Sat 1: Several new 'No pedestrians', 'No cycling' and 'No horses' signs have gone up alongside the A12, and you are so lucky I haven't blogged about that yet. Sun 2: My smart TV (aged 7) won't do much that's smart any more. Most of the apps that used to work have vanished, those that remain are rubbish and the web browser now allows you to go no further than the manufacturer's homepage. Mon 3: I've lost count of the number of times English Heritage have mailed me over the last 18 months urging me to renew my annual membership. It's late summer during a pandemic, guys, not likely. Tue 4: My local library still hasn't reopened so the return date on the four books I took out in March has now been extended (again, again, again) to 1st October. Wed 5: Watched ITV's local evening news in case I was walking past while they were interviewing Christine Ohuruogu, but they must have cut that section out. Thu 6:Signs of autumn: The football pitches on Hackney Marshes are being repainted, and a few of the goalposts replanted.
Fri 7: Ooh, LNER are doing cheap midweek train tickets during August. Ten pounds to York, fifteen to Newcastle, twenty to Edinburgh. Normally I'd leap at the chance, but 2020 is not normal and I haven't even been to King's Cross recently, let alone the north. I bet trains to Lincoln are quiet, though... Sat 8: After yesterday's 36.4°C, London just experienced a 'tropical night' when the temperature didn't drop below 20°C. We'll miss the heat when it's gone (and curse when it becomes the new normal). Sun 9: Dear BBC iPlayer, I started watching that series about supernatural French surfers but it was rubbish, so I do not want to be continually reminded to watch episode 2. Mon 10: Actually I'm not sure I could survive seven hours in Lincoln, not with access to the castle and cathedral being more restricted than usual... but I see there are onward trains to Grimsby and that sounds much more my cup of tea. Go on then, I'll buy a ticket and surprise myself. Tue 11: Three roses bloomed on my balcony last night, which is unusual because normally the bush only flowers once. I blame the unprecedented heatwave (or the Baby Bio).
Wed 12: TfL have built a bus stand next to Custom House station with room for one terminating route, maybe two, so it looks like they're serious about rejigging the local bus network in readiness for (cough) Crossrail. Thu 13: It's still 'Happy Pride' at Westfield, according to the banners nobody's taken down outside M&S. Fri 14: The lady behind me at the supermarket checkout nudged up a little closer than felt comfortable, then put 18 bottles of Tippex and four staplers on the belt. Sat 15: Sky Arts are filming whatever the Sky Arts version of Watercolour Challenge is, with the contestants spread out across the northernmost bridge in the Olympic Park. They've not got the best weather for it. Sun 16: It's early Sunday morning and I'm walking through a very quiet Mile End. OMG that's MichaelaCoel crossing the road towards me! It's definitely her. I've just watched twelve episodes of I May Destroy You and she was excellent. What do you do, what do you say, how do you act? I decide the most respectful thing to do is smile. She smiles back, and that is my day made. Mon 17: The new album from Dizzee Rascal is to be called E3 AF, which looks well cool flyposted across a shopfront in Roman Road but somewhat provocative on a wall in Whitechapel.
Tue 18: ITV are filming The Only Way Is Essex on the bridge by the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park. Technically this was once Essex so they are historically correct. I keep well out of the way. Wed 19: The burnt out van on Stephenson Road I told you about, the one with a toilet dumped in front, has now been joined by an abandoned organ. Thu 20: Quite fancied a walk round Bow Ecology Park, but spotted two blokes in padded jackets training an alsatian to bite them, so decided against. Fri 21: My trip to Lincolnshire is pencilled in for Tuesday, and it's becoming increasingly apparent from the the weather forecast that I couldn't have picked a worse day of the week. Sat 22: The sign outside the Hot Tub Boats kiosk at West India Quay promises 'London's Most Unique Experience'. The dour faces of the two groups of partygoers adrift off the quayside suggested otherwise. Sun 23:Signs of autumn: Half of Hackney Marshes is awash with Sunday footballers (but there are still cricketers on the other half, so all is not lost). Mon 24: The Eagle pub in Chobham Road, E15, has a sign in the window saying 'Cash Only', in case you were labouring under the false assumption that the contactless event horizon had been passed. Tue 25: I haven't been on a train in five months. Today I'm taking seven.
train 1: I need to be at King's Cross at 8am but have no idea how busy the tube is, so rather than risk Bow Road I walk all the way to Aldgate to catch the Metropolitan line (and get ridiculously wet in the process). My new Oyster card works. The train is as quiet as it would normally be. train 2: King's Cross is uncannily empty for the peak of the morning rush hour. I have a reserved seat on the train to Lincoln, but someone is already sitting in the seat next to mine (which is not how the compulsory reservation system is supposed to work) so I go and sit at the even quieter end of the carriage instead. I see fields and cows for the first time in months. The train never gets busy. train 3: The little train to Grimsby is easily distanceable. Lincolnshire looks grey and miserable. train 4: My onward journey to Cleethorpes only takes eight minutes, but the two conductors still manage a full ticket check. train 5: The little train from Grimsby is easily distanceable. Lincolnshire looks green and gorgeous. train 6: The LNER service back to King's Cross is much better policed than the trip up. Mel the conductor patrols the train politely reprimanding anyone who's slipped off their face covering, and makes regular announcements to remind everyone to sit in their reserved seat. We like Mel. train 7: By now it's well after the evening peak so I decide to take the Hammersmith & City line all the way home. We have plenty of seats each. In fact all today's trains have been perfectly fine... but then I did choose them for that very reason.
Wed 26: The penultimate day of Eat Out To Help Out is exceptionally busy at Here East. I haven't seen the riverside this busy since last summer (or maybe it's just that everybody's now eating outdoors rather than indoors). Thu 27: If you're looking for additional psychogeographical London content I heartily recommend keeping an eye on The Lost Byway - John Rogers' blog - on which he's often to be found walking across outskirts, contemplating woodland or following a lost river. He also makes films and has a YouTube channel. It's very much your kind of thing. Fri 28: The bus map outside Canning Town station is ten years old today. It is still nearly correct, but should have been updated nine years ago when the 241 was extended to Stratford City. A map in a bus shelter on Woolwich High Street is five weeks older (or at least it was last time I looked). Sat 29:Signs of autumn: Last year the first autumn day that didn't reach 15°C was 2nd October. This year it was 29th August. Sun 30: Turned on the oven, light came on, fan whirred into action. Came back ten minutes later to shove a pie in only to discover that the oven hadn't heated up. Tried again, still no joy. Thankfully it's a dual oven so I didn't go pieless, but that is a poor show from a nine-month-old appliance. Mon 31: If your 13 year-old son headed off this morning on his chunky-wheeled bike, he may well be among the 200-strong posse assembled outside Pudding Mill Lane station doing wheelies on the piazza (unless the police van that just arrived dispersed the gathering, in which case he may be flicking Vs at drivers on the A12 or regrouping at McDonalds for a banana milkshake).
The city of Lincoln is strategically located at the point where the River Witham cuts through a long escarpment, which is why the Romans built here and ultimately why it's an excellent tourist location. Alas I only had a short time to explore while changing trains, once at the start of the day and once at the end, but just long enough to walk Lincoln's amazing main street from bottom to top. Few high streets evolve quite so dramatically (and are quite so knackering). [map][10 photos][Visit Lincoln]
⇉ lower High Street ⇉
I joined the high street in its lowly lower section, the end of the town centre you'd visit for Argos, Poundland and The Sausage Grill. The big retail offering here is a former mainline station they turned into a shopping mall - St Mark's - after the railway was diverted in 1985. They kept the ionic portico, which now shields Sports Direct, but everything else was flattened and the signal box opposite Debenhams is a fake. The railway continues to slice through the high street at a busy level crossing, creating a major obstacle in the lower town. A few years ago National Rail added a footbridge to provide safe passage at all times, but most shoppers prefer to wait for the barriers to rise rather than take a lengthy hike (or wait for two lifts). A separate footbridge one street to the west, overlooking Brayford Pool, was opened lastsummer and is both architecturally more impressive and (importantly) more direct.
⇈ middle High Street ⇈
Across St Mary's Street, where the remaining station is, the High Street broadens out and steps up a notch. Banks and clothes shops start to predominate so you get a better class of teenager hanging around, or I imagine you do in drier weather. Two Waterstones would appear to be overdoing things, but the larger branch inside the old Corn Exchange is your better bet. The key building to look out for is the half-timbered Pasty Express, which it turns out is one of England's oldest buildings-on-a-bridge. Alleyways to either side lead down steps to the Glory Hole, an age-old nickname for the low arch which delivers the River Witham underneath the high street. If your beam is wider than 15 feet your craft won't squeeze through.
⇈ upper High Street ⇈
A castellated limestone building almost blocks the climbing high street, a Tudor obstruction with Victorian upgrades. This is the Guildhall and to proceed you walk through an arch called the Stonebow which marks the southern entrance into the walled city. Lincoln council meetings still take place in a beam-roofed chamber on the first floor. Beyond are more shops befitting of a county town, peaking with House of Fraser, plus an ever-increasing density of restaurants. Having explored Grimsby's retail offering barely an hour earlier, it was a big jolt to see quite so many non-essential shops.
⇈ The Strait ⇈
The pedestrianised street continues relentlessly upwards before suddenly splitting, the main drag veering off to the right. The road is now of medieval width, and cobbled, and lined by quirkier lifestyle brands. It's charming, aided and abetted by one of the cathedral's towers now poking out above the bunting. On the next bend is Jew's House which dates back to the middle of the 12th century and is one of Britain's oldest surviving townhouses. It's now a restaurant. The road junction out front also marks the unofficial dividing line between the areas of town that locals often call Downhill and Uphill. They are not joking.
⇈ Steep Hill ⇈
It makes perfect sense that the people of Lincoln would have called this Steep Hill because that's exactly what it is. The steepest stretch has a gradient of 1 in 6 and a handrail if you need it, plus a choice of paved or cobbled ascent. It's not too draining a climb but vehicles are strictly prohibited, and I doubt that many folk with mobility scooters choose to retire to Lincoln. That said it is terribly attractive, and the corridor of old shops towards the top of the hill reflects that. This section's all tea rooms, soap boutiques and fudge pantries, if you like that kind of thing, and I suspect normally a lot busier in August than I experienced.
⇉ Castle Square ⇉
Here we are finally at the top of the hill, the 75m summit being unusually high for Lincolnshire. You can see why the Romans built fortifications up here, and the Normans a castle and a cathedral. The castle is now a top visitor attraction, particularly for its wall walk, dungeons and copy of the Magna Carta, though not as typically medieval as you're probably imagining. The cathedral was the world's tallest building for 200 years until its spire fell down, and is still phenomenally imposing, even with scaffolding across much of the west front. Unfortunately I was here as Great Tom struck five which meant it was tourist chucking-out time, and anyway I needed to be back down at the Poundland end of the high street to catch my train home. I left the surrounding maze of streets preparing for the evening's fine diners and smart drinkers, and worked my way back down in status and in elevation.
• campaign to persuade parents that school is 'safe'
• increased fines for organisers of mass gatherings
• Tesco add 16000 home delivery jobs
• Scottish high schools to require face coverings
• 1st confirmed case of patient being re-infected
• 1st known UK case was on 21st February
• England follows Scotland on masks in schools
• millions of workers may not return to the office
• Usain Bolt tests positive
• 1 in 4 jobs to go at Gatwick Airport
• low paid to get £13 a day to self-isolate
• Jamaica and Switzerland join quarantine list
• outbreak at Norfolk poultry factory
• Paris makes masks mandatory
• highest number of new cases for 2 months
• Pret to cut quarter of its workforce
• restrictions eased in parts of NW England
• risk to children is 'vanishingly small'
• up to 85,000 deaths in worst case winter scenario
• virus badly affecting several Pacific islands
Worldwide deaths: 800,000 → 840,000 Worldwide cases: 23,000,000 → 24,800,000 UK deaths: 41,423 → 41,498 UK cases: 324,601 → 332,752 FTSE: down 1% (6001 → 5963)
Grimsby is the largest town in North East Lincolnshire thanks to fish. It became an important fishing port in the 12th century, lost favour in the 15th century when its harbour silted up then burst back to life in the mid 19th century with the coming of the railways. By the 1950s it was the largest fishing port in Britain, maybe the world, before fishing quotas brought the industry crashing down. Today Grimsby specialises in food processing instead, mainly of fish caught elsewhere. I fully intend to describe it without using the obvious adjective. [map][19 photos][Visit Grimsby]
»» The town centre
This is not somewhere to come touristing, although that's not to say there's nothing to see. There's the big medieval church near the station, for a start, which is Grimsby Minster (although it only gained minster status ten years ago so isn't as important as it sounds). The town hall is an imposing Victorian building in Italianate palazzo style, but sadly the Time Trap attraction in the former police cells won't be reopening before March so you won't be getting in there. Which basically leaves shopping.
Victoria Street is the main shopping street, which paired with the cheerless Freshney Place mall gifts Grimsby sufficient stores to satisfy the extensive hinterland of north Lincolnshire. House of Fraser alas closed its doors for the last time last month, but M&S hasn't given up yet and is about as highbrow as Grimsby gets. My favourite shop was Magazine World, an unashamed newsagent throwback whose window display consisted of shelves of top sporting and household titles (plus a row of Beano and Dandy summer specials at child's eye height). The longest queue, by far, was for Uniform Direct where a horseshoe of glum mums and bored children awaited fittings for the new school year. The Top Town indoor market was rather emptier, an austere grid of part-occupied stalls serving up meat, veg and (of course) fish.
»» The Haven
Grimsby's silted-up harbour was reworked at the turn of the 19th century to create a large rectangular basin for efficient unloading. It now forms a water feature nudging into the heart of town, but overlooked by copious retail parks rather than anything residential. The Grimsby Fishing Heritage Centre opened on the west quay in 1991, telling the story of the national fishing fleet... which I fear means a lot of nets and sou'westers. Its galleries reopened to the public on Tuesday but the faff of pre-booking at a specific time meant I had to give the place a miss. At least tours of the classic side-trawler moored outside, the Ross Tiger, haven't yet restarted so technically I didn't miss that.
The most impressivestructures hereabouts, genuinely so, are the Corporation Bridge and the Victoria Flour Mill. The former is a single-leaf rolling lift bascule bridge installed in 1925, i.e all the traffic stops and one end tips up. An act of Parliament requires the bridge to retain its lifting capacity despite no boat having sailed into the Alexandra Dock this century, forcing the council to set aside £5m for recent repairs. As for the mill, its seven storey redbrick grain silo looks gorgeous but is merely a shell around a central void, hence somewhatunstable. The council are trying to keep it standing while seeking a future use, but can't turn it into flats because the residents would have no windows. Heritage is sometimes a headache.
»» The docks
In the 19th and early 20th centuries Grimsby's docks spread along the waterfront and out into the estuary, to the extent that the average Grimbarian never sees the Humber. What they can see is the 300 foot Grimsby Dock Tower, a supremely elegant Italianate spike which contains the hydraulics powering the lock gates to the tidal basin. The tower's a long way distant, hence off limits, but it's perfectly possible to wander into the nearer reaches of the docks for a fishy eyeful. The railway bridge on Humber Street provides a great vantage point, as well as being the quickest access for workers walking to and from the Young'sfactory on Ross Road.
From up here you can see brightly paintedsheds, lost-looking buildings that were once part of something larger, vast expanses of hardstanding where nothing much happens any more and even the odd trawler. I identified one from Norway, one from Iceland and one from Whitby. These days Grimsby processes more fish than it catches, so the adjacent streets are packed with refrigerated warehouses belonging to numerous independent companies, one of whom might be breadcrumbing your next supermarket purchase. Walking back off the bridge I was blasted by the smell of fishfingers from a ventilation unit, which was life-affirming.
»» The request stop
The railway hugs the coast on the brief journey between Grimsby and Cleethorpes but is only single track, which doesn't aid a good service. Neither does the fact that most of the trains arriving at Cleethorpes have come all the way from Manchester Piccadilly so have a habit of being delayed (mine was ten minutes late due to issues in the Peak District). New Clee station is a single-platformed halt in view of the docks, adjacent to the Flatfish sushi factory and an Aldi car park, potentially serving backstreets on the northern edge of town. But it's only served by stoppers on the Humberlinc line, and then only every two hours, and then only as a request stop, which'll be how it manages to attract fewer than 500 passengers a year. I got lucky and happened to be present when a train actually stopped, but it was going the wrong way so never mind.
»» The football ground
Continuing along the coast we find Blundell Park, the home of Grimsby TownFootball Club, embedded amid a grid of Victorian streets. It's been here since 1899, and its main wooden stand since 1901, so it's not the best appointed of League clubs. The Young's Stand (formerly the Findus Stand) looks considerably more alluring, however, its top tier seats offering panoramic views of the Humber estuary if play on the pitch fails to excite. The club chairman has high hopes of building a new stadium closer to town in East Marsh, one of Britain's most deprived neighbourhoods, but a succession of previous relocation plans have hit the rocks and this looks like another failed dream.
I turned up just after a team practice which meant the gates were open, offering a rare glimpse of the pitch. A couple of players walked out resplendent in their Young's-sponsored kit and unlocked cars rather swisher than most folk have around here. Blundell Avenue, the neighbouring street after which the ground is named, offers an unbroken line of terraced pebbledash with questionable brown splodges on the pavement. Close by is a footbridge over the railway line... which is where I left you in the last paragraph of yesterday's post because Blundell Park is technically in Cleethorpes. Best not mention that when the new season kicks off next Saturday.
Cleethorpes is North East Lincolnshire's seaside resort. Officially what you're paddling in is the Humber estuary, not the sea, but the beach is broad and sandy so the daytrippers don't mind. Cleethorpes grew from a fishing village to a bathing place to a full-on resort in the 19th century, providing an ideal coastal getaway for the folk of south Yorkshire. It's not so popular today but hasn't lost all of its charm, and prides itself on not (quite) being Grimsby. [20 photos][Visit Cleethorpes]
»» The pier
Let's start with the pier which is conveniently located at the head of the promenade. It used to be a lot longer to span the broad tidal range in the estuary, but lost three quarters of its length in 1940 as part of defence works to deter German invasion. What remains is a brief asymmetrical boardwalk leading to an offshore platform with a single large pavilion... which has had at least ten different owners over the last 40 years. The latest business trying to make a go of things is Papa's, an east coast chippy brand with a habit of opening "the world's largest fish and chip restaurant", of which this is their third.
The pavilion seats 500 diners and also incorporates a takeaway, although both require pre-booking this summer which made dropping in for battered haddock too much of a hassle. I was also put off by the takeaway cartons stacked against the front window which prominently featured the phrase 'as featured on the BBC', although it turned out this was for reasons of haute cuisine and not the result of a Watchdog investigation. But mostly I took against Papa's because they'd sealed off the walkways around three sides of the pavilion so the best sea views were available only to those seated inside. It's fortunate that Cleethorpes won Pier of the Year the year before this catering monopoly turned up because, although the exterior looks splendid, I doubt it'd win today.
»» The promenade
Cleethorpes' beachfront promenade runs for just over a mile and is divided into North, Central and South.
North's where the action is, if by action you mean amusement arcades, soft play and a low-key nightclub. On a wet day it offers somewhere to hide and something to do. It's also where the station is so the first place tourists see on arrival, enticed by an ornate clocktower only to be deposited at the entrance to the Fantasy World arcade. The bare minimum of a funfair has been set up on the sands featuring a carousel, a not-so-big wheel, a helter skelter and the tamest of rollercoasters. At the red-and-white striped Cleethorpes Rock Company kiosk plastic sheeting is sometimes used to screen the sugar-rich display from the driving rain. Fryer Tuck's Take Away serves absolutely nothing healthy, with chips, as is right and proper at the seaside.
Central starts at the pier and runs down to the lifeboat station beneath the High Cliff Road. The landward side is backdropped by Pier View Gardens, a thin strip of quintessential resort furniture including flower beds, crazy golf and a waterfall. Crazy golf is cutthroat business in Cleethorpes as each 18-holer competes for business. Friend-of-the-blog Richard Gottfried highly recommends the classic Arnold Palmer, a UK rarity, but also also rates Oddballs for its massive windmill and the hole concealed inside a scale model of the pier. The teenager manning the ticket booth looked beyond bored as I dripped past, as did the hopeful soul in the dry at Julie's Ice Cream Parlour. For the best view along the seafront head to Ross Castle, which isn't a castle but a mock ruin built in 1885 with a spiralling ramp to the upper platform.
South is much less commercialised, a long promenade set back from the road for keen strollers only. A strip down the centre is marked for the use of the Lollipop Road Train, so-called because the conductor hands out free lollipops to every child that travels. What else is a former trawler skipper supposed to do after retirement? The Cleethorpes illuminations appear intermittently atop wooden posts, and leave Blackpool nothing to worry about. As for the beach this is easily accessible behind a low concrete wall, and had been freshly raked earlier on the morning of my visit. Walk right to the end and you reach a formidable leisure centre, built to replace a storm damaged open air pool (beyond which are the boating lake, miniature railway and meridian crossing I told you about yesterday).
»» The town
40,000 people live in Cleethorpes and they get a proper high street, although the majority of businesses near the seafront specialise solely in serving food. Top of the recommended list is Steel's Corner House, a half-timbered fish and chip restaurant opened in 1946 and under the same management since 1978. They don't normally do takeaway but have adapted this summer so I had the opportunity of a pre-ordered box of flaky haddock, and all I can say is I'm not sure why the kebab house nextdoor bothers.
I also took the opportunity to check out a couple of estate agent windows, because it's good for a Londoner to be grounded occasionally. Detached chalet bungalow £55,000. Two bedroom flat £79,500. Three bedroomed terraced house £90,000. Three bedroomed semi £135,000. Three-storey house with five bedrooms £180,000. If all that has you sobbing, perhaps ask yourself what's more important, living conditions or location. So long as you love fish and chips you have nothing to fear.
Cleefacts
» Cleethorpes resident are nicknamed Meggies (as opposed to people from Skegness who are Skeggies).
» Cleethorpes' most famous offspring are songwriter Rod Temperton and actresses Michelle Dotrice and Patricia Hodge
» Cleethorpes prides itself on overperforming in the annual Britain in Bloom competition, peaking with an RHS Gold Champion of Champions award in 2012, although the gold plaques on the wall above Sandcastles gift shop cease abruptly after 2015.
»» The overlap
At the far end of the North Promenade, beyond the go karts and the Sunday market, the coast path passes onto a high sea wall. To one side an incredible sweep of concrete steps leads down to a crescent of beach, almost as if this were an auditorium rather than a breakwater. The main railway line cuts off access from the landward side, eventually spanned by a single footbridge which fails to match up with a gap in the sea wall. The coast becomes more industrial, the inland streets more resolutely terraced, and somewhere along this stretch Cleethorpes merges silently into Grimsby. Let's save its delights for tomorrow.
