London's streets aren't especially walking-friendly. There's street furniture to negotiate, traffic lights to traverse and a whole host of annoying pedestrians forever getting in your way. Plus it's ever so easy to get lost if you don't know where you're going. Could you (would you?) walk from Covent Garden to Marylebone, or would you just flag down a taxi or take the tube? When even local residents take several years to build up a mental map of inner London, what hope is there for new arrivals and temporary tourists?
Our capital's maps aren't much good for walking either. The A-Z is for drivers, and the tube map (despite being the map of choice for 45% of London's walkers) is geographically distorting and often wildly misleading. The maps on bus shelters used to be invaluable for navigating around unfamiliar parts of town - I used to use them all the time. But then they got redesigned and simplified for the sole benefit of bus travellers, and now alas they're as useless as the tube map for walking from A to B. Without a Multimap print-out in their hand, walkers can just get lost.
Now there's a new project on the streets attempting to make a difference. It's part of an initiative called Legible London, which "proposes to change the existing fragmented approach to walking information into a single reliable, consistent and authoritative system." Or in other words they've erected some new signs. There are 19 prototypes altogether, all of them in the area around Bond Street tube station, where Christmas shoppers are being used to test out the functionality of the new system. Everything was unwrapped yesterday, and very pretty they look too.
These new signs are slim, tall and sleek, with maps and key navigation information etched upon both surfaces. They're called "miniliths" (which, presumably, are just like monoliths but thinner, and so don't get in the way of passing wheelchairs). A memorable neighbourhood, such as Mayfair or Fitzrovia, is namechecked at the top of each post, and beneath that there's directional information to nearby streets, attractions and tube stations. Underneath that are couple of proper maps, with 5- and 15-minute walk radii superimposed, and finally a list of local streets with map references. Meanwhile down the thin edge there's an 0870 number (and unique minilith ID) should you wish to listen toan audio commentary about the location where you're currently standing. The posts are packed with hopefully-useful information. Go on, surely you're now confident enough to give walking a try.
Oxford Street last night was bustling, dark and damp. The miniliths outside Bond Street station weren't quite getting in the way (they've replaced existing street furniture, not added to it), but they weren't quite being noticed either. They're good for standing beside with a pushchair, but not yet part of pedestrian Londoners' everyday orientation. Meanwhile, at the bottom of South Molton Street, the freshly unveiled minilith was having to compete for attention with a series of illuminated Christmas angels. The angels won. But as I hung around attempting to take a photograph, wahey, a couple of passing shoppers stopped to peruse the map and attempted to work out where to walk next. Result.
If the prototypes are a success, you're going to see a lot more of them. There are already tentative plans afoot to erect more across Covent Garden, the South Bank, Richmond, Twickenham & Kew, the Royal Docks and Hackney, and by 2012 much of central and East London may be covered. The new maps will also be appearing in tube stations and, best of all, on appropriate bus shelters. I think I like them. I think they may even be extremely useful.
Now is the time to tell the project organisers what you think, so that future rollout can be even more effective. Should the signs be self-illuminating? Can you cope with that fact that north isn't always at the top? Will Londoners ever develop mental maps based on artificial neighbourhoods named by project consultants? If you're interested to find out more, there's already tons to explore on the project's website. Get your feedback in soon, and let's hope that a proper Legible London becomes a reality.
In amongst all of London's recent travel news (Western Congestion Zone, who needs it?), some good green tidings have slipped out relatively unnoticed. Boris is busy spending money, on pedestrians. More specifically, on signage for pedestrians. Many Londoners, it seems, choose to hop into their cars or ride on public transport when in fact they could have walked. It's a particular problem in the centre of town. Often important locations are quite close together but, because people haven't internalised a mental map of the capital, they don't realise how close. Stick up some better maps and and signs and fingerposts, and more people will choose to take the two-footed option. That's the theory anyway.
The project's called Legible London, and it "proposes to change the existing fragmented approach to walking information into a single reliable, consistent and authoritative system." Or, in other words, it's designed to make walking easier. A trial version kicked off in the Bond Street area exactly a year ago. 19 "miniliths" were set into West End pavements, each standing tall like an Arthur C Clarke 2001 black slab. They feature directional info, detailed maps and a street name index, plus a mobile number you can ring for further information. One key addition is an indication of how long it takes to walk somewhere, because people understand time better than miles, yards or kilometres. If you're trying to make your way on foot around unfamiliar streets at the top of Mayfair, these signs really help.
They don't get in the way, either. You might expect a big black block to be a bit of an obstruction, but separate decluttering has ensured otherwise. Gone are lots of unnecessary bits of street furniture and a surfeit of unnecessary obsolete signs. Both minimal and comprehensive, that's the plan.
The new signs are really rather lovely. Maybe it's the clear clean design, or maybe it's the inspired choice of black and yellow, but the enamel surface looks positively lickable. No surprise, then that the Legible London prototypes have met with a very positive reaction from the public. 85% of interviewees said the new system was easy-to-use, two-thirds of respondents said it would encourage them to walk more, and nine out of 10 felt the system should be rolled out across London. So it's going to be. The original Bond Street focus is to be extended along Oxford and Regent Streets over the next few months. Three further lucky areas will see the system rolled out during autumn 2009, and if the cash holds out a lot more of the capital could follow.
South Bank and Bankside: That makes sense. The Thames riverside is already teeming with strolling pedestrians, especially at weekends, many of whom only ever stick to the water's edge for fear of getting lost. It's stepping inshore which requires better signage, not least because there are absolutely no underground stations along the South Bank. And the quickest walking route from the London Eye to the Tate Modern isn't along the Thames, but who'd know that without decent maps?
Bloomsbury, Covent Garden and Holborn: That makes sense. There's a warren of non-griddy streets around the eastern West End, and it can be quite hard to tell where you're heading. I suspect TfL have pushed for this area to be included as part of their continuing campaign to get tourists to walk (not tube) to Covent Garden. Short of renaming this crowded deep level station "SmellyPlace Keepaway", it's only decent ground level signage that'll encourage passengers to walk to Covent Garden from somewhere else.
Richmond and Twickenham: That makes sense. Boris likes the suburbs, so why should the centre of town reap all the benefits? Clustering a load of miniliths around Richmond Bridge will be a good test of the system's suitability across more typical swathes of Outer London. Might even encourage a few more drivers to leave their gas guzzlers at home.
Those attending the VIP shopping day in Oxford Street next weekend will be able to find out more by stopping off at TfL's "walking trailer". Further details can be also found on the Legible London website - dormant for the last ten months but which has suddenly reawoken in a flurry of mild activity. One particular statistic in the latest press release caught my eye - the claim that "109 journeys between Central London Tube stations are quicker by foot than Tube." With the aid of Legible London's "Yellow Book", I wonder if I can name all of those tomorrow...
Last week the Mayors of Tower Hamlets and Newham came together to open a new ramp beside Bow Creek at Canning Town. The administrative geography of the location is complex, thanks to interlocking peninsulas, the ramp being in one borough but the onward connection being to the other. The ramp took nine months to build and cost £593,000 as part of a long term plan to increase accessibility along the last miles of the Lea. I was surprised, therefore, to discover than it unlocks nothing new.
I've been reporting on plans to connect up the lower Lea for morethantenyears. The problem is that south of Bow Locks what footpaths there are tend to be dead ends, so even the official Lea Valley Walk gives up and follows the canal to Limehouse instead. Originally the new riverside path was to be called the Fatwalk, but thankfully someone recognised that was a dreadful name and now it's the Leaway instead. And it's that Leaway name which has now appeared on a big sign beside the A13 flyover, and which is written in the pavement at the top of the ramp too.
The ramp's barely 50m long and runs immediately alongside the DLR (whose trains rush past behind a high fence). A metal sign at the top of the slope points towards Bow Creek Ecology Park and something optimistically called Canning Town Riverside, which it turns out is a cluster of vandalproof benches and a litter bin overlooking what's either a brimming river or a muddy trench, tides permitting. I bet it looks more enticing in the summer. This is one of only two locations in London where I've ever thought "Uh oh, I'm about to be mugged", and although that never happened this additional connectivity can only be a good thing.
Except it's not a fresh connection because a set of steps already leads down to this point from the pavement above. What's new is that bicycles, pushchairs and wheelchairs can now get down here too... although what's odd is they could already thanks to the Blue Bridge a few metres on. But what's even odder is that any cyclist who comes down the new ramp has to continue their journey by crossing this Blue Bridge... which leads back to the pavement they were previously on. According to the Mayors the new ramp exists to "allow people to walk or cycle from Silvocea Way to Canning Town station avoiding the busy A13", but all it's really doing is bypassing 100 metres of perfectly good cycle superhighway.
If there is a point to the ramp, it's to improve connectivity for links yet to be created. The riverside path continues round a thin peninsula to the back entrance to Canning Town station and will eventually continue further, but doesn't yet. A much more direct route could follow the metal footbridge over the DLR, except for some reason that's always locked in the middle despite both halves being individually accessible. And the Leaway itself will one day continue through the tunnel beneath the flyover, just don't try following the route yet because it's horrible.
Wharfside Road already has all its Leaway collateral, including a paved area with benches, a Legible London minilith and 'Leaway north' written in the concrete on the ground. The map on the minilith confirms that the Lea Valley Walk continues along Stephenson Road, but not what a godforsaken hellhole Stephenson Road is pedestrianwise. The industrial area which follows boasts decrepit warehouses, skip hire facilities, car repair units and recycling yards, and is frequented by numerous trucks and lorries. I passed through while a forklift was unloading scrap into a shed, so had to cross to the opposite narrow 'pavement' alongside the Jubilee line, except someone was coming the other way so I had to wait for a minute to avoid being crushed by passing vehicles. Stephenson Road may be an important employment cluster, but no way does it deserve to be on any official accessible walking trail.
The Leawayshould pass along the riverfront instead, but landowners on the Electra Business Park have never played ball. One short strip of promenade is sealed off and waiting, while the remaining chunk lies beyond a razed brownfield site that awaits redevelopment. One decent fence along the waterside should fix it, wharfage rights permitting, allowing existing commercial interests to continue unabated while cyclists and pedestrians power through. In the meantime that grim inland diversion via Star Lane DLR remains necessary, and the official onward connection through the Prologis Business Park isn't much better.
If the new path is ever opened up it'll connect to Cody Dock, an unqualified success as a community facility since it opened in 2012. I passed through while the gravestones for the Hallowe'en event were being tweaked and local families were decorating a tent for the evening's extravaganza. But the riverside beyond is as wild and empty as ever, an amazing resource underconnected and underused because it still doesn't quite go anywhere. The Leaway cannot come soon enough... although when it finally does, I suspect ten thousand homes won't be too far behind.
I love a good TfL press release. Here's a bad one from last Friday. Lots of good positive things, wrapped up in drivel.
Pedestrians come first in the West End as £2.4m improvements to new walking route completed A new West End walking route has benefited from £2.4m of public realm improvements funded by Transport for London (TfL) which were unveiled today.
Such promise. Lots of money being spent (tick). A new walking route (tick). And a grand unveiling (tick). Unfortunately, as it turns out, two of those ticks are crosses.
At the heart of the new walking route, which runs from Covent Garden to Holborn Circus, is a newly created public space at Great Queen Street. The existing space has been greatly improved by increasing footway space for visitors to shop, socialise and relax in. Traffic signals, guard rail and street clutter have all been removed from the area.
This new public space in Great Queen Street is the big tick. Lots of money has been spent remodelling a fairly minor road junction, with a set of unnecessary traffic lights ripped out and the roadway shifted in favour of a mini-piazza where pedestrians can mingle. Camden Council have added a few chunky indestructible concrete benches, and there's one of Boris's pet bike-rental stations under construction round the corner. It's rather splendid, in an understated transformational way, should you ever be in the area. But I don't believe it was officially opened last Friday, it's been looking complete for a fair few weeks now. Unveiling, sorry, no (cross).
The improvements are part of the Mayor's policy of 'Making Walking Count' and have been designed to encourage more local walking.
The fact that all this money has been spent on the doorstep of the United Grand Lodge of England is, I'm sure, a complete and utter coincidence. And especially fortunate given that the other three "Key Walking Route" improvements are considerably less impressive.
The key retail street of Long Acre has seen pavements widened and re-laid using high quality materials and new street lighting.
The word "key" is being bandied about here a lot, isn't it? In this case, lots of new pavement extensions mean that shoppers and foot-based folk in Long Acre won't have to walk in the road quite so often as they used to. Which is nice, but not quite key.
The historic square of Lincoln's Inn Fields has been restored through new footways, finished in characteristic materials and featuring accessibility improvements including drop kerbs and tactile paving.
I don't know whether you've been to Lincoln's Inn Fields, but it was already lovely and huge, with plenty of circulatory pavement space, before all of these supposed improvements took place. I had a wander round at the weekend, and quite frankly I couldn't see anything fresh and praiseworthy at all. Maybe wheelchair-enabled Londoners can now get into the central park with greater ease, but that doesn't really hang easily with the idea of a key "walking" route, does it?
...while High Holborn has been de-cluttered with improved crossing facilities for pedestrians and more cycle parking.
Let's be clear here, we're only talking about a short length of High Holborn, the bit below Chancery Lane. This used to be a broad thoroughfare with a hatched bit down the middle, and now it's a broad thoroughfare with a strip of paving and some cycle racks down the middle. Easier to cross, sure, but useless for walking along. There is no key walking route here (cross).
TfL has funded £2.4m of improvements between Long Acre and Holborn Circus. The TfL Key Walking Route programme links important local destinations such as stations, offices and shops through high quality walking environments.
And here's my big gripe. The Key Walking Route between Long Acre and Holborn Circus exists only in the mind of some TfL planner. There are no signs at Long Acre pointing towards Holborn Circus, nor any at the other end in the opposite direction. Any pedestrian who attempts to walk from one to the other without a map will get horribly lost, as no attempt whatsoever has been made to define this walking route on the ground. Neither is there any obvious attempt at even linking one place to the next. Lincoln's Inn Fields isn't freshly signposted from the pavement along High Holborn, and Great Queen Street isn't clearly waymarked from the environs of Lincoln's Inn Fields. This walking route isn't key, it's physically non-existent.
And yet the link through Great Queen Street and Long Acre ought to be a massively important walking route. TfL are desperate to get would-be Piccadilly line passengers to walk from Holborn to Covent Garden (via Great Queen Street and Long Acre), because the lifts at the latter station can't always cope with weekend and evening crowds. There's even a sign outside Holborn station telling you how easy it is to walk to Covent Garden, and sort of telling you how to do it. Set off, however, and you're on your own. You might spot a new Legible Londonminilith on Kingsway which hints at directions, but there's no explicit route-finding here. A few pedestrian symbols on lampposts might help, or even a discreet line painted on the ground, but instead walkers are left to work out every twist and turn for themselves. As flagrant public misdirection goes, this press release misleads nigh perfectly.
So it turns out that a "key walking route", despite its name, isn't anything specifically signposted for pedestrians to follow. It's merely an on-street zone of opportunity within which improvement work takes place - a nebulous linear cluster of widened pavements connected by nothing more than a budget line. What TfL have done here is to deliver some lovely street improvements, hurrah, but then allowed some faceless bureaucrat to rebrand them with a name that sounds important but is meaningless. Don't be taken in. And maybe stick to taking the tube to Covent Garden, because you're far less likely to go astray.
Local journalism is in decline, so I've picked up the baton.
Here's the very latest news from our local street.
BOW ROAD NEWS
Barclays to close bank on Bow Road
Barclays have announced that their bank at 92 Bow Road is to close. Doors will shut at 4.30pm on Friday 7th June, after which customers will have to bank online or elsewhere. The Nat West across the road also closed in 2017, hence in three months time there'll be no banks anywhere along Bow Road.
A Barclays spokesperson admitted that the number of transactions at the Bow Road branch had increased over the previous 24 months, with the number of cash deposits rising by 15%. "However 87% of our branch customers also use other ways to do their banking such as online and by telephone," she said. "Also we've calculated that 51% of this branch's customers also use neighbouring branches, so we're pressing ahead and closing it anyway." Over 4500 regular customers will be inconvenienced.
"I've been coming here for years, even though it's a bit grim inside," said one customer who refused to give their name. "Now I'll have to travel to the Barclays 0.7 miles away on Roman Road, or the Barclays 1.3 miles away in Poplar, or the Barclays 1.6 miles away in Stratford, at least until they close those down too. I know people in other parts of the country would kill to have an alternative bank within one mile, but it's a sad day for Bow Road and no mistake."
Hotel speculation
Barclays Bank is located immediately alongside the City Stay Hotel, whose most famous Russian guests checked out exactly one year ago. There has been speculation that the hotel's owners might want to buy up the empty bank premises and knock through, but this has yet to be confirmed.
Mosque Opens New Sweet Shop
Worshippers at Bow Central Mosque now have the added opportunity of shopping before or after their daily worship. That's because Tijarah Tours and Sweets has opened in what used to be one of the downstairs rooms, offering money transfer, air tickets, passport services and sweets.
In an age of online travel, local residents can now drop in after prayers for friendly advice on travelling abroad whilst buying Haribo-style confectionery. The number of destinations is somewhat limited, with pilgrimages a speciality, but the variety of sweets available in store is particularly extensive. The owners have also set their sights on becoming Bow Road's go-to repository for Fed Ex packages, delivered with a smile and a friendly sugar high. Why not visit before Jumu'ah and see for yourself?
ANCHOR'S AWAY
Residents on the Bow Bridge Estate have found themselves overlooking a demolition site as what used to be Jolles House is reduced to rubble. Poplar Harca plan to build 70 residential units, 96% of which will be affordable, on the site of a block of flats, a basketball court and a Victorian pub. Demolition of the pub, which has been derelict for several years, has not yet begun.
The Blue Anchor pub was built in the 19th century and is one of the last surviving heritage assets on Bromley High Street. A council planning officer said "The Blue Anchor has been renovated and altered over time and has limited historic fabric remaining. The demolition of the pub is considered acceptable given the benefits of the proposed scheme and the quality of the replacement buildings."
Former regular Percy Baxter, 82, said "I've had many a happy night in the Blue Anchor, but now it's being turned into flats which'll look like every other new development in London. Admittedly I've been living in Romford for the last thirty years, so heaven knows who was still drinking there at last orders, but it'll be criminal to see that empty boozer destroyed."
Legible London Minilith Repaired
After months of local despair, the enamel map outside Bow Police Station has been repaired. Local youths sadly smashed the top and bottom panels months ago, leaving two useless holes through the middle of the pillar. But now the council or TfL or whoever's job it is to repair these things has finally come along with replacements, and visitors can once again negotiate their way around the surrounding streets.
Local campaigner May Dupname, 62, said "This sign has been an eyesore ever since it was destroyed by mindless thugs. I had given up all hope of it ever being repaired, what with austerity and everything, because these things can't be cheap. But it just goes to show that mindless pessimism is sometimes wrong. I just hope the new panels are properly vandalproof."
Other Commercial News
• The entire car lot at Enterprise Car Rentals has been demolished. In the 1960s this stretch of Bow Road was the site of the Kray Brothers famous Double R Club. The business continues to trade around the corner in Paton Close and will return once works are complete. A new portakabin is to be built, reorienting the site with a new pedestrian entrance on Bow Road.
• The Bow Pizza and Grill, whose underwhelming carb options were squeezed into an arch under the railway line, has closed down. However feet and cleaning materials have been spotted under the shutters, so expect some kind of deep-fried rebirth.
• Meanwhile at 163 Bow Road, internal reorganisation at the former Kebabish continues unabated. Workmen have been busy inside shifting counters, tweaking plumbing and slotting in new electrics, in readiness for a marginally-fresh venture which it's just been revealed will be called the Myra Grill.
Portaloo Departs Bus Stop Bypass Roadworks
Disruption at Bus Stop M opposite Bow Church may be coming to an end, as a contractor has turned up to take the Davlav portaloo away. Removing the blue plastic cubicle proved somewhat problematic as it was briefly abandoned in the middle of the new mini zebra crossing, then dragged slowly down the cycle superhighway towards the back of a truck. No more than one cyclist was inconvenienced by the convenience.
Although it might appear that workmen have been doing bugger all for the last week, tweaking a teensy bit of kerb and eating sandwiches, the temporary yellow covers at the entrance to the bypass conceal considerable digging and a deep square shaft. Possession of the site lasts for one more day, after which piles of signs, slabs and equipment will need to be carted away. Alas it appears that only half of the bus stop bypass will have been converted by this time, and that the rear island will be left with its original kerbstones and less prominent tactile paving, possibly forever.
Noon update: Unexpectedly on Day Six a bunch of additional workmen have arrived and are attacking the central hump with drills. Now reduced to irregular chunks, all the tarmac is being lobbed into the back of a truck and piled up ready for disposal. Today's workers have no portaloo facility.
2pm update: A new tarmac hump is being laid, longer than before, to create broader public access between pavement and bus stop. Much mini-steamrollering is occurring. The extended ramp has entirely covered a former drain in the cycle superhighway, which explains the extra guttering and additional sinkhole one metre distant which the workforce spent so many hours constructing.
4pm update: The workmen have packed away most of their equipment and left. Cyclists are already whizzing over the freshly-laid tarmac hump. It has not yet been painted, so has no markings and does not resemble a mini zebra crossing. No work has taken place on the ramp leading to the other half of the island. Bus Stop M is open again, and should stay that way.
We're getting new signs along Bow Road. Not for road traffic, not even for cyclists, but for us pedestrians up on the pavement.
This is the latest rollout of the Legible London project, first seen only in the centre of town, but now increasingly evident in the outer suburbs. Bow Road's been specially targeted, apparently, because of you know what.
Which is interesting, because none of the recommended travel routes for getting to the Games involve using Bow Road. None of the stations hereabouts are designated venue stations, and you can't get to the Olympic Park without crossing the human-crushing Bow Roundabout. You might walk this way if you were local, you might walk this way if you were lost, you might walk this way if the rest of the transport network had shut down, but probably not otherwise. Whatever, whichever, the signs are a great thing to have.
There is no major hospital on Bow Road. There used to be, but it's been closed for seven years and is about to be turned into flats. There are major hospitals much further down the A11, but they're not on Bow Road. Neither is there a university, technically there's only one tube station, and even the large parks are some walk away. Presumably someone's chosen to use the phrase "around Bow Road" in a vague arbitrary woolly neighbourhood sort of way. You might not want to put such a person in charge of wayfinding and mapmaking.
The tall enamel maps appeared couple of months ago, but the sign outside Thames Magistrates Court only went up on Monday. Merry Christmas everybody. Never mind if it's a bit late, Bow Road's very pleased to be becoming more accessible. And if this investment stops yet another lost soul asking me how to walk between the tube station and the DLR, it'll be job well done.
Three days ago, London's <Greedy bank>Cycle Hire zone extended eastwards. I would have mentioned this earlier, except it didn't extend as far as Norfolk which made on-the-spot reviewing difficult. It also didn't extend across the whole of Tower Hamlets, as TfL's official Cycle Hire webpage claims (bad luck, Fish Island, there's nothing for you). But it did extend as far as Bow, which means I suddenly have a Cycle Hire terminal or two very close to my front door. Have I been for a ride? Hell no. Sorry, cycling evangelists, because I know you think two-wheeled is the way to go. But I'm a liability on a bike, utterly hopelessly uncoordinated, so I keep my life expectancy higher by staying out of the saddle.
What follows, then, is a pedestrian's view of the Cycle Hire scheme extension. I'm not a cyclist, so feel free to disregard my blatherings. What would I know about whether the keys work properly, how smooth the ride is, or what happens when you try to dock your bike? But I've been for a walk down the eastern edge of the extension zone anyway, and here's what I found.
Bow Church's docking station isn't actually outside the station, it's a minute or two up the road. It's been laid out along what used to be the widest strip of pavement in the local area, but has since been sliced once for a Cycle Superhighway and now again for a row of 39 bikes. There's still plenty of room to walk past, thankfully, but suddenly it's much more difficult to nip through and cross the road here. More than half of the bikes here were used yesterday, right down to a period mid-afternoon when only a couple were available. Walking from the tube I passed three smiling riders (of an appropriately mixed demographic) biking away from the docking station, which was more than I thought I'd see. A mild overnight success, I'd judge, although I'm very glad no TfL planner chose to site one right outside my front window.
A slight problem involves the three different kinds of black enamel totems along Bow Road. Various Cycle Superhighway miniliths depict the blue strip from Bow to Whitechapel, but not the docking stations along the way, because they were installed last summer and there was no Cycle Hire back then. A brand new Legible London minilith was erected on the pavement outside Barclays last month, but it doesn't feature any docking stations either. Only the maps on the docking station terminals themselves show the location of any other docking stations, and then only those within a five minute walk, which is barely any distance at all. Unless you've checked a paper or online map before setting off, you have absolutely no idea where all the other docking stations are. Stick to the main roads and you'll be fine, but veer off the beaten track and you could be cycling round for ages looking for somewhere to park your steed before the 30 minute free period expires.
At the end of Bromley High Street is Cycle Hire's northeasternmost docking station. If you're hoping to ride to the Olympic Park, sorry, this is as far as you're going to get, because that's a Lloyds TSB domain so Barclays aren't welcome. It's an almost ideal location amid a broad sweep of pavement well away from anyone's front door, but equally a very bad location alongside a dual carriageway where cycling would best be deemed unwise. A curve of 23 black docking points leads round towards the bus stop, should passengers arriving from North Greenwich fancy a ride through the streets of E3. I was only here for a minute or two, but in that time four bikes were undocked (a bunch of recreational weekend travellers who tottered off somewhat uncertainly) and one bike arrived (a young lad who pulled in and sauntered off in seconds, with all the expertise of a Cycle Hire regular).
It's instructive to see where the docking stations aren't. There's no docking station outside, or even nearly outside, Bromley-by-Bow station. Get off the tube here and, sorry, you're going to have to reach your destination on foot. Ditto at Devons Road DLR, where the nearest Cycle Hire location is at least five minutes walk away, as if whoever assembled the map of chosen locations didn't give a damn about enabling cross-modal journey interchanges. Fancy a bike ride along the Limehouse Cut towpath? Nobody's really attempted to make that easy, either at the Bromley end or the Limehouse end. But Langdon Park DLR does have a bike rack almost alongside, as does All Saints, even though somebody's forgotten to show the latter on the published map.
Then on Teviot Street I discovered possibly the least used docking station anywhere on the Cycle Hire network. According to TfL's datafeed absolutely nobody used it on Saturday, not a single withdrawal or deposit, at least before eight o'clock in the evening. Other stations nearby saw bikes dripfeed in or flood out, but nothing shifted here on the Teviot Estate. The docking station's sited in front of a morose parade of shops that'll never see any kind of chain store, let alone a Barclays. Half were shuttered down yesterday, and even the other half were part-shuttered in case the proprietors ever need to shut up shop suddenly. The parade's convenience store is branded "Local Shopper", the unisex hairdresser looks more utility than salon, and the T.F.C takeaway won't be troubling Time Out's restaurant reviews any time soon. I'd suggest that the community around here aren't the sort to waste their hard-won cash on luxuries like bike hire, hence they're not especially interested in Boris's gift of a docking station.
And finally to Aberfeldy Street. According to TfL's printed map there's no Cycle Hire docking station here, whereas according to real life there is. Again it sits outside a parade of wholly underwhelming shops and community drop-ins, providing a service to those within walking distance and absolutely no further. If you ever need reminding that London's no wealthy land of milk and honey, I can strongly recommend a walk through the Teviot and Aberfeldy Estates to make the point. You could even come by bike, although you might look a bit out of place, because so far only a tiny handful of people have.
Now there's a new project on the streets attempting to make a difference. It's part of an initiative called Legible London, which "proposes to change the existing fragmented approach to walking information into a single reliable, consistent and authoritative system." Or in other words they've erected some new signs. There are 19 prototypes altogether, all of them in the area around Bond Street tube station, where Christmas shoppers are being used to test out the functionality of the new system. Everything was unwrapped yesterday, and very pretty they look too.
Oxford Street last night was bustling, dark and damp. The miniliths outside Bond Street station weren't quite getting in the way (they've replaced existing street furniture, not added to it), but they weren't quite being noticed either. They're good for standing beside with a pushchair, but not yet part of pedestrian Londoners' everyday orientation. Meanwhile, at the bottom of South Molton Street, the freshly unveiled minilith was having to compete for attention with a series of illuminated Christmas angels. The angels won. But as I hung around attempting to take a photograph, wahey, a couple of passing shoppers stopped to peruse the map and attempted to work out where to walk next. Result.
At the heart of the new walking route, which runs from Covent Garden to Holborn Circus, is a newly created public space at Great Queen Street. The existing space has been greatly improved by increasing footway space for visitors to shop, socialise and relax in. Traffic signals, guard rail and street clutter have all been removed from the area.
The improvements are part of the Mayor's policy of 'Making Walking Count' and have been designed to encourage more local walking.The fact that all this money has been spent on the doorstep of the United Grand Lodge of England is, I'm sure, a complete and utter coincidence. And especially fortunate given that the other three "Key Walking Route" improvements are considerably less impressive.The word "key" is being bandied about here a lot, isn't it? In this case, lots of new pavement extensions mean that shoppers and foot-based folk in Long Acre won't have to walk in the road quite so often as they used to. Which is nice, but not quite key.The key retail street of Long Acre has seen pavements widened and re-laid using high quality materials and new street lighting.
The historic square of Lincoln's Inn Fields has been restored through new footways, finished in characteristic materials and featuring accessibility improvements including drop kerbs and tactile paving.I don't know whether you've been to Lincoln's Inn Fields, but it was already lovely and huge, with plenty of circulatory pavement space, before all of these supposed improvements took place. I had a wander round at the weekend, and quite frankly I couldn't see anything fresh and praiseworthy at all. Maybe wheelchair-enabled Londoners can now get into the central park with greater ease, but that doesn't really hang easily with the idea of a key "walking" route, does it?Let's be clear here, we're only talking about a short length of High Holborn, the bit below Chancery Lane. This used to be a broad thoroughfare with a hatched bit down the middle, and now it's a broad thoroughfare with a strip of paving and some cycle racks down the middle. Easier to cross, sure, but useless for walking along. There is no key walking route here (cross)....while High Holborn has been de-cluttered with improved crossing facilities for pedestrians and more cycle parking.
TfL has funded £2.4m of improvements between Long Acre and Holborn Circus. The TfL Key Walking Route programme links important local destinations such as stations, offices and shops through high quality walking environments.And here's my big gripe. The Key Walking Route between Long Acre and Holborn Circus exists only in the mind of some TfL planner. There are no signs at Long Acre pointing towards Holborn Circus, nor any at the other end in the opposite direction. Any pedestrian who attempts to walk from one to the other without a map will get horribly lost, as no attempt whatsoever has been made to define this walking route on the ground. Neither is there any obvious attempt at even linking one place to the next. Lincoln's Inn Fields isn't freshly signposted from the pavement along High Holborn, and Great Queen Street isn't clearly waymarked from the environs of Lincoln's Inn Fields. This walking route isn't key, it's physically non-existent.And yet the link through Great Queen Street and Long Acre ought to be a massively important walking route. TfL are desperate to get would-be Piccadilly line passengers to walk from Holborn to Covent Garden (via Great Queen Street and Long Acre), because the lifts at the latter station can't always cope with weekend and evening crowds. There's even a sign outside Holborn station telling you how easy it is to walk to Covent Garden, and sort of telling you how to do it. Set off, however, and you're on your own. You might spot a new Legible London minilith on Kingsway which hints at directions, but there's no explicit route-finding here. A few pedestrian symbols on lampposts might help, or even a discreet line painted on the ground, but instead walkers are left to work out every twist and turn for themselves. As flagrant public misdirection goes, this press release misleads nigh perfectly.
We're getting new signs along Bow Road. Not for road traffic, not even for cyclists, but for us pedestrians up on the pavement.
Which is interesting, because none of the recommended travel routes for getting to the Games involve using Bow Road. None of the stations hereabouts are designated venue stations, and you can't get to the Olympic Park without crossing the human-crushing Bow Roundabout. You might walk this way if you were local, you might walk this way if you were lost, you might walk this way if the rest of the transport network had shut down, but probably not otherwise. Whatever, whichever, the signs are a great thing to have.
Even without the Games, this part of East London is busy. It's home to a major hospital, a university, two Tube stations, a DLR station and two large parks. So Legible London will improve pedestrian signing both for now and for the future.There is no major hospital on Bow Road. There used to be, but it's been closed for seven years and is about to be turned into flats. There are major hospitals much further down the A11, but they're not on Bow Road. Neither is there a university, technically there's only one tube station, and even the large parks are some walk away. Presumably someone's chosen to use the phrase "around Bow Road" in a vague arbitrary woolly neighbourhood sort of way. You might not want to put such a person in charge of wayfinding and mapmaking.It coincides with the Barclays Cycle Hire scheme moving into the area, and this will make Legible London even more useful across the borough. We plan to have these Legible London maps and signs in place by Christmas 2011.The tall enamel maps appeared couple of months ago, but the sign outside Thames Magistrates Court only went up on Monday. Merry Christmas everybody. Never mind if it's a bit late, Bow Road's very pleased to be becoming more accessible. And if this investment stops yet another lost soul asking me how to walk between the tube station and the DLR, it'll be job well done.Bow Church's docking station isn't actually outside the station, it's a minute or two up the road. It's been laid out along what used to be the widest strip of pavement in the local area, but has since been sliced once for a Cycle Superhighway and now again for a row of 39 bikes. There's still plenty of room to walk past, thankfully, but suddenly it's much more difficult to nip through and cross the road here. More than half of the bikes here were used yesterday, right down to a period mid-afternoon when only a couple were available. Walking from the tube I passed three smiling riders (of an appropriately mixed demographic) biking away from the docking station, which was more than I thought I'd see. A mild overnight success, I'd judge, although I'm very glad no TfL planner chose to site one right outside my front window.
At the end of Bromley High Street is Cycle Hire's northeasternmost docking station. If you're hoping to ride to the Olympic Park, sorry, this is as far as you're going to get, because that's a Lloyds TSB domain so Barclays aren't welcome. It's an almost ideal location amid a broad sweep of pavement well away from anyone's front door, but equally a very bad location alongside a dual carriageway where cycling would best be deemed unwise. A curve of 23 black docking points leads round towards the bus stop, should passengers arriving from North Greenwich fancy a ride through the streets of E3. I was only here for a minute or two, but in that time four bikes were undocked (a bunch of recreational weekend travellers who tottered off somewhat uncertainly) and one bike arrived (a young lad who pulled in and sauntered off in seconds, with all the expertise of a Cycle Hire regular).
Then on Teviot Street I discovered possibly the least used docking station anywhere on the Cycle Hire network. According to TfL's datafeed absolutely nobody used it on Saturday, not a single withdrawal or deposit, at least before eight o'clock in the evening. Other stations nearby saw bikes dripfeed in or flood out, but nothing shifted here on the Teviot Estate. The docking station's sited in front of a morose parade of shops that'll never see any kind of chain store, let alone a Barclays. Half were shuttered down yesterday, and even the other half were part-shuttered in case the proprietors ever need to shut up shop suddenly. The parade's convenience store is branded "Local Shopper", the unisex hairdresser looks more utility than salon, and the T.F.C takeaway won't be troubling Time Out's restaurant reviews any time soon. I'd suggest that the community around here aren't the sort to waste their hard-won cash on luxuries like bike hire, hence they're not especially interested in Boris's gift of a docking station.
