Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: London

Barking – Premier Inn Meal Deal

As Liam and I had completed the LDWA Capital Challenge earlier in the day, we thought we’d amend our original plans for us to drive somewhere (well, for Liam to drive somewhere whilst I had a nap in the passenger seat) and eat in the hotel since it worked out around £31 each for a three course evening meal, a pint and breakfast in the morning.

I was initially a little sceptical that it would be one of those half board arrangements where the only thing included was the salad or something ridiculous, but it actually included everything with a just a couple of relatively small surcharges for the mixed grill and steak. I’m not a mixed grill or steak person, so that was that sorted for me. Liam, however, being a civil engineer (a profession I suspect requires a daily intake of at least three different types of grilled animal), naturally gravitated towards the mixed grill. It’s in the blueprints, I’m sure.

I had asked the team member at reception a little earlier if we had to book for the evening meal or tell them in advance we wanted the deal. I liked his informality and he hinted that this wasn’t really necessary and I can see why he thought that when we arrived in the bustling restaurant. However, I quite like the idea of a private dining club and I felt that had been achieved here.

We were effectively the only customers, although there was one other table somewhere just out of sight just finishing their meals. The server was trying to man reception, welcome customers, welcome diners and he told us he had to go to a room to provide the customers with more pillows in between serving us. He was enthusiastic, over-worked and kept forgetting Liam’s order before he reached the till, which was actually located just behind Liam so it wasn’t far. On one occasion the team member mouthed “what did he order?” and I liked his whole engagement and attention, it was an informal, endearing and welcoming performance that I thought was perfect for the service we wanted.

Firstly, let me admit that the beer that came with the meal deal was Coors Light. Now, as I had walked 27 miles earlier that day, I needed water and so this was a perfect fit. I went for the prawn cocktail and I’m not entirely sure of the presentation here as it was quite a lot of sauce with some slightly firm prawns, but they had a pleasant enough flavour. I wasn’t sure about the piece of bread and butter, but it was handy for mopping up the sauce. Liam looks surprised and delighted here.

It was becoming evident that presentation wasn’t the key here. However, the chips had a pleasant taste, the chicken was tender and had some flavour to the coating with the bun being fresh and the salad being salady. It was certainly a very reasonable tasting affair and Liam seemed pleased with whatever he was doing with his mixed grill.

The chocolate sundae was served as a large portion and it had a Flake. You can’t argue with a Flake. It’s the universal language of dessert satisfaction.

Breakfast in the morning wasn’t much busier and similarly low-key, but there was a friendly and engaging welcome. I asked if there were fried eggs and there were, I just hadn’t noticed them, but the team member had some more made up for us. They didn’t make the amount we asked for as there was some confusion, but the thought was there and the team members seemed jovial enough despite it being a Sunday morning.

I’m more of a continental breakfast person, but this was a much better cooked offering than somewhere say Travelodge. Travelodge cooked breakfasts are broadly terrible, they don’t deep fry anything and so their hash browns are oven baked (so they’re hard on the outside and uninspiring on the inside), the bacon is often not really cooked and there is no fried egg, just some awful scrambled egg. Here, there are fried eggs, the hash browns are fried and there’s also black pudding.

All very satisfactory and there was a supporting cast of yoghurts, juices, coffees, fruit and the like to add to the arrangement. I would have liked the bacon cooked a little more, but I cut the fat off and was aware they’d probably go and burn me some if I asked as that’s how I like it served. The croissants are also better than the ones at Travelodge that have less taste than the packaging they come in.

Anyway, I was suitably impressed with the whole offer of just under £31 for three courses, a pint and breakfast. The presentation wasn’t great, but the quality was reasonable for a chain restaurant and the service was well above average. Indeed, so good was the service in the evening that I messaged Whitbread who said they’d pass on my thoughts, which I imagine they probably have. Given that there wasn’t anything else nearby in Barking that didn’t require a fifteen minute walk each way (and we’d done enough of that) it was more than satisfactory as a post marathon refuel. I wouldn’t rule out doing this again in future, although it’s obviously dependent on what else is in the local area.

April 20, 2025
2025 LDWA Capital Challenge

Someone, which I accept was likely me, thought that it would be a great idea to complete the LDWA Capital Challenge event again. So, after getting up way too early, here’s Liam on the train all excited for the day of traipsing around London. The event has three different routes, although we happened to be doing the same route that we had completed before.

An early morning Tower of London.

The Tower of London with a pond in the moat.

Old and new, it looks a little AI created, but is authentic.

Walking over Tower Bridge to the start of the event, which this time was at a community centre. The first London LDWA marshal we saw was Pete C and it’s always a delight to catch up with him.

The fog on the Tyne is all mine all mine…. It’s the Thames, I accept, but I don’t know any songs about the foggy Thames.

Liam at Canary Wharf.

Some decorative elements at Canary Wharf.

One of the two city farms that we walked by.

Some pigs.

Looking back to the city.

Liam in the Greenwich foot tunnel. I would say that there’s a fun fact that the tunnel was bombed during the war and the heavily patched up area in the middle is testament to that, but I’m not sure that is quite a “fun” thing… Incidentally, we had to walk up and down the stairs as the lifts were broken. However, as Liam and I are just natural and accidental Olympian types, we would have walked up and down anyway.

The Cutty Sark, a majestic clipper ship launched in 1869, embodies the romance of the high seas and the fierce competition of the 19th-century tea trade. Built for speed, with the odd name “short shirt” (Scots for a short undergarment, the name of a witch in Robert Burns’ poem) was designed to be the fastest vessel on the China tea route. Though she never quite clinched the title, her sleek lines and impressive sail area allowed her to achieve remarkable speeds, later dominating the Australian wool trade. It became a training ship used by the Royal Navy and it then became a museum ship before a sub-optimal situation when it caught fire a few years ago. There’s a bit of the Ship of Theseus about all this, I wonder how much is actually original….

The first snack of the day, from the Tesco Meal Deal we had obtained earlier in the day.

The River Thames and my fun fact about this is that the river has its very own species of seahorse, which is a short-snouted seahorse that has been found living in the tidal parts of the river, particularly in the area around Greenwich.

Looking back on where we’d walked earlier in the day.

Clever, if you walk in that direction for 24,859 miles then you end up back in the same place. There are some technical reasons why that might be quite challenging, but I like the theory.

This is the ‘Demon with Bowl’ sculpture by Damian Hurst located on Edmund Halley Way and designed to look like a Ancient Mesopotamian demon.

I used to live over there…….

Liam enjoying the exciting view. We were making a good pace at this point, trying to keep other walkers in sight to help with the navigation. As a little treat for him, I let Liam do all the navigation on this event. Actually, I’ve let him do that for the last 23 events, which is a reminder of how we work so well together.

Approaching the Thames Barrier. As today’s fun fact, the design of the Thames Barrier’s rising sector gates was actually inspired by the humble taps on a gas cooker. Reginald Charles Draper, who conceived the idea, based the rotating cylinders on the way gas cooker taps work.

A close-up of the barrier and Liam studied its engineering. I wondered if there were any nineteenth century clay pipes in that beach area.

Volunteers at the second checkpoint which was the first one with some little snacks to keep us going. As usual, thanks so much to all the volunteers who make events such as this possible.

My delicious lunch from the Tesco meal deal, fortunately not heated up too much in the blazing sun. I haven’t yet mentioned, but it was too hot.

Some fields. If I’m being honest, I’m more of an urban walker.

A bridge at Eltham Palace, once a favoured palace of kings, including Henry VIII who spent his childhood there, it fell into disrepair which wasn’t entirely ideal. In the 1930s, eccentric millionaires Stephen and Virginia Courtauld built a stunning modern home onto the existing Great Hall, creating a unique architectural hybrid.

Anyone looking closely will see Dave M filming one of his videos. Dave started later than Liam and I, catching us up just before we reached the Palace. We walked together until the next checkpoint ensuring lots of gossip, but then he had to have a long rest at that checkpoint so Liam and I bravely walked on our own. I initially assumed that he just couldn’t keep up with the pace of us athletes, but it transpired he was waiting for his wife…. I wondered how much attention Dave actually pays though, we walked up about 12 enormous hills near Charlton and he didn’t even notice them. Actually, Dave was also reading from the route description, something which is completely beyond me, I’m more of a GPX person. But, I sometimes think I’m not a natural navigator….

Beckenham Place Mansion and time for another fun fact…. Despite its rather grand appearance as a Grade II* listed Georgian building, the impressive portico on the north-west side wasn’t originally part of the mansion. It was added later, around 1806-1812, and was actually salvaged from another demolished house in Blackheath called Wricklemarsh House showing that they had a desire for recyling.

Not that I’m one gossip, but it was evident to me that Liam was limping slightly, but he denied it. We are very different, at the first sign of pain or discomfort with me, then absolutely everyone knows about it, including members of the public who happen to be walking by. Liam is braver and doesn’t like to make a fuss, whereas I rather like a dramatic monologue, why be subtle when there’s an opportunity for a theatrical production?

Some street art somewhere near Crystal Palace. Liam’s foot wasn’t in the best of states by this time, but I rushed ahead to inspire him to walk quicker. As they always say, “the sooner you’re finished, the less time you’re stuck out there”. I accept I’m not sure who actually says that, but there’s some truth to it and tough love is important. I did say we could slow down if he wanted, but we both knew that I didn’t really want him to.

I did wonder about visiting a pub at the end of the walk, but the one near to the end point is operated by Sam Smiths and I can’t be navigating their odd rules and regulations.

The end of the walk and I think we were very brave. It was good to see Gavin at the finish with a smiling face and I announced that Liam was suffering a little in the hope that we might both get extra cake although that didn’t work. Although, and unusually, I thought Liam should win the ‘bravest walker’ out of the two of us as he had been a bit limpy but kept going. For anyone interested, the results are here and that was over twenty minutes faster than when we did it before. We never really worry about times, but we were surprised at how fast we got round, we must be getting fitter and healthier.

My certificate and my third pack of Mini Cheddars as I can’t be near them without eating them and I also needed sustenance after the long walk.

Liam and I at the end, with Sarah who trod on my shoelace but I was too polite to say. We then walked back to the nearby Overground station and then nearly boarded the train before I remembered we hadn’t touched in, so that would have been sub-optimal to have been fined. Luckily I remembered, we boarded and Liam soon recovered and didn’t collapse. As one of the finest athletes in the LDWA, I was uninjured. This tends to happen on urban walks, I like firm and flat surfaces, which isn’t the usual terrain of a challenge event. I should say we didn’t see much of the other walkers from Norfolk, but it was good to catch up with Andy and others at the end.

It was another lovely day out and marvellously organised. There is less food and drink than other challenge events, but the theory is that entrants walk by hundreds of food and drink options, so the need is a little different to a rural walk. I’ve now put my certificate on the wall at home, I’ve once again gone for blu-tac rather than a frame as that’s just, well, within my DIY skills.

April 18, 2025
London – Tower Hamlets (Borough of) – Sand Pit at East India Dock

As another one of my random asides, I often stay at the Travelodge at Docklands and it’s located in the top right of this map from the 1870s. One thing that I saw yesterday, which is a new addition, is a sand pit which is located to the bottom left of where the dock was.

I mean, what could possibly go wrong with this?

As an aside, what the dock area looks like now and there are already lots of residential properties and more are being constructed. There’s a new restaurant opening soon and a new Tesco Express, what more could a community want?

April 11, 2025
London – Camden (Borough of) – Remnant Street

I noticed this street a few days ago when I was meandering about in London and I wondered about its history and whether there were a few tales to tell. I’m not entirely sure that there are, indeed, the street only took its current name in 1935 as before that it was defined as being an extension of Great Queen Street. The street got its name from James Farquharson Remnant, 1st Baron Remnant, a British politician and lawyer. He was the Conservative MP for Holborn (the area where the street is located) between 1900 when he was elected unopposed until 1928. His great grandson, Philip John Remnant, is still in the Lords as a result of the hereditary Peerage, although he’s one of the elected ones by fellow Peers and he will be removed soon as part of the Government’s changes to the Upper House. I had to look this up, but apparently Remnant comes as a name from the Middle English remenaunt(e) ‘remaining part survivor’ perhaps used for someone whose siblings had died in infancy.

The street is the one in the middle of the image (the unnamed bit to the right of Great Queen Street). This map is from the 1880s and before they built the road known as Kingsway in the first few years of the twentieth century, which is what caused this stub of street to need a name of its own.

Incidentally, we can tell that the street sign is before the 1965 borough changes, the year that Holborn, Hampstead and St. Pancras were all joined together to form the Borough of Camden. As an aside, in 1900 the Borough of Holborn was formed when the below parishes were all merged together:

St Giles in the Fields and St George Bloomsbury
St Andrew Holborn Above the Bars with St George the Martyr
Liberty of Saffron Hill
Furnival’s Inn (part)
Gray’s Inn
Lincoln’s Inn
Staple Inn

And there’s Remnant Street in the middle, looking towards Kingsway (or the A4200 for those who prefer that). There was some excitement in November 1964, when the Daily Express reported that there had been an armed raid on the Post Office on the street, with a motorcycle escape by a gunman who took off with £240. And the News Chronicle reported in 1969 that self-service for postal orders had been introduced in London, at the Remnant Street Post Office. Indeed, nearly every mention of this street in newspapers on-line seems to be in reference to the Post Office. The building still stands, but the Post Office closed long ago and it’s now part of the Centre for Commercial Law Studies.

It’s not really the most exotic of streets, I could have chosen somewhere with a bit more obvious history, but there we go. I had thought that it might have been named as it was a bit of a remnant street, and although that oddly is indeed what it has become, that’s not the reason for its naming. There was some excitement at the other end of Remnant Street in 2018 though when the Co-operative Bank was shut and they opened up a Greggs in its place, but that’s about as far as I can go in terms of shattering stories about the street.

November 28, 2024
London – Camden (Borough of) – The Seven Stars (Good Beer Guide)

I’m slowly, but steadily, working on my project to visit every pub in the Good Beer Guide. This building, located on Carey Street near to the Hunterian Museum, is thought to have been built in 1602 although the bar is mostly Victorian. There’s no shortage of history to the pub, which was originally called the The League of Seven Stars in a nod towards Dutch geography (the Seven United Provinces of the Netherlands). I didn’t go up to the toilets in the pub, but they are noted for their steep stairs and a sign which requests customers not to swing on the rail. It’s located near to the Royal Courts of Justice so they are treated to a considerable amount of trade from the legal profession.

A range of Greene King and Adnams beers is not what I was hoping for as they’re so common in East Anglia, but it’s something perhaps slightly different for London. I went for a pint of Broadside which cost £6 and was well kept and tasted as expected. There are some reviews which mention, quite grumpily, that the pub doesn’t offer tasters and that is highly unusual. Anyway, the service was friendly and engaging, so the atmosphere felt inviting.

The slightly infamous pub cat visible in the background. It’s said that Shakespeare might have visited the building given that his plays were performed at Middle Temple, although that’s perhaps a little fanciful. More likely is that the pub was used as the inspiration for The Magpie & Stump featured in Pickwick Papers. The building is listed in CAMRA’s list of outstanding interiors of national historic importance and they note:

“The frontage bears the date 1602 but the building itself probably dates from “only” the 1680s, and was extended into the building on the right in 1878. The core of the pub is the part with doors embellished with etched and gilded glass, declaring ‘private counter’ (on the left) and ‘general counter’ (right). These names are probably unique, certainly in the experience of the writers, and correspond to the more commonly used ‘private bar’ and ‘public bar’. So there were evidently two separate areas fronting on to a common servery and divided, no doubt, by a timber screen. The counter (a plain affair) and bar-back are Victorian and the coloured advertising panels in the head of the latter are typical of the period around 1870-1890. The pub further expanded into the building on the left hand side in relatively recent years to form a cosy drinking area called the ‘Wig Box’.”

A rather better cat photo than my efforts.

I did try though.

I couldn’t quite understand these chairs, as one customer tried to sit on them and nearly fell off before meandering to one of the tables. The tables have table-clothes on so it wasn’t entirely clear to me whether drinkers were allowed to sit at them. The pub is primarily food led and there’s a blackboard which is chalked up with the daily menu. I must admit, the whole arrangement felt a little uncomfortable so I wouldn’t want to linger, but it’s a popular venue. Most surfaces were sticky which made it a little challenging to find somewhere to stand and not stick to something, but the food is very well reviewed and I’m sure it’s marvellous. Anyway, another Good Beer Guide venue ticked off.

November 28, 2024
London – Westminster (Borough of) – Hunterian Museum

Just to break up my witterings on old Soviet statues displaced around Estonia, here’s a quick distraction about my visit to the Hunterian Museum in the week. I decided long ago that I wasn’t cut out to be a surgeon (there’s a pun there, but I won’t labour it) due to numerous factors, mostly relating to being slightly sensitive. The museum asks for visitors not to post close-ups of human remains on social media, so I’ve avoided taking any photos of all the human things that they have in jars.

It’s a well signed museum and I pre-booked a ticket, although I don’t think it was essential on a Tuesday afternoon in November. A staff member pointed out where to put my backpack and that was relatively simple after I had worked out the instructions on the lockers. I say relatively simple, it took me two minutes of standing there confused. The next stage felt a little sub-optimal, I was given a welcome and then told “there’s no fixed admission charge, you pay what you like but we recommend £5” whilst being walked to a contactless card machine. This slightly odd customer service approach is perhaps just a little sub-optimal as their web-site notes “the Hunterian Museum is free to everyone” and I ignored the situation and meandered in.

This is my first visit to the museum and I noticed a few reviews noting that they went through a large renovation a few years ago and moved the collection out of the grand two storey room it was displayed in and instead put it in some corridors. It is a poorly designed museum by any measure in terms of the customer flow, there are pinch points all over the place so groups cluster together. However, it’s free (well, sort of) and so it feels a little unfair to complain too much. During the renovations, they did though finally take the skeleton of ‘Irish Giant’ Charles Byrne off from display, this was a controversial thing to even be shown, although they’ve still denied him the burial he wanted.

This is a splinted fractured forearm from the Nubian Valley, although its date range is wide and anything between 2500 BC and 500 AD. It looks like something I would have been in charge of if I had been a medic back in those days.

There are lots of these displays of things in jars, I used this as an example as there are no human remains in it and it’s mainly fish and lizards here. I didn’t take a photo as they’re of human remains, but the Evelyn Tables were quite something, the oldest anatomical preparations in Europe.

The Hunterian doesn’t shy away from the darker side of medical history. Early surgical instruments, some looking more like torture devices to me, illustrate the crude and often painful procedures of the past. Pathological specimens, including tumours and diseased organs, offer a stark reminder of the fragility of human health and it’s been a useful resource for surgeons over the generations. It’s thought provoking though and I like that in a museum.

One of the displays of modern medicine, although I got the impression that most visitors seemed more interested in looking at the things in jars. I thought that this was a fascinating museum and I’ve been meaning to go for years, so I was pleased to finally visit. It’s a unique museum in very many ways and an essential part of the history of medicine in this country, with some considerable heritage to the collection and to the building. There’s a learning aspect which is perhaps becoming less relevant, but there was a school group when I visited and that’s part of the education side of the museum’s offering. It is a little macabre by its nature and feels dated, but that’s inevitable when the collection in jars was mostly put together two hundred years ago. There are moral sensitivities here about what should be on public display, as these are human remains. The museum benefits from being part of the Royal College of Surgeons, the moral issues are minimised here as there isn’t a commercial imperative behind what’s happening.

Anyway, I’m glad that I went and I’d say it’s worth an hours of anyone’s time, although I noticed two people from the school group saying they were feeling very queasy, but the museum themselves warns about this. It’s probably best to book a ticket in advance, it’s free and can be done quickly from the museum’s web-site. Right, back to Soviet statues in Estonia.

November 9, 2024
London – Greenwich (Borough of) – National Maritime Museum (Kangaroo Painting from 1772)

This artwork was originally known as ‘The Kongouro from New Holland’, and it’s notable as the first painting of a kangaroo (or at least in terms of western artwork). It was painted by George Stubbs, alongside a similar one of a dingo (more of which in a later post, as if this blog’s excitement couldn’t already be topped), in 1772 and they were the only two artworks he completed that weren’t based on actually seeing the full animal. Instead, he had just skin and skull bits of a dead kangaroo which had been collected whilst the good ship Endeavour was being repaired after a little incident when it ran aground and nearly sank on the Great Barrier Reef. Goodness knows what the public would have made of this kangaroo thing, they wouldn’t have seen anything like it before. Indeed, it just looks like a big rodent.

The artwork was first presented at the Society of Artists in London in 1773 and it, alongside the dingo painting were sold to an Australian buyer in 2012 for 9.3 million Australian dollars. An export ban was promptly put in place by the Government and Sir David Attenborough led a campaign to keep them in the UK. Although the National Gallery of Australia really wanted the artworks, a large donation from the Eyal Ofer Family Foundation (alongside donations from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Monument Trust, the Art Fund and the general public) meant that they were able to remain in the country. The National Gallery of Australia’s loss was the gain of the National Maritime Museum, which is where both artworks now reside. The artworks had been in private hands since they were painted and were on display at Parham House for some time before their auction sale, with both paintings always being displayed together. It’s quite an achievement that these works are now on public display at a location with no admission charge, successfully saved for the nation.

Incidentally, I like the old spelling of the word, namely ‘kongouro’, although it actually started off as ‘gangurru’.

September 5, 2024
London – Greenwich (Borough of) – National Maritime Museum (Percy the Penguin)

I went back to the National Maritime Museum earlier this week and I felt the need to post about Percy the Penguin. It’s a stuffed penguin, although that is likely fairly evident to even the most casual observer of the photo, dating back to 1904 (the penguin, not the photo). It was caught on Captain Robert Scott’s first expedition to Antarctica, between 1901 and 1904, and the label reads that this fascinated scientists at the time as they thought penguins were the link between birds and dinosaurs. I’m unsure where it spent the last 120 years, but there’s a note on the museum’s web-site that a label said “PRESENTED BY THE CAPTAIN, OFFICERS AND CADETS, HMS WORCESTER, 1950.”. This is also known as the Thames Nautical Training College, so it likely was looked at by cadets for many a year before finding it’s way to the permanent collection of a national museum.

Bristol Museums also have their own penguin, collected on Scott’s ill-fated expedition between 1910 and 1913. And, if that’s not enough, there was recently a dead penguin flogged off at auction. I’m not sure what they intended to do with all these penguins that they were collecting, I assume surprise and delight relatives back home with them as I would have thought the scientists didn’t need a whole job lot of them to study them.

And, the Maritime Museum clearly likes Percy as well, they’ve got a section on their web-site on how to make your own penguin. I likely won’t to be honest, but it seems a sound idea.

Anyway, I’ve digressed. All these wonderful exhibits at the museum and I get engaged by a penguin.

September 5, 2024
London – Greenwich (Borough of) – National Maritime Museum (John Hawkins Painting)

[I’ve reposted this post from February 2021 to fix broken image links and also because I have more ‘riveting’ content coming about the National Maritime Museum.]

When I visited the National Maritime Museum a few weeks ago, there were numerous signs on how they were modernising the displays to be more representative and inclusive. This is an interesting interview (in.doc format) which took place last year with Daniel Martin, the Head of Collection Services at the museum and they seem to be pragmatic and forward thinking.

This painting of John Hawkins (1532-1595), in the gallery which is being reviewed, is going to present the museum some problems in terms of its interpretation. Depending on your viewpoint, this is either one of the greatest English naval commandeers that there has been, or he’s one of the men most responsible for starting the slave trade. Which doesn’t even cover that it’s Hawkins and his crew who brought tobacco back, thereby causing no end of addiction issues over the centuries.

There was a Royal Navy cruiser between 1919 and 1947 which was named after Hawkins, which does reflect that his naval prowess likely enabled England to fight off the Spanish Armada. The town of Chatham was so proud of Hawkins that they named a flyover after him, which has only recently been demolished. I’m not sure that flyovers actually need to be named after anyone, but there we go.

There was a book, Devon Seadog, published about John Hawkins in 1907 written by Robert Alfred John Walling and this condemned Hawkins for his involvement in the slave trade (although it made passing note that this often benefited the slave in some ways, which isn’t necessarily an argument that might be pursued today with such vigour) so there has long been condemnation of some of his actions.

Martin mentions in the above interview that it’s not possible to put every viewpoint in 150 words or so, which is challenging with individuals like this. The museum has though made an attempt on its web-site, where it has more space, to tell the story of Hawkins from different perspectives. I’m not sure I envy though the museum in its attempt to tell the story of Hawkins, as it can’t just ignore him as he’s an important naval figure and they’re a maritime museum, but they need to add context as well as to the impact that he had on the world.

September 5, 2024
London – Visiting London Underground Stations in 2023

How exciting, I’ve never had an e-mail before from TFL telling me how many tube stations I’ve visited in the year. This is a very poor performance for someone who loves London and the underground so much, especially as I did a quiz this weekend on how many tube stations I knew and I think I did rather well (on the same theme, try this…..). Anyway, I aspire to beat 59 tube stations this year 🙂 In other statistics, I made 108 journeys on TFL in the year and made the most in August. I’m sure my two loyal readers will be thrilled to know this. Oh, and if anyone wants an adventure involving craft beer, London breweries and visiting underground stations later in the year, let me know 🙂

January 15, 2024