Deadpool 2024

 My annual guess at which celebrities aren't going to see another New Year's Day.

• Neil Percival Young (Canadian Musician)

• James Earl Carter Jr. (39th POTUS)

• Michael Caine (English Actor)

• Melvyn Hayes (English actor & voiceover artist)

• Sir Thomas Hicks "Tommy Steele" (English singer & actor)

• June Lockhart (American TV & Movie actress)

• Elizabeth Lois Shields, née Teare (UK politician, former MP for Rydale)

• Vanessa Redgrave (English Actress)*

• Kenneth Cope (English Actor and Scriptwriter)*

• Billy Connolly (Scottish actor, comedian, artist, writer, musician, and television presenter)*

   

   

  So that's most of the above guaranteed a healthy and vital 2024 I expect 😁

   

  *New entry for 2024 to replace those we lost in 2023, RIP to:

   

  Gina Lollobrigida (Actress, Photojournalist, & Sculptor)

  Anthony Dominick Benedetto a.k.a Tony Bennett (Singer)

  Burt Bacharach (American composer, songwriter, record producer, and pianist) 

My 2023 in Review

 

2023 was my first whole year as an idle sod (officially) so I've taken a look back through my calendar to see what I actually did and pick out some highlights.

January Started with a week of Rail Strikes so travel opportunities were a bit limited but after that managed to get out and walk from Catford to the Thames along the River Ravensbourne. I also paid a Sunday afternoon visit to Hanwell, and managed a trip to see the Winter Lights at Canary Wharf and made my only visit to the Tower of London thanks to a Christmas present of a year's Historic Royal Palaces membership.

February Saw a boat trip around Portsmouth Harbour, a visit to the shopping mall that is Battersea Power Station, a day down at the Army Flying Museum in Middle Wallop, Hampshire, and a trip to Hackney for the great Urban Good relocation map giveaway from which scrummage I bagged a decent number of maps of London and a couple of other cities. The big highlight of the month was my Hidden London tour of Shepherd's Bush Underground station, which turned out to be a personal tour since by coincidence I was the only customer to book that particular time slot on that day.

 

To finish the month I had a belated Xmas Drinks with some of my former workmates where vast quantities of drink were taken, resulting in a rather uncomfortable ride home by rail Replacement Bus!

March saw my first trip away of the year and despite a weather warning for snow had a good stay in a working water mill in Wookey, Somerset. From which I visited Wells Cathedral, Burnham On Sea, and a spectacularly wet Glastonbury. The HRP membership got me inside the spectacular Banqueting House on Whitehall and LT Museum Friends membership into the Depot Open day at Acton.

April 5th saw me take a midweek afternoon ride route 465 - Transport for London's most un-London Bus Route. On the 21st I hit the big six-oh and took my HRP membership card for a ride to Kensington Palace

May was the month for my big rail trip to the far north of Scotland which had been delayed since March 2020 when something screwed up my careful plans. It was worth the wait, nine days away stopping in Edinburgh, Inverness, and Thurso and finally setting foot in my original target of Wick on a very quiet Saturday 13th. Second highlight of May was going to Worcester to see Toyah Willcox and Robert Fripp in concert. 

June brought another bus trip, the Route 65 and 71 Heritage Event between Ealing and Kingston and Leatherhead. I also went away to Happisburgh in Norfolk to explore childhood holiday territory and visit the North Norfolk Railway again and the East Anglian Transport Museum for the first time, the latter fulfilling an ambitions a good fifty years old.

July Featured a trip on the LT Museum's Heritage 1938 Stock Tube train from Acton Town to Oakwood and back. 

 

In between industrial action on the railways I managed to squeeze in a "pick a random city you haven't been to" trip away. Which this time was Nottingham for the trams, the Trent, and the castle.

August began with the Freddie Mercury exhibition at Sotheby's and then majored on buses, with a visit to the Oxford Bus Museum followed by an incredibly busy Imberbus Day

 

 

Right at the end of the month into the beginning of September I got away for a long weekend in Paignton for some seaside walking and of course a seaside steam train.

September brought my second Hidden London tour of 2023, the newly introduced one at Baker Street station. I had to share this one but it was still good.
September saw Open House London run over two weekends and this year I managed visits to The City Churches: St Mary-le-Bow, Grand Junction at St Mary Magdalene Church, Paddington, and Fitzrovia Chapel on the first and National Audit Office (former Imperial Airways Terminal) and Lewisham Arthouse on the second. I went to the second LT Museum Depot open weekend of the year and finished off the month with a trip to the Chelsea Physic Garden which was having a free entry day as part of Chelsea Festival.

October was a bit quieter. Not entirely quiet as I went to Basingstoke and saw Toyah and Robert in concert again. Also a visit to Gunnersbury House to see the rather good Exhibition "Set to Stun: Designing & Filming Sci-Fi in West London". The end of the month marked the 1 year anniversary of my exit from wage-slavery.

November was mostly car related things. I spent the 5th standing at a Sussex roadside taking pictures of the VCC London to Brighton Run and at least this year it didn't piss down with rain.
I went to the Classic Car Show at Birmingham NEC for the first time in years, travelling up by train and staying in Coventry as it was easier - and cheaper - than finding a suitable hotel in Brum. Finally I saw Show Of Hands on their last tour, in Basingstoke again.

December is never up to much. The highlight of the month might have been putting four new tyres on the car but was edged out by meeting some former colleagues for beers in Reading. Lots of beers but fortunately no rail Replacement Buses this time. I made the LT Museum Friends AGM at Covent Garden and Barry Le Jeune's entertaining talk afterwards. In fact now work doesn't get in the way I've been able to attend many more of the Friends' meetings this year. Xmas? Meh. I had a good lunch on the day with family but I'm not really a Christmas person.

So ends another trip around the sun. Skimming the calendar to write this blog post I realize I've done more than I first thought. I've only included the more notable events here, there have been many other minor excursions. 2024 will likely be similar.

London's Spooky underground station.

Where can you stand on a deserted station platform during London’s rush hour?

Well the answer to that carefully crafted click-baity question is lots of places obviously, from disused stations to places that aren’t in London. So let’s narrow it down a bit to an active station and in Zone 2.

 

I’ve been to Essex Road station. It’s been on my to-do list for a while. It’s underground but not on the Underground, although it used to be. Originally built by the Great Northern & City Railway on its underground line between Finsbury Park and Moorgate, between 1933 and 1975 it was on a branch of the Northern Line known as the Northern City Line or, from 1970, the Northern line Highbury Branch. In 1976 the line reopened as part of British Railways and Essex Road is the only deep level station in London served only by Network Rail trains, nowadays operated by Great Northern.

 

I arrived on a train from New Barnet at about six-thirty in the evening, late in the “rush hour” but comfortably within the TfL peak period. Within thirty seconds of alighting the train I was on a deserted platform 1.

 

 

 

Crossing a side passage to platform 2 I found that almost as empty save for one grey-hooded figure whose presence didn’t register at the time. Were they really there or a ghost?

 

 

 

 There really are ghosts at Essex Road.

 

Well there are ghost signs at least. Although the trains are run by Great Northern throughout the station there are signs of the long departed Network SouthEast. This was a part of BR that served London and the south east of England between 1982 and 1994. You can see the NSE branding along the tunnel walls in the above platform photos but there is more. On platform 1 there are signs showing the stops on the city bound line to Moorgate.

 

 

 

While on platform 2 the country side network is shown stretching our into Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire.

 

 

 

It was eerily quiet - I didn’t even hear a See It, Say It, Sorted - while I lingered to take some photos and since I felt like loitering too long might attract attention I made my way towards the exit. Unlike many underground stations from the early 20th century Essex Road didn’t get a mid-century rebuild so there are no escalators, only lifts to the surface. An oddity is that to go up from the platforms you first have to go down a flight of stairs followed by the echo of your own footsteps.

 

 

 

Which leads to a spooky tunnel that curves around to the lower lift lobby so you can’t see your destination - or what might be lurking in the passages leading off to the side.

 

 

 

Which turned out to be the lonely figure of a passenger making their way to Platform 2 in the corresponding tunnel from the lift.

 

 

 

Because it’s not as spooky as you might first think, this subterranean world being well lit and festooned with CCTV cameras. The lift wasn’t empty either, half-a-dozen passengers having just arrived from Moorgate direction. The only thing hiding in the station above was the single Oyster/Contactless reader (there are no ticket gates here) which I failed to spot until I’d passed it.

 

Outside in the dark I paused to photograph the rather architecturally nondescript station building.

 

 

 

Then headed off down Essex Road towards Islington and the City.

 

 

 

Essex Road Station √

 

An interesting oddity, atmospheric if only a little spooky, don’t make a special trip though, I was passing through anyway.

 

VCC London to Brighton Run 2023 at Staplefield

 5th November 2023

I got up early and secured a spot at the roadside in Staplefield to watch the London to Brighton veteran car run. A few hours with a camera, a bacon roll, a picnic, and a flask of Bovril and I seem to have quite a lot of photos of the cars at and passing through the village.

300 or so of which should be visible here.

At least this year the weather was dry 😀

 

The Ankerwycke Yew & St. Mary's Priory

15th October 2023

 

 

While I was walking along the nicely resurfaced towpath alongside the Thames at Runnymede someone stopped me to ask if I knew how to get across the river to Ankerwycke as they wanted to visit the ancient yew tree there. They’d been told there was a ferry but apart from one reference on a blog from 2018 to a proposed ferry I’m not aware that there’s been a ferry here in recent times. I directed her to the road route via Runnymede Bridge and the B376 to the small car park in Magna Carta Lane. Then I thought about how long ago it was that I last went there, which appears to be September 2015, so later in the afternoon I followed my own directions to Magna Carta Lane. From the small car parking area by Ankerwycke Farm a path leads along the edge of the field to an avenue of trees which you follow to your right to get to The Ankerwycke Yew & St. Mary's Priory.

 

 

 

 The yew tree sits in a slightly raised grassy clearing with some simple wooden benches around three sides. It’s not particularly tall and is surrounded by much taller trees. But for a small sign you could walk past it and hardly notice what is at first sight another large bush. Walk clockwise around it though and it reveals a different face altogether.

 

 

 

 The tree is at least 1400 years old and it is believed as much as 2500 years old. He (for this is a male yew) has like most of us increased in girth over the years and if he needed trousers would be looking for a 26’ (8m) waist size. His trunk is deeply fissured, almost hollowed out and branches reach down to the ground on almost all sides.

 

 

 

 It is cool under here, in more than one sense and when there’s no one else about eerily quiet. You get a sense of being in the presence of something old. Old enough to have witnessed had he had eyes to do so, from his slightly raised area in what would then have been a marshy flood plain King John and the barons sealing Magna Carta on the far bank of the Thames. Also allegedly Henry VIII “courting” Anne Boleyn at a somewhat closer distance, although those two seem to have got it on all over the place if all such stories are to be believed. In here you can see that even the thicker parts of the trunk still sprout leaves and where the trunk is bare people have fastened small ribbons, a practice that might date back a long way.

 

 

 

 Or maybe just to the 1980s, who knows? The tree obviously but he’s saying nothing.

 

 The tree hasn’t noticeably changed since last I was here but coming out from under the canopy I found something that has. A few yards away stand the remains of St. Mary’s Priory, a Benedictine nunnery established around 1160 and dissolved in 1536 - maybe history would have taken a different course had the nuns chased Henry out from under that tree. In 2015 the ruins were securely fenced off and looked like this:

 

 

 

 In 2022 they were excavated and seem to also have been given a thoroughly good scrubbing so that in this afternoon’s bright autumn sunshine they were so bright it almost hurt the eyes!

 

 

 

 The fence has gone, along with the signage, though whether that removal is permanent I don’t know as the site still has a bit of a building site air about it.

 

 

 

 From the abbey I walked through the woods to the bank of the Thames opposite Runnymede Pleasure Grounds and then back again via the yew. It was quiet, especially compared to the hubbub on the far side of the river where I’d been earlier.

 

 

 

 It’s worth visiting this slightly out-of-the-way part of the National Trust’s Runnymede properties, even though it can be rather muddy getting to it, not too bad this time but evidenced by the row of boot-cleaning brushes fixed to the bottom of the sign in the Ankerwycke car park. If you want to get hands-on with the yew tree I suggest you visit sooner rather than later though. This has appeared at the end of the avenue of trees leading to the yew and abbey.

 

 

 

It reads "The National Trust is working with a team of consultants to improve your experience at Runnymede and Ankerwycke.
The Ankerwycke Yew is an ancient tree and we’re taking steps to protect it for the future. We’re building a new boardwalk a safe distance away from the Yew so visitors can view the tree without damaging its sensitive roots.

More to come
Scan the QR code to find out more about what we've been up to."

 

I can find no plans online detailing how they are going to “improve my experience” and the QR code doesn’t link to anything useful. I’m unconvinced regarding the protecting the roots thing and the official National Trust walk guide encourages you to "Make sure to stop and have a look underneath the canopy of this venerable old giant.”. If footsteps have been a problem for 2500 years the tree doesn’t seem to be doing too badly. It’s hard to see in the above photo because of the light behind the translucent hoarding but the artists impression looks as if the boardwalk will be some distance from the tree, possibly the other side of the stream that runs across the site. If so you won’t be able to visit the tree, only visit a place where you can see the tree “over there”. Your Ankerwycke Yew Experience will be a bit like your Stonehenge Experience. Though with fewer “Druids”.

 

Speaking of the National Trust, if you are a member and reading this blog at the time it was published can I please encourage you to vote in the AGM to prevent the Tufton Street crooks, GBNews poundland-fascists, and the frog-faced f*ckwit of “Retore Trust” from taking over.

 

And if you’re reading from the future I hope that you can still get up close and personal with the Ankerwycke Yew. No licking it though for obvious reasons and wash your hands afterwards :-) 

 

 

September Things

Seven Things I did in September.

 

September 7th

 

Hidden London Baker Street Station tour. The newest addition to Hidden London’s in-person explorations of disused bits of London’s transport infrastructure is Baker Street from the remains of the original Metropolitan Railway station right the way through to the space formerly used as a staff rifle range. And yes, you ge to look down on the trains from inside the hidden spaces.

 

 

 

 

 

 September 10th

 

Amersham Heritage Day saw the main street of the town filled with vintage and classic cars, trucks, tractors, steam traction and more. Plus free historic buses ferrying visitors between the town and the railway station. Also I had some of the best samosas ever from a stall in the market.

 

My first car was one of these.

 

 

 

 

 September 11th

 

 Open House London, weekend one. I did three churches, St. Mary Magdalene near Paddington, St. Mary-le-Bow in the city, and the Fitzrovia Chapel. All with spectacular interiors in differing styles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 September 16th

 

Open house London weekend two, opposite ends of the scale and opposite sides of London. The National Audit Office, formerly the London Air Terminal next to Victoria Station where I had a guided tour but couldn’t take photos inside (except of the view out) and Lewisham Arthouse, an artists collective in the decaying former Deptford Central Library where I could take photos but was so interested in what the guide was saying that I took hardly any.

 

 

 

 

 

 September 21st

 

 Open weekend at the London Transport Museum Depot in Acton. Friends Members go free so I did and as ever found something interesting I’d not spotted before.

 

 

 

 September 25th

 A visit to Hatchlands Park, a National Trust property near Guildford that I'd somehow not been to before. Because it's let to a tenant (with a huge collection of historic keyboard instruments) no photos are allowed in the house but it was a terrific day for a walk around the estate during which I came across an unexpected Routemaster.

 

 

 

 

 

 September 30th

 

  Went to the Chelsea Physic Garden taking advantage of the free entry during Chelsea History Festival. Despite being late in the summer there was plenty of stuff still in bloom and among the many medicinal and poisonous plants I was surprised to find a large Pomegranate tree. With Pomegranate fruits ripening on it.

 

 

 

 

 

 I really must try harder to update this blog more frequently in October, yes, I know we're halfway through October already.

 

The English Riviera - too wet to too hot.

31st August to 4th September 2023

 

I had a late summer getaway and booked a hotel in Paignton for an extra-long weekend. The weather forecast was a bit indifferent and as it turned out completely inaccurate. Driving down on the Thursday it gradually got wetter and when I arrived although the rain had paused it was humid and cloudy. My hotel room had a sea view and a balcony but initially the sea view was theoretical as shown below.

 

 

 

 It soon cleared up though and I grabbed a waterproof coat and went off to find food and explore. First down to Paignton seafront which was busy and noisy then after dinner back via the harbour and up over Roundham Head on the coast path, by which point I was carrying the coat, and down the zig-zag cliff path to Goodrington.

 

 

 

 My parents spent their honeymoon in Goodrington and it’s been interesting trying to match up fuzzy black and white photos fro 1959 with current locations. As far as I can make out "The Goodrington Quay” hotel at which they stayed is now the Premier Inn on the seafront.

 

On Friday morning the view had improved considerably.

 

 

 

So had the weather forecast so I decided a trek along the coast path would be nice and help to walk off the excellent full English provided by the hotel. Brixham is “only” 4.8 miles (7.7km) away and I checked beforehand that there was a frequent bus service back to Paignton. So off I set, down through Goodrington. Then up again and down, and up, and down, seeing a steam train crossing Broadsands Viaduct

 

 

 

 And along the front at Broadsands where I stopped for a cup of tea and to hide under a parasol because it was now unseasonably hot. Up and down the path went on dropping down steeply into each cove and steeply up again the other side.

 

 

 

 It was not an easy stroll, even in the welcome shade of the trees it was still hot and several sections were steep, uneven steps. Not that that stopped the nutcase in shorts and tee-shirt that shot passed me running down them. He was on his way back up the other side of the beach above before I’d carefully picked my way one step at a time down to the bottom! So it went on until I reached Brixham Harbour where I rewarded myself with a pint at the Sprat & Mackerel and sat overlooking the harbour. I felt that I deserved it anyway. Then I went for a wander around Brixham. Last time I was here was almost exactly 5 years ago and the fishing boat “Accumulate” was bedecked with pro-brexit banners.

This time it was in the same spot and looking pretty abandoned so I guess it’s going well for them. I’m struggling to summon up any sympathy.

 

 

 

 Anyway the bus back from Brixham was much easier than the walk there. I had takeaway fish and chips for tea because it was Friday. And only had to fight one seagull to keep them.

 

Saturday morning, another full English, another walk planned. This one pre-planned before I left home routeing from Brownstone car park to the Daymark, then to Brownstone Battery and east along the coast path to Coleton Fishacre where there’s a National Trust cafe and toilets. Also a big house but I skipped that on this occasion. I parked in the NT car park above Brownstone and followed the track south to the Daymark, a 25m tall stone tower built in 1864 as a navigation aid for shipping. A sort of non-lighthouse for diurnal sailors.

 

 

 

 Carrying on down the lane brought me to the remains of Brownstone Battery, a second world war defensive position which had gun emplacements and searchlights defending the approach to Dartmouth from Froward Point. There are several small buildings hidden in the trees, the remains of two gun emplacements, the lower one served by its own railway from its magazine above, and the searchlight positions down closer to the water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 And having walked all the way down to that searchlight hut meant climbing back up along the path east along the coast. It was going to be another up and down walk day. Fantastic views though you had to stop to look at them as the path is a bit sketchy in places with long and terminal drops to the sea. Tripping on a rock might prove to be the last thing you do.

 

 

 

 At Padcombe Cove I turned left up the steep vally to the NT place at Coleton Fishacre. It was pretty busy but plenty of free tables at the cafe so I stopped for a pot of expensive (because NT) tea and a flapjack. Worth noting for non-members that there appears to be no checks on entry to the grounds from the seaward side and I was able to use the “facilities" without being asked to show my membership card. I suppose if I’d wanted to visit the house I’d have had to go out and join the reception queue to get back in. But I didn’t so I just exited through the mandatory gift shop and up the drive to the top of the hill and back to the car park. I spent most of the rest of the afternoon sitting on that nice shady balcony reading and watching the activity in the bay.

 

 “So where are you walking to today?” asked the waitress serving my now usual breakfast. “Only as far as the railway station,” I replied. With the forecast being overcast (yeah, no it wasn’t) I’d decided to take a ride on the Dartmouth Steam Railway. I’ve been before but don’t need much encouragement to ride on it again and it’s a good way to get to Dartmouth which is a nice place to visit.

 

 

 

 I’ll tell you what it’s not though. It’s not a cheap way to get to Dartmouth. Most heritage lines these days for £20-£30 allow you to roam up and down the line all day (e.g. my recent visit to the North Norfolk) The Dartmouth Steam Railway by contrast have closed all their intermediate stations and when you buy your £21 ticket insist that you pick which train you will return on. You are then allocated seats out and back. Now it’s a pleasant enough 20 minute each way ride and the trains weren’t even busy - which meant I could grab an empty seat with better views on the way back - but £21 for what is in effect a one stop advance return ticket represents crap value for money. OK it includes the ferry run by the railway from Kingswear to Dartmouth and back which would otherwise £2 each way (although the adjacent Higher Ferry is only £1 single for foot passengers). 

 

I took a look around the town and got an ice lolly (go to the Co-op the queue is shorter and it’s cheaper than the riverside kiosks) and walked along the river side to the Tudor Bayard’s Cove Fort and then to Dartmouth Castle.

 

 

 

 It was too hot to enjoy scrambling around old ruins really. The castle cafe was bedlam. I’d resigned myself to a hot walk back to town and never was the sign for the castle ferry, which I didn’t know about, so welcome. One short river cruise later I was back in Dartmouth drinking beer in The Crab PH by the river. I got the four o’clock train back to Paignton.

 

Later I went down to Paignton Harbour as I had before to watch the sun set over the top of a glass. Alas the Crab & Hammer wasn’t open so I walked into The Still House instead. Which was a mistake. No decent choice of beer - lager only - and first question was what’s your table number. Didn't have a table number but ordered a pint of Devon Rock Lager. Which the barman insisted on carrying following me out to a table outside like some sort of performance art piece. I noticed all the tables had a QR code nailed to them so they hope you’ll order via your phone. They can FRO with that ‘spoons wannabe idea. Also Devon Rock is watery tasteless pish. And the sunset wasn’t up to much so here’s a photo of the previous night’s.

 

 

 

 All in all an unexpectedly good weekend, unexpectedly good hotel, unexpectedly hot weather. Here’s the usual Flickr Album

 

 

 

Since I decided to take the scenic route home on Monday and avoid Stonehenge for a change here’s a picture of a figure carved into a chalk hillside of a man waving his massive weapon about. 

 

 

 

 Yes, just for the opportunity for the childish humour :-)