Give us our toilets
Spent last weekend in London. Discovered a jolly handy website. Are you ready? Park At My House dot com. It does what it says. You open an account and book to park on someone's unused driveway close to, well, wherever you want to get to. Typically five or six quid a day in outer London. Perhaps you already knew about this useful service, but I'm always out of touch with the latest developments.
Mrs B is a student of the Jack the Ripper case and has other "true crime" interests. She wanted to go on a conducted walk starting from outside Kentish Town Station. When visiting London we usually do the Central Line from Epping, but I thought the Northern Line from High Barnet would be better on this occasion. I booked to park at a house a couple of minutes' walk from the station. Besides, I hate the bloody M11 and M25; this gave me an excuse to use the A505 past Royston, then the A1(M). A pee stop at South Mimms Services, then just down the road. Bob's your uncle.
This was taken on the way back, on the Sunday. The underground is one of London's marvels. It seems to me a wonder that you can operate trains at one-minute headways and every one of them chocka. I could just sit on a platform and watch it all go by. I don't care for the current Fisher-Price livery though, or the plasticy interiors of modern rolling stock. I remember hard, springy upholstery (I think you just get foam rubber these days), deep-set, timber-framed windows with hopper vents, slatted wooden floors and those nice billiard ball things that hung from the ceilings for passengers to hold on to. At both Epping and High Barnet there are toilets on the platforms. I don't know whether this is at all usual, but there seem to be no facilities these days at busy central London stations. In my youth, when I didn't need them as much, the rule was that toilets were provided at all interchange stations.
Give us our toilets
Spent last weekend in London. Discovered a jolly handy website. Are you ready? Park At My House dot com. It does what it says. You open an account and book to park on someone's unused driveway close to, well, wherever you want to get to. Typically five or six quid a day in outer London. Perhaps you already knew about this useful service, but I'm always out of touch with the latest developments.
Mrs B is a student of the Jack the Ripper case and has other "true crime" interests. She wanted to go on a conducted walk starting from outside Kentish Town Station. When visiting London we usually do the Central Line from Epping, but I thought the Northern Line from High Barnet would be better on this occasion. I booked to park at a house a couple of minutes' walk from the station. Besides, I hate the bloody M11 and M25; this gave me an excuse to use the A505 past Royston, then the A1(M). A pee stop at South Mimms Services, then just down the road. Bob's your uncle.
This was taken on the way back, on the Sunday. The underground is one of London's marvels. It seems to me a wonder that you can operate trains at one-minute headways and every one of them chocka. I could just sit on a platform and watch it all go by. I don't care for the current Fisher-Price livery though, or the plasticy interiors of modern rolling stock. I remember hard, springy upholstery (I think you just get foam rubber these days), deep-set, timber-framed windows with hopper vents, slatted wooden floors and those nice billiard ball things that hung from the ceilings for passengers to hold on to. At both Epping and High Barnet there are toilets on the platforms. I don't know whether this is at all usual, but there seem to be no facilities these days at busy central London stations. In my youth, when I didn't need them as much, the rule was that toilets were provided at all interchange stations.