Wed 1: My blogpost about TfL producing a new set of bus maps may have been an April Fool but Quickmap do a truly excellent Greater London bus map which is online here. I might have saved that jpg to my phone. Thu 2: The West Ham chunk of the Greenway may be closed until (sigh) Autumn 2028 but all the lampposts are still lit after dark, illuminating absolutely nobody.
Fri 3:Norfolk day 1: Damn I forgot to pack toothpaste. Hello to my nephew who's just moved out of London to the ancestral homeland. Impressed by my brother cutting £100 off the Easter shopping bill by using Nectar points. Sat 4:Norfolk day 2: My niece has to endure the rest of us discussing baby names. The first garden-cooked lunch of the year. Ah so that's what Acle looks like. Saturday Night Live is quite good but not worth getting Sky for. Sun 5:Norfolk Day 3: Blimey that was a stormy night (thanks Dave). Thankyou for my second-hand books. Maintain a family tradition by hiding cardboard eggs around the house. Crumble and custard please. Thickthorn roadworks are bad. Mon 6:Norfolk Day 4: The Classic FM top 300 feels overwhelmingly unchallenging. Find a government-issue box of hole reinforcers dated October 1979. Oh, I did bring my toothpaste after all but it was hiding in a side-pocket.
Tue 7: That feels like the closest the world has come to tipping into Armageddon since the last despotic madman made a lunatic threat. Thanks for letting us off with 90 minutes to go. Wed 8: I see Radio 4's Round Britain Quiz has slimmed down from six teams to four, so just eight episodes this year rather than twelve. I bet that means they can record it all in one weekend rather than two, so it's just another BBC cost-cutting measure. Thu 9: Gail's have opened a bakery branch in Stratford, admittedly in Westfield, but blimey! I remember being similarly blindsided when a Starbucks opened in Stratford in 2007. Fri 10: I forgot the freezer compartment door was open and bashed my head on it, ouch. Best not do that too often.
Sat 11: A guided ramble was gathering at Knockholt station, and this woman who'd arrived early was wondering if there was a cafe nearby. You couldn't have picked a remoter station, I said. She didn't stop talking, or worrying, so I felt sorry for the other lady who'd arrived early and was her sole audience. And this is why I don't like going on group walks. Sun 12: You'll be glad to hear that the family tortoise is getting a new run, that is unless you're my brother and you've got to make it and bolt it together before she wakes up. Mon 13: Would you like to watch tube trains moving around the network like pulsing worms? Try londonunderground.live. Tue 14: I hate it when my laptop restarts overnight and casually deletes some of the files I have open. I'd mind less if it warned me in advance.
Wed 15: I do not necessarily endorse Mr Dweeb in Crouch End, but it is a great name for a tech repair business. Thu 16: Anyone could see who this year's Apprentice winner was going to be from the very early episodes, and I suspect so could Lord Sugar, but he still trooped through twelve episodes to get there. Fri 17: Amongst the unexpected travel delays I've suffered this week a) a fire on the Westway b) a police cordon in Thornton Heath c) a logjam of traffic at Canada Water. Also innumerable bloody temporary traffic lights. Sat 18: Gah, the newspaper's gone up again, last week £4.20, now £4.50. It was only £1.30 twenty years ago.
Sun 19: Six things I didn't mention in Bishop's Stortford: i) adverts for lawnmowers on the station platform, ii) a barber shop called Hairy Wolves, iii) the relocated water fountain iv) Baron Dimsdale's memorial v) the Stortford Shuttle vi) the night in 1967 when Cream were supported by the Teapots. Mon 20: In partnership with On London, this analysis of local election prospects in all 32 boroughs is phenomenally detailed and a fascinating read. We'll see next week if it was correct. Tue 21: Had a 25th anniversary night out on the town with BestMate which kicked off at the restaurant where we used to eat in 2002, then moved on to the pub where we used to drink. We ended up at the theatre to watch the Yes Prime Minister finale, which was good but nowhere near sharp enough.
Wed 22: Every time I cross Hammersmith Bridge I see three 72 buses parked at the bus stand on the north side, which suggests this recently rejigged route is substantially over-bussed. Thu 23: Twelve days ago the tree outside my window was blazing with white blossom. Today that's all shrivelled and the branches are teeming with green leaves. The spring transition is so brief. Fri 24: In Muswell Hill I was approached by a downbeat man who told me the buses weren't running, also it's too dangerous to sit upstairs after dark, and had I heard this Irish lad got stabbed, and basically you can't go out safely because London's so dangerous these days. I told him I lived in Tower Hamlets and it wasn't edgy it was absolutely fine, but I don't think I shifted his negative worldview. Sat 25: Today I went to Chessington South, and I am very pleased with the consequences of this decision.
Sun 26: I was reminded that I don't have the football gene when a rowdy phalanx of chanting Leeds United fans boarded the train at Ruislip, absolutely pumped for the upcoming Wembley semi-final, and imagine believing in something as fervently as that. Mon 27: If you enjoyed my 2020 post about low bridge signs, Matt Parker's made a much better video in which (with the aid of an Oxbridge maths professor) he reveals how many possible signs there are and which of the 65 nobody can find. Tue 28: Yesterday I saw a pack of 12 pens I wanted to buy, normally £20 but reduced to £13. But postage added another fiver so I thought I'd go to Covent Garden and buy it in person. Alas when I got there today a) the price was now £27 b) they'd sold out. Seize the day! Wed 29: I don't suffer from hayfever but today I was snuffling and sneezing, just for a few hours, peaking in Kennington Park. Looks like the oaks were to blame. Thu 30: How can it be a decade? Well done.
My next alphabetical destination has its own tube station, hence is perhaps not the unsung suburb the previous eight have been. But Ickenham is still properly off-piste for the vast majority of Londoners, tucked away in Metro-land between Uxbridge and Ruislip with a historic identity all of its own. Wikipedia suggests "no major historical events have taken place in Ickenham" and also lists no famous former residents, but it is still broadly interesting and very much not icky.
The heart of the former hamlet of Ickenham is the village pump by the village pond opposite the village church. The pump was sunk in 1866 and raises water 80 feet from the chalk below, the overspill from which feeds the duck-infested pond. The octagonal canopy was added to commemorate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, its tiled roof resting on twisted columns and topped by a weathervane. It was nearly demolished in the 1920s for being a traffic hazard but thankfully villagers stepped in and told the miserable motorists where to go. The adjacent pub is much older, that's the Coach and Horses, its beams essentially Tudor and its seven HD TV screens only months old after a six-figure internal refresh. I didn't venture in because the pub was absolutely overflowing with boozy Leeds United fans who'd coached down to watch the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley, but I bet they weren't quite so upbeat on the journey home.
Across the road is the even older parish church of St Giles, its nave perhaps late 13th century, the chancel 14th and the wood-shingled bell turret 15th. The porch is mostly timber-framed and has just the right amount of wonk, visually speaking, but is probably locked. The absence of a clock is now balanced by a gold-etched sundial on the church hall, the inscription HEW MMIII MLW being two-thirds initials and one-third Roman numerals. I picked up a copy of Ickenham Church News by the gate and was struck by the dense list of throwback local societies (Flower Club, Bowls Club, Ballroom Dancing, Townswomen's Guild, Dramatic Society) and especially by the cordial invite to become a member of the local Home Guard (1944) Association Private Members' Club, almost like the 21st century never happened.
Perhaps Ickenham's finest heritage attraction is the Ickenham Miniature Railway, this the unique creation of the Ickenham and District Society of Model Engineers. They've crammed an inordinate amount of looping tracks and sidings into a very compact space behind the pub car park, this accepting either 5" or 3½" gauge rolling stock, and will happily whizz visitors round their mini loops aboard steam-hauled trolleys for a fare of £1 a time. If you fancy a visit the next monthly Open Day is this Saturday from noon, while at any other time you'll have to make do with staring at Ickenham St Giles halt through the iron gate.
The actual Ickenham station opened on the Metropolitan Railway in 1905 after the parish council pleaded for a halt. First it brought weekend trippers, then in the 1920s and 1930s it brought thousands of new residents keen to live in what was marketed as Ickenham Garden City. The station is the drabbest on the Uxbridge branch, this the inevitable consequence of the buildings being built in 1970. Step free-access arrived five years ago and an additional car park for disabled passengers is almost complete alongside, a £1.4m project which delivers just three spaces atop a hefty platform. Across the road is IckenhamHall, a Georgian farmhouse with an even older listed redbrick wall out front, which was purchased by the council in 1948 for use as a youth club. Since then the 158-seat Compass Theatre has been bolted on behind as a real boost to the arts, where works by Alan Ayckbourn and Agatha Christie await your custom next month.
Keep walking to the back of the Glebe Estate, past houses that confirm pebbledash isn't always bad, and you can follow Austins Lane into deep countryside. This tracks a small channel called the Ickenham Stream, skirts some woodland where I disturbed a deer and passes a scrapyard with 'Trespassers Will Be Shot, Survivors Will Be Shot Again' written on the blackest of gates. Eventually you reach Ickenham Marsh, a nature reserve on the banks of the Yeading Brook, where you can either follow the path or yomp off freely across tussocks of rush and hair grass towards Ruislip Gardens. I adored the solitude - just me and a couple of ducks - until what sounded like a fleet of vacuum cleaners started up behind the trees, this because the runway at RAF Northolt is just a jetblast away.
Ickenham's chief river is the Pinn, a floodable corridor which divides the suburb in two. It's possible to walk along most of it, especially down south in Swakeleys Park where one side is bounded by a long ornamental lake. But the quirkiest spot is to the north where a wooded 30m square island is squished into an artificial meander in the river. This is Pynchester Moat, one of London's handful of medieval moated sites and a Scheduled Ancient Monument to boot. Its provenance is contested but they found 14th century earthenware and flint tools on site and also excavated part of a wooden causeway which used to cross to the centre. Walk the wrong side of the river and you'd never spot it, walk the right side and it feels like your own special personal fiefdom for the couple of minutes it takes to negotiate the perimeter.
The Pinn is one of the natural features being comprehensively assaulted at present by the construction of HS2. This launches from tunnelto viaduct at a portal just beyond West Ruislip and is starting to veer away from the Chiltern mainline as it crosses the river. A truly massive swathe of earthworks has been carved through the golf course and on across the Green Belt, the realignment of the river just one of the immense permanent changes hereabouts. To their credit HS2 have spent dosh on proper footpath diversions and also provide regular updates to local residents on ongoing works which thisweek include conveyor foundation removal and the installation of noise barriers. When they've finally departed a huge triangular wedge of Ickenham between Harvil Road and Breakspear Road will have been remodelled into three grassy mounds using spoil from the Northolt Tunnel, and if you've not been out here to see the gobsmacking transformation recently they hope you'll never notice afterwards.
The other local sight someone hopes you'll never see is Swakeleys House. This Jacobean mansion was one of Ickenham's two former manor houses, built in 1638 for the Sheriff of London (and future Mayor) Sir Edmund Wright. It has fancy gable ends in the Dutch style, an oak staircase and a lot of intricate woodwork. After the last owner sold it off in the 1920s, kickstarting development of the prestige Swakeleys housing estate, the mansion ended up in the hands of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Sports Association and eventually fell into disrepair.
The house was restored in the 1980s to the benefit of all, but since 2009 the private owners have sought increasing seclusion, starting by kicking out the biannual Ickenham Festival from the grounds. They also now restrict public access to Open House just once a year, and when I went in 2018 all we were permitted to see of the interior was a hallway and a painted staircase. Since then the hedge they planted around the perimeter has thickened to make it very hard, but not quite impossible, to see the house, and I suspect if you come back in a few years (or in high summer) it'll have vanished altogether, the miserable isolationists.
More Ickenham mini-bits
» RAF West Ruislip was sited in north Ickenham from 1917 to 2007, the tenants for the last half-century being the US Air Force. The site is now an estate of 400 not-especially dense houses and as far as I can tell no memorial of any kind exists on site.
» A lone oak tree in a tiled circle beside Swakeleys Road is recognised on a headstone as Ickenham's 'Gospel Oak' where the curate and parishioners would pray for healthy crops on Rogation Sunday (but it's not the original tree, it's the fourth attempted replacement).
» There's a genuine sense of community here, exemplified by the fact a majority of the households are members of the Ickenham Residents’ Association. You've just missed the AGM but I get a sense from the quarterly newsletters that its priorities are caution and tutting, especially in the areas of planning, parking and HS2.
» The Swakeleys and Glebe Estates are served by one of London's 10 least frequent TfL buses, the hour-and-a-halfly U10.
» Businesses in Ickenham include Scentsational (florists), Suzanne's Dance Supplies (also school of modern jazz), Wick & Ceramic (candle workshop), Burgerbey (for halal patties), Maison du Soleil (for boulangerie and patisserie) and The Tichenham Inn (a Wetherspoons, not usually packed with Leeds supporters, Tichenham being the medieval name for Ickenham).
» The 1908 Olympic Marathon passed through Ickenham, this the event that set the distance as 26 miles and 385 yards, so it's not actually true that no major historical events have taken place here.
» The next Ickenham Festival will take place from 6th-14th June, with the big Village Day on Saturday 13th should you want to see the place at its best.
I was in Bromley town centre yesterday and thought I'd pop into the library to see the museum.
It wasn't there.
I found the display cases where the museum used to be but they were all empty, that is apart from one where a mannequin's torso stood alone, its former clothing whisked off into storage.
And I thought, there go two more public facilities downsizing into something smaller.
The issue for Bromley is that the concrete 1970s building where the library and museum are housed is approaching end of life so they're moving out. The adjacent Churchill Theatre has been sold (intact) to a consortium including Galliard Homes, so expect a final outcome involving continued dramatics and a fair few flats. Meanwhile the UK's 7th busiest library will be closing for four months later this year, the shutdown recently postponed from March to 'just after the summer exams', before moving to a new spot on the High Street. Unexpectedly it'll now be inside a former Top Shop, which isn't normally where you'd find a lot of books.
Bromley's Top Shop has been empty since 2020 so sticking a library in there makes good sense, but it'll be smaller with 28% less space for adult fiction/non-fiction and 7% fewer books. The children's library will be larger so that's a plus, but the rest of downstairs will be mostly seating, a few bestsellers and a couple of meeting rooms insufficient to cope with current use. Upstairs (where TopMan, Miss Selfridge and Dorothy Perkins used to be) will be better crammed with bookshelves, study space and a rejigged Local History Centre. But when it comes to anything museumy all that's being provided is "a vitrine wall which displays artefacts from the borough archives", which if I read the plans right will comprise only three slimline cases.
The hoardings outside 145 High Street tell the history of the site: i) originally The White Hart Hotel, ii) rebuilt as a Littlewoods department store in the 1960s, iii) subsequently occupied by Marks & Spencer, Primark and Top Shop. More tellingly they also tell the history of Bromley's central library, which seems very much a rise and fall. A membership-based Literary Institute opened in 1845, as used by local schoolboy HG Wells, this enlarged in 1864 within new premises at the Town Hall. The first public library opened in 1894 and was upgraded to a proper Carnegie Library on the High Street in 1903, until this too was deemed insufficient and the current concrete hulk opened in 1977. 2026's shift is thus the first backwards move, but I guess in an age of digitalisation we should be glad it's not even smaller.
What's not displayed is a history of Bromley Museum because that would be too depressing. It opened in 1965, the same year the borough was created, within the former medieval priory at Orpington. All sorts of local treasures (Sir John Lubbock's archive, HG Wells's tooth, David Bowie’s corduroy jacket) were displayed in increasingly underfunded surroundings, until 2015 when the council closed it and made all the staff redundant. Instead they opened Bromley Historic Collections, a few thematic cases in Bromley Library which I described in 2017 as "a taster for a museum that no longer exists". Now even that's gone and all that'll remain in the new set-up is a scant wall of artefacts, which is gobsmackingly little for a borough of 330,000 people.
Other boroughs to have squandered their museums include Wandsworth (closed to save money 2007), Barnet (sold 2011), Greenwich (closed 2018), Southwark (squished into Walworth Library in 2021) and Enfield (decimated in the corner of a cafe in 2022). It's not all grim - in 2023 I awarded top marks to Barking and Dagenham, Ealing, Hounslow, Harrow and Sutton for their municipal offerings. But when the choice is paying for adult social care or running a nice museum a lot of boroughs have thrown in the towel, egged on by austerity, with cultural services often the easiest to cut.
Dozens of London's libraries have have been downsized in recent years, not just Bromley Central, or simply shut for good. Take Wood Street in Waltham Forest for example, a fine Fifties edifice demolished to make way for a nine-storey block of flats, its replacement a scant slice of books beneath another residential development. See also Sidcup, Uxbridge, Canning Town and any number of other libraries that are now fewer shelves in a smaller but more modern space. See also the inexorable rise of the self-service library, e.g. Cheam and Burnt Oak, these now cut-price study spaces without a librarian. See also offboarding libraries to community operation, e.g. Ponders End and Bexley Village, these still loved by residents if not by councillors. And see also libraries that open just three days a week, for example the three nearest libraries to Bromley Central (which isn't going to help when that closes for four months).
Then there's Post Offices, like this one I saw at the weekend in Uxbridge. Thousands have been downsized to save money, often shifting into counters at the back of other retail premises. Here in Uxbridge services moved to the back of WH Smith when the Crown Post Office closed, but WH Smith is now TG Jones and they're closing this branch next month and suddenly the Post Office is toast. Everyone from the local MP downwards is up in arms but nothing can be done until alternative arrangements can be made, so from 5pm on 30th May it's a bus ride to Hillingdon or Cowley every time you need counter service.
And there's banks too. We've had years of closures and general thinning out, obviously due to the uptake of online banking but with the consequent creation of financial deserts. Islington's Halifax is doomed, Woking's Santander closed yesterday and the Nat Wests in Barnet, Eastcote, Hornchurch and Orpington all shut next month. Here in Bow our last Barclays and Nationwide fled in 2021 but we do at least have Stratford nearby, whereas a lot of provincial towns are being stripped away to nothing and might get a paltry banking hub stopgap if they're lucky.
There are many reasons for all this public downsizing, most notably funding cuts, digitalisation and the need to scrimp more savings. But we're also losing a lot of public buildings, the foundations of a public service presence and places you can actually visit to do things. If we're not careful the next generation will have nowhere to go that isn't commercially focused, not that some downsizing isn't necessary but in the face of economic rationalisation let's try not to extinguish all the good stuff.
It's two acres of royal tribute on the site of some former glasshouses. It looks both to the past and to the future. It's very nicely done if not yet at its finest. And if you turned up early enough yesterday they gave you a free souvenir booklet to tell you what you were looking at. I shall be quoting from it during what follows using regal purple text, just so you don't think I wrote those bits.
On Day 1 a queue formed outside and only one entrance was unlocked, but the long term intention is that all four gates will be open and anyone can wander through, just like any other corner of the park. This is where all the shrubs for the Royal Parks used to be grown until the nursery moved to Hyde Park in 2018. This left a brownfield site with considerable potential so a plan was hatched to create an amazing garden to celebrate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. But following her death it became a horticultural tribute instead, a garden of colour and contemplation, of biodiversity and beauty, of memory and hope. In short some swirly paths, a few water features and a lot of nice plants.
The chief focus near the main point of entry is a generous circular pond which creates a tranquil setting with contemplative and reflective qualities. It's deep enough to float the stems of several water plants and shallow enough to see the pebbly bottom, also protruded into by a stumpy rectangular jetty. This is just one of the garden's carefully distributed features that provide punctuation points of interest and character or 'moments of delight', as the horticulturalspeak has it.
Another moment of delight is the long metal lattice on the landward side, this a striking pergola which frames the terrace. Take a seat on one of several benches and you can see where the climbing plants haven't yet made much of an assault in an upward direction. The pergola is made from several of the struts from the original greenhouses on this site, thus it embodies the garden's circular economy principles. It also has 56 struts, one for each of the countries in the Commonwealth, although as far as I'm aware there are no plans to remove one every time an existing member secedes.
Your eye will likely then be drawn by a tall brick structure, this a water tower retained as a nod to the site's working past and repurposed to create a landmark. It has a splendidly ornate whorl of blacksmithery on top, the fronds representing plants symbolic of the four home nations, also a small silhouetted corgi if you look really carefully. As the garden's highest viewpoint it offers a small raised balcony ideal for gaining a wider overview, this accessed via a teensy passageway likely clogged by white-haired visitors queueing for their own look. Five nestboxes await the arrival of mating swifts, a hi-tec gizmo broadcasting bird sounds at dawn and dusk in the hope of luring them in.
It's early days for the flowers but they do already look semi-spectacular, especially the alliums and the large floppy tulips. Species the Queen is known to have liked take centre stage, especially anything found in her wedding bouquet or funeral wreath like rosemary or myrtle. The agapanthus came from Windsor Great Park, their striking blue flowers a direct connection to her private estate... or will be when blooming season begins. A scant few daffodils can be seen dying out around the main pond, a bit of a waste because their yellow trumpets peaked long before the garden opened, but publication deadlines do at least mean they take pride of place in all the publicity shots.
If you're expecting normal soil no, everything appears to be planted in a pebbly sand. That's because it's three-quarters concrete from the former glasshouse site, all ground up in a sustainable manner, indeed you could say turning grey to green. Don't expect lawns either, indeed the gardens have a strict 'no picnics' rule because there's loads of grass elsewhere in the park for that. What they've really gone for here is a scheme that pushes the boundaries of sustainable gardening in an attempt to climate-proof the site. There's almost a Mediterranean feel rather than lush planting, all the better to commemorate the Elizabethan Age in a considerably drier future.
If you're wondering about the pattern made by the paths these supposedly reflect the Queen's personality. The central promenade reflects her unwavering sense of duty and service, because of course it does, bisected by a meandering path symbolising her long and remarkable personal journey. There are certainly plenty of peripheral paths to follow, from broad meadowlike strolls to cooler wiggles through the woodland fringe. One end of the main spine ends at a roundel offering a moment of quiet reflection, i.e. there are a heck of a lot of benches, also a looping inspirational quote uttered by Her Maj in a random Christmas Broadcast. This is where the mega tulips are, also a magnolia that looked magnificent a few weeks ago but has alas now shot its load.
The garden gets a tad less formal and more meadowy the further north you go, with occasional specimen trees that provide structure and punctuation. Here the ponds are more like gravel scrapes, the long grass less floral and the resilient planting occasionally brushed by an arcing sprinkler. The project boasts that it's 184% more biodiverse than the glasshouses that were here before, a fact it can't possibly know for sure at this stage. But I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt because while I was rounding the rear corner a tiny newt scuttled out across the path and its appearance fair bowled me over. I lost it a few seconds later somewhere in the swale but how great to know that not everything you read in purple prose is greenwash.
If you do come to see the new garden don't forget to visit the Park's older more established gardens because at this time of year they're gorgeous. Just round the back is the St John's Lodge Garden, a meditative enclosure entered down a wisteria tunnel currently at its peak, whose manicured sculptural beauty I'd somehow never stumbled upon before. But the real treat is Queen Mary's Garden, this eight times larger than Queen Elizabeth's, a circular rose garden par excellence complete with fountains, waterfalls and thorny beds that peak in June. The joy of Regent's Park is that it has so many distinct landscapes, so how great to have another one.
The Queen Elizabeth II Garden is certainly a welcoming, fully accessible, climate-resilient space, also a garden of exceptional quality and ambition imbued with subtle symbolism that will inform the collective memory. Within this diverse habitat mosaic are a number of unique landscape settings with points of reflection and contemplation woven throughout. Take time to explore and to find quieter moments to pause and reflect, taking in many of the key moments of delight along the way. For this is truly an exemplar of how beautiful landscape design and environmental responsibility can work together to shape a garden of exceptional quality and ambition that is designed to grow more beautiful with every passing year. Her Maj would certainly be chuffed to see how the garden she approved has turned out.
Ride the Woolwich Ferry
One of the finest ways to travel for free is aboard the Woolwich Ferry. TfL have a legal obligation to operate it thanks to the Metropolitan Board of Works Act 1885 (whose powers were transferred to the GLA in 2000) and are also prohibited by law from imposing tolls. There are thus no tappy pads on either bank, you simply head down the walkway and enjoy a free ride between Woolwich and North Woolwich, either lurking in the cabin or standing out the back amid the elements. Some might argue the views aren't great but I say look down at the swirling waters of the Thames and tell me that's not evocative... and all for nothing!
Ride the cablecar with a bike before 10.30am
If you've always wanted to ride the Dangleway for nothing, just bring a bike first thing and they'll waive the usual £7. The free offer only applies before 10.30am (which is good because the cut-off used to be 9.30am) and also only on weekdays, bank holidays excepted.
Ride a rail replacement bus
These can be a great way to travel long distances for nothing so long as you don't mind the journey taking ages. Next weekend for example you can take the free bus from Harrow-on-the-Hill to Chesham saving £2.40 or the non-stop replacement coach from Hammersmith to Heathrow saving £2.60.
Ride the Silvertown Shuttle Cycle Bus
This Mayoral freebie kicked off a year ago when the Silvertown Tunnel opened, TfL having decided it was a lot cheaper to run a bus shuttle than to build a bespoke bike lane beneath the water. The shuttle bus links City Hall with the grim end of the Greenwich Peninsula and runs every 12 minutes between 6.30am and 9.30pm. Latest figures suggest about 100 journeys are made daily. Anyone can use it so long as they have a bike of an appropriate size (2.14m long, 0.76m wide, 1.4m high max), while the bikeless can only watch as yet another empty vehicle departs.
Ride the DLR under the Thames(until 26th May 2026)
Another Silvertown sweetener is the Mayor's offer to refund minimal cross-river journeys made by DLR. Specifically that's journeys between Woolwich Arsenal and King George V or between Island Gardens and either Cutty Sark or Greenwich. Note that you do actually have to pay to travel, you can't just rock up, but fares on these very specific journeys are then refunded.
Ride any of the three Tunnel-going buses(until 26th May 2026)
The three buses which use the Blackwall and Silvertown Tunnels are the 108, 129 and SL4, and all three are free to ride. That's any journey on the route even if doesn't go under the river, which seems extremely generous, indeed every cash-strapped punter travelling from Bow to Stratford takes the 108 rather than one of the three full fare routes. Back to normal in a month's time though.
Take the train within the Heathrow free zone
Free bus travel around Heathrow ended in June 2021. But it's still free to travel by train between any of the Heathrow Terminals, be that by tube, Elizabeth line or Heathrow Express. Hatton Cross is also included in the free travel zone so if travelling to the airport it can be a lot cheaper to break your journey here and do the last leg for nothing. You need Oyster or contactless to open the gates, these methods charging you nothing once you tap out. Alternatively you can use the special machines at airport terminals to collect a free blue ticket, indeed you can print as many as you like.
Use a Hopper fare on buses and trams
Introduced in September 2016, the Hopper fare offers unlimited additional journeys within one hour of touching in. Technically they're not free because the first journey cost the normal rate, but everything after that genuinely costs nothing. It applies to bus journeys and tram journeys, also a mixture of the two, that is unless you try switching from tram to bus at Wimbledon in which case the software can't cope. In a particularly generous move, the Hopper fare also applies to multiple bus journeys in the space of an hour even if you make a tube or train journey inbetween.
Make 'one more journey' on buses
So as not to strand passengers whose Oyster cards run out of money, the 'one more journey' protocol was introduced in June 2014.
It applies to any card with insufficient funds but not a negative balance, allowing such passengers to travel once. They also receive an emergency fare advice slip which reminds them that their card needs to be topped up before another journey can be made. Technically you're still being charged because you end up with a negative balance BUT if you present an Oyster card with precisely £0.00 in credit then your bus ride is indeed free.
Hit the daily or weekly cap
Again technically this isn't free travel because you've had to pay a lot of fares up front. But once you hit the daily cap every subsequent journey within these zones is free and this could be a considerable amount. Ditto if you hit your weekly cap on Friday then anything you do on Saturday or Sunday will cost nothing. Caps are also available for those who travel only by bus or tram, currently £5.25 daily and £24.70 weekly.
Get a refund for a delayed journey
You may be able to claim a refund if your journey on the Tube or DLR is delayed for 15 minutes or more. On the Overground and Elizabeth line it's 30 minutes or more instead. TfL may refuse if the delay was out of their control but it's always worth a try. You apply here and must claim within 28 days of the delay. Contactless refunds are only provided if your card is registered. Last year TfL paid out £487,460 in refunds so you might be missing out.
Be young
Children under 5 travel free, except on the cablecar or river services. Children under 11 travel free with a fare-paying adult (up to 4 of them). Children aged 5-10 get free travel with a Zip Oyster photocard. 11-17 year-olds resident in London get free travel on buses and trams.
Be old
On reaching your 60th birthday, Londoners can apply for a 60+ Oyster card which allows free travel on tubes, trains and buses. Free travel applies after 9am on weekdays and all day at weekends. Terms and conditions apply. On reaching state pension age (currently 66) you're sent an Older Person's Freedom Pass instead. A bonus for Freedom Pass holders is that the Elizabeth line beyond West Drayton to Reading is included. I love my 60+ Oyster card and bash it regularly.
Be disabled
A Disabled Person's Freedom Pass applies whatever age you are. Free travel is also offered to any blind or partially sighted person with a guide dog, to puppy walkers training guide dogs or to anyone boarding a bus in a wheelchair. Dial-A-Ride (for those unable to use public transport) is also a free service.
Have a different kind of freebie benefit card
TfL staff travel for free, as do their nominees, as do retired employees, also the engineers who maintain the ticketing equipment across the network, also some contractors, also Police Officers, Special Constables and Police Community Support Officers, also Armed Forces personnel (but only when in full uniform), also anyone with a Veterans Oyster photocard.
Use the DLR without touching in
DLR stations don't have ticket gates so you can always walk in and walk out at the other end, keeping your fingers crossed that nobody notices midway. DLR staff make regular ticket checks so you're taking quite a risk, also DLR stations are occasionally blockaded by huge teams of enforcement officers who will totally catch you out, but it's not going to happen this time... is it?
Only use ungated stations
A lot of tube stations have no ticket gates, or alternatively the gates are sometimes left open. These provide an excellent opportunity for free travel because you never ever get your ticket checked on the Underground, so why not just walk in? At least one ticket gate at Bromley-by-Bow is always open, for example, without a single member of staff ever keeping an eye on things. Of an evening the same is true at Plaistow too, so there's a journey anyone can make for nothing... and I bet they do.
Push brazenly through the ticket gates
If you have an inflated sense of self-entitlement you may choose to force open the ticket gates or dodge in behind a paying customer while grinning inwardly to yourself. Staff won't stop you because they're told not to, then all you have to do is get out at the other end and you've made yet another journey for free. This is of course illegal and there are whopping penalties if you're caught but you won't be, indeed I've not seen a ticket inspector on the Underground in years. For many Londoners, particularly younger feral types, the network is free all day every day.
Board a bus with zero intention of paying
Why pay for your bus ride like everyone else when you can ride for nothing? Concoct some cock and bull story about losing your card or struggle ineffectively with a beeping smartphone and the driver may just wave you on. Alternatively just stroll in and head to the back of the bus with a defiant sneer, as a tiny minority do, and save yourself the £1.75 that only losers pay. Some drivers do get impressively stroppy if you try that, refusing to move off until the miscreant alights, and well done to them. But on the whole if you have no intention of paying your way on a TfL journey then it doesn't cost a thing.
Five places I've been to in the last few days, and some thoughts.
Peckham - Rye Lane Market
I love a little arcade, a linear hideaway of trading units where you can buy anything and everything, the more independent the better. Such an arcade is Rye Lane Market in Peckham, a dogleg of glassfronted mini-bazaars stuffed with colourful goods and edibles. A quick wander reveals windowfuls of African tailoring, gold-looking jewellery, artificial flowers, dubious herbs, Peruvian hair, puffa jackets, churros, crystals, Caribbean vinyl, budget suitcases and of course an entire shop devoted to Body Shaper Girdles. I arrived so early that barely anything was open, just a hopeful guy in the phone repair shop and Heart Breakfast blaring out, so pick your moment carefully. But how wonderful that London retains proper retail catacombs like this, not just chain malls and overblown brand temples.
I went to Turkey Street and I saw these phrases plastered all over the station and I cringed.
» Create like a cactus without ration
» Another word for create is heavenly design like the North Star
» Even a unicorn can lose its powers when it stops trusting itself
» We are all weird so just knock your sadness out of your hands and bite into an apple
» Drain the beautiful struggle with play and learn to make your real life happy and happier
What awful twee platitudes, I thought, like a really crass set of motivational posters. Then I saw the logo of Arts Council England and wondered if this was an extension of the project that saw a sculpted fish/bird/squirrel/doghybrid appear in the neighbouring park. Then I saw all the quotes were by small children - youngest 7, oldest 10 - which perhaps excused things slightly. Later I checked and it turns out these are micro-poems created by ten children at an after-school club convened by an arts studio focused on dyslexic and neurodivergent creativity as part of a project called Words Without Walls. This doesn't excuse the writing but I no longer feel the need to sigh, more to applaud, and this is why when it comes to art context is all-important.
Tolworth - Ewell Road
I found these plaques on a bench in Tolworth while I was waiting for the 418 bus. One's to Councillor H. G. Reynolds (1888-1959) 'from his friends in the Labour Movement'. From the tiny screed I learned he was born in 1888, became a Justice of the Peace in 1933, was elected to the council in 1934 and died in 1959. I presume he served the Municipal Borough of Surbiton, that being the local jurisdiction at the time. But I was more intrigued and unnerved by the other plaque which just said "Also to Mrs Alice Dorothy Reynolds who shared fully in his achievements". Poor lady, her husband gets all the plaudits and all it says about her is that she tagged along. There's not even a year of birth, just that she died three years after her husband (by that time sharing nothing).
I've tried digging further and believe Henry George Reynolds had been a railway clerk in his earlier years, a conscientious objector during WW1 and lived at 171 Douglas Street. I've also learned that the couple's eldest son Douglas rose to become the first Labour Mayor of Kingston, spent six years as chairman of the Friends of Richmond Park and was awarded an MBE by the Queen shortly before his death in 2017. But Alice's legacy is seemingly just as an erased hanger-on beside a bus stop in Tolworth, defined solely by her husband, and thank goodness society's moved on since then.
South Kensington - V&A galleries 70-73
If you prefer a more traditional V&A display than the sparse eclecticism of their new East outlier, try the Gilbert Collection in South Ken. It's also fresh but unveiled with barely a fanfare, a full-on upgrade to a second floor corridor and some offices to create a new home for some iconic baubles. Rosalinde andArthur Gilbert used their real estate fortune to snap up exquisite decorative objects, many in gold and silver, with the express intention of gifting them to the nation after their death. They must have signed some mammoth cheques to obtain this lot. A particular love of theirs were micromosaics, intricate designs of teensy tesserae many of which date back to Roman times, so expect at least a roomful of those. Ian has a full report, but basically do drop by next time you're doing a V&A circuit.
Bow - Tesco
Imagine my joy when I rounded the frozen vegetable cabinets in my local supermarket and found the following array of goodies in the seasonal goods aisle.
So many boxes of Creme Eggs, both the standard and medley versions, all Reduced to clear and massively cheaper than usual. The label confirmed the price for five chocolate fondant eggs had been £4, then £2 and was now £1, which is an absolute bargain. It equates to just 20p each whereas the cheapest you could buy a single egg before Easter was 70p at Aldi and in some branches of WH Smiths more than double that. I stocked up. But I didn't go too over the top because every Creme Egg has a Best Before date of 31st July, and if you hold on through the hot summer the central goo soon hardens and the entire joy of eating one fades away. I mention this Bow stash in case you feel the need to dash round and replenish your stocks. I reckon there were almost 1000 boxes left on Friday (blimey, somebody sure overstocked) so they can't all have gone yet.
It's time for another of my weekly summaries of the worst clickbait headlines on London's needier news websites. Now there's no need to click through during the week because on Saturday I'll tell you what the thing is they hinted at but didn't tell you. It's always a huge disappointment anyway, even though it sounded potentially intriguing up front. Avoid the pop-ups and evil ads that spam your screen, just wait until Saturday and all will become clear!
» The posh commuter town 30 mins from London where average house prices have dropped by 29% (it's Weybridge)
» The 'secret' station that's missing from most TfL maps (it's Battersea Park)
» Life inside the ‘overlooked’ London area named one of the best places to live where locals say ‘it’s the place I’m happiest’ (it's Plumstead)
» The little known park near Tube station that's London's best place to see bluebells (it's Chalet Wood in Wanstead)
» The North London walking route perfect for families where you’re guaranteed to hit 10,000 steps (it's Capital Ring section 12)
» This majestic castle near London is one of the most beautiful places in Europe (it's Sissinghurst)
» I quit London to raise family in Ireland instead but I miss three things about the capital (they're public transport, sporting events and the weather)
» The 4 new Underground stations we may get in next 15 years and 2 we definitely won't (it's the Bakerloo extension and the Metropolitan extension)
» Exact date 20C heat will hit London in new forecast (it's Friday 1st May, allegedly)
» I tried Kew Gardens’ sunset yoga and it left me feeling something I haven’t in years (it's a profound sense of serenity and stillness)
» This iconic central London park is officially the best park in the city (it's Hyde Park, according to a student accommodation company)
» The UK's most remote station you can't drive to but it has direct trains to London (it's Corrour)
» London’s most gorgeous hidden garden is looking pretty in pink as its azaleas reach peak bloom (it's the Isabella Plantation in Richmond Park)
» Is the London Overground affected by the April 2026 tube strikes this week? (no it isn't)
» Is Elizabeth line affected by April 2026 Tube strike? (no it isn't)
» This enchanting historic garden near London has just been named one of the most beautiful places in Europe (it's Sissinghurst again)
» One of London’s most historic train stations is being rebuilt with bold new features (it's Lea Bridge)
» I'm a Kent local — Londoners visiting the county this spring must do 1 thing (walk from Deal to Kingsdown)
» One of London’s most iconic landmarks is officially set to undergo a huge transformation (it's Smithfield Market)
» This 17th-century coastal inn is the perfect escape from the capital city (it's The George in Yarmouth, IoW)
» This immersive ‘time capsule’ in Spitalfields is one of London’s best kept secrets (it's Denis Severs House)
» 90s boyband star is now living very different life as a roofer in London (it's John from E17)
» This historic Holborn townhouse has just been named the best place in London for a solo day out (it's Sir John Soane's Museum, according to a railway company)
» This charming West London garden is home to a gorgeous wisteria tunnel (it's Eastcote House Gardens)
» Heathrow Airport says 'allow extra time' at security over common item (it's powdered food)
What I can't tell you is how Katie, Sam and Will sleep at night.
All nine candidates for Mayor of Tower Hamlets get to contribute to a booklet posted to all the addresses on the electoral roll, and mine's just arrived. I've read it, also the candidates' websites, and my word there are some ridiculous claims that should debar every single one of them from winning. Many also have many positive points but I'm focusing solely on the bad, thoughtless, inept stuff.... in alphabetical order of surname.
Zami AliTower Hamlets Independents(manifesto)
• AI systems embedded across all council operations. (oh god)
• The shift to an AI-enabled council means every manual process replaced by technology reduces cost and enhances human efficiency. (oh god)
• Every community centre refurbished as a Technology & Skills Hub. (the man's obsessed)
• £1 billion identified in procurement, waste, duplicate contracts, and inefficient systems. Recovered and reinvested, that is £15,000 in service value for every family in Tower Hamlets over four years. (but it's only £8000 for every household because Zami is focusing on families at the expense of single people)
• £0 Salary - 100 Day's Of Mayoral Pay Redirected For You (if you can't do apostrophes, you can't run a council)
Mohammed HannanLiberal Democrats
• Being able to use your local train station is a basic right that everyone deserves, whether its disabled people, those with
mobility issues, or even those with buggies and young children. That Wapping, Shadwell, and other stations on the Windrush line continue to be inaccessible is not acceptable. (these stations don't have step-free access because they're Victorian, both already have lifts it's just the last 20-odd steps that can't be wheeled, if it was easy to shoehorn access into the extremely restricted space they'd have done it when the stations were upgraded 20 years ago, you're just moaning about something you can't change)
Hirra Khan AdeogunGreen(manifesto)
• Solidarity with people of Palestine, calling out the UK’s role in genocide (the current Mayor's been doing that for years and it's changed nothing)
• Cheaper energy bills for at least 2000 households to start. (wow, what do the other 118,000 of us do in the meantime)
• Implement a new 'Pass-through Traffic Charge' for heavy non-domestic vehicles. This will not impact Tower Hamlets residents and those who work in the borough and will only apply to vehicles passing through without engaging with local businesses or residents. (that'd just send a ton of lorries through the Silvertown Tunnel rather than the Blackwall Tunnel, you muppets)
Hugo PierreTrade Unionist and Socialist Coalition
• A socialist mayor would bring unions and the community together in a mass campaign to win more money from the government. (cloudcuckooland, mate)
• Scrap developers’ greedy plans, build 100% council homes. (a worthy aspiration, but realistically nothing would get built for years while all the existing plans changed)
• Campaign for free public transport. (I think you've misunderstood the powers of a Mayor)
Dominic NolanConservative
• I will see houses are allocated fairly. Houses for local people. More homes in the right places. (Dominic's text is vague, detail-less and written as if for ten year-olds)
• Tower Hamlets reportedly has the lowest recycling rate in England. I (you've sent your document to the printers with the end of a sentence missing, sheesh)
Sirajul IslamLabour(manifesto)
• The recent Government Best Value inspection made clear that Tower Hamlets needs fresh leadership to end the chaos. (that's not actually what it said)
• Restore pride in our streets (that's never going to happen)
• Reinstate the Victoria Park fireworks (you can't afford to bring back everything the current Mayor's scrapped)
• Remember: Only Labour can beat the current administration (you can show all the bar charts you like, but technically that's very false)
John BullardReform UK
• Tower Hamlets’ finances are broken and only a Reform UK Mayor will fix it. (that's not true, Reform don't have a monopoly here)
• PUT LONDONERS FIRST FOR SOCIAL HOUSING (I'm not sure you're allowed to do that)
• OPPOSE HOUSING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS IN HOTELS (well you can, but it's central government that decides this)
• END ULEZ AND THE WAR ON DRIVERS (we don't care, only 34% of households here have a car)
Lutfur RahmanAspire(manifesto)
• Since being elected Mayor in 2022, my priority has been to make Tower Hamlets work for all. (I don't think you've included all of us)
• We are also proposing a brand new Whitechapel leisure centre with a new swimming pool. (this is the sole future policy amongst 900 words of what Lutfur's done already)
• Introduce a Public Health Service that is COVID-ready (hang on, your 'Manifesto' is just cut and pasted from 2022)
• I ASK YOU TO CONTINUE TO PUT YOUR TRUST IN ME (reminds me of Kaa in the Jungle Book)
• "Lutfur and Aspire have my full support, showing us what is possible when local government prioritises social justice" Jeremy Corbyn MP (I'm not sure that's the top endorsement you think it is)
Terence McGreneraIndependent
• What I propose for Tower Hamlets is to establish its own lottery, sell the idea to other London boroughs and help them to combine in a London wide organisation. It would be called THE LONDON LOTTERY. The proceeds would help to set up a property company to build, buy and manage homes for rent on a non-profit basic. (this is your only policy, you literally have nothing else, and it requires working with other boroughs so it's never going to happen, you're focused but delusional)
V&A East opened on the East Bank in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park on Saturday. It's the latest outpost of the V&A empire after South Kensington, Bethnal Green, Dundee and the big Storehouse on the other side of the Park. It's also very good, also architecturally startling, also mostly empty. I visited midweek when it's quieter and took over 160 photos, which I've since managed to whittle down to 40, of which here you're seeing eight. To see the whole lot head to Flickr where you can experience the whole building as a walkthrough, also there's only so much I can say in words and you really need to see the place, ideally in real life. [40 photos]
Location: 107 Carpenters Rd, E20 2AR [map] Open: 10am - 6pm (until 10pm on Thursdays and Saturdays) Admission: free Three word summary: eclectic creative stack Website:vam.ac.uk/east Time to set aside: at least an hour
If you enter from the waterfront, past the enormous black bronze statue, you arrive on a floor that's mostly occupied by operational backrooms so there's not much to see. The remaining public space is occupied by Cafe Jikoni, its menu inspired by rich flavours from immigrant cuisine. It seems a well-chosen cornerstone for the museum, not the fanciest but not cheap either, and spills out onto an external terrace. If not seeking refreshment expect a V&A greeter to point you towards the lifts or stairs... and blimey these staircases are quite something.
They weave in a distinctly angular manner all up the front and side of the building, the handrails sometimes protruding at an odd angle to negotiate an architectural contortion. Occasionally you might spot an artwork stuffed in an alcove, and at one point you find yourself behind the giant V&A on the outside of the building looking down on people entering. The stairs remind me of the Blavatnik building at Tate Modern, not quite as broad but creating a similarly irregular ascent. As such they're exceptionallyphotogenic, especially those connecting the lower floors, so watch out for lingering folk with cameras frustratedly hoping that everyone else gets out of the way.
Upper Ground
This is the hub of the museum and has its own entrance connecting directly to the rest of the East Bank. It also houses one of the two free galleries, a large space entitled 'Why We Make', the name emblazoned in white neon above two swing doors. What greets you beyond is an extremely eclectic collection of objects from puffy pink dresses to magazine covers and postwar tapestries to William Morris football shirts. Spangly tights make a central showing, also conical purple headgear, 17th century German marquetry and portrait-oriented videos. It wouldn't be the V&A without a row of peculiar chairs, and yes there they are on top of a set of extraordinary furniture designed by a bloke from Hackney called Ron.
I think there are underlying themes like 'Our Place in the World' and 'Breaking Boundaries' but unless you bother to read the text on the wall you'd never know. All eras are included but with a definite nod towards more recent creations. They're also more diverse than a stuffy west London museum might display, so as well as making you think "ooh that's nice" they should also make you think. Arguably it's a tad sparse because they could have fitted a lot more in but on a busy weekend afternoon you'll be glad of the extra circulation space. Rather more squashed is the inevitable shop, its contents exceptionally tasteful all round and with some items under a pound to balance out the inevitable coffee table fodder.
First Floor
Up again to Why We Make room two. This is more of the same, again with an emphasis on the power of creativity to evoke transformation, packed out with the utterly different. One corner's all about protest so has Solidarność posters, another focuses on the power of recycling including a replacement handle for broken teacups invented 100 years ago in Balsall Heath. I think the theme in the far corner is "even poor people can have nice stuff" although this wasn't the terminology used. Reassuringly everything has explanatory text, while some objects come with tetchy touchscreens or liftable loudspeakers you're supposed to listen to, even if I never do. I also didn't last more than a few minutes in the mini-cinema out back, but if you perch and watch the entire programme this could extend your visit considerably.
Keep going past the toilets and there's what looks like an emergency exit but is in fact the access to a first floor terrace. If you don't spot it you're not really missing much, it's a peculiar hemmed-in space where the best view is to the rear towards Stratford's newest wall of office blocks. It also offers minor trainspotting opportunities as the DLR and Overground swoosh by in an artificial cutting, but it's really not worth coming for that. And back to the stairs...
Second Floor
This is where the paid-for exhibitions go. For the opening months that's The Music Is Black, a celebration of British influence on music and culture - a pitch perfect start. It skips from Samuel Coleridge-Taylor to Stormzy via Winifred Atwell and Joan Armatrading and promises iconic objects, evocative sound experiences and multimedia installations. It's also £22.50 to get in, rising to £24.50 at weekends, unless you're fortunate enough to be under 26 in which case the fee is a much more reasonable £11. I think what put me off more than the price was the realisation that the exhibition space must be the same size as the two galleries underneath, thus not exactly enormous nor necessarily time consuming. I must however applaud whoever stocked the shop alongside, the museum's second purchasing opportunity, because the exhibition-themed goodies were spot on.
Third Floor
One final stepped ascent leads to the finest freebie of all, the top floor terrace. This large irregular space faces the heart of the Olympic Park, bang opposite the stadium, offering a stunning 180° view across the treetops. Look down the ribbon of the City Mill River and you can see all the way to Shooters Hill. Rotate to tick off the Orbit, Abba Arena and Docklands, then the aforementioned West Ham ground, then the skyscrapers of the City. Keep turning to see the hutches they're building in Hackney Wick, the Copper Box and the mast at Ally Pally... and make the most of the last two because when they eventually start building flats in the gap beside V&A East all that will disappear. It's just a treat to come up here to be honest, although if you bring toddlers be aware they won't see a thing above the wall so will need to make their own entertainment.
Hurrah there's one final bonus gallery and its inaugural exhibition made me cheer. This is Dispersal by Marion Davies and Debra Rapp who spent 2005-2007 documenting the businesses and landscapes about to be wiped away to create the Olympic Park. Their photographs show girders being coated at Parkes Galvanising, salmon being deboned at H Forman & Son and some fairly unpleasant things happening to meat, all at locations I remember viscerally up and down this slice of the Lower Lea Valley. What's galling though is how few photographs are on display in an absolutely enormous space, a couple of wallsworth of small annotated frames, almost like a presentational afterthought. I suspect the main use for this top floor hideaway will be as an events venue after hours, the hospitality pièce de résistance being the opportunity to clink glasses on the terrace outside, hence daytimes are a bit blank.
and back down again
V&A East is simultaneously a triumph and a wasted opportunity. It brings a world class museum to the East Bank, indeed a second if you count their Storehouse that opened last year - finally a building worth travelling to see inside. Its cultural offer is suitably targeted for the location and well pitched for the younger audience it hopes to attract. It's fun to explore, predominantly free to access and a memorable lump of architecture to boot. But I was struck by how much of the interior was empty space, not just the stairwell cavities and capacious landings but also across the walls and within the galleries themselves. It doesn't pay to be too cluttered but they could have scattered plenty more culture throughout V&A East, be that more exhibits, extra artworks or just additional stuff. It's a heck of a lot but it could be a lot more.
There are five times as many photos over at Flickr.
Hopefully the next best thing to taking a look for yourself.
Tower Hamlets Mayoral election round-up
