East Midlands quiz Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. Derbyshire A) Bigsofa B) Rugbolt C) Nicercub D) Localmatch E) Glancearea F) Typeamaze G) Ringereach H) Yearntasted I) Gossipvalue J) Glazesurgery K) Cookproperly L) Dollarsweight M) Babywrapjacket        Nottinghamshire N) Tiepigs O) Jobbribe P) Freshboat Q) Heavyhive R) Saganbulk S) Hispasture T) Openercost U) Simplymick V) Kanyespanwade W) Aboutmodelcar X) Directionhealthy Y) Schwarzenegger Z) Dividetimbertrees (answer in the comments box, and please no more than one guess each)

Hyperlocal Signage News Delays are expected to continue until October. It's probably related to the aforementioned sewer repairs. But it has a misplaced apostrophe. I wish someone would take it away.

On 5th August 2024 London woke to the news that Banksy had painted a goat on a wall in Kew. Over the next eight days an entire menagerie emerged across the capital, and it filled the August silly season gap brilliantly. [original bloggage] Two of the animals vanished almost immediately, but I wondered how many of the remaining seven were still visible one year later. Monday 5th: Goat (Kew Green) And straight away it's a no. The goat had been painted on a wall facing the south end of Kew Bridge, part of the former Caxton Name Plate Manufacturing Company building. It was promptly covered by protective plastic but more recently the entire building's been covered with scaffolding so you can see nothing. And this is because it turns out Banksy painted his goat on a building with planning permission for a roof extension, and four new sash windows were proposed on this formerly blank wall. More pertinently the owners removed the goat in its entirety on 7th February, indeed there are fairly startling photos of workmen on a raised platform hacking out a huge chunk of the wall, so all the scaffolding's really shielding is a hole. Don't expect to see the goat again, it's proved a nice little earner. Tuesday 6th: Elephants (Chelsea) In good news this one's in better shape that last time I saw it. These two elephants appeared on an end terrace along Edith Grove in Chelsea, painted on two blanked out windows. Alas within a couple of days someone came along with a ladder and stuck lacy stripes over one of them, presumably thinking they were improving it, but thankfully that's since been carefully removed. The elephants are also the only surviving artwork not to have been screened over, thus now the least toyed-with. Wednesday 7th: Monkeys (Spitalfields) Imagine three monkeys dangling from the Overground viaduct crossing Brick Lane. You'll have to imagine because on 5th December contractors working for TfL arrived with a boom lift and jetwashed the lot of them. When pushed TfL said "unauthorised art can attract more graffiti, which encourages trespassing and anti-social activity that poses a danger to the operational railway and customers. This piece therefore had to be removed to prevent possible disruption", which on a street defined by colourful graffiti is plainly bolx. But if you look carefully the three monkeys are still there in vague outline, so they didn't do a very good job. Thursday 8th: Wolf (Peckham) Friday 9th: Pelicans (Walthamstow) I first saw this when it was fresh, two pelicans necking fish from Bonners chippy just north of Walthamstow High Street. It took a while to be shielded by plastic because the family were on their six week summer break when Banksy came and painted it. They're abroad again at present, returning Thursday 4th September, but the artwork's still safely in place and possibly the greatest of the bunch. If you come for a gander in the autumn be aware that a small bag of chips now costs £4.20 because art doesn't come cheap. Saturday 10th: Cat (Cricklewood) Sunday 11th: Piranhas (Ludgate Hill) This was my favourite, not least because I arrived so early that the social media rush hadn't yet arrived. I thus had the sentry box on Ludgate Hill entirely to myself, nipping in and out to admire the painted piranhas from both sides. The crowds came soon after, then a ring of protective barriers so nobody could get up close, than the City of London took steps to protect their property by removing the entire box and placing it off limits outside the Guildhall. It's still there but now shifted inside to an entrance corridor where presumably you can brush past it midweek, but I turned up on Sunday when the City sleeps so could only peer through the window. In good news this aquarium will be heading to the new London Museum when that opens next year. Monday 12th: Rhino (Charlton) This one's in a horrible location on an industrial estate near the Thames Barrier, accessed by dodging tipper trucks on a mucky street whose pavements are blocked by parked cars and vans. The first time I saw it an employee of RMS Skips was halfway through covering it with plastic sheeting and I'm pleasantly surprised to see that's still here, as is the artwork behind it. It's also still drawing Banksy fans because just before I arrived a driver wound down his window for an admiring glance, and just after I left another couple blocked the street in their Mondeo to take a shot too. Best drive rather than walk. Tuesday 13th: Gorilla (London Zoo) Banksy's final artwork was daubed on a shutter at the entrance to London Zoo. They soon decided it couldn't remain in situ because queues need to flow freely at the height of the summer holidays, so a replacement shutter was sourced and the original whisked inside the zoo. The first replacement included a replica of Gorilla & Friends, plus a sign alongside confirming it wasn't the original, so visitors still got to experience the magic. But I see they've now suspended the pretence because I turned up before 10am yesterday when the shutters were down and can confirm all three are now blank white. A clickable menagerie Goat (Kew): chunk of wall removed Elephants (Chelsea): in situ, undefiled Monkeys (Brick Lane): jetblasted to hell Wolf (Peckham): stolen within hours Pelicans (Walthamstow): in situ, behind perspex Cat (Cricklewood): removed within hours Piranhas (Ludgate): shifted inside Guildhall Rhino (Charlton): in situ, behind perspex Gorilla (London Zoo): shifted inside the zoo

Fleeting HAMPSTEAD HEATH The Fleet starts at the highest point in inner London which is the top of Hampstead Heath. It starts here because the clay hills are capped with sandy soil - specifically the Bagshot Formation and the Claygate Member - thus groundwater emerges from springs at the boundary between permeable and less permeable strata. There are several sources, all of which join up to form a western branch and an eastern branch which remain separate for the best part of two miles before joining together in Kentish Town. The highest point is just below Whitestone Pond, where a raindrop landing to the south will end up in the Westbourne, to the north in the Brent and to the east in the Fleet. And here we find the first of a dozen ponds, each originally a reservoir dammed to provide drinking water for folk further down the valley. This is the Vale of Health, which sounds delightful but was originally a patch of boggy marshland called Hatchett's Bottom, rebranded when the reservoir was built in 1777. A throwback cluster of well-to-do villas nestles on the upper flank, the first of several places on this river walk that IYNBYRS (if you've never been you really should). Normally you'd see anglers dipping rods around the perimeter, but all fishing on Hampstead Heath was temporarily suspended last month due to a suspected outbreak of koi herpesvirus, a notifiable carp killer. The animal you're more likely see in the water is a happily-splashing canine, perhaps chasing a stick, this being the only Hampstead pond designated an official dog swimming area. And in the corner is a low brick-cased grille, currently dry above the water level but when overtopping occurs its sends the fledgling River Fleet on its tumbling way. Everyone assumes the Fleet is a lost river but if you find the right bit, which is this woodland at the top of Hampstead Heath, you can gambol alongside the stream in an almost-natural state. Just below the Vale of Health Pond the slopes are steep and impenetrable with vegetation, also somewhat boggy, but veer off the main path a little further down and rivulets plainly trace a dip in the earthy banks. Despite all the rain we've had there's no flow at present, merely occasional damp mud, but the Fleet was more plainly visible in August 2005 in a shade of dirty chalybeate brown. A few minutes into the woods a separate tributary from the Viaduct Pond joins the fray (that's the pond you can cross on a high viaduct, once used for transporting wagonloads of bricks, which was dammed in 1846) and the muddy channel becomes a tad wider. Since I was last here a 5m-high earth dam has been added amid the woodland, creating a 'catchpit' to fend off worst-case flooding scenarios, although you'd barely realise because the low hump's already been disguised by vegetation. Beyond this a wetland scrape briefly intrudes and then the Fleet makes its final appearance as a lazy linear stream because from here on it's all ponds and culverts. First up is the Mixed Bathing Pond, a deep facility for competent swimmers only, with a jaunty non-secretive vibe. It's currently 19°C in the water and £4.80 a dip. The next pair are Hampstead No.2 Pond and Hampstead No.1 Pond, thankfully neither named after unwelcome floating content, by which point we've reached the tip of the Heath near the shops at South End Green and it's time for the Fleet to vanish permanently underground. So let's switch tributaries. My favourite Fleet source can be found just below the Henry Moore sculpture on the upper lawn at Kenwood House. A notch of woodland dips down from the main terrace, within which a dry path eventually merges into a boggy brown squelch. This is one of the springs to be found at the sand/clay borderline on the Heath, and perhaps the easiest to access. From here a shallow furrow meanders across the picnic lawn - a brilliant feature once you've worked out what it is - before trickling into a mighty pond at the foot of the bank. It's this large because a separate tributary feeds in from a peaty sphagnum bog in the West Meadow. The adjacent Thousand Pound Pond was also constructed in the late 18th century and features a sham bridge, a low bright arc designed to look decorative and convincing from the front but from round the back you can see it's just a propped up slice of balustraded planking. From the boardwalk at the next crossing point I finally caught sight of a shallow watery channel through a screen of oak and holly, but generally anything that might count as a stream on this branch of the Fleet is securely fenced off. Instead what's coming up is a chain of six more ponds linked by culverted flow, each originally a reservoir and now used for a variety of different purposes. First comes the Stock Pond, one of the smallest and most natural-looking, which was hard to see twenty years ago but they've since removed 24 trees to make way for a strengthened dam. A survey for the City of London in 2013 confirmed that the Stock Pond was only capable of withstanding a 1-in 5-year flood, a consequence of its low capacity and relatively large catchment, whereas by contrast Vale of Health Pond could withstand a 1-in-1000. 50 years ago this month Hampstead Heath was hit by a 1-in-20000 year rainfall event, the infamous thunderstorm of 14th August 1975. 170mm of rain were recorded over a 24 hour period - that's almost seven inches - most of it between 5.30pm and 9pm. It's still the largest daily rainfall total ever recorded in London, indeed anywhere in southern England, and because it hit an urban area caused considerable damage to property. According to news reports the storm dropped hailstones "the size of marbles", flooded roads, crushed cars, closed several stations, delayed the Proms and also led to the death of a pensioner, although that was from overexertion while moving furniture in a basement flat in Brondesbury. The flooding was extremely localised with 'only' 4 inches at Highgate, 1 inch at Highbury and barely a splash in Hackney, and we only have accurate measurements because the Hampstead Scientific Society happened to have a weather station in precisely the right location. It seems highly unlikely that such extreme rainfall would ever hit the same spot again, but the City of London have spent millions raising and strengthening several dams on the upper Fleet just in case. 20 years ago, but now adds that "those who identify as women are welcome" and that a public consultation on future admission policy is being prepared. With three bathing ponds hereabouts - a Women's, a Men's and the aforementioned Mixed - let's hope the interfering gender-obsessives don't get their blinkered way. The Men's Bathing Pond is more open to view, especially from its newly raised dam, with betrunked swimmers visible on the jetties and bobbing heads looping in the admittedly distant waters. Inbetween come the Bird Sanctuary Pond and the Model Boating Pond, the latter one of the largest on the Heath if sadly devoid of young boys whipping toy yachts these days. The causeway to its central island is being removed this month to boost its credentials as a nature reserve. Concluding the sequence of reservoirs is Highgate No. 1 Pond. It's neither the prettiest nor the most accessible, but it does have the greatest capacity of any of the Ponds, which is good news for residents downstream facing potential inundation. A large overspill culvert lurks on its southern edge, considerably larger than the micro-drain at the Vale of Health, marking the last time the Highgate branch will be seen above ground. It heads off unseen towards Swain's Lane and Dartmouth Park, while half a mile to the west the Hampstead branch is disappearing underground too. What lies between the two is the Parliament Hill, the famous viewpoint, and those admiring central London from its summit generally fail to realise that the River Fleet is what cuts away the land on either side. Look towards St Paul's and you can see the cranes in Blackfriars where those waters finally reach the Thames, but it'll be a month before my account finally reaches journey's end. » The original August 2005 Fleet posts The original 60 Flickr photos Just the 12 photos so far this year history of the River Fleet (2009) map of the Heath/map of lost rivers

August is Local History Month on diamond geezer, or has been on 14 previous occasions. Themes have included my immediate neighbourhood, Metro-land, the Lea Valley, the New River, the perimeter of Tower Hamlets, London borough tops and the 51½°N line of latitude. But perhaps the best known of these is the time I decided to follow the River Fleet from source to mouth and blogged about it in considerable depth, which was my Local History Month theme in August 2005. I called it Reviewing The Fleet. Reviewing the Fleet THE RIVER FLEET London is famous for one river and one river alone - the Thames. But there were once several other rivers crossing the clay basin of the lower Thames valley, all long since covered over by the capital's suburban sprawl, and the greatest of these was the Fleet. I've been busy tracking down the visible remains of this long-lost river and I'll be telling you all about my travels over the next month. It's a fascinating journey from Anglo-Saxon times to the present day and, even better, it's all downhill. The Lost Rivers of London and a few online maps, so it felt like I was breaking fresh ground. Since then it seemsmost London websites and video channels have covered the Fleet at some point, inevitably with better camerawork, as lost rivers have shifted from niche content to quirky stalwarts. book deal, which was nice, but it soon proved too onerous and ultimately Paul Talling delivered the new classic Lost Rivers volume instead. I researched them all anyway and blogged another dozen rivers the following year. But I've always had a soft spot for the Fleet, the only Thames tributary to carve a valley across very-central London, and long thought it would be good to go back and walk it again. So let's do just that, precisely 20 years later. 170 photos to Flickr and you don't need to see all that again, even if the backdrops have changed. So I've decided to leave my 2005 posts as the definitive end-to-end record and instead to sample the river at certain points on the way down. In particular I looked at the map of the Fleet I knocked up twenty years ago and thought "that'll do nicely". FLEETING, and I'll start tomorrow with a wander round the upper course of the river on Hampstead Heath. these two blog pages from August 2005, plus five Flickr albums that between them have had over 40,000 views. My apologies that most of the links don't work any more, but it turns out the internet is pretty fleeting too.