Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: UK

  • Norwich – The Norwich Plan for Downtown Restoration

    Norwich – The Norwich Plan for Downtown Restoration

    Norwich Plan for Downtown Restoration (in .pdf format)

    Back in the late 1950s, Magdalen Street in Norwich saw a piece of urban renewal that became known throughout the world. The above PDF document (courtesy of archive.org) is a short book of how that came about, with the publishing element of the project being backed by Norwich Union.

    It was quite an inspired project which received the support of nearly all the property owners along Magdalen Street. The street was tidied up in terms of signage and clutter, with shopkeepers and property owners smartening up their buildings as well. The Civic Trust did a fine job, also ensuring that historic buildings were protected and that people became proud of their local area. A new park was formed, buildings were painted and thought was given to the placement of noticeboards and electricity boxes.

    The document above was issued to inspire and encourage cities around the world to undertake similar projects. It showed that the Norwich project hadn’t cost that much money, but had seen many benefits. The book concluded that “this can make a community a better place in which to live and work”.

    Incidentally, the foot-note to this was that just over ten years later, Norwich City Council built a flyover through the middle of the project, knocked down several of the buildings and destroyed the character of Magdalen Street. The chaos that they caused is still problematic today, as no-one is quite sure what to do with Anglia Square. It wouldn’t perhaps be a bad idea for the council to look back at this project at what can be achieved when the community works together on a scheme.

  • Norwich – General Regulations of the Bethel Hospital in 1861

    Norwich – General Regulations of the Bethel Hospital in 1861

    Bethel Hospital Regulations (in .pdf format)

    The above PDF file (thanks to archive.org and the Wellcome Library) is the General Regulations of the Bethel Hospital in Norwich which were issued in 1861. They’re surprising forward looking to what I had expected, although still regimented as might be expected from a Victorian institution. It was noted that staff should not “strike the patients or speak harshly to them”, but should be “kind and indulgent”.

    On the last page of the document are the meals that were expected to be served to the patients, which weren’t ungenerous. Women were generally allowed the same menu as the men, although they weren’t to be given as much of it.

    The milk broth for breakfast was commonplace at the time, although it’s not something you see in many restaurants and hotels today. Or not the ones that I go to anyway. Wednesdays don’t sound too bad, the evening meal was either sausages, potatoes and beer, or, a sausage roll, potatoes and beer. Indeed, beer is provided on a regular basis, although not in large quantities, but extra was given to patients helping with the washing, laundry and in the workshop. I’m not sure that patients in the N&N get to do the washing and laundry today, although perhaps some would help if there was beer provided for their assistance.

    There was the bonus of roast beef and plum pudding on Christmas Day, although even then the plum pudding term was misleading and that would be what we call Christmas Pudding today. For that week there were also mince pies and cake, so perhaps not that much has changed over the last 160 years. On Shrove Tuesday, there was also coquilles, which were effectively Hot Cross Buns without the cross.

    Incidentally, I’m not quite sure what the male patients were encouraged to do during their recovery, but the document notes that the women should be “encouraged to occupy themselves in needle and household work”. Men and women were encouraged to take the air though, and to also read wholesome books and periodicals.

  • London – Kensington and Chelsea (Borough of) – Norland Square Railings

    London – Kensington and Chelsea (Borough of) – Norland Square Railings

    There are many things that annoy me. These include people being loud in libraries, Greggs running out of sausage rolls and people putting their feet on the seats of trains. There are other things as well of course (crime and corruption aren’t great either), but I’ll limit myself here. Historically there’s one particular decision which is annoying and it has wrecked many parks, gardens, buildings and churchyards across the country, which was when iron was collected for the war effort.

    It’s not the collection of the iron that’s the problem here, it’s that historians seem to agree that only around 25% of it was used. And the Government never stopped collecting it, despite it being clear that they didn’t need any more. Paperwork has been “lost” by Government departments and it’s widely thought much of the iron was just dumped after the end of the Second World War. Perhaps it was good for morale and making people feel involved, but it simply caused more anger later on when the truth started to out.

    Now that I don’t live in London, I’m no longer a member of the London Library at St. James’s Square, but I’m pleased to note that £500,000 has been spent restoring the railings there. There’s further information at https://www.stjamessquaretrust.co.uk/railings-project and it’s a worthwhile project. But, at least some railings had already been put back here, in so many other locations across the country all that remains eighty years on are the stumps of the railings. Churches suffered terribly from this, as well as many residential property owners. Although, as with many things, other wealthy property owners found reasons for their iron not to be taken in the first place, whilst those of more limited means were busy tearing up their front gates.

    Lord Hemingford in 1943 queried this whole arrangement, although he wasn’t give much succour when he said in the Lords:

    “To go a little lower down the social scale, I saw only the other day a row of very small cottages, I suppose cottages with not more than four rooms at the outside, with their small gardens in front of them, many of them tended with very great care, where the railings—which can have been of very little use to the Government, for they were not much more than wire made into an upright fence—have been taken away from the front of the gardens. I cannot but imagine that those railings were useless for the purpose for which they were taken, and must have been among those which have since been sold by the Ministry of Supply.”

    And, the reason I mention all of this is that the photo at the top is of Norland Square Gardens, with their lovely iron railings. These date to 2007, when Susan Walkers Architects (who are engaged with the St. James’s Square project) and the Cast Iron Co. Ltd produced these new railings for the gardens, funded by the Norland Square Garden Committee. They’re not overly decorative, but they define the area much better than some generic chain-link fence or indeed nothing at all.

    There seems to have been a little bit of a wave of these transformations over recent years, but mostly they seem limited to wealthy areas of London or to property owners with some money. Perhaps it’s time to fund the restoration of iron railings back to churches, parks and many other locations where they were taken from, an apology from the Government that this scheme to collect iron wasn’t stopped when it was realised that it wasn’t productive.

    There’s a video of the patrotic need for this at https://www.britishpathe.com/video/park-railings-for-munitions.

  • Norfolk Regiment – October 1914 War Diary

    Norfolk Regiment – October 1914 War Diary

    Diary (in .pdf format – the war diary of the 1st Battalion of the Norfolk Regiment for October 1914)

    I’ve downloaded most of the war diaries of the Norfolk Regiment from the National Archives (currently free of charge whilst the reading rooms are closed) and have become endlessly fascinated by them. They’re a real snapshot of what life must have been like, even though much of the detail is quite short. I’m also reading up on the lives of those who fought in the First World War, so this adds a fair chunk of detail to my understanding of where they were. And, this is why I’m trying to get a better understanding of where the battalion was, so I can try to have an understanding of the journey that the men went on.

    Unfortunately, the August to September 1914 records for the 1st Battalion have got lost somewhere, so we have to start in October. I do know though that the battalion was fighting in Ireland when the First World War started, they mobilised on 4 August and then left Belfast on 14 August. From there, they arrived in Le Havre, France, a few days later. The diary for the month of October starts with the 1st Battalion marching to Droizy, with mention that it was cold.

    On 3 October 1914, the battalion set off to Longpont (the photo above, © IWM Q 47947, is of Longpont, but shows the French defense in 1918, it was much quieter when the Norfolk Regiment arrived), which is around 15 kilometres away and it took them just over four hours. Longpont is only around 90 kilometres from Paris and this must have been something of an adventure for those there. The horrors of war weren’t yet perhaps quite obvious from this far away from the front line.

    Longpont is dominated by an abbey which was forcibly closed during the French Revolution, and the troops arrived at 22:00 and slept in the woods in the village. They stayed the next day, 4 October, in the village and I wonder whether they were involved in training or had chance to look around the small village. After spending a day in the village they then went on a night march to Pondron and it took them around four hours, arriving on the morning of 5 October.

    I like a night hike and find that there’s a sense of adventure in them, but I can’t quite imagine what it must have been like in wartime and in a military capacity. I’m assuming that the troops walked down the road and so looking at Google Street View, it’s possible to see what the men would have gone by. It’s not very built up now, so this would have likely been similar to walking in the Norfolk countryside in terms of the scenery. It was noted that the journey was inconvenienced with the number of French motors passing by, something I know from my walking can be a bloody nuisance (not French motors in particular, just cars in general). It would interesting to follow their journey, although they did later go by rail and road, although most of their route would be easy to walk (along with the occasional train journey).

    On the 6 October, they marched from Pondron to Bethisy, where they stayed overnight, before crossing the River Oise on 7 October. I’m unsure why that needed a specific mention in the diary, unless the road wasn’t available and so they had to cross on foot, which would have been quite notable…. From here they went overnight by train to Abbeville, which must now have felt much closer to the front line action, should the men have been aware of what faced them.

    After arriving in Abbeville (the painting above – © IWM Art.IWM ART 5394 – is by Olive Mudie-Cooke, an ambulance worker, painted in Abbeville in 1916/1917) at 04:00 on 8 October, the men then marched to Neuilly, where they arrived after seven hours of walking. They then had a period of rest before, later that same day, marching for over six hours to Boufflers. That couldn’t have been an easy day of walking, especially with the fear of the unknown that must have hung over them.

    On 9 October, the men were meant to be transported by road, but the vehicles didn’t arrive. Instead, on 10 October, the men were taken by car to La Thieuloye and on the following day, 11 October, they marched to Bethune. At the time, this location was becoming increasingly important as a military meeting area and it was here that the men helped reinforce a French Cavalry outpost. This might have been when the Norfolk battalion started to meet other French troops for what could have been one of the first times.

    The diaries note that the Germans took the nearby village of Vermelles on 12 October, with the Norfolk Regiment moving to Festubert that evening. Just to the south of this is the village of Givenchy and on 13 October, the Dorset and Bedford Regiments were attacked, with the Norfolk Regiment being ready to support, but the Germans didn’t pursue them.

    It’s clear now that the movements were going to be slower, with the troops remaining at Festubert until the 16 October before making a few minor travels, and then ultimately, spending the rest of the month at Festubert. Two of the men were injured on 20 October, with Lieutenant Foley killed on 25 October. This must have felt pivotal, as although things were clearly getting more dangerous, to see a colleague lose their life must have been hugely challenging.

    I couldn’t find any photos of the 1st Battalion of the Norfolk Regiment at Festubert, but this photo (© IWM Q 90282) was taken in the village a few months later, showing the Royal Field Artillery.

  • Greater Anglia : London Liverpool Street to Norwich

    Greater Anglia : London Liverpool Street to Norwich

    The Prime Minister hadn’t quite made his latest announcement (or u-turn if you prefer) by the time that I was about to board the 13:30 Greater Anglia train back to Norwich from London Liverpool Street. But, when that statement was made, it was effectively saying that London was now entering Tier 4 and that from midnight the residents of the city shouldn’t leave the area. Things appear to have gotten worse with a new virulent strain of the virus, which is not ideal at all.

    There were reports in some elements of the media that there were huge flurries of Londoners rushing out to the countryside, although that appears to have been dismissed by the rail companies who said few trains were actually full. Either way, the train that I was on didn’t seem particularly busy, so I had a block of four seats around a table to myself for the journey. And, for those who note my annoyance on this matter when Stansted Express trains are pushed into service, this train did actually have tables. I bought my ticket over a week ago, another bargain priced £10 advance single fare.

    The most interesting part of the journey for me was annoyance at myself for either being asleep or not paying attention, I can’t remember which (and couldn’t at the time, so I was probably asleep) whilst pulling into what I think was Manningtree station. The driver made a furious announcement, although made professionally, that he had been forced to sound the train’s horn as he nearly hit a passenger’s bag which was being carried so near to the platform as to have actually been mostly off of it. The driver said several times, in excess of four, that the person responsible was a male, in carriage D and with a duffel bag. I was positively disappointed not to be in the carriage as otherwise I could have looked and tutted, to show my British displeasure, at this act of idiocy. I say idiocy, as that’s what the driver called it, along with other words.

    Anyway, I quite liked that the driver made his coffee order over the announcement system and that the refreshment team made one back, apologising for not having the biscuit he wanted. It was sufficiently light hearted to add some humanity back to the journey and I think it calmed the annoyed driver down.

    And here we are back in Norwich, on time and that really is the end of my travel for 2020. I didn’t think in early November that I’d be travelling again in 2020, but this twelve-night stay in London was worthwhile and interesting. What I’m more disappointed about now is that travel in early 2021 is looking effectively impossible. I’m likely to cancel my trip to Bilbao, whereas British Airways have already cancelled my trips to Lisbon and Dublin. I can’t imagine that I’ll be going to Inverness or Palma either, which are both in January, although haven’t yet been cancelled by British Airways.

  • London – Hackney (Borough of) – Hackney – Travelodge

    London – Hackney (Borough of) – Hackney – Travelodge

    The Travelodge in Hackney is on the left-hand side of this photo (in the building, not the railway station platform as even Travelodge haven’t got rooms that basic), easy to reach from the city centre by bus or London Overground. In terms of noise, I like the sound of trains overnight, but then again, I’ve long since decided that I like urban sounds (I mean in relation to the background noise of a city, not a type of music) such as this to feel the most rested. My tolerance of noise is less liked by some others though judging from their reviews about being kept awake.

    There is a shared door with Kip Hotels to get into the building, a slightly unusual set-up of two rival hotels with one entrance.

    Anyway, let me at least try to paint some kind of picture of the scene on arrival. I entered the reception area and an alarm was going off throughout the building. The receptionist looked stressed, she now had two waiting guests and she didn’t know why the alarm was going off. She ran out of reception looking quite harassed by the situation and went to investigate why her hotel wasn’t working properly. It’s not an ideal welcome to be honest.

    Then a man with his two sons (or I assume they were his) came into reception and it’s fair to say that these children were not the quietest that I’ve ever encountered. The receptionist comes back at this point and apologises for the wait, but she says she needs to keep investigating as she can’t work out why an alarm is going off. At this point, the man explains that his two kids might have been the cause of the alarm due to a tripping incident near the lift. This was a relief for the receptionist, she now knew why her hotel was broken. She disappeared off to try and turn the alarm off, but she seemed pleased that she understood what had happened.

    Another staff member appeared, who was a sea of calm in a reception where two children were running around screaming and an alarm was going off. She dealt with the customer in front of me and ensured he was content, before trying to assist the man with his two children. I had by this point moved out of the queueing arrangement to stand near the wall, which stopped the two loud children running around me. The man kindly mentioned that I had been first, but I’m a helpful sort of person and I let him go ahead as he needed a new keycard. This altruistic behaviour of mine was, if I’m being honest, also useful to discover what part of the hotel the kids were located in so that I wasn’t near to them. I have a feeling that the receptionist guessed this, I was placed on the ground floor which was as far as possible to have been placed away from the kids.

    I’d add that the children weren’t bad, but they seemed to be quite loud and I like the noise of trains and traffic, I’m less good with the sound of exuberant children. Anyway, I digress.

    The bedroom was fine, it’s not the largest Travelodge room that I’ve had, but it met my requirements. It had a door, a window that opened, a ceiling, walls, a bathroom, a carpet that didn’t stick, clean bedsheets, a desk, a bin, a kettle, towels and a light. There are quite a few requirements there, but I think that some of them are quite basic needs. And, I heard no more noise either internally or externally until I checked out, although I’m unsure how many guests there actually were in the rest of the building.

    I didn’t see any staff members when checking out and if it wasn’t for the excitement of check-in, I feel I might have found the whole experience just a little unnotable. This room cost under £20 for the night, which is ridiculous for a London hotel the week before Christmas. But, we live in interesting times….

  • London – Newham (Borough of) – Travelodge ExCeL

    London – Newham (Borough of) – Travelodge ExCeL

    This isn’t a good time for hotels in London, and I can’t imagine many times where Travelodge have been selling off rooms in the capital at under £20 just a couple of nights before the stay. So, this looked like a rather good price and the hotel is conveniently located next to a DLR station, and also next to where I stayed last week at the Holiday Inn Express.

    My expectations were frankly a little low, a room of £20 and some not great recent reviews didn’t fill me with confidence. In reality, it was all absolutely fine. There was no noise internally or externally, the room was clean and the staff member at reception was friendly and helpful. It was also useful that the staff member asked if I wanted a floor on a lower floor or at the top, so I went with my standard “top floor, away from lift” option. The room wasn’t enormous, but it was perfectly sufficient and there was free tea and coffee. Definitely hard to complain at under £20 per night.

    To my slight surprise, this was a slightly better built hotel than the Holiday Inn Express that’s next door. That hotel has been built with no individual air conditioning units and no facility to open windows. The Travelodge had gone for the approach of a window that opens to cool things and a heater to heat. I like such simple solutions, although it might be too hot in the summer (one reviewer said it was and they gave up with their room to sleep in the hotel’s bar). But I’m sure they offer fans then. The room could have done with some plug sockets near to the bed, but perhaps they’ll be put in when the hotel is refurbed.

    As an aside, one thing that annoys me slightly is the hotel’s response to reviews, which is pretty much always the same. There are all manner of reviews, from staff members bursting into a room when a customer was changing to a few allegations of theft and bed bugs, all with the exact same response from the hotel as they replied to someone who mentioned they found a hair on the floor. I like reviews from managers who just tell the truth, they’re more entertaining.

    Anyway, all rather good value for under £20.

  • London – City of London – London Mithraeum

    London – City of London – London Mithraeum

    A few years ago I went to the Cavern Club in Liverpool and was moderately disappointed to discover that it’s not quite in the same place as the original. In 1973, British Rail decided that they must definitely have the site of the Cavern Club (although they were prepared to build elsewhere if they were given some extra money to pay for their costs) and so they compulsorily purchased it, filled it in, then decided they didn’t want it. An attempt was later made to excavate the site which wasn’t entirely successful, so the current Cavern Club is sort of where the old one was with some of the same bricks.

    And, I mention this tangential story because this is what has happened to the London Mithraeum. Not British Rail this time, but Legal & General and the construction of their far from beautiful Bucklersbury House. It would have been possible to redesign the building and keep the Roman finds, but the Government announced it would cost £500,000 and they weren’t spending that. However, it shouldn’t be under-estimated just how interested Londoners were, it attracted unprecedented interest for historic remains and the site was being opened three hours earlier than anticipated in its last week, such were the number of people who wanted to see it. These were challenging times for London in the mid-1950s where much was still being rebuilt following the war, so there was a great deal of positivity when this Roman structure was being uncovered.

    The end result was that they shoved out the Roman remains into the street and called it a compromise. Perhaps less a compromise and more of a sell-out. There was talk of just destroying the site entirely, so the option chosen did at least save the stones. Anyway, Bucklersbury House has now gone and been replaced by a lovely new building designed by Fosters & Partners. And it’s in the cellar of that new building that this temple now resides once again.

    The hole that was dug for the Legal & General building. There’s a lot of history, including some interesting video of people there in the 1950s, at the official web-site at https://www.londonmithraeum.com/about/. Given the quantity of information there, I’ll just borrow a little of their text to ensure my history is correct.

    “The site lies over the course of one of London’s lost rivers, the Walbrook. Nearly 2,000 years ago when Londinium was founded by the Romans, this river marked the limits of their first settlement. In the 3rd century AD, nearly 200 years after the founding of London, a Roman Londoner, built a temple to the god Mithras on this reclaimed ground, next to the river.

    The mysterious cult of Mithras first appeared in Rome in the 1st century AD. It spread across the Empire over the next 300 years, predominantly attracting merchants, soldiers and imperial administrators. Meeting in temples which were often constructed below ground, these were private, dark and windowless spaces. The mythological scene of Mithras killing a bull within a cave, the ‘tauroctony’ is at the heart of the cult, and its full meaning is subject of much speculation.”

    But, going back in this story a little bit, there’s a ground floor entrance to the new Bloomberg Building which gives access to a museum and public space. The first surprise was seeing my friend Steve, who had coincidentally booked the exact same time to visit the same location. And there was one other person (who we didn’t know) booked for this time, as although the tickets are free, they need to be pre-booked at the moment. And we chose the right day to book our tickets to visit, as changing tier restrictions meant that this was to be its final day of opening for the moment.

    This is the first part of the experience. I’m not sure they call it an experience, but it’s a word that perhaps adds an extra dimension to a visit, so I’m using it. The staff member who welcomed us gave a spirited explanation of it. The other person vaguely looked at it and walked off, whereas Steve and I decided we would make an effort to look at it and pretend to understand it. I’m not sure that we did, and I did think this would be a handy spot for a cafe. I’m not sure that’s what the artist had intended me to think, but there we go.

    Some of the finds are now on display, although 14,000 items were found, so I’m not entirely sure where the rest are. Going downstairs, and before getting slightly lost, we found the second part of the museum, where there are some screens giving more of the site’s history.

    And, this is the centrepiece of the attraction located down another flight of stairs. I understand there’s usually some form of audio-visual experience for visitors before entering here, but for reasons unknown, the current health situation makes that impossible.

    And another photo of the Roman remains with visitors being able to walk around the outside. I couldn’t help be distracted by the neatness of the stones, it all felt too polished and modern. And the reasons for this are clear, namely that when they moved it to an outside location and slightly crudely rebuilt it, much of the original was lost in terms of the mortar and indeed its authenticity. Eric Morecambe’s line is often quoted, but there’s an element of truth to say that “there are all the right stones, but not necessarily in the right order”.

    There’s an article in the Sphere on 23 October 1954 with a photo of a wall being built, subtitled “workmen are rebuilding the lower walls with the stones made by Roman masons”. I’m not convinced that there was complete archaeological rigour going on with the rebuilding, although this seems to have been glossed over a little in the telling of the temple’s story.

    But, I have no complaint with the efforts made by Bloomberg, they’ve restored some dignity to this site after some rather casual and off-hand treatment of it over the last few decades. The web-site they’ve created is informative and useful, with the reviews of the museum nearly all veering towards the very positive. And there’s been some magic put back to these stones, in whatever order they’ve been relaid. A visit isn’t likely to take much more than thirty minutes, but I’m glad that I got to see this site at Walbrook.

  • London – Kensington and Chelsea (Borough of) – Ibis Styles Kensington (Eighth Visit)

    London – Kensington and Chelsea (Borough of) – Ibis Styles Kensington (Eighth Visit)

    This blog wouldn’t be complete without yet another post about this hotel in Kensington…. I still like the hotel, the welcome is friendly, the hotel is clean and the prices are highly competitive. Not only have I managed to post here multiple times about this hotel, I’ve also bored friends with it as well and one of them also happened to be staying here for the weekend.

    I was upgraded to a larger room and I think this is one of my favourites in the hotel. Spacious and with numerous seating options dotted around the place.

    There was a bath, as well as a separate shower (that isn’t in the photo), all very decadent.

    There is a balcony as well, but they’re locked that off.

    This was the view on Sunday morning. Rain. Not ideal…..

    There was no Tiger left, so this was my welcome drink choice. It was free, so I won’t complain.

    My obligatory breakfast bag photo…. I did go down in the basement to get a coffee, although it seemed to be measuring out rather small portions, albeit delicious tasting small portions.

    So, once again, all was fine and nothing exceptional happened that I feel the need to mention. And, this is good in a hotel, I don’t want too much drama. Incidentally, I hear that Richard had lots of drama in his two hotel visits this weekend elsewhere in the country, it’s a shame he doesn’t have a blog….

  • London – Westminster (Borough of) – National Gallery (Christ and the Woman taken in Adultery)

    London – Westminster (Borough of) – National Gallery (Christ and the Woman taken in Adultery)

    This cheery little number doesn’t belong to the National Gallery where it is currently located, it’s usually in the collections of the Courtauld Gallery which has been closed for a couple of years due to renovations to the building. They probably chose quite a good time to get the work done, assuming that they’ve been able to progress with it at all this year.

    Anyway, it’s by Pieter Bruegel the Elder and it was painted in 1565. The grey nature of the artwork is deliberate, it’s in the Grisaille style and this is one of the best known paintings which have used this style of having multiple grey colours. The painting shows a number of Jewish sect members who have brought a woman accused of adultery to Christ so that he could condemn her to death by stoning. Instead, he asked if anyone amongst them was without sin, then they could be the first to throw a stone at her.

    It’s the only painting which the artist passed down to his son, Jan Brueghel the Elder. The painting was then passed down to his son, Jan Brueghel the Younger who loved it so much that he flogged it off. It was sold at Christie’s in 1834 and then again in 1952, but was donated to the Courtauld Gallery in 1978. Someone then pinched it in 1982 and that wasn’t entirely ideal, particularly since it wasn’t recovered until 1992.