This is Blythe House, a monumental Edwardian office block round the back of the Olympia exhibition centre. Swindon, the British Museum are off to Reading and the V&A shifted their repository to the Olympic Park... opening yesterday. New in E20: V&A East Storehouse Location: Parkes Street, Hackney Wick E20 [map] Open: 10am-6pm (until 10pm Thu, Sat) Admission: free Website: vam.ac.uk/east/storehouse Four word summary: explore the design archive Time to allow: an hour or two Storehouse, the place all the exhibits go when they're not on display, except in this unique installation they actually are. The location is the former Broadcast Centre at the top end of the Olympic Park where all the TV crews hung out in 2012, a humongous shed that's long been in need of a full complement of tenants. The V&A have now moved into the southern end, not the cavity where BT Sport no longer are but a separate four-storey space the size of 30 basketball courts, to use an appropriate sporting analogy. Look for the unassuming door up a sidestreet, easily identified yesterday by the half-hour queue snaking round the side of the building. It should be a lot quieter once opening weekend's over (plus it was well worth the wait). E5 Bakehouse, who apparently do a sourdough croissant to die for should that be your thing. No food is allowed in the actual Storehouse obviously, nor anything containing liquids so they've got to go in a locker too, and then you can head up the stairs through the protective double doors into, oh blimey. You wend in through the outer bank of shelves past a selection of busts, one probably Jesus, one likely Shakespeare, although none are readily identified. The ordered chaos of this archival stash is already becoming apparent. But it only fully hits when you finally emerge in the middle of Level 1, an open floor surrounded by walkways on three levels with five millennia of artefacts arrayed all around. Don't expect coherence, just go for an explore and see what you can find, and while you're here look down because below the glass floor is the Agra Colonnade, 18 tons of intricately carved marble from the height of the Mughal Empire. Essentially it's cultural overload but if you do a circuit of all three floors and also follow the multiplicity of dead ends you should see most of everything. There's a lot of furniture, this being something the V&A's well known for, including wooden chests, drop-tables, wardrobes, writing desks and every kind of chair. They stretch off along long shelves so you may only get a close-up view of some, and in the case of the grandfather clocks an entire room on the ground floor you can merely see the tops of. Elsewhere are a double bass, much glassware, a case of novelty mugs, an indigenous painted mask, two Olympic torches, a BAFTA, several archaic panels, a Calvert road sign, the boxes from a drum kit, Kenneth Grange's kettle, paintings of all ages, kitsch pottery, some kind of Spanish agricultural implement, multiple vases, and somewhere in a forlorn backroom what looked like all the toys and games they removed from the Young V&A in Bethnal Green when they updated it so children enjoyed it rather than their grandparents. big QR code at the entrance that leads to an index page from which you can explore all the chief pieces on each level. Why print stuff when visitors can do all the electronic legwork on their phone? However I couldn't get any of these QR codes to work, not a single one, because the mobile signal wasn't strong enough. Perhaps it was thick walls, perhaps it was Day One crowds, but functionally it was disastrous that the V&A were relying on a digital catalogue it was impossible to read. Tucked in among all this cultural hotchpotch are six special large-scale exhibits, some to be found in unexpectedly massive galleries at the end of an innocuous gangway. The biggest wow is either the Torrijos Ceiling, a 15th century gilded monster painstakingly transferred from Spain, or the 11m-high ballet backcloth of two cavorting women signed by Picasso in the corner. Two entire rooms have been incorporated, one the pioneering Frankfurt Kitchen designed by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky in 1926, the other an intensely wood-panelled boardroom by Frank Lloyd Wright, the Kaufmann Office. Most obvious will be an entire chunk of Robin Hood Gardens, the Poplar housing solution otherwise now fully demolished, with two concrete panels adorning the central balcony, plus a stairwell and apartment somehow preserved behind. The Storehouse clearly has no lack of ambition. Brilliantly if you do want to get fully acquainted with a particular object you can make an appointment and a museum curator will let you get gloves-on, although you have to submit your reservation at least two weeks in advance. A few select objects are however chosen for daily scrutiny by a small group - yesterday a 1940s Pye Radio and an Edo period tea ceremony utensil box - check the noticeboard in the foyer for details. There's also a balcony on the top floor where you can look down into a conservation room equipped with washing machines, cutting boards and a table where staff can be seen carefully polishing a set of brass goblets, or whatever they're tending to when you drop by. Come back in mid-September and they should also have opened The David Bowie Centre where fans of the great artist can squeal amidst his archive....like everything else on site all for free. this page on the Storehouse website gives an excellent overview of what a visit's like, ostensibly for accessibility reasons. You might also want to look through the QR-coded index in advance in case it doesn't work on your phone, because the level of drill-down information is excellent, or else just turn up like everyone else and gawp and guess and grin.

31 unblogged things I did in May Thu 1: After seeing the bluebells BestMate drove us on to Maldon. We watched the tide coming in, visibly, admired the sailing boats and stood by the squidgy creek at the point where the annual Mud Race would be taking place at the weekend. It looked innocuously simple, and plainly isn't. Fri 2: Reform winning control of ten English councils - ten! - is either a temporary electoral aberration or a staging post to a populist government in 2029 because "they can't be worse than the current lot", and of course they can. Sat 3: I picked up my first free prescription from the chemist, having passed my 60th birthday, and it felt very odd walking out without paying but in a good way. Sun 4: Pick of the Pops is back at 5pm on a Sunday, which feels appropriate. The second hour clashes with Now Playing on 6Music, but they'll solve that problem at the end of the month when Tom Robinson retires. Mon 5: I do not recommend lugging a large heavy suitcase to Dorset (required because it had to contain everything for a week away plus my wedding suit). The final half mile along an unmade country lane where wheelie suitcases simply don't function comes particularly unrecommended. Tue 6: If the cottage comes with a hot tub then obviously I'm going to use it, kitted out in my finest C&A bathing shorts. Wed 7: As part of pre-wedding arrangements we met the new in-laws for the first time (not my new in-laws, but I'm not sure there's a specific term for the mother and father of a nephew's wife). They were of course lovely, with a fine line in fruit cake and the full set of railway branch line histories in the living room bookcase. Thu 8: One of the joys of being in Dorset is the opportunity to climb a hill before breakfast, then get on with the rest of the day. Fri 9: Radio 4's Open Country is in Dorset telling the tale of the Abbotsbury Swannery, and judging by what they said about cygnet-hatching they must have visited the day after we did. Sat 10: After a wonderful wedding day with bacon rolls, coach detours, rare bells, confetti tunnels, giant Jenga, marital crossword, big bunny anecdotes and heartfelt cheers, I climbed up to the balcony and looked down on the banqueting tables and dancefloor and thought "I guess I'm never having this, never mind, same again in August." Sun 11: Things that happen the day after a wedding: everyone says how lovely it was, slices of uneaten cake are consumed, those with work tomorrow drive home, a final treat of fish and chips. Mon 12: There appears to be a resident cat at Dorchester South station because it was lounging on platform 2 both on my way down and my way back up. It was fun watching concerned passengers trying to lure her away from the very edge of the platform as a train approached, with zero success. I wonder if it was the legendary Susie. Tue 13: Bugger, I think I left my phone charger plug in Dorset, it's definitely not in my suitcase. Wed 14: I was casually watching the lunchtime news when someone I hadn't seen for over 30 years suddenly popped up talking about a key issue of the day. Ah, so that's what you're doing now. Sorry to hear your Dad died. Thu 15: Bought a replacement phone charger plug for £2 at Cex (second hand). The assistant only spotted it at the back of the bottom shelf because she was a foot shorter than me. Fri 16: I have once again managed to ride all the TfL buses in the space of a calendar year, in this case 4½ months. My last three buses were the frustratingly rural R8, 464 and 146 because you always end up in Biggin Hill and Keston eventually. This is the fifth time I've achieved this feat, the quickest being 2023 when I had the whole lot ticked off by the end of January. Sat 17: Someone offered me a seat on the Northern line on Tuesday, then someone offered me a seat on the Central line today. This has only ever happened to me four times, three of them since my 60th birthday, and I really didn't think I'd visibly aged that much in two months. Sun 18: Found my lost phone charger plug. It had got caught up in the one pair of boxer shorts I brought back unworn. Mon 19: The shanty town under the Bow Flyover has expanded to a new cluster of grot on the roundabout, just behind the big Bow sign. It includes a couple of chairs, a small tent, a bathtub, a wall mirror, a chest of drawers, a carrycot, a clothes drier, several boxes and a grate for lighting a fire. I'm surprised nobody's made an attempt to clear it away. Tue 20: Took a ride on the SL4 through the Silvertown Tunnel, early afternoon, and I was the only passenger. However I know you should never read too much into a single evidence point, even on a free bus. Wed 21: Walked the Grand Union towpath between Hanwell and Hayes via what appears to have been rebranded the Southall Wellbeing Way. Some of the watery and wooden interventions were nice but the best things were still the little ducklings, the stalking heron and the giant silver fish, and could someone please put the brand consultants back in their box. Thu 22: The stamp cost five times as much as the card, and even then it was probably late, sorry. Fri 23: Ten stations I used this week that I've never used before: Albany Park (sheesh that's some footbridge), Belmont (on its 160th birthday), Belvedere (I was sorry to hear about your lost cat), Eltham (unnecessarily big), Hackbridge (I handed in a lost Zip card), Plumstead, Strawberry Hill (ooh, that's off-piste), St Helier (love the wild flowers), Tolworth (so concretey) and Whitton. Sat 24: When I wrote about the Bonesgate Stream I didn't mention these four lovely leafleted walks published by the Community Brain, an enabling organisation based at Tolworth station. The Malden Rushett and Tolworth to Chessington walks best shadow the river. Sun 25: Watched the aftermath of a rave along the River Lea as groups of twatted revellers emerged from the towpath by the Bow Roundabout. One was being pushed in a trolley, one stumbled into the local corner shop for an urgent banana, several appeared to be struggling with the concept of 'stairs', and one group were ejected from their Uber a minute after it arrived and waddled off to brave public transport. Mon 26: If I were ranking the 500-or-so bank holidays I've experienced, today would probably come in the low 300s. Tue 27: I know you're unhappy with things as they currently stand but could you stop going on and on about them, negatively, relentlessly, as if we all feel as pissed off about everything as you do, it's so tedious, and now so are you. Wed 28: I had a dream about BestMateFromSchool, not an especially exciting one but congratulations to my subconscious because today is his 60th birthday. Thu 29: OK we've now watched the new season of Black Mirror. The first story (about medical subscription) was the most nightmarishly believable, and the rest were fun but too many stories relied on brain-transference gizmos so were more sci-fi than darkly plausible. Fri 30: The latest cartographic online meme is an interactive map of the UK by programmer Sophie Stone, allowing users to mark areas as lived, stayed, visited, stopped, passed through or never been. Each county scores a maximum of 5 points and my total is 241 - can you beat that? Sat 31: Here's another website for you, Is the UK hot right now?, which uses the latest data to show temperature anomalies around the country on a colourful map. Pick a location to see even more anomaly data and specific local graphs. Finally, let's see how my annual counts are going... Number of London boroughs visited: all 33 (at least nine times each) Number of London bus routes ridden: 547 (all) Number of Z1-3 stations used: all Number of Z4-6 stations used: 174 (70%)

One of west London's most important roads is 100 years old today, the Brentford By-Pass or as it's better known the Great West Road. Hounslow council are making a big thing of it. The new dual carriageway swept through fields and parkland to the north of Brentford and Hounslow, starting where the Chiswick Roundabout is today and ending eight miles away in East Bedfont. Brentford High Street had long been an appalling bottleneck for westbound traffic and planners recognised that the increasing popularity of the motor car was only going to make congestion worse. The new road was duly opened on the afternoon of Saturday 30th May 1925 by King George and Queen Mary who joined local dignitaries in walking along a short stretch and making speeches. You can see a few photos of the event here, here, here and here. This is what the Middlesex County Council spokesman had to say... "Of the numerous arterial road schemes promoted by the Highway Authorities of the country in conjunction with the Ministry of Transport, the road now to be opened is one of the earliest in its origin, the Act for its construction having been passed in 1914 to alleviate the inconvenience caused by the narrow western exits from London. Progress was delayed by the Great War, and the magnitude of the scheme has since been increased by an extension to the Staines Road, and by an addition to the width of the highway. Much work has thus been found for the unemployed, and it is hoped that the road in its present form will add to the dignity as well as the convenience of the Metropolis, beside promoting the orderly development of the County of Middlesex." [30 May 1925] The final section to open was the eastern end between Syon Lane and Chiswick which includes the section now known as the Golden Mile. Businesses flocked to this part of the new road, attracted by excellent connectivity and plenty of space, building factories that very much reflected the aesthetic of the day. One of these was the Gillette Factory, a landmark Art Deco building on the corner of Syon Lane whose lofty brick tower is topped by four neon clocks that can be seen for miles around. Not only was this Gillette's European headquarters but also their chief UK factory for the manufacture of razor blades, at least until 2006 when production moved to Poland and the place emptied out. The Gillette Factory endured several vacant years while investors decided no, arterial Brentford wasn't a great location for a luxury hotel, then creative types moved in and filmed a few low-key productions for lesser-watched streaming channels. It's recently been decided that the premises should become a full-on six-stage film studios, indeed Hounslow council are very keen, plus it makes sense because the site stretches all the way back to the rainbow-topped headquarters of Sky TV. When I came to walk the Golden Mile earlier this week I was pleased to see the scaffolding had been removed from the clocktower, the outer brickwork had been scrubbed up and that the cherubic lamps around the perimeter still glow. I wasn't impressed by much else though. Alas only a few buildings from the Golden age of the Great West Road survive. There's the Coty Cosmetics factory at number 941, a squat block with white walls and strip windows which looks like it could have been a 1930s air terminal, but which is now occupied by a tech-heavy private health clinic. There's the Pyrene building at number 981, designed for a fire extinguisher company by the same group of architects who conjured up the glorious Hoover Building in Perivale. It's very white and very long with a thin central tower, and is now an office block substantially occupied by students on skills-based courses who cluster on the elegant front steps for a vape. And there's also the former Currys head office at number 991, another sleek white beauty with flag-topped clocktower, which since 2000 has been home to outdoor ad agency JCDecaux. Their name was in the corner of the digital billboard in my first photo, if you noticed. Firestone Tyre Factory. Of all the buildings along the Golden Mile the Firestone was by far the longest, fronting a 26 acre site, but also the most rapidly undone. When the business closed in 1979 the new owners exchanged contracts on a Friday, then sneakily demolished the ornate frontage on the Saturday before a civil servant could get round to signing a preservation order. On the positive side this triggered the 20th Century Society to campaign more vigorously for the preservation of modern buildings, and on the downside the bastards totally got away with it. In 2025 the Firestone building is being replaced again, this time by "A New Iconic HQ Distribution/Logistics Warehouse". The architects have at least gone for an Art Deco-inspired design solution, although the artist's impression looks more slatted plastic than iconic glass and the currently reality is a half-clad functional lattice. If it improves the backdrop to the Firestone's surviving front gates and chunky lanterns, however, good luck to it. The really big redevelopment story along the Golden Mile is currently the transformation of GlaxoSmithKline's enormous ex-HQ, a futuristic upthrust which opened in 2002 on a landscaped site beside the Grand Union Canal. All the staff moved back to central London last year and the latest plans foresee a "housing-led mixed-use redevelopment" of tightly-packed polygonal towers, one 25 storeys high, delivering upwards of 2000 new homes. It's by no means the first Golden Mile site to pivot to boxy residential and it won't be the last. The best way to see the Golden Mile thus isn't really on foot because the surviving treats are too sparsely spread, it's from the road itself. I recommend boarding the road's bespoke red double decker, the H91, a route which conveniently runs along five miles of the Great West Road from Gunnersbury to Hounslow. For the first mile the M4 shadows the A4, quite literally, passing directly overhead on a four lane viaduct supported by an sequence of chunky concrete pillars. Only on reaching Brentford does the motorway veer off, bombarded by elevated advertisements, leaving the way clear down below to enjoy what remaining treats the Golden Mile has left. "The unavoidable transformation of the country surrounding London needs to be carefully guided and controlled. Haphazard growth has inflicted irreparable damage on many parts where, instead of preceding it, roads and communication have lagged far behind industrial development. Your council, I am glad to say, have boldly grappled with this problem, and this spared their successors the costly and wasteful experience of making new roads through congested areas." [King George V, 30 May 1925] To celebrate the 100th birthday of the Great West Road an anniversary website has been set up at goldenmile.london including historical links and modern stories. It is perhaps a tad commercial, overplaying the interest anyone might have in bold redevelopment visions and Brentford's vibrant cuisine, but it does include details of a number of special commemorative events. Chief amongst these are a GM100 Public Exhibition at Boston Manor Park this weekend (10am-4pm Sat, Sun; free entry) and a Classic Car Cavalcade departing Boston Manor Road at noon tomorrow before heading to Gillette Corner. Later chances to look inside some of the Art Deco treasures appear to be sold out, but all the good bits are in a new illustrated book The Great West Road: A Centenary History written by James Marshall and purchasable from the Brentford & Chiswick Local History Society. The road that unchoked Brentford and transformed Hounslow, the Great West Road, is thankfully 100 years old today.

25 things we learnt from TfL FoI requests in May 2025 1) Last year 712 trips and falls were reported on the stairs of buses in London, of which 52% led to a minor injury and 3% led to a serious injury. 2) The paint codes used to coat the exterior of tube rolling stock are RAL 3020 (Traffic red), RAL 9002 (Grey White) and RAL 5002 (Ultramarine Blue). 3) Since the launch of the ULEZ, more Penalty Charge Notices have been issued to drivers living outside London (4 million) than inside London (3½ million). 4) Last year the tube stations with the most reported injuries on escalators were Waterloo (116), Kings Cross (101) and London Bridge (91). In total there were 1521 injuries of which 33 were major. 5) Of the 18,038 bus stops across London, 93.79% are deemed accessible. This relates to the raised height of the kerb in relation to the floor of the bus. 6) Aboard new buses, in addition to wheelchair users and priority seat occupants, a minimum of 51% of seated customers must have an unobscured view to at least one digital screen. 7) Last year 13,263 ULEZ Penalty Charge Notices were cancelled after the vehicles were identified as having cloned plates. 8) Last year TfL issued 253 permits to film or take photographs on the network, including 52 on the Underground and 2 on the cablecar. The majority of permits applied to roads and buses. 9) Last year TfL spent £22,093.35 on name badges. Each badge costs £4.50 with a pin/clip or £2.50 with a magnet. There is no additional cost for adding pronouns. 10) Since the start of 2024 bus drivers on route 17 received more passenger commendations than on any other route. In second place was route 1 and in third place route 111. 11) Within the 'Legible London' wayfinding scheme, maps and signs assume a walking speed of 1.3 metres per second. 12) Regarding street lighting, TfL are responsible for a total of 34,862 lighting points. 13) During the six months since bus routes W12, W13 and W14 were restructured, route W12 averaged 3900 passengers per day, route W13 2900 passengers and route W14 just 280. 14) During the year 2023/24, 130 lost smart watches were found on buses, 112 on the Underground, 6 on the Overground and one on the cablecar. 15) 58% of bus fare payers use contactless, 41% use Oyster and less than 1% use paper tickets (these are mostly one day Travelcards). 16) The axonometric diagram for newly-step-free Knightsbridge station is available here. 17) No passengers have been prosecuted for vaping on buses because vaping is not included in the current legislation that would allow for prosecution. 18) In the last six years no prosecutions have been brought by TfL under 'Using Instrument to Produce or Reproduce Sound' within the Railway Byelaws. 19) The three Elizabeth line ticket offices which sold the fewest tickets last year were Acton Main Line (3343), Hanwell (3410) and Maryland (4882). 20) On the Overground the least used ticket office last year was Caledonian Road and Barnsbury with 25 sales, followed by South Hampstead with 91 and Brondesbury Park with 151. 15 ticket offices sold on average less than one ticket a day. I've made this map to show 2024 ticket sales. 21) On digital bus blinds, the screen displaying the route number on the front or rear of the bus should have minimum dimensions of 450mm x 330mm. 22) In its first year of operation 7,326,963 passengers rode Superloop route SL8. During the previous twelve months, when the same route was numbered 607, total passenger numbers were 6,340,632. 23) 92 million Oyster cards have not been used in the last 12 months, with a combined total unspent balance of £268m. 24) Reducing the frequency of route G1 from four buses an hour to three is expected to save over £700,000 per annum. 25) In the last financial year, the estimated level of fare evasion on the London Underground was 4.8%. This compares with 4.7% on the DLR, 3.3% on the Overground, 2.6% on buses and 7.2% on trams.

London's Natural Landscape Hierarchy National Parks National Nature Reserves Richmond Park: Charles I's royal hunting park, an enormous roamable oasis of ancient woods and wide-open grasslands, perhaps best known for its historic herds of deer but also home to a multitude of birds, fungi, wildflowers and looping cyclists. Also a European Special Area of Conservation and listed at Grade I on Historic England's Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. [2500 acres] Ruislip Woods: The largest block of ancient, semi-natural woodland in Greater London, including one of the most extensive oak/hornbeam coppice woods in southeast England. The UK's first urban NNR, designated in 1997. Busier near Ruislip Lido, blissfully quiet out west. [755 acres] South London Downs: An arc of dense woodland and chalk grassland, designated in 2019, stretching from Coulsdon to Sanderstead via Farthing Downs, Happy Valley, Kenley and Riddlesdown. London Loop section 5 threads though most of the NNR so if you've ever walked that you'll know how uplifitingly gorgeous it is. [1030 acres] National Nature Reserves within 10 miles of London [map N] [map S] Ashstead Common (Surrey) [495 acres] Broxbourne Woods (Herts) [590 acres] Burnham Beeches (Bucks) [540 acres] Chobham Common (Surrey) [1620 acres] Swanscombe Skull Site (Kent) [10 acres] Sites of Special Scientific Interest (map) The NNR SSSIs Richmond Park Ruislip Woods Croham Hurst Farthing Downs & Happy Valley    Riddlesdown The grassy SSSIs Bentley Priory Frays Farm Meadows Saltbox Hill Wimbledon Common The woody SSSIs Crofton Woods Denham Lock Wood Epping Forest Hainault Forest Hampstead Heath Woods Oxleas Woodlands The geological SSSIs Abbey Wood Elmstead Pit Gilbert's Pit Harefield Pit Harrow Weald Hornchurch Cutting Wansunt Pit The birdy SSSIs Barn Elms Wetland Centre Kempton Park Reservoirs Mid Colne Valley Ruxley Gravel Pits Walthamstow Reservoirs The marshy SSSIs Ingrebourne Marshes Walthamstow Marshes Local Nature Reserves here, a Wikipedia list here and a map here (the local nature reserves are in blue). The map works outside London too. Tower Hamlets' local nature reserves are Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park, Mudchute Park and Ackroyd Drive. Merton has the most local nature reserves (15), followed by Kingston (12), Sutton (11) and Ealing (10). Seven boroughs have only one local nature reserve, and Newham and Kensington & Chelsea have none. London's largest local nature reserve is the Ingrebourne Valley (362 acres) and smallest is Burnt Ash Pond (0.3 acres). 13 reserves are inaccessible to the public and six only open at limited times. Four are islands, four are cemeteries and seven are on former railway land.