Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: Hounslow (Borough of)

Tuesday : Ealing, Angus Deayton and Heathrow

I liked the Ealing Ibis Styles, my first time there and it was a quiet and peaceful hotel with some strong movie related theming. The reviews aren’t great for the hotel and some are complaining that the hotel is charging for luggage storage, which is odd as I’d have thought that should have been included. I was fortunate to get this hotel for a reasonable price, the cost of staying in London is becoming ridiculous at the moment, well above pre-2020 prices. I hope for selfish reasons that this trend doesn’t continue permanently otherwise I’ll hardly be coming to London at all. At the moment, a single night at a city centre Travelodge is the same price as seven nights in an Accor hotel in some parts of Poland.

It was a pleasant day (well, too hot really, but I nearly always think it’s too hot as soon as the sun comes out) and this is Christ the Saviour Church in Ealing. It’s not that hard to guess the designer of this beautiful building, it’s Sir Gilbert Scott. Built in 1852 when Ealing’s population was starting to rapidly increase, it was damaged during the Second World War, but sensitively reconstructed and there’s plenty of foliage today around the building.

Fortunately, the underground strike of the previous day had come to an end, so the District Line was open again at Ealing Broadway Underground station. Note the old style signage of the station in the background.

It’s visible on the right hand side of this photo as well TFL note that these are originals, with the design dating to the early twentieth century. As an aside, you can buy original signage from the Underground at https://www.ltmuseumshop.co.uk/vintage-shop/underground-signs. It’s the kind of thing that I’d like, but it’s far too expensive and it’s not clear to me why I’d want a sign from London Liverpool Street in my flat. Although I would, I’d even appoint my friend Liam as the civil engineer responsible for the installation work.

All credit to TFL for this signage to help those coming from Ukraine.

Not many commuters on the Tuesday morning District Line service into central London. They try and paint the poles the same colour as the train service, so yellow for the Circle Line. It doesn’t always work out though, the District Line is green, but sometimes the lines share trains.

A quick Wetherspoons breakfast alongside countless refillable coffees, although it’s not entirely clear to me what they had done with the sausages, but I’d probably be best not knowing. I’m very productive in these surroundings and the coffees were delicious.

It was too hot so I went to St. James’s Park for a little while, a 57 acre park which was once land owned by the Palace of Whitehall.

This canal was added in the seventeenth century, although it doesn’t really go anywhere and is now more of a lake, they just diverted the Tyburn I think to fill it.

I was here a couple of days after the Jubilee weekend, so a lot of the barriers were still present and endless flags, although they might be permanent. The Government seem to be trying to put the union flag in as many places in London as they can and Priti Patel seems to spend most of her time standing in front of one. Anyway, I mustn’t get distracted back into politics.

I was annoyed at the heat so sat in Green Park trying to avoid the sun. The park was landscaped in 1820, but is one of the plainest of the parks, just lots of grass, but that suited my needs on this boiling hot day. Bloody global warming.

I had free tickets to the recording of Alone, which is a BBC Radio 4 comedy. It’s been going for a few years, but I’d never heard of it and half the audience also put their hands up saying they hadn’t heard the show before. This was by far the quietest of the shows that I’ve been to, the audience were only in the first few rows, although I think they had enough people to make it all work.

Another one of my hopeless photos, but this was the break and the performers (or whatever the word is) were just leaving the stage. There’s Angus Deayton, Pearce Quigley, Abigail Cruttenden, Kate Isitt and Bennett Arron. I like watching the process of recording these shows and how much of it has to be re-recorded because someone has made a mistake, there’s been a sound issue or something else went wrong. I hope the others wouldn’t be offended (although it hardly matters, they’re not going to read this) but I’d only heard of Angus Deayton and Pearce Quigley, the latter from the Detectorists. Anyway, it was all very entertaining.

A pizza from the very reliable and affordable Pizza Union chain, although I was conscious at this point that I should really get a move on to get to my hotel in Heathrow. I always have a slight fear that my hotel room will be resold and that would be a faff to resolve.

I had an hour’s journey on the Piccadilly Line from Holborn to Hounslow Central, where I would get a bus to the hotel. To my great annoyance, Heathrow still haven’t reinstated the Free Travel Zone around the airport, so I thought I’d get a bus from Hounslow instead of faffing about at the airport.

The Ibis Styles Heathrow Airport room, where I stayed a few weeks ago, and the room has a modern feel and I tolerate the lack of desk as that small table is sufficient. That also isn’t an oil slick on the floor, it’s the design of the carpet, which is clever as it hides any stains that guests might leave by just looking like it’s stained anyway. No problems though with my stay, quiet and comfortable with everything as expected.

The free welcome drinks, with the excitement for me that I was going overseas the next day. I never tire of that excited feeling and I wonder if I ever will.

June 25, 2022
London – Hounslow (Borough of) – Tabard Pub

This is a Greene King pub, so I obviously didn’t come here for the beer, but instead because it’s listed in the Good Beer Guide and it was designed by Norman Shaw. There’s also the bonus that this was a building that Nikolaus Pevsner thought was “especially attractive”, so what could Greene King possibly mess up? Firstly, they make no effort to mention the history on the pub’s page on the Greene King web-site, the usual lack of effort they make in so many ways.

There’s a corridor type entrance, with doors to the left and right. Food is served throughout the day and there’s a menu board visible on entry, next to the rather nice pillars. CAMRA have some information about the pub’s history on their Historic Interiors pages.

That’s the other side of the door that’s on the left in the previous photo. There’s a Wikipedia page about the pub at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tabard,_Chiswick#Pub.

And the same door, but my phone’s wide angle makes it look much wider. The central bar is visible at the rear, just behind my well travelled bag. The atmosphere was a bit excitable for my liking with staff members singing away, but there’s nothing wrong with that as this is a pub which is keen on its music.

The beer was half a pint of the XX Mild from Greene King, which was served too warm, I think because of the temperature of the glass. The beer was adequate, about as good as Greene King manage to churn out. The service was verging on rude at first with staff members just standing about talking, but the staff member who served me was friendly and helpful enough.

This building is exceptionally interesting and there’s even a theatre on the first floor. I can understand why it’s in the Good Beer Guide as it’s an historic pub and that makes it worth visiting in itself. There were five different real ales available, mostly generic and none that particularly interested me. However, it’s nice to see a mild, so I’ll credit that with being the most exciting option that they had.

The reviews of the pub on-line are a little below average, mostly about unfriendly staff and food that didn’t surprise and delight. That probably seems to fairly sum the pub up, but they do respond professionally to all reviews that I’ve seen, so it’s positive that they’re keen to engage. I can’t help but feel that this pub would be lifted if it wasn’t operated by Greene King though, this is something that Fullers or Nicholsons would handle a lot better, but ideally it could perhaps do with an independent operator.

January 17, 2022
Heathrow Airport – ExpressTest PCR Testing at T5

I can’t say that I was particularly looking forwards to this, the PCR test that I had pre-booked with ExpressTest to be completed at Heathrow T5 following my arrival back from Poland. There’s been a lot of confusion about Day 2 tests and I note that British Airways have put out advertising today to remind customers that these tests can be taken any time after landing, they don’t need to wait until Day 2. But, I wanted to get this whole thing out of the way as it was already stressing me. The information in the e-mail was clear and I was easily able to find the testing centre which is at the far end of the Heathrow T5 arrivals hall (at the other end to the Underground).

I had pre-booked a time that allowed for lots of delays with the flight and border control, which didn’t ultimately happen. However, the cheerful staff member at the front of the queue checking documents said that it didn’t matter, it was just to try and manage the number of people and I could just join the queue. That was helpful, as I didn’t fancy sitting near to the testing area worrying and sulking for an hour. I had already annoyed several friends by telling them how brave I was being, even though that’s usually a slight hint that I’m not entirely happy.

Anyway, after being entertained by a man who said that he had booked a test at Heathrow T4 and the terminal was shut and wanted his test here instead (they obliged, although he was very rude) I was welcomed by a staff member after a few minutes in the queue. I was walked to a little area with a seat and I carefully surveyed the area to see where I might need to faint safely (I didn’t want to hit my head on any metal or sharp corners) if it all became too much. Anyway, the medical professional (I don’t know how trained they are, but I told myself they were a very experienced and senior consultant even though they were clearly aged about 22) was very tolerant of my comments of how frightening this was.

After I had mentioned my bravery six times, the patient and tolerant lady explained that actually some people did faint and a lot were very scared. That helped no end, so I prepared myself for the surgery (apparently this isn’t actually technically classed as surgery, but I’d prepared for that sort of thing in my mind). I was so brave that the whole thing was over in thirty seconds and I didn’t gag or sneeze, so I was slightly disappointed as I felt that it was now easy for friends to say I had over-worried about the arrangement. The medical professional agreed that I deserved some sweets, which was handy as I had procured some chocolates earlier in the day.

I thought that the whole process was professionally managed and the staff there were all helpful. I can’t say that I was thrilled to spend £60 on this, as that’s three months of unlimited Pret coffee, but there we are. It’s a little bit cheaper for BA customers who quote the BA code which is on the web-site. Just have to hope the test doesn’t come back positive now.

December 2, 2021
South Western Railway : Hounslow to Clapham Junction

And another in my irrelevant series of posts about rail journeys that I’ve been on. I admit this isn’t riveting content, but at least it’s a handy reminder to me of where I’ve been….

Hounslow railway station was built in 1850 by the London and South Western Railway and it feels like a rural station, which it was when it was constructed.

Even by 1900 there was little development to the south of the railway line and this is now all housing today. At the time, the station was known as Hounslow and Whitton, but this was changed as in 1930 the village of Whitton (located a little to the south of Hounslow) got its own station.

The station is located in Zone 5 along the Hounslow Loop Line, where trains start and end at London Waterloo railway station.

I mentioned yesterday about how a child was found abandoned at Bromley North railway station, but in February 1926 a deceased baby was found at Hounslow Whitton railway station, a female aged just 6 months old. The coroner Reginald Kemp noted in court that:

“People who do these things put the country to a lot of unnecessary expense, but I suppose it is done to avoid the payment of a few shillings for a burial”.

Very understanding…..

The platforms, with a bridge to the other side. There’s a ticket office with toilets in the main station building (although this is all mostly only open on Monday to Saturday mornings), but no ticket barriers, just Oyster/card touch-in points.

And here’s the six carriage thunderbolt from South Western Railway pulling into the station.

It’s fair to say that it wasn’t the busiest rail service that I’ve seen.

Although it wasn’t very busy at this point of its journey, it got a little busier as we got closer to London city centre. It wasn’t spotlessly clean as a train, but it was comfortable enough, although all a bit dated and lacking any power points which is usually a sign of whether there has been a recent refurbishment of the carriages. There were some announcements made by the driver, but they were so quiet that I couldn’t hear what was being said. I didn’t see a guard on board, so there might just have been a driver.

We arrived into Clapham Junction on time and the train plodded on back to Waterloo from where it had started. An efficient way to get into London for anyone in Hounslow and it’s probably quicker than taking the Piccadilly Underground line which also goes through the town.

Final word on Hounslow though to Chabuddy G 🙂

November 11, 2021
London – Hounslow (Borough of) – Ibis Budget Hounslow

I’ve been in London this weekend to have a rather lovely time seeing Liam and his wonderful two boys, a really nice day on the cable cars, the ArcelorMittal Orbit (which we have to go back to as their slide was a bit jammed yesterday), Downing Street, the Houses of Parliament, Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, M&Ms World, the Lego Store, the London Transport Museum and about 62 trains. There weren’t many cheap accommodation options, so the best value that I could find was the Ibis Budget in Hounslow.

The usual basic room, which seems to be the older design, judging by the lovely new set-up at hotels such as Ibis Budget Whitechapel. It was very clean, no issues there. The hotel also isn’t currently offering daily cleaning of the rooms and they’re claiming Covid-19 restrictions, but that is now becoming rarer in hotels within Accor and other chains and is perhaps not entirely believeable now. If they’re short of staff or saving money, I’d personally rather that they were honest about that.

The main public area on the ground floor, with the staff being friendly and engaging, which seems to often be the case at Ibis Budget hotels. There are no free hot drinks in the rooms at this Accor brand, but there is free tea at reception and there’s chargeable coffee.

The breakfast buffet arrangement, which only costs a few pounds and I find really quite good value. There’s cereals, jams, Nutella, ham, cheese, yoghurts, orange juice, coffees, porridge and so on, basic but perfectly acceptable quality.

I was very brave and used the toast machine, although I’m always slightly nervous I’ll set the hotel on fire. All went well actually with the whole breakfast arrangement and I didn’t break anything which is always a positive way to start the day. It was quite quiet in the breakfast area, but I did go down early on both days.

The breakfast arrangement I went for, or at least, part of it. The coffee was of an unusually high standard, I very much liked that.

The reviews of the hotel are mixed, although the staff and location are well reviewed. It’s rated a lot better for solo travellers than it is was friends and families, which is entirely understandable. One guest left a negative review, but I liked the hotel’s reply of:

“I believed that the fact that you kept extending your stay on numerous occasions meant you were satisfied with the hotel”. It’s a fair point from the management……

I had expected a weekend at Ibis Budget to be a little louder than it was, but there was no internal noise or disturbances at all. Being under the flightpath of London Heathrow was more annoying at 06:00 though, my sympathies to the local residents as the aircraft do indeed make one hell of a noise. I liked this hotel, it’s a short walk away from Hounslow Central underground station and the staff were friendly. I’d happily stay here again if it was competitively priced.

September 26, 2021
British Airways (Warsaw to Heathrow T5)

This was the British Airways aircraft in Warsaw, G-NEOY, one of the new Airbus A321-Neo aircraft and this was only delivered to BA on 15 June 2020. It wasn’t the aircraft that they expected to use, but the UK Government announced an end to the travel corridor from Poland and this was one of the last flights back to the UK that avoided this issue. So, the aircraft was entirely full.

The gate was busy and the announcements were hard to hear as the tannoy wasn’t very loud. There was boarding via seat row and this seemed sufficiently well managed.

The free snacks provided en route, although three customers near to me tried to order food and drink from the Buy on Board service which has been suspended for some months. The crew explained that it was unsafe to serve customers food at the moment, and one customer asked why they were serving food then. It isn’t an unreasonable question (and the crew member couldn’t answer it), although I’m happy with the current set-up.

This was one of the tensest flights that I’ve been on with British Airways and it’s clear that some passengers were on edge throughout. A passenger opposite me who reclined his seated immediately and then hugged the seat in front of him was one of the more selfish I’ve seen, but I was pleased he wasn’t near to me. This same customer also irritated a member of cabin crew who ordered him over the tannoy to sit down after we had landed otherwise he’d suspend the disembarkation process. It was the same customer who talked over the safety announcements and ignored the crew throughout, then seemed confused why he was being called out for standing up whilst taxiing to the gate. I quite liked the drama to be fair.

Overall, this wasn’t an expensive flight as I booked early, although the last few seats were costing hundreds of pounds each for those who needed to return home before 4am on Saturday when the travel corridor option was slammed shut. The problem with this new aircraft is that it’s not very comfortable when it’s at this capacity. There’s not enough space and things such as the at-seat power didn’t work, which it really should have done given how new the aircraft was.

But, having written that, I was just pleased to get back out of Poland given the travel corridor issue, and British Airways didn’t let me down there. The flight was around thirty minutes late in departing due to a delayed outbound flight to Warsaw, but our aircraft arrived just one minute later than timetabled as they were able to make the time up. It was a slight shame that the aircraft landed at C-gates, as that’s a bit of a trek back, but the airport wasn’t particularly busy. So, all sufficiently pleasant, but not my best flight with BA.

October 5, 2020
Heathrow T5

Just some photos from Heathrow T5 today, it didn’t feel that busy anywhere.

September 22, 2020
Heathrow – Flying Chariot

This was one of the few times that I’ve ever visited Heathrow T2, and I still haven’t flown from that terminal, my experiences being limited to the Oneworld airlines who are at T3 and T5. The Flying Chariot is the JD Wetherspoons that is located landside and it takes its name from John Wilkins, who was a vicar at Cranford Parish Church, who predicted in 1638 that it was possible “to make a flying chariot, in which a man may sit, and give such motion unto it, as shall convey him through the air”.

Anyway, this was one of JD Wetherspoon’s more exotic meals that they attempted, their Thai green chicken curry with rice on a bamboo leaf arrangement, which was perfectly acceptable. I assume that their efforts at presentation didn’t help sell the dish, since it didn’t seem to spend much time on the menu. It’s quite a large Wetherspoons over two floors, with the usual airport prices for their food and drink. Since my visit was back in 2015, my memory of the experience has suitably faded, although I do remember that the service was all friendly and professional.

My favourite response to a TripAdvisor review was:

“We were told by the staff that they would call security because my boyfriend was resting his head on the table! The pub is on the airport for god sake and we woke up 3am to catch our flight so yes we were tired an 7am. I felt so humiliated. I won’t be visiting any Wetherspoon again.”

I like it when some facts are allowed into the debate to shed some light on the original review….

“We remember your visit and based on my discussions with the team, and CCTV footage, I’d like to take this opportunity to clarify events. I can see that you arrived at 06:37. By 06:39, your boyfriend had removed his shoes and was lying on the sofa. It took 20 minutes before you were approached by a member of staff, who tried to explain that sleeping/feet on the furniture was not permitted.

At 07:24, a Team Leader approached you, as your boyfriend now had his head on the table for 5 minutes or so and to all intents and purposes, appeared to be sleeping. When she was told that your boyfriend didn’t feel well, she offered to call security (something we do regularly, for people who are feeling under the weather), as they can be quicker to attend than paramedics and are able to take control of any situations. I apologise for any embarrassment or distress this may have caused you both, but unfortunately we cannot allow people to sleep within the premises, as we are an operator who pays rent to the airport, in order to provide food and drink to passengers. This is a policy within all JDW pubs, and does not change at the airport. Also, at the time of your visit there were people sat on both tables adjacent to yours, and it can make people uncomfortable to be in this situation.”

April 30, 2020
British Airways (Heathrow T5 to Chengdu)

The current Coronavirus means that I can’t write about any recent flights on British Airways, so here’s one from six years ago. As a rider at this stage, I wasn’t intending to post these photos when I took them, so they’re not really a very complete set covering the aircraft’s exterior or interior. But, I took a photo of all the food, which is something I rarely neglect my obligations towards….

Back in 2014, British Airways decided that China was their future and they started a flight to Chengdu as their third destination in the country, as they already flew to Shanghai and Beijing (as well as Hong Kong). There was a documentary at the time where BA management, including their boss then Willie Walsh, said how important China was to them, although their enthusiasm waned and Chengdu was dropped a few years later, in early 2017. This flight was in Club World, or business class, with the aircraft being the Boeing Dreamliner.

The screen for the IFE.

The foldable foot rest, which then joined together with the main part of the seat to form a bed. BA have recently announced a new Club Suite, which looks amazing, so the days of having to step over someone else will soon be firmly in the past.

The menu.

The watermelon, feta and cucumber salad.

The Szechuan braised pork with bean curd, an appropriate dish as this was the area of China that we were flying to.

The summer berry cheesecake with mascarpone cream.

The breakfast menu.

Fresh fruit and the mango fruit smoothie. The smoothies on BA are world class and I always tried to get refills if they had enough.

The continental breakfast option.

I took these items from the Club Kitchen on board to nibble on between meals.

I can’t remember much about these meals, primarily because I ate them six years ago, but I was rarely disappointed with BA’s food. I also know that I got my first choice for all meals on this flight, which is always a bonus. Unfortunately, I didn’t note the registration number of the aircraft or much else.

April 7, 2020
British Airways Lounges – Crisp Selection

As evidence that I need to get out more, I was overly excited to see that British Airways have replaced Kettle chips with Tyrrell’s crisps in the lounges. Not that there’s anything wrong with Kettle chips, but a change is as good as a rest or whatever the phrase is. Hopefully they’ll change the flavours about a bit and won’t try and stock the vegetable crisps that Tyrrell’s make….

February 12, 2020