This morning I was lucky enough to sit opposite a poem by William Wordsworth, titled “Composed Upon Westminster Bridge”. It was part of the Poems on the Underground series.
EARTH has not anything to show more fair:
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This City now doth, like a garment, wear
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky;
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill;
Ne’er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!
I wonder what he’d make of the view now.
Today I found a new way to challenge my London knowledge, which was a map of Zone One of the London Underground without any of the station names. You have 10 minutes to type as many of the station names as you can remember and watch as your answers get added to the map. I managed 52 out of the 63 stations which I was fairly happy with, but still had to kick myself when I saw the ones I’d missed. It instantly highlights the parts of London you never visit, for me there was a huge empty space in south West London which I had no idea about. Have a go yourself at www.sporcle.com/games/londontubecentral.php and see if you do better than 52…
It reminded me of a simliar game, with the same concept but on a much larger scale. At travelpod they have a flash game where you must place a flag on the map of the world to mark the location of cities and famous places with points are awarded for speed and accuracy. There are 12 levels of difficulty with cities becoming more and more obscure as you progress. Give it your best flag at www.travelpod.com/traveler-iq. Unfortunately I didn’t make the 30,000 threshold to get past level 6, I’m sure you can do better!
This is a great video, i know I take a lot of pictures but the work that went into this is astonishing.
London (harder, better, faster, stronger) from David Hubert on Vimeo.
This morning something strange happened.
On a crowded Northern Line train a seat was left empty. the three men standing over it were all too polite to even acknowledge the seat which was left vacant at Angel and it was still empty when I left at Old Street.
How peculiar.
This is a post I started writing a month ago but things have been busy recently. Better late than never…
There’s been quite a few sites and features which have caught my eye over the last few days, so here’s a little summary of what’s stood out for me:
Shiny Shiny’s website of the week combines two of my geeky interests – maps and photography. They’ve uncovered the Map of Strange which collates the unusual findings people make while browsing the aerial photos of Google Earth or Google Maps (or you online satellite imagery site of choice). (more…)
Following that post on HD sunglasses here’s one on some new advertising to hit London’s tube. Last October TFL started trailing some new video projection adverts on the tube on the platforms.
Large projectors were set up at Euston which would project silent videos onto the wall across from where people stand waiting for the tube. The silent video is very powerful, whatever is showing you can’t help but let your eyes get drawn to it and before you realise you’re staring at the moving pictures, lost in a trance (Ben Elton once did an excellent sketch on this but I can’t find any trace of it on the web.).
Both Diamond Geezer and The Londonist have written more about this but the point that sticks with me is the lack of choice you have about viewing these adverts, particularly on the tube, everywhere you look there is an advert. At a station like Euston where the platform is 5 people deep at rush hour you have no option but to look straight ahead as you’re crushed from every other side and let the the slogans, straplines associations and brand from the adverts stare you in the face.
But if a lack of adverts meant a substantial increase in fares, then the companies win and we will have to watch what they have to say.
I wonder what kind of emergency they expect at Highbury and Islington which would demand an emergency cupboard.
Who knows.
It would certainly make a good caption competition.
Last night I was shopping for a present for a good friend of mine at work who’s leaving this week. As they commute long stretches of the tube each day I decided what they would most like to receive as a leaving present would be An Illustrated Guide to the Piccadilly Line (and a wodge of topshop vouchers and some other stuff, we’re not complete bastards).
It turns out the London Transport Museum has a very impressive library of books on everything tube and train related, and it doesn’t stop there, they have a decent sized display devoted to DVDs. What particularly caught my eye was the series of “Driver eye view” films for each of the tube lines, with a running commentary of dark tunnel followed by dark tunnel of tube track. Now that is a niche market, and they’re got it fully covered. Don’t tell Gorden Brown though or he’ll ban them for being a terrorist threat.
On my way to Covent Garden I also noticed a very nice looking whisky shop which I had a quick look in on. Whisky was stacked floor to ceiling and it reminded me of a cachaca shop in Paraty ‘d been to. In a complete coincidence the London Daily Photo site features the same whisky shop in today’s photo. Which is nice.
Living in and around London all my life it’s easy to take a lot of things for granted. I’m always interested to read other peoples fresh experiences of the city, especially visitors from other countries, as I think it’s good to be reminded of some of the everyday things which you can so easily get used to.
A recent post by a Canadian called Adrienne about the tube is an excellent example of this as she talks about standing on the right on escalators. It’s something which never crosses my mind as I naturally slip in to standing position or march past the other commuters. Good to hear we do some things right here.
“Simply fill in this form and you’ll soon have a £3 voucher you can use towards any tube ticket (including your monthly travelcard) winging its way to you.”
More at: www.londonist.com
