45 45 Squared 27) POND SQUARE, N6 Borough of Camden, 90m×90m×90m The thing about Pond Square is it doesn't have a pond and it's more of a triangle. We're on the northern edge of Camden off Highgate High Street, shielded behind Oxfam and the pink-fronted cake shop if you choose to filter through and look. In medieval times sand and gravel were extracted here to maintain the Great North Road, the pits converted to two ornamental ponds in 1845, but these became full of dumped litter and increasingly a health hazard so in 1864 were filled in for good. Today we find two ring-fenced enclosures amid a sea of tarmac, overhung by voluminous plane trees the council leaves unpruned, so potentially a nice place to hang out if your needs don't include grass and summer sunlight. Pond Square also boasts a chalet-like public convenience, properly tended, which is good news if you intend to rest awhile with hot drinks from the Village Deli or a beer out the back of the Prince of Wales. Do not under any circumstances take a wee in either of the two phone kiosks because they're both K2s and fewer than 250 remain in use. » Please note that Pond Square is officially a Village Green, also officially Common Land and is also listed in the London Squares Preservation Act 1931. » Please note that Pond Square's tarmac only gets properly full during the annual carol-singing gathering (next scheduled for Saturday 13th December 2025) and the stall-packed Fair in the Square (next scheduled for Saturday 13th June 2026). characterful houses round the perimeter, many of them Georgian, including Rock House with its twin oriel windows and Moreton House with its redbrick dressings and string course. Burlington House is merely Edwardian but its doorway is set off with splendid sunburst brickwork. If you live round here you're doing well and also in terribly good company because the square's had some very famous residents. Samuel Coleridge came to stay at Moreton House in April 1816 in the hope that lodging with his doctor might help stave off his opium habit... and never went back home. Church House was the childhood home of Harry Beck, fabled creator of the diagrammatic tube map, although English Heritage chose to slap their blue plaque on his birthplace in Leyton instead. There is however a pink plaque on a lamppost celebrating Dame Stella Rimington, the first female director of MI5, who I'm guessing has had her precise local address successfully redacted. » Please note that the eastern side of Pond Square is officially on a street called South Grove, but I've ignored this technicality else most of the previous paragraph would have been out of scope. » Please note that I have not mentioned Francis Bacon's ghost chicken because spectral poultry is plainly fictional, also the 400th anniversary is next April and I might want to run a special feature then. Highgate Literary and Scientific Institution, an early Victorian friendly society founded for self-betterment, and still reeling in middle class membership for a programme of discussions, education and all things cultural. Chris Lintott, Nick Higham and Vernon Bogdanor are booked in to deliver lectures soon, while afternoon classes include contract bridge with Victor, intermediate Spanish with Esperanza and tree identification with Bettina. All are welcome to view art in the Highgate Gallery, although the next free exhibition isn't until September. Meanwhile the building nextdoor at 10a is leased to the Highgate Society, a more outward-looking institution seeking to improve the locality with events including guerilla gardening and monthly litter picks, and I wonder if cultured Highgate residents pick one or the other or align with both. » Please note that number 10a was previously a school for Jewish boys, a handbag factory and a workshop supplying stonework to Highgate Cemetery. » Please note that I have copied a lot of this information off a board at the southern end of the square installed by The Highgate Society, I'm not just intrinsically knowledgeable. » Please note that The Highgate Society also publish a splendid Visit Highgate leaflet, grabbable from their lobby, the astonishing thing being that the fold-out map is marked with 114 points of interest and every single one of them has a proper description in the key. Most London suburbs couldn't run to 20, let alone so eruditely. » Please note that Highgate is proper lovely, as well as way out of your reach.

I've long loved Footpath 47 at Barking Riverside for its estuarine bleakness, a half mile of undeveloped Thames foreshore with open access to the river. I've also long urged you to visit before a wall of flats encroaches and the river's edge is tidied up to incorporate a promenade and coastal garden. Well, you need to hurry up because the men with strimmers have arrived and the environmental tipping point approaches. landfill. But it is exceptionally rare to be able to walk along a broad grassy path beside unprotected estuary, and before long it won't be possible at all. Works have just started on what's known as Foreshore Package 0-1, the western half of Footpath 47's shoreline stroll, kicking off with vegetation clearance and the relocation of existing wildlife. They're also in the process of installing 'ecology fencing', notionally for safety reasons rather than to deter the passage of reptiles, but the net effect is to prevent the public from straying down to the tidal edge, perhaps forever. The long-term plan is to create Foreshore Park, an 18 acre green stripe connecting fresh city blocks to vegetated banks and coastal grasslands. This'll have a raised promenade suitable for cycling overlooking a terraced landscaped area, creating 'waterfront public realm' for tens of thousands of new residents. It'll kick off near the pier with a meeting spot called The Terrace, merge into a small recreational area near the existing Project Office and skirt a more natural basin including a lower walkway and a short perpendicular spur called The Lookout. Importantly it'll also raise flood protection from the existing crest level of 7.1m to the 8.2m needed to satisfy the Thames Estuary 2100 Plan. Standing here near an open bank I did wonder if that could possibly be sufficient, but apparently even the appalling inundation of January 1953 only reached 5.1m hereabouts. pavement-bashing arc through the new estate and along the unforgiving slog of Choats Lane, thus technically providing a link to the eastern half by the Goresbrook. The new earthworks to create Foreshore Package 0-1 should take about twelve months, with Footpath 47 reconnected via a temporary link path as soon as appropriate. The eastern half will then be terraced and promenaded in a similar manner, with the new retaining wall complete by the summer of 2030 according to one document I've seen. I've also seen one document saying the two metal navigation beacons here will be retained and relocated, and another saying they've been deemed of insufficient heritage interest so will simply be removed. Ultimately Footpath 47 will be the forgotten name for a riverside promenade a tad further back than the existing path, all fully accessible, and a key interface that finally provides Barking Riverside residents with easy access to the river. At present no new flats have been built anywhere near the Thames, indeed less than a quarter of the proposed 20,000 homes have yet been completed, all much further up the landfill mound. It could be 2046 before developers finally pack up and go, but these preliminary works need to begin now to allow further phases to continue. You can read more about the immediate evolution of the foreshore here, and see greater detail in the consultation boards pack here, but mainly I urge you to come and see how Footpath 47 looks now before the Closed/Diversion signs appear, which could be soon. This untamed unpaved path has been gradually encroached upon for the best part of a decade, but what happens next will kickstart an inexorable step change to terraced residential waterfront, by no means anodyne but alas no longer unique.

25 things we learnt from TfL FoI requests in July 2025 1) It's anticipated that buses on route SL7 will eventually be replaced by electric double deck vehicles with single doors and 2m of luggage space. Current vehicles have either 1m or 3m. 2) Non-foldable e-bikes without the battery attached may be taken on TfL services. A non-foldable electric bike with the battery removed is in effect a normal non-foldable bike. 3) Although flows can be reversed in the Silvertown Tunnel, it is not designed for safe contraflow operation in a single bore. This reflects the significantly increased risk of collisions, and thus fire and other consequential issues in the high-risk tunnel environment. 4) In 2025/26 the Freedom Pass Concessionary settlement was £308m. This is paid by London's boroughs for the provision of free travel on TfL services. The calculation of Revenue Forgone does not include journeys that would not be made in the absence of the scheme. 5) From stations on the Morden branch of the Northern line, demand via the Bank branch is approximately 50% higher than for equivalent trips via the Charing Cross branch. This trend is consistent throughout the day. Thus more trains are routed via Bank to better align with where and when people are travelling. 6) Train operators on the Victoria line have a legal obligation to wear suitable hearing protection as the assessed levels are above the UEAV of 85 dB(A) Lep. 7) It is not the case that Underground employees are subject to random hair tests. Typically urine testing is used for unannounced and post-incident checks for banned substances. 8) From December 2025 Arriva Rail London and Greater Anglia will be working collaboratively to write a new Weaver line timetable with the aim that all Overground services should call at Bethnal Green in both directions. 9) Since a ban on open containers of alcohol on tube services was introduced in 2008 there have only been 14 prosecutions (ten of them in 2021/22). 10) TfL don't know how long a bucket has been in place below a ceiling leak at St Pancras Underground, nor when another meeting will be scheduled with Thames Water to identify the rogue sprinkler pipe, but will continue to work to resolve this situation as soon as possible. 11) Prior to 29 June, some passengers on route 108D were erroneously charged a fare on what should have been a free bus. n.b. These double deckers operate after 10.30pm from North Greenwich to Lewisham so don't actually pass through the Blackwall Tunnel. 12) 518,211 distinct customers hired a Santander bike in 2024. 13) The conversion of bus shelter lighting to LEDs will be complete by the end of the summer. 14) TfL no longer hold records created in support of the Chelsea-Hackney line proposals because their standard retention period for information is seven years. 15) The X80 bus route is not currently permitted to use the Silvertown Tunnel for diversions. 16) TfL refuse to reveal the drawings for the proposed toilets at Morden station "as it could be used by individuals who wish to cause harm or disruption to customers, staff and the London Underground network." 17) An accelerated cleaning programme has been deployed in response to the specific increase in graffiti on the Central and Bakerloo lines. Teams are removing around 3,000 tags per week (on average one tag every three minutes). 18) Until 2018 TfL published a set of 14 paper cycle maps covering the whole of Greater London. They were excellent, and you can now download the full set. 19) Last year 59,522 electric vehicles received a Cleaner Vehicle Discount for journeys within the Congestion Charge zone, on a total of 1,906,185 occasions. 20) So far this year there have been six incidents of "accidental discovery or release of harmful substances" in public areas on the Underground - three of asbestos, two of dust and one of ice melt. 21) The tube line with the most maintenance issues is the Central line with 16,543 work orders over the last nine months, followed by the Piccadilly line with 9297 and the Jubilee line with 5709. 22) Train brake blocks containing asbestos have not been in use on the Underground since 1985. 23) There are approximately 2620 trips per weekday on bus route 310. Of these approximately 690 are made exclusively on the section between Stamford Hill and Finsbury Park, approximately 1540 exclusively on the section between Finsbury Park and Golders Green, and approximately 390 between these two sections. 24) If you're the patronising obsessive who submitted 1400 words on everything they would do differently about tube maps, I bet TfL loved replying "No such recorded information is held" to all your questions. 25) TfL has no plans to phase out the Oyster Card. Always nice to have that confirmed. 60+ Oyster application update Q: Please can you provide any information regarding the decision not to allow applicants to apply until 10 days prior to 60 birthday rather than 14 days as per website. A: We are not clear where a 10-day period comes into effect as our checks show that applicants have 13 days in which to apply before their 60th birthday. To prevent continued confusion, we will be updating the website to reflect this. Observation: They have not updated the website to reflect this. Observation: When I tried applying for the 60+ Oyster, the helpline told me I could apply 10 days before my 60th birthday. Observation: I actually managed to apply 11 days before my 60th birthday. Observation: I was definitely not able to apply 13 days before my 60th birthday. Observation: The application system is an administrative mess.

31 unblogged things I did in July Tue 1: Thanks for your 57 comments on Unblogged June, even if they were predominantly about smoke alarms. I have now sorted the issue, thanks (and the replacement will itself need to be replaced in ten years' time). Wed 2: In surprising news, as of this afternoon we are now closer to 2050 than 2000. Thu 3: The Metropolitan Arcade outside Liverpool Street station, once home to sandwich shops and dry cleaners for bankers, is now a Boxpark offshoot called Boxhall City. Its "curated mix of global cuisines" includes Eggslut, Old Chang Kee, Gaucho and Inamo Sukoshi, also a "rotating chef-led kitchen" which just goes to show how important it is to get your hyphen in the right place. Fri 4: A new online game has emerged - Primesweeper - which is like Minesweeper but you have to clear the grid while avoiding the 17 prime numbers. My top tip is to remove the even numbers and multiples of 3 first. My best score is 100% cleared in 163 seconds (which is a prime number, ha!) Sat 5: Since I last visited my Dad his telephone's been switched over to Digital Voice, the non-landline service. It also means his wifi password has changed so I had to type a very long alphanumeric into my phone, then my laptop, then my Dad's tablet, then his smart TV so they'd work again. We still can't get the wi-fi extender to log back in so that's effectively bricked. Sun 6: There are three cafes in my Dad's village and until today I'd only been to one of them. Today we visited the largest one (for pie and chips) followed by the newest one (for tea and cake) and it was a new experience all round. Mon 7: The blog had a spike of 10000 extra visitors today, all via a Liquid Web server in the Far East. This phenomenon has never happened before (or since), and I suspect was some company scraping my blog for AI purposes one post at a time. Tue 8: I blew up a yellow balloon for my birthday back in March, and it's been deflating ever so slowly ever since. It's now down to 'shrivelled stomach' size so I decided it was finally time to burst it. Four months though, that's not bad. Wed 9: Today I discovered why some Overground train doors have spiky yellow 'sharks teeth'. It's because "the doors on Class 710s don't automatically reopen when something jams them", and I reckon if TfL told passengers that rather than just warning TAKE CARE CLOSING DOORS, people might take more notice and try not to get their limbs trapped. Thu 10: You can tell some of Londonist's writers have left the capital because their articles often now have a Kent/Sussex slant, including Things To Do In Sevenoaks, Things To Do In Lewes, 8 Charming And Historic Castles To Visit In Sussex and Why You Should Go To... Hastings. Fri 11: On a bus shelter in Tooting I saw an advert for a 30th anniversary limited edition can of Hooch, and it cannot be that long since alcoholic lemonade was my first choice in Bedford's pubs. Sat 12: I've been on Instagram for ten years and today they suddenly chucked me off the platform, claiming my account was 'unverified' and might thus breach their Community Standards for integrity. I learned this via an email saying "We are suspending your Instagram account, you have until January to appeal." I immediately appealed and they let me back on four minutes later, but this is why letting algorithms run things is so dangerous. Sun 13: I'd like to go back in time and nudge myself to start buying 50p jars of sliced pickled beetroot because I've been missing out. Mon 14: I got lucky in the Radio 4 ticket raffle so trotted down to Shepherd's Bush this afternoon to watch the recording of this year's edition of John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme. Some years he just does funny sketches and some years he goes all high-concept thematic, and this year there's a sketch in which he takes the mickey out of that. I laughed a lot, as did the cast awaiting their turn at the microphone, and I can heartily recommend a listen when it's broadcast over the August bank holiday weekend. Tue 15: While I was taking lots of photos of Hatton Cross station they played the "if you see anything suspicious..." announcement at least three times, and I'd like to thank staff and fellow passengers for not paying any attention whatsoever. Wed 16: There were a heck of a lot of police around Old Ford Lock this morning, looking down at a narrow boat resting at an alarming angle in the water, but I decided not to stay and watch alongside the other rubberneckers. Thu 17: Thank you for your email. It was much appreciated but it was just beyond the limit of something easy to reply to immediately so I didn't. Also you asked three questions that deserved a decent answer and I still haven't got round to answering them yet and I feel guilty about that, but thankyou for your email. Fri 18: To answer your question, Stephen, Blue House Yard in Wood Green isn't 'a bit weedy and boarded up'. You can still get your bike fixed, attach permanent welded jewellery or quaff IPA on a painted bus, and this is why you should never base your opinion of the capital on what you see on Streetview. Sat 19: Adrian got in touch to say he'd tried to view this blog while travelling aboard an Irish Rail train, but it was blocked due to content filtering because "this site has been categorized as Pornography". Balls. Sun 20: The most annoying thing about my 'Random London grid reference' post, in which I explored the Railway Children in Grove Park, is that I'd been 100m away just two days earlier and had to go all the way back again. Mon 21: In January 2020 I wrote a very brief blogpost about Twentyman Close in Woodford Green, and how a large country house called Monkhams had been sold off for housing by a man called James Twentyman. In February 2024 Judi Porter left a lovely (belated) comment saying James was her grandfather and her father had been born in the big house. Today the manager of Redbridge Museum & Heritage Centre left a comment saying "Hi Judi, we would love to see the photographs you have and hear about your grandparents' stories about Monkhams." There is not a hope in hell that Judi will ever read that last comment, but in case she ever reads this do please get in touch via email. Tue 22: When I mentioned that the cost of Oyster photocards was increasing I failed to mention that the price of a new Oyster card has also increased by 43%. Used to be £5 refundable, then in 2022 changed to £7 unrefundable and as of this week is now £10 you will never get back. They keep these things very quiet. Wed 23: "When I see it's another of your 'Squares' posts I don't tend to read those, sorry," they said, and these are the things you discover over a fried breakfast in a Coulsdon cafe. Thu 24: Three BBC Sounds shows you might enjoy: i) Alternative Sounds of the 00s with Dermot O'Leary (Radio 2's first venture into millennial nostalgia), ii) Derailed: The story of HS2 (a 10-part serious dig into the decision-makers and project-breakers behind the much-maligned railway), iii) Reach Out and Touch Faith (a 30 minute Radio 4 documentary on "the unlikely journey of Depeche Mode's world domination"). Fri 25: I had a hilarious idea for a satirical post about the Online Safety Act, placing the blog behind a temporary protected firewall, but I didn't risk it in case some joyless algorithm assumed it was serious and blacklisted me for real. Sat 26: Today's the very last time that Royal Mail intend to deliver 2nd class mail on a Saturday, and they celebrated by sending me an electricity bill and a pension fund report. Sun 27: Rather than rewatch the 2012 Olympic opening ceremony again, this year I played the Isles of Wonder double album CDs instead. One of the most evocative £10s I have ever spent. Mon 28: Ian Visits alerts us that East Midlands Railway are running a ticket sale for journeys between 4th August and 7th September. They normally have some of the most exorbitant long distance fares out of London so here's an opportunity to hit the East Midlands for less, assuming the limited availability hasn't run out. I have mine booked for next week, hurrah. Tue 29: Of the ten library books I've read this month, my favourites were Jonathan Coe's The Proof of My Innocence, Adrian Tchaikovsky's Shroud and Alan Hollinghurst's Our Evenings. I couldn't finish the Jasper Fforde and I wish I hadn't finished Georgina Moore. Wed 30: Today was the Central line's 125th birthday - it opened between Shepherd's Bush and Bank on 30th July 1900. Today was also the 15th birthday of sponsored bike hire in the capital. You can probably guess which of the two TfL chose to promote across social media and which they ignored. I'd like to apologise to the Mayor that my tweet pointing this out got 1200 likes and his only got 47. Brand-obsessed, I tell you. Thu 31: My Swithinometer is now up to 16 days of recording the weather, and so far the dead saint is doing really well. It rained on 15th July and it's rained on 12 days since. Where did the summer go?