London Lines

Now you see me....

2007-03-19T23:32:00.000Z

This blog is moving: please update your bookmarks to http://londonlines.wordpress.com

I've finally had enough of Blogger: the lack of polish, updates and Google's fumbled acquisition and enforced user migration. London Lines is now on Wordpress and although it may take a few days to get it finalised you can view all the old posts and bookmark it now at the above address.

Science Museum

2007-02-03T17:56:00.000Z

Appropriate that I should start with the Science Museum; after all this is one of the first museums I visited in London nearly 20 years ago and which probably has the greatest longevity given my pent-up scientific interest.

Such a shame then that high expectations weren't met. I went along just before Christmas and found section after section closed, even parts of the new Wellcome Wing, the rest of which has started to look decidedly grubby despite (or perhaps because of) its ultra-modern futuristic design.

Perhaps the greatest disappointment was that it's becoming very difficult to actually learn anything there and I don't believe that's because of my own knowledge. Exhibits seem to fall into one of two camps:

modern interrogative exhibits, provoking questions of genetics, medical ethics, evolution such as in the afore-mentioned Wellcome Wing but without any real narrative. Absolutely perfect for school parties as an aide to discussion and teacher-led visits; pretty pointless and frustrating for anyone else.
display cases that simply label mathematical instruments or models of ships without providing any story.

These combined with a Communications gallery that stops with the introduction of the pager and an Optics gallery that's closed altogether made for this to be my last visit for a while. I even paid for the exhibition on the development of video gaming, 'antique' computing being a bit of a sideline interest. This was no more than a token nod to the history, technology and culture of gaming though - primarily an excuse for kids to play on old consoles and give me a headache as I wandered through looking for some intellectual stimulation. Even the pachinko machine was for display purposes only... still I'm denied a play on one of those things.

Shhhhhhh

2007-01-17T22:47:00.000Z

I realise I haven't been particularly active on the London blogging front; I have, however, been considerably more active in taking advantage of the capital's museums and galleries recently.

So to make amends for the former and to document the latter I'll be posting a few photos and comments here over the next few weeks from my visits. Watch this space. And keep your voice down.

Diplomacy by design

2006-12-30T02:33:00.000Z

If you had to guess which country had the most stylish building as its embassy, who would it be? The French, the Italians, the Americans?

Actually no suprise that, in my opinion, it goes to the Danes. With a slate black facade, pod-shaped windows and a subtle splash of greenery this really is an architectural revelation on Sloane Street opposite the private gardens.

If you've seen a more impressive or distinctive candidate on the streets of London, let me know....

Pottering down the Thames

2006-11-22T22:54:00.000Z

The teaser trailer for the next Harry Potter film was released yesterday: with some trepidation in fear of disappointment I waited for the download.

Any anxiety was quickly put to one side with scenes of broomsticks chasing down the Thames, past Canary Wharf and Parliament. Not sure whether it'll trump the opening scene from 'The World is not Enough' but it can't be a bad addition to the film.

Up the drain

2006-11-11T23:31:00.000Z

Ended up on the Waterloo & City line the other day: that most maligned of lines, shuttling sardined suits from their suburban commutes to the city via a 5 minute long sewer.

In the olden days you arrived at your destination with back and legs aching and bones shattered thanks to the clickety clack of the rickety track... assuming you hadn't fallen on the Metro-covered floor from the sharp bends.

No more. The recent upgrade means the ride is now as smooth as a, well, ride on the Jubilee Line extension. If memory serves I probably wouldn't have had the same glow had I joined the sardines at rush hour.

London Lines

2006-09-28T10:00:00.000+01:00

I have a thing about colours combined with geometric shapes - the harlequin effect if you like, from Paul Smith stripes to public artwork under railway bridges on Southwark Street. This piece by Ian Davenport has only been here a couple of months and looks absolutely fabulous. Enjoy...

Outfoxed

2006-08-30T21:44:00.000+01:00

Two weeks ago the top story in the greatest city in the world was one of the highest profile anti-terrorism swoops in British history. Two weeks later the top story seems to be about the menace of the urban fox in Croydon: it either shows just how quickly life returns to normality & banality (and the failure of the terrorist cause) or that we need something to fear and get worked up about.

Since moving to London 7 years ago (is it 7 years?!) the often-spotted urban fox has never caused much alarm... the occasional shock as it scampers across the road or as you get caught in the glare of each other's headlights. This photo was taken just a few days ago: the house is reasonably close to a railway line which seems to act as home, highway and good scavenging ground.

They've never been particularly pestly but I can't exactly see them as being the urban dweller's friend: unbelievable that some comments on the site above actually admit to feeding the blighters. Still, they're probably the ones who make the pilgrimage to Trafalgar Square to feed the ratty, disease-ridden pigeons.

London Bomb Attack Terror Shocker

2006-08-11T10:36:00.000+01:00

Heathrow grinds to a halt as a new threat is unveiled and more dawn raids on houses in London, Birmingham and High Wycombe. (Is it just me or does High Wycombe sound like the new Tora Bora?)

The ever-predictable and excitable Evening Standard came up with a typically reassuring and measured front page yesterday. Don't get me wrong: I'm not belittling anything about the operation, the threat or the measures at Heathrow but every single time it's such a fear-ridden, doom-laden, paranoia-spreading media opportunity: an almost American style response.

That said, when I was in New York the other week there wasn't the element of suspicion, of panic, of drama I was dreading. Yes, security was tighter than when I was there 6 years ago but I found New Yorkers, well, fairly relaxed and reflective. I didn't get a chance to check whether this Que Será, Será had extended to the media or to middle America but I have my doubts.

As for the UK watch this space for more attacks on the British public in the skies, on the tube and in the Palace of Westminster. When is the terror holding without trial legislation up for renewal?...

One final, related point: work has been on-the-ball in its internal communications advising of any specific threat to company operations and what the latest travel restrictions are. This morning a communicae said that 'the national security situation remains fluid at the moment'; an unfortunate turn of phrase I thought.

Blogger from America

2006-07-19T17:28:00.000+01:00

I'm off to visit the second greatest city in the world (although beloved HK is a strong contender) tomorrow so no updates here for a little while. However, slack time and wifi hotspots permitting, there may be one or two here.

Shame

2006-07-18T01:58:00.000+01:00

Probably only right after the last post to make mention of yesterday's announcement that no one would be charged with the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes in the wake of last year's tube and bus bombings.

When I originally blogged the incident I was almost in awe of the response, how un-British, safe in the assumption that this really was a thwarted attempt at a suicide bombing. The truth slowly emerged... even making it to the desk of the Met Police Commissioner... eventually.

Maybe it's right that no one person has been singled out for blame however hard this may be on the de Menezes family, maybe not. What a monumental and tragic cock-up though: how does such a break down in operational procedures and communication happen? In the heat of the moment, in the aftermath of a terror attack I suppose. But not only is that no excuse, how very un-British.

Silence on Oxford Street

2006-07-07T20:34:00.000+01:00

It didn't actually feel strange travelling into or being in central London today, one year on. Hope that's a good, positive state of mind.

In fact you wouldn't have known that it was anything other than an ordinary day unless you'd been near one of the memorial sites or until midday when a seemingly universally respected two minute silence started.

Starbucks baristas left their coffee machines, passing pedestrians stopped in their tracks and the traffic down Oxford Street ground to a halt. It was as though someone had pulled the plug on London and things just stopped.

A growl of diesel engines and a smattering of polite applause signalled the end and life simply returned to normal.

Radio 2.0

2006-06-19T23:14:00.000+01:00

A little Podcasting 101 for those of you who have only just got to grips with blogging...

Podcasting has been called the hottest thing in radio, a revolution, the future: basically think of a podcast as a radio show that has been recorded onto an electronic file, just like a music mp3 file.

As with all radio shows you may have an episode every day, every week or every month. The clever bit is the way this content reaches you: you don't have to look up the time of the show in the Radio Times, then stop what you're doing or where you're going to catch the show. No, just 'subscribe' to the show from your computer and when there's a new episode it's downloaded automatically. If you happen to have something like an iPod connected to your computer (hence the 'pod' bit), it'll be transferred to that for you to listen to at your leisure.

(By the way, the podcast links will try to open iTunes as the method for subscribing and listening to the relevant podcasts. Although there are other applications to do this, and most podcasts have their own webpages, in my view this is the easiest way to get at them.)

What has this got to do with London Lines?

Well I've been looking for a really good London podcast, an audio version of Time Out (why haven't they done this yet?), the Evening Standard and BBC London News all rolled into one. The closest I can find are The Definitive London Podcast but it seems to have only been definitive until Episode 18 in January and PodLondon also coming to an end in January - that old blogging and now podcasting curse of waning interest or money after an initial flurry.

I've half thought of doing my own London Lines podcast: this is the broadcasting revolution that anyone with a Mac (or, I grudgingly suppose a PC) can take advantage of after all. Not sure I have the time or the world is ready for my silky smooth Late Night Love Affair tones. Until I find that definitive (and current) London podcast, or until I do my own, here's a few others I'm subscribed to:

London What's On: almost there, focusing on the Time Out aspect
Discover London: a bit more official and formal, but promising from Ken and the glass testicle gang;
London Walks: haven't tried one of these yet but an inspired use for your iPod and a Sunday afternoon;
Virgin Atlantic London: limited set of episodes but good for travelling outsiders wanting to become insiders;
The London Village Show: only just found this tonight: will get back to you....

If you find any other London ones, drop a note on the comments. I'll try and do a piece on non-London podcasts piece with some favourites on paulcampy.com soon.

Crossroads

2006-06-12T15:33:00.000+01:00

With paulcampy.com up and running I'm not sure what to do with my myriad of blogging options set against my seemingly minimal blogging opportunities.

Shall I keep an rather infrequently updated London Lines (et al) or roll things into one single unthemed blog?

Answers on the back of a £50 note.

Civic duty

2006-05-05T23:11:00.000+01:00

Did part of my civic duty yesterday helping to create a satisfying and decisive 'No Overall Control' Merton council.

Civic duty... that's an interesting one. I note that, as with every election, some think tank or other comes up with the compulsory voting argument. Never in my lifetime can I remember a government containing so many people in favour of it though... but then we seem to be on a slippery slope as far as civil liberties are concerned.

I don't doubt that near 100% turnout would squeeze out the factions that currently manage to do a better job of squeezing out their voters than the mainstream parties, the BNP for example. The idea of a compulsion to vote in a democracy seems to smack of the same core intellectual failure as positive discrimination. Both may be based on good intentions and yield good short term results but at their heart they're oxymorons - trying to compensate for an underlying fault whether it be prejudice or apathy.

The other thing that struck me this year was the curious archaic polling station. Now before you're tempted to throw up your hands in disgust at the suggestion of using the internet let me say that I probably, still, agree with you. The challenge of creating a secure system with foolproof authentication is not one our public sector could manage given its track record in large IT projects - CSA, NHS, Inland Revenue anyone? Besides it would probably be another excuse for compulsory ID cards with a smart card reader in every PC and don't even get me started on that.

The standards and safeguards we'd expect for an internet based voting option are so high though we probably forget the much lower standards and safeguards we have for other options. Just think back to the postal ballot fraud of the last general election or that today I was only asked for my address, not my name and never challenged to prove my identity at the polling station; it wasn't as though they exactly had a rush on either.

Final barrier

2006-05-03T20:17:00.000+01:00

On my way back to more civilised civilisation I stopped off at London's first line of defence against the future's inevitable environmental onslaught.

Looking to a structure more famed for its fabric form than its content, and to stainless steel & glass combinations piercing the sky, the path to the apparently punctured defence was nothing less than a revelation.

Layers of hedges rose and fell in waves of harmony and syncopation, a premonition of potential overwhelming by the elements. To the right tower blocks with (finally) some magnificence and occasions about them. Simple whitewashed art deco elegance contrasting with more recent and slowly encroaching flat-pack efforts.

Closer to the edge now an inspired mix of wooden decking, sloping manicured grass and respectful open spaces. Surprisngly, and thankfully, only a few others had discovered this balance of yin & yang, undoubtedly adding to its zen-ness.

One of the wonders of the capital was now ahead, astride its apparently peaceful foe: modern architecture used in anger several times a year. I'd never noticed how much the grey snake that now burries so close by incorporates similar squished Sydney Opera House curves into its buildings.

Returning to my seemingly conscious carriage I was at peace, bar a slight hum from a precautionary electric fence and the buzz of bees bursting excitedly from the marshalled greenery.

The end of the line

2006-05-02T14:00:00.000+01:00

Disembarking I note what a strange hotch potch of past and future this place is. The fortfied site built by people with ologies in the 1980s neighbours the end of the line for a once Great network from before the 1880s.

Nowadays a lone ticket machine serves the rather pathetic north circular tracked equivalent (and all things considered I'd rather be by the river at the other end).

The magnificent old ticket hall is now a museum: a beautifully preserved building with lovingly presented memorabilia - tickets, signs, crockery.

Hard to believe that anyone other than the oddest of odd explorer would actually venture here; to pass it you'd either be running to/from anonymous urine-soaked, grafitti-etched trains or sitting in that queue of cars. Impressively surreal.

Uninspired yuppie suicide blocks are now encroaching on the waterfront, visible through the rubble and barbed wire of unloved council estates: a tracksuit on every corner along with the occasional police cordon.

I'm a firm believer that in London the transport connections are key. Getting back on my ghost train I can't help but feel that things will have noticeably and expensively changed in two year's time. Being able to get a seat on a train that only takes 15 minutes to reach Europe's newest financial capital and 25 minutes to reach its oldest?

It may be the end of the line but it's not quite the end of my journey...

Under & over

2006-05-01T11:29:00.000+01:00

Strange how the road just comes to an end - from one circular to another with an apparently optimistic queue of cars.

Exploring that is for the way back though: I have a rather ancient shortcut. Lifts are of course out of order but it appears I'm alone: nothing but the drip drip and then distant shouts. These shouts are slowly given form from the feet upwards due to the inverse arc of the tunnel beneath the great river above. CCTV cameras seem irrelevant: this is not somewhere to be on a Saturday afternoon, let alone what it must be like on a Saturday night.

Coming back up for un-stale air I have indeed beaten the queuing cars but perfect timing for my return trip. This curious throwback, the only one left in London, is considered an extension to the 'Streets' and managed as such even to the logo adorning the chimney.

In the bowels of this workforce the great unrefined diesel engines thunder away, painted white metal meeting polished wood. Not quite Hong Kong or New York but it does the job in a surprisingly balletic turn across the stage towards another patient queue.

Ghost train

2006-04-30T13:30:00.000+01:00

Setting off in my spectral carriage we weaved in between warehouses, water and wastelands. This whole area is still in a state of shock by all the new attention after over 100 years of neglect. Strange how commerce here is now measured in square metres rather than imperial tonnage.

The sweet exception to the rule overshadows the penultimate stop. The factory is visible in granular detail while on the other side a deathly silent entrance to the city. It was a Saturday though so I suppose if the City is asleep so the entrance will be too.

The terminus is next but it won't be so for long: construction ahead will soon turn a dotted blue line into a solid one, burrowing beneath a somewhat wider blue line. For now though I'm going to have to choose between a couple of other means to reach that destined destination...

Where was I?

2006-04-29T21:22:00.000+01:00

After 100 hours of work + commutes this week I decided I was long overdue for an explore.

When I first arrived in London I spent many weekend hours exploring the exteded capital guided by size zones of be-tracked public transport and a trusty A-Z. Since successfully reaching every termus and being rattled by every metre of rail that's pretty much stopped.

A couple of months ago though a new spur opened up and so I took my opportunity.

So fascinatingly confused is this part of London that it felt like one of those Sunday newspaper quizzes... so here goes, minus most of the literary and historical references, folks. to be continued...

Double Deutsch

2006-04-22T23:22:00.000+01:00

Perhaps I should start carrying an umbrella. Not because of rain: we haven't had much of that stuff in the South East over the last few months leading to hosepipe bans all over the place. No, because my tour guiding has obviously matured to the point where I can cope with multiple guests following me around and hanging off my every word.

I introduced my two German friends to the comforts of chez moi (with one exception) before we progressed to lunch in the village past the electroretailmagnets of assorted shoe shops.

Then onto a river cruise down to Greenwich: any excuse to get on the water, the second time in as many weeks. I can't quite describe the almost unintelligable commentary: a manic cockney accent with a distinctly cynical lilt that suggested he might have been doing the job for too many years.

My friends were easier to understand: if only my German was as good as their English. Never thought I'd be discussing the finer points of modern architecture or how views on European/domestic identity varies between class boundaries in Germany and the UK.

Love on the rocks

2006-04-01T14:50:00.000+01:00

I still think this place is great.

A little quieter than when Angela was here but a different way to spend 45 minutes on the doorstep of Regent Street.

Falling by the wayside

2006-03-19T15:10:00.000Z

It seems I'm not the only one taking a blogging break at the moment. With the notable exception of the Japanese contingent the rest of my blog bookmarks seem to be strangely dormant.

As for me, well, hopefully normal service will be resumed as soon as I get out of this hole. Or 'Hastings' as it's also known.

Buddies

2006-02-06T21:54:00.000Z

Commuting in and out of London (or out and in in my case) it's striking how many people are sporting the iPod's trademark white ear buds. Is it just my imagination or is there an almost knowing fraternity between users in the same way as VW Beetle owners or college alumni.

Though we may collectively snear at Creative's latest inspirational-moribund copycat we also throw surrepticious and furtive glances at our Apple neighbour's model. Phew... thank goodness it's only a third generation... that one's still got buttons at the top and not on the wheel itself...

Personally I'm not worried just yet... my 5G video's still top of the range and designer case will keep it on the rush hour catwalk for a few more years. It's still a bit strange how I'm already accepting that this will just be the first in a line I'll own as more features, storage and style aare squeezed into its shiny svelte lines.

I do enjoy the possibilities: one moment I was watching a clip of the Kurama Fire Festival near Kyoto from a podcast, now I'm writing this to a soundtrack of KLF's 'Last Train to Transcentral'.

It's clear I'm not the only one out and about and enjoying the possibilities.

One final note to my future kids: by the time you read this, the original 1st generation iPod I've just invested in will be worth a fortune...

The Ice Bar cometh

2006-02-02T14:44:00.000Z

Let's see if I can write this without describing it as cool, how we chilled out or any other ice-related pun...

I'd heard about, read about and even sort of knew where the London Ice Bar was but it took Angela's pre-Christmas visit and invite for me to experience this Lapland Ice Hotel-inspired bar on the edge of Mayfair for myself.

More an attraction, an experience than a place to ch.... relax; your £12 entry fee gives you 45 minutes in the freezer (that doesn't count, it's a valid metaphor) and an Absolut vodka cocktail, literally over ice given the glass is made out of the stuff. And, as per the shampoo adverts, here's the science bit: because the ice is so cold it doesn't stick to your lips.

Nor does it freeze your fingers as the hefty fleecy poncho-style puffa jacket placed over your head as you enter has gloves attached to it... as one of our ex-JET party had to point out to the rest of us, intruders included.

It was almost a year to the day that I first shared a drink with Yamaguchi JETs, including Angela, in Japan. Ironic that the Ice Bar was almost as cold as Japan was this time last year. Campai!

Anyway, back to the icy inspiration of my awe: the bar itself. Designed to be remodelled during the year, the walls are apparently made from the water of a river in Norway. Everything else: the scupltures, the bar itself, the tables and seats are also only solid because of the refrigerator shell on the other side of the wall.

Despite this whimsy and curious-cum-revolutionary intentions of staying beyond our permitted time slot by 35 minutes in we'd drunk our complimentary drinks, taken photos, soaked up the arctic atmosphere and were read to leave.

It's only a small place but has a huge novelty factor. Between the shock of the cold and eventual numbing of digits a couple of vodka shots helps melt away the days' troubles.

Oh, so close.

Escape to the city

2006-01-27T23:06:00.000Z

Many city-dwellers look forward to a weekend's escape from the hustle & bustle, tourists & traffic for the rolling fields & cowpats of the countryside. Not me.

I'm spending all bloomin' week in a delightful little village called Sedlescombe. Delightful in the sense of a nice place to visit, to buy a postcard, have a pint... and then get the hell out of. This place is renowned for its wine (essential to get drunk on while you're there), golf (the most exciting thing to do other than the wine) and for once making the best gunpowder in Europe (well, fill in the caustic comment for yourself as to what they should do with it).

Don't get me wrong... it's picturesque, peaceful and pretty. But I'm there 4 nights a week, without a car, without my social trapezoid and without escape. Until Friday nights. After two hours on a train, lost in playlists and oblivious to the obscure little villages skimming past I arrive at Waterloo East.

Between Waterloo East and Waterloo there's a downwards escalator and the sight while standing on the right was uplifting: a packed, hectic, purposeful station and society. Ah, heaven. Home.

A new angle

2006-01-04T14:54:00.000Z

There's nothing to renew interest in London more than having a visitor especially one visiting for the first time as Angela did, all the way from Dallas, for a few days before Christmas.

A few days which would otherwise have probably been fairly mundane and domestic were replaced by trips to the London Eye (yes, again, but a new angle or revelation on the skyline every time) and the National & Tate Modern galleries (guiltily more in two days than in the previous two months).

Her visit also provided the opportunity for a fresh look at British cuisine: Cornish pasties and fish & chips. I usually try and take advantage of London's multiculturalism for my socialising sustinence so this was a bit of a change. High Tea and the S&M Cafe (a joke I'm sure I should have teased my visitor with a little longer) will have to wait until next time.

And no, I haven't forgotten about the Ice Bar... to be continued...

Anti Social Behaviour Odours

2005-12-18T22:34:00.000Z

One of the few things that's bugged me about Wimbledon over the last couple of years is the mess of kids and bus stops littering the entrance to the Centre Court shopping centre and the railway station. There's not enough space to get past and it's a focal point for trouble... or at least it was.

Two weeks ago something changed. A stepped area to the right of this picture, which once upon a time probably had a water feature, was refurbished with plants. Plants in December?!

The next morning... is that the drains? Returning the following evening... the exact same place? I'm fairly certain now that we have deliberately-stinky plants and only the bunged-up and chav scattering aroma now lingers there. Genius.

End of the road

2005-12-14T08:07:00.000Z

I've been wearing my metaphorical black armband for a couple of days now, mourning, since the passing of a true London icon. No more squeezing up the stairs, ducking your head, (literally) winding down the window, pulling the rope, leaping off the platform at traffic lights... the last red Routemaster bus has run its course.

No longer will this most famous of the capital's landmarks, recognised around the world, take fare-paying passengers on anything other than 'heritage routes'.

A number of reasons were given for this change:

they were too old, exceeding their operational life by 100% (they've been more reliable than the flash computers on wheels that have replaced them)
too expensive and unnecessary to have conductors on board (just as the number of British Transport Police on board buses has had to increase thanks to attacks and assaults)
no disabled access (a point I take and appreciate... but at the same time this unique design made it fast and easy for the vast majority - surely there could have been a third way?)
dirty and environmentally unfriendly (okay, you have got me there... but a Hyrdogen fuel cell Routemaster... hmmm... that would have been an impressive fusion of heritage and forward-thinking)

Impressive steps have been taken over the last few years with London buses... the new ones are clean, accessible, pleasant and quick. But couldn't there have been a compromise? Londoners deserve better than for the beloved Routemasters to be restricted to mobile museum duties.

A different kind of London Fog

2005-12-11T19:56:00.000Z

Even 30-odd miles away the air this evening smells and tastes acrid.

Even at 2pm in South West London the sky darkened as though dusk.

Most of Greater London is now feeling the effect of the largest explosion in Europe since the second world war.

Feeling Customer Incident-al

2005-12-05T16:52:00.000Z

You can tell it's getting closer to Christmas just thanks to the tube delays. And before you think it's snowflakes or reindeer on the line, today's mind-numbing waits on the Northern Line were due to a 'Customer Incident'. Which I think is this year's code for someone jumped in front of a train.

It's usually someone who can't afford to buy Christmas presents and has therefore shattered their family's end to the year... as well as spreading a little annoyance to a few thousand commuters today.

Quack

2005-11-14T19:37:00.000Z

A few weeks ago I stumbled across the London Wetland Centre near Barnes; I say stumbled... I was on one of those exploratory walks which just happened to take me further than I'd intended when I set out several hours earlier.

Nestled in one of the Thames' west London bulges this former grey field sight now teams with birdlife with visitors flocking to hide out with binoculars, cameras and children of varying levels of interest and energy getting in a flap. Ironically it sits just up the road from Heathrow and therefore right below the frequently migrating man-made birds: their booming squark one of the few reminders that you're still in London. Aside from them it really is surprinsingly serene.

Sadly my stumbling was too late in the day to have a proper gander at the place but I dare say I'll make a deliberate attempt to get back to nature, just a few hundred yards from the Hammersmith flyover, sometime next year.

(Anti) American Grafitti

2005-11-08T00:44:00.000Z

It's unusual to see any grafitti other than tags scarred into the landscape these days: the occasional mural although most of those seem to be sponsored by some desperate local council or multinational attempting a limp reach out to the kids and to stem the tide of freelance etchings and taggings.

Political graffiti is fairly rare though: ironic since graffiti's main role throughout the world has been for freedom of expression and covert denouncements of totallitarian regimes rather than to massage over-inflated egos in their over-inflated puffa jackets. It's sort of akin to the sad IT consultant types doing paintballing on a Sunday to latch onto a feel of combat on our (largely) war-free streets.

Anyhow, came across this on the train the other night; whatever your views of US & UK presence in Iraq I couldn't help a wry smile.

Battersea Park fireworks

2005-11-06T00:10:00.000Z

Running late

2005-11-05T11:33:00.000Z

My thanks to the eagle-eyed reader who spotted that the time in London was apparently ahead of the rest of the country. Appropriate perhaps but I've now fixed the errant clock on the right by doing a little HTML hack myself as it's obviously not intelligent enough to make the leap from BST to GMT itself.

Either that or someone slept in like they did at Ceefax. Now no-one knows how to programme the video as they've got used to it happening automatically.

The battle of London Bridge

2005-11-02T10:02:00.000Z

I don't do mornings. At least not wake-up 5.30s for 3 hour commute mornings. I still have terrified flashbacks to when I performed end-customer logistics for the daily dissemination of portable news repositories. The whole notion of alarm clocks is, well, just wrong as one reader might put it.

Today I had to work in Hastings which, by road or rail, is a hefty trek. Going by rail involved changing in London of course and being packed in with my commuting comrades. Or at least it would have done if it had been an hour later: when I started at 6.30 the train was as empty as other readers like their cinemas.

By London Bridge and 7.30 things had got decidedly busier. (7.30, I should still be asleep). Ah, London Bridge again. I haven't commuted out of London Bridge in over 2 years but how familiar it felt. Like visiting an old friend, able to pick up right where you left off, but determined not to overstay your welcome or the extent of your ability to reminisce.

Sure enough the troops left their transports and dutifully marched in close formation in matching uniform. Sure enough here I was going against the tide. As much as I dislike an AM commute into the big smoke there's a part of me that would like to join this band of brothers, that I'm retreating from the true London experience by constantly going in the opposite direction.

Looking around from my platform vantage point it's incredible how much the landscape is changing. The 'MoreLondon' development on the south bank between London Bridge and Tower Bridge continues to swell: a Hilton hotel soon joins the corporate headquarters of large accountancy firms and City Hall.

Interest in the vista is complemented by the usual musical coincidences. Shuffle on the iPod must be more intelligent than mere random. Coming up with the theme for this blog entry Frankie's 'Two Tribes' starts rousingly. As we're reminded that 24 hour surveillance is in operation a Hard-Fi track starts up ('Stars of CCTV' is the album for anyone not on the ball).

An hour and a half later I arrive at 'Battle'. And that's really the station and town name. Sadly no time to take in any sights or explore, I'm stuck with a laptop keeping my legs warm, excel spreadsheets to baffle me and a mobile phone clamped to my ear.

A very British Olympics

2005-10-28T08:57:00.000+01:00

Sadly it looks as though The Lost Decade season is coming to an end on BBC 4 however there are still some clips on the website and some of the most fascinating relate to a programme I was lucky enough to catch called 'A very British Olympics'.

This tells the story of the 1948 Olympics, the last time they were held in London. But this was a London still half in ruins where the athletes were housed in rapidly-converted POW camps, made their own sandwiches and, in the case of the female British team, made their own kit.

Fascinating stuff, true blitz spirit. If that's what London was able to do in 1948 then 2012 should rock.

London fogcutter

2005-10-18T19:11:00.000+01:00

An honorary mention for the Tiki Bar... and Lala (one of the presenters) in particular. Tiki Bar TV is a video podcast... ah, first principles for some readers...

Podcasts are essentially radio shows that you can subscribe to through applications like iTunes: whenever you connect to the internet the latest episode of the show is downloaded to your PC and to your iPod if you have one. That way you can listen to the show whenever you want.

Video podcasts take this to the next level and are mini videos that can be subscribed to and played in the same way, especially if you have one of the new video-capable iPods. The great thing about audio and video podcasts is that anyone with a small amount of kit can create and distribute these things. Campy FM going global anyone?

Tiki Bar TV is one such video podcast; I've only seen one episode so far where they teach you how to mix a 'London fogcutter' cocktail, hence the honorary mention here, but I think I could become hooked. If you've got iTunes (the latest version 6) and a broadband connection hop over to the iTunes Music Store and look for it within the Podcasts section. The London Fogcutter episode is hilarious.

Notting Hell

2005-08-28T09:59:00.000+01:00

See what I did there? Clever, eh?

No-one ever says they dislike Carnival. It's held up on a pedestal as Europe's largest street party, as an example of London's diversity, as a good time.

I seem to have been more times than not and always come away feeling it's not really for me. The music is great but I've too short an attention span to stick around in one place. The food is fantastic but I'm never usually peckish at the right time. The parade itself? nnyeh, well... the costumes are impressive but everything else seems a bit half hearted. Most of the floats are either plain trucks with sound systems or overly corporate vehicles.

Whether it's Europe's largest street party or not I could certainly understand it being the busiest. The crowded, narrow streets of W11 channel a one-way flow of frustrated and often angry people from questionable vantage point to dubious vantage point. This agressive undercurrent results in pushing and shoving at the best of times; knife attacks at the worst of times.

How about diversity? Diverse, yes but it's by no means a multicultural festival: the token white Notting Hill resident in lavish sparking yellow lycra suit fools nobody. I wonder how representative the parade through the window is of those behind the windows these days? A great Caribbean festival but let's not steal Festival's thunder and misguidedly hijack it as 'London's party'.

Once you've negotiated the tube closures, road blocks, impossible meeting places and the thousands of other people jostling to see the Emperors' new clothes it's not really a good time. It's a curiosity, an attraction to which I'll always feel like a tourist. And if I'm going to be a tourist I'd rather go to Rio.

Building the bypass

2005-08-23T13:33:00.000+01:00

There's a line from 'The Men from the Ministry' radio comedy where the Department of Transport had found a wide wiggly road going straight through the middle of London ripe for converting to 6 lanes. It turned out to be the Thames of course. It does look, however, that boats are finally gaining in popularity drawing commuters away from the capital's clogged arteries of roads and underground tunnels.

Only a short while ago plans were announced for a new trial service from Woolwich, soon to undergo huge development and investment, to the 'new city' of Canary Wharf and Docklands. It's just one of the iniatives following gradually increasing numbers on sleak, fast catamarans without congestion charges or signal failures.

It's still a crime how little the Thames is used and although I'm under no illusions about the prospect of hailing a boat a la Shakespeare in Love any time soon: the chances of any boat passing under a bridge as you walk over it are slight. There's also the financial squeeze: on the one side usage isn't at the point where operators can make it economic without subsidy and on the other prices are much higher than other public transport, the travelcard only gives you a small discount etc.

A shame I don't live right by the river or work in the City or Canary Wharf: cruising to and from work every day would be the coolest way to commute until I can afford the helicopter.

Number 57

2005-08-16T10:37:00.000+01:00

I wonder if every street of London has a Number 57?

I live on a fairly nice street in South West London: the well-maintained Victorian houses stand proud in their red brick and stone, their owners realising by now the value of their castles in 2005. All seem to take good care of them as a result with manicured front gardens, tasteful driveways and the occasional sympathetic extension. All except one. Number 57.

The facade and garden wall are painted in a thick white with occasional use of yellow and purple near the windows. Those same windows are falling apart and the curtains behind mere rags. The downstairs extension roof is a piece of corrugated steel that wouldn't look out of place on a farm - the pig sty, for example. The worst bit is that there's always, always bags of rubbish half divided between the normal household stuff and junk stuffed into Sainsburys carrier bags.

I can't honestly say that there's no NIMBYism creeping in here, although I daresay I'd have more to complain about if I lived nearby rather than down the road. It's more the waste... the waste of a beautiful house where similar sized properties, replete with water features, are easily fetching over a million.

Isn't this a waste for the owner too? Sitting on all this money and letting it fall down around them either through choice or because they feel they don't have a choice? For goodness sake, if you've got a house of that stature take advantage of the ridiculously high London property values rather than living in squalour.

7 years and counting

2005-07-27T11:52:00.000+01:00

High visibility

2005-07-22T18:30:00.000+01:00

A cursory glance at most news websites and almost every picture seems to feature luminous yellow police jackets.

Sounds like we had our own MetPD Blue this morning with armed plain clothes officers chasing a suspect, possibly complete with suspect belt, down onto a tube platform and cornering him on a train before "unloading five shots into him" if one eyewitness is to be believed.

We're constantly bombarded with action thrillers, gritty police dramas so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that even the simplest of descriptions conjurs up an almost movie-like scene: I can almost hear the hard edged jazzy soundtrack and see the camera pans. Sure we're used to uniformed police in the Square Mile, at Heathrow and on guard at Westminster but never a dynamic, plain-clothed, automatic pistol-drawn chase down into the capital's underground arteries. It's probably the most disturbing scene that carriage of people will ever see.

I return home this evening having again been detached from events in the leafy Hampshire countryside and am fully expecting another strong visible police presence at stations. Again, it's hard to put into words how commanding and aggressive the response has been from the Met & British Transport Police: not at all the image needed or displayed on a 'normal day' which makes it even more impressive.

Extreme dismay

2005-07-21T14:25:00.000+01:00

Two weeks on and it looks like some other nutters have decided to try and blow themselves up... and they can't even do that right. Apparently "the man who was holding the rucksack looked extremely dismayed".

Well that just says it all, doesn't it brother? Perhaps you should test the detonators when you next meet the rest of your al Qaeda mates?

Coverage: Sky News, BBC News

Lost in Victoria

2005-07-18T09:04:00.000+01:00

Despite London being my home I felt somewhat disorientated while waiting at Victoria for a visitor the other weekend.

It is truly the London terminal. Waterloo International may have more stylish clientelle, Heathrow the more cosmopolitan jetset but this is the nuts and bolts of international travel in and out of London even in 2005. Not once did I see a Greenline bus at the Victoria Greenline station; some were National Express, others Megabus (the Ryanair of the roads and now dubbed 'Maybe Bus' given that Saturday's performance) but the vast majority seemed to be Czech or Polish coaches.

We don't make it easy for our visitors though: a vast sprawling railway terminus, underground station, bus station and two coach stations. Overheard one 'Glastonbury type' looking for Gate 9 and did my good deed for the day pointing out there wasn't a Gate 9 at the Victoria Greenline coach station and that she needed to be at Victoria Coach Station.

However such confusion wasn't the reason for my feeling lost: I can do transport logistics in a jot! Perhaps it was the unfamiliarity of coach travel or of the demographic. The occasional swarm of backpacks, the diesel engine bass line and the cigarette fumes: stocking up before a long trip.

Victoria knows and exploits the demographic though: fast food hall hell, the poshest place being a Cafe Rouge cringingly pronounced 'Rowge' by a couple of middle aged (English) women. Little cafes are also set to extract the last bit of sterling by charging £2.50 for a fruit juice: a final kick in the back pocket from the UK.

That Saturday was mad in the capital anyway with Live8, various marches, tennis finals etc. Maybe that added to the lost feeling. I'm still convinced for the need for an exam before anyone steps foot on the busy streets of London: Escalator and Pavement Etiquette 101 would be a good start.

Moving on

2005-07-11T11:31:00.000+01:00

At the moment I don't have to use the Tube for work: as much as I love it and in spite of its faults it's not a pleasnt place with an OD of company. In the summer it's hot down there and in the winter, well, it's hot down there. Last Friday I used it for the first time since the events of Thursday. Eerie it was too.

Virtually empty the Tube cars clattered and rattled against rail, reverberating against the claustrophobic tunnel walls to a crescendo. Passengers usually avoid any kind of eye contact but this time people connected longer than for it to be a momentary lapse in concentration.

Some journalists have suggested this is out of fear or suspicion: is that man a suicide bomber, does that bag belong to her? I disagree. I think people needed some recognition, some non-verbal reassurance from their fellow Londoners of shared feeling and respect: not to the level of a smile or a nod, just an instinctive and brief link. In the aftermath of July 7th Londoners have (temporarily?) lost their social commuting tunnel vision.

In the attempt to terrorise us the bombers have actually prompted a resurrection of blitz spirit and community: it may not show its self for much longer in everyday commuting but in one way that's the whole defiant point and it demonstrates that such spirit is still there 60 years on.

Proud

2005-07-08T18:45:00.000+01:00

I live in the greatest city in the world. I know this when I see Ken's drained & emotional speech in Singapore, interviews with Rudy Gulianni (ironically in London & just a short distance away from one of the explosions) and, most importantly, the response & attitude of fellow Londoners and the emergency services.

My mood may have been dented since Wednesday but my pride certainly hasn't.

Time to mourn and move on.

The journey home

2005-07-07T20:41:00.000+01:00

Tubes not running, only a limited service on the buses and travel to London on the train being discouraged on every tannoy and electronic sign. A few reflections on the way back to Wimbledon...

Having not been there today I'm not in the best position to comment but I've picked up an overwhelming sense of how well the 'authorities' have dealt with today's events, with the possible exception of communication on the trains involved but no change there.

People have been evacuated quickly, police and emergency services on the scene and in the sky in abundance. To give the general public their due there seems have been an impressive level of calm: a sense of shock but not surprise.

The nightmare scenario that's been painted for the capital since 9/11 is that we wouldn't be able to cope. Though today may be no 9/11 whoever's done the emergency procedures and has been managing today's events has done the capital proud. The only confusion was this morning as events were still unfolding i.e. when no-one knew what had actually happened and hearsay rant rampant online.

This evening I noticed the station clear plastic rubbish bags that replaced the litter bins at the height of the IRA bombing campaign have quietly gone. Information about what services were working was clear and available. At every station I passed there were local police at the exits to record any eyewitness accounts from people returning from the City.

There was a somber silence from fellow passengers: no tinny iPods, no raucous laughter, no screaming into mobile phones. Everyone was thinking about the same thing. In adversity comes unity and that's why attacks like this won't succeed.

As I boarded my train the heavens opened.

Many happy returns

2005-07-07T15:12:00.000+01:00

The web is already full of comments of lucky escapes from those caught up in this morning's bomb attacks.

A friend of mine 'reported in' an hour or so ago. She'd been stuck on the tube behind the one that was attacked at King's Cross and had to evacuate the station along with injured and be-sooted fellow passengers. She then walked down to Holborn to catch a bus to her eventual Liverpool Street destination. Of course she didn't realise that only minutes earlier a device had been detonated on a bus just up the road near Russell Square.

She's now literally stuck in the office with no way to get home yet. Happy Birthday.

R U OK?

2005-07-07T13:41:00.000+01:00

I've never had so many text messages, email round robbins and voicemails as I have in the last few hours. A demonstration of social engineering and email capacity as mailing lists are hijacked or hastily put together to check whether friends and family are ok, are caught up in the mêlé or have a story to tell.

I've been guilty of initiating such checks myself although possibly not to the manic extreme of some others nearby: London's a big place even for a big disaster and the result of everyone jumping on a mobile phone has been to cripple the network and raise greater panic. Perhaps we should all have an 'I'm OK' button on our phones to reassure those who might be worried automatically.

Between personal messages and eyewitness accounts we probably knew more than Blair did when he was on TV at midday. No doubt the background will unfold over the next few hours and days.

July 7th?

2005-07-07T10:53:00.000+01:00

Last night's jubilation has been replaced with trepidation. First the reports said there had been a power surge (shutting down the entire tube network!), the next there are bombs ripping apart double decker buses and buildings being evacuated left, right and centre. Sometimes I'm not sure whether this instant but unconfirmed news is a good thing.

No-one seems to be certain what's happened or what's happening. Watch this space: it's all I'm doing at the moment tucked away safely in deepest darkest Hampshire.

The finish line

2005-07-06T23:35:00.000+01:00

The gold medal... the only medal. What can I say? I could analyse how London came to deserve and win the right to stage the Olympics in 2012 but I'm not going to.

Firstly because I'm still on such a high and secondly because that high led me to one or two celebratory drinks this evening.

Midday came and there was a painful, anxious knot in my stomach: I was so nervous as result time approached, hitting the 'reporter blog' on the BBC News website every minute or so in between tweaking my Excel spreadsheet.

12:46 passed and by now the website had ground to a halt with not a TV or radio in sight. A few minutes later someone's phone rang and a whispered 'London' provoked cheers and applause that rippled around the nearby offices. My busy, serious day was put on hold temporarily.

I made phone calls, sent texts, hugged one particular colleague who was walking my way as I'd gone looking for her.

'Ecstatic' is a word rather overused today but there are few other words that describe how I've felt since the result. I'm thrilled, shocked and very very proud to wear my London2012 lapel badge this evening.

London, taking on the role of the traditional British underdog, has done good. What an honour, an opportunity, a responsibility.

Spontaneity

2005-07-02T20:21:00.000+01:00

Funny how you stumble onto the most fantastic, unexpected (and therefore even more fantastic) experiences in London. Here's my top 5 so far:

gate-crashing the VIP opening night of the Tate Modern thanks to confident attitude and appropriate modern artist attire of jogging bottoms and T-shirt
browsing through HMV and finding that Kosheen were about to do a promotional live set and being front of the queue
walking across Hungerford Bridge with a friend and being presented with the most amazing fireworks display I've ever seen: completely free at the side of the Thames
going to a gig in Clapham on the last night of a tour and ending up in someone's front room for an extra set
winning a trip to a concert at the top of the BT tower at the last minute and realising what a breathtaking sight the capital is at night

Déjà Viewed

2005-06-29T09:54:00.000+01:00

The novelty of hearing the thunder outside followed by the thunder on the TV from the Wimbledon Championships still hasn't worn off.

Last weekend when the Heathrow flight paths switched to Wandsworth you could tell whether we were on the landing approach or take-off route by whether you heard the plane on the TV or outside first: was take-off on this occasion!

Obvious and unremarkable perhaps but brings a new dimension to interactive TV.

Living in a suitcase

2005-06-26T09:58:00.000+01:00

Friends from outside the capital rarely believe me when I tell them how it's nigh on impossible to buy a house or flat in the capital for less than a couple of hundred thousand pounds. Apologies: I've been misleading you.

For example, take this place in North London that can be yours for £160,000 assuming it gets planning permission. A full 8ft wide bargain.

If southeast London is your thing then maybe this is more suitable. It may look like a garage, it may be a garage but it's only £50,000.

Alternatively you can grit your teeth, defy the London property beast and try not to flinch as the council tax bills and reports of house price crashes around the corner come in. Besides, even at half current market prices we could get at least another bedroom anywhere else in the country.

But then I'm confused: barely a week goes by when there's not a story about either the population swelling or the emigration of Londoners to the home counties. They can't both be right.

One thing I'm sure about though: despite paying over the odds and salaries not fully compensating just being here still makes it worthwhile.

SW19

2005-06-21T23:35:00.000+01:00

Love Wimbledon

It's that time of year when the world's greatest tennis tournament comes to my postcode.

The town fills up, the Village roads clog up and Maria Sharapova posters adorn once-tame and formerly-forgettable billboards. As Hertz-branded cars errr 'zoom' past you try to catch a glance of the latest Russian sensation or British best hope.

Fantastic though it is to see the place buzzing and the queues forming the night before the All England Club complex is dead the rest of the year. I run past there regularly and most of the time it's a shrine, a temple to these two holy weeks; but what a two weeks. Watching the world looking in on SW19, the tennis groupies filling the trendy bars of the Village and the smug people having got tickets through the ballot makes it all worth while.

Speaking of which... looking forward to my first visit to the show courts in a week or so...

The word on the street

2005-06-17T22:05:00.000+01:00

I had the misfortune to have to venture down Oxford Street the other day, a street which was a tourist attactions in it's own right, a shopping shangri-la when I wasn't a Londoner. Has it changed or has my migration to the capital changed my view?

These days you have to run the gauntlet of language school pimps, clearance shops and buses that take longer to traverse Marble Arch to Tottenham Court Road than an asthmatic ant with heavy bags. I say 'run the gauntlet' but of course that in itself would be unwise with the uneven pavements, meandering visitors and advertising obstacles.

Having just returned from Paris my temporary lack of patriotism is only because I've got London's best interests at heart! The Champs Elysees is wide, clean and tree-lined. Oxford Street is narrow, dirty with the occasional bench. But who in their right mind would want to sit down unless they were already about to die from the diesel fumes?

I'm sure most Londoners try and avoid the place too unless their life depended on it (John Lewis and Selfridges for example). The Oxford Street Association often mentions the odd nip, the occasional tuck there. It doesn't need cosmetic surgery, it needs resucitation. Some radical schemes have been proposed including a tram or monorail: don't discuss it in a committee, do it and pedestrianise the rest before everyone emigrates to Bluewater and leaves London's main shopping artery for dead.

Array of wind

2005-06-09T20:23:00.000+01:00

You are now entering the Thames estuary

By 2011 and with £1.5bn London could be receiving a quarter of it's electricity (1% of total UK consumption) from the 'London Array' of 270 wind turbines off the Essex and Kent coasts.

I'm no Greenpeace card-holding, tree-hugging environmentalist but I have become quite passionate about renewable energy and Kyoto and this is a fantastic step for the UK and, nominally, 'London'. The picture above is from Utgrunden in Sweden, one of several projects in the Nordics; provided not too many birds get sliced by the blades and captains of ships can avoid running into 270 300ft lit & bright white turbines (despite their radar having gone a bit 'fuzzy') it might be a reality here too.

Originally sceptical about the whole wind turbine thing I've been won over. Beautiful, majestic but thankfully not in my immediate back garden.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4617275.stm

The final straight

2005-06-06T23:42:00.000+01:00

London's Olympic Stadium?

Today London, Paris, New York, Madrid and Moscow round the final bend with hopefully our fair capital if not in the lead, then at least with a Dame Kelly Holmes finish in her. Today the IOC delivered their final appraisal of the bids for the 2012 Olympics before the voting and results in Singapore on July 6th.

Despite all my enthusiasm for the attempt I have to admit I was rather concerned that we were going to screw up when Barbara Cassani 'stepped down' but it appears the bid team have done themselves and the Big Smoke proud. Here we are: neck and neck on merit with Paris with a technically excellent submission and all we need now is three things:

One, we ship all the unpatriotic Londoners, bitter Brummies and moaning Mancunians off to France. For once and for all, the IOC have already said they wouldn't even consider a UK city other than London. The Midlands may be the heart of the country geographically but I'll take London's cultural, historical and emotional heart any day. I'm also sick of the tired argument that we could just spend the money on the NHS or something equally laudable. Using that logic though we'd never do anything to bring pride, inspiration and growth to the country.

Two, hopefully the IOC voters will want a bid that brings redevelopment and a lasting legacy, not that simply slots in to 15 year old stadiums. True, London has more to do than Paris and Athens very nearly cocked it up big time last year but so many of the plans coincide with what we're doing on the Channel Tunnel rail link and other projects. Besides the UK's not very good at capital projects (no pun intended) so it's a good excuse for us too.

Three, we have to avoid tripping and falling at the final hurdle. Please no strikes, wars or other such PR disasters. Our level of public support is depressingly British. While we can't do anything about Paris having bid recently or having a stadium or two up its sleave it'd be a shame to lose the greatest show on earth just because we couldn't be bothered or see beyond the end of our street.

You watch, Moscow will end up getting it now...

Bad reception

2005-06-03T08:27:00.000+01:00

One of the few remaining sanctuaries from mobile phones is being desecrated. London Underground are finally going ahead with the installation of transmitters in the deep line stations enabling hundreds of thousands of commuters to shout 'I'm on the train' in tiny little tube carriages and denying them the excuse that 'I'm about to go into a tunnel'.

It's fair to say that I like my modern technology but mobile phones are bad enough on normal surface trains where the background noise is high enough for callers to respond by shouting into their crazy-frogged lump of plastic. What's it going to be like during the morning peak on the Northern Line with the echoes of tunnels 100 metres underground? Angrier stares, violence, carnage, death: that's what.

About five years ago a survey by the then London Transport showed overwhelming opposition to such a plan. Excuse my cynicism when last year's straw polls by the cash-strapped Transport for London showed the opposite. Who were these people? I doubt they were regular tube users....

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/18977544?source=Evening%20Standard

Village people

2005-05-25T10:18:00.000+01:00

Amongst the otherwise conquering conurbation there are still pockets of residential resistance in what can only be described as 'villages'. Visiting Highgate last night revealed art galleries, chocolatiers and second hand bookshops rather than the usual high street chains and kebab shops... although I notice that not even Highgate Hill has escaped the onslaught of the Tesco Metro war machine.

Wimbledon village is similar: a proper bakers, florists and butchers all of which are usually pushed, processed and packaged into supermarket counters throughout most of London.

These village havens, further defined by tree lined avenues and prestige cars, are protected by a scattering of parks and inherited land values. From Highgate Hill you can look down on the vast sprawling capital in more ways than one.

State of the arts

2005-05-22T14:45:00.000+01:00

Caravaggio at the National Gallery

Either it's a new trend or I'd just never paid it much attention in the past but London galleries seem to experiencing something of a renaissance thanks to headline-grabbing exhibitions.

This week Caravaggio at the National drew to a close drawing in box office queues more akin to an FA Cup final than a display of fine art. Quota-controlled, time-stamped tickets required clamoring visitors to do a day of shopping, sightseeing or, at the very least, take a Gallic-style luncheon before returning to see 16 or so exquisite paintings.

I still prefer my Turners, Whistlers and Monets at the Tate a couple of months ago which also brought rock concert profile and critical acclaim.

It would be all too easy to overlook those galleries' main collections, most of which London is blessed with free access to. I guess even the art world needs a little hype to bring in the punters.

London calling

2005-05-19T22:22:00.000+01:00

In the twilight of its life?

Do I kick off my London blog by talking about a cannister of CS gas being set off at a tube station or the news that the London Eye, the most inspired and popular tourist attraction in the capital for a generation, has been threatened with an eviction notice?

Yes another day brings another security scare and another crazy planning scenario, both of which were probably met by the populous with little surprise and a slight shake of the head.

This time it was 'just' CS gas and in an above-ground underground station, not the subterranean toxic terrorist attack Londoners are conditioned to expect these days. As for the Eye, well it's probably, and hopefully, just a cynical attempt to extract a higher rent. What a crime if this 135metre icon of the south bank and of the city was forced to up and move?

The craziness begins here.