KING'S CROSS STATION Group: British Railways Purchase price: £200 Rent: £25 Annual passengers: 23 million Borough:Camden Postcode: N1
The first of the four railway stations on the Monopoly board is London's prestigious gateway to Yorkshire and the North. It's the station Waddington's boss Victor Watson would have arrived at when he came down from Leeds in 1935 to research locations for the UK version, indeed it's said this is why he chose to include four LNER termini and nothing heading south of the river. In today's post I'm going to focus solely on King's Cross mainline station - not the tube, not St Pancras, nor the expansive redevelopment whipping up outside.
A (very) brief history:King's Cross station opened in 1852 to replace a temporary terminus on York Way. It's named after an ostentatious statue of King George IV briefly installed at a nearby road junction, before which the area had long been known as Battle Bridge. The two arched trainsheds and lofty clock tower have been there since day 1, gradually augmented by adjustments to accommodate more platforms and additional suburban railways. The most significant redevelopment of the station took place in 2012, removing the 40-year-old 'temporary' structure tacked on the front and replacing it with a spectacular semi-circular concourse bolted on the side. 100 words, tick.
King's Cross looks pretty wow these days, not least the swooshinglattice that pours from the ceiling like an onion bag sucked into a plughole. This metal vortex draws the eye towards the ground floor ticket office, or what's left of it, the bank of desks having been sequentially narrowed since 2012 to an ill-frequented rump. To either side are lengthy departure boards, thankfully not yet replaced by blazing adverts, announcing destinations as farflung as Inverness, Hull, Harrogate and King's Lynn. If it'll be dark by the time you reach Berwick maybe pop into Little Waitrose for canned cocktails and WHSmiths for a good book.
The thing about the new King's Cross station is that it's been divided very deliberately into arrivals and departures. When you arrive on a mainline train, somewhere within Cubitt's glorious trainshed, you're unceremoniously ushered forwards off the platforms and out onto the piazza in front of the station. You could turn right under cover but the architects' clear intention was to funnel everyone towards the bus stops and the external entrances to the tube, perhaps pausing to buy streetfood from the maze of stalls outside, and if it's raining bad luck.
By contrast if you're here to catch a train you get the dry route, the amazing ceiling and multiple opportunities for grazing. This is the inevitable consequence of a departure point where most travellers have bought advance tickets so tend to arrive early, because to arrive late risks being fleeced for a monumental walk-up fare. Once you're here you might as well settle down with a drink, perhaps a snack, or even a full-on meal in one of a dozen refreshment outlets. Top of the shop is The Parcel Yard, an extensive Fullers pub, but you might also succumb to a Prezzo, Wasabi, Giraffe or unapologetic pasty outlet offering a slab of warmed pastry you'll have wolfed down before passing Finsbury Park.
While you wait it's very tempting to head up to the mezzanine, either for the food or for the excellent overview. But station staff have obviously had previous trouble with inappropriate access because the steps on the escalators have been sequentially labelled No luggage/No bicycles/No pushchairs/No wheelchairs in screeching yellow-edged letters urging you to use the lifts instead. As well as catering outlets and little silver tables, the mezzanine also provides access to award winning toilets, or at least they earned Platinum Plus status in the Loo Of The Year Awards in 2022 and nobody's yet taken down the signs.
I particularly like the arc of elevated walkway that curves round from the mezzanine, which I suspect the architects hoped would be busy with refreshed punters waddling off to catch their trains. Instead it's generally ignored and overlooked, so much so that the gateline leading onto the overbridge is regularly unstaffed. The first platform crossed is number 8, one of two original platforms from 1852 and also the site of the lovely brassclock. The other original is platform 1 on the far side, where you might spot an bullet-headed Azuma nosing in or a budget blue Lumo 803 waiting to depart. You only properly hit the novelty jackpot if your train is scheduled at Platform 0, a late addition shoehorned under National Rail offices in 2010.
King's Cross's most famous platform of course doesn't exist. That's Platform 9¾, departure point of the termly Hogwarts Express, whose fictional existence doesn't stop hordes of fans turning up to see it. For this they all queue patiently to appear in a choreographed scarf-dropping photo in front of half a trolley, so great in number that even the queue has an overflow queue outside the main building. The entire P9¾ set-up has been hijacked by The Harry Potter Shop whose wizarding emporium is normally adjacent but is currently closed for a refit so they've had to open a pop-up beside Boots instead. And alas none of this is anywhere near the actual platforms 9 and 10, nor is there a magic pillar between them because the two tracks are adjacent.
For the best exterior overview you should exit the station and head up York Way, walking almost the entire length of Platform 0 to the top of the goods yard ramp. Here you can peer through the mesh and see the twin-humped trainshed and several trains poking out of it, modern rolling stock being a tad longer than Victorian engineers anticipated. Mere commuter routes are located on the far side in inferior architectural accommodation. And beyond that runs the enormity of Google's groundbreaking groundscraper, a headquarters they seem to have been building forever and which might just be finished at the end of next year. Grab yourself a hotdesk on the station-facing flank of the building and you could trainspot to your heart's content.
Personally I'd have put King's Cross a lot further round the Monopoly board, somewhere amid the better-off properties, but as things stand we've hit railway royalty early. I doubt I'm going to be able to make Fenchurch Street sound this interesting.
Tuesday (a): Last week I wrote a post about housing built on former airfields. Today I found myself standing outside some housing built on a former airfield, a fact made plain by someone mounting a model plane on the front of one block of flats. Additional clues included a plaque and the fact they'd named the road after an aircraft manufacturer.
This is De Havilland Road at the northernmost tip of the borough of Brent, not far from Burnt Oak, which was built on the site of Stag Lane Aerodrome. The plaque explains this and also refers to the de Havilland Aircraft & Engine Companies (1920-1971). It was unveiled on 25th September 2001. I'm a bit late with my photo, sorry, but how brilliant to have an arty wire plane on the front of your stairwell.
Tuesday (b): Chapel Lane in Pinner has a new street sign. I noticed it while I was waiting for the bus. That is one ostentatious new design, Harrow council. Their former design was bland in comparison.
Harrow updated their logo last June from a coloured sausage to a hifalutin coat of arms. They're clearly very pleased with it because they're now slapping it at the ends of roads whereas the previous street sign was logo-free. It's also now monochrome whereas the previous version had the postcode district in red. Formerly I'd have said London's most ostentatious street signs were those for Greenwich, who started incorporating coats of arms when the borough went Royal in 2012, but I think Harrow now trumps that. Several boroughs have really unshowy street signs, just names on a white background, but the least upbeat borough must be Bexley whose street signs feature a steaming turd behind a defecating dog.
Wednesday (a): I have an unwritten list of all the famous people I've bumped into unexpectedly while travelling around London which includes Una Stubbs, Su Pollard and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. I can now add Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham to that list because he was getting onto a District line train at Embankment this morning as I was getting off. Safely sidestepped.
Wednesday (b): Back in 2018, you may remember, I rode every bus route in London. Not the entire route, just at least one stop on each, and not nightbuses or schoolbuses because there is a limit to excess. It took me five months. Readers were generally congratulatory although one took time to "sincerely hope that your mental health is OK". In 2023 I gave it another try and this time completed the full tally in three months. I thought that was going some. But in 2024 I started again on 1st January and managed to ride all 543 of them within a calendar month. I admit I got a bit carried away.
This is an extremely non-trivial task, indeed if you do the maths you'll see I had to average 18 buses a day. I also made it slightly harder this time by riding at least two stops on each route, not one. The hardest routes to ride were the excessively infrequent (347/375/R5/etc), the strictly time-limited (385/389/H3/etc) and the wilfully peripheral (428/467/497/etc). But a lot of other routes were readily ticked-off (back and forth across Waterloo Bridge/repeated twiddling up Orpington High Street/etc) and some careful geographic planning got me through. I won't repeat my tactical considerations because those are previously blogged.
Anyway I'd like to apologise that my blogging throughout January was restricted by this preoccupation which meant I brought you fewer in-depth reports from around the capital than usual. That said, January was also the second most successful month ever on this blog, visitorwise, so maybe I should just go back and ride pointless buses more often. Don't worry, I have no intention of doing it all over again, but if any of you think you can do the whole lot in fewer than 31 days you're welcome to try.
Thursday: I'm saving this one for Unblogged February at the end of the month otherwise I'll have nothing unblogged left to say.
Friday: A local reader got in touch with further details of the supermarket rebrand on my local garage forecourt. Apparently the Co-op closed at 6pm on 31st January and reopened at 10am on 2nd February. I checked the timestamp on my photo and was amazed to find I'd taken it at 10:02, i.e. the new Asda Express had been open for only two minutes!
I have never seen a younger supermarket.
Saturday: When I wrote about the SL5, southeast London's new Superloop route, I may have given the impression that all the tiles at all the bus stops were correct. This was not the case. At the Chinese Garage the tiles on the northbound stop mistakenly say 356 and SL5, whereas they should say 358 and SL5 (like the southbound stop across the road).
Apparently the stops at Upper Elmers End Road are also incorrect.
Sunday:Last March I moaned that TfL had painted a 20 speed limit on the cobbles of Kitcat Terrace E3, this because nobody had the sense to overpaint the former 30 on the tarmac in front. One year on this 20 had finally started to fade and I could imagine the day when the numerical intrusion might be barely legible. But no, contractors made their way down Bow Road overnight and repainted the white lines on all the approach roads, including repainting the offending 20 so it shows up bright as new.
What we have here is a blunder doubled-down, a sequencing error reinforced by annual maintenance and which may now never go away. If you're responsible for the repainting schedule - hello, and could you perhaps add a note so that next year the 20 is shifted to the end of the street where the 30 used to be, allowing this cobbled defacement to fade away?
Monday (a): This morning TfL announceda consultation on extending the DLR to Thamesmead via Beckton Riverside. All sorts of people got excited at the prospect, overlooking that TfL had announced exactly the same potential DLR extension in Junelast year. Admittedly last time it was a feasibility study and this time it's a consultation so it's one step closer, but how quickly we forget.
This time a lot more backgroundinformation has been provided, mainly to explain why they chose this route and not any other. Apparently they looked into DLR extensions from Woolwich, Overground extensions from Barking, longer extensions, shorter extensions, even a brief tram from Abbey Wood but no other option delivered. That said, the key objective here is to unlock new housing either side of the Thames and only the DLR extension links both so it was always going to win out. It's also telling that TfL want to put the nail in the coffin of the Thames Gateway Bridge by removing all existing safeguarding on the land so even more housing can be crammed in. And only 60 years late.
Monday (b):Back in 2015 I wrote a much-shared post identifying all the areas of London that were more than two miles from a station. There aren't many, indeed by the time we'd drawn an accurate map it turned out there were only six. All are in zone 6 apart from one which lies in the southeast corner of Richmond Park by the Robin Hood Gate. Today I just happened to be in the southeast corner of Richmond Park so I checked on an app and I can confirm yes, it really is more than two miles from a station.
2.1 miles from Norbiton, 2.1 miles from Mortlake, 2.1 miles from Barnes and 2.2 miles from North Sheen. Nowhere in non-peripheral London is further from a station.
As a heads-up, this is the trajectory of today's post. a) Ooh, a street with an interesting name. b) Hmmm, I suspect it's also an interesting street. c) Ah, now I've walked it I see it's not interesting after all. d) But this gives me an idea about similarly-named streets. e) Ah, this similarly-named street isn't interesting either. f) Damn, I missed something interesting in that first street. g) Ooh, I have actually blogged about that first street before. h) Damn, despite that I have no photos of the interesting thing. i) Ah, it turns out my second idea wasn't very interesting either. j) Sigh.
a) Ooh, a street with an interesting name
This, as you can see, is Polygon Road. It has a streetsign from Camden's golden era. What an unusual name.
b) Hmmm, I suspect it's also an interesting street.
I'm in Somers Town, the historic but beleaguered neighbourhood sandwiched between Euston and St Pancras stations. Several of the streets hereabouts have several old buildings, so I bet Polygon Road does too.
c) Ah, now I've walked it I see it's not interesting after all.
Polygon Road has all the hallmarks of a street that's been repeatedly redeveloped by the council and the Luftwaffe. It crosses a grid of multiple other streets, and many of the blocks are now occupied by hulking lowrise flats of the postwar variety. One block past Ossulston Street is likely prewar instead but that doesn't make it interesting either. Two city blocks have been taken over by large primary schools, one of which (Edith Neville) resembles a hypermodern Mediterranean villa and is only three years old. It's coupled to a bold redbrick play centre with a crown-shaped roof called Plot 10, although that's technically on Chalton Street so doesn't count.
A broad strip alongside Polygon Road has been turned over to recreational provision, very much a rarity in these parts before regeneration. Adults get a clustered urban gym while children have Polygon Road Open Space, which perversely is all fenced off. There is perhaps too much tarmac, an excess of bollards and far too many pigeons. Further up the street is a mysterious mural high above a school playground, plus a Victorian pub called The Jubilee that closed in 2003 and is now three flats, plus a small sushi delivery hub called Dojobox. Polygon Road then dissipates underneath a block of flats on Eversholt Street, and now I've walked it I see it's not particularly interesting after all.
d) But this gives me an idea about similarly-named streets.
I wonder which other London streets are named after polygons?
e) Ah, this similarly-named street isn't interesting either.
This is Triangle Road in Hackney. It's sandwiched between London Fields and a railway viaduct, fairly close to Broadway Market. It's quite short. It looked promising when I found it on the map but now I'm here I'm not so sure.
The only building on the left is The Ann Tayler Children's Centre, one of Hackney council's family hubs. It no longer looks as bright and lively as it did when it opened in 2007. The right hand side is all poky-looking flats and because it's of a similar post-millennial vintage has had serious cladding issues, hence they remain half-covered with scaffolding. I don't normally describe newbuilds as the slums of the future but in this case that might be right. The first bend is bollarded so only bikes and pedestrians can pass through, and beyond that I found a long line of GenZs queuing for falafel pittas dispensed from a tiny railway arch, but by that point the road had morphed silently into a different-named street. Triangle Road, it turns out isn't especially interesting either.
f) Damn, I missed something interesting in that first street.
Once I'd given up and gone home I googled Polygon Road and discovered it was named after something really quite interesting, namely The Polygon. This was an aspirational housing development built at the end of the 18th century comprising 32 houses arranged in the form of a sixteen-sided figure with central gardens. It would have been too much of a mouthful to call this residential citadel The Hexadecagon so they called it The Polygon instead. The Napoleonic Wars and Railway Age then intervened, dampening investment, and the surrounding area eventually became filled by denser less desirable housing. The Polygon, now slummier, was replaced in 1894 by flats of more standard shape, and then replaced again in 1972 by the Oakshott Court council estate.
What I missed was a plaque to one of the Polygon's most famous former residents. Not Charles Dickens, who moved into number 17 for two years shortly after his father was released from debtors' prison, but the doubly whammy of two Mary Wollstonecrafts. Mother Mary, the pioneering writer and feminist philosopher, was one of the Polygon's earliest residents and lived at number 29. And here she gave birth to daughter Mary, later better known as Mary Shelley the author of Frankenstein. Interestingly it's mother not daughter who's commemorated here on a heritage plaque, but because that's slightly round the corner on Werrington Street I never saw it.
g) Ooh, I have actually blogged about that first street before.
In 2015 I went on a two hour walking tour of Camden's social housing organised by the Camden Tour Guides Association to celebrate the borough's 50th birthday. They led us from the old town hall through Somers Town to Camley Street and one of the highlights was Oakshott Court.
I'd even mentioned in my subsequent post that it was built on the site of The Polygon and hosted a plaque to Mary Wollstonecraft, but alas when I turned up nine years later I'd forgotten all of that. I can't be expected to remember everything I've blogged.
h) Damn, despite that I have no photos of the interesting thing.
I definitely took a photo of Mary's plaque on that tour, which I could have reproduced here except I don't seem to have a copy of it. I'd just bought a new laptop at the time, and for some reason none of the photos I took at the end of July 2015 have ended up on it. So here's a link to someone else's photo of the plaque instead.
What I have got is a photo of the mysterious mural I mentioned earlier, which it turns out contains depictions of The Polygon, the River Fleet, Charles Dickens, Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley and 'the Head of Frankenstein'. The GLC commissioned the mural in 1980 and it didn't start out here, it's been moved twice following redevelopment, but it is all I have.
i) Ah, it turns out my second idea wasn't very interesting either.
3-sided polygons: London has only two Triangle streets - Triangle Road in E8 and Triangle Place in Clapham - plus some insignificant Triangle passageways and alleys. 4-sided polygons: By contrast London has a ridiculously high number of Squares, so many as to make referencing them all impractical. But there are no Rectangle streets or Oblong streets. There are definitely no Trapezium streets, Rhombus streets or Parallelogram streets. I went to Kite Place in Bethnal Green because a map told me it existed but I couldn't find it. Four sided polygons are an abject disappointment. 5-sided polygons: There are no Pentagon streets. 6-sided polygons: There are no Hexagon streets. 7-sided polygons: There are no Heptagon streets. 8-sided polygons: I thought there might be an Octagon street but there isn't. 9-sided polygons: There are no Nonagon streets. 10-sided polygons: There's a Decapod Street but not a Decagon. And beyond 10 sides lies madness.
j) Sigh.
London's only interesting polygonal street is Polygon Road, and I messed that one up.
Route SL5: Bromley North - Croydon Town Centre Length of journey: 7 miles, 35 minutes
Another arc of the Superloop sprang into action yesterday, and it's an oddity. Firstly it's the shortest of the seven circuitous routes. Secondly it doesn't serve any major centres of population other than at its endpoints. And thirdly sheesh, look at that, it's a single decker.
The new express route links the towns of Bromley and Croydon, which if you consider outer London as a clockface are at five o'clock and six o'clock respectively. That's why the SL5's route is short, there being no good reason to extend any further at either end. There are also only eleven stops, three of which are in Bromley and two of which are in Croydon, so a lot of the intervening territory is being skated over. The route has been carefully chosen not to parallel what the trams do, nor to shadow the 119 bus which already links the two towns via a longer, slower path. But the SL5 doesn't take an optimal route, it still goes round the houses, and allow me to show you that on a jumped-up map.
TfL are keener to depict the route as a stylised tube-like diagram, and it's this that appears along the side of the bus and on the leaflet they were giving out on day 1. They've got a lot better at inaugural shenanigans since the first Loop launch when all anyone got was a generic coloured circle on glossy card of no practical use. Casual staff in branded hi-vis were once again employed to stand at major stops and inform waiting passengers, even cajole them on board with the promise of a faster journey. They also had a small number of shiny pin badges to give out, which I discovered later they were most likely to do at one of the quieter stops in the middle where interaction had been light.
Let's take a ride.
The northern launchpoint is outside Bromley North station, which is also where interchange with the SL3 to Thamesmead will begin next month. A crowd has gathered, partly because many other buses start here but also because the novelty of the Superloop has brought the fans out. What's striking is how young most of them are, not the archetypal Old Men Who Like Buses but schoolmates and TikTok buddies meeting for the novelty of it. You don't get this when 'normal' routes launch, but the hype around the Superloop has perhaps gifted it superstar status. "Only 20 minutes to Croydon" chirrups Hi-Vis Girl, which I suspect is a seriously over-optimistic estimate and so it proves.
Bromley is always a pain to pass through, the pedestrianisation of the high street forcing an awkward delaying detour. But it's profitable passengerwise and by the time we reach Bromley South there are over 20 people aboard. Many are even genuine passengers laden with shopping or luggage, the last of whom are floundering to find a seat. When I rode the SL1 and SL10 on their Day 1 a single decker would easily have sufficed, but on the SL5 the absence of an upstairs is already proving cluttered (and this is not a one-off). The route already looks like an overnight success.
As we speed off out of town the bus-teens are already offering their opinions on the journey so far. The vehicle is a "geriatric" Dennis Dart Enviro 200 in service since 2012, and they can feel the "nightmare" vibrations when they lean against the window. The USB ports are "well cool" and should allow them to film the entire route without running out of juice. The route is "quite good" and will help the ringleader reach his auntie's house in just two buses. The free pin badge might be worth "shitloads" on eBay, but the economics student reckons it's a matter of supply and demand instead. They've brought snacks.
At the end of Westmoreland Road the obvious direction for a quick journey would be straight ahead but instead we turn right. The obstructive issue is this bridge outside West Wickham station...
...which has an unforgiving 7 foot width restriction. It's also the only way across the railway for a mile and a half so the SL5 has been forced to make a looping diversion one way or the other. The route's planners picked north via Hayes Lane rather than south via Hayes, because the 119 already goes that way, and so skipped the very-deserving population of West Wickham. This instead gifted the outlying folk of Park Langley and Eden Park an excellent express bus service, which is perhaps a good thing because before today their Croydon-ward links were particularly poor.
'The Chinese Garage' is an unusual name for a bus stop, not least because the pagoda's designer originally intended it to look Japanese. It landed beside the Park Langley roundabout in 1928 and has been turning heads ever since, although they haven't sold petrol here, or indeed cars, for some time. The building's most recent rebirth is as a Majestic Wine shop and Tesco Express, and during busy trading hours the stream of vehicles trying to enter or exit the car park can clog up the roundabout somewhat (and thus slow down the buses). On this occasion thankfully we sail through.
Four out of six of the SL5's intermediate stops are on the next run south, either on South Eden Park Road or Monks Orchard Road. These also have fresh bus shelters, as befits the Mayor's premier orbital route, whereas previously passengers would have waited for a handful of buses exposed to all weathers. One isn't quite finished and still has a dolly stop, whereas the rest already have their illuminable Superloop roundel on top. It's going to be interesting to see what happens at the Langley Park School stop on Monday when the girls' school and boys' school turf out, because even a double decker would struggle and a single decker totally won't cope. Alas it's the low hanging trees along this very stretch that forced the SL5's vehicle height issue.
If you were judging solely by distance you wouldn't pause an express route at Bethlem Royal Hospital because it's much too close to the bus stops either side. But stopping outside a medical facility gives this Superloop route its raison d'être, even if a hospital focusing on psychiatric issues and mental health won't be the passenger generator somewhere with A&E and outpatients might have been. The Hi-Vis Bloke hanging around the freshly tarmacked shelter looks particularly underutilised.
If you're out riding the SL5 and looking for somewhere to break your journey, Bethlem's excellent Museum of the Mind is open from Wednesday to Saturday and is always worth a visit. What's more they've just opened a new exhibition by artist Alison Lapper, she of the curvaceous statue Alison Lapper Pregnant which was displayed on the Fourth Plinth in 2005. That bump became a much-loved son called Parys but he died tragically at the age of just 19, and here in a few bleak works she mourns his loss and empowers her canvases with visceral grief. It packs a total emotional punch.
The last stop before Croydon is outside Shirley Library, a facility now reduced to a "Select and Collect" service just two days a week due to serious council financial ineptitude. The good people of Shirley already had three frequent bus routes to whisk them into Croydon and now they have another, this time non-stop, because they're one of the major winners in the Superloop lottery. But two miles is a long way to go without a bus stop, not even one to switch to the trams at Sandilands, especially if traffic is bad and you suddenly find you can't get off. On this occasion thankfully we sail through.
The majority of passengers - and we're still unexpectedly packed - pour out at East Croydon station. This is where you'd switch to the SL7, the original long-haul to Heathrow, were you Superlooping properly. But those who want the shops rather than the trains stay aboard along with the first day riders intent on reaching the very end of the route. This comes in Park Street, in what's laughingly called the Central Croydon Conservation Area despite half the blocks having been summarily demolished. Here the bus-teens hop off and plan their next move, which sounds like it'll be straight back to Bromley, and the driver flees for a welcome breather at the end of the flyover.
The journey's taken 35 minutes, of which five were within Bromley, five within Croydon and 25 zipping inbetween. I bet it's not that quick all day, indeed I suspect it was significantly slower once the Saturday shopping throng built up. But the SL5 does indeed look like a gamechanger for those making orbital journeys and particularly if you're fortunate enough to live along its route. Also I think all the red tiles are in place at all the relevant bus stops plus all the proper timetables, which is a definite improvement on those early Superloop launches. I also spotted totally up-to-date spider maps in bus shelters, even in residential backwaters like Park Langley, although the new map in Bromley is going to need replacing in just three weeks' time when the SL3 arrives. Hey bus-teens, I'll see you there.
Most days I walk past the Co-op on Bow Road - Bow Road's Co-op. I don't shop there, it's only a garage forecourt store, nothing large or special. But it's well stocked - plenty of chiller choice, all the cereals, lots of booze.
When I was walking past earlier this week I noticed a lot of the shelves looked empty, not just scavenged but entirely product-free. And yesterday I was surprised to see an Asda lorry had pulled up on the forecourt where normally I'd expect to see a petrol tanker or a Co-Op truck. I looked more carefully and blimey, the Co-op had suddenly metamorphosed into an Asda Express.
I popped inside and it looked very similar to before - same coffee machine, same racks, same aisles. The fruit and veg were still in the same place, the ready meals hadn't moved and the puzzle magazines still faced the checkout. But the staff were in fresh green uniforms, the tills had new green lights, the meal deal was different and the macaroni cheese was suddenly from Asda's Bistro range. Even the terms and conditions for parking outside had changed. A new era had begun.
If I'd been paying attention I might have realised. Asda snapped up the Co-op's entire petrol forecourt business last September, a total of 129 stores across the UK. The Co-op hoped trimming 5% off its retail estate would deliver ready cash, and Asda had strategic plans to expand into smaller convenience stores. At the time there were only three Asda Express stores in Greater London and this acquisition brought that total up to 15. I see Bow's store wasn't on the official list of January openings which means it can't be more than two days old.
If nothing else it's good news for customer choice in the E3 postcode. We've never had an Asda before, the closest being down a mile down the Mile End Road at Stepney Green. We've never had a Morrisons either, nor an Aldi, Lidl or Waitrose, and even our local tiny Sainsbury's is barely ten years old. We are instead especially over-Tesco-ed round here.
Big Name Supermarkets in E3
• Asda Express, Bow Road E3 2AN
• Co-op, Mile End Road, E3 4QS
• Iceland, Roman Road, E3 5ES
• Sainsbury's Local, Devas Street, E3 3NT
• Tesco Express, Bow Road, E3 4LU
• Tesco Express, Vernon Rd, E3 5GS
• Tesco Express, Violet Rd, E3 3QG
• Tesco Superstore, Hancock Rd, E3 3DA
Look, I've made you a map. The A in the middle is the new Asda Express, now the closest of the big supermarket chains to my house.
The map goes much further than E3, covering about half of Tower Hamlets and the fringes of Hackney and Newham. It shows, I hope, all the outlets of the UK's top 10 supermarket brands (Tesco Sainsbury Asda Morrisons Aldi Co-op Lidl Waitrose Iceland Spar). The larger circles represent the largest supermarkets, the behemoths with maximum choice, and you'll see they're fairly few and far between. My local big Tesco is the only place within bag-lugging distance of my house with a full range of biscuits, yoghurt and sauce.
Which got me wondering how far I live from each of the top 10 UK supermarket chains. This kind of thing is important at Christmas when they're all punching out massive advertising campaigns to get you to do your festive spending there, and you think "I'd love to but you don't have a branch anywhere near me so stuff it".
The UK's top 5 supermarkets(by retail sales) 1) Tesco: Bromley By Bow Superstore (0.38 miles) 2) Sainsbury's: Bromley by Bow Station Local (0.39 miles) 3) Asda: Bow Express Petrol (0.15 miles) 4) Morrisons: Stratford (1.49 miles) 5) Aldi: Kingsland Shopping Centre, Dalston (2.79 miles)
It was all going really well there until numbers 4 and 5. Thanks to my new Texaco Asda I now live within half a mile of the UK's top three supermarkets. But Morrisons remains a proper trudge on the far side of Stratford and my nearest Aldi is so far away it doesn't even feature on my earlier map. Let's carry on.
The UK's next 5 supermarkets(by retail sales) 6) Co-op Mile End Road's Co-op (0.77 miles) 7) Lidl Burdett Road (1.1 miles) 8) Waitrose Stratford City (1.1 miles) 9) Iceland Bow Roman Road (0.6 miles) 10) Spar Chrisp Street Market (1.16 miles)
If you add up the six shortest distances, to create something I'd like to call a Supermarket Choice Index, you get 3.4 miles. That sounds pretty good going in my book.
0.15 + 0.38 + 0.39 + 0.6 + 0.77 + 1.1 = 3.4
I've also calculated the Supermarket Choice Index for somewhere in Outer London (Petts Wood), somewhere just outside London (Croxley Green), somewhere urban and northerly (Hull) and somewhere very rural (my Dad's Norfolk village).
Supermarket Choice Index
» Bow: 3.4 miles
» Petts Wood: 3.6 miles
» Croxley Green: 6.6 miles
» North Hull: 3.1 miles
» Rural Norfolk: 34.3 miles
Petts Wood is almost as good as Bow in terms of supermarket choice. Croxley's double the total distance, as you might expect in car-reliant suburbia. North Hull has the lowest score of my five unscientifically-selected locations, because it turns out my student digs were really well located for grocery shopping. And rural Norfolk is a bit of a disaster, distance-wise, with only two top supermarkets within 5 miles and three Store Finders refusing to display any closest store at all.
I have of course entirely ignored smaller grocery chains, independents and corner shops, although if you have to rely on these you likely have a lot less choice and end up spending more to boot. But hurrah, I now have an Asda within easy walking distance of my door, should I choose to exercise the option, and my supermarket choice is edging towards optimal. How's yours?
A Nice Walk: London Commonwealth Walkway (1½ miles)
Sometimes you just want to go for a nice walk, nothing too taxing, a bit of a stroll, lots to see, centrally located, historic buildings, an international frisson, royally approved, multiple refreshment opportunities, entirely step-free, won't take long. So here's a pleasant mile and a half tracing High Commissions through the West End, nowhere near enough to make a day of it but a nice walk all the same.
First there was the Jubilee Walkway, a looped trail through central London inaugurated for the Queen's Silver Jubilee. Then came the Jubilee Greenway, a much longer 2012 circuit to jointly celebrate the Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics. Now finally we have the London Commonwealth Walkway, a brief addition in 2018 to commemorate the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting coming to the capital. It was designed by The Outdoor Trust, links several diplomatic buildings and flies so low below the radar that I don't think I'd previously been aware of its existence until I spotted one of these bronze markers underfoot.
The trail's endpoints depend on whether you believe the map on the Commonwealth Walkway website or the supporting text. But very roughly speaking it follows Pall Mall and the Strand via Trafalgar Square with a number of potential twiddles along the way. I chose to start outside Buckingham Palace, which seemed appropriate Commonwealthly speaking and is where the Queen launched the trail a few days before her 92nd birthday. Alas all I found underfoot here were plaques for the Jubilee Greenway and the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Walk, plus an awful lot of inspection covers for subterranean palatial utilities, so I relocated to a more promising starting point behind St James's Palace.
Marlborough House is a former royal palace and since 1965 the seat of the Commonwealth Secretariat. Out front is a sturdy metal panel decorated with the flags of every Commonwealth nation and including a lot of upbeat information about the Commonwealth, the Commonwealth Games and how lovely the Queen is. It also includes a map depicting the London Commonwealth Walkway, although not in a helpful way that'd prepare you for what you'll be looking out for, indeed if you followed the green line you'd likely miss most of the trail's markers. More impractically the panel is currently taped off by a makeshift assemblage of cones and sandbags, for reasons not entirely apparent, so even the map is off limits. Thankfully I'd come prepared and knew where to go.
High Commission Of The Republic Of Cyprus & Consulate-General, 13 St James's Square
The first waypoint isn't along Pall Mall, it's off-piste in the far corner of St James's Square alongside the London Library. The Cypriot high commission is housed in an elegant Georgian building and, because Cyprus is one of only two Commonwealth nations in the EU, displays a large blue and gold flag out front alongside that of the island. It soon becomes clear there are two entrances, one for diplomatic staff and one for mere underlings requesting consulate services who are expected to descend to basement level instead. The bronze medallion we seek is clearly seen in front of the posh door, embedded in a paving slab, and there'll be nine more like that to find as we proceed.
Papua New Guinea High Commission, 14 Waterloo Place
This one's not on Pall Mall either, it's around the corner on Waterloo Place in another old building owned by the Crown Estate. Because it too is tucked into a corner its flag tends not to flutter, which is a shame because a 15-year-old schoolgirl went to a lot of effort to design it. If you own a business and fancy sharing a building with Oceanian diplomatic staff, a sign out front advises that recently refurbished office space is available.
New Zealand High Commission, 1 Pall Mall East
Finally, a building the London Commonwealth Walkway actually passes. New Zealand House is often considered London's finest 1960s office block, a rare West End tower sculpted from reinforced concrete and plated glass. It is perhaps less impressive at ground level, especially so at present because it's hoardinged-off while the building undergoes a £150m revamp. I loved the view from the 17th floor roof terrace when Open House allowed us up there in 2002, although it wasn't quite high enough to see what the Queen might have been up to in her back garden.
Canada House/la Maison du Canada, Trafalgar Square
As one of the Empire's big-hitters Canada's high commission got to be very centrally located, taking over what's now Canada House in 1925. It's one of the few embassy-type buildings the wider public are welcomed into, at least to the cultural gallery space, plus they do free pre-booked tours on Fridays for a deeper dive. The Commonwealth Walkway plaque's not outside that entrance, it's around the side actually facing Trafalgar Square, beneath a set of steps, a gold maple leaf and a security guard wearing a black woolly hat.
Uganda House, 58–59 Trafalgar Square
Close by, on a pointy corner not far from Admiralty Arch, is the home of Uganda's high commission. From a distance its Portland stone impresses but up close at ground level the design and typography instead screams 1970s suburban travel agent. Accoutrements in the 'shop window' include a stripy shield with a grey crowned crane in the centre, a sprawly pot plant and a poster urging you to visit The Pearl of Africa. If you're wondering why there are two flags flying from the roof the other is that of Burundi, not quite Uganda's neighbour, whose high commission shares the building.
Nigeria High Commission, 9 Northumberland Avenue
I've got to write a blogpost about Northumberland Avenue later in the year because it's on the Monopoly board so I won't overdo this one. But I will say Nigeria House is 150 years old, Grade II listed, was designed in Elaborated Italianate style, occupies a corner site and blocks off its ground floor windows with travel posters.
South Africa House, Trafalgar Square
Facing off against Canada across the fountains, this building's bulky, palatial and a bit more fortressy. It was built in the 1930s on the site of Morley's Hotel and is liberally adorned with sculptures of indigenous flora and fauna including mimosa, wildebeest and the inevitable springbok. The nameplate by the door gives the name in Afrikaans as well as English. Being centrally located made it vulnerable to major protests during the apartheid era, although the iron gates at the entrance proved very successful in keeping reason out.
Zimbabwe House, 429 Strand
This one's awkward. The London Commonwealth Walkway leads walkers all the way along the main body of the Strand without highlighting a single high commission as if none exist, conveniently ignoring the diplomatic presence of Zimbabwe. They withdrew from the Commonwealth in 2003, or rather President Mugabe did after being repeatedly accused of violating basic human rights and contravening Commonwealth principles, an international standoff which lingers even several years after his death. Walkway pilgrims should thus ignore any protests outside, turn the other cheek and proceed past tenminutesworth of plaquelessness.
Gibraltar Government Office, 150 Strand
This is the building that inspired my nice walk because it's where I first saw an LCW plaque embedded in the pavement. It looks more like a Georgian shop, indeed likely once was, and currently has a window display promoting study at the University of Gibraltar. Its dangly flag (a three-towered, two-tiered red castle) is particularly striking. Other British Overseas Territories with missions in London but not on the trail include Anguilla (10 Storey's Gate), Bermuda (6 Arlington Street) and the Cayman Islands (34 Dover Street).
High Commission of India, Aldwych
I don't have a photo of this stalwart building because when I found the embedded plaque at the entrance two police officers were standing immediately behind it. They didn't look the type who'd be impressed by the excuse "no, honest, I'm just doing visual surveillance along the London Commonwealth Walkway", so I moved on. India House has been sandwiched between Bush House and Marconi House since 1930, and its exterior features twelve provincial emblems including a rhino for Assam, a tiger for Bengal and a peacock for Burma. If you'd walked past last week you'd have seen multiple balloons and cheering crowds as part of 75th Republic Day celebrations, but I just got coppers.
Australia House, 71 Aldwych
And finally to the last of the Empire's cornerstones, Australia. They took over this corner site at the far end of the Strand in 1913, shipping over many of the building materials from Down Under. Other facts you can read on Wikipedia include the existence of a sacred well in the basement, the interior doubling up for Gringotts Bank in the Harry Potter films and the presumption that this building is the single largest polling station in Australian federal elections. And yes, there's the last of the ten London Commonwealth Walkway medallions out front, just below the flag and in front of the ornate black and gold doors.
Once you've completed your London Commonwealth Walkway walk you can sign in on the Community Walkway website and claim a stamp on your Community Walkway passport. What's more you don't have to be in London to do this because the scheme's overall intention is to create a 1000km path linking 100 global cities permanently marking 2000 points of significance. For example in the UK there's also the Birmingham Platinum Jubilee Walkway and the Cardiff Commonwealth Walkway, which you probably haven't heard of either, and across the world four in the Channel Islands, five in Australia, two in New Zealand, one in Jamaica, one in Sri Lanka, one in Saint Helena, one in Tristan da Cunha and one in Antarctica. If there's a nice walk near you, why not give it a try?
Is there no limit to the number of tube map variants?
Here's TfL's latest, a 'circular' tube map.
It prioritises the Circle line whose traditional loop has been manipulated into a perfect circle, but it distorts the hell out of all the other tube lines. Oxford Circus and Piccadilly Circus are on opposite sides of the central roundel, for example, so the Bakerloo line is positively warped. It's not a map you'd use to plan a journey. The designer's clearly had a lot of fun and done a pretty good job given the awkward constraints, but he didn't have to include the Overground, DLR, Crossrail or the trams which must have helped a lot.
It is, obviously, a sponsored tube map because TfL wouldn't bother with a major redesign unless a multinational was paying. The sponsor is a phone company I won't be mentioning (indeed I've photoshopped all their branding out of today's photos just to annoy their marketing department). They've just released a new model with a new feature involving circles, hence this artificial map and a somewhat contrived advertising campaign alongside. I swear I have not made this employee's name up.
Emma Strain, Customer Director at Transport for London (TfL) said: “We’re delighted to partner with Redacted on this exciting reimagining of our iconic map for the first time in 90 years. Partnerships like this help us and brands engage with hundreds of thousands of people who pass through our stations every day.”
The 'first time in 90 years' quote sounds well dodgy, but apparently "this is the first time TfL has produced an official map for its network that differs from the Beck design". TfL increasingly hero-worship commercial brands, but it's still nauseating to see them describe a paid-for temporary two-week takeover map as 'official'.
I found this map reproduced in multiple formats at Blackfriars, one of the five Circle line stations getting a circular makeover. They've plastered the map around the circular vent in the ticket hall, added further maps on the landing beyond the gateline and even replaced two of the framed tube maps on the platforms. The makeover at King's Cross is even more in-yer-face, dominating escalators, concourse and platforms well away from the Circle line.
TfL have clearly learnt lessons from their recent Bond Street renaming debacle.
"While some maps on platforms will be changed to this limited-edition design, there will still be traditional Harry Beck maps available in the station and in-train announcements, announcements within the stations and staff on platforms will continue to help customers should they require it."
Most of this pre-emptive strike is irrelevant because nobody's attempting to rename the station this time, but the bit about still having original maps 'in the station' is weaselly. At Blackfriars, for example, the eastbound platform no longer displays a traditional Harry Beck map because it's been covered over by this impractical circular advert. On the westbound platform one remains.
The phone company in question flashed up a press release on their newsfeed yesterday afternoon which specifically mentioned a 31st January launch date. And yet peculiarly none of the usual media channels have run with it, despite it being an actual circular tube map, perhaps because there's an embargo or perhaps because they're just not interested.
Whatever, expect to see this quirky diagram on your tube journey over the next two weeks, not because it's useful but because someone's trying to flog you a new phone and TfL need the money.
For twenty-oneconsecutiveFebruaries on diamond geezer I've kept myself busy by counting things. Ten different counts, to be precise, in a stats-tastic 28-day feature called The Count. You therefore won't be surprised to hear that I intend to do exactly the same again this year. Expect to read a post of comparisons and contrasts at the end of the month. I kicked off this annual exercise back in 2003 which means I already have over two decades of thrilling historical data to analyse and this'll be a 22nd datapoint. As usual in leap years, February 29th will not be included to keep the data equivalent. Here's my selected list of ten countables for February 2024.
Count 1: Number of visits to this blog (Feb 2023 total: 77244) Count 2: Number of comments on this blog (Feb 2023 total: 830) Count 3: Number of words I write on this blog (Feb 2023 total: 34291) Count 4: Number of hours I spend out of the house (Feb 2023 total: 164) Count 5: Number of nights I go out and am vaguely sociable (Feb 2023 total: 4) Count 6: Number of bottles of lager I drink (Feb 2023 total: 3) Count 7: Number of cups of tea I drink (Feb 2023 total: 116) Count 8: Number of trains I travel on (Feb 2023 total: 141) Count 9: Number of steps I walk (Feb 2023 total: 434000) Count 10: The Mystery Count(Feb 2023 total: 0) (again)
I feel like picking an 11th category, just for 2024, but I'm not sure what to choose. If you have any ideas please let me know, but make it practical and interesting and non-trivial, and be quick because I have to start counting it today.
n.b. I'm also undertaking some annual counts this year, entirely additional to my normal stats-packed February, so let's see how they're going...
• Number of London boroughs visited: all of them (at least twice)
• Number of London bus routes ridden: all of them (100%)
• Number of Z1-3 stations used: 89 (23%)
• Number of Z4-6 stations used: 0
For twenty-one consecutive Februaries on diamond geezer I've kept myself busy by counting things. Ten different counts, to be precise, in a stats-tastic 28-day feature called The Count. You therefore won't be surprised to hear that I intend to do exactly the same again this year. Expect to read a post of comparisons and contrasts at the end of the month. I kicked off this annual exercise back in 2003 which means I already have over two decades of thrilling historical data to analyse and this'll be a 22nd datapoint. As usual in leap years, February 29th will not be included to keep the data equivalent. Here's my selected list of ten countables for February 2024.
