This morning's commute and other commuting stories

Hull. They have ner amenities!

NER AMENITIES!1!

Got to test ride a guys e bike in Angel, very awesome.

S'funny - if you think that when I was a kid, Streatham High Rd was known as Little West End.
Ballroom, theatre, two cinemas, bowling alley, ice rink, no shortage of pubs and restaurants, live music in several of the pubs. There was also a branch of John Lewis.
More recently, it's the first place in the UK that had a McDonalds close down.

Many London high streets were like that. Most larger London town centres had sizeable department stores--recently, even Allders closed down in Croydon--as well as cinemas and theatres. There were five or six large cinemas/theatres on a fairly short stretch of Stoke Newington Road until as late as the 80s. Now only the Rio is left, and the recently-reopened Savoy, now called Earth. There was an ice rink on Lower Clapton Road. Etc. etc.

Changes came mainly because of London's tremendous decline in population until the beginning of the 80s, which made fewer and fewer of these enterprises viable (plus the typical generational change, with younger owners not wishing to continue and things like that), the rise in car transport (before that, when public transport stopped running and you didn't cycle, you were basically stuck with your local entertainment options), but also with new(er) forms of urban public transport, e.g. the expansion of the Tube network, diversification of entertainment, home entertainment, and so on.

With London's again expanding population (whose density is still nowhere near pre-war levels in the LCC area), some of these things are coming back, although hesitantly because of the much greater demand for flats than before the war (people back then living in far more cramped and confined conditions), which is squeezing out much of the space that used to be available for the aforementioned entertainment venues.

(Other factors: I also think that the development of the satellite towns contributed tremendously to the West End's importance and commercial fortunes compared to smaller town centres within London, as many people come to the West End from outlying places. The change from the LCC to the GLC also had something to do with it, as the resulting increase in development further out reduced the cohesion of formerly densely-populated parts of town (which were obviously generally full of overcrowded, poorly-serviced, unsanitary, and dark accommodation), as well as that of their communities. Also, after the abandonment of the 'postwar consensus', e.g. the Bretton-Woods agreement, inequality rose, and this was very much felt on the streets of London.)

Have a new commute that takes me from Camden to Brixton, through central london for the first time in 4 years living here. Oh my word, it is anarchy among our two wheeled comrades, not to mention the pedestrians. When did wobbly undertaking become acceptable? Why the utter desperation to get to the front of red light queues?

As far as I'm concerned, Streatham is a motorway service station with houses attached. Can't wait to move out next year.

It's just so clearly designed around the car not the human. The ped crossings are all in unintuitive places and the traffic flow is such that cars all rush to get past you but get stuck at the same lights to cross the South Circular anyway (northbound) or the bottleneck at Becmead avenue (southbound).

And yet still the cafes and restaurants put out little metal tables and chairs so people can sit in the petrol fumes while they're enjoying their croissant or whatever. Outdoor dining in a nice piazza makes sense to me; outdoor dining alongside 6 lanes of traffic is just fucking tragic.

You’d love my local pub. The ‘garden’ is a patio that takes up the V of 2 roads merging that get absolutely clogged up anytime even vaguely near rush hour. Such bliss to kick back on a summers eve, with a pint and lines of cars full of impotent rage flanking you.

Tried out my defeet gloves this morning. It was cold. My hands were not. Lovely.

That sounds delightful.

tshirt, shorts, no gloves.

#denywinter

Today was my first commute since Tuesday's crash. My tailbone definitely did not appreciate the stop/start nature of London commuting. Recovery levels perhaps not as much as I'd thought.

#denykneecaps

defeet gloves

Socks?

My commute is only 30ish minutes. If I thought the cold was doing damage to my knees I'd not do it.

Definitely gloves :)
Am crap at sock puppetry.

tshirt, gloves, no shorts.

Alarming.

Give the people what they want.

Ahhh but you won't know until it is too late.

I'm probably oversensitive about knees though - my Mum and Dad have had four between them. Not evenly split.

I know quite a lot about my knees. I've been taking good care of them / abusing them for many, many years now. I'm sure I'll be fine but I thank you for your concern. :)

Always happy to patronise!

Same :)

But everyone needs more discomfort in their lives. I can recommend it.

everyone needs more discomfort in their lives

Not me. Crashed into a small Muntjac on the way home tonight, was unclipped in the narrow really crappy lane towards Checkendon so didn't go over the bars (lucky for me), but gave it a massive bash and sent it flying. Tried to see what happened but it had skittered up and into the wood. Fucking terrifying, in a small-scale way.
Darkinthelanesnowfollowingadayatworkshovelingshitabout/1

You're supposed to be uncomfortable, not the poor wildlife! :P

I have guilt. Hope wildlife only has bruise. What a day.

btw, sorry to hear about your recent collision:)

Worse than that there's no bloody water pressure! Cold showers are the worst!

#denywinter proves useful