Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: London

British Airways (London Heathrow T5 to Warsaw)

For the first time in just over a year, I’ve been able to get the chance to return to Poland, something which I’m more than pleased with. That meant a journey from London’s Heathrow T5 into Warsaw Chopin airport with the hope that I had collected together the correct documents.

I’ve written about the BA T5 Galleries South Lounge before and so won’t repeat that, as not much has changed recently in terms of its operation. Drinks are still self-service, but food needs to be ordered via a QR code and is brought over by staff. The food delights in the morning included the breakfast option of a bacon roll with hash brown, alongside a fruit salad. The lunch-time options included Vietnamese vegetable curry, chicken jalfrezi with lime & coriander rice, beef keema with rice, mixed leaf salad, five bean salad with feta and a black rice, Quinoa & Edamame salad. I went for the jalfrezi and five bean salad, with the former being excellent and the latter being OK but a little short on feta. I’m always content with the quality of the food, but some people inevitably moan about BA’s offering.

The lounge was though the busiest that I’ve seen it and that perhaps suggests some sort of normality is definitely returning. A couple of customers were completely rude in their dealing with the staff and although I wanted to say something, I thought that no good could possibly come from that. I was able to get one of the high seats by the power points and remained in the lounge for three hours or so, all very relaxing.

The gate wasn’t called for ten minutes after it was meant to have been, instead it then switched to ‘please wait’. I guessed that this meant it would be departing from A10, the bus gate.

And here we are, the bus gates. Boarding was well managed and Group 1 and then Groups 1 to 3 were allowed to board first. I’m in Group 2, as I’m not decadent enough to be in Group 1, but that was enough to get on the bus first.

The bus was a little over-filled I thought (I didn’t photograph that), not in terms of it being dangerous, it just wasn’t comfortable for those who boarded last.

And time to board, the aircraft was the A320 G-EUYT, which I’ve never flown on before. And I accept that no-one is really bothered about that, but there we go…. The aircraft was brought into service in February 2014 and it has only been used by British Airways.

I had a seat in the emergency exit row which I like because of the slight extra space, but dislike that my bag has to be in the overhead lockers. For the first time I’ve seen though, a member of cabin crew was guarding the lockers by the emergency exits so that customers could ensure that their bags were placed there and not half way down the plane. Although I boarded early and this didn’t make any difference to me, it did speed up boarding later on.

The flight was full and I’m not sure that there were any empty seats. The customer next to me arrived towards the end of boarding and started to put his bag on the floor. I was standing up as I was in the aisle seat and let him in, thoughtfully asking him if he wanted to put that bag in the overhead locker. He replied “no” and in my very British way I added “are you sure, it might be easier?” to which he replied “no” again so I sat back down. The customer at the window seat, who seemed perfectly friendly, was more direct and said only slightly gruffly “that bag needs to go in the overhead locker”, at which point I had to stand up again as that more direct approach worked.

The aircraft was meant to take off at 15:15 and arrive at 18:50, but we took off late due to a delay in the baggage being loaded. We eventually took off at 15:47, but time was made up en route and we arrived at 18:46 (can I add that I didn’t sit and measure that, I took that information from Flight Radar). As an aside, the crew weren’t handing out wipes for customers to clean their seat area as they’ve done over the last year, I’m not sure whether that’s by omission or whether that has been scrapped.

The on-board catering and I’m happy with this, it annoyed me when they removed it. There’s the option to buy additional items, but I noticed only a handful of people did so. Crisps and water is sufficient for me though, it wasn’t a long flight.

The fare cost me £30 each way, which I have to say continues to offer excellent value for money, especially given that BA funded lounge access for me before the flight. The crew were friendly, the aircraft was spotlessly clean and the pilots were professional with timely announcements. I have nothing really to fault BA on, I thought that this was a well managed service.

For those interested, anyone going to Poland at the moment needs to fill in a locator form and have their Covid pass ready, with both being checked. The Brexit arrangements mean that British travellers are inevitably now sent to a different area which all takes longer and passports are now stamped. Some idiotic British passenger (I admit to be judgemental as she was being rude) was lucky to be allowed in as she was complaining that she was being asked where she was staying and why was only she being asked? The member of the Polish Border Guard was calm and helpful, not mentioning that it was because she hadn’t bothered to fill in a locator form. This whole process only took around five minutes though and with that, I was back in Poland. How very lovely.

November 16, 2021
National Express : London Victoria Coach Station to Bradford

I’m posting out of order again (as in not in date order, I’m not being any more controversial than usual) as this was my National Express journey from London to get to the LDWA groups’ weekend being held in Haworth.

This is the National Express coach that departed from Gate 14 at the always cramped Victoria coach station in London. I was the first to board, not least as I was keen to get to my emergency exit row seat to get about an extra 2.5 centimetres of space. There was a friendly welcome from the drivers, who were switching around at Milton Keynes or somewhere similar given the distance.

Here we are after having boarded, with the coach being clean and comfortable. National Express seem to be one of the companies who are doing their best to keep their transport clean given the current health crisis.

And then we sat there for a while….. The driver made an announcement at the departure time that the coach was going to wait on a delayed coach given that there were connecting passengers. He had been told by the control room that the passengers were at the coach station and would be boarding soon, but after numerous delays the driver came on about 15 minutes after departure time and said “control said that we can go without the other passengers”.

That put us 15 minutes behind, but London was busy and the coach crawled out of the capital slowly and clearly getting behind schedule. I’m surprised that National Express make these schedules so optimistic, as there was nothing that the driver could have done and I’d have thought it’s better to err on the side of caution and expect delays rather than to expect the coach driver to storm the vehicle up the M1. The coach was meant to take just over five hours to get from London to Bradford, but it transpired to be nearer to seven hours by the time that it got there.

The coach was quiet until Milton Keynes, when it became pretty packed. It was still comfortable enough though and the air vents and power worked as expected, so the temperature was appropriate. The driver did make regular announcements about the delay, so he did what he could and kept everyone informed.

I was getting picked up at Bradford Interchange to get a lift to YHA Haworth, but it transpired that it was better for me to get off at Leeds and my lift picked me up from there instead. That was handy as it gave me chance to walk to a Head of Steam that I haven’t visited before, but meant I didn’t get to go on the coach all the way to Bradford, and incidentally nor did nearly anyone else and this seemed primarily a service used by customers going to Leeds.

I would have preferred to get the train from London to Keighley, which is the nearest railway station to Haworth, but that would have cost at least £70 which was just too decadent. This coach journey cost £10 and that seems pretty decent value to me.

November 15, 2021
London – Islington (Borough of) – Travelodge Farringdon

Not to be confused with the Travelodge King’s Cross Royal Scot, which is located about a two-minute walk down the road, I’ve stayed at this hotel for £24.99 per night over the last two Sundays. It’s about a ten-minute walk from London King’s Cross and a little further from Farringdon station. That situation was particularly ideal as my train into London was arriving at King’s Cross, avoiding me needing to cross London in the late evening. I like walking, but there are no shortages of buses going down the road for anyone with luggage or accessibility issues.

The double room which was spacious as it had a separate seating area and it was clean, although the carpet in places looked like they’d picked it up out of a skip. Plenty of teas and coffees, a modern looking television (although I didn’t turn it on) and a working air conditioning unit which I think is really quite impressive for a budget chain such as Travelodge. It was easy to control the temperature and I was pleased to make the room nice and cold, with no real noise disturbances internally or externally that couldn’t be expected from a central London location.

The view from my room, with those windows to the right being the corridor, it wasn’t possible to look into the rooms of other guests. It wasn’t herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically across the plain in terms of the view, but I’ve had worse.

I didn’t realise at the time, but last Sunday I had booked a single room, whereas for the same price this week I had a double room. This size room was fine for me though, but I preferred the larger amount of space.

Anyway, a perfectly decent hotel with friendly staff, a clean environment and a need for some refurbishment, although I think that this process is now underway. Really though for £24.99 in central London, it’d be hard to expect anything more (well, I suppose they could have given me a Twix, but that’s not something I expected in a Travelodge) so I was really quite pleased with the whole arrangement on both visits.

November 15, 2021
Northern Rail and LNER : Keighley to London King’s Cross

After what I thought was a successful LDWA groups’ weekend I meandered down the hill into Keighley to get the train back to London. Here’s the delightful railway station, with the main entrance to the centre of the building (which is entirely logical), but the gateway to the right leads to the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, a heritage line which goes from Keighley to Oxenhope via towns such as Haworth. There has been some talk of trying to bring the line back into commuter use, since it is entirely complete and linked into the current network, but no real progress had been made on that.

I went to the ticket office to collect my ticket from the machine, but there was a queue and so I asked the man at the empty ticket desk if I could collect it there. He helpfully answered:

“Well, we can do that, but we prefer not to”.

Really bloody helpful. Anyway, he did print out the ticket and seemed otherwise friendly, but the failing here is the operator Northern not putting in enough ticket machines (I only saw one).

This station was built in 1883 and replaced a previous station constructed in 1847 which was a short distance away over the road.

My ticket was to leave Keighley at 17:33 and get into Leeds at 18:05, before going from Leeds at 18:15 and arriving into King’s Cross at 20:28. I’m quite risk averse when travelling so arrived into Keighley railway station early and saw an earlier train arrive which was going into Leeds. I decided I’d go and ask the train guard if I could get on the earlier one to prevent a misconnect (although the real reason is that I wanted to ensure I got a seat on the London train). He answered:

“Yes and no”.

I love precision. He said that if I had got on and not asked, the answer was no and I’d be charged a penalty fare. However, he thanked me for asking him and said that I could board and I had his permission to use that service. That caused a slight commotion later on when revenue protection got on, but the guard was true to his word and confirmed my ticket was valid.

Anyway, they’re clearly very hot on fare avoidance on Northern, they seem to regularly check tickets and I’d advise definitely checking with a guard before doing anything slightly different…..

This meant that I got into Leeds a good hour before my train to London departed and I was pleased to discover the train actually departed from Leeds, so this would be the first stop.

Around 30 minutes before the departure time, the Intercity train slides into the platform.

I then stood outside the train door for ten minutes waiting to be let in. I spend a lot of my time standing outside the doors of public transport.

Full marks though to LNER for actually having logical carriage letters. Sometimes they’re something similar to A, Z, H, 5, 9, G, P and my ticket says carriage C. This time though I was in carriage E and that was easy to find, not least as I had plenty of time waiting for the doors to be opened.

And here we go, I boarded first at my end of the carriage and got my reserved seat at a table. A nice guy mentioned that he had a seat next to me on the table for four, but he’d sit opposite so that we had more space and we could both use the power points (which are annoyingly two for every table of four). We were both going from Leeds to King’s Cross and no-one else sat at the table during the journey, so it was comfortable. Incidentally, I’d have problems getting a suitable seat if I hadn’t of caught that earlier train, so I was pleased I had boarded an earlier service.

The seating reservations had gone wrong though and was effectively just suspended, which seems to happen on nearly every service that I’m on. Other customers, especially those boarding later on, were getting quite distressed at the whole situation with groups broken up and no on-board train staff were seemingly available to help. If LNER can’t cope with seat reservations they’d just be better off scrapping them, but I think even their managers would agree that this sort of thing is low down their list of priorities.

There were a couple in the four seats opposite us who pretended that the other two seats at their table were taken, which I thought was pretty unimpressive and another case in point of how the current set-up just adds stress to customers rather than making it a smooth experience.

The ‘let’s eat at your seat’ service which I was surprised to see was working. That is until it broke at Peterborough and an announcement was made that the service was now being withdrawn for the rest of the journey.

We arrived into London King’s Cross on time, but there were no ticket checks on the train and the gates were left open.

A slightly blurry photo, but I didn’t want to spend too long outside King’s Cross at night with my phone trying to take photos…. I was entirely happy with the journey for my purposes, with the trains on time and as I boarded early I got my seat reservation at a table and with access to power. Other customers had a less exciting experience split up from their friends and family despite having seat reservations and this whole set-up has to be improved by the rail network if they want to increase usage. Perhaps it needs to be as radical as if the rail company can’t provide the seat booked by the customer then it has to refund the entire ticket in a similar manner to delay repay.

November 15, 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 – Southwark (Borough of) – Cloudwater Tap Room

I tried to come to the Cloudwater tap room on the Bermondsey Beer Mile last year, but it was only open as a take-away and so I got a couple of beers then for whatever hotel I was located in. However, I got the opportunity for the first time to pop in last weekend.

The beer list which is located on a chalkboard at the end of the bar. Service was warm and welcoming, with the staff member being knowledgeable about the various beer options. This felt a friendly location, all very on-trend.

This is the Canal at St. Mark’s which is Cloudwater’s own imperial IPA, coming in at 8%. This was really rather lovely, such a depth of flavour and beautifully tropical. It’s described as ‘dank’ which I wasn’t quite sure of the definition in beer terms, but apparently it’s referring to “very hoppy, cloudy IPAs”. I suppose it was dank FWIW….

But then there was something even better, the I Know You Know We Know beer, also from Cloudwater, although it’s a collaboration with the Three Chiefs Brewing Co. of Los Angeles from the beautiful state of California. This was insanely good and is one of the best beers that I’ve had, with initial hits of chocolate and fruit, but with an aftertaste of rose water which made it taste like a Turkish Delight. If that wasn’t enough there was also some raspberry in there, like a chocolate Quality Street treat. I noted that the brewery toasted my Untappd check-in to this beer when I was in the bar, perhaps they were standing nearby (not that it much matters). Definitely a world class beer in my mind, I was very pleased with this decadent treat.

The bar was moderately busy, but when a group of six men in fancy dress came in they were asked to leave, with the manager saying that fancy dress was prohibited by their licence. I think he’s right, but his comment that the group probably wouldn’t be served anywhere else on the Beer Mile didn’t turn out to be right, as they seemed to be served everywhere else. Either way, I liked the policy, a bar of this quality deserves to be revered…..

I was very pleased to get to come here at last and the quality of beers didn’t disappoint. The service was friendly, the pub was clean, it was a comfortable environment and they served me one of the best stouts that I’ve had. All really rather lovely. Cloudwater also have a tap room in Manchester and I want to go there now…..

November 11, 2021
London – Southwark (Borough of) – Hiver Beers Taproom

This was a new location to me when meandering along the Bermondsey Beer Mile, Hiver Beer Taproom, a brewery which focuses on honey in their products. It’s located on Stanworth Street and I think is worth the slight diversion to go and visit.

Scott looks like he’s having a lovely time here….. Anyway, this photo isn’t really of him and his very bright coat, I was trying to take a photo of the bar and the interior. There’s a small upstairs area in the bar, although it was full when we visited with a group celebrating a birthday or something similar. There was just one large table left on the ground floor which was reserved, but the staff said that we could have it as it wasn’t needed for another hour or so. It’s not a large venue, but there’s some external seating as well and I usually avoid that in case bees attack me, but that might be quite appropriate here (the bees, not being attacked).

I went for the Hiver Blonde Beer and thought it was a perfectly good honey based Belgian Blonde. It’s not really a beer style that I’d particularly head towards, but I wasn’t disappointed and the honey flavour was clearly evident. Pricing was reasonable and like pretty much every venue on the Bermondsey Beer Mile, they accept cards.

It’s a pleasantly laid-back environment and I liked the engagement and enthusiasm of the staff, they were good ambassadors for the brand. For those who want to, the bar allows customers to bring their own food in from nearby takeaways to eat as well, which looking back might have been a useful option for our group.

November 11, 2021
London – Lewisham (Borough of) – Berlin Wall in Shopping Centre

I’ve written before on this blog about when I’ve encountered sections of the Berlin Wall around the world, and I’ve sometimes gone out of my way to go and see parts of this historic structure. It’s fair to say though that I didn’t expect when walking through a shopping centre in Lewisham to see two sections there, it’s not a location that I’d have associated with the Berlin Wall.

They’re actually here because of the Migration Museum, which is also slightly oddly located in Lewisham Shopping Centre, although I understand that this is a temporary location. The museum notes:

“Between 1984 and 1989 Thierry Noir illegally painted over five kilometres of the Berlin Wall. Noir’s aim was to perpetrate an act of artistic resistance with the intent of changing the perception of the Berlin Wall, to demystify it and remove its threat by making it colourful and ridiculous. STIK continues this tradition of unofficial public art as a tool for radical social change by creating public commissions aimed at unifying and consolidating a deep sense of community. In WALL, STIK and Thierry Noir directly reconnect with the historical movement of Berlin Wall art. The act of creating a new work on surviving sections further removes the intrinsic historical connotation of the Berlin Wall as a physical and mental barrier.”

I wasn’t much interested in the recently painted section, I personally think it takes away from the brutal nature of the concrete and what it represented in the past. The austere side tells a much stronger story to me, each of these pieces of stone weighs two tonnes and was a barrier to limit hope an opportunity. It’s positive though that they’re trying to explain the wall and bring it to the attention of a new generation. And it’s probably a good idea to have bits of the Berlin Wall where people don’t expect them to be.

November 11, 2021
London – Southwark (Borough of) – The Rake

As my friend Richard was staying at a decadent hotel in London on Sunday (whilst I was in a cheap Travelodge) we thought a quick drink in a venue that we hadn’t been to before would be a good idea. This is the Rake bar located on Winchester Walk, situated next to Borough Market.

The keg and cask beer selection is visible on the DigitalPour app (which I had never heard of before, but downloaded in advance of a visit here) and also on a screen inside the bar. The location is relatively small, with just a handful of tables inside, although there are several external tables in the garden and this was relatively busy. There were a range of beer styles represented here, with a number of interested options.

The service in the bar was friendly and the staff member was knowledgeable, so that was rather lovely. The bar area with its rustic feel is in the above photo. I wasn’t convinced by the suitability of the tables though as they weren’t entirely level.

The uneven tables was a problem when a drink is poured like this (I had to use the window sill instead), although I appreciated the Goose Island glass. I went for the Anastasia’s Stout from the Ascot Brewing Company and the Infinite Cerise from Solvay Society, both of which were entirely acceptable, if not having exceptional depths of flavour.

The bar is generally well reviewed on-line, some people complaining about the pries, but I felt that they were relatively moderate given the quality of the bars and the location of the premises.

All told, I liked this venue which is located in a touristy part of London, but which had a feel of a local bar with its own community. There are also cans and bottles which add to the selection available, but there was plenty of choice with the draft options. I wasn’t entirely convinced by the decor in the bar, which seems reliant on graffiti to add character, but I suppose it’s different and quirky.

November 10, 2021
London – Southwark (Borough of) – Original Site of Globe Theatre

I’ve walked in this area around London Bridge railway station hundreds of times, but I was never aware that the original site of the Globe Theatre is partly marked out. The theatre was first constructed in 1599, but was destroyed by fire in 1613 (a cannon misfired during a performance of Henry VIII, which wasn’t ideal), before being rebuilt in 1614. The Puritans ordered theatres to close in 1642 in case anyone might dare enjoy themselves, with the building demolished between 1644 and 1645.

That was really that for the theatre, until 1988 when construction in the area found some of the building’s foundations. The area has been heavily built on over the last few centuries, not least the listed building at 67-70 Anchor Terrace. It’s not possible to dig more without taking the Anchor Terrace buildings down, but there are likely some foundations from the theatre present under those properties.

The location of the former theatre is on the South Bank of the Thames and is marked out with a cursor on the above map (clicking on the image makes it a little larger and easier to see) from the early twentieth century, at a time when they weren’t aware of the foundations being there. The Globe was rebuilt in a modern form in 1997 (although as true to the original as they realistically could and it’s the only building in the city of London which is thatched and they had to get special permission for that), but is on a site a little further west, around 250 metres, along the Thames.

There are a number of information boards at the site, including this easy to understand map of the site, which helped place things in the modern built-up environment. For anyone interested in the history of theatre and similar things, I’d say that it’s worth a little meander here to have a look, and it’s also known that Shakespeare lived nearby so that he could be at the theatre on a regular basis.

November 10, 2021