Just before ten o'clock yesterday morning I positioned myself on the river wall at North Woolwich and waited. I'd been tipped off by the Ian Visits website that a flypast was due, specifically that it'd be overflying Valentines Park (09:59) Woolwich Barracks (10:00) and Petts Wood (10:01). They're pretty precise, these Civil Aviation Authority Notices to Airmen. So precise that I was able to draw a line between the points, spot it crossed the Thames by the Woolwich Ferry and try to stand underneath. I got very close. smoking formation suddenly appeared from behind the flats and the flypast was on. I'm not sure if anyone else looked up, I wasn't looking at them, I was staring at the sky. Those on the ferry were probably preoccupied with boarding, those waiting in their cars were obscured by a whopping concrete wall and those out shopping in Woolwich would have had too many buildings in the way. A good thing about being this close to the action was that the pilots had just fired up their coloured smoke so the streams changed from white to red/blue within my field of view. Another good thing about being this close to the action was that all nine trails were distinct and separate in an almost-perfect V. The aerial spectacle zoomed across the river all too quickly, targeting whatever outdoor event at Woolwich Barracks had merited the costly display. The Armed Forces aren't above spending money to entertain themselves. I see I only managed to take eight photos over the course of what turned out to be nineteen seconds, swivelling round midway to focus on Woolwich rather than the sky. And as the smoke trails slowly dissipated and the estuary went back to normal, the usual scream of planes taking off from City Airport eventually returned. These moments of awe and wonder are rare in any one given location, and to take full advantage it pays to know they're coming.

45 45 Squared 32) LYRIC SQUARE, W6 Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham, 70m×30m Lyric Square and it used to be the southern end of Hammersmith Grove, a road which now stops early and filters into the one-way system. Background: In 2000 Hammersmith and Fulham council launched a competition to create a new £750,000 public square on a closed section of highway, just round the corner from the Circle line terminus. 50 applications were received and the winners were a practice with the dangerously unappealing name of Gross Max Landscape Architects. Lyric Square opened to the public in May 2005 and won the Civic Trust Hard Landscaping Award in 2006. It looks considerably less dazzling 20 years later with the fountains turned off. ribbed wooden tower to one side. This is a CityTree, a moss-filled tower which supposedly absorbs polluted air and blows out fresh, which may be worth knowing about should you own a patch of public realm in need of livening up with an eco-gizmo. Background: The Lyric Theatre wasn't always here, it used to be just round the corner in Bradmore Grove. Opened as the Lyric Opera House it was repeatedly enlarged through the 1890s and had a dazzling Rococo auditorium designed by the incomparable Frank Matcham. Demolition was ordered in the 1960s, despite a public inquiry, but the auditorium was thankfully saved and rebuilt on the current site behind a jarringly modern facade. The entrance was redesigned when Lyric Square opened, including a new cafe at street level. Outsider Tart, but they don't open on Sundays so I can't rate their peanut butter chocolate fudge and M&M’s cookies. I can tell you that Dracula opens tomorrow, a feminist retelling taking to the stage before the theatre stages a 130th birthday singalong gala night next month, then it's Jack and the Beanstalk for Christmas. Outside theatre hours the buzz on the piazza comes from the constant wash of shoppers passing through, also the outdoor seating at Pret A Manger, also the beery tables at the inevitable Wetherspoon which is called The William Morris. Background: Designer anarchist William Morris is claimed by many London boroughs, but Hammersmith has a strong claim because he lived on the Thames waterfront from 1878 until his death in 1896. A stripe of sunken letters embedded in the pavement outside Pret says "William Morris spoke in this square", which surprised me because the square didn't exist while he was alive, but apparently his diary records an open-air meeting on this site in February 1887. "This audience characteristic of small open air meetings quite mixed, from labourers on their Sunday lounge to ‘respectable’ people coming from church; the latter inclined to grin, the working men listening attentively trying to understand, but mostly failing to do so: a fair cheer when I ended." I doubt Wetherspoons would be William's pub of choice. market, or Thursday/Friday for the food market, which again I didn't. The local BID team also run events to chivvy footfall for town centre businesses, anything from big screen films to sponsored yoga, and I assume the enormous #HAMMERSMITH plonked at the northern end of the square is their idea of good branding. Even when the piazza's quiet it's still plainly a better use of space than the original road, so the lesson here is that you can always conjure up a decent bit of public realm if you're not afraid of inconveniencing a few drivers.

I was at Ponders End station last week when I noticed something odd. The next station is Meridian Water, which opened in 2019 as a replacement for Angel Road. both stations. Trains serving Ponders End run on the Hertford East line. The issue is that Meridian Water is the terminus for trains from Stratford, so they don't continue north. Technically, if you get up really early two trains do stop at Ponders End then Meridian Water. Brimsdown       0552  0608 I wondered, does this happen anywhere else in London? » Sudbury Hill Harrow and Sudbury & Harrow Road are potential candidates. However that's because Sudbury & Harrow Road only gets four trains a day, and all four northbound trains do in fact stop at both stations. And I wondered does this happen anywhere else in the UK?

One Stop Beyond: Purfleet In this series I'm taking the train one stop beyond the Greater London boundary, getting off and seeing what's there. Today that means Purfleet, one stop beyond Rainham on c2c trains to Grays. Officially the town is Purfleet-on-Thames, and has been since 2020 when Thurrock councillors got unanimously overexcited, hoping they'd become a "destination of choice". This will never happen, as any visit to the estuarine outpost will confirm, but there are occasional bright spots amongst the patchwork of grey. Magazine number 5 survives beside the promenade, since transformed into the Purfleet Garrison Heritage and Military Centre. It only opens Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays so I still haven't been inside, but I got some idea from the row of a dozen silhouetted soldiers looiking down from the promenade, also the Gurkha war memorial alongside which manages to look both enormously respectful and like it was supplied by a corner shop that sells trophies. The rest of the barracks is long gone, bar a rather splendid gatehouse that now graces the start of a cul-de-sac of bungalows. The site is now a postwar housing estate with a Costcutter at its heart, while the quarry opposite is now a separate whorl of roads with stacked flats and a single point of access. As London commuter boltholes go, it's on the cheaper side. Behind all this is Tank Hill Road, a surprising climb with an enormous fence along one side screening a sheer drop over chalk cliffs and a view of gabled roofs, treetops and Kent. Tank Lane continues high above the railway, the sole connection to an entirely separate chunk of Purfleet cut off behind the bypass. Here lurks the Circus Tavern, long-time venue of the PDC World Darts Championship (1994-2007), a building with all the outdated allure of an Essex car showroom. For natural delights find the footbridge across the mouth of the Mardyke, now bedecked with a concrete hoop bearing a million year timeline of the local area inscribed on the inside. I'm not sure I would have included "1950 - Purfleet identified as a possible Cold War A-Bomb target by the Ministry of Food" amongst the chronological highlights. The bridge leads to Rainham Marshes and a long sea wall where local residents exercise their thuggy dogs. The majority of the marshes is owned by the RSPB whose timber visitor centre stands sentinel at the top of a further ramp. It won architectural prizes in 2006 but looks somewhat shabby today, the interior in particular, because insufficient admissions didn't pay for upkeep. Since 2023 it's been free to get in, if not to park, and a single member of staff oversees the empty viewing platform beside the abandoned cafe. I went for the full 2½ mile circuit through woodland, across boardwalks and around reedy scrape. Only occasionally does the path nudge up against the water, hence the three hides are the best place to scrutinise various kinds of waterfowl, although I'm pretty sure I spotted a little egret strutting its stuff from just behind the electric fence. At more migratory times of year, the marshes are essentially an airport. At one point you get up close to a fizzy pylon, elsewhere (at Shooting Butts) a former rifle range and nearer the Thames a one-way turnstile used for after hours egress. It is a glorious loop, at its furthest point just 200m from the boundary of Greater London, and an ideal visit for both bird-spotters and train-spotters as High Speed 1 swooshes by on a viaduct along one edge. chapter 2. "At Purfleet, on a byroad, I came across just such a place as seemed to be required, and where was displayed a dilapidated notice that the place was for sale. It was surrounded by a high wall, of ancient structure, built of heavy stones, and has not been repaired for a large number of years. The closed gates are of heavy old oak and iron, all eaten with rust. The estate is called Carfax, no doubt a corruption of the old Quatre Face, as the house is four sided, agreeing with the cardinal points of the compass." Many details are given, alas sufficient to confirm that the house never existed in real life. However it's thought Bram Stoker must have visited, Purfleet being a favoured day-trip for train-going Victorian Londoners who enjoyed climbing Beacon Hill, outdoor bathing and whitebait suppers. None of this is currently available. A green plaque on the High Street installed by Thurrock Heritage claims Carfax was based on Purfleet House, long demolished and replaced by St Stephen's Church, but that's more a big hall and not worth a look either. Across the road The Royal Hotel looks in an even more sorry state, surrounded by scaffolding and with its upper cladding missing, so may no longer be the ideal spot for those completing the final section of the London Loop to celebrate with a beer and a bite. The most surprising arrival in modern Purfleet is the Royal Opera House. In 2015 they opened a campus on a ridge facing the river at High House Production Park, the centrepiece being a huge barrel-roofed Production Workshop where sets and scenery are constructed by local craftspeople and creatives. Alongside are a less radical building used to store over 20000 costumes from the ROH repertory and also The Backstage Centre, a studio where film and TV crews can shoot or rehearse. The site is based round a cluster of listed barns and cottages, appropriately adapted, complete with charming walled gardens where you could sit with a coffee had the courtyard cafe not folded. The contrast to the surrounding landscape is extreme - a few interwar cul-de-sacs, a long Edwardian terrace, a vast Tesco Distribution Centre and endless rumbling trucks. Less than half a mile away is the point where the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge launches across the estuary, its companion tunnel starts to burrow underneath and High Speed 1 threads geometrically between the two. This is prime logistics territory, clogged with warehouses, terminals and other pedestrian-hostile locations, but also no longer technically Purfleet, more West Thurrock. It's also unarguably closer to Chafford Hundred station which is Two Stops Beyond, so I can end my description here and perhaps just recommend the bird reserve instead.