Aldwyching: London Underground are running commemorative Blitz trips down Aldwych station this weekend. Ooh, Aldwych station. It's been shut since 1994, and the lower levels are almost impossible to visit unless you make films or are a TfL employee. But 3000 members of the public will be taking a trip downstairs, led by an actor dressed as an air raid warden, to discover what life might have been like sheltering from the Luftwaffe 70 years ago. Bad luck, all the tickets have already been snapped up, but you'll no doubt be interested to hear what the tour's like... • Ian visited. And took some photos. • Darryl went down. And took some photos. • Dean from Londonist descended. • Ian's written about his visit. • Peter took a preview tour. • Chris took 71 photographs. • Steve took 42 photographs. • James recorded an audio review. • The BBC filmed on the platform. • Various newspapers filedreports.
London's unique in the history of the Olympics. It's the only city in the world to have been awarded the Gamesthreetimes. And that means three marathons. Every one of them has followed a different route. None of those different routes have overlapped in any way. And all of the routes have been controversial in some way or other. Or will be controversial, very shortly, alas.
London Olympic Marathon Route 1908 The 1908 Olympic stadium was located at White City, to the west of London, which was hosting the Franco-British Exhibition at the time. Marathons were usually 25 miles long back then, so the organisers planned to start the race outside Eton College which was an appropriate distance away. There's still a metal plaque bolted to a wall above Barnespool Bridge in Eton announcing that the race has 25 miles (or 40.2 kilos) to go. It was royalty who added the route controversy in 1908, first moving the start back to Windsor Castle (26 miles) and then adding 385 yards onto the end so that the race could finish in front of the Royal Box. 26 miles and 385 yards has been the official length of marathon races ever since, and the extra 5% is solely thanks to King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra. [Full story here] • What was the route?Windsor Castle, Eton, Slough, Iver Heath, Uxbridge, Ickenham, Ruislip, Eastcote, Pinner, Harrow, Sudbury, Wembley, Harlesden, East Acton, Wormwood Scrubs, White City • Seriously... Slough, Pinner, Harlesden and Wormwood Scrubs?!? Yes, there were no TV bosses to keep happy in those days. • Can I see the precise route on a map?Certainly. • What's the route like today? I travelled the entire 26 miles on the marathon's 100th anniversary back in 2008. I didn't run it, obviously, and I took the bus for half, but I still walked 13 miles and blogged from various points along the way. I don't think I'd recommend it. • Did you take any photos? Yes, 35 of them. • What happened to the White City Stadium? It got knocked down, and the BBC Media Village now stands on the site. You can still see the finishing line marked in the piazza outside the One Show studio.
London Olympic Marathon Route 1948 The 1948 Olympic stadium was located at Wembley, to the northwest of London. Britain had taken on the Games in the aftermath of World War 2 because nobody else was willing (or able) to have a go, so these were very much an AusterityOlympics. Wartime damage was still widespread in the West End and City, so organisers decided to send the marathon in the opposite direction. That meant less depressing views, but absolutely no famous landmarks whatsoever. Nobody complained (obviously, because they were simply happy to take part), but it wasn't the most uplifting of routes. • What was the route?Wembley Stadium, Kingsbury, Queensbury, Stanmore, Edgware, Mill Hill, Borehamwood, Radlett, Watling Street, Elstree, Stanmore, Queensbury, Kingsbury, Wembley Stadium • Seriously... Stanmore, Edgware, Borehamwood and Radlett?!? Yes, there were no TV bosses to keep happy in those days. • Can I see the precise route on a map? I've not managed to track down the precise roads followed, but I can let you see a map of where I think the route might have gone. I'm almost certainly wrong, sorry, especially on the big loop through Edgware, Mill Hill and Borehamwood. But you'll get the out-of-town flavour of it all. • Can anyone bear witness to the race? Alan Lawrence, now the curator of Elstree and Boreham Wood Museum, was present at the start and finish. There might be more information at the Museum, but it has such a sparse website that I couldn't possibly tell.
London Olympic Marathon Route 2012 (current) The 2012 Olympic stadium is located at Stratford, to the east of London. It's located a few hundred yards from the point where London's three poorest boroughs meet, in the hope that legacy development will help to raise the economic profile of the surrounding area. The 2012 marathon is still scheduled to end up here (until bosses decree otherwise) after running three times round a central London loop. • What is the route?Tower Bridge, [Tower, Monument, Cannon Street, Embankment, Westminster, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, Strand, Fleet Street, St Paul's, Bank, Aldgate]×3 Whitechapel, Stepney, Mile End, Bow, my house, Stratford • Seriously... Whitechapel, Stepney, Mile End and Bow?!? Absolutely, these are places with true atmosphere and history. There's even a plan called High Street 2012 to freshen up the East End stretch before the Olympic crowds arrive. As part of HS2012, English Heritage are pumping millions into a special Historic Building Conservation Scheme, and unveiled the first fruits of their labours in Whitechapel only last week. Several other architectural clusters along the road will get their spruce up later, with brickwork repaired and period features restored. My road should look a lot nicer by the time the marathon passes this way. Or not. • Are the three miles through the East End really so tedious and ugly? I took 90 photos of High Street 2012 a couple of summers ago. I think it's fascinating and historic, but you be the judge. • Can I see the precise route on a map? The London 2012 website used to have a map, but it's long disappeared. This badly-spelt Wikipedia sketch will have to do instead. • What are the chances that this route will survive another few weeks?Don't hold your breath.
WARNING: This post contains rude words and swearing. And justifiably so, I think.
The route of the 2012 Olympic marathon runs straight past my front door! How exciting is that?
But maybe not for much longer. There are mutterings, and rumours, and posturings which suggest that the marathon won't be coming my way after all. It won't pass through the East End, and it won't finish at the Olympic Stadium. Instead the Tower Hamlets arm will be amputated to allow the race to finish on the Mall instead. Which would be a bloody disgrace.
This decision isn't yet certain. Indeed Olympic chiefs haven't yet made any official announcement whatsoever. So I'll hold back from describing the organising committee as "a bunch of brand-obsessed fuckwits who don't give a toss about local communities", at least until the news is confirmed.
The new route, allegedly, runs three times round a circuit of Central London, both starting and finishing on the Mall. It'll pass such renowned London landmarks as Tower Bridge, St Paul's, Big Ben and Buckingham Palace, which should look lovely on TV and attract millions of extra tourists to visit our fair city. But it'll no longer pass Whitechapel Market, Mile End and the Bow Flyover because, by implication, they're shitholes unworthy of prime global airtime.
I am, to say the least, pissed off by this.
I've been veryexcited about the east-facing route of the London marathon ever since it was first announced. And I'm not the only one.
The previous route, which made Seb all weak at the knees, wasn't much different to the revised route being touted around today. It started at Tower Bridge, then ran three identical loops down to Westminster and back, passing almost every iconic London landmark an international TV broadcaster could have desired [map]. Apart from the precise starting point, this concept of "three times round central London" hasn't changed. What has changed is that in the old version when the runners reached Aldgate for the third time they carried on, and ran up the A11 (aka HS2012, aka BCS2) to reach the Olympic Stadium. Because Olympic marathons alwaysend at the Olympic Stadium. Even if that means, as in Athens in 2004, running along 'boring' peripheral roads lined with flats, shops and garages. London 2012 want to break the mould by ending in front of the Queen's house instead, and bollocks to tradition and to the East End.
One especially feeble excuse being wheeled out is that this more compact course "enables spectators lining the route to watch the runners pass by several times." Pah, you devious fact-twisting bastards, the old route did that too. In fact the new route allows fewer people to watch the marathon than was previously planned, because the triple-loop still exists but nobody in East London gets to see the race at all. The Nu-Marathon looks like being a sanitised circuit race designed to minimise road closures, and all to avoid the Olympic Route Network clogging up. We can't have sponsors' limousines getting stuck in traffic, can we, because they're the priority.
And let's get this in perspective. A marathon is 26.2 miles long. The road from Aldgate to the Olympic Park in Stratford is 3.3 miles long. This means that TV broadcasters have kicked up a fuss about a mere 12½% of the marathon route. World class athletes should be able to run this distance in about 15 minutes. A couple of strategically placed commercial breaks should cover that, if TV bosses are really so paranoid about showing what they perceive to be uninterrupted kebab shops and council estates. To be honest, I think audiences might appreciate a few miles of something different after 1¾ hours of thrice-repeated landmarks.
All is not yet lost. A London 2012 spokeswoman said: "We have not yet confirmed all the details of the marathon route, we are in the process of finalising all the details and we hope to announce an approved route shortly." But if the final route castrates the East End, then half a million nearby residents are going to feel whollycheated when marathon day comes round. And "a bunch of brand-obsessed fuckwits who don't give a toss about local communities" is going to be the mildest of my thoughts.
If London is really so ashamed of its East End, perhaps it shouldn't have built the Olympic Stadium there.
My road is turning blue. We've all been sent a leaflet.
Barclays Cycle Superhighway 2 (Bow to Aldgate) will be passing close to your door from Summer 2011. We want to let you know what will be happening, and tell you how you can find out more.
The leaflet explains what these Cycle Superhighway thingies are, in case I haven't noticed yet, which I guess most local Bow residents haven't. Exactly the same as was opened last July along a pair of routes from Barking and Merton, but now Boris has two more lined up on the starting grid. Yes, there'll be a garish bank-sponsored blue stripe outside my front door within the next 12 months. Oh joy.
Where will BCS2 go? From Bow Roundabout to Aldgate via: Bow Road, Mile End Road, Whitechapel Road and Whitechapel High Street. To see a map of BCS2, visit tfl.gov.uk/barclayscyclesuperhighways
There's no map anywhere in the leaflet, not even a very simple one. And the map on the TfL website is useless (even assuming anyone manages to work out on which page they've hidden it). It features only a a vaguely sketched line, with absolutely no clues about approximately where the lanes might go and which junctions might be upgraded. For example, I might want to know whether the big blue bikelane is going to cross the Bow Flyover, or whether instead it'll stop dead at a roundabout which intersects with a bike-unfriendly ex-motorway. Presumably this level of basic information will come later.
And I'm sure the original plan was for Cycle Superhighway 2 to run from Ilford to the City, Instead it seems that, for now, only the western half is being laid. The easy half. The A11 from Bow to Aldgate has always been a wide road (there were trams running down it a century ago) so squeezing in a couple of 1.5m cycle carriageways shouldn't be difficult. Indeed much of my local street has a cycle lane already, so presumably the imminent roadworks will concentrate on cheap things like lane markings and redesigned kerb lines. Again, the leaflet has no specifics.
When will this happen? BCS2 will be launched in Summer 2011, from Bow Road to Aldgate High Street. Implementation will start in Autumn 2010.
Hang on a minute. The two previous Cycle Superhighways were definitely called CS3 and CS7. How come this new one has an extra B? Are Barclays even muscling in on the abbreviation now? Is some signwriter is going to come along and write "BCS2" on a bright blue strip of tarmac where previously CS2 would have sufficed? Do we really have to suffer an even more blatant advert for an unloved bank repeated every few yards along three miles of roadway? I don't normally condone spitting, but if I ever see a well-aimed gobbet of phlegm land on a wholly unnecessary additional 'B', I'll probably cheer.
How can I find out more? From Autumn 2010 a section on our webpage will be showing further details of what will be implemented, and where. We will also show details of the timing of any works which may affect local residents and businesses.
But the website has bugger all information at the moment. Absolutely nothing at all. There might be scary things planned outside my front door, but no details are yet available. This is a premature leaflet which encourages residents to seek out clarification which isn't there. It warns them that something will happen, but not what. People will undoubtedly chuck the leaflet away, and then when all the actual Cycle Superhighway stuff goes up on the internet in a month or two's time, none of them will notice.
Are TfL planning to shrink my pavement to make way for a dedicated cycle lane? Are traffic lights going to be rebuilt and rephased to meet the demands of the East End peloton? Will anyone (please) take this opportunity to shrink our giant bendy-sized bus stops to coincide with the doubledeckerisation of route 25 next summer? Most importantly, will there be any public consultations on this project (other than its effect on parking spaces), or is everything going to happen no matter what?
The Mayor of London is committed to securing the health, environmental and congestion benefits of a cycle revolution.
I'm sure he is. I'm sure that more bikes and less cars is the way to go. But he's not yet telling me anything useful about the transformation of the road that I live on. I fear that we EastEnders have been promised HS2012, but all we'll get is BCS2.
The 1908 Olympic stadium was located at White City, to the west of London, which was hosting the Franco-British Exhibition at the time. Marathons were usually 25 miles long back then, so the organisers planned to start the race outside Eton College which was an appropriate distance away. There's still a metal plaque bolted to a wall above Barnespool Bridge in Eton announcing that the race has 25 miles (or 40.2 kilos) to go. It was royalty who added the route controversy in 1908, first moving the start back to Windsor Castle (26 miles) and then adding 385 yards onto the end so that the race could finish in front of the Royal Box. 26 miles and 385 yards has been the official length of marathon races ever since, and the extra 5% is solely thanks to King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra. [Full story here]
