What's more it's the only square-numbered year you and I will ever live in.
The last was 1936 (= 44 × 44), and you'd have to be over 88 to be alive back then.
The next will be 2116 (= 46 × 46), and that's in 91 years time.
So 2025 is all we're getting, square-wise.
2025 is extra-special, as square numbers go, because 20 + 25 = 45.
2025 = (20 + 25)2
2025 is also the square number of a triangular number.
(1+2+3+ ... +8+9)2 = 452 = 2025
This is rare.
The last time it happened was in 1296 = (1+2+3+ ... +8)².
Edward I was on the throne at the time.
It also helps explain an extraordinary fact about the standard 9×9 multiplication table...
If you add up all the numbers in the multiplication table the total is 2025!
The underlying reason is that the digits 1 to 9 add up to 45.
Thus each row totals a different multiple of 45 from 1×45 to 9×45.
Surprisingly 2025 is also the sum of the first nine cube numbers.
13+23+33+43+53+63+73+83+93 = 2025
This is equally rare - it last happened in 1296.
Mathematically it's always true that 1³+2³+3³+...+n³ = (1+2+3+...+n)²
One of the reasons 2025 is particularly special is because of its prime factorisation.
2025 = 34 × 52
It's rare that a year is the product of two single-digit prime factors.
This last happened in 2000 (= 2⁴ × 5³).
It will next happen in 2304 (= 2⁸ × 3²).
What's particularly unusual is that all the powers in the prime factorisation are even numbers.
This means 2025 is also the product of two square numbers.
32 × 152 = 2025
This last happened in 1936 (= 4² × 11²) and will next happen in 2116 (= 2² × 23²).
2025 is also the sum of two square numbers.
272 + 362 = 2025
This last happened in 2020 (= 16² + 42²) (= 24² + 38²)
...and will next happen, trivially, in 2026 (= 45² + 1²)
2025 is also the sum of three square numbers in ten different ways. (I invite readers to tell us what they are, one set each)
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62 + 152 + 422 = 2025
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Squares, triangles, cubes, multiplcation tables, powers, sums and products - 2025 has it all!
2026, indeed the rest of your life, will be dull by comparison.
The last day of the year is an excellent time to tot up what you've been doing all year... assuming you've been counting, which obviously I have. Cue my Counts of 2024.
(If you don't count these kinds of thing, look at all the fun you're missing out on)
Let's start with the number of London stations I've been to. And by 'been to' I mean entering or exiting the station, not just passing through.
stations in zones 1-3: all stations in zones 4-6: five
There are approximately 350 stations in zones 1-3 and I've been to all of them.
There are approximately 240 stations in zones 4-6 and I've been to five of them.
This is because I have a z1-3 Travelcard and I am a cheapskate.
All five of the outer London stations I went to are in the London borough of Hillingdon. Three were because I was out with friends and such is social pressure, and the other two were because it's cheaper to walk to Iver from London than to get the train there. Other than on those two occasions I haven't toyed with stations in zones 4-6 at all. Ludicrous, I know.
Next let's check up on how many London bus routes I've ridden.
Buses: all of them
I have again ridden on every single TfL bus route this year (nightbuses, schoolbuses and mobility route excepted). It may only have been a few stops but hell yes, that's every single route from 1 to W19. I'd actually achieved this accolade by the end of January, which was a wild month, and since then all I've had to do is nip out and ride any new routes.
I've also checked which bus routes I rode most often (because if TfL insist on sending me a weekly spreadsheet I am darned well going to make use of it).
The 425 and 488 are joint top because they're local and stop at Bus Stop M, as do all the other underlined routes. The other buses in this list are key radial links in outer London, and are precisely the buses you would over-use if you had a z1-3 Travelcard and were determined not to ride any trains.
My most-ridden Superloop routes are the SL2 and SL8, eleven times each, with the SL1, SL3, SL7 and SL9 not far behind (because these buses are useful as well as speedy). Switching to the very bottom of the spreadsheet I see there are 231 routes I haven't been back on since January.
For the avoidance of doubt, yes I went to every tram stop this year and no, I did not ride the Dangleway.
Another thing I've been counting this year is the number of times I visited each London borough.
• Technically I counted the number of days I visited each borough.
• If I set foot in a borough on a particular day, that counted as 1.
• Standing on a station platform or riding through on a bus didn't count.
Here's the annual spread of my 2024 travels.
Enf
37
Harr
34
Barn
45
Hari
55
WFor
59
Hill
32
Eal
75
Bren
60
Cam
96
Isl
102
Hack
78
Redb
45
Hav
27
Hou
51
H&F
58
K&C
56
West
115
City
129
Tow
356
New
241
B&D
32
Rich
48
Wan
67
Lam
90
Sou
76
Lew
74
Grn
63
Bex
26
King
32
Mer
48
Cro
45
Bro
50
Sut
34
And yes, these are extraordinary totals.
During the past year I have been to every London borough at least 26 times, which is both ridiculous and extreme. Even farflung Bexley I've been to (on average) once a fortnight. I confess this is no accident, it's required a deliberate roaming focus, aided and abetted by knowing exactly where all the borough boundaries actually are. If you're not ticking off six different boroughs every day, on average, you're never going to get anywhere near my totals. I'm willing to bet that nobody else in London has made over 25 visits to every London borough in 2024.
You can tell I live in Tower Hamlets because that scored a near-maximum total of 356 days. Newham came a very strong second, mainly because I live less than 200m from the boundary. Central London boroughs are next, with the City ahead of Westminster ahead of Islington. The numbers generally drop off towards the outer suburbs, but note Ealing's elevated total which is essentially because it's now so easy to get there on Crossrail.
And the truly extraordinary thing, as you may have twigged, is that I achieved all of this without venturing by train into zones 4, 5 and 6. Instead I hopped aboard multiple buses, plus the odd tram, because these are included for free with a z1-3 Travelcard. Admittedly things took a lot longer by bus but that's fine if you have the time, plus I got to enjoy the sights along the way. My greatest challenges were the nine London boroughs which lie outside zones 1-3, i.e. the eight lightest-coloured squares on the map (plus Redbridge), but yay I still managed to reach each of these more than 25 times.
I expect 2025 will look very different, given that a 60+ London Oyster card gifts free travel across zones 1-6, but let's cross that bridge when we get to it.
As for number of visits to counties outside London, this year's tally is poorer than it might first appear.
Twenty times: Surrey Nineteen times: Norfolk Twelve times: Essex, Herts Eight times: Kent Four times: Bucks Twice: Beds, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hants, Warks Once: Berks, Cheshire, Northants, Staffs, West Midlands, Worcs Never: everywhere else
A lot of the visits to the Home Counties were just minor boundary incursions. Norfolk does well because I have family there. I only visited counties other than those on nine occasions, which is pitiful. This is why the 'Beyond London' list in my 2024 index was rather short, and I need to do better next year.
These are very similar compass point extremities to last year, latitude- and longitude-wise. A single trip to Crewe is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. But have you seen the cost of rail tickets these days, not to mention how unreliable the weather can be when you book a long-distance train in advance?
As for how far I've been walking, here's the average number of steps taken and miles walked each day.
year
Daily steps
Walked daily
2019
13250
6 miles
2020
16400
7 miles
2021
22700
10 miles
2022
16100
7 miles
2023
14600
6½ miles
2024
14800
6½ miles
My perambulations peaked during the pandemic, with an amazing average of 10 miles a day in 2021. I'm now down to a more reasonable 6½ miles a day, or almost 15000 steps daily, which I'm pleased to see is still better than I was doing before lockdown. I do however weigh two pounds more at the end of 2024 than I did at the start, which is about 1kg, so I'd better go easy on the Creme Eggs this spring.
Please allow me to slip in my usual analysis of Archers episodes. These are the characters to have made the most appearances in Ambridge this year.
1) Emma (86 episodes) 2) Alice, Fallon (84) 4) George (76) 5) Harrison (62) 50-something episodes: Lilian 40-something episodes: Jolene, Susan, Kenton, Alistair, Ed, Will 30-something episodes: Brad, Joy, Lynda, Kirsty, Brian, Paul, Justin, Chris, Helen
Emma's top this year but only just, whereas last year Helen was a full 40 episodes ahead of her nearest contender. This year's top 5 were all involved in the River Am car crash back in May or the subsequent fallout. Alice is spending her fourth consecutive year in the top 5, and Susan her fourth in the top 10. Notable non-speakers this year include Debbie, Phoebe and Johnny (again). In somewhat unexpected comparisons Miranda appeared more than Elizabeth, Khalil more than Josh and Rochelle twice as often as Jill.
Other things I've been counting this year include...
Number of photos taken: 20,000 (↑1000 on 2023) Number of photos uploaded to Flickr: 575 (↓140) Number of visitors to the blog: 1,120,000 (↑150000) Number of comments on the blog: 10,300 (↑6)
I'm taking more photos but showing you fewer, sorry. The number of visitors to the blog is up 15% on last year, which is astonishing for a 22 year-old website so many thanks everyone. The number of comments is (genuinely) six more than last year.
If you've been counting something interesting this year do share it with the rest of us. And if not then do consider starting to count something in 2025 because I'm likely to ask you again next year.
n.b. Proper counts only, thanks. If your count is zero or one then you're not a proper counter, more a raconteur.
Sun 1: You'd think after all these years I'd be an expert in getting the temperature of my bath just right, but today's was only borderline warm enough when I got in and swiftly cooled to aggravatingly tepid so I had to get out early. I haven't messed up since. Mon 2: If you want another daily online game to add to your repertoire, how about Travle in which they select two countries and you have to name a chain of countries that forms a route inbetween. It turns out my Europe is better than my southeast Asia is better than my Africa is better than my Central America. Tue 3: I walked straight past the bag check at the British Library because I didn't have a bag, but the guard stopped me anyway because his scanner said I had a phone in my pocket. He waved me through when I agreed that I did, but how Big Brotherish are these security checks getting?
Wed 4: Went to an obscure railway-related site in West London and then realised I can't blog about it until January when it'll be specifically relevant, so you'll have to wait a few weeks. Thu 5: Went round to BestMate's for dinner, a regular occurrence, but there was such a ferocious cloudburst on Upper Road that I arrived at his door utterly soaked and bedraggled and had to request an urgent towel and a spare pair of dry trousers. Fri 6: TfL have confirmed, following consultations, that three bus routes will be extinguished early next year. The 414 is being withdrawn and the 45 and 118 are merging, numbered 45, both in February. Also London's least frequent bus, the 347, will alas be running to Ockendon for the last time on Friday 17th January. Expect reports on all three doomed routes in the next couple of months, which is either cause for celebration or please accept my apologies.
Sat 7: The Christmas decorations in Penge High Street read 'Merry Pengemas' and include an animated dinosaur in a Santa hat. Central London really needs to up its game. Sun 8: The biggest tree I can see from my window has been leafless for a few weeks. I was resigned to a lost metallic balloon flapping sadly in its branches all winter but thankfully Storm Darragh blew it away overnight and the silhouette is now natural again. Mon 9: I don't know if you've noticed, but since the Metro newspaper changed its puzzle provider the 'Easy' sudoku is much harder than it used to be. Tue 10: An interesting book I got out of the library:Radio Moments by David Lloyd, an insider's memoir of five decades working across mostly commercial radio. So that's why all the stations merged. If you like this kind of thing you'd also love the collection of 115 chats with radio greats, from Trevor Dann to Graham Torrington, on David's website. Wed 11: I just missed a bus in deepest Lewisham and the next one was 20 minutes away so I started walking. By the time it finally caught up I'd hiked over two miles and was only two stops away from my ultimate destination. Thank you Citymapper for giving me the confidence not to stand still.
Thu 12: Dropped by Paddington station to see HS2's Lego models of their Old Oak Common and Birmingham Curzon Street stations (but not Euston because nobody's yet confirmed what that'll look like). I also had a fairly vacuous chat with the member of staff standing alongside. I'm not sure what HS2 were trying to achieve by being here for two days, maybe just 'please like us'. Fri 13: Supermarket update: I don't know what's up with the regular price of an 8-pack of Tunnock's caramel wafers, but in September they were £1.59, in October £1.85 and today suddenly £2.30. I have stopped buying Tunnock's caramel wafers. Sat 14: I've been disappointed by Radio 4's new Friday night comedy, The Naked Week, which has repeatedly managed to be satirical rather than amusing. It's sometimes felt like reading a copy of Private Eye but with the cartoons ripped out. Sun 15: Wrote my Christmas cards tonight, alas two fewer than last year. If you don't live in the BL, CM, CR, DT, E, EX, ME, MK, NE, NR, NN, PO, PR or WD postcode areas you're not getting one, sorry. Mon 16: I tried buying my Christmas stamps in a Dagenham post office. On approaching the rear of the store I was shamed by a waiting pensioner for failing to notice that the lady at the counter was in a mobility scooter so would need significant reversing space. So poor were her reversing skills that she hit the sweet rack seven times, then stopped for a lengthy chat with my castigator and trapped me behind the ice cream cabinet for a couple of minutes. I will not be back.
Tue 17: The daffodils in the Olympic Park are already in full bloom, as they have been every December for the last ten years, although that doesn't make the blaze of yellow any less surprising. Wed 18: The big electronic screen at Euston now shows departure times again, not adverts, and today's the first time I've seen it and I gave a little cheer.
Thu 19: Since July, when Elon Musk really started ballsing up what's left of Twitter, my number of followers has only fallen by 5% but engagement with my tweets is down by about 30%. That's in case you wanted some actual data rather than the hunch X has gone to the dogs. Fri 20: I'd like to thank my auntie for living in the immediate vicinity of the Christmas Eve Purley Oaks air crash site, and for keeping the full folder of heritage information compliled by the Lower End Kingsdown Avenue Residents' Association, and for offering me tea, a bacon sandwich and two mince pies after I'd done my on-the-spot research. Sat 21: This year's special prize crossword is a blank grid of vowelless composers. I've managed to enter eighteen of them, but failed to be engaged by the challenge. Sun 22: I've discovered that I can trigger the light sensor on the landing outside my flat by poking a newspaper marginally underneath my front door. I'm not sure there is any beneficial use for this knowledge. Mon 23: 20 years ago my Christmas train ticket to Norfolk cost £29.50 and this year it was £42.50 (railcard discount applied both times).
Tue 24: The village pub was remarkably full, perhaps because a lot of families were back together for Christmas, perhaps because it's still traditional to pile in for a cheery Christmas Eve booze-up, or perhaps because the once-a-year churchgoers needed an alcoholic buzz before heading to the carol service across the green. Wed 25: Festive telly review (watched later on catch-up): Wallace and Gromit was cracking, with so many in-jokes it merits a rewatch. Doctor Who was clever and cheery if a bit silly, with a perfect payoff. Gavin and Stacey thankfully lived up to all the BBC's excessive pre-publicity and nailed the finale with comic charm. Mrs Brown did not grace our screen. Thu 26: The board games we played on Boxing Day were i)Scotland Yard (the classic game of map-based criminal evasion), ii)Sushi Go! (a quick and clever game of card collecting), iii)Akropolis (classical city building with colourful tiles), iv)Skyjo (card flipping game, occasionally negative, lowest wins), v)One Night (over-dressed werewolf winker), vi)Takenoko (slowburn bamboo plantation challenger). Monopoly stayed in the cupboard. Fri 27: Rode the rail replacement coach across Essex while a small dog watched me from the adjacent seat. I spent the half hour journey listening to Count Binface's Ceefax documentary. Sat 28: A pair of self-important parents had taken their two daughters to the Woolwich Foot Tunnel to practise riding their new bikes, despite byelaws and copious signage prohibiting all cycling. I was particularly pleased when both girls got off halfway claiming they were no longer interested, leaving their parents to carry the bikes away (and then the lift wasn't working).
Sun 29: One of the special measures being used to control crowds gathering to watch the New Year's Eve fireworks is a yellow sign on London Bridge saying 'Fireworks cannot be viewed from this bridge'. This is also true during daylight hours. Mon 30: The three most popular posts on the blog this year, which search engines keep funneling queriers towards, are 1)Where to sit on a Crossrail train (from 2022), 2)Free Parking (my Monopoly board halfway point), 3)Superloop 2 (vague plans from April). I suspect those landing on the second of these are the most disappointed. Tue 31: The second half of the 2020s starts at noon today, not at midnight tonight (thanks to the spacing of leap years).
30 things we learnt from TfL FoI requests in December 2024
1) TfL expect to introduce both peak and off-peak Stratford International-Beckton DLR services on a permanent basis once sufficient new trains are available to permit this. 2) Touchless push-button signage has been trialled at pedestrian crossings in Wolverhampton, Cambridge, Canary Wharf and in Wales. 3) According to pension records, there is no evidence that the Yorkshire Ripper was ever employed as a bus driver on routes 125, 263 or 26 at the end of the 1970s or 1980s. 4) You can all stop asking how much renaming the Overground lines cost because they answered that question back in March. 5) All new Overground signage was manufactured and installed by AJ Wells and Links Signs. Pindar Creative were the cartographers for the online and printed maps, which were printed and distributed via CDS. 6) There are pitches for buskers at 31 TfL stations. All are in zone 1 apart from at Canary Wharf, Hammersmith, Maida Vale, North Greenwich and Stratford. 7) So far this year the Woolwich Ferry has stopped operating 63 times for a total of 216 hours. In 2018 it was 135 times for 2151 hours. 8) Pdf versions of all the updated Overground line diagrams are available in this zip file, if that floats your boat. 9) The cooling system in every Victoria line carriage is set to MINIMUM when the internal saloon temperature is below 22°C and falling or below 26°C and rising, or MAXIMUM when above 35°C and rising or above 33°C and falling, or MEDIUM otherwise. 10) TfL owns 917 commercial units in railway arches, with a current occupancy rate of 77%. Only 1.66% of tenants are in arrears. 11) By the end of October TfL's customer contact centre had recorded 36,936 cases relating to issues with Oyster/contactless payment cards and the recent cyberattack. It's anticipated 67% of these will result in a refund of all or part of their fare being issued. 12) TfL has not carried out a risk assessment into what might happen to dockless e-bikes during a hurricane because dockless e-bike services are not regulated by TfL. 13) Since 2018, across all tube lines, 1,102,165m of rail have been ground. The most ground line is the Central line (261,831m) followed by the Jubilee line (159,089m). 14) The TfL Bus Routes normally operated with single door buses are 124 138 146 162 192 233 273 318 315 322 336 352 354 356 367 379 383 385 394 424 434 456 463 464 470 B14 E10 E11 G1 H2 H3 H20 H26 K1 K4 K5 R1 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8 R10 S3 S4 SL7 U9 W4 W5. 15) TfL is not responsible for cleaning roads and clearing litter, so if leaves and rubbish are not removed regularly from the footway outside your property on Thurlow Park Road you should ask Lambeth council about it. 16) A recent speed restriction on the eastbound track of the Circle/H&C lines in the Westbourne Park area was linked to a 'tight 6ft clearance' which could have caused a minor collision of passing trains if the speeds were higher. It was implemented on 21 June and removed on 29 November. The speed restriction had no impact on the wider service as there is sufficient recovery time built into the timetable. 17) Pdf versions of all the latest tube maps are available in this zip file, including the version with 'line' missing after Mildmay. 18) Over the last three years there have been 186 passenger incidents classified as 'Fall between Train and Platform (gap)' at Baker Street station. The second-place tube stations (Bank, Waterloo and Victoria) each had only 27 such incidents. 19) The new Piccadilly line trains will be 30mm lower than current rolling stock, which will cause issues with access humps on platforms perhaps needing to be at different heights in different places depending on which kind of train is arriving next. TfL are onto it. 20) Pdf versions of six 'Poems on the Underground' leaflets are available in this zip file. 21) So far this year, of the Elizabeth line trains scheduled to depart Ealing Broadway for central London between 8am and 9am, 5% have have been cancelled and 36% have been delayed. 22) Regarding staff usage of ballpoint pens, endorsing tickets with a pen has not been a London Underground procedure for gateline staff since at least before the introduction of the Underground Ticketing System (UTS) in the 1980's and possibly not even prior to this. 23) Pantone 252 is the designated colour for the Thameslink line on the tube map. 24) TfL are responsible for maintaining 392 bridges, 10 tunnels/underpasses, 229 subways, 3 vaults and 444 retaining walls. 25) TfL owns 75 car parks. Of these the most expensive is at Hatton Cross (weekday tariff £13) and the cheapest is at Eastcote (£3.50). On Sundays the cheapest is at Theobalds Grove (£1). 26) The first TfL employees to start to transition to the new uniform will be those on the Underground and DLR, imminently, and the last will be those on the Overground in Summer 2026. Cablecar staff will not be switching. The new quilted jacket doubles up as liner for the overcoat. 27) On only six occasions in the first half of this year did more than 5 passengers board bus route 969 at any particular stop. Roehampton Vale Asda is the busiest stop, relatively speaking. 28) If the unfunded Bakerloo line extension is ever further extended to Hayes, it's anticipated that as least 18 trains per hour would be extended south of Lewisham onto the Hayes branch. Of these, at least 12 trains per hour would serve Hayes, with the remaining six trains per hour serving Beckenham Junction. 29) So far this month over half of complaints to TfL have been fares-related. The next most popular categories of complaint were gaps in service, refusal to pick up, refusal to stop, dangerous driving and curtailed journeys. 30) If you submit 14 FoI questions, the 12th of which is "can you let us know whether the announcements currently voiced by the female announcers on the current Piccadilly, Bakerloo, Central, W&C & DLR lines will remain or will they be replaced by newly-recorded announcements by a different set of women/men now?”, TfL will refuse to answer any of them citing cumulative burden of vexatious requests over a sustained period.
I used to do this with big colourful monthly tables but that's too much effort for too little reward so here's a breezier summary. All data is for Hampstead, as per usual.
Only three days topped thirty degrees.
Only four months were drier than usual.
Only two months were sunnier than usual.
We had nine named storms, from Henk to Darragh.
And the least snow since 2014.
mid 1990s Xmas: Go to the shops to buy everything you need for Christmas mid 2000s Xmas: Go to the shops to buy everything, except for a few books, CDs and DVDs from Amazon mid 2010s Xmas: Get most of your Christmas stuff online, assuming it ever arrives mid 2020s Xmas: Get most of your Christmas stuff stolen from your doorstep
mid 1990s Xmas: Send lots of cards to people you communicate with once a year mid 2000s Xmas: Send lots of cards containing a printed round robin letter to keep everyone up to date mid 2010s Xmas: You can no longer afford stamps, but that's OK because everyone's already seen all your photos on Facebook mid 2020s Xmas: Nobody can afford stamps so Christmas cards are an endangered species
mid 1990s Xmas: Discover the Christmas Number 1 by listening to the radio mid 2000s Xmas: Select the Christmas Number 1 because you voted for them on X Factor mid 2010s Xmas: Who cares what's Number 1, I've made this playlist of Christmas songs on Spotify mid 2020s Xmas: Everyone knows the Christmas Number 1 because it was released 40 years ago
mid 1990s Xmas: Ensure your travel bag is packed with presents for all the family mid 2000s Xmas: Ensure your wheelie suitcase is packed with presents for all the family mid 2010s Xmas: Ensure you've packed all your cables, otherwise your smartphone will die by mid-afternoon mid 2020s Xmas: Ensure you've packed all your devices else you'll have nothing to keep you occupied
mid 1990s Xmas: Say goodbye to your friends for a few days and travel off to see the family mid 2000s Xmas: Keep in touch with your friends via text message throughout the Christmas break mid 2010s Xmas: Broadcast a blow by blow Christmas commentary via social media mid 2020s Xmas: Livestream your Christmas antics to anyone who'll watch
mid 1990s Xmas: Demand to see the Double Issue Radio Times mid 2000s Xmas: Demand to use your parents' PC to check your email mid 2010s Xmas: Demand your host's wifi password the minute you enter their home mid 2020s Xmas: Demand your smart speaker plays Christmas music on repeat
mid 1990s Xmas: Watch the same Christmas telly as everyone else mid 2000s Xmas: Watch your festive choice from dozens/hundreds of satellite/digital channels mid 2010s Xmas: Watch whatever you like from a bottomless pit of on-demand goodies mid 2020s Xmas: Watch all the good stuff on the subscription services you don't have at home
mid 1990s Xmas: Sit grumpily while Mum insists on watching Emmerdale at Christmas mid 2000s Xmas: Sit grumpily while Gran insists on watching Emmerdale at Christmas mid 2010s Xmas: Play Candy Crush whilst simultaneously slagging off Emmerdale on Twitter mid 2020s Xmas: Ignore Emmerdale, whatever that was, in favour of Rivals on Disney+
mid 1990s Xmas: Vegetate with a box of chocolates and a board game mid 2000s Xmas: Plug the games console into the TV set and let the family join in mid 2010s Xmas: Interact with your own personal screen for individual entertainment mid 2020s Xmas: Connect your laptop to the TV and watch whatever the YouTube algorithm suggests
mid 1990s Xmas: Head back to civilisation to discover what everyone else did over Christmas mid 2000s Xmas: Suspect everyone else had a better time than you from their endless text messages mid 2010s Xmas: Know everyone else had a better time than you because they kept sending you photos mid 2020s Xmas: There's nothing to catch up on because you've been FaceTiming constantly, and you never switched off
100 years ago today, on Christmas Eve 1924, an Imperial Airways passenger flight crashed onto a hill near Purley killing everyone on board. It was one of Britain's earliest commercial air disasters and resulted in the very first public inquiry into a civil aviation accident. The pilot and seven passengers died when their de Havilland nosedived, hit the ground and burst into flames, a conflagration so great that the fire brigade could do nothing to stop it. And it happened here on Kingsdown Avenue in South Croydon, on a clifftop overlooking a chalkpit and the Brighton Road.
Imperial Airways was founded on 31st March 1924 as a UK operator focusing on international flights and had a London base at Waddon aerodrome, or Croydon Airport as it would soon become better known. Their first London to Paris shuttle flew on 26 April, followed by connections to Brussels, Amsterdam and a summer service to Zürich, all usefully doubling up as an airmail carrier. The plane we're interested in was a de HavillandDH.34, a single-engined biplane with plywood fuselage and seating for eight passengers, callsign G-EBBX. It had made several cross-Channel flights over the previous week, with the pilot reporting 'rough running' of the engines on the last flight into Croydon.
The doomed flight was the noon departure to Paris carrying seven unfortunate international passengers, three of them from the same family. George Sproston (76) was a retired fish salesman travelling to Paris for the holidays with his racing driver son Archie (37) and his French daughter-in-law Marie (21). Also intending to spend Christmas in Paris was Cedric Trudgett (21), a clerk with the Nitrate Manufacturing Company and an upcoming journalist. Law student Maurice Luxenburg (18) was seen off to the airport by his father, a retired diamond merchant. Dr Borbosa Lama (32) was a Brazilian national returning to Lucerne in Switzerland. Annie Bailey (64) was an army captain's wife who'd been staying in Twickenham and was starting a long journey home to Australia. Pilot David Stewart (32) was from Wallington.
What happened to G-EBBX during its brief flight was picked over in enormous detail at the subsequent inquiry. Taking off that day was challenging because the grass runway was sodden with moisture after recent rain, nor was it helped by the plane launching head-on into a strong southwesterly wind. Its initial struggles were observed by a team of five employees working for Croydon Corporation Electricity Department who were laying a cable less than a mile away in Mount Park Avenue, close to the eventual crash site. Around ten past twelve they became concerned when they saw the plane was flying unsually low and feared it might hit the roof of one of the new houses nearby. They observed the pilot swerving as if trying to rise, but without success, then slanting downwards and failing to regain control.
"There were all sorts of winds coming from different directions, and we thought the machine must have got into an air pocket for just as she seemed to be about 150 feet up she went on for a few yards and nose-dived into the grassy hill. No sooner we saw that we raced headlong to the spot with our tools and axes in our hands. Immediately the plane hit the ground the petrol tank must have burst for the whole thing was a heap of flames when we got to it. The flames had started from the tail part. We saw the pilot lying over sideways in his seat and we used our axes to try to chop him away, but the wind blew the flames so strong onto us and the heat was so intense that we could not get near. It was absolutely impossible to render any help as the plane and the people inside must have been burned to charred remains in a couple of minutes. It was extraordinary that not a single scream or shout came from any of the people in the plane, they all died without a murmur."
(eyewitness account given to the Croydon Times, 27th December 1924)
The fire brigade and a passing doctor from Sanderstead were also unable to effect rescue when they arrived. You can see an image of the wreckage here, and also how close to the clifftop it crashlanded.
The inquest opened in Croydon on 29 December. It heard evidence from mechanics and former crew that the plane's oil pressure had fluctuated during several flights prior to the crash. It confirmed that the aircraft had not (quite) been overladen at take-off. One eyewitness claimed there was nothing amiss about the engine noise, another that a rattling sound could be heard just before the aircraft fell. The coroner than adjourned the inquest so that a public inquiry could be held, this a rather longer affair held at the Royal Courts of Justice in January.
The inquiry dug deep into the plane's maintenance regime, especially ground checks undertaken at Croydon and other recently visited aerodromes. It confirmed that an hour long inspection had taken place just before takeoff. It decided that a blocked petrol pipe found at the site of the crash was most likely caused by impact rather than prior negligence. It concluded that the plane crashed due to an unknown mechanical defect and subsequent stall whilst an emergency landing was being attempted. It speculated that the pilot may have been aiming for Purley Downs golf course, realised he wasn't going to make it and crashlanded on the hilltop to avoid hitting the houses immediately below. Ultimately the judge cleared the pilot, Imperial Airways and all its staff of any blame for the accident, and the coroner duly submitted a verdict of misadventure.
And on Day Seven a particularly consequential decision was announced concerning the future of the airport.
"Evidence has been given before me that the aerodrome at Croydon, especially with a south-west wind, is far from satisfactory. Colonel Edwards, the deputy director of air transport at the Air Ministry, has given detailed evidence of the steps which the Air Ministry propose by way of improving this aerodrome. It is proposed to add substantially to its present area, the additional land having been already acquired, and in order to make the land which has been acquired to the west available as part of the aerodrome, to divert Plough Lane, for which purpose a Bill is being prepared."
The additional 150 acres were part of neighbouring Beddington Aerodrome on the other side of Plough Lane. This meant that Plough Lane would have to be diverted, indeed was subsequently severed, so that a largerairfield with two decent-sized runways could be laid out. This was a lot better than a man with a red flag halting traffic when necessary, which was the original solution. The Croydon Aerodrome Extension Act also delivered a new complex of buildings alongside Purley Way (the just-built Croydon bypass), including the first purpose-designed airport terminal and air traffic control tower, the world's first airport hotel and extensive hangars. Within a few years this former field was a world-class international airport, the Heathrow of its day, and all hastened by a tragic accident on Christmas Eve 1924.
Today the former Croydon Airport is covered by a business park, a housing estate and a large recreation ground called Roundshaw Downs. This open space is rough and scrubby, straddles two London boroughs and contains fenced off paddocks for five Suffolk bullocks. At present it's ideal for lengthy dogwalking in appropriate footwear but come summer will be alive with all the flora and fauna you expect to find on chalk grassland. The neighbouring Roundshawestate is a mid-60s swirl of concrete council houses, many of which have been rebuilt to higher standards since, where residents of Spitfire Road, Moth Close and Avro Way live on the alignment of the international runway. And the business park is a maze of units including a mighty Costco, various car showrooms and the gorgeously repurposed airport terminal, which volunteers open as a visitor attraction once a month.
As for the crash site that's now part of the Kingsdown Estate, specifically Kingsdown Avenue, a residential street that in 1924 was as yet undeveloped. At its lower end it's perfect 1930s Croydon suburbia, a mixed bag of detacheds and semis set back along a climbing road. At its top end are blocks of lowlier flats with an excellent view across the valley towards Purley Oaks. And in the middle is a small eye-shaped green with a row of big Tudorbethan houses humped across the top and a line of railings protecting a sheer drop across the bottom. Nobody wants to live where G-EBBX hit so they left this open space so nobody has to.
For many years the only memorial was a cross painted on a pillar on the original railings and hidden behind a shroud of shrubbery. But at 2006 the local residents got together with the Croydon Airport Society and added a proper plaque, unveiled with due ceremony, beneath a more permanent white cross. This now reminds passers-by that what was once Britain's worst civil air accident happened right here on Kingsdown Avenue, as travellers hoping to get away for Christmas ended their journey in the most tragic circumstances. Pause a while above the chalk cliffs, looking down across all the streets of housing Captain Stewart skilfully missed, and recall that air disasters, public inquiries and airport expansions are nothing new, just thankfully very rare indeed.
Rugby: The Midlands town that inspired a ball game, and what happened to its radio masts [photos]
TfL FOI requests: April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
The evolution of Christmas
