motorway designation which hasn't existed hereabouts since 16th September 1999. Sun 14: I'm not sure precisely what building work nextdoor have been up to recently, but I can now hear a creaky floorboard through the wall... once first thing in the morning and once last thing at night. I hope they can't hear mine. Mon 15: Westfield reopened this morning with a lot more activity than a normal Monday. Most shops were queueless but several had long lines outside, appropriately spaced, especially shoe shops, phone shops and the Apple Store. Even Flying Tiger - the epitome of a non-essential store - had 30 customers waiting patiently outside. But the malls themselves were a bit of a free-for-all with no evidence of a functional one-way system, and groups of shoppers milling everywhere, hence somewhat uncomfortable. I haven't wanted to go back. Tue 16: Swans Open, says a newly hung banner on a bridge in the southern Olympic Park, should your family fancy a £22 pedalo ride.
Wed 17: Signs have appeared on the walls of the Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre saying No Ball Games. The building's timber exterior has recently been scarred by hundreds of small circular marks, so I get where they're coming from, but seriously? Unintended outcome: a thoughtless muppet practising his tennis ball skills against the back of the Eton Manor war memorial instead. Thu 18: I'd forgotten what heavy rain was. An excellent crowd-dispersal agent, that's what. Fri 19: Supermarket update: The queueing slalom round the back of the building has been removed, as has the filter system to access the tills. Just the one-way system remains. Sat 20: Over the last week a ring of barriers has reappeared around the Olympic Stadium in readiness for today's first West Ham home match. Today all the doors were clanged shut, and security were explaining to bullet-headed men in claret and blue why they couldn't congregate outside. No you cannot buy a replica shirt, sir, please go home. Sun 21: Walking over the Lower Lea Crossing I was pleasantly surprised to bump into top London blogger Ian Visits walking in the opposite direction. What are the chances etc etc? We stopped for a catch-up, an appropriate number of steps apart, and I'd like to apologise to the other pedestrians on the bridge who were forced to divert briefly into the cycle lane. Mon 22: The library books I took out in mid-March have had their return date re-re-extended, this time to 1st September.
Tue 23: Now that London buses have limited capacities, BUS FULL signs are appearing behind the windscreen when maximum numbers have been reached. At Bus Stop M the 276 is the bus most likely to pass while displaying a yellow sign. That said, I have seen a lot of definitely un-full buses with the sign in the window, either because drivers are finding it hard to keep count or because some of them keep forgetting to turn the card back over. Wed 24: On Forest Gate's main street are the remains of Barry's Meat Market ('established since 1985'), part of a parade of boarded-over shops awaiting imminent demolition by the same team that levelled Discovery Park in Sandwich and BHS on Ealing Broadway. Expect a Lidl. Thu 25: My brother gave me a giant Toblerone for Christmas, which I managed not to open immediately, then decided to save for a special treat precisely six months later. What I hadn't reckoned on was June 25th being the hottest day of the year, which made its triangles awkwardly pliable. Worth the wait though. Fri 26: At the northern end of the Olympic Park I discovered a secret clearing shielded amid trees on a mound overlooking the river, with a handwritten copy of John Clare's sonnet to summer pinned to a tree. Sat 27: I've never been to Glastonbury, nor even to Glastonbury, but watching a slew of past highlights on TV somehow makes the summer feel more normal. Sun 28: Walking across Bow Creek at eight in the morning I first heard the tell-tale sound of rave music playing from a patch of woodland below the bridge, then spotted a group of young revellers taking a break beside the river wall. Three new attendees came wandering across from Canning Town station, all wearing sunglasses, one carrying a large bottle of water and another shamelessly dressed in a black hoodie with a smiley face on the back. Even in the inner city, partying in plain sight is easy. Mon 29: Supermarket update: I found a large bag of Jersey Royals reduced to 60% off, but also one day past their sell-by date... so I grabbed them before anybody told me not to. Tue 30: I may not have ventured more than 3 miles from home this month but I have walked a total of 200 miles, which is further than in any other month in the last two years. This is where not riding public transport gets you.
