The cricket season (the centrepiece of which will be England retaining the Ashes) is in full swing – the current commentary match on Sports Extra is Durham v Yorkshire and Durham are enjoying a late revival after a day that had largely gone against them.
Today’s look at the London Underground 150th Anniversary books focusses on the East London Line. While conceding that Gert Jonkers and Jop van Bennekom had the toughest job in that the East London Line offers the least scope for finding things to write about I still consider their effort (Buttoned-Up) to be quite abysmal. Two obvious topics that could have been used are the tunnel between Rotherhithe and Wapping which started life as Brunel’s Thames Tunnel, which could then lead on to more about the Brunels and the University which now bears their name, and the changing nature of the East London Line from a run-down and largely neglected line serving a similar area to it’s current state.
Also, Wapping being on this line opens up the possibility of something about the print unions and the Murdoch press.
Fortunately, I received the letter featured in the photograph below after I had been at Seetec and told my caseworker not to worry about it, so I was able to give it the response it deserved: laughter. If it began: “Dear Grandmother, here is an egg….” it could be no more ridiculous than it actually is:
