1. Did you unexpectedly meet anyone famous this week? Yes.
2. Go on then, who? On Monday I walked past Servalan outside the Windmill Theatre in Soho. And I thought no, pull yourself together man, that wasn't really Servalan. That was Jacqueline Pearce the talented actress best known for her role as the evil intergalactic dominatrix Servalan in the late 70s BBC sci-fi series Blake's 7. And then I thought, no, stuff it, that wasServalan. She still has the same cropped haircut she had 25 years ago only with a quiff at the front, and she still swishes along in a confident all-powerful way, but she's smaller in real life than I expected, and blimey isn't she looking good for 60, and she smiles a lot, and why is she carrying that large bunch of flowers? And then I thought, wowServalan. And then I carried on shopping.
2. Anyone else? Yes. On Tuesday I walked past oh-what's-her-name I-recognise-her-from-somewhere in Shepherd Market off Piccadilly. Odd how you know you know someone even though you're not quite sure you know who she is. But I checked later (hurrah for the internet) and it was Hester from Fresh Fields. You know, the talented actress Julia McKenzie who played cheery unassuming Hester Fields in the cosy mid 80s ITV sitcom Fresh Fields. Only by the time I realised who she was she was long gone.
4. Anyone else? No.
5. Sorry, I appear to have run out of questions. I noticed. That must be because the Friday Five website finally shut down last week after 2½ years providing us with inspirational bloggable questions every week. Suddenly no more. How will we find something original to write about on Fridays now? (but wow, Servalan, really)
Silver Jubilee:Baker Street Opened: Saturday 10th January 1863 Distance from previous station: 2.1 km Platform (northbound): exit to the left of the train Platform (southbound): exit to the right of the train You are now entering: zone 1 Change here for: Bakerloo line (a very easy same-level interchange), Metropolitan line, Circle line, Hammersmith & City line. You'd be quicker changing here: From here to West Ham by Jubilee line takes 29 minutes. From here to West Ham by Hammersmith & City line takes 27 minutes. Fact file: Baker Street is one of only seven underground stations on the world's first underground line between Paddington and Farringdon. The Bakerloo line deep-level station opened here in 1906, and the line out to Stanmore in 1939. More photos here. 5 things I found outside the station: hundreds of tourists buying tacky souvenirs and pizzas, long queues for sightseeing buses, a statue of Sherlock Holmes, Transport for London's Lost Property Office (it's amazing what people lose), the big green copper dome of the London Planetarium (opened 1958). Nearby (1):Madame Tussaud's waxworks dates back to 1835, when French sculptress Marie Tussaud opened her famous collection in Baker Street. I went to nursery school in her old studios, you know, up Watford way. Nowadays Ms Tussaud's legacy is an overpriced tourist trap complete with mild fright and Kylie's arse. Nearby (2): Sherlock Holmes never lived at 221B Baker Street, mainly because he didn't exist and neither did the address. If he had, a shabby Abbey National now lies on the site, a feeble window display the only target for snapping cameras.
I spent last night viewing a colourful display of pop culture. No, not the Eurovisionsemi-final, but the Roy Lichtenstein exhibition at the Hayward Gallery on London's South Bank. The exhibition closes on Sunday so I made the most of midweek late opening by heading down to the concrete artspace by the Thames for a good gawp at the famed spotty canvases.
You probably know some of Roy Lichtenstein's work, even if you don't know the name. Sixties pop art classics, cartoon-like with bold colours and strong lines, shaded by innumerable tiny red dots. Roy's reproductive style dawned in 1961 with a couple of Mickey Mouse drawings and suddenly, whaam, his graphic paintings were the talk of the American arterati. First blonde heroines, everyday kitchenware and mirrors, then brushstrokes, headless self portraits and Chinese landscapes - all were rendered in his unique yet strangely familiar format. It's all very Roy.
I was surprised to discover that many of his paintings started out as someone else's drawings or images. Roy paints art about art. When it looks like he's painted a living room, what he's usually painted instead is a representation of a picture of a living room he found in the Yellow Pages. And his most famous painting, that Whaam! fighter aeroplane shot, is lifted directly from a single frame in an All American Heroes comic book. Saw that last night too, it's an all-encompassing exhibition.
As well as the art, I enjoyed observing the people who'd come along to see it. The Hayward was definitely the destination of choice for vaguely intellectual couples in need of something to fill that difficult midweek pre-pizzeria slot. Then there were media-savvy creative types in just-casual-enough garb, art snobs lowering their expectations for a brief hour and the odd unwilling kid cursed by free admission. And I also enjoyed listening in to loud couples broadcasting their considered opinions of the paintings to one another ("ah, this must herald his stripy period" "close up the dots make my eyes go all funny" "that banana is so quintessential isn't it?"). Glad I went to take a look. Do go if you can, you have four days left until the exhibition goes pop.
Silver Jubilee:St John's Wood Opened: Monday 20th November 1939 Distance from previous station: 900m Platform: exit to the right of the train You are now entering: the London Borough of Westminster Fact file: St John's Wood is the only station on the Underground network that shares no letters with the word 'mackerel'. The station was nearly called Acacia Road but the name was changed just before opening (which is just as well otherwise there'd be no mackerel-free tube stations). 5 things I found outside the station: a circular ticket hall with high glass windows, seven floors of flats built above the station, a shrubbery complete with palm trees, the Abbey Road Café (it's tiny, but it has an informative website), hordes of Inter-Railers clutching Multimap printouts trying to work out where 'that' recording studo is. Nearby (1):Abbey Road recording studios, opened by Sir Edward Elgar in 1931 but more famously home to the Beatles between 1962 and 1970. You can take a virtual visit here and watch that legendary zebra crossing on webcam here. Groups of young tourists still hang around outside wielding digital cameras, or crouching on the pavement writing messages on the walls in black marker pen. Nearby (2):Lord's Cricket Ground, home to the Marylebone Cricket Club, the Ashes and some would argue of cricket itself. The ground takes up a large slice of northwest London, the new Media Centre looming over the area like an alien spaceship. You can visit the Lord's Museum, drink in the Lord'sTavern, shop in the Lord's shop, or just stay away and watch football instead. Local history: St John's Wood was one of the first London suburbs, built in Victorian times to encourage the upper middle classes to move out of central London to the more rural outskirts. Well, they were rural at the time. Semi-detached villas and rows of apartment blocks line the leafy avenues, and almost every building has three to five storeys. NW8 still feels rather upmarket, but I suspect most addresses in the area start with the word 'Flat'.
I've been out taking a lot of photographs lately, mostly obscure shots of bits of remote Underground stations. I had been expecting funny looks from the general public while I was out snapping but no, it seems I'm not alone (taking photos that is - I've not yet seen anyone else with a chronic Jubilee line fixation). Everybody's a photographer these days, pointing a lens at anything that moves and plenty of things that don't. We can take photos anywhere any time, and blimey we do. Look, a building (click). Look, a cloud (click click). Look, my dog (click click click click). Look, my new Jubilee line photo blog (click).
Taking photographs used to be slow and expensive. You bought a film, you attempted to load it into a clunky black plastic camera, you took the camera out with you sometimes, and you shot Christmas, birthdays and holidays. You took one photograph of everything, not several, because you were restrained by a limit of 36 exposures. You took photographs only of special things, because developing photographs onto paper cost money. And you had to wait to see how your photos turned out, assuming that the nice lady down at Boots didn't scratch or lose your negatives in the process. No longer. We now have handy digital cameras in various shades of silver and flash mobile phones with surreptitious shutters. Point, click, instant feedback. If a shot comes out wrong, take it again. And again and again and again because there are no longer any costs involved in developing. Just pick your favourite one from fifty when you get home.
And what do we do with all these additional photos? Some get printed, although quite frankly it's a lot of hassle and most people don't bother. Some get emailed to friends and family, a delightful way to share treasured memories across the miles. Some appear on websites, slowing download time to a crawl often for little eventual payback. But most just lie unseen clogging up our hard drive (I've got 1500 on mine, and that's just from the last six months), awaiting deletion or obsolescence. Who can say if even a fraction of the photos we take today will still exist in 20 years time, as technology continues to outpace storage. Pixels are so much harder to access than photographic paper, long term at least.
But negative-free photography has proved a real positive, especially now that nobody else need ever see the photos we take. The nice lady developing your photos in Boots is out of the equation, and we can snap whatever we like without fear of embarrassment. "Madge, it's that nutter who took 36 photos of the same concrete wall." "I've stuck 'advice' stickers on all your photos, dear, because they're all blurred." "You realise that what you were doing to that sheep is technically illegal." We are our own censor now. No problem, unless any of our more risqué personal photos should slip out into an electronic media minefield, providing damning pictorial evidence of something we'd rather everyone else didn't see. Maybe there is a case for bringing back the nice lady from Boots after all, just so that none of us get too snap happy without thinking about what we're actually recording. "Sorry love, but I've had to refer your Iraqi prisoner shots to the UN Court of Human Rights, and next time try to get the genitals in focus."
Silver Jubilee:Swiss Cottage Opened: Monday 20th November 1939 Distance from previous station: 600m Photo shows: the elegant 30s escalator, complete with uplighters. Platform: exit to the right of the train Fact file: This station replaced the original Swiss Cottage station on the Metropolitan line, opened in 1868. The old station and what's left of the old platform are still visible on the journey between Finchley Road and Baker Street. Two other Metropolitan stations closed on the same day in 1939 - Marlborough Road and Lords. You want disused stations, you want this website. Or this one. 5 things I found outside the station: five station exits via subways, a dead busy road junction on the Finchley Road, Ye Olde Swiss Cottage (it's a chalet-style pub, built in 1840 beside the old Junction Road tollgate, now complete with exhaust fume soaked beer garden), Fujifilm House, an old Odeon cinema Nearby: 'Louis of Hampstead' Hungarian confectioners, lots more shops, South Hampstead station, where the Saatchi Gallery used to be. Local blogs:Swish Cottage (ah, those were the days) and Rogue Semiotics.
bought me an album yesterday, it's the latest from the mighty Streets got the last freebie baseball cap in the shop too didn't I? result
green bus shelter on the cover, is that Mikey? I am not convinced
always hard to pull off album number two, think he's done it tho, yes oh yay
eleven tracks that tell a tale of cash, narcotics, despair and love lost
minor details elevated high, for there is poetry in the mundane
track 1, the brassy intro could be classical, isn't, your card has been retained
meets a girl in two, it's an ode to simple Simone, piano riff's well simple too
three's a crowd down the bookies, slip into drum'n'bass Madness, you bet
takes a nightclub trip in four, it's blinding, thanks I'll have another one
the girlfriend means an end to pubbing, all of five spent sofa-bound, chill in
battle of the sixes, MC Simone versus kicked-out Mikey, calm down, get out
single's at seven, I think it is really fit, but my gosh don't it just know it
sounds like we're going nowhere m8, trapped in loops, think my mobile just died
two raps run parallel in nine, now Simone go get your coat, relentless beats
dry your eyes, one stand-out ballad to tug your heart, top ten for sure I say
eleven ends on a downer... no wait, rewind, there's a set back and that's grand
so there it is, a concept album for the new urban slacker, bit of a result
reckon it'll take another listen or three to embed the lot in my skull, but hey
it's a winner, it's a soundtrack to one lost summer, nice one geezer
Silver Jubilee:Finchley Road Opened: Friday 13th June 1879 Distance from previous station: 600m Platform: exit to the left of the train Change here for: Metropolitan line You'd be quicker changing here: From here to Baker Street by Jubilee line takes 7 minutes. From here to Baker Street (non-stop) by Metropolitan line takes 6 minutes. And it's a dead easy cross-platform change too. Fact file: It's here that the underground section of the Jubilee line begins, through tunnels opened in 1939. Finchley Road station is four miles from Finchley. 5 things I found outside the station: the 02 shopping centre (a very modern mall complete with fishtanks and jungle-themed escalators), George's Shoe Repairs, the A41, Waitrose, a mysterious old wooden door labelled 'Meakers'. Nearby: West Hampstead station is less than half a mile away to the west, through Sainsbury's car park. Swiss Cottage station is less than half a mile away to the southeast, at the other end of a busy shopping street. Local history: Sigmund Freud lived just round the corner in Maresfield Gardens. He moved here from Germany in 1938 to escape the Nazis but died a year later. His house is still open as a museum, and there's a statue to Freud nearby.
OK, I was going to write about something else this morning, and then I woke up and discovered that Blogger has metamorphosed overnight while I was asleep. You won't have noticed from reading this page, but all those of us who write Blogger blogs now have a 'new look, new features, new templates' style of input page. It's certainly different. It's going to take some getting used to. And I hate it. This is probably a natural reaction to change, like when Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen reveals the outcome of a Changing Rooms makeover to a couple of startled homeowners, and I'll probably learn to live with it eventually. But sorry, I'm sitting here over breakfast on day 1 and I hate it. And here's why.
• It's dumbed down. I think all the old features are still there, and probably lots more too, but you get less of them on screen at the same time. Now it's one window, one thing, whereas before you could do nigh everything from the same blog-entry page.
• It's based on the lo-fi version of old Blogger. That's the version that users of non-standard browsers like Safari were forced to use (and I had to use while I was using a Mac in the US last month), rather than the all-singing all-dancing multitasking version the rest of us have been enjoying.
• It's designed for a different screen size to mine. This means that all the crucial windows for typing text into are the wrong size - in my case much too small, filling only half a screen. I've only written 18 lines of text so far but I've just reached the bottom of the entry window, and now my first lines are scrolling off the top out of sight. Sigh.
• I can't redraft a blog post and see what the old post looked like any more. So I can't see what all the code I'm using is supposed to look like, and make changes as appropriate. Only one or the other on screen at the same time. I think this is the innovation I hate the most.
• It's trying to be Moveable Type. It's trying very very hard indeed, almost to the point of plagiarism. Moveable Type is swish and clever and feature-packed I know, because I've used it before, but I don't like it. I got to play with MT for three weeks while I was babysitting Blue WitchDown Under, after which I told myself I'd never move over to MT myself because it was all too bitty. And now an MT clone has taken me over instead.
• Bloody American dates. The 'edit posts' page we Bloggers get to use lists everything by American date. Today is not 5/10/2004, it's 10/5/2004. It used to say "May 10 2004", which I could happily cope with.
• We now have the option to link to individual posts, rather than just jump to one post somewhere in a weekly/monthly archive. Just like MT. Trouble is, I don't like linking to just one post. I want my visitors to arrive and see the whole page, not just one small out-of-context segment. I bet very few blog visitors ever bother to click on 'Main' to view the whole page anyway. So, not for me.
• Blogger now has inbuilt comments. Excellent. Except that you have to turn on the 'link to individual posts' option before you can use them. So I don't think I'll be bothering. Haloscan, I'm sticking with you.
I think I need to come back after work and play with NewBlogger some more. I may discover lots of lovely new features, and that I don't hate it quite so much as I think I do at the moment. But, so long as I remain trapped typing withn this tiny window surrounded by white space, I'm going to take some persuading.
Silver Jubilee:West Hampstead Opened: Monday 30th June 1879 Distance from previous station: 1.1 km Platform: exit to the right of the train You are now entering: the London Borough of Camden Fact file: There are three different West Hampstead stations, all along the same road within 200 yards of each other. There's a Jubilee line station, a North London line station and a Thameslink station. There are plans to build a single interchange here, linking also to Chiltern Railways trains. If this ever happens you'll be able to change here for Birmingham, Bedford, Brighton and Bermondsey, but local residents have mixed views You'd be quicker changing here: From here to Stratford by Jubilee line takes 40 minutes. From here to Stratford by North London line takes 35 minutes. 5 things I found outside the station: long queues for tickets, Mr Gingham's sandwich bar (sliced egg, £1.30), The Flower Gallery, the smell of bacon, a big green Camden 'Trade Waste' bin. Nearby:real Hampstead, none of this 'West' wannabe status. Local history:Here's a history of Hampstead, very little of which happened in West Hampstead. Local blogs: The arty Rodcorp, the erudite Mo Morgan and the very honest Honestly I'm Sober.
Last week I posted a week's worth of TV highlights, and joy, I remembered to watch them all as a result. This week I thought I'd do the same with the best radio programmes of the next seven days. After all, it is the medium for which the Radio Times was invented. Even better, if I forget to listen to any of these the BBC's wonderful 'Listen again' feature will probably let me catch up in my own time. Digital life, don't you just love it?
Urban Music Festival (Sunday, Radio 1 and 1Xtra, sort of afternoon-ish): But only in case they broadcast The Streets live set. I can't tell you how proud I am to see Mikey at Earl's Court bigging it up with Prince C. No, really, I can't.
On One Lost Hair (Monday 3:45pm, Radio 4): That's an anagram of 'Horatio Nelson', you know. The presenter buys one of Nelson's hairs on the internet, then sets it adrift down the Thames in a bottle. Honest.
Routemasters (Tuesday 9:30am, Radio 4): Nothing to do with big red buses, but the first in a five part series about street furniture. Later there's roundabouts, white lines, green men and speed bumps, but we kick off with a history of the Britishroad sign. Radio 4 is sometimes unexpectedly brilliant, isn't it?
Beat The Kids (Wednesday 11pm, Radio 4): Comedy panel games, there's a rich genre that wouldn't exist without Radio 4 either. In this variation on a theme, Graeme Garden invites his four guests to slip into role and argue their way through various family dilemmas. I shall LOL, no doubt.
The Molesworth Report - How To Be Topp (Thursday 11:30am, Radio 4): I missed the 1950s, chiz*, but I fondly remember Molesworth - the 'curse of st custard's'. His guide to skool life was full of swots, snekes and oiks, and brilliantly illustrated by Ronald Searle. See what all the fuss was about here, or just tune in to this reminiscing documentary. (*a chiz is a swiz or swindle as any fule kno)
I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again (Friday 7:30pm, Radio 7): Old Radio 4 programmes never die, they just get shuffled off onto Radio 7. The digital speech archive today hosts this comedy quiz classic from December 1973. And ooh, the 'Listen again' station also has its own 'Listen again' feature. Look, there's Radio Active on Monday, and Knowing Me Knowing You on Wednesday, and...
Kevin Greening (Saturady 7pm, XFM): Possibly the best DJ in the history of the world is sadly relegated to this two-hour weekend 'best of' slot. Which is exactly what Radio 1 did to the poor bloke too. Genius, though.
Silver Jubilee:Kilburn Opened: Monday 24th November 1879 Distance from previous station: 1.2 km Platform: exit to the right of the train Station originally called: Kilburn & Brondesbury Fact file: Kilburn station lies at one end of that 147 ft long blue steel bridge you can see in the photo, from which there are fine views across to Hampstead Heath and the BT Tower. The view is better from Metropolitan line trains than Jubilee line trains because they're taller. 5 things I found outside the station: a double viaduct painted blue, Shoot Up Hill (actually the A5 Watling Street), an old postbox, Kilburn Flowers, a dry cleaners that sells records. Nearby: my great grandfather's grave (still lost somewhere in PaddingtonCemetery), the Tricycle Theatre, a legendary Ian Duryband. Local history: Kilburn grew up around a 12th century nunnery, built where Watling Street crossed the Kelbourne brook. Foyles bookshop started in Kilburn, moving to Charing Cross Road in 1926. The GaumontStateCinema opened in 1937, then the largest cinema in the UK, and still contains the largest original Wurlitzer in full working order in Britain today. Local blogs: Here's a trio of darned good ones. Sashinka, Blogjam and, unexpectedly, this one (which I'll return to in three stations time).
Dates for your diary Monday 10th May: Release of the already-acclaimed second album by The Streets, A Grand Don't Come For Free. Hard earned cash at the ready.
Friday 14th May: The fifth anniversary of the Jubilee line extension (well, just the Stratford to North Greenwich bit to start with).
Saturday 15th May:Eurovision, it divides the nation. It's a fab/crap evening of top/camp pop/pap. Addicts, get your fix here. Rest of you, I suggest you go out for the evening.
Tuesday 18th May: It's my ten thousandth. I'll tell you what later.
Friday 4th June: The new Harry Potter film emerges, blinking, into the daylight. But how long until book six?
Saturday 5th June: In four weeks time they erase the Routemaster from the number 8 bus route. When I wake up on 5th June there'll be soulless non-icons parked up outside my house instead of lovely red purring wheelchair-unfriendly double deckers. Last chance to ride, last chance to see. Catch one while you can.
Tuesday 8th June: It's one month until the next transit of Venus. This extraordinarily rare astronomical phenomenon happens only twice every 122 years, and the last transit was way back in 1882. More details here and here, and on this page next month.
BowRoadupdate: I know it's not on the Jubilee line, but I need to keep you up-to-date with the latest renovation news from my local station. It's two months since the first blue wall appeared on the platform at Bow Road, followed by another and another and another and another. Until finally, yesterday, the last remaining short section of platform got blue-walled, the bit to the east of the steps on the eastbound platform. The station is fully prepared for work at last. I look forward, some day, to being able to tell you that one of the blue walls has come down and there's a sparkling rejuvenated architectural jewel revealed behind. But I have my doubts. Keep up to date in this comments box, just in case.
Silver Jubilee:Willesden Green Opened: Monday 24th November 1879 Distance from previous station: 1.2 km You are now entering: zone 2 Platform: exit to the right of the train 5 things I found outside the station: a yellow plastic box full of grit, Camerons Stiff estate agents (giggle), 10 piles of free magazines (mostly expat related), Dynamic dry cleaners, lots of laminated Wanted For Murder police posters. Nearby: Cricklewood Local history: Willesden has, over its 1000-year history, been known as Wellesdone, Willesdone, Willesdune and Wilsdon. The modern spelling is that chosen by the London & Birmingham Railway in the 1840s. Nothing really interesting seems to have happened round here, ever, but some of the less interesting stuff is here. The local history society meets regularly, so there must be something to talk about. Ray Davies of the Kinks liked the place enough to write a song about it. Local blog:The Willesden Herald
Colour by numbers: Here are the names of 21 colours as you would type them in a mobile phone text message. For example, 733 = red. Can you identify the complete spectrum? (Answers in the comments box)
Silver Jubilee:Dollis Hill Opened: Friday 1st October 1909 Distance from previous station: 850m Platform: exit to the right of the train Fact file: There's no station building as such, just a ticket hall under the platform with two subways leading off in opposite directions beneath the tracks. A bronze plaque at the top of the station steps commemorates 'Timothy Desmond, employed at Dollis Hill 1965-1995.' What a life. 5 things I found outside the station: a 'Dollis Hill' mural, belisha beacons, a big tube sign on a brick column, wide avenues of suburban semis, a parade of shops. Nearby: more endless suburban semis, Dollis Hill House (home to Lord and Lady Aberdeen in the 1880s and 90s), Gladstone Park (a pleasantly contoured woodland vista). Local history: Victorian PM William Gladstone was a regular visitor at Dollis Hill House, so they named the new park after him. Mark Twain stayed here throughout the summer of 1900, saying "Dollis Hill comes nearer to being a paradise than any other home I ever occupied." Until 1982 all the UK's coin-operated telephones were made in Dollis Hill. More local history here. Local underground secrets: In the late 1930s the Government built a huge underground bunker in Dollis Hill. It was codenamed 'Paddock', a two-level concrete citadel planned as a standby to the Cabinet War Rooms in Whitehall. The War Cabinet met here only twice because Churchill hated the place (and because Hitler never invaded). A housing association now owns the site, and opens the bunker to the public on only two days a year (bugger, one of them was yesterday). Read more about the fascinating secret life of Paddock here, here, here, here, here and here.
It's exactly fifty years since Roger Bannister ran the world's first four minute mile. If anybody cares. Like so many anniversaries recently, this one feels like it's been overexposed well before the correct date arrives. Roger's had an autobiography out for the last six weeks (£7.99 from all good bookshops), all the newspapers have been printing extracts, and the BBC screened a full documentary on the experience a whole fortnight in advance. Even Norris McWhirter, who played a crucial part in the tale, managed to die just early enough to shift the first commemoration of the anniversary a couple of weeks too early. Me, I've been good and waited until the exact date. If anyone still cares.
It's exactly fifty years since Roger Bannister ran the world's first four minute mile. The four minute barrier had seemed impenetrable, but in 1954 a 25 year-old medical student had other ideas. Roger trained every lunchtime throughout the winter, egged on by his good mate Norris. He hoped that nobody else would sneak in and beat four minutes before he was ready and they didn't, not quite. Come May 6th, the first AAA race of the season, and the mile record still stood a fraction of a second over the magic time. It could be beaten.
It's exactly fifty years since Roger Bannister ran the world's first four minute mile. He did this at the Iffley Road Sports Centre in Oxford (I took some university exams there 20 years ago, but my results were rather less world-shattering). That May day dawned grey, damp and windy (sounds familiar) but conditions had eased enough by early evening for an attempt on the record to look possible. Two pacemakers led for the first three laps (bit of a cheat that, some have said), then Roger powered round the final bend to hit the tape in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds. Everybody cheered, everybody cared.
It's exactly fifty years since Roger Bannister ran the world's first four minute mile. It's a very symbolic record, an echo of the last triumphs of empire back when Britons were still good at something. It's a very smashed record, because if Bannister had been racing against the current mile record holder he'd have come in over 100 yards behind. It's a very imperial record, because these days most athletics races are run over metres instead. And it's also a very superficial record, because 'one mile' is an arbitrary human invention, as indeed are 'four minutes'.
It's exactly fifty orbits round the Sun since Roger Bannister became the first recorded human male to run 5280 times as far as the length of King Edward I's foot in less than one three hundred and sixtieth of the time the Earth takes to rotate once on its axis. It's nothing special. But bloody well done Sir.
Silver Jubilee:Neasden Opened: Monday 2nd August 1880 Distance from previous station: 2.3 km You are now entering: zone 3 Platform: exit to the right of the train Station originally called: Kingsbury & Neasden Fact file (1): Three railway lines (Jubilee, Metropolitan and Chiltern) run through Neasden (and the next four stations too), but only the Jubilee line trains stop. Fact file (2): Just north of Neasden station lies Neasden Railway Depot, a vast shed with space to store 37 trains overnight. The Jubilee line Control Room is located in Neasden (take a tour here), and they have a Jubilee train simulator too (here). 5 things I found outside the station: a pelican crossing, two giant billboards, Falcon Park RNIB centre, Adrian's Newsagent (a tiny kiosk), a pedestrian sign pointing towards 'Neasden Temple & Superstore' (I hope that's two different places). Nearby (1):ShriSwaminarayanMandir, the huge Hindu temple off the North Circular Road. Devoted pilgrims come from miles around to pay their respects. Now that Wembley Stadium's been pulled down, this exotic landmark has the only towers and pinnacles on the local skyline. Nearby (2):IKEA, the huge Swedish temple off the North Circular Road. Devoted shoppers come from miles around to buy their cheap household goods. Now that Wembley isn't the shopping mecca it used to be, this big blue warehouse is the only retail magnet in the local area. Everywhere: The North Circular Road came to Neasden in the 1930s. It cuts through the area like an open concrete wound. Dual carriageways, underpasses and roundabouts are everywhere, clogged by traffic and making pedestrian life a daily challenge. Local history:Neasden means 'nose-shaped hill' in Anglo-Saxon. In the 1850s the local population was only 110, but soon rocketed to become a dead ordinary London suburb (as mocked by Private Eye, published nearby). Twiggy grew up on the St Raphael's Estate and the area was also home to MariWilson, Neasden's Queen of Soul. Local history is chronicled at the Grange Museum, an unlikely building quarantined in the middle of a busy roundabout.
Anglo-Saxon times: 'Wembalea' means 'Wemba's forest clearing'. 16th century: Wembley is a small village on a hill, owned by the Page family. 1870: The Pages hire landscape architect Humphrey Repton to create Wembley Park. 1880: The Metropolitan railway passes through Wembley, without stopping. 1890: Wembley Park is sold to the Managing Director of the Metropolitan Railway, Edward Watkin. He plans to build a 1150ft tower on the site in an attempt to rival the success of the recently-opened Eiffel Tower in Paris. 1894: Wembley Park station opens, serving Wembley Park Leisure Grounds. Attractions include a large funfair, football pitches and an artificial lake. 1896: The first stage of Watkin's Tower is completed and opened to the public The tower's foundations shift under the weight of the iron structure above, and construction stops at 200ft. 1902: Watkin's Folly (as it's now known) is closed to the public and later demolished (1907), although Wembley remains a popular recreational destination. 1920: Wembley is selected as the site of the British Empire Exhibition, with a new stadium to be built on the site of Watkin's Folly. 1923: The Empire Stadium is opened by King George V and hosts its first FA Cup Final(Bolton 2, West Ham 0) 1924: Wembley Stadium is the centrepiece of the British Empire Exhibition, a post-war celebration of all things imperial. 1925: The Empire exhibition closes, having lost a lot of money. Almost all of the buildings are demolished, except for the stadium. 1948: Wembley Stadium hosts the 14th Olympic Games. Olympic Way is built to link the stadium with the station. 1966: Wembley hosts the World Cup Final. They think it's all over, it is now. 1985: The Live Aid concert held at Wembley raises millions for the starving of Africa. 1996: Wembley is the preferred location for a new National Stadium. Maybe (1997). Definitely (1998). Probably not (1999). Delayed indefinitely (2000). Looking grim (2001). Go ahead (2002). 2000: Final Cup Final at old Wembley won by Chelsea. Final match at old Wembley won by Germany. 2003: The famous twin towers are demolished. 2004: I stop by at the building site to view the latest Wembley folly. The new stadium is going up very slowly, with the new arch still barely evident. This could be a new shopping mall under construction for all any visitor could deduce. Ten lofty cranes stand guard over the growing arena like giant grey flamingos. A couple of skateboarders enjoy the desolate freedom of one of the car parks. Heavenly Hotdogs and Frank's Frankfurters are boarded up, awaiting redevelopment. For a few brief years, Wembley is enjoying complete anonymity. 2006: The new (incredibly expensive) Wembley Stadium is due to open. Keep an eye on current progress here. I'll believe it when I see it.
Silver Jubilee:Wembley Park Opened: Saturday 12th May 1894 Distance from previous station: 2.8 km Platform: exit to the left of the train Change here for: Metropolitan line You'd be quicker changing here: From here to Finchley Road by Jubilee line takes 12 minutes. From here to Finchley Road by Metropolitan line takes 8 minutes. Photo shows: The northern end of Olympic Way, built to funnel sports fans under the bridge and up the wide staircase into Wembley Park station. 5 things I found outside the station: a pelican crossing, that huge extra entrance/exit for use on days when there's a big event nearby, the College of Northwest London, Olympic Way, a big sign pointing towards 'Stadium tours' (unlikely at present). Nearby:Wembley Stadium (see above), a giant light industrial estate and retail park, Wembley Arena, a few crumbling remains of the British Empire Exhibition, the river Brent (I have never, ever, walked through so many flies). The future: Wembley Park station currently looks like this. There are plans to redevelop it to look like this.
I would just like to remember some words of St. Francis of Assisi which I think were really just particularly apt 25yearsago.
Where there is discord, may we bring warships.
Where there is error, may we add poll tax.
Where there is doubt, may we force privatisation.
And where there is despair, may we double unemployment.
I watched BBC Parliament's rerun of the 1979 election night programming yesterday (not all 15 hours of it, you understand, although it was raining out so I was tempted). This was a fascinating window into a Britain long past (who were these important people called 'trade union leaders'?). A Britain where men in nylon suits had scary flyaway hairstyles, where female MPs were still complimented on their looks and where the computer analysing the results took up an entire wall of the TV studio. Tentative predictions of a Conservative victory were made as the first results came in, with East London leading the national charge rightward. This was history not so much in the making as in the dawning. Robert McKenzie enthused with the aid of his swingometer, Angela Rippon read the news like a schoolmistress, Ian McCaskill warned of a chilly night ahead and Richard Stilgoe sang witty ditties over breakfast. I watched as Jeremy Thorpe disappeared into disgrace, the declining National Front lost their deposits, and a fresh young MP called Jack Straw merited a five second mention as his result flashed by. The coverage dragged on past lunchtime and there were prescient glimpses of a blue-rinsed future during the endless political interviews. At 3pm Robin Day could finally confirm that Britain had its first woman Prime Minister, and our lives would never be the same again. A blue day.
Silver Jubilee:Kingsbury Opened: Saturday 10th December 1932 Distance from previous station: 1.3 km Platform: exit to the left of the train Fact file: The station was designed by C W Clark (as were the previous three, and as was the station in Croxley where I grew up). Standing on the tree-lined platform amidst the birdsong you'd think you were in the middle of the countryside, not in the middle of built-up London with a busy high street outside. 5 things I found outside the station: A sign saying 'humps for 350 yards', a lot of local shops, a machine selling parking tickets, Jyoti Jewellers, a yellow box junction. Local history: Jag posted a whole history of Kingsbury last year, go read. Local history (abridged): The area has a history stretching back over 1000 years, recorded as Kynes byrig in 1046 when the local manor was granted to Westminster Abbey by Edward the Confessor. Kingsbury grew hugely in the 1920s and 1930s thanks to the aircraft industry, the British Empire exhibition and the coming of the railway. John Logie Baird carried out the first combined sight and sound television transmission in 1930, live from from the stable block at Kingsbury Manor. Local blog: Jag's ever-excellent Route 79.
Silver Jubilee: Baker Street
Opened: Saturday 10th January 1863
Opened: Monday 20th November 1939
Opened: Monday 20th November 1939
Opened: Friday 13th June 1879
Opened: Monday 30th June 1879
Opened: Monday 24th November 1879
Bow Road update: I know it's not on the Jubilee line, but I need to keep you up-to-date with the latest renovation news from my local station. It's two months since the first blue wall appeared on the platform at Bow Road, followed by another and another and another and another. Until finally, yesterday, the last remaining short section of platform got blue-walled, the bit to the east of the steps on the eastbound platform. The station is fully prepared for work at last. I look forward, some day, to being able to tell you that one of the blue walls has come down and there's a sparkling rejuvenated architectural jewel revealed behind. But I have my doubts. Keep up to date in this comments box, just in case.
Opened: Monday 24th November 1879
Colour by numbers: Here are the names of 21 colours as you would type them in a mobile phone text message. For example, 733 = red. Can you identify the complete spectrum? (Answers in the comments box)
Opened: Friday 1st October 1909
Opened: Monday 2nd August 1880
A brief (clickable) history of Wembley Stadium
Opened: Saturday 12th May 1894
Opened: Saturday 10th December 1932
