Thank you for the emails you've been sending. Tom emailed on 16th January. ✉ Not sure if you have come across the National Archives’ 2023 competition on stories from 1920s streets, but it seems completely in your zone. The only thing that would have made this article better would have been on-the-ground reporting from East Dulwich. the article in question is "Bertie Sheldrake was a South London pickle manufacturer who converted to Islam and became king of a far-flung Islamic republic before returning to London and settling back into obscurity." I also enjoyed one of the other winning reports about three ladies working in Trewins department store in Watford in the 1920s, obviously. ✉ I don't know if you've been to Paddington lately, but they've got a particularly irritating electronic sign which hectors you to use the lifts if you have luggage, buggies, or other large items. Indeed they have. Emma emailed on 6th March. ✉ Hi Diamond Geezer, I was just wondering, what are your thoughts on the redevelopment of the Orpington Walnuts centre? I said it looked exceptionally generic, that no way were they 'Creating Character', and what's normal for inner London would feel very out of place in the centre of Orpington (a tower block especially so). ✉ This week I came across an interesting discrepancy between two maps on the same H&C line train (photos attached). Do you have any insight on how these walking distances are measured - is it station entrance to station entrance, platform to platform or something else? Could there be a reason they vary here, beyond simple carelessness (perhaps crow flies vs distance walked on streets)? Have you ever tried to measure the distances yourself? I checked and it really is the case, the two line diagrams in the same train carriage really do give different distances from Tower Hill. On the Circle line map Tower Gateway is 150m and Fenchurch Street is 100m, and on the District line map Tower Gateway is 130m and Fenchurch Street is 160m. And yet the two lines use the same platform and passengers emerge through the same gateline! The Fenchurch Street difference is quite big so it can't be a rounding thing. How did this ever slip through? In 2023 someone asked for a copy of all the car line diagrams on the tube, and TfL provided a zip file which shows exactly what Karol photographed here - two maps with different measurements. Last month someone asked again, seeking updated maps now the Overground lines have different names and a fresh zip file was provided. The new District Line map says it's 150m to Tower Gateway and Fenchurch Street is 100m - the anomaly has been removed. final step in the rebrand won't be completed until there's an operational need to replace them because TfL don't have the money. Hence the anomaly has been updated but the maps haven't, hence there are still line maps with mismatched distances rattling round the network. Also I measured it and you definitely can't get from Tower Hill to Fenchurch Street in 100m, more like 130m, perhaps 160m, it all depends precisely where you measure from and to. ✉ The musician Jah Wobble, former bass player with Public Image Limited, has just released an album called "The North London Line (Mildmay)" which muses on the history and culture of locations along the line. It's a mixture of spoken poetry and (mostly) electronica and dub and I think it's fantastic. Can be streamed free via bandcamp.com. "The Bus Routes of South London", best listened to on headphones from the front seat top deck. My favourite track is "The 35 towards Clapham Junction". Tom emailed on 23rd April. ✉ I have been wanting to walk/run through the Rotherhithe Tunnel for some time. I recall you blogged about doing so but didn’t recommend due to the fumes. Do you happen to know if it is open to pedestrians during the London Marathon (when it is closed to cars)? We decided it wasn't, although there was no obvious reason why it couldn't be on Marathon day. I still don't recommend walking through it on any other day, even though you can. ✉ This morning I walked along the interesting perimeter footpath on the east side of Biggin Hill Airport which made me wonder if this is the longest unbroken public right of way in London? This is an excellent question and very much something I'd be interested in. The perimeter footpath on the east side of Biggin Hill Airport goes a heck of a long way without meeting any other footpath, by my calculations about 2.9km, or nearly two miles. Does any London right of way go further without any means of escape? round the outside of Hampton Court Park is 4.3km long, but there is a break point where you can slip into the park so it doesn't count. The Thames Path round the back of the Thamesmead void is only 1.8km, but feels much longer. The longest stretch of Grand Union towpath I can find is 1.9km. In which case I think the longest unbroken right of way in London is the Thames Path round Coldharbour Point, beyond Rainham, part of the last desolate leg of the London Loop, at 3.0km. Unless anyone knows better? ✉ While painted maps mounted at the entrance to council estates are ten a penny, Wellsmoor Gardens has a fantastic relief map mounted as a weird sculpture. I thought of you as soon as I saw it. It is absolutely cracking, and although I've seen it before I've never blogged about it, which I am absolutely putting right today. It stands at the entrance to a leafy cluster of mid-60s cul-de-sacs, all flowered greens and separate garages, not far from Chislehurst station. And it's recently been restored to its shimmering best by the Heritage of London Trust in honour of its creator FHK Henrion, the father of corporate branding. You might want to scrutinise the legend on the adjacent plaque, or read this lovely post about the re-unveiling, or check out some of his London Transport posters, or just go to Bickley and admire.

Yesterday TfL launched a consultation proposing an extension of the DLR to Thamesmead. And not just "we think it would be a good idea to extend the DLR to Thamesmead" because they did that consultation last year. This is the proper full-on version including where the stations should be, the alignment of the tunnel, how often the trains should run, what needs a viaduct, how to avoid underground hazards, where to turn back additional services and how best to support loads of housing. This is where the project gets real, the point at which you can stand in a car park and say "one day there may be a station precisely here". So that's what I've done. 1½ mile spur bearing off near the end of the Beckton branch. The first new stop would be at Beckton Riverside, which is housing developer brandspeak for "the middle of the former Beckton Gasworks". The second and final stop would be in Thamesmead, a huge 1960s estate that still doesn't have a station because every subsequent administration has failed it. Between the two stations would be a 1.3km tunnel, potentially the DLR's third Thames crossing. Trains would run at least every 8 minutes direct to Custom House and Canning Town for onward connections. And it'd improve accessibility sufficiently for 25,000 homes to be built at each location, which is the sole reason anyone's thinking of building it. If you're thinking "I would have extended the Overground from Barking Riverside, surely that would have been better?" you are very much behind the curve. Last year's consultation pointed out that this would be more expensive, less direct and more infrequent, thus worse in every way, and this is why TfL employs experts rather than opinionated armchair moaners. first new station would be precisely here. This is the Gallions Reach Shopping Park, a car-focused collection of retail sheds opened in 2003. Specifically it's Armada Way, the sole access road that loops through this once godforsaken space. Specifically it's opposite the Tesco garage by the junction where buses turn off to deposit potential shoppers in the middle of a car park. And specifically it's a grassy ridge alongside the main road - part open lawn, part occupied by scrubby trees - close to where several gasholders used to be. Here workers occasionally sit for a coffee or a smoke amid a mown selection of small yellow flowers, prevented from edging further by a spiky metal fence. Given current weather conditions I might best describe it as a dry hump. And yet if all goes to plan this yellowing stripe will become the location of a ground-level step-free station serving tens of thousands of newbuild homes, not just Next and Sports Direct. recently extended, because it would be self-defeating for a transport enhancement project to eat itself. reveals that five different potential station locations were considered, two of them mid-car-park so now discounted, one too close to the DLR depot to be economically viable and one too near the river to permit a safe tunnel gradient. The selected 'Option 3' isn't without its downsides, not least that the grassy hump I mentioned earlier in fact covers a high pressure gas pipeline, hence the flurry of red and yellow warning signage along its length. But one day this scant verge could be the heart of a high-density high-vernacular neighbourhood, abuzz with opportunity, and all just eight stops from Canning Town. second new station would be precisely here. This is the Cannon Retail Park, an outer corner of Thamesmead's shopping sprawl. The majority of the space is car park, and well used because the lack of a station means a lot of people round here drive. A row of five warehouse units runs along the far side, only two of which are currently occupied but both still relatively busy. And in the corner closest to the roundabout is a drive-thru KFC, a squat functional block offering 11 herbs and spices and a £1.79 Milkybar Raspberry Ripple Sundae. All of this would disappear in order to make way for the terminus, because never underestimate the ability of a transport planner to identify a patch of land as a potential worksite and then eradicate it entirely. B&M only opened last year and Puregym last month so they'll be less pleased to hear they're destined to become two platforms in zone 4. One of the two station options had the buffers coincide with McDonalds but that idea's been abandoned to cause less disruption and now they'll land bang on top of KFC instead. The plan also involves putting the station on a raised viaduct, partly to increase pedestrian permeability but also because (apparently) it'd make the line easier to extend in the future should a pie-in-the-sky line into Bexley ever get off the ground. Twin Tumps, a pair of moated bunkers once used to safely store ammunition. Thamesmead is riddled with tumps, some since transformed into compact watery parklets, but these two are out of sight out of mind. The intention is to make them the focus of a new transport nexus with the DLR gliding between the two like some kind of futuristic green utopia, then open up the untouched landfill marshland beyond. A ridiculously large wedge of Thamesmead has gone undeveloped over the last few decades, in part for lack of transport but mainly because it's been safeguarded for the Thames Gateway Bridge. Boris scrapped this in 2008 so TfL are dead keen to remove unnecessary planning protection and drive through a railway and tens of thousands of homes instead, and you can see their point. 'turnback' location so that these extra services don't need to run all the way into central London and clog up the existing network. TfL identified eight potential sites for an additional siding or platform, six of which were swiftly proven to be impractical. The two that remain in the running are at Royal Victoria and Canning Town, as pictured here. Royal Victoria already has a surplus track from the time when Silverlink trains ran this way, and it would be cheap and easy to repurpose this for a third platform allowing reversing trains to terminate here. However from a practical point of view it's very much suboptimal, turfing off passengers one stop before Canning Town, so a Canning Town turnback is likely to be preferred instead. This would squeeze into the neck of a meander on Bow Creek, just past the station, where an unsafe footbridge currently crosses the tracks. Demolishing this would allow a fractional widening with a reversing siding in the centre, although space is tight and the local pedestrian promenade could be adversely affected. Watch this space. 2012 I stood in a Sainsbury's car park and noted that it could one day become Nine Elms station. Perhaps a humpy grass verge and a KFC drive-thru will one day become the outer reaches of the DLR, in which case best read the fine detail in the consultation so you won't appear ignorant when it finally arrives.

Ten years ago I visited (and blogged about) London's most extreme bus stops - that's the most northerly, easterly, southerly and westerly bus stops inside the Greater London boundary. But TfL's reach spreads wider than that so today I'm going one better, to the most northerly, easterly, southerly and westerly bus stops served by a TfL bus. The northernmost TfL bus stop: Potters Bar Railway Station (stop C) 298] [county: Herts] [streetview: EN6 1AU] [map] [photo] 2017 TfL's northernmost bus stop was at the end of a godforsaken industrial estate in Potters Bar where most of the businesses tinkered with cars. Then accountants finally saw the flaw in sending 83 buses a day to a worksite beyond the London boundary and cut back the 298 permanently to Potters Bar station, its previous weekend terminus. And that's why TfL's northernmost bus stop is now outside a hefty redbrick Sainsbury's beside a parcel collection locker, somewhere eminently more sensible. The station forecourt feels very much like the heart of Potters Bar, a key commuter portal amid the main parade of shops. Residents flood in to catch a train, to slump with an alfresco coffee, to avail themselves of the supermarket or to troop through to the well hidden Post Office. Four bus stops are located around the short forecourt loop, two used only by non-London services and two where TfL still stop. The northernmost of these is Stop C, the northern terminus of the 298, which is also the only stop without a shelter because you can simply hide beneath the rim of Sainsbury's if it starts to rain. It also means there's no proper bus stop, only a Herts-issue metal flag bolted to the brickwork. The timetable underneath confirms that Stop C is used exclusively by route 298... except on Sundays when the 242 pulls up just five times in case anyone wants to go to Welham Green. Modern, busy and wholly unimpressive, that's TfL's northernmost bus stop. • Of all the four compass point bus stops this is the only one to be used by buses in both directions - it's both the last stop on route 298 and the first. • TfL's second most northerly bus stop is stop D, used exclusively by the 313, one of the most scenic double decker rides in the capital. • The 298 runs to Arnos Grove and has been operated by Uno, a Hatfield-based company, since Sullivan Buses threw in the towel last summer. • Technically TfL has a more northerly bus stop quarter of a mile away at Laurel Avenue. However it's only served by school route 699 and this blog has always taken the editorial line that school routes don't count. Also it's the penultimate stop and no Dame Alice Owen's pupil is going get on or off here, two minutes before the school gate. The easternmost TfL bus stop: High Street (Brentwood) (stop A) 498] [county: Essex] [streetview: CM14 4RG] [map] [photo] 498 and a connection into Essex proper, not just Thurrock. Brentwood is only marginally further east but for the purposes of today's post that totally counts, hence I've journeyed to a well-to-do market town rather than a brazen temple to consumerism. The stop we seek is at the far end of the High Street, one of a cluster of six lettered from A to G (goodness knows where D went), specifically A. Bus Stop A, as is a hugely more enticing Rossi's ice cream parlour. The three eastbound bus stops are diagonally indented with long glass shelters providing plenty of space to sit. However nobody ever waits here to catch the 498 because this is the penultimate stop and the terminus outside Sainsbury's is only 200m round the corner. One of the other bus routes goes not much further to the hospital, but the 81 to Shenfield and the 351 to Chelmsford are more substantial jaunts. If only the Romford-bound 498 called at 'E' outside KFC that would be London's easternmost bus stop, but by choice it picks up at 'F' outside Halifax so 'A' wins out instead. Shady, prosperous and cornet-adjacent, that's TfL's easternmost bus stop. • This is the only 'extreme' bus stop not to be the bus route's starting point. • Route 498 wasn't stopping here at the weekend because of a partial roundabout closure at M25 junction 28. Instead we went on a five mile(!) detour up the A12, which I think the driver secretly enjoyed, before creeping back to Sainsbury's through Shenfield. Scheduled diversions are rarely so extreme. • When I visited in April a council operative was up a ladder beside the bus stop adding a VE Day 80 sign to the lamppost. Fair enough, but when I went back again on Saturday it was still there, as were all the others across the town centre and I can't decide if that's because of laziness or pride. • Yet again a TfL school bus ventures further than standard bus services, in this case the 608 to Shenfield High School. Again it's the penultimate stop but in this case the terminus is a full 1½km further east making it TfL's easternmost bus stop by a country mile. The southernmost TfL bus stop: Dorking Townfield Court (stop S) 465] [county: Surrey] [streetview: RH4 2JE] [map] 465. It crosses the Greater London boundary at Malden Rushett and then continues for another ten miles through Leatherhead and the North Downs to Dorking. And not just Dorking town centre but a tad further on at the farthest tip of the inner loop road where, when it's time to return, almost nobody is waiting to catch it. routes serving the stop include the 21 to Epsom, the 22 to almost-Guildford and the 93 from Crawley, and it says a lot for TfL services that the half-hourly 465 is by far the most frequent of the lot. Far-flung, stockbrokerish and almost pleasant, that's TfL's southernmost bus stop. • TfL's southernmost bus stop is 32 miles south of its northernmost bus stop, because it felt like that was the kind of statistic you'd want. • It's completely coincidental, but I like how TfL's southernmost bus stop has an S on it. • Yes, Dorking is further south than Redhill and the National Trust car park at Chartwell the 246 extends to on summer Sundays, I checked. • I haven't included the once-a-year TfL bus stop outside Warminster station in my calculations, because Imberbus is not a regular TfL service, but amazingly it's only 1½ miles further south so barely any distance at all. • Vlogger Joe Dan Hirst filmed a bus journey from TfL's southernmost bus stop to its northernmost bus stop last week, in case you want to see what Townfield Court really looks like (and the school bus stop in Potters Bar he went to instead). The westernmost TfL bus stop: Queensmere Centre (Slough) (stop PQ) 81] [county: Berks] [streetview: SL1 1DH] [map] 81 has been running from Hounslow to Slough since before I was born, long providing London Transport's westernmost extent. This time we're heading 6 miles past the Greater London boundary, all the way through Colnbrook and Langley to terminate beside the whopping Tesco by Slough station. But that's not quite as far west as the first stop on the return trip which is just round the corner in the actual High Street, from which those seeking to escape Slough repeatedly flee. empty and lowbrow, so much so that its multi-storey car park closed forever last night for simply not being up to scratch. I was thus unsurprised to discover that Queensmere was sold off to residential developer Berkeley in April with plans to demolish the lot and build 1600 homes. Any shops Slough feels it still needs will decant to the neighbouring Observatory, a smaller 1990s mall, and I suspect John Betjeman would be simultaneously thrilled to see the current mess knocked down and appalled by the upthrust that'll replace it. • TfL's westernmost bus stop is 39 miles west of its easternmost bus stop, which is 7 miles more than the north-south divide. • Both the westernmost and easternmost TfL bus stops are served by a route 81, and what are the chances of that? • I have only been to two of these extreme bus stops this weekend, and three in the last week, because a post like this takes careful planning. • There is no need to follow in my footsteps, but if you are tempted best go east/south rather than north/west.

45 45 Squared 22) FERRY SQUARE, TW8 Borough of Hounslow, 40m×20m square's in old Brentford, inasmuch as old Brentford still exists, although all its buildings have somehow survived the recent cleansing of the riverside. The ferry in question was a horse ferry to Kew, an important crossing since medieval times and long under the control of the Crown. The pedestrian fare in 1536 was a farthing. Ferry Lane ran down to a landing stage at the mouth of the river Brent, a connection last used in 1939 when the economics of a link to the wrong side of Kew Gardens became untenable. And the open space where Ferry Lane met the High Street was called Ferry Square, indeed still is, although it's no longer open because the residents have chained it off so don't get your hopes up. Ferry Square was the 'Brentford Cage', the town's lock-up where ne'er-do-wells were stashed before appearing in front of the local magistrates. As Brentford docks were then a frenetic interface between the Grand Union Canal and the Thames, it would have been kept ferry busy. In 1898 a Fire Station was built in its place, a civic wonder in redbrick terracotta with space for two fire engines and a special tower for drying the leather hoses. This continued to serve the town until 1965 when the ambulance service moved in instead, then in 2003 came a restaurant inevitably called The Old Fire Station. The current hospitality occupants are Moisei at Makai who offer "a unique experience with seafood boils", i.e. Hawaiian fusion with cocktails, and who've recently ventured into Ukranier cuisine. The Middlesex coat of arms above the 'Please leave quietly' notice looks terribly out of place. Ferry Square today is merely the road behind the Old Fire Station, a brief curl fronted by a brief terrace of half a dozen houses. These replaced a row of cottages which housed Thames Soap Works employees so must date to WWII-ish, although that still counts as properly old round here. And no you won't be getting a closer look because two planters and a chain block the entrance, just outside the replacement windows at number 1. 'PRIVATE' says a sign, also 'Access for residents & their visitors only' in case you haven't got the hint. The reclusive cul-de-sac boasts one council lamppost, a jointed concrete road surface and at the far end a small turning circle that appears to double up as a communal front garden. Here a curve of astroturf fronts the high street with an array of metal chairs, rustic planters and a cluster of frighteningly gauche garden gnomes courtesy of The Wilson Family at number 6. I didn't feel I'd missed much by not being able to venture within. St Paul's almshouses were once located, except in 1949 they were closed and demolished and now a Premier Inn occupies the site. The first extant building down Ferry Lane is The Watermans Arms, a 20th century rebuild of a much much older pub which now offers cask ales, traditional fayre and Japanese dishes. Had you been watching Z Cars on 1st August 1972 you'd have seen it featured as the site of dodgy cigarette deals and a bar brawl, the immediate relevance being that the two officers on watch outside were parked in front of 1 Ferry Square. And if you head any further down Ferry Lane it becomes Ferry Quays, an early millennial redevelopment of cheerless sterility, which alas is the direction much of riverside Brentford is going. If nothing else Ferry Square still has a bit of character, even it's just gnomes and terracotta.

Hyperlocal news in brief 1) As of yesterday the 205 bus goes to Marble Arch rather than Paddington. This means you can now get a bus to the end of Oxford Street from both sides of Bow Church. Route 205 starts from Bus Stop J and goes to the western end, and route 8 starts from Bus Stop M and goes to the eastern end. 2) The launderette on Bow Road has closed for refurbishment. A sign in the window reassures customers "we will be reopen soon". 3) It was Bow Arts Open Studios yesterday, and indeed the night before. I poked round some art, dropped by the Makers Market and listened to the band play. You can do none of these things until next June. However you can still book tickets for a Subversive Sandwich Workshop on 10th July. 4) In a Bow Roundabout update, the new contraflow lane under the roundabout still isn't open even though all other roadworks were completed three months ago. If this changes I'll be sure to let you know. 5) A customer incident closed Bow Church station yesterday morning. Judging by the presence of police vehicles, the TfL Emergency Response Unit and a private ambulance I fear it was a most unfortunate incident. Trains later passed through without stopping before the station reopened. 6) From 21st July DLR services at Bow Church station will be reduced due to the retirement of aged rolling stock. Off-peak frequencies will drop from every 5 minutes to every 6½ minutes, grrr, and peak trains to Lewisham will no longer run. 7) The magnetic letters on my freezer door are currently H, K and X. 8) The regeneration of Stroudley Walk has become increasingly more intrusive as the worksite has expanded to leave a ridiculously thin walkway in front of the existing shopping parade. It'll be a big improvement when the 274 new homes are finally finished, but I fear some of the shops may have gone bust by then. 9) Bow Wharf, the commercial cluster at the western end of the Hertford Canal, is to be mostly demolished and replaced by 66 homes. Of the existing businesses only the distillery will remain. The Canal and River Trust own the site and as a charity need money, hence the inevitable shift to housing. 10) The horse chestnut tree outside Bow Road station is bursting with conkers so it must be nearly autumn.