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TfL maintains a sizeable archive of historical documentation within its Corporate Archives, a grouping responsible for safeguarding the corporate memory of Transport for London and its predecessor companies. A small but substantial proportion of this archive has been uploaded to a digital portal where you can search through scans of what was once day-to-day stuff but is now a unique record of the capital's transport history. Staff lists, leaflets from coronations, details of mascots, bus maps, uniform specifications, Country Walks booklets, DLR leaflets, floodgate specifications, original Metro-Land adverts, fares booklets, the activities of the staff flying club, Routemaster construction diagrams, absolutely allsorts... likely not precisely what you're looking for but a fascinating collection all the same. [Digital Collections homepage] [Highlights] [Complete Available Collection] One of the best places to look for a flavour of times past is the collection of in-house staff magazines, so I've dug back to hunt out a few snippets from Februaries past. I'm only scratching the surface here, but the full magazines are available (eventually) if you want to read the full publication. 100 years ago T.O.T. Staff Magazine - February 1925 Good progress is being made with the Morden extension, three miles of single tunnel having already been executed. Tenders amounting in all to £231,000 have recently been accepted for the sub-surface portions of the four stations on the Clapham-Tooting section. Two of these—Balham and Trinity Road—will be entirely below ground; the others—Nightingale Land and Tooting Broadway—will have booking halls at ground level. The work of preparing the foundations for the car sheds at Morden has been much hindered by the recent heavy rains. Arrangements are in hand for laying out, on the lines of the Wembley 'bus station, the section of the forecourt of Victoria station that is used as a terminal for "General" services. A feature will be a traffic control tower, wherein will be stationed the regulating official who, by means of signals, will control the departure of the motor-buses. Concrete platforms will replace the present ones of timber. It may be said that even amongst the most sceptical, the fact has dawned that radio is here to stay. The millionth licence in Great Britain has been sold and the army of listeners is increasing by leaps and bounds. The T.O.T Radio Association is meant to bring together all radio amateurs of the great undertakings that form the Underground group of companies. The annual subscription is only 2s 6d and this sum is almost immediately refunded by the large discounts granted by the leading wireless firms. Doggy Ailments: I lead, others follow. Bring your dog to me for any skin disorders, stomach trouble, worms or distemper. My speciality: Teeth extracted. Puppies correctly docked. Remedies: safe and reliable. Advice freely given. Driver C.W.F. Gill, 5 Wellington Road, East Ham. 75 years ago London Transport Magazine - February 1950 A special letter of thanks to bus and railwaymen for their service last year has been written by Aldersbrook Area Park Residents Society. The residents have sent their "sincere appreciation of the unfailing courtesy and helpfulness shown by all members of Wanstead Central line station staff and by the inspectors and bus crews of route 101 which runs through the area." The twin set on the left is ideal for the out-size woman. If you are one of our juniors, why not knit it for Mother? The slippers above should tempt those who like sewing. Write to the Editor of London Transport Magazine for a free pattern. 60 years ago London Transport Magazine - February 1965 At the Elephant and Castle the task of modernising the Northern line station is well on the way to completion. It is expected to reopen early next month. The old station with its familiar domed roof has been demolished. In its place a modern square building has been erected. The new station was designed by our architects to blend in with the adjoining enclosed shopping centre, which is one of the features of the development in the area. A new bus route serving both Waterloo station and the full length of the Albert Embankment came into service last month, mainly to serve office workers. It is included in a scheme for re-shaping a number of services along the Thames embankments to match them more closely with customer needs. The new Monday-to-Friday link is provided by service 168A from Clapham Junction to Turnpike Lane. 50 years ago LT News - 14 February 1975 A system of flexible working hours will be introduced shortly for a limited number of London Transport clerical and administrative staff at 55 Broadway. Mr George Graves, TSSA line secretary, told LT News that experiments with flexible hours had recently been carried out in LT offices using a manual system in which staff entered the hours they had worked on forms provided for that purpose. "Further trials, but this time using mechanical aids, will begin soon among staff in the two typing pools and in the appointments section of the welfare office". During 1974 more than 66,000 people visited the London Transport Collection of historical vehicles at Syon Park. This brings the total number of visitors to the Collection, since its opening in May 1973, to more than 130,000. [pictured: Attractive Australian secretary Wendy Denchemko was one of the first passengers to use the new slim-line barriers last week] You can still take advantage of the bargain stewpan offer featured in the last issue of LT News. The set of three enamelled saucepans, suitable for either gas or electric cookers, is available for only £7.50 inclusive of VAT, postage and packing. The final design is available in a choice of colours: brown and orange with contrasting brown lids, and blue with contrasting blue lids. Cheques should be made payable to Penguin Promotions.
I rarely make any journey without the promise of a nice meal. This applies to short breaks, long-haul holidays and day trips alike - I have no interest in beaches, ski slopes, cruise ships or campsites, and although I'm very partial to a long walk in the countryside when the weather allows, how much better is that long walk with a gastropub lunch at the end of it? Or at the start of it. Or at any point in-between, for that matter. does come out, it's a nice little bonus and an excuse to have a digestif in a pub garden. I think maybe I just like pubs. So as the rain and the cold and the wind blew outside, we started - as you always should at high-end Indians - with a selection of papadoms and chutneys. The paps were delicate and grease-free (we particularly liked their little ridged Walkers Max-shaped crisps) and the chutneys - a smooth and tangy mango, and a deeply vegetal and gently chillified coriander - were both excellent. Full marks to Koyal for the generous size of their pani puri, and bonus points for the flavour of them which brought in a beguiling range of flavours and textures from earthy, creamy potatoes to interesting tropical notes of pineapple and kiwi to buttery chickpea. But sometimes you can be too generous - the fist-size dimensions made them impossible to eat in the usual one dainty bite, and I don't know if you've ever tried to eat half a pastry casing filled with liquid but it tends to get quite messy. Great fun though, and as I say, impeccable otherwise. Stone bass tikka is a dish - or variant thereof - that has appeared on many a high-end Indian restaurant menu in London over recent years, and whenever it is done well (tip: it's always done well, at least in my experience) becomes an absolute must-order. Unfortunately, this kind of advice is a bit useless at a restaurant like Koyal where more or less everything could be described as a must-order, so I'll just say that these bits of fish, brilliantly and boldly spiced, grilled delicately over coals and with crisped-up, gently fatty skin attached, were utterly perfect. Lamb chops were similarly strikingly spiced and cleverly grilled, with just enough of the heat to give crunch but soft and yielding on the bite. And again, they were pretty much unimprovable. I know that some places go for a thicker cut on the chops so they can get a pink middle, but then those places also end up charging £20+ a chop, and sometimes you want to leave a bit of room for the rest of the menu. What arrived next was one of those dishes that shoots straight into every single pleasure point of my brain and will stay there until the day I die. If Devon Crab Butter Garlic Masala sounds good on paper, then believe me, nothing will prepare you for the reality, a bowl of white crab meat bound with butter and spices that should in a sane world be too much - too rich, too powerfully flavoured, too heavy - and yet somehow conspires to be one of the great seafood dishes. I don't know how you'd even come up with a thing like this, never mind make it work, and yet here we are. The year it takes off your life with every scoop of the dill naan is worth it. It really is that good. I could have left by now and died happy - a literal possibility after that butter crab - but there was one more glorious thing to enjoy. Wild boar in toddy vinegar showed the ex-Gymkhana chefs could still show a bit of game a good time, chunks of lovely soft slow-cooked meat in a spiced tomato sauce. With it, a neat bowl of saffron rice which we nearly managed to finish. I mean, come on, we did well, didn't we? Credit where credit's due. Before I show you the bill, I do want to point out that the two of us managed to polish off a bottle of rather nice Viognier each (it was that kind of Saturday - we ended up in a tiki bar in Clapham Junction not long after) and so a more realistic price per person might be something like £70pp if you just had a beer each rather than the £112pp we conspired to rack up. But it's important to recognise that the wine list at Koyal starts at £30 a bottle, a very reasonable £8 a glass and on top of that they only ask for 10% service charge. The contrast with certain recent reviews could not be more stark. So thank you, Koyal, for one of the best meals I can remember in many years. I enjoyed it so much in fact that I have booked Dastaan Leeds next month to coincide with a work trip up north, which I thoroughly expect to be just as stupidly good. Alongside Black Salt in Cheen (reviewed here back in 2022), also from the same team, and the aforementioned spot in Epsom/Ewell, it provides yet more evidence that London is perhaps the best place in the world for Indian food outside of India - and (whisper it), according to some people in the know, including India itself... but that's a discussion for another time. For now, just enjoy what we have, and enjoy it as much as you can. We really have never had it so good. 10/10
❤️ 200 Valentine's Day ideas Toblerone in box with appropriate slogan, round the world cruise, eggy soldiers for breakfast, pack of ribbed condoms, romantic message spelt out in plastic letters stuck to fridge, blue Slush Puppie, evening in pub that's not showing Sky Sports, Venus fly trap, sign up for the same evening class, £50 voucher to spend on soft furnishings, dress as Spider-man, cheeky garter reveal, Ferrero Rocher individually rewrapped in rose petals, posh cinema where the nachos come on crockery, trip to Heartsease Lane, night flight on the Dangleway, homemade lasagne, dedication on Radio 2, bucket of Haribo, diamond ring. Swap socks, brand new double bed, burlesque tassels (in motion), huddle together birdwatching in a hide, extra marshmallow sprinkles, take a snogging selfie, sudden tube of Pringles, get their pronouns right, glowsticks on the lawn after sunset, make the lovemaking last all the way through 'Love To Love You Baby', extra cheese, finally cave in and buy them a kitten, plate of oysters, hardback book about Brutalist architecture signed by author, fill the bathroom with tealights, bunny tail, gift basket picked up last minute from local florist, Casablanca, sink silently to your knees, extra glug of Listerine. n.b. this paragraph tried and tested you a present. Skimpy lingerie, board games night, revisit the site of your first date, fire up the Barry White playlist, mug of Bovril before bed, declare your love through a megaphone in the local shopping mall, secret note in lunchbox, do what comes naturally, visit to PREP clinic, king-sized cookies, an extra-long rubdown in the shower, framed photo, stack of Barbara Cartland novels from charity shop, shoulder massage, extra-spicy takeaway, take an interest in their ridiculous hobby, the new Bridget Jones, lick your favourite bit, touch foreheads, practise on a Creme Egg. n.b. this paragraph sourced from you Roses from a garage forecourt, posh restaurant but the set menu, donation to British Heart Foundation, go to the perfume department at John Lewis and inhale, lapsang souchong, polish their boots, change your name to Shirley Valentine, box of Milk Tray delivered via window, cocktails atop the Gherkin, fresh batteries in the Rabbit, tickets for QPR versus Derby County, personalised cushion on Etsy, dark chocolate body paint, book token, feed each other from a fruit platter, night at a B&B in Barnard Castle, share a bag of chips, just another evening all by yourself, sign the divorce papers, propose.
Yesterday I took BestMate for a five mile walk across N16, N15 and N17 because he'd never explored the Stamford Hill/Tottenham hinterland before. The route's not important, nor am I suggesting you do the same, merely pointing out that a good walk across the suburbs often throws up intriguing sights and surprises. Stamford Hill's Sainsbury's has closed After I got home: Ooh, here's a video showing the last day with very depleted shelves. Aha, Sainsbury's closed the store because their lease was up and the landlord wanted to redevelop the site. Ouch, the big local Asda closed two years ago so it's a double whammy. At least there's still a big Morrisons half a mile down the road, but how quickly local centres hollow out. Also: This story was teasingly announced on a Lancashire news website as "Supermarket giant announces 'sad' closure of beloved superstore", because local journalism is a desperate pit of clickbait bolx. There's a piano factory outlet on St Ann's Road splendid Georgian facade. Who needs that? Officially it's 'J Reid Piano Factory and Outlet' according to the big blue letters across the front, although I see some of these are now falling off. Is it even still open? Also zero points for the sign by the door that says PIANO'S PLEASE ENTER, a grammatical mis-step. After I got home: Yes it's still open, the website's live and just last week J Reid's Instagram feed announced "Come in and check out the few second hand Yamaha's we have available". But also I see the entire half acre site went up for auction last month and sold for £5.8m with potential for "development or alternative uses", so who's to say how long London's last piano factory will remain. Black Boy Lane still not fully extinguished you may remember, Haringey council renamed Black Boy Lane having decided the 300 year-old street name was too controversial. Instead they renamed it La Rose Lane after a pioneering Caribbean publisher who lived elsewhere in the borough, and unsurprisingly several residents weren't happy about the address-change paperwork and/or pompous virtue signalling. The most strident of them made special 'Black Boy Lane' streetsigns and stuck them on the fronts of their houses, and I can confirm that four such residents still have these in place such is their opposition to nominal wokery. The most surprising building to still display a Black Boy Lane address is the local primary school on its nameboard out front, either because they can't be bothered to change or because they're skint. Model Traffic Area still absolutely brilliant Lordship Recreation Ground into perhaps the most amazing social resource in any outer London park, the Model Traffic Area. This intricate mini-road network was opened in 1938 to help educate the young road users of the future and features umpteen looping roads, T-junctions and mini-roundabouts, all properly signed. I blogged about it in 2015 and the full extent still amazes today. No children were using it because it was a school morning but the council's groundskeepers were out doing a fine job of maintaining the shrubbery. Baby Yoga a big hit at the Lordship Hub Lordship Hub, the Lottery-funded regeneration cabin by the lake in the middle of the park. It was heaving, impressively so for a community resource so far from any houses, with meetings in multiple rooms and most of the tables occupied. It turns out we'd arrived bang inbetween Baby Yoga sessions, just as the tiniest made way for the 8+monthers, so the queue at the cafe was humming with mummies with slings. While Best Mate waited I went off exploring and can confirm that the hub has a sensational collection of leaflets, as if it were still 2013, including the Haringey Smarter Travel Walking Guide, the Tottenham Parks Cafe Trail Walking Map and details of the Luke Howard Weather Station. After I got home: Ooh, in 2022 Lordship Rec was designated the World's first Cloud Appreciation Park, which is bolx because everywhere has sky but also brilliant because Luke Howard who first named our clouds lived just up the road. The park's cirrus-friendly interpretation board can be enjoyed here, and the latest readings from the weather station are here. BestMate's verdict: A good price and a nice coffee. Broadwater Farm Estate still properly dispiriting renovation is now underway but it's complex, very slow and so far a drop in the ocean, and we were quite pleased to eventually get through to the other side. Bruce Castle Museum still closed All Hallows Church which is Tottenham's oldest building and eerily impressive, but far less impressive was the tiny sign outside which said for further historical information scan this QR code. Haringey Council evidently couldn't be arsed to put up a proper information board and likewise we couldn't be arsed to scan the QR code, but I think the page it leads to is here. After I got home: OK, the church was founded mid-12th century but the oldest parts of the tower are 14th century and the majority of the church is a 16th century rebuild. As for Bruce Castle its website says the museum "will remain closed to the public until Wednesday 5 February", which suggests it should be open by now but it wasn't. However they are hosting Anti-Valentine Candlelit Tours tonight from 6.30pm. Commonwealth War Graves are separately maintained After I got home: Aha, the CWGC employs a small army of supervisors, gardeners and maintenance workers to maintain war memorials and cemeteries at 23000 locations in 150 countries. One of their main jobs is to maintain headstones and ensure they're legible which can be a challenge during the mossier months. A large troupe of volunteers assists which helps keep costs down, but I suspect it's the permanent employees who get to drive around in vans. A full time post for Mobile Head Gardener (South East Region, United Kingdom) is currently being advertised, should you be interested. Hang on, what's the King doing here?! an official visit to White Hart Lane, but he'd probably be here for some time so we didn't bother waiting and went home instead. After I got home: A very long visit by the looks of it, including a lot of shaking hands, a lot of meeting people (especially young people and children), a lot of attending workshops and a not very good throw of an American football. I guess the stadium makes an ideal secure venue for a royal visit. Had we waited we could have participated in the mini-walkabout afterwards but we were probably home by then. I watched it all on YouTube instead, as is the modern way. You can't beat a good suburban walk.