Tag: Photography

Special Post: Baker Street

INTRODUCTION

This post is the fifth in a series I am running on this blog providing a station by station guide to London.

HISTORY, ASTRONOMY AND DETECTIVES

Baker Street was one of the original stations that opened in 1863 as The Metropolitan Railway, the world’s first underground public transport system, on January the 10th 1863. Those platforms, two of 10 at that station (the most on the entire system) to be served by underground trains, are still in service today, and have been restored to look as they would have done when first opened. Ironically, they are no longer served by the Metropolitan line, which uses two terminal and two through platforms just to the north of the originals, its tracks joining those of the Hammersmith and City and Circle lines just east of Baker Street. By way of explanation I turn to Douglas Rose’s London Underground: A Diagrammatic History


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The other two lines that serve this station are the Bakerloo and Jubilee lines. Baker Street is a division point between the old and new Jubilee lines – south of Baker Street is all new track, northwards old, dating from 1939, when it was opened as a branch of the Bakerloo, taking some of the strain of the Metropolitan by taking over services to Stanmore and assuming sole responsibility for intermediate stops between Baker Street and Finchley Road, and also between Finchley Road and Wembley Park. When the Jubilee opened in 1979 it comprised the old Stanmore branch of the Bakerloo and three stations south of Baker Street.

Reverting temporarily to the Metropolitan, those four platforms at Baker Street, from which trains go to a variety of destinations developed from what started as a single track branch going only as far as Swiss Cottage. It grew out of all recognition during the tenure of Edward Watkin, who saw the Metropolitan as a crucial link in his plan for a railway system to link his three favourite cities, London, Paris and Manchester. At one time, as my next picture shows, the Metropolitan went far beyond it’s current reach…

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Baker Street is home to Madame Tussaud’s and the London Planetarium, both of which merit a visit.

Of course, no post about Baker Street would be complete without something about it’s most famous ever resident, Mr Sherlock Holmes, consulting detective.

I am an avid fan of the great detective, having read all the original stories and many modern stories that feature the great detective. As well as owning a respectable collection of my own, I regularly borrow books about this subject from the libraries that I use…

A remarkable recent find.
A remarkable recent find.
The great originals.
The great originals
Some of my modern Holmes stories.
Some of my modern Holmes stories.

To end this post, along with my customary hopes that you have enjoyed it and that you will share it, a couple more maps, first a facsimile of the original Beck map of 1933 and then for comparison a facsimile of the 1926 Underground Map…

When Beck first produced a prototype of this map in 1931 his superiors thought that no-one would like it - but eventually they agreed to a trial of it in 1933, and now every public transport system in the world uses schematic diagrams of this type.
When Beck first produced a prototype of this map in 1931 his superiors thought that no-one would like it – but eventually they agreed to a trial of it in 1933, and now every public transport system in the world uses schematic diagrams of this type.

When Beck first produced a prototype of this map in 1931 his superiors thought that no-one would like it - but eventually they agreed to a trial of it in 1933, and now every public transport system in the world uses schematic diagrams of this type.

Auction and its Aftermath

INTRODUCTION

This is going to be one of my ‘interesting mixed posts’ as John P Ointon of notesfromthenorth recently described one, featuring my main body piece, links, infographics and photos.

AUCTION AND ITS AFTERMATH

James and Sons had their May auction this Wednesday just gone, at The Maids Head Hotel, Norwich and Thursday was therefore tied up with attending to tasks created by the auction. I made sure that my database was fully updated with details of people who had bid online, produced a word document containing a full list of all of these individuals for our records and also made a start on the press releases.

The auction day was marred by the fact that the venue was far too hot, and for much of the day we could not open any windows due the noise of roadworks going on outside. Nevertheless, there were some good moments, as there should have been given the quality of the stuff we had going under the hammer…

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The dog decides to sample the view from the auctioneers chair!
The dog decides to sample the view from the auctioneers chair!

There were two items which stood above all else, and gave the themes for my press releases, lot 218 a gold $20 coin in a sealed plastic box which having been estimated at £1,000 actually went for £1,800, and lot 251 a Waterloo medal, which was estimated at £1,500-2,000 and went for an eye-popping £4,700.

218 251FC

One the Thursday, while prepping the press releases I assembled a composite of all the images I had of the gold coin, and I will conclude this part of the post bu sharing the full gallery with you…

This is the composite image...
This is the composite image…
While this image and the next five are the component parts of that composite.
While this image and the next five are the component parts of that composite.

218 H2 218 218a 218b 218T

INFOGRAPHICS AND LINKS

First up, my one stand-alone infographic…

Hypocrisy Alert

A POST FROM AUTISM MOM

This wonderful post fully deserves a subsection to itself, and comes with some excellent infographics, which I have included here:

View Full Post

Autistic Learning Barriers Control 2

A WARM WELCOME TO MY LATEST NEW FOLLOWER

I have gained another new follower both for this blog and for my twitter account this morning, and I take this opportunity to share her latest blog post, a wonderful open letter to a fellow parent.

WIND POWER

Take Part Daily provided this superb feature on the possible future of wind power in the United States. As well as links to both the full post and the graphic I include a still of one part of the graphic:

1)The whole post.

2)Graphics

Wind Power

A FEW FINAL LINKS

I have three more links to share. First of all, this one from Vox Political on the DWP’s desperate attempts to avoid revealing what they obviously know will be a devastating truth. From Manchester comes this horrible story of a speeding motorist who killed someone, bragged about his speeding, and still only got sentenced to six years in jail. Finally, an important petition: El Salvador has one river still capable of providing it with clean drinking water, which will soon not be the case if one greedy mining company gets its way. I urge all of you to sign and share this petition.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Just before moving on to my final set of photographs I hope you have enjoyed this post, and if you have I urge you to share it. These last pics are all from a display in Fakenham Library…

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Special Post: Aldwych

An account of the now closed Aldwych branch of the Piccadilly line.

INTRODUCTION

This is the third post in a series I have recently started on this blog, covering London station by station. the first one on South Kensington fared well, but the real encouragement came from the second on Tooting Bec, which I had not had any expectations for, but which attracted several likes (more than the place itself ever has then!). Therefore I am making my most ambitious effort of the series so far…

ALDWYCH: A STORY OF FAILURE

Aldwych, on a side branch of the Piccadilly line, south from Holborn, opened in 1907 and closed in 1994. By the end of its life this single track single stop branch had become very run down indeed (I travelled it not long before it closed). The problem was that the station did not serve anywhere the could not be reached conveniently from other stations, and since it ran as a shuttle service between Holborn and Aldwych (although there was a track link to the northbound Piccadilly to Cockfosters).

In the terms set for themselves by the people who made the decision to close this branch for good it had to be done. My argument is that those terms were wrong, viewing it only in terms of what was already there.

Although not especially useful itself, Aldwych could have been made to serve as a starting point because it was very well positioned for an extension into the poorly served areas of South East London and West Kent. This is the failure I refer to in my title: a failure of imagination, a failure to see potential.

Rather than swing the axe, Aldwych could have been changed from being a largely functionless endpoint to being the start point for new development.

Since it does not feature on current London Underground maps, having been closed since 1994, I take the opportunity to share Douglas Rose’s London Underground: A Diagrammatic History, with a shot focussing close in on the Aldwych branch…

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The full map, spread out.
The full map, spread out.
The key area.
The key area.

I hope you have enjoyed this post, and I ecnourage you to share it widely.

An Extraordinary Test Match

A personal account of the Lord’s test match, some infographics, links and photographs – enjoy.

INTRODUCTION

I have a selection of infographics, photos and links to share, as well as my main piece.

AN EXTRAORDINARY TEST MATCH

England 30-4 in the first innings. After England recovered from this dismal start to reach 389 early on the second morning New Zealand spent the rest of day 2 compiling 303-2. By the end of day 3 England were two down in their second innings and still nearly a hundred runs in the red. Day four saw the big momentum swing, the creation of three individuals, Cook, Root and especially Stokes. The last named scored the fastest hundred ever in a Lord’s test match. This meant that England closed the day with an already substantial lead. By the time England were all out on the fifth morning (yesterday), New Zealand needed 345 for victory in 77 overs. Two wickets went down without a run, but the really decisive blow came later in the day and was struck by that man Stokes (the most obvious man of the match in test history) who cleaned up Kane Williamson and Brendon McCullum with successive deliveries. Thereafter, although the New Zealand lower order showed plenty of fight it always looked like an England win, and the eventual margin was 125 runs.

I do not withdraw my earlier criticisms of England’s selection policy, and I point out that it was not until deep into day four that the possibility of an England win showed up an anyone’s radar. Also as an aside New Zealand won the toss and chose to put England in, and even though they did take early wickets, as such a course of action requires, they still ended up beaten.

I hope that the second test match lives up to this one (a pity that there are only the two rather than a proper series – ICC please note that two tests DO NOT CONSTITUTE a proper series).This will require England not to adopt a “what we have we hold” approach.

INFOGRAPHICS

I have a variety of infographics to share this time, starting with a couple from people in favour of keeping the hunting ban…

FHB Keep The Ban

I take a very strong line on disability rights both here and on aspitweets and my next infographic is in keeping with that.

DHC

Those of us fortunate enough not to have had to use a food bank may wonder what exactly they provide – check this scary infographic to find out…

Foodbanks

My last two infographics both relate to a smear campaign being run by the Daily Mail against Labour leadership contender Andy Burnham (which has naturally influenced me in his favour!)

DMAB

ABXs

LINKS

I shall start with an anniversary, courtesy of Faraday’s Candle. The birthday girl is astronaut Sally Ride.

Having started on a science theme, two more links, the first of which introduces the second. The twin themes are asteroid strikes and probability:

1) Intro piece

2) The whole shebang

THE IRISH GAY MARRIAGE REFERENDUM

I found the result of this referendum very exciting, and I was not the only one, as these two links, one from the Independent and one from Patheos make clear in their different ways:

1)Indy

2)Patheos

TWO FINAL LINKS

My last links both refer to important social issues, one to our railways and one to the bedroom tax. First of all, I thank the Liverpool Echo for this article about the much loathed bedroom tax. Secondly, The Mirror provided this marvellous article about Network Rail.

PHOTOGRAPHS AND SHARING

Just before putting up my final few images I would urge you all to share this post or at least the parts of it that appeal to you. My thanks to all of my followers.

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These maps all come fron the front of Harry Sidebottom's "The Caspian Gates" which is a marvellous read and a book I would recommend to anyone.
These maps all come fron the front of Harry Sidebottom’s “The Caspian Gates” which is a marvellous read and a book I would recommend to anyone.

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I saw this picture on twitter and was very struck by it, so here it is.
I saw this picture on twitter and was very struck by it, so here it is.

Special Post: South Kensington

EXPLANATION

This is a whimsy on my part. While I was out walking this morning I had an idea come to me about London, specifically as a public transport user covering London on a station-by-station basis (for those not terribly familiar with me, I grew up in London), and the one the came into my mind, partly because one of fellow bloggers is visiting London and will almost certainly be making use of this station was South Kensington. If it works well I will try to come up with others.

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South Kensington is served by the District, Circle and Piccadilly lines, the first two since 1868 and the third since 1906. As a destination it means one thing to me: museums. I cannot really say much about the Victoria and Albert, but the others, namely The Natural History Museum and the Science Museum are both old favourites of mine (there used to be a Geological Museum as well, but that has long since been amalgamated with the Natural History). Either would merit a visit, or if you are up for really giving the brain some exercise, you could do one in the morning, have lunch (a picnic in Hyde Park if the weather permits) and then do the second in the afternoon.

There is an underground passageway from the main station concourse to the museums, with clearly marked exits for each museum, or you can do the walk at surface level, passing some decorative wrought ironwork as you leave the station.

To complete the post I have two pictures of recent London Underground maps (actually the same map, but the second picture zeroes in on the central area)…

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Cricket and Things

INTRODUCTION

As well as my main piece this post will include some good links and some photos.

CRICKET AND THINGS

Thanks to two splendid innings (Cook, finally out this morning for 162 and Stokes, an 85-ball century yesterday) England have pulled off a remarkable turnaround putting themselves in a position from which they might actually win this match. Moeen Ali has just gone, leaving England 343 ahead with one second innings wicket standing. If New Zealand are minded to have a crack at the target we could have a superb finish.

The weather is nice enough, though cloudy, to be sitting outside.

Anderson has just been bowled meaning that New Zealand will need 345 to win in 77 overs. The highest ever total in the final innings to win at a test match at Lords is 344 by the West Indies in 1984, so if New Zealand get these they will make history.

On now to some links…

LINKS

To start with, a link to Charlotte Hoather’s latest post.

DWP LINKS

I have three links in this section, one to a post on johnnyvoid, one to a DPAC post and one to an official government:

1)the johnnyvoid post on sanctions.

2)the DPAC post

3)the official document.

RELIGION

Two links here, one to an article about the Catholic Church’s response to the Irish referendum on gay marriage and one to a piece from atheist republic about proof:

1)The piece about the gay marriage referendum.

2)Atheist republic and science, proof and theories.

PHOTOGRAPHS

I have some excellent photographs from in and around King’s Lynn to share with you. Mentioning sharing, i hope that some of you will share some or all of this post…

This beer mat was given to me by a friend in Norwich.
This beer mat was given to me by a friend in Norwich.

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An attempt to capture tadpoles swimming in the upper Purfleet.
An attempt to capture tadpoles swimming in the upper Purfleet.
A close up showing a couple of tadpoles.
A close up showing a couple of tadpoles.

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England Staring Down Both Barrels

INTRODUCTION

As well as a personal account of yesterday’s cricket I have my usual selection of links, infographics and photos to share with you. Enjoy the ride…

ENGLAND STARING DOWN BOTH BARRELS

England bowled reasonably well yesterday, taking the least eight Kiwi wickets for 220, the fly in the ointment being that this was from a starting position of 303-2 and therefore still left them facing a first innings deficit of 134. This was compounded by the loss of debutant opening batsman Lyth and the no 3 Ballance in the reply. To give themselves a chance of escaping England need to still be batting by lunch time tomorrow (and probably a while after as well).

This England team, with Moeen Ali batting at no 8 and therefore being considered a front-line bowler, bore all the hallmarks a team selected with avoidance of defeat in mind, rather than going for victory, and the lack of bowling depth told in the New Zealand innings. Just to make one thing clear: Moeen Ali is a fine cricketer, it is just that he is not by any stretch of the imagination a front-line spinner (and his county, Worcestershire, have never used him as such).

Struggling like this against New Zealand does not bode well for the main meat of the summer, the visit of the oldest enemy.

INFOGRAPHIC

Just the one infographic today, concerned with the Irish referendum on gay marriage:

MR

LINKS

My first two links concern disability hate crimes, the main article having been shared widely on twitter (13 RTs and counting since I posted a link to it). The first of the two links is to the post on Vox Political that put me on to the story (although I must register a mild protest about VP’s current policy of putting out vast numbers of small posts – it seriously clogs the inbox) by way of acknowledging my source. Here then after that preamble are the key links:

1) Vox Political Intro

2) Guardian Article

The natural follow on from this is an article from Welfare Weekly about the scandalously high unemployment rate among disabled people.

My next two links both concern Autism. The first is a petition via 38 degrees which I urge everyone to sign and share. The second is a link to a post about a research project for which I have already signed up and I urge other autistic people to do likewise.

My last link is to a petition being run by change.org calling for 16 and 17 year-olds to be able vote in the EU referendum. Since I would extend all political votes to this age group I had no hesitation in signing and sharing, and I hope that others will follow my example.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Only a few pictures to share with you today (I take this opportunity to thank everyone who is still with me and urge you to share any or all of this post)…
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The Weekend Approaches

INTRODUCTION

As well as my main piece, I have some very interesting and important links to share, several infographics and of course lots og high quality pictures.

THE WEEKEND APPROACHES

The weekend is upon us. I am particularly looking forward to being able to actually listen to some of the test match, having not been able to do so either yesterday or today. England’s policy of stacking their team with batting paid off at first as they were able to recover from a disastrous beginning (30-4) to reach a respectanle 389, significant contributions coming from Stokes, Root, Buttler and Moeen Ali. The downside of the selection policy, a lack of serious bowling options (for all his position at no 8, and hence officially being selected as a front-line spinner I do not rate Ali a serious bowler) is being cruelly exposed by the Kiwis, who are currently 235-2.

INFOGRAPHICS

I have three infographics to share with you today, two on the Human Rights Act and one on poverty…

HRA Rights

Poverty

LINKS

First up, an article published on Huffington Post by Kevin Healey.

Next we have a petition from change.org calling for the manufacture of disability toys.

An important link for those with an interest in mental health.

A very important and challenging piece about GPs, in the form of an open letter, courtesy of julijuxtaposed.

A wondeful post about a beautiful corner of Cornwall complete with stunning pictures, from smallbluegreenwords.

My final offering in this section is a piece from Cosmos Up about life on exomoons.

PHOTOS

To finish along with my hopes that you will share some or all of this post are some photos…

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The next five photos feature a display board at Fakenham Library.
The next five photos feature a display board at Fakenham Library.

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Three pictures of decorative plates in the window of a charity shop.
Three pictures of decorative plates in the window of a charity shop.

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My final set of images is the full gallery of lot 705 in our June sale
My final set of images is the full gallery of lot 705 in our June sale

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Great Centenary Charity Auction

INTRODUCTION

As well as the title section I have some important links to share with you.

THE GREAT CENTENARY CHARITY AUCTION

The Great Centenary Charity Auction will be happening at Fakenham Racecourse on June 28th, with the first lot going under the hammer at noon. It looks like there will be something in the region of 700 lots in total at this auction, and another auction is intended for March next year. Official posts will be appearing on the greatcharity website, while the twitter and facebook pages also merit attention. I have been attending to the imaging of stuff for this auction and I have some splendid pictures to whet your appetite…

This lovely uniform (first three images) is lot 225
This lovely uniform (first three images) is lot 225

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T
T

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It has been exhausting work doing all this imaging, but I am confident that the end result will be worth it.

LINKS

My last post, about the Hanse Festival was reblogged by mapsworldwide and here by way of reciprocation is a link to their own post about the same festival.

A mother and her children are facing homelessness because she understandably refuses to live in the same area as her violently abusive ex-partner and Barnet council indefensibly refuse to make her another offer. Read the full story courtesy of Sweets Way Resists and please take action.

A potentially good news story concerning Hale Library courtesy of Altrincham Today.

Finally, to end this  post, a couple of curios from Cosmos Up:

1)A story about a new type of galaxy that should not exist.

2)The latest on antimatter.

I hope you have enjoyed this post and will share it.

A Pot-Pourri of a Post

Some good links to various interesting and important items, an important infographic in among them, a couple of classic recipes and some excellent images.

Before I get into my own stuff, I have some links to share…

LINKS

I start with a series of posts about the general election that has just happened:

First up, the ever reliable Mike Sivier of Vox Political. It was also Mr Sivier who provided the introduction to the my next post, written by David Hencke. Another frequent source of good material is John P Ointon who blogs as notesfromthenorth and who provided a fine response to the general election. My final piece of election related material, given that the Tories have an absolute majority in the house on 36% of the votes cast, is a petition calling for a change in the system of parliamentary representation courtesy of change.org, accompanied by a graphic showing what the the break down of MPs would be under PR…

PR

My penultimate link is to the petition currently being run via 38 Degrees by the Save Southwark Woods campaign.

My last link is to a post from Autism Mom.

IMAGING AND OTHER STUFF

A combination of two busy and eventful days and a sleepless night in between (following the election) has meant that I have not posted recently. I revisited a classic recipe of mine this week, my own customised version of Madhur Jaffrey’s Lemony Chicken and Coriander, although rather than using thighs I used a half chicken cut into managable size pieces with the aid of ‘the world’s sharpest knife’. This recipe featured, along with another that I have not used in a very long time in my first ever blog post. Here are both recipes in a graphic…

Kitchen Specialities

The ‘PR’ graphic I put up earlier of course is based on actual votes and not on how people would have voted had PR been in force (e.g. I voted labour in the general election for a combination of reasons which would not have applied under PR – the question would have been whether to vote Green – as I did in the local elections – or for the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition, TUSC). In view of the number of people who clearly did not vote the way they had told pollsters they would, here is photographic proof that I did precisely what I said I would…

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I have done some interesting imaging at work this week, finishing off the May stuff and imaging one piece of stock for the June sale that needed to be protected from damage…

These five images are of the medals that feature in lot 424A in our May auction. There were two pics, one taken with flash and one without, the latter of which was treated in three different ways and the former in two.
These five images are of the medals that feature in lot 424A in our May auction. There were two pics, one taken with flash and one without, the latter of which was treated in three different ways and the former in two.

Flash No Flash - edited

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No Flash

These date from Thursday, now some stuff from yesterday…

The documents that accompany the medals pictured earlier.
The documents that accompany the medals pictured earlier.
The next six images are of lot 653 in the June sale (It was mighty hard to capture every detail of something so intricate as this, hence so many pics)
The next six images are of lot 653 in the June sale (It was mighty hard to capture every detail of something so intricate as this, hence so many pics)

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ON SHARING

At the start of this post I shared various things from other sources, because they had made an impact on me. If you enjoyed this post I would be very grateful for you to share it, and I also encourage you to share individual items from within it if they particularly appeal to you. My final words, once rendered by the estimable Mr Bilbo Baggins as “thag you very buch” are embodied in the image with which this post concludes and apply to all who read it through to the end:

TY3