Twitter Following Approaches 2,500

INTRODUCTION

As well as my title piece, I have some pictures and some links to share, and a small section about the Great Centenary Charity Auction, and some photos. I hope that you enjoy this post enough to share it.

TWITTER FOLLOWING APPROACHES 2,500

My personal twitter following currently stands at 2,496. When I set up my personal twitter account back in late October, after some six months administrating the account of the Great Centenary Charity Auction (@great_auction) I had little idea that it would prove quite so successful.

THE GREAT CENTENARY CHARITY AUCTION

The first Great Centenary Charity Auction, held on June 28th, raised in excess of £20,000. A second is planned for March 2016. It is for this reason that a series of posts are being put out on the official website, www.greatcharity.org advertising successes from the first auction to build for the second. The full series of such posts runs as follows:

1)Lot 101

2)Commando Knife Cuts The Mustard At Auction

3)RFC Uniform Flies High At Auction

4)Another Success Clocked Up At The Great Centenary Charity Auction

5)British War Medal Brings In Big Money At Auction

I have already mentioned the twitter account, and there is also a facebook page, www.facebook.com/GreatAuction which I urge people to like.

A PHOTOGRAPHIC INTERLUDE

TWO FINAL LINKS

Although these form the end of this post, they are very important:

1)A Belfast Telegraph about the shooting a bird of an extremely endangered species that had been adopted by a school.

2)An account of how a secular student society in Manchester had its entire website deleted shortly after receiving an ominous communication from Saudi Arabia.

Special Post: Victoria

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the latest installment in my series “London Station by Station“. I hope that you will enjoy this post and be encouraged to share it.

THE ULTIMATE IN TRANSPORT NODES

A SOUPCON OF HISTORY

Victoria Underground station first opened as part of the Metropolitan District Railway in 1868. The construction of this of the system was combined with the building of the Victoria Embankment, and was designed and overseen by Joseph William Bazelgette who was also responsible for the design of London’s sewer system. Peter Bazalgette, the TV producer who has a bridge programme from the 1980s to his credit and Big Brother to his debit is a great-great nephew of Joseph William.

The infighting between the Metropolitan District (now the District line) and it’s supposed senior partner the Metropolitan meant that the Inner Circle (now the Circle line), the other line to serve these platforms was not completed until 1884.

In spite of giving its name to the line in question, Victoria was not one of the original Victoria line stations, opening as part of the second of three tranches in 1969, before the final section from Victoria to Brixton opened in 1971.

A PHILATELIC DIGRESSION

One of the quirks of the Victoria line is that every station features a pattern o a picture of some sort used as a motif. The pattern used at Victoria, is based on one of the most famous items to feature a picture of Queen Victoria, the 2d blue postage stamp. I do not have a picture of the London Underground pattern based on it to hand, but this was lot 682 in James and Sons’ May auction…

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THE TRANSPORT HUB

Victoria is the most used station on the entire London Underground network. In excess of 60 million passenger journeys per year start or finish at this station. Victoria is a major train station, serving a wide variety of destinations to the South and East of London, including running the Gatwick Express, which connects to London’s second busiest airport. There is at the moment a bitter rivalry between Gatwick and Heathrow over who will get a new runway. My own view? Neither – do not build the thing at all – instead encourage people away from aeroplanes.

In addition to the train services there is Victoria Coach Station, from which you can reach most parts of the country, although some of the journey times are very long.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC FINALE

As usual for these posts I have some map pictures…

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Special Post: Balham

A personal account of Balham Station, with some photographs and a link to an important petition about photography.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the latest post in my series “London Station by Station“. I hope that you will enjoy this post and be encouraged to hare it.

BAL-HAM: GATEWAY TO THE SOUTH

This is one of the stations designed by Charles Holden and opened in 1926 when the Northern line was extended south to Morden (the southernmost point on the system, a mere 10 miles south of the centre of London – by comparison, Amersham, the most far flung station on the current network is 27 miles out, and Brill, the furthest ever outpost of any line is 51 miles out).

I can provide pictures of both surface buildings and some blurb about the station itself in the form of two photos of stuff in the book Bright Underground Spaces…

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I do not usually share extraneous links in this series of posts, but connected with the photographs above is a petition that I signed and shared earlier, and which now has over 200,000 signatures – lets keep building it!

Although there are only five stations south of Balham on the Northern line, it is also a main-line railway station, and connects southwards to a number of destinations via three distinct routes, through Streatham Common, Streatham Hill and Hackbridge.

I made extensive use of Balham at one time, when I lived at Parklands Road and worked in New Malden, and it was easier to take a longer walk than strictly necessary and get a train to Clapham Junction, where I could change to another train for New Malden than to do anything else.

Also, given the the majority of it was through commons, the walk though long was quite a pleasant one.

To finish, as usual I have some map pics…

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Special Post: Triangle Sidings

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the latest post in my series “London Station by Station“. This one is a little bit of a departure from the standard because it takes in three separate stations. I hope that you will enjoy it and will be inspired to share it.

TRIANGLE SIDINGS

The triangle of the title has Gloucester Road, Earls Court and High Street Kensington at its corners. The first two stations are also served at tube level by the Piccadilly line. High Street Kensington and Gloucester Road both opened in 1868 under the aegis of The Metropolitan Railway. The first station was opened at Earls Court in 1871, and replaced with the present one in 1878. Both the Piccadilly stations were part of the original section of that line that opened in 1906.

The curve of track from Gloucester Road to High Street Kensington, now used exclusively by Circle line trains, plays a role in a Sherlock Holmes story, The Adventure of the Bruce Partington Plans, because at that time there were flats overlooking the line in that area, and Holmes was able to work out that the German agent Hugo Oberstein lived in one of them, and from that how the unfortunate Arthur Cadogan West had made his involuntary entrance to the underground system.

These days the land above triangle sidings is occupied by a Sainsbury;s supermarket.

The complexity of this section is largely down to Earls Court being the chief hub of the District line. Trains leave Earls Court going East to Upminster, North to Edgware Road, Northwest to Kensington Olympia, South to Wimbledon, West to Turnham Green, whence some services go south to Richmond and others continue West to Ealing Broadway. Platforms 1 and 2 carry trains to Upminster and Edgware Road, while all the other services, which for London Underground purposes are going in the opposite direction leave from platforms 3-4.

To finish this post I have some maps pics and a couple of photos from London Underground: The Official Handbook…

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Special Post: Aldgate and Aldgate East

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the latest post in my series “London Station by Station”. I hope you will enjoy this post and will be encouraged to share it.

A FOUR WAY TRIANGLE

I am treating two stations together because they are so close to one another that one can stand o the platforms of one and watch trains pulling into the other. The title refers to the number of current lines using this segment of the system and the shape it very roughly resembles. Aldgate opened in 1876 and has been open ever since. The first Aldgate East station opened in 1884 and was closed in 1938, with the current station opening the very next day.

The confluences and divergences are as follows: at Liverpool Street the triple route of Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines diverge, with the H&C going to Aldgate East and the other two to Aldgate, where the Met terminates. At Tower Hill the District and Circle part ways the Circle continuing round to Aldgate and the District going to Aldgate East where it joins the H&C.

To assist with orientation and to finish this brief post here are my usual map pics…

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King’s Lynn Transport Interchange

INTRODUCTION

This post deals with the redevelopment of my local bus station, a process which began in January, and has finally reached the stage at which all bus services will once again be departing from the bus station. You could therefore say that this is a celebration of the ending of one cause of disruptions.

THE NEW BUS STATION

APPROACHES TO KING’S LYNN

King’s Lynn is a splendid town, badly let down by the ways in which people approach it. Neither the bus station nor the train station drop people in particularly good locations, and the main approach by car, via London Road is not beautiful either. However, after almost six months of work and attendant disruption to services, at least the bus station now looks presentable. I will end this section with a link to a previous post about King’s Lynn and both sides of a new promotional document for the town…

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THE REDEVELOPMENT

Work started on the redevelopment on January 6th, but the big disruptions did not hit until March, when services heading south started departing from Portland Street and northbound buses made use of the only three stands still available at the bus station. In the week beginning on May 18th all was confusion (we had been warned about the following week), as northbound buses started making use of two of the new stands, which were ready for use but no one had thought to advertise this! The following week was the one week in which northbound buses did not depart from the bus station – they made use of Clough (pronounced Clow not Cluff) Lane instead.

Then it was back to the bus station for good, and eventually an announcement appeared stating that all services would resume running from the redeveloped bus station from June 29th (today). I thought to myself “I’ll believe that when I see it” but decided I would call in at the bus station just in case it did happen, and it had.

THE BUS STATION TODAY

I took various photographs to show what the bus station now looks like, including threeKing’s Lynn Transport Interchange from the car park above Sainsbury’s (the most elevation I could gain). I hope that you enjoy these photos, which will conclude the post, and that you will be inspired to share…

This departure board was the first novelty that greeted me.

The new guard fences at the new bays - interleaved pictures of the Custom House and Captain vancouver) — The new guard fences at the new bays – interleaved pictures of the Custom House and Captain vancouver)

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The board at stand D (I could not get a clear shot of the one at stand E which I shall actually be using).

The first of two shots of the frontage of the new Visitor's Centre — The first of two shots of the frontage of the new Visitor’s Centre

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A thoroughly modern map of King's Lynn — A thoroughly modern map of King’s Lynn

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Stand E, whence Fakenham buses will depart.

The first of three shots from such elevation as I could gain.

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Special Post: Southfields

INTRODUCTION

This is the latest post in a series I have been running on this blog called “London Station by Station“. This particular post as you will see has extra special relevance, and could only go up this morning. I hope you will enjoy it and be encouraged to share it.

THE HOME OF THE WORLD’S GREATEST TENNIS TOURNAMENT

Yes folks, Wimbledon is upon us once more. As usual, full coverage will be being provided by the BBC. Southfields, the third to last stop going south on the Wimbledon branch of the District line, opened in 1889 (so after William Renshaw’s seven titles) is the local station for these championships, as this reproduction of an old poster shows…

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As someone who grew up in South West London this tournament has particular meaning for me. I only got to see it at the venue once, but have always followed the tournament as closely as circumstances allow.

When I first started following the tournament in the mid 1980s a Brit in the second round was cause for banner headlines. These days things are rather different, although in the Men’s game there remains a veritable “Ginnunga Gap” between Murray and the next best Brit. Things are definitely looking up for British Women though, with Johanna Konta reaching the quarter-finals at Eastbourne last week and only going out to the eventual champion Belinda Bencic of Switzerland, and Heather Watson also playing well.

During the Eastbourne coverage, various displays showing people’s possible progress if all went to plan were shown, but I paid little attention because if I learned anything from 30 years of following tennis it is that one thing that does not happen is things going according to plan. If I was a betting person I would put money on at least one of the seeds being a goner by the end of day 1.

This stretch of line includes one of only two places where London Underground trains cross the Thames by way of a bridge (the other is on the Richmond branch of the District line).

As usual with these posts I finish with a couple of map pics…

A Day Out in Norwich 5: The Cathedral Close

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to my concluding post about a day out in Norwich that i enjoyed on Thursday. Previous posts about the day are as follows:

1)Introductory Post

2)Enter the Dragons

3)Lunch at the Belgian Monk

4)The River Wensum

I hope that you will enjoy this post and will be encouraged to share it.

THE CATHEDRAL CLOSE

It is unusual in the 21st century to find a Cathedral Close, but Norwich still has one, and there were many splendid things to photograph. The first of two dragons (note the title of the second post referred to above) was Biggles, the RAF dragon…

There are also two statues of famous warriors, Nelson and Wellington…

There were also many birds around…

Of course, in a place of this nature one would expect plenty of interesting old architecture, and such expectation was met…

This iron sculpture also appealed, as did this chance to include a dragon and a blackbird in the same shot…

My survey of the Cathedral Close began with one dragon and its with another, Norwich Serafina, the Norwich School Dragon…

A Day Out In Norwich 4: The Wensum

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to this, my fourth post about a family day out inn Norwich this Thursday. Previous posts about this day are:

1)Introductory Post

2)Enter the Dragons

3)Lunch at the Belgian Monk

I hope that you will enjoy this post and be encouraged to share it.

THE WENSUM

The Wensum is the river that flows through the centre of Norwich. There are many fine sights to be seen along its banks. Here is a view looking along one bank…

You will notice a boat in this shot, here is what it looks like closer up…

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Is there any information available about this riverside? You bet there is…

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You may have glimpsed a stone bridge in the first picture I showed. I have a close up of the centre portion and two shots showing how the smooth waters of the Wensum reflect it back…

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Here is the approach to river via Ferry Lane…

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Two pub signs on opposite sides of the river provide a fine contrast – one an unusual name in a plain style and one the commonest of all English pub names in a more elaborate style…

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After these signs we came to a decorative wooden seat…

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Now we come to the exraordinarily named Cow Tower, one of Britain’s oldest artillery placements, dating from 1398…

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Next, one for the swan fanciers…

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These water lilies made for decent picture…

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Two more closing shots for you, from just before we left the river for the last time…

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A Day Out In Norwich 2: Enter The Dragons

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to this, my second post about a family day out in Norwich which happened on Thursday. You may wish to check out the first post before proceeding. I hope you will enjoy this post and will be inspired to share it.

ENTER THE DRAGONS

Norwich has an affinity for large brightly coloured model animals. There have been elephants and monkeys/apes on display at various times. The latest thing is dragons, which will be sold off at auction to raise funds for Break, the children’s charity. There are apparently 84 full size dragons and over 120 baby dragons around Norwich.

I cannot pretend that we actually spotted that many, but we did see quite a few, starting with Flambeau, just after we had left the car

Our next sighting was while we were in Jarrold’s, the Norwich department store, who are sponsors of the project…

The Jarrold's dragon — The Jarrold’s dragon

We saw one more before lunch, just outside a shop I will not name but which sells clothing and is run by people without consciences…

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Post lunch, the dragon count really picked up, starting with Gogohoratio, a dragon with the head of a well known admiral who was born at Burnham Thorpe in Norfolk (although they gave him a full complement of eyes – which he famously did not have)…

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Next up was Steam the Clockwork Dragon of whom I got several shots…

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Our next encounter with a dragon was with Mosaic, whose name becomes understandable as soon as you get a close look…

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There were two dragons in the Cathedral Close, Biggles the RAF dragon and Serafina, the Norwich School dragon, made from pupil’s fingerprints, but I will be covering the Cathedral Close in a separate post, so the next dragon you will see is Daisy, the first we saw after leaving the Cathedral Close…

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Down by the Wensum, the river that flows through Norwich, was Raptorsfire…

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Our next dragon was glimpsed on the other side of the Wensum…

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Then came this one…

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The next dragon was this red-golden one…

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That was followed by a black dragon…

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The penultimate dragon we saw was this flint patterned chappy…

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Finally, the last dragon we managed to spot was this one…

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