London Football Update Premier League 2024-25 2nd Arsenal 4th Chelsea 10th Brentford 11th Fulham 12th Crystal Palace 14th West Ham United 17th Tottenham Hotspur Chelsea had an excellent year, ending the season two places higher than last year and qualifying for Europe and everyone was very proud. Fulham had an excellent year, ending the season two places higher than last year and everyone was very proud. West Ham had an excellent year, winning no great honours but finishing comfortably mid-table so the money rolls in again next year and everyone was very proud. Championship 2024-25 8th Millwall 15th QPR QPR had an excellent year, ending the season three places higher than last year and everyone was very proud. League One 2024-25 4th Charlton Athletic (P) 6th Leyton Orient Leyton Orient had an excellent year, ending the season five places higher than last year, thus earning a play-off place. Admittedly they didn't win the play-off final at Wembley at the weekend but they came second, plus they weren't losing for the first thirty minutes of the game so the fans could still dream of glory, and OK it all ended in heartbreak and tears but hey there's always next year and everyone was very proud. League Two 2024-25 5th AFC Wimbledon (P) 11th Bromley Bromley had an excellent year, spending their very first year in the Football League and cementing their credentials with a creditably mid-table finish which is their best ever position and everyone was very proud. National League 2024-25 1st Barnet (P) 12th Sutton United 20th Wealdstone 21st Dagenham & Redbridge Sutton United had an excellent year, making up for being relegated from the Football League last season by not being relegated again this year which would have been calamitous, and everyone was very proud. Dagenham & Redbridge had a bad year, throwing away a lead in the last match of the season when Solihull Moors equalised and so being demoted to National League South where no London team wants to be. But at least they didn't come second in the Premier League like total losers Arsenal so it could have been worse, thus everyone was terribly proud. Women's Super League 2024-25 1st Chelsea 2nd Arsenal 9th West Ham United 11th Tottenham Hotspur 12th Crystal Palace and the Women's FA Cup too for good measure. Their season could hardly have been better all things considered and everyone was very proud. West Ham had an excellent year, ending the season two places higher than last year and everyone was very proud. Crystal Palace had an excellent year, not the women who were horribly demoted after a ghastly failure of a season but the men who won the only FA Cup that really matters. It truly was an excellent yet disappointing season in London football, but mostly excellent and almost everyone was very proud.

A Grand Day Out: LEEDS CASTLE Location: nr Maidstone, Kent, ME17 [map] Open: 10am-6pm Admission: £36.50 (£33 online) House open: 10.30am-5pm Website: leeds-castle.com Four word summary: moated glory amid parkland Time to allow: all day Kent, not Yorkshire, about five miles east of Maidstone. If you drive in it's only a mile from Junction 8 on the M20, which is damned convenient. If you take the train it's a half hour walk from Hollingbourne station, plus you get 20% off the admission price (ditto those arriving by bus or bike). It's a fairly whopping admission price but for that you can return any time for a full year, so you could come back again next Spring Bank Holiday. Plus it's gorgeous. The castle's glory years began in 1278 when Eleanor of Castile, wife of Edward I, bought the original Norman fort here and transformed it into a royal residence. The site was perfect, spanning two islands in the River Len which was duly flooded hereabouts to create a huge protective lake. Later Edward II besieged it, Richard II's wife-to-be overwintered here and Henry VIII gifted it to his first wife long before that fateful divorce, so the castle can claim plenty of history. Its last owner was Lady Baillie, a Manhattan socialite, who retained Leeds Castle in her second divorce settlement and on her death chose to gift it to a charitable trust (and definitely not the National Trust). Hence we can all pop round today. The main thing to see at Leeds Castle is thus the castle, although it may be a bit of a hike across the grounds to get there. It stands proud in the middle of the lake and you can only reach it by crossing an arched bridge (and showing your wristband to a member of staff). This delivers you through a portcullis throat to the Inner Bailey, which is mostly lawn with the main crenellated building on the far side. Prepare to do that thing where you walk round a series of old rooms on a prescribed route entering each one with an 'ooh'. The Library unsurprisingly is full of books, the Dining Room was being polished in readiness for some grand meal and you may or may not find a guide tinkling the ivories in the Drawing Room. Where things really pick up is when you cross another arched bridge, this time fully internal, from island number one to island number two. This is the older part of the castle where Catherine of Aragon had her apartments, although a lot of reconstruction and faux-medieval infill has been added since. Here are splendid wooden ceilings, massive fireplaces and gothic iron lanterns, plus scattercushions embroidered with facts about former female residents. Most of the rooms are laid out as they might have been in the heyday of Lady Baillie's occupation with props including typewriters, champagne towers and Harrods hatboxes, so the ambience is more prewar Art Deco than Tudor palace. But what a splendid place to have lived, secure on your own double island, these days the only potential attack being from a golf course across the moat. Ten other things to see and enjoy at Leeds Castle [map] • Adjacent to the giant moat is a second lake called the Great Water, which may looks old but was actually added in the 1970s when Leeds Castle was being transformed from family home to landscaped attraction. It's broad enough that you can take a boat trip across it - slow and flat-bottomed - for the additional fare of £1.50 each way. Watch out for swans (and currently cute little cygnets). • The lovely gardens (of which there are several) • The Dog Collar Museum (seriously) • The Queens With Means Experience (a 7 minute cinematic show) • The refreshment courtyard (includes Hackney Gelato) • The adventure playground (tons of tiring stuff for kids) • The Maze and Grotto (much better than you'd expect) • The wider parkland (includes public footpaths) • The Bird of Prey centre (plus falconry display) • The tri-nation jousting (bank holiday weekend only) n.b. It's been a long day so I will come back and enlarge these ten bullet points into proper descriptions later. I may even be writing them up as you read this, or have written some of them up, or be in the middle of editing some fresh text, so please enjoy the evolving nature of this post or perhaps just come back later in the day by which time it should be 'proper'.

Rail renationalisation lists The key minute 1:59am: South Western Railway is a privately-owned company 2:00am: South Western Railway is a government-owned company Already-nationalised rail services 2018: London North Eastern Railway (formerly Virgin Trains East Coast) [defaulted] 2020: Northern Trains (formerly Arriva Rail North) [unreliable] 2021: Transport for Wales Rail (formerly KeolisAmey Wales) [pandemic] 2021: Southeastern (formerly Govia) [undeclared revenue] 2022: ScotRail (formerly Abellio ScotRail) [poor performance] 2023: TransPennine Trains (formerly First TransPennine Express) [poor service] 2023: Caledonian Sleeper (formerly Serco) [poor value for money] 2025: South Western Railway [DELIBERATELY NATIONALISED] A very brief history of rail nationalisation 200 years ago: all railways built by private companies 1 Jan 1948: railways nationalised - birth of British Railways 1 Apr 1994 - 31 Mar 1997: railways passed to private companies 24 May 2025: start of deliberate renationalisation Some historical nuance 1825-ish: first rail service 1914: the government takes control for wartime reasons 1923: railways return to the control of four private companies 1965: British Railways rebrands as British Rail 2020: there will be no more new rail franchises Highly relevant legislation 6 Aug 1947: Transport Act 1947 5 Nov 1993: Railways Act 1993 28 Nov 2024: Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Act 2024 Public opinion (2024)    Public sector - 66% The first ten nationalised SWR services (this morning) 0536 Woking → Surbiton (bus) 0557 Guildford → Surbiton (bus) (bus) (bus) 0614 Waterloo → Shepperton* (bus) (bus) 0627 Southampton Central → Waterloo * The 0614 is the chosen train for the launch shindig with top brass (because nobody wanted to schlep to Woking for 0536) Open access operators Current: Eurostar (since 1994) , Heathrow Express (since 1998), Hull Trains (since 2002), Grand Central (since 2007), Lumo (since 2021) Former: Heathrow Connect (2005-2018), Wrexham & Shropshire (2008-2011) Start of current franchise 1996: c2c, Chiltern Railways 2006: Great Western Railway 2007: CrossCountry 2014: Gatwick Express, Great Northern, Southern, Thameslink 2016: Greater Anglia 2017: South Western Railway, West Midlands Trains 2018: LNER 2019: East Midlands Railway, Avanti West Coast Renationalisation dates already confirmed 25 May 2025: South Western Railway 20 Jul 2025: c2c 12 Oct 2025: Greater Anglia Earliest possible renationalisation dates whenever: Chiltern Railways, Govia Thameslink Railway, West Midlands Trains 22 Jun 2025: Great Western Railway 18 Oct 2026: Avanti West Coast, East Midlands Railway 17 Oct 2027: CrossCountry Attempted summary of franchise evolution Chiltern: 1996 Chiltern Railways (and still is) CrossCountry: 1997 Virgin CrossCountry → 2007 CrossCountry East Anglia: 1997 Anglia + 1997 Great Eastern → 2004 One (later National Express East Anglia) → 2012 Greater Anglia East Coast: 1996 GNER → 2007 National Express East Coast → 2009 nationalised → 2015 Virgin East Coast → 2018 nationalised (LNER) East Midlands: 1996 Midland Mainline → 2007 East Midlands Trains → 2019 East Midlands Railway Essex Thameside: 1996 c2c (and still is) Greater Western: 1996 Thames Trains/Wales & West/Valley Lines → 2001 Wessex Trains → 2006 First Great Western → 2015 GWR Northern: 1997 First North Western/Arriva Trains Northern → 2004 Northern Rail → 2016 Arriva Rail North → 2020 nationalised ScotRail: 1997 National Express → 2004 First → 2015 Abellio → 2021 nationalised South Eastern: 1996 Connex South Eastern → 2003 South Eastern Trains → 2006 Southeastern → 2021 nationalised Southern: 1996 Connex South Central → 2001 South Central → 2003 Southern → 2015 Govia South Western: 1995 South West Trains → 2007 +Island Line → 2017 South Western Railway → 2025 nationalised Thameslink & Great Northern: 1997 Thameslink/WAGN → 2004 Great Northern → 2006 First Capital Connect → 2015 Govia Thameslink TransPennine Express: 2004 TransPennine Express → 2023 nationalised Wales & Borders 1996 Wales & West/Valley Lines → 2001 Wales & Borders → 2003 Arriva Trains Wales → 2018 TfW → 2021 nationalised West Coast: 1997 Virgin Trains → 2019 Avanti West Coast West Midlands: 1997 Central Trains/Silverlink → 2007 London Midland → 2017 West Midlands Trains DFT Holding Companies DFT OLR1 LIMITED: now LONDON NORTH EASTERN RAILWAY DFT OLR2 LIMITED: now SE TRAINS LIMITED DFT OLR3 LIMITED: now NORTHERN TRAINS LIMITED DFT OLR4 LIMITED: now GREATER WESTERN RAILWAY LIMITED DFT OLR5 LIMITED: now SOUTH WESTERN RAILWAY LIMITED DFT OLR6 LIMITED: now CROSS COUNTRY RAIL LIMITED DFT OLR7 LIMITED: now C2C RAILWAY LIMITED DFT OLR8 LIMITED: now RAILWAY WEST COAST LIMITED DFT OLR9 LIMITED: now GA TRAINS LIMITED DFT OLR10 LIMITED: now TRANSPENNINE TRAINS LIMITED DFT OLR11 LIMITED: now CHILTERN RAIL LIMITED DFT OLR12 LIMITED: now WM TRAINS LIMITED DFT OLR13 LIMITED: now MIDLANDS EAST TRAINS LIMITED DFT OLR14 LIMITED: now THAMESLINK SOUTHERN GREAT NORTHERN LIMITED pedantic comments if(postComments['165411420181912'] != null){document.write(' (' + postComments['165411420181912'] + ')')}else{document.write(' (0)')}; How simple it could all be in the future Great British Railways

THE UNLOST RIVERS OF LONDON Bonesgate Stream Malden Rushett → Chessington → Tolworth (4 miles) Bonesgate Stream is the river which drains this elongated extrusion, from a field in sight of Chessington World of Adventures to a rewilded channel on the Watersedge Estate. Most of it flows across private land so in the upper reaches you only get a glimpse, but the last mile is fully followable with a slew of pylons to boot. The somewhat macabre name comes from the river's association with the burial of plague victims, although don't let that put you off. much further than the others so I'll be following that. Everything kicks off amid a gloriously broad field belonging to Rushett Farm, just below the treeline of Ashtead Common. Freshly-planted wheat spreads down to a thin line of trees following the lowest contour, within which the slightest of trickles begins its journey towards the Thames. The first sighting comes from a slab bridge on a farm track where the earth has fallen away beneath a hawthorn in full flower. Keep walking and in a few minutes you could be sipping a flat white in The Barn, part of the farm's diversification into glamping, boutique wellness and corporate awaydays, whose refreshment offering is open to all. But the river, thankfully, isn't going that way. Hedgerow Heroes, to a second gap in the trees and cross the foliage-shrouded stream. The field on the far side is parched and fallow but also flat, which is why it also doubles up as an occasional airstrip. This looks quite prominent on a map but the uncultivated grass landing strip is really only visible from the air, while from the footpath the only clue is a windsock flapping away in the distance by the farm. The Bonesgate Stream is alas already making a break for privacy, emerging from its oaken sleeve only to dip into a pipe beneath busy Rushett Lane. You really don't want to come to these upper reaches solely for the river but this is excellent walking country, not just for the vast expanse of Ashtead and Epsom Commons but also (as previously recommended) for the Chessington Countryside Walk. battery storage facility is destined to fill an adjacent field, approved on appeal by a government inspector. Also if you can hear screaming in the distance it's not carnage, it's because Chessington World of Adventures is imminent and the Vampire ride is in the nearest corner. I have never screamed on the Vampire, only grinned wildly, but I digress. Chessington & Hook FC, mid-table stalwarts of Division 1, there being no other reason to visit. The surrounding fields would likely have become housing instead had Hitler not invaded Poland three months after Chessington South station opened. Half a mile of additional track had already been laid, terminating here, but the postwar Green Belt kyboshed that and so the unlost river trickles on. reacquaint yourself with the river you can follow a narrow alley down to a concrete footbridge over a low dribble, now a couple of metres wide, but only do that if you're continuing up the other side to Horton Country Park because it's no grand sight. parish church and the chip shop at Copt Gilders, ticking all sightseeing boxes, then descend into what's now a very pronounced valley. The delightful riverside attraction here is Castle Hill Local Nature Reserve and Scheduled Ancient Monument. Nobody's quite sure when the central earthworks emerged or why, only that a Roman coin was once found here, but the information board says the most likely theory is that it was built for a medieval hunting lodge in a deer park. Feel free to scramble up top or explore the hazel coppices, but the real gamechanger riverwise is the existence of a path alongside the shady Bonesgate Stream, which thankfully continues all the way to river's end. Welcome To The Bonesgate Nature Reserve says the wooden sign on the other side of the road, immediately underneath a massive pylon plonked down beside the stream. A similar sentinel guards the northern gate, and between them a fizzy catenary hangs high above a stripe of lawn and linear undergrowth. A couple of locations exist where you can duck into the trees and stand beside the stream, such as it as at present after barely any rain, but mainly this appears to be a very popular place to walk a dog. At the next road crossing is a sturdy faux-Tudor pub which used to be called the Bonesgate but is now inexplicably the William Bourne, recently optimised for Sky Sports with the addition of an eighth HD TV screen. Check the culvert and you may spot a narrow metal 'mammal ledge', designed to shepherd small creatures under the main road in relative safety. The Environment Agency remodelled the river hereabouts in 2008, removing six austere weirs and replacing a harsh concrete channel with soft-edge meanders. Look down from the cycle path and you'll now see low gravel riffles and occasional log deflectors, all supposedly improving flow diversity and bed scour although it's hard to tell at current river levels. Any fish hereabouts would be far better sticking to the deeper, broader Hogsmill, into whose waters the Bonesgate Stream merges beyond a final white footbridge. Tolworth Court Farm Fields back to civilisation or maybe piggyback onto London Loop section 8 and meander riverside to Kingston. Not that you ever will but the Bonesgate valley has much to recommend it, be that open fields, ancient earthworks or a 35 year-old suspended swinging rollercoaster.

I went out yesterday morning, inspired by something I'd read, and visited somewhere on the other side of London. When I got there I had a quick look round and took some photos. And I haven't told anyone else about it. One thing about living by yourself is that there's nobody else at home to chat to. If you have an opinion on the news, nobody's there to hear it. If you come up with a really good joke, it's wasted. If you cook something unusual for lunch, nobody comments. If you do a really good job of cleaning the windows, nobody notices. If you want reassurance that what you're wearing looks OK, the mirror never answers back. And if you go out for the day, nobody's waiting to hear all about it when you get home. Who else cares that I've watered my cactus and kept it alive? Who wants to hear that I've been back to the library and what I thought of the last book I returned? Who might help with three down in the crossword? Who can I rail at when the price of chocolate biscuits goes up again? Who'll notice that stray eyebrow hair or the splodge of sun lotion that didn't quite blend in? When I get home from visiting X, Y and Z who wants to hear details of how unusual X was and how the journey almost went wrong between Y and Z? Some of us are bursting with mundane stories and have nobody to tell. I do have one significant outlet, obviously, and that's this blog. It's not just me reporting back on points of interest around the capital, it's also my chance to tell you carefully curated snippets about my life. Over the last month I've told you about the pink tie I saw on the Overground, the bacon and sausage baguette I ate in Lyme Regis, that time I won some free chocolate digestives, a man I saw vomiting on a street tree, how good the tulips are in Enfield, a parking ticket I once bought in Basildon and that time I saw the Pope. These are all minor things of the kind you might tell a live-in partner merely to pass the time, but I manage to share them with thousands of people I've never met and it simply counts as 'content'. When people have lived with someone else for decades, I'm often in awe of how they still have things to say. They must know by now what the other person thinks of immigration, how they like their toast or whether to switch off the TV before EastEnders starts. The news can be a gift to long term conversation because it provides a never-ending canvas to comment on. Plans and targets help too, like making progress towards a new kitchen, remembering which bin to take out and spending the best part of two decades bringing up children. A top conversational tactic for older couples while out and about, it seems, is simply to 'say what you see'. One partner provides a running commentary ("ooh a cat" "the sun's come out" "she's riding on the pavement") and it helps keep everything ticking over rather than just sitting there in silence. So today I thought I'd offer an opportunity to those of you with something to say and nobody to say it to. Tell us now. What happened to you yesterday that you haven't had the chance to tell anyone else about? comments if(postComments['123456789012'] != null){document.write(' (' + postComments['123456789012'] + ')')}else{document.write(' (0)')}; So much of what we do goes untold, to any audience, especially for those of us who go through life by ourselves. It's by no means always a bad thing, but also potentially an enormous waste when we could have much to say.