http://youtu.be/dqlXbJOpYiI
The video above is from sometime in 1986 and is some of Syd Pearman’s ‘best of’ footage. I find it interesting for two reasons. One, it seems much more lively with relatively larger crowds than you’d find today. Two, there seems to be much more interaction between the speakers and the crowd than you find these days. What do you think?
The Blanket is a 13 hour timelapse of the snow that fell on London last month. The rain and snow mean that while the video is not the clearest, it does have an almost impressionist feeling to it. Enjoy!
Given that SUBCITY starts at Queen’s Park (on the Bakerloo Line) I thought now would be a good time to post it. It features lot of great Black & White sequences at various famous London stations such Baker Street, Liverpool Street, Waterloo, King’s Cross and Farringdon among others. Watch for several good lingering and timelapse shots.
Found via reddit.
Most of us who live in London know that hotel room prices aren’t cheap. However, since your average Londoner will never stay in a London hotel, most probably couldn’t tell you how much an average one costs per night. At £1,000 a night the following hotels may come as a bit of a shock as they’re probably not what you’d expect:
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Located in Shepherds Bush, the hotel is just a 10 minute walk to the BBC Television Centre – perfect for all your big name celebrities. Features include:
And you better be quick about booking a room, seems there’s only 2 left and one was booked just a minute ago. The hotel gets a solid 6.0/10.0 rating meaning it’s OK. To find out more about the Abbey Hotel Sheperds Bush London please click here.
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Located in Ealing, it’s not too difficult to get to the Earls Court Exhibition Centre and/or Turnham Green. And when you see the amenities I think you’ll agree it’s something special:
Again you better be quick about booking a room as there’s just one left at £1,000 a night. Unfortunately, there don’t seem to be any reviews of the hotel, but I’m sure you expect top notch service at that price. To find out more about the Annexe Rooms please click here.
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The hotel is located about a 10 minute walk from either West Hampstead Tube station or South Hampstead Railway Station. Features include:
Overall this hotel looks like the nicest of the bunch. However, is it really worth £999 a night? Consider you can stay at the Savoy the same night for only £383? To find out more about the Dawson House Hotel London click here.
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This bed & breakfast is situated within a 10 minute walk from Maryland Railway Station (where?). It includes the following features:
Another feature of the hotel is that London Biggin Hill Airport (BQH) is under a 40-minute drive from the Olympic’s B&B. This is handy if you plan to fly in by private jet. To find out more about the Olympic’s B&B please click here.
First, I just want to make it clear that I’m not criticising any of the hotels listed above. I’m sure they’re lovely places to stay, but realistically the pricing does seem a tad high. Nevertheless, I’m only trying to point out a bizarre pricing error, not have fun at anyone else’s expense.
Your first though may be that I’ve photoshopped the booking pages above. I can assure you I haven’t. If I did try to photoshop the prices it would look something like this:
Instead I assume this is just an algorithm bug, somewhat similar to this one that was discovered on Amazon. This is reinforced by the fact that there are only 1 or 2 rooms left for each of these listings. Moreover, only one provider is listed as offering the rooms.
Really not much to it. I’m always been a little curious about which London hotels are the most expensive. So I used Hotels Combined, my favourite hotel comparison site. It claims to compare the prices of hotels using hundreds of travel sites, but the actual number I’ve seen on any given search is usually much smaller (in the ones above only 1).
However, when I did a search for a one night stay between August 1, 2013 and August 2, 2013 – I got the strange results you see above. I did the search in early morning of January 30, 2013 and I expect the listings may no longer be there by the time you read this. If anyone can shed any more light on what’s going on please leave a comment below.
Disclaimer: The links above to Hotels Combined are affiliate links. This means they will pay me a commission BUT only if you choose to book a room. I figure if anyone is crazy enough to book a £1,000 a night hotel room from here, I want a cut. Bandwidth isn’t free. If you object to this please don’t click the links.
I’m a huge fan of alternative Tube maps. And the one above may just be the most ambitious I’ve ever seen. Using TFL’s current London Underground map design, F. Dans has added in most ghost stations, unbuilt lines and disused extensions.
There are many interesting features, such as the District line out to Windsor (which did exist for a short time), the readdition of Aldwych and other Ghost stations and the addiiton of the proposed (but never fully built) Northern Heights extension.
However the one thing that really stands out to me, is that even with the addition of many proposed lines, few would serve South London. It remains a Tube wasteland, although one that is very well connected by rail (not seen on the map).
I first heard about the project from this thread on reddit where he’s seeking to add even more to the map. You can find out more about the project from his website and Flickr page.
The end of the latest TUBE TUBE series. What will the final outcome be? Watch to find out. To watch all the other TUBE TUBE videos visit this page.
The penultimate episode of the TUBE TUBE series is titled ‘The Civil Servant.’ Who knows what the outcome will be in the growing Back2Work scandal?
Steam Train at Baker Street Station from reddit user garethashenden
See what the tube would have looked like 150 years by watching a steam train (Met Locomotive No 1) pass through each of the Underground’s original stations.
If you read this blog, you are no doubt aware that on January 13, 2013 steam returned to the Underground for the first time in almost 50 years as part of London Underground’s 150th Anniversary.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get a ticket for the ride itself and didn’t really feel like making the trek down to one of the stations.
However, London being London and the Tube being the Tube, it seems there was little need for me to go. Below I’ve collected some Youtube videos of the steam train passing through the Underground’s original stations.
The journeys last weekend actually started at Kensington Olympia and ended at Moorgate, but since this is the 150th anniversary of the opening of the original section of the Underground I thought I’d focus on that. Enjoy:
Continue reading Steam Train Along The Original Underground Route – Tube 150
Regular readers will likely know that I’m both walking the Tube to raise money for Bowel Cancer UK and that I’m Canadian. What you likely don’t know anything about is Montreal style smoked meat. Montreal Pastrami by Jacob Harrison and myself are looking to change that.
To find out what smoked meat is all about (if the picture above hasn’t enticed you already) come to the Maple Leaf Pub in Covent Garden anytime after 1pm on Sunday Jan 20, 2013. Plus, he’s generously offered to donate 50p from each sandwich sold to the cause.
What: Try smoked meat. To learn more about what smoked meat is and isn’t read their Manifesto.
Where: Maple Leaf Pub in Covent Garden (41 Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, London WC2E 7LJ) -see map below
When After 1pmTickets go on sale at 12:30pm, meat will start being served at 12:30. Sunday Jan 20, 2013
Who: Myself, Montreal Pastrami and hopefully you!
Why: To try an amazing Canadian food that hasn’t previously been available in London, while also supporting fundraising for Bowel Cancer UK.