There’s an excellent docklands museum, an offshoot of the museum of London. In it you learn the locals fought against Thatcher’s privatisation and “redevelopment” of their home as much as they could. They lost, and now Canary Wharf is a shiny tribute to public money paying for private gain, a place of multinational banks, chainContinue reading “Millwall”
Category Archives: Places
Wandering the Tate
On a January afternoon not quite as cold as the weather augurs predicted, I stepped outside my house and ended up at Tate Modern. There wasn’t a huge amount of conscious thought behind this process; just a desperation to get out culminating in my feet taking me somewhere I hadn’t been to recently. Because, atContinue reading “Wandering the Tate”
Mulling over Mill Hill
Today’s main lesson is that Mill Hill is a real place, not just a trap disguised as an unlikely branch of the northern line. Mill Hill Broadway station is one of the least beautiful in London. Its entrance is beneath the M1 motorway, whereas the similarly grim Hendon station sits alongside it. I was inContinue reading “Mulling over Mill Hill”
Docklands museum of how awful docklands is
My feet and the robot train from the future took me to the museum of London docklands today. The museum is housed in one of the few remaining 18th century warehouses, which would once have been filled with rum and sugar from the West Indies, as this is West India Quay and it was buildContinue reading “Docklands museum of how awful docklands is”
Skegness confidential
I was in Skegness alone for half an hour. It was early evening; the wind was up and the shops were closing. No-one was checking in at the Quorn hotel, and the last lady in Wilko’s had nearly finished her stock check. The chip shops of chip shop alley were closed for the season. PoolContinue reading “Skegness confidential”
Dogs in the North Sea
A calmer day today. I managed to get the dogs to Chapel beach in the daytime for a change. On the way I was repeatedly reminded that Hobo, the smaller dog, loves squeezing turds out through his arsehole. He unfurls huge stinkers that seem completely out of proportion to his tiny body. Underneath that underbiteContinue reading “Dogs in the North Sea”
The Daleks of Christmas
Hello from Chapel St Leonards. I am lying down on a sofa and eating crisps. An hour ago, I co-recorded an episode of the Ace Doctor Who Podcast in a car on the driveway while drinking a mug of tea. By the wonders of technology I could join my friend despite his lurking many milesContinue reading “The Daleks of Christmas”
Derby and Skegness
To Derby, then, for the wedding of my lovely cousin Andy to his top notch girlfriend Sam. Andy came all the way to Kentucky for my wedding, so it’s only fair I travelled to a hotel five miles outside the queen of the East Midlands, in the sense that royalty is bollocks and so isContinue reading “Derby and Skegness”
South Downs Way: Bramber to Pyecombe
Following swiftly on from the section I did with D and T, I got straight back on my South Downs bullshit, as the kids would put it. My journey back to the ridge involved a train to Burgess Hill, then a deregulation-tastic £5.90 bus to the Downs village of Bramber. 10p of my change fellContinue reading “South Downs Way: Bramber to Pyecombe”
South Downs Way: Amberley to Bramber
Up and out early on a Sunday morning, myself and two friends attempted another section of the South Downs Way. The highlight of the walk was probably Chanctonbury Ring, an exposed hilltop which was once an iron-age hill fort. When, you ask? In the iron age. Them learned peoples reckon it dates from the 4thContinue reading “South Downs Way: Amberley to Bramber”
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