Festive duration

The religious festival of Christmas is twelve days long - it starts on Christmas Day (and not before) and ends on Jan 5th (Twelfth Night).

Some traditions include the Epiphany season, which extends to Candlemas (Feb 2nd, forty days after Christmas Day), which commemorates Christ's presentation in the Temple. Shrove Tuesday can fall as early as the following day, but has not done so since 1818 and will not do so again until 2285.

Twixmas

The period from 27 to 31 December is fully part of the Christmas season, namely the 3rd to the 7th days of the twelve. Traditionally the festivities lasted all the way to Twelfth Night - but on no account would decorations etc have been put up before Christmas Eve.

I was once told by a Spanish colleague that it is not done in Spanish-speaking countries to wish someone a Happy Easter before the day itself (even if you are not going to see them again until after Easter), as that would be to disregard the significance of Holy Week and Good Friday.

Poppytide

I'm sure the BBC's poppy-wearing gets earlier each year. There was one on the News last night. To me, this premature anticipation of the event detracts from the significance of the day itself - in the same way that people seem to be "partied-out" long before December 25th.

In the 1920s, When WW1 was well within the memory of most of the population, it was accepted practice to only wear the poppy on Armistice Day itself - a key point in one of Dorothy Sayers' "Lord Peter Wimsey" mysteries. If that's good enough for the (admittedly fictional) General Fentiman, it's good enough for me.

Bloomberg Arcade

Had a nose round just now - there are actually three pools - two at the Queen Vic Street end, and a third at the Cannon Street end. I don't think the pools mark the original line of the Wall Brook, which is followed by the street of that name along the east side of the Bloomberg estate, rather than cutting across the middle. The source of the Walbrook is somewhere in Shoreditch.

Reverse BR logos

Sealink only used the back to front symbol on the starboard side of their ships - it is a common practice (although not universal) to use a reversed symbol on that side of a ship so it represents a flag as seen flying sternwards from a mast, (i.e seen from the reverse side) even though the symbol is actually painted on. Some military shoulder insignia follow the same pattern (e.g the US army), as did the earlier version of the British railways "Lion and Wheel" symbol, which had two versions, to be placed on opposite sides of steam locomotives so that the lion always faced forwards.

How many Overground stations are there?

From a quick count from the map, there are about 111 stations served by Overground services, but many of these stations are managed by other operators such as TfL Rail, the Underground, C2C, Anglia, London Midland, SWR, Southern, South Eastern, and Network Rail.

Abbey Wood Crossrail

Bexley now has a TfL-operated station, thus halving the number of London boroughs lacking such a facility.

Bromley - the instigators of the "Fares Fair" court case, now has five Tramlink stops and three Overground stations. Sutton has two Tramlink stops.

Pedway update

Google Street view shows the Swan Lane bridge was still there as recently as three years ago, and the pedway seems to have followed parallel to Arthur Street to emerge opposite the Monument. Arthur Street itself is closed at present, I think for work on the Bank station enlargement. We may see the pedway return?

By the way, the thoroughfare crossed by the Pudding lLne bridge is Lower Thames Street - the name changes from Upper to Lower as it passes under London Bridge.

Baynard House

The pedway connection to Blackfriars station, together with the new south entrance to that station, provides a route from Queen Vic Street to the South Bank without being exposed to the elements!

Peter's Hill

It may not have the ambience of the other pedways, but Peters Hill is very much elevated where it crosses Upper Thames Street. The street below only briefly emerges from under the buildings that span it, so it is rarely noticed.

Ticket gates

As for ticket gates, SWR have "the journey starts here" plastered all over the ticket gates at Waterloo - but curiously only on the side you can see as you leave the platform......

Tube announcements

At least the announcements (audible and visual) on the actual buses trains and tubes are not diluted by advertising (yet). Although there is so much unneccesary verbiage* already that many people filter it all out (or talk over it) so that the important information (like "this train will not call at........") is missed.

Above the A3

The New Malden display has attracted a lot of opprobrium not only as a distraction to motorists but because it reduces sight lines on the junction above the underpass, and local residents have complained of the light pollution.

Air pressure sensors

Sensors that weigh the train by monitoring the air pressure in the suspension are not new - I recall reading they were fitted to the Underground's "C" stock, introduced in 1969. The original purpose, I understand, was to control the brakes by compensating for differences in the weight of the train so that a consistent braking rate is applied for a given position of the driver's brake handle).

The Rochdale Pioneers

Whilst the Rochdale Pioneers have an important place in the history of the co-operative movement, they were by no means the first consumer co-operative (they were not even the first in Rochdale....). But it is from them that the modern movement's principles can trace its roots. The Rochdale Co-Op remained independent until it merged with the larger United Co-Operatives, which in turn became part of the Co-Operative Group - the largest, but by no means the only, Co-operative society in the country.

Cotton imports

In 1784 there was a large home market for cotton products as well. And since we can't grow cotton in the UK, the volume of raw cotton imported must have been much greater. The children in English mill towns were not the only people being exploited.

Styal

Until 1993 Styal did indeed have a much more frequent train service, but then Manchester Airport station opened, and most trains now go there instead.

Invite

Anyone who sends me an "invite" instead of an "invitation" is off to a bad start...........

"to even out the service"

This is a common trick of bus operators to inconvenience passengers in order to meet TfL targets. The timing points at which performance is measured are at busy interchanges, but the measure of whether they are early or not is done by arrival time rather than departure time. I have several times missed connections to trains or other buses because of this practice. TfL should realise that nobody minds if a bus arrives at its destination early. (Leaving early is another matter entirely of course, but they don't measure that).

Particulates

Most of the M25 is outside the GLA area and therefore not shown on the map. It forms the boundary in the Waltham Cross and Heathrow areas, and cuts across the easternmost extremity of Greater London, and slightly elevated levels can be seen there.

In any case motorways, despite having higher volumes of traffic than the radial routes and the North Circular, probably produce no more particulates as (most of the time!) traffic is moving smoothly, with engines turning at their most fuel-efficient speeds and little use of the brakes.

Declassified

A useful tip - if the train is advertised as 2nd class only, (as all Hertford East trains are) you can use any part of the train, even if part of it is labelled as 1st class.

It happens quite often on Thameslink and SWR.

The Low Line

The leaflet describes the walk as "London Bridge to Southwark", perpetuating the anatopistic* naming of the station at the junction of The Cut and Blackfriars Road. The soi-disant "Southwark" station is a long way from the heart of Southwark itself (the borough that grew up around the south end of London Bridge), for which the closest stations are Borough and London Bridge, and indeed "Southwark" station is partly within the neighbouring borough of Lambeth. The seemingly arbitrary end of the "Low Line" is the borough boundary.

*anatopism - the geographical equivalent of an anachronism

Matlock

Matlock was already on my "to-do" list as one of the places to visit on what will be many trips to and from Manchester over the next two years (I was in Edale on Monday), but I'd forgotten quite how much there is to see there. I did go there once before, shortly after the cablecar opened (and got a ride on the prototype Sprinter diesel train as a bonus).

By the way, the "little snaking road" you can see from the cable car is the mighty A6 - which shows how high up you really are.

The ineffectual train

It means that Melton and Oakham get a direct train to and from London every morning and every evening. There are much larger towns in the East Midlands that can only dream of such a bounty.

St George's Hospital

The original main building of St Georges, near Hyde Park Corner, closed in 1973, when the former Tooting branch (originally known as the Grove Hospital, before being taken under the wing of St Georges in 1954) was earmarked as the new site of the main hospital.

Bus data

The raw data on bus usage can only tell you where people got on, and therefore not which is the busiest section, because that also depends where people get off. You can get an approximation of loadings over the day if you assume travel patterns are symmetrical - that is to say the number of people getting off a westbound bus at stop X over the course of a day is probably close to the number getting on eastbound buses at the corresponding stop across the road.

Heathrow Express

There may be people for whom the difference between Tube and HEx (approximately £1 per minute) is worth it, but we should note that the average time advantage is not as good as that. HEx only runs every 15 minutes, so much of the time advantage may be lost in waiting for the next departure. And Paddington is not very central.

Taxis

Sometimes, even in London, a taxi is the only practical option. But I don't think I've used more than two in the past ten years - both were 1km journeys which would have involved two buses (pre-Hopper), it was pouring with rain, and I was travelling with someone on crutches.

(Actually, for short journeys with two or three people, a taxi can be cheaper than the bus)

First Class

Surely no-one would buy a first class ticket to or from Slade Green, as there is no first class on that line?

Other than the London termini, The only stations in Greater London on South Eastern to have First class services are Orpington, St Mary Cray and Bromley South - the first two of which are in Zone 6.

Manhattan Loft Building

The Landmark Background Protection Area does not include Newham, possibly because no-one ever thought anything that tall would be built that far from the Square Mile

Given that the Manhattan Loft Building is now a fait accompli, the simplest way of restoring the sky background to the view of St Pauls might be to move King Henry's Mound about 100 yards further south!

The Manhattan Loft is in the Olympic Park site, not Docklands, so the relevant planning authority in 2011 was the Olympic Delivery Authority

The London Docklands Development Corporation was wound up in 1998.

The protected area extends 3km behind St Pauls - The Olympic Park is more than twice that distance.

Peninsular

A pedant notes: "peninsular" is an adjective, as in the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company (better known as P&O). The noun is "peninsula", as in the Iberian Peninsula to which P&O originally sailed.

Uniqueness

Uniqueness, as you say, is a binary thing - either it is unique (in some way, however small and insignificant) or it is identical in every respect with something else.

I suppose "most unique" might mean it has more unique features.

Leopard Field

Leopard Field could potentially also have Impala, Chamois, Gazelles, Hawks, Kestrels, Hornets, Mustangs, Ponys, Stingrays and Barracuda, but none are very likely. If it also takes coaches you might indeed see a Leopard.

Major Pringle

It was not a general (pun not intended) practice for the Civil Service to recruit from the military, but from its founding in 1840 right up until the 1960s Her Majesty's Railway Inspectorate drew its personnel from the officers of the Corps of Royal Engineers. The last Chief Inspector with a military background, Major Rose, retired as recently as 1988.

Major Pringle worked on construction of railways in east Africa and India, before joining HMRI in 1900. He was appointed as head of His Majesty's Railways Inspectorate in 1916, by which time he had been promoted to Colonel.

Signalling

I think the oldest signalling still in use on the Underground is at Edgware Road, which was last resignalled in 1926 (some reports say it was decommissioned recently, but I understand they have jumped the gun as the press release only reported the replacement as having been given the go-ahead)

The 1926 resignalling by the Metropolitan Railway was designed to accommodate a new relief line between Kilburn and Edgware road, and the platform destination displays were thus made capable of displaying exotic destinations like Watford and Quainton Road.

Once the Met and LER were both incorporated into London Transport, a less ambitious relief plan was formulated, using the Bakerloo Line and missing out Edgware Road altogether.

George Osborne

Given that the Evening Standard's editor signed off the government funding for this folly (in his previous job) it would be surprising if the subsequent scrapping were to be welcomed with open arms. There was an opinion column in it today, from the Chairman of the Trust which was not only somewhat inaccurate (in its assertions that it would be "open all year" but also, rather worryingly given his position, (and his former experience as chairman of a major bank) he doesn't seem to understand the "sunk cost" fallacy.

Trees

Even with a high maintenance budget, keeping trees as large as those in the artists' impression alive in such a location would have been a challenge, with the inevitably shallow roots (because they're on a bridge!) depriving them of both stability and nourishment - not to mention that any Thames bridge can get quite windy.

Henry VIII

Before Henry VIII's privatised the monasteries (by selling them off) he first had to nationalise them (by seizing them from the Church)

SWT

SWT was one of three franchises due to start on the same day in Feb 1996. The very first privatised service was a rail replacement bus from Fishguard. The Great Western franchise was bought out by First Group (who already had a minority holding in it) in 1998 and the franchise, now expanded, is still in the same ownership today.

The second franchise to start up would have been a management buyout of the Essex Thameside services, but the franchise was halted literally the evening before startup after the managers in question were found to be involved in accounting irregularities which improved the franchise's financial position at the expense of London Transport. This left SWT to run the very first privatised passenger train.

Waterloo

Waterloo's congestion problems would be a lot less if they announced platform numbers more promptly. The present practice of leaving it until the last minute results in congestion on the concourse as people wait for their train to be announced, and a mad scrum at the barriers when it is finally called, (not to mention the conflicts with people arriving off the train) and because the train is due to depart so soon people naturally jump on the nearest carriage, meaning that people getting to the platform a little later can't get on at the rear and haven't got time to get further down the train, thus getting left behind and having to wait for another train, further adding to the congestion on the concourse.

It is simply not credible that the people responsible for the departure screens do not know which platform a train is to go from until it arrives. (And if a late change is necessary, it would be much easier to manage if the concourse is not clogged up with people).