For those new to CabbieBlog or readers who are slightly forgetful, on Saturdays I’m republishing posts, many going back over a decade. Some will still be very relevant while others have become dated over time. Just think of this post as your weekend paper supplement.

Divided by a common language (15.02.11)

It’s that time of year again when all the hotel chains offer cut price breaks to pull in the punters.

In the summer months communicating with London’s visitors is simple: those tourists from the Middle East have learnt two or possibly three words of English; “Harrods”, “Selfridges” and “ThankYou”. Europeans on the other hand make a better fist of it: the Dutch have better English grammar than most cabbies I know (I was told once that they watched BBC TV from a young age); most other Europeans have English as their second language and feel the need to brush up their linguistic skills with any cabbie they can find. The ever resourceful Japanese take some headed notepaper from their hotel room and show it to the driver.

Thank goodness the American’s have a sense of humour for although they speak American it is not easily understood by the English “Our hotel is in South-Waark” or “Li-Cest-Tur Square are common phrases. But after some good humoured banter on the correct pronunciation of tomato or potato we usually manage to arrive at their destination.

But for our bargain mini break visitors, well, it’s frankly embarrassing; to paraphrase it is like two languages conjoined by a common country. If I can do my best at Estuary Speak and sprinkle “geezer”, “wots up” and “fink” into my lexicon, those northern folks after watching Eastenders four times a week since the old King died, should at least understand me and I them.

But help is at hand from of all people The University of Leeds who are preparing a “Language and dialect atlas of Britain in the 21st Century”. In an important use of their £460,000 research grant they intend to highlight regional variations of English.

Just how we have got to this stage of the development of English since we have been speaking it among ourselves since Saxon times, with just a slight interruption from the Normans, I don’t know. For by now the BBC’s received English should be the spoken norm for all of us.

But what I do know is that Wayne and Charlene will not be using the research paper to brush up their cockernee for their next visit to the Capital. And certainly can I be bovvered?

For those new to CabbieBlog or readers who are slightly forgetful, on Saturdays I’m republishing posts, many going back over a decade. Some will still be very relevant while others have become dated over time. Just think of this post as your weekend paper supplement.

In search of The Stone (04.02.11)

Every day thousands rush past a hideous grill attached to an empty 1960’s building awaiting redevelopment not realising that behind the ironwork set into a niche is one of London’s oldest landmarks, known to have been in The City since 1198.

While on The Knowledge it took me some considerable time to track down the so-called lonenstan or London Stone, an unprepossessing piece of Clipston limestone or oolite. With its round-shouldered top and twin grooves, measuring about 18 inches across, if found in a field, one would ignore it.

The discovery of remains beneath Cannon Street Station led archaeologists to believe that a Roman Governor’s Palace once stood on the site. It is known that during the reign of Augustus, a central stone was placed in the Forum in Rome, this measured 8ft tall and was covered in bronze. The obelisk was used to mark the starting point for the measurement of Roman highways. When London became the capital of Britannia a similar point would have been needed. Could this be the top part of the golden milestone that was used to measure the straight Roman roads that radiate out from Londonium?

Edward III made London Stone the axis of London’s trade and granted rights to hold markets within a 7-mile radius and Jack Cade during the 1450 Kentish peasants’ revolt struck London Stone with his sword and declared himself Lord Mayor of London, he was subsequently killed and his head ended up on a pike adorning London Bridge.

London Stone has been the subject of various legends including that Brutus brought it here from Rome; the stone marks the site of Druidic sacrifices; that it sits on a Ley line connecting significant places and marks the mystical centre point of London or even the British Isles; that the stone one formed stone circle of King Lud (whence came Ludgate); and that the City’s prosperity depends on its safekeeping.

The London Stone is pure history, there are so many amazing stories and theories behind it, yet thousands of people walk past it every day not even realising there is anything there. This lump of ancient and mystical limestone must be the most the most unnoticed and unloved tourist attractions in the City of London – and all you have to do is search for it. To point you in the right direction follow this link.

For those new to CabbieBlog or readers who are slightly forgetful, on Saturdays I’m republishing posts, many going back over a decade. Some will still be very relevant while others have become dated over time. Just think of this post as your weekend paper supplement.

Committed to Committee (01.02.11)

What’s the difference between the Millennium Dome and the O2 Centre? Well, when the Dome was conceived and built on the Greenwich Peninsular – probably the most inaccessible spot on the planet – the “stuff” the Dome contained was chosen by a committee; worse than that, it was a Government appointed committee. So after deliberating interminably they came up with riveting ideas to pull in the punter, such as Faith: Making of Key Life Experiences, How Shall I Live?

Within one month of its opening it was running at a loss, nobody wanted to enter its canvas portals. Even the charismatic and talented Pierre-Yves Gerbeau could not persuade people to cough up the cash for a visit.

When it closed it was costing over £250,000 a month just to sit there gathering dust. Then the American billionaire Philip Anschutz came along, bought the place and spruced it up and persuaded O2 to sponsor the place to the tune of £6 million. And do you know what? With a government committee allowed nowhere near the place it’s been voted three years running as the world’s favourite popular music venue selling 75 per cent more tickets than its nearest rival. Yes, that’s right, better than Madison Square Garden, Wembley Arena or Sportpaleis in Belgium. An oversized tent in the middle of nowhere surrounded on three sides by water the world’s favourite – amazing.

Roll on a decade and we now have the Olympic Delivery Authority getting their collective knickers in a twist over who will take on the 2012 Stadium in east London.

Now here I should declare an interest – or more accurately – a non-interest, I don’t follow football. Get in my cab and I won’t be regaling you with my opinion of the upcoming transfer window; my interpretation of the offside rule, or for that matter; talking about Beckham’s left foot. What does rather exercise my brain however is how this Government, through its committees, spend my hard earned taxes.

The Olympic Stadium which is expected to cost £547 million and seat 80,000 spectators, who might be expected to pay on average say, £20 per seat per day, and given that the 2012 Olympic Games will last 17 days plus 12 days for the Paralympic Games, £46.4 million could be generated from ticket sales. That is if the Olympian God of profit (Dionysus the God of wine, celebrations and ecstasy possibly) was on their side,but unfortunately that leaves a short fall of at least £500 million.

Now two London football clubs are bidding for the venue. The original design allowed for 55,000 seats to be removed at the end of the 2012 Olympics which seems to be agreeable for West Ham with their smaller gate, but they apparently need a Government subsidy to pay for the Stadium. The other contender is cash rich Tottenham who have promised to redevelop the dilapidated athletics facility at Crystal Palace as part of their bid to take on the Olympic Stadium, which they intend to demolish and rebuild without the running track. Who want to demolish the stadium and as a sweetener is prepared to upgrade Crystal Palace Sports Centre, seems crazy to me. Why don’t Spurs just build a new stadium – in say – Tottenham?

Anyway my advice to both clubs don’t employ a government committee to help you in your endeavours, you’ll be bankrupt before next season.

For those new to CabbieBlog or readers who are slightly forgetful, on Saturdays I’m republishing posts, many going back over a decade. Some will still be very relevant while others have become dated over time. Just think of this post as your weekend paper supplement.

Formerly Off Alley (28.01.11)

This little alley close to Charing Cross Station commemorates York House which once occupied a 7-acre site overlooking the river Thames.

Originally owned until the Dissolution in 1536 by the Bishops of Norwich, Henry VIII then passed it on to an old friend the Duke of Suffolk and in 1624 the estate eventually came into the possession of George Villiers, The Duke of Buckingham.

Villiers restored the bishop’s old estate and built the magnificent York Watergate which survives marooned in Embankment Gardens.

Villiers was murdered in 1628 by a Puritan fanatic, but the Duke’s wife lived there until she lost the property in the Civil War. Her son, the second Duke, fortuitously fell in love with the daughter of York House’s new owner and on marriage regained his family’s home.

He had a better eye for heiresses than finance, for by 1672 he found himself in hoc up to his neck and sold the house to speculators to redevelop the site. The second Duke of Buckingham secured £30,000 for the house and gardens to repay his debts.

But one stipulation of the sale Buckingham insisted upon was that the developer Nicholas Barbon record literally every sound and syllable of his Grace’s name and title; Buckingham Street; Villiers Street; Duke Street and George Street still remain.

But unfortunately the Burgers of Westminster don’t possess the wit of Nicholas Barbon when he named the streets, for Of Alley has been given the rather prosaic title of York Place.

A footnote: George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham started the first foxhunt in England, The Bilsdale Hunt in 1668 and later started the Sinnington Hunt in 1680. He died from a chill after digging for a fox above Kirkbymoorside. At his death in 1687, the title again became extinct.

For those new to CabbieBlog or readers who are slightly forgetful, on Saturdays I’m republishing posts, many going back over a decade. Some will still be very relevant while others have become dated over time. Just think of this post as your weekend paper supplement.

Catford’s Camelot (25.01.11)

The Excalibur Estate is threatened with demolition, but unlike an Arthurian legend there are no Knights of the Round Table galloping to the fair maiden’s rescue.

In a part of Catford that few cabbies would know, or travel to, against the odds, there is the last surviving estate in London of post-war prefabricated houses (“prefabs”), some 187 two-bed roomed homes with St. Mark’s a prefabricated church which were built for bombed out Londoners and given road names such as Pelinore or Mordred by someone in the planning department all those years ago with a liking for Arthurian tales.

After the Second World War 150,000 prefabs were built across Britain. Created to accommodate homeless families with young children, these “palaces for the people” as they were called at the time were synonymous not only of comfort and luxury but also a feeling not lost on the demobbed armed forces of freedom. The Excalibur Estate in Catford South East London is still one of Britain’s largest estates of prefabs.

Erected in 1946-47 by German and Italian prisoners of war, who were in no hurry to return to war ravished Europe, these detached houses with their own gardens, bathroom and the luxury of a separate indoor toilet were the solution to the chronic housing stock shortage after the end of the Second World War.

Plonked on top of pre-plumbed concrete slabs, these homes could be built in a day, and were only expected to last between 10 and 15 years, by which time the Brutalist tower block of the 60s would accommodate these once homeless families.

By the Seventies the Brave New World of modernist architecture was starting to crumble, along with some of the buildings. Many people found that they hated living in high-rise blocks, no matter how much the council and social planners told them how lucky they were.

Tower blocks and even whole estates were demolished while the remaining prefabs, and the residents, with their little gardens stayed put. They remained as an uncomfortable reminder to planners that modernisers don’t always have the answers and home need more than boxes stacked one upon another, with the only way to see the sky is to walk to the municipal park.

With 12 acres of valuable land the property developers are showing an unhealthy interest in the Excalibur Estate and are proposing to squeeze 400 new homes onto the plot.

After years of neglect by Lewisham Borough Council who own all but 29 of them these houses are deemed unfit for human habitation and in the lingo that only local authorities can dream up “these houses are subject to a Sustainable Community Strategy”, demolition to you and me.

Only six have been granted protection from destruction, but these survivors should prove to be a nice little earner for their owners, filmmakers love the, Only Fools and Horse and BBC’s How We Built Britain have featured them.

The Twentieth Century Society (where were they when Centre Point’s fountains were removed?) wants to preserve as much as possible for students to study the design and the estate’s demography, while the local group just want to live there in peace.

The Excalibur Estate’s prefabs might not be the prettiest of dwellings, nor situated among leafy north London’s liberal elite in Barnsbury, but they are a remaining example of how we built homes “Fit for Heroes”.