Controlled Demolition: Documentary of King’s Cross Roof Demolition

The video above looks at the controlled demolition of the rather ugly green space deck canopy that had been obscuring the Grade I listed Victorian facade of King’s Cross Station since the 1970s. From the video description:

This film documents the project, showing how detailed planning and some unique solutions provided a safe and eventually successful controlled demolition of the structure.

I have a bit of a personal interest in this as I visited King’s Cross more than any other station during my Tube walks. Thus, I could see the progress unfold slowly overtime.

For more pictures of what the canopy looked like before demolition please read my blog pots: The Various Faces Of The King’s Cross Canopy Before Demolition

Done! I’m Now The First Canadian To Have Walked The Entire London Underground

Done

At 2:19 pm today (August 24th, 2013) I completed my final walk of the London Underground, walking from North Acton to Bank with my wife and my father. As far as I know I am now the first Canadian to have walked the entire Tube above ground and will claim that title unless someone can prove otherwise.

I’ve also manged to raise £1,145.07 for Bowel Cancer UK, which while a great start is still far below my initial goal of £16,013. As I continue to post more detailed updates of my walks I’ll continue to ask for donations to support this very worthy cause.

This completes a journey that started just over a year ago (August 19th, 2012) with a short half hour long walk along the Waterloo & City Line.

Since then I’ve walked beyond the borders of London and the M25 to the mythical Zone 9. I’ve walked east, west, north but only rarely south. I’ve walked through some rain, but have on the whole had incredible luck with the weather. I’ve mostly walked it alone, but finished on a high-note completing the last two legs with my father and the last with my wife as well.

It’s been a journey that’s taken up a huge portion of my life to the extent that it still feels a little surreal that it’s all over. During the same time period I also manged to visit all 270 tube stations separately, just because the Tube is really cool and it would have been a shame not to visit the stations I was walking past.

Over the next 6 months I’ll post detailed accounts of all my walks (and station visits), but in the meantime I thought I’d post just a few quick stats about what I’ve done.

Total distance walked: 394.3 miles (634.56 km) – almost the distance from London to Edinburgh
Time spent walking: 151 hours 16 minutes – almost 1 full week
Number of lines walked: 12 (11 current lines + former East London Line)

Total number of walks: 23
Shortest walk: Waterloo & City line: Waterloo to Bank – 1.6 miles (2.6 km)
Longest walk: Central line walk #3: Epping to Leytonstone to Woodford via Hainault – 27.97 miles (45.01 km)

Average walking speed: 2.61 miles/hr
Average walk length: 17.14 miles (27.58 km)
Average walk time: 6 hours 34 minutes

Unique stations visited: 270
Total stations visited: 381 (multiple vists to stations where more than 1 line goes through them)

Favourite walk (besides last ones): Metropolitan Line day 3 (Watford to Moor Park to Amersham and Chesham) – great weather & scenery.
Least favourite walk: Jubilee line day 2 (Waterloo to Stanmore) – constant rain for several hours while walking through suburban London.

Thanks to everyone who has supported me during this journey. I hope you stick around to read the full account. If you’d like to know any other stats just ask in the comments section below:

View Of London By Helicopter…. From 1967


Click on image above to watch video

The video above by British Pathe from 1967 is proof that Jason Hawkes isn’t the first Londoner to take videos of London by helicopter. Titled ‘London Landmarks’ it features:

Aerial shots from helicopter flying along the length of River Thames from Tower Bridge to Battersea. Among landmarks seen are Tower Bridge, Tower of London, Houses of Parliament, Vickers Building, Battersea Fun Fair and Power Station.

Well worth a watch.

Found via @MrTimDunn

Large Living and Small Queues – An Alternative London Guide

This post was written by Robin Adams on behalf of the National Trust. Some good ideas for tourists and Londoners alike.

We all know London’s well established favourite tourist spots. The London Eye, St Paul’s Cathedral, Tower of London, British Museum, Tower Bridge, Tate Gallery… the list goes on. These are the attractions which consistently make London the most popular tourist destination in the world.

But popularity comes at a cost and that cost is queues. If you’ve only got 48 hours to spend in London you don’t want to waste your time standing about waiting to get into attractions. With that in mind we’ve picked out five alternative ideas for your trip to London – places where you can enjoy great sights without having to spend ages waiting to get in.

1. Discover Some Hidden Gems

Continue reading Large Living and Small Queues – An Alternative London Guide

Hammersmith & City Line Underground Stations – Facts, Trivia And Impressions

This post is part of my Randomly London v. The Tube Challenge. Get the latest about challenge updates here. Donate to Bowel Cancer UK here.

068 - Platforms at Baker Street Station
The best set of platforms on the entire network? I think so.

While the Hammersmith & City (H&C) line operates along the entire original section of the London Underground, it has only been shown as a separate line on the tube map since 1990. This means that it’s technically London’s newest tube line, although no new track or stations were built when the route was transferred from the Metropolitan line.

With the extension of the Circle line all the way to Hammersmith in 2009, the Hammersmith & City line no longer has any unique stations. Nevertheless, here are some photos, facts and my impressions of each of the 29 stations that currently make up the line:

Continue reading Hammersmith & City Line Underground Stations – Facts, Trivia And Impressions

Tube Walking Update – I’ve Now Visited All 270 London Underground Stations

The rather nondescript Ealing Broadway marks the end of my station visits
The rather nondescript Ealing Broadway marks the last of my station visits

Just a quick update to say that as of yesterday – August 4th, 2013 – I’ve visited all 270 London Underground stations. It feels a bit surreal and is a pretty major accomplishment on it’s own. However, I’m now just 3 walks away from walking all the lines as well.

While I’ve been posting to this blog a few times a month, most of it has not been about my tube walking. If you’ve been paying attention to this site’s header, you’ll notice I keep knocking off lines but not providing updates.

The simple truth is that I’ve been so busy I haven’t had much time to write. Hopefully once I’m done the walks I’ll have more time to devote to writing about them. So stay tuned to this space for a very detailed account of my whole tube walking adventure over the next several months.

Thanks to everyone for their support and remember you can donate to Bowel Caner UK here,

Ian

What Are The Best Things To Do In London That No One Knows About?

Reddit user cr3ative (twitter @cr3) has a few ideas I bet you may not have heard of:

For example did you know this about the London Eye?

223 - London Eye on The Thames

Between 3am and 4am (usually, weather permitting), the London Eye is put in to a self-cleaning cycle and rotates at about 6RPM. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but that’s one revolution every 10 seconds! It gets all the rain, dust, grime etc off, all the mud etc ends up in the thames.

They don’t “offically” allow you to ride it in this time, but slipping the cleaners (who aren’t the normal ride operators) £20 will get you on one of the pods.

It’s a hell of a rush but tbh only a matter of time until someone gets hurt and they stop this.

Or how Celebrity Spotting works?

Celebrity Spotting in London is a fun hobby, but the first and only rule is DO NOT ACKNOWLEDGE THEM OR POINT, it’s rude and intrudes on their day, and then we won’t get to see them again.

Boy George hangs out at Cargo in Shoreditch quite often for example. Go out and hang around the pubs and clubs and see how many celebs you can spot in one night.

Each celeb has a card punching tool which verifies you have seen them. Ask politely when they’re not busy and they’ll punch a card for you. Once you have a card with ten punches on, the City of London police will let you have a go on their taser gun (in the safety of their training course).

I tasered an owl out of a tree on my go, and it was fucking hilarious.

Want to look like a real London pro? Make sure you do the following in front of a big crowd

Continue reading What Are The Best Things To Do In London That No One Knows About?