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He's called it "Considerate feet on seat" in that she decided to put a newspaper down on the seat first before putting her feet up.
Probably felt a bit guilty because she's sitting right next to a sign that says "Please keep feet off seats". Technically, though, her feet aren't on the seats.
I really don't normally like Nanny State signs and ones that say "You wouldn't do this at home so why do it in public". But this is one of those occasions for me, where it should be, "You would do this at home, but you'd be wearing slippers, socks or in bare feet, and some other poor sap wouldn't then have to sit down where your dirty shoes have been - so don't do this in public".
The plans include a possible extension of the Northern Line from Kennington via Wandsworth Road. Improvements to transport links are seen by the South West London council where the power station is, to be necessary to support any development in the area.
Amazing aerial shot of Battersea Power Station by praguelondon
"The best option for real improvement would be an extension of the Northern Line, which we are keen to pursue," said a spokesperson for the site owner - Treasury Holdings.
"It is most likely to be entirely privately funded as (Transport for London (TfL)) money has been committed to other projects like Crossrail."
"From a planning perspective, they've got to tick certain boxes," said a Wandsworth Council spokesperson.
Treasury Holdings has now commissioned Steer Davies Gleave to carry out a feasibility study into the Northern Line extension. This will then feed into an overview of transport in the area being carried out by TfL. For more see New Civil Engineer.
From 25th June - 5th July you have the opportunity to explore the site and see the plans. "A walking tour around, and inside, elements of the Power Station building is available for adults and children over ten years old. Bring sensible shoes and your cameras for this opportunity to get up close and personal with the iconic four chimneys!" says the Battersea Power Station's development website The site is open from noon till 8pm up to 3rd July & noon till 6pm 4th July & 10am to 6pm on 5th July.
I must have walked past the window of the shop above countless times, but it was only a few days ago that I saw the "Kind Notice", which didn't allow unaccompanied school children or traffic wardens to go into the shop. What the owner has against traffic wardens is only for us to guess.
The reason I probably didn't notice that sign (it may have been new) is because it was close to the floor. We notice most things at eye-level but often miss really interesting stuff by not looking up or down.
If you like looking out for interesting things and have a camera (or at least a camera phone) you might like And I Saw (part of the Hide & Seek Festival) which carries on today - Sunday 29th June at the Royal Festival Hall.
And I Saw "is a game of finding things and making a list of them with text messaging. It's like a treasure hunt, it's like "I Spy", in fact it's quite like a few things you may have played to relieve boredom as a child. However it's been bought up to date through the use of SMS and mobile internet....
To play the game you'll need to register your phone number and give yourself a tagname. Then all you need to do is bring your phone, yourself, a camera if you like, and most importantly your keen sense of vision. Anything could be part of the game, a balloon, a person wearing a T-shirt, a sticker in a shop window, a fellow player."
As part of the London Festival of Architecture 2008, the London Transport Museum supported by Qype providing prizes are getting people to try and capture some of the overlooked design highlights on London's transport network. In a race against time, teams of photographers will have to unlock a series of cryptic clues in order to snap roundels, station murals and much more. Prizes will then go to the first team home on the day (with the most correct answers), and bonus goodies will be awarded for the best pictures uploaded to Flickr.
It actually filled up very quickly, as there were only 30 places available, but there's been one drop out, so if you can get to Covent Garden & are free next Sunday afternoon and would like to go, please express your interest here.
Yesterday The Guardian reported that (not really surprisingly) plans to install airport-style x-ray machines in every Tube and mainline rail stations across the UK were ruled out. This was because passengers might find the delays caused by this a tad inconvenient and it would lead to "passenger rebellion". A trial at five unspecified locations over the past six months found that airport-style checks would be impractical and antagonise the public.
"The transport minister, Tom Harris, said the public would not accept the resulting delays and there would be objections about personal privacy if an extensive screening regime was introduced.
"Screening equipment and dogs can be effective in the railway environment," said Harris in a written statement to parliament. "However, given the very large passenger flows and thousands of entry points on the UK rail and underground networks, 100% airport-style screening is currently not feasible."
Even back in 2005 after the July bombing attacks it was thought to be impractical then. A Transport for London spokesperson told Metro in October 2005"Body scanners are completely impractical on the London Underground. Heathrow handles 67.1 million passengers each year - London Underground carries 976 million.
"You can just imagine the delays if such technology was introduced on the Tube. We are constantly reviewing technology to see what could be potentially employed - but body scanners are not an option for us. Our stations just don't have room for them"
This isn't to say that people don't want some form of security. Yesterday Phil Trendall, from the British Transport Police, said: "The public are broadly supportive of the need for security measures."
From Thursday you might notice more sniffer dogs and special x-ray machines to screen bags will be used at a "handful" of stations.
Could hardly contain my excitement on seeing this transport related card about calling in sick, taking a train to the sea, eating sandwiches on said train and getting drunk on fresh air.
If you can't see the image, which is such a shame if you can't - the card says "Can we, shall we? One day, very soon, Let us go away together just you and me, call in sick and go to the sea and hold hands all day. Eat our sandwiches on the train, get drunk on fresh air and come home tired and never tell anyone.... ever."
I also got a signed copy of his latest book "This is for you". His artwork and images are sort of an example of that studied clumsiness that was being spoken about at Interesting08 in that the lettering is beautifully uneven. But the intricacy of the cuts on the card is just amazing.
I asked Rob if he would mind his picture being taken. He was somewhat reticent and said if I emailed him, he would send me one. So I will, but in the meantime if you're in the East End, get yourself over to RyanTown, 126 Columbia Road, E2 7RG to check out some amazing stuff. He's recently collaborated with the designer Paul Smith and I can easily see why. You can tell I like him!
Update - I've had a lot of personal emails and direct messages on Twitter about Rob's work. People really like it! Just to say that his shop only opens to the public from Sunday 29th June - so please don't try to go there till then. Thanks.
I find it interesting when the media "discover" a story that a number of bloggers have already been discussing beforehand. The Tube being hot in the summer time is always going to be front page news. Always has been and unfortunately looks like it always will be.
Jaz Cummins sent me a link to an interesting YouTube video a week or so ago where people were using a novel approach to keeping cool on the London Underground
I just love how people will try anything, even the most basic methods to cool down.
However it led to a lot of questions. Why did they blank out the station name from the poster? It's clearly Baker Street on the Hammersmith & City Line. Baker Street on that line has one of the most recognisable platforms on the London Underground.
Did Baker Street Tube station say "you can't use our name"? Or did the agency think "Mmmm we need to make this look like 'every station' so let's blank out the name"? In which case why not use a more non descript station platform that's not so easy to recognise?
I also discovered some really weird allergies from the poster & wondered how did people find out they were allergic to certain things. Newspapers for example. Reading some newspapers certainly makes my skin crawl sometimes, but I'd hate to be allergic to them. You must never be able to go into certain shops if you're allergic to newspapers & have a permanent fear of those guys handing out the free sheets. So what happens when you're allergic to newspapers?
Thoughts on any of the above most welcome. Plus if you want to share your allergies with us - it might only be - the apparently rather basic now - hayfever. Or perhaps you have something more exotic like an allergic reaction to the smell of sweat, crisp packets or moquette upholstery which would make Tube travel pretty difficult for you.
I was one of the extremely lucky people to get a ticket to see Interesting 08 yesterday. A collection of funny, fascinating, funky & often frankly foolish people who Russell Davies collected together to talk about interesting things. There is tons to talk about and if I were more of a creative generalist I would have a field day in this blog. But in the interests of sticking to my specialism (ish), here's some things that may interest people who are interested in the London Underground, transport & trains.
Don't pay for your Tube ticket or basically anything over 20p in 2p's or 1p's because it's not legal tender. I learn this from Matt Dent, who should know about these things as he won a competition to design the UK's new coins. This legal tender point was a massive jaw dropper for me as I'm sure I've paid for loads of things over 20p with 2p's but technically the person you're buying from can refuse to take them.
Jenny Owen had lots of brilliant stories about Winston Churchill including this. Churchill was on a train that got derailed which meant he was going to be late for some important war meeting. He had words with the driver, demanding that he get it back on the tracks. The driver ummed and arred for quite a while saying it wasn't that easy to just do it so quickly etc etc. Anyway, Churchill said you will be helping the war effort if you do and I'll remember you. Driver probably thought "Yeah right" and managed to get it back on the tracks. Churchill did remember him with some special medal for civilian heroics - the Alba(?) medal.
Andrew Webb from Channel 4's Big Food Map driving an Asparagus Picker. It'd never make it onto Top Gear as a fast means of transport, but I love the wacky look of it.
Finally, just discovered that Mr Last FM who was directing 30 recorder players pictured above was involved in the Deptford Project Cafe - transforming an old railway carriage into a cafe, which I blogged about last weekend.
If you'd like to see the rest of my photos from Interesting 08 - including stuff on toilets, magic mirrors, doodling, studied clumsiness, World of Warcraft, LOL cats, Henry the Hoover, beating insomnia & more they're here.
Weirdly when we left we bumped into Mondoagogo on the stairs who had also been to see Callier. I'd only seen her on Saturday for the Flickr Tate Modern Street Art photowalk:
Mondoagogo (Anna) is the only woman in the picture. She joined us for a drink outside The Royal Festival Hall and we were chatting about the gig and other stuff. I looked up and saw someone familiar coming out of the Royal Festival Hall.
It was regular commenter and contributor, Pete aka the Londoneer, who'd just been to see the Tom Tom Club and Gang of Four at the Festival Hall. So he stayed for a bit of a chat as well.
With all the millions of people in London, it still always freaks me out about how you can bump into people you know like that.
My friend James Grieve runs Nabokov, an innovative theatre company who have their offices in these old Jubilee Line Carriages - the Tube offices in the sky on Great Eastern Street, London.
Since first blogging about them, they've appeared on Kottke.org, coudal, scottberkun and lots of other cool blogs from around the world.
A lot of you also wanted me to try to arrange a visit to go up to their offices. Well I had a chat to James via text (when he was touring in New York) and he kindly offered to take two of you (and possibly me) to pick up lunch at the brill BLT (Big Loaded & Tasty) sandwich shop & then have the lunch back in his Tube offices.
There's still some Berocca goody bags up for grabs, so if bid on something and didn't win a prize and fancy one or desperately want something from the list that didn't get won - let me know. Must stress this is only if you made a donation.
The team from Justgiving have your email details and will be getting in touch with you to arrange delivery of your prizes. Thanks so much for donating and raising almost seven hundred quid for Action Against Hunger.
But I'm not a card carrying recycling old hippie wearing hemp shoes and I don't recycle any waste food - which is bad I know - but I don't have space for a compost heap and also don't like those little smelly green bins that sit by your sink.
I live in Kew, it's one of those nice pseudo-villages (phrase nicked from TimeOut London's blogger Peter Watts' piece on the No 33 bus) and the Kew Society recently launched a campaign to make Kew Plastic Bag Free. Basically they got agreement from most traders in Kew (with one notable exception) to go plastic-bag-free. 50 local traders including the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew agreed from July 1st to never hand out free plastic bags and offer their own greener alternatives instead. Read more at Greener Kew. There's a launch party around Kew Gardens Tube Station, Station Parade at 7pm on Monday, June 30.
Yesterday's Evening Standard did a piece on this and once again didn't let the facts damage a good story. They claimed that Tesco (the notable exception) had made a "major turnaround" & "retreated". This is somewhat over enthusiastic reporting, as Tesco never said they wouldn't ever give out plastic bags. They would only give them out to people who ask for them, and they certainly didn't positively choose to offer an alternative. I personally have nothing major against Tesco - although I know many who people have. I use bags for life and Onya bags as much as I can, but not all the time, as sometimes I go out without them.
What is most galling is that I know several friends & neighbours from Kew who tried to comment on the Evening Standard's website to say that Tesco shouldn't be seen as the big hero in all of this. At time of writing, none of their comments appear. I wonder why that is?
"Putting the reputation of the railroads back on track (no delays, friendly staff, plenty of room for everyone), this new converted 1960s commuter train carriage sits stationary in the old railway yard of Deptford Station.
Kitted out with quirky furniture (the toilet shed is a shrine to Elvis), the all-day eatery serves homemade organic food, including eggs from the cafe's own free-range chickens." said Daily Candy
The cafe which was ready for business on the 9th June has the following opening hours:
It's got a great summery bright design by Studio Myerscough who were also responsible for the handpainted exterior and bespoke furniture (with Luke Morgan).
Again like the Village Underground Project in East London it hopes to become a home for creative types. The railway yard will act as a centre for artists, performers, musicians and designers to exhibit their work or put on gigs.
For more and to see a video of the train being transported Deptford check out The Deptford Project's site
I'm due to see Ralf Little's new film The Waiting Room really soon. Very much looking forward to it as it's the first film I've seen him in (he's normally mainly in TV like The Royle Family or online stuff like Kate Modern). It also involves trains and apparently you get to see him naked. Or rather as the Channel 4 review so nicely says "you do get to see Ralf Little's knob (as he's taking a leak, actually), but sideways on."
Ralf plays a care assistant/nurse who follows one of his elderly charges (played by Frank Finlay) down to a South London train station where he meets Anna (Anne-Marie Duff) in the waiting room. There the two of them listen to the old man rattle on about love, and share a "James Blunt - You're Beautiful" moment. They don't swap numbers, or even names, but are both hooked from that moment on.
An obsessedwithfilm interviewer asks Ralf: "Have you ever had a life-changing moment in a waiting room .... or even on any bit of public transport?"
Ralf replies "Not on public transport but I've had 'the moment' of going 'wow, that is the girl I'm going to marry'. Didn't work out! (Laughs) But I've definitely felt it, I'm sure, and I'm sure I'll feel it again ... But talk to me again when I'm single and childless!"
You can see from the video above that a lot of the film was was shot around Wandsworth Common railway station and Balham rail & London Underground station. The film didn't have a big enough budget to rent the whole stations and this was apparently the only very small 'problem'. Ralf says:
"there were scenes with people getting on and off trains and normally in big budget films they hire a train and so on, but we couldn't do that on our budget. So you had this incredible thing where there's this whole film crew on a platform all ready with the actors poised, guessing where the doors might stop, then as the train comes in then the doors open and 'ACTION' and you'd have to leap on the train, pause for a moment, then walk off casually. Brilliant.."
So if you're a South Londoner, or like me, sometimes travel on trains into Waterloo, you'll see many familiar locations in the film. The train travelling past Battersea Power station being the most familiar.
Yesterday I was at an exhibition of Street Art at the Tate Modern which was combined with a photo walk where you could explore nearby streets in Southwark. It was a real eye opener and you can see some pictures I took in the link above (Flickr kindly laid on some food & drinks for us after the walk - photos here).
On the way back I popped into the Southbank Centre shop which has lots of trendy and unusual gifts in it. One of them was a "Graffiti Train". You can see from the picture above that it's sold as a "blank canvas" with transfers and paint so you can "graffiti your own train".
So if you've ever felt the urge to do some legal graffiti or become the next Banksy, Bob's your Uncle.
I also spotted some interesting graffiti on British Rail door down Clink Street:
I'd love to know who Mr Guy is and why he's buff. The broken chain on the door also seemed kind of appropriate for "Clink Street". I'm assuming the door's not in use any more and have no idea where it originally led to.
Final reminder for your last chance to win lunch in the Tube Office Carriages & get a close up view of the graffiti and see in inside the offices - the prize draw closes tomorrow.
Well it's not too hard to find out what they said. "A to B made easy." But what should they have really said? What five words sum up TfL's site or TfL in general?
Should they have been honest with "Must hide Bank Station mess"? Funny with "You'll enjoy a smoother ride"? Cyptic with "Never late, latest lates later". Let's have your suggestions in the comments below.
Japanprobe said that to commemorate the opening of the new line, there's an art exhibition being held at the a large department store that featuring a huge mosaic made from used train tickets. The video's below and Jon says to look out for "a brief glimpse of a metro map made out of candy and uh, diamonds(!)."
I now think I know where some of the wackyness & weirdness of Japan comes from - drinking Saki.
On Wednesday night me & fellow foodies Mex, Chris & Hazel from Londonist (& www.nom-nom-nom.co.uk participants), Niamh, Tim, Lea & Dave were lucky enough to be invited to a Qype night at Tsuru restaurant with Akashi-Tai Sake Brewery. We ate lots of lovely, lovely sushi, but also drank lots of lovely lovely saki. Now the fact that I just said "lovely lovely saki" is very unusual as usually I'm not wild about the stuff. I've only ever drunk it warm and on Wednesday night thanks to the staff at Tsuru I learnt loads about sake / saki (possibly not how to spell it), but mainly that the really, really good stuff should be drunk cold, is smooth as silk and hugely alcoholic.
The drunkeness hit us like a sledgehammer wrapped in cloth. After about three very small glasses, you think - "Hello I've only drunk three glasses and this stuff hardly tastes alcoholic - so why do I feel like dancing on the ceiling". Trouble is the alcoholic content ranged from 14% to 19%.
Tim said "Although it got increasingly difficult to keep track of everything we tasted as the evening went on, our hosts did a good job of pairing different drinks with different foods. All of it was tasty."
We managed to keep (sort of) sober enough for photos:
Jon said: "This was at Bank station in the stairs between the northbound and southbound Northern line platforms. I've never noticed these before. Seconds later I found myself needing to go to the bathroom, but I waited until I got home".
The power of suggestion eh?
I do wonder how the police would deal with those caught urinating though. Does "deal with" mean arrest? Do you just get cautioned? Or do they hand you some loo paper and point you in the direction of the nearest loos.
Although that is a bit of a problem on the London Underground, as there aren't toilets at every station. Even if you find them, they're certainly not open the whole time that the Tube system is open.
I'm still surprised that TfL haven't introduced a map which clearly shows where toilets are - rather than just in the little key at the bottom of the online map and the pocket maps. There's a map which shows where you can and can't carry bicycles on board the trains. But I would have thought that far many more people would be interested in quickly knowing which stations had toilets.
The nearest we have is Geoff's visual which is unfortunately a few years old now and not exactly accurate:
LastRounds.co.uk has done their best and say "Knowing the location of your closest public toilet can be a handy way to avoid those awkward moments, especially when you're out and about and there's nowhere else to go. Find your local public convenience by choosing a borough on the map here."
They even have a mobile alert so you can get a text to find out which places have a nearby loo
Any thoughts on what to do when you're caught short on the Tube would be much appreciated.
I know we have our problems with air conditioning in the actual Tube tunnels and on trains themselves, but I'd have hoped that station concourses may have been better equipped to deal with the heat than having a large caged fan. But I'm by no means an expert on this and hopefully someone will be able to tell me whether or not this is a funny as it looks.
Other than at Old Street I'm sure regular commuters would have noticed more of the "Stay Cool in the heat" posters like the one below appearing:
They have helpful advice like always carrying a bottle of water with you, and not getting on the Tube if you don't feel very well and to basically stop acting like you expect the London Underground to have better (sorry strike that) any air conditioning at all.
This is even more galling when Thames Water yesterday announced a plan for rail and bus passengers to be able to fill up their water bottles at stations, but this plan would not be extended to the London Underground
Andrea Riding of Thames Water said "We think the machines would be a welcome addition to every rail and bus station".
With a nicely watery reference she continued: "I think we have seen a real sea change in the attitude of Londoners to bottled water and now we hope we can bring that choice to people on the move as well."
Apparently the machines will dispense water for free or with a nominal fee of 20p per half litre.
However, a Transport for London spokeswoman said of the chance of opening this up to include the Tube: "Although we investigated the possibility, such a system would require the installation of new water, power and drainage system at considerable cost, and would create passenger flow problems."
But if they can cope with that cost at bus and railway stations and the flow at some railway stations is fairly high - why not do it for the London Underground?
She pictured "Spinach in the tube station! A small forest of swaying vegetation smothering the Oyster machine in dark glossy leaves and a hazy cloud of vitamin C! Rows of crisp, fresh lettuce springing up between cracks in the pavement! Runner beans snaking fat tendrils through the tunnels and a sudden shower of plump, succulent sprouts being gamely mopped up by the ticket inspector! Feathery carrot tops shyly nudging their way through asphalt! Rivulets of pea running freely in the gutters! Scores of workers throwing off the shackles of the tedious daily commute, donning wellies, shovels and wide, carefree grins and digging happily for..."
To have her terrifying image ruined when her friend said "spillage".
Other Tube terms that have been mis-heard
"Max the Catt" = Mind the Gap "Canary Wolf" = Canary Wharf
Anything else that you think the announcers are saying on the Tube?
Speaking of spillages do you think they should have said "Would Inspector Bucket please report to platform 6" or do you know of any other code names for emergencies like "Inspector Sands please come to platform 5"?
The judges rocked by giving us their time, expertise, and good humor. We couldn't have wished for better participants, who were so great from start to finish.
We had a really challenging time determining who had won, as the event covered three areas. So we looked at the points the judges attributed to the taste of the food, the votes for the best photography and video, and most importantly with the lion's share of the votes, those made by you - so thanks if you voted online.
Thanks to SpinVox for sponsoring the event, but extra special super duper thanks to Ros and all the staff at the amazing Cookery School (we could not have done this without you). Thanks to all the other sponsors for their support, and once again thanks to everyone who took event.
Re one of the pictures above I ran a little competition on Nom Nom Nom to see if people could guess which of three pictures had had the most views - you're welcome to try it out. You can leave answers in the comments on here if you like.
Finally, the charity prize draw is open until the 16th June and there are still some prizes with no bids on them - so get over and see what you could win & help Action Against Hunger at the same time.
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enthusiasm & sometimes despair by its unofficial social historian." The Guardian
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