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.

What’s in a name? (29.01.2010)

With a city as old as London, which was founded by the Romans soon after their invasion in AD43, eventually surrounding the City with a wall enclosing 330 acres and making it the 5th largest city in the Roman Empire, it’s not surprising that some strange street names have appeared over the centuries.

In the Square Mile of the City for example, an ancient ordinance defines a road as a highway without houses, which is why to this day, no thoroughfare in the City may be called a road; it’s either a street, lane, passage or an alley, much to the dismay of modernisers.

Here are some of the more unusual street names with that Square Mile:

Bucklesbury: An ancient city street from 14th Century named after the Buckerei a powerful family in the 12th century city. In Shakespeare’s time it was known for its apothecaries and the peculiar smell they made he made mention of the smell in the Merry Wives of Windsor.

Cripplegate: Derived from the crepel an Anglo-Saxon word for den or underground passage. After the curfew bells had been rung and the city gates were closed for the night it was impossible to enter, that is apart from that underground passage.

Crutched Friars: Not as rude as it sounds, but is an old form of “cross” and takes its name from the holy order that stood nearby.

French Ordinary Court: Not about mundane Frenchies. “Ordinary” is an eating house, this one dates back to 1670 for French ex-pats.

Frying Pan Alley: The frying pan was the emblem once used by braziers and ironmongers. It was the custom for ironmongers to hang a frying pan outside their premises as a means of advertising their business.
Idol Lane: Formerly “Idle Lane” where lazy sods hung around.

Jewry Street: Again renamed from Poor Jewry to denote it from the rich Jews in Old Jewry.

Little Britain: Alas not as colourful as its name suggests. The Duke of Brittany had a house here before the 16th Century.

Minories: The Sorores Minores (“Little Sisters”) established a convent here in 1293. In 1958 we thought it a rather splendid idea to demolish their church.

Undershaft: A maypole or shaft was erected nearby, but its use then banned for many years after the 1571 May Day Riots.

Wardrobe Place: From 1359 until burned down by the Great Fire, a place where you you’ve guessed it, ceremonial robes were kept.

A few more to throw into the mix: Threadneedle Street; Pudding Lane; Hanging Sword Alley; Poultry.

And a small reminder for our Mayor of London, Boris who was a student of history, and for all I know bases his current strategy on what he reads in CabbieBlog, you have only 33 years left to plan for the bi-millennium of the arrival of the Roman to London.

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.

Groundhog Day (02.02.2010)

As you go about your busy lives, you might be forgiven to having missed this important date, for today is Groundhog Day. The day, according to American folklore that if a groundhog emerging from its burrow on this day fails to see its shadow, it will leave the burrow, signifying that winter will soon end. Only in the United States could such a ceremony like this have been dreamed up, and made an annual holiday to boot.

Like Bill Murray in the 1993 film of the same name, I seem to be experiencing a recurring nightmare. Every day I go to work or sit down to write for CabbieBlog, it’s the same problem over and over again; yes it’s that Rickshaw post again.

As unbelievable as it seems, in London in the 21st Century there is a major problem with Rickshaws. Whilst the third world is doing all it can to lose the last of these degrading pedal powered contraptions, some unscrupulous operators are clogging up the streets of the Metropolis with these dangerous contraptions. It’s not a matter of “if” rather than “when” a serious accident or fatality involving a London rickshaw takes place. The rickshaw drivers do not have criminal record checks, and are not tested on road safety or their knowledge of London streets, with the result that the streets of Soho and Covent Garden have become a dangerous free for all with over 400 plying for hire and already one London pedicab driver has been convicted of raping a passenger.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that riders include illegal immigrants, foreign students who are ignoring the terms under which they are in the country by working longer hours than allowed and others who, under any sensible licensing regime, would be considered unsuitable for this kind of work. Do they have a rickshaw rider recruiting office in Krakow, because their numbers seem to rise exponentially by the week?

The safety of these vehicles is horrendous, the Transport Research Laboratory looked at the possible safety implications of allowing the continued use of these vehicles for hire and reward in London. Its scientists warned that “any impact with a motor vehicle” was likely to result in “serious injury to both passengers and riders”. Transport Research Laboratory also warned that “The standard of braking for a Rickshaw fell well short of that expected of a car”. The London Taxi Drivers’ Association are calling on Westminster Council and the Greater London Authority to bring a halt to London’s further decline into third world status and seek statutory powers to ban Rickshaws from the streets. With health and safety becoming a mantra to every council employee, how is it that these contraptions are ever allowed to ply for hire in London’s streets? They congregate in large numbers outside theatres, shops and restaurants blocking the entrances and exits as well as the pavements outside, forcing pedestrians to negotiate the traffic as they walk in the road and blocking fire escapes.

As a result of the media attention into all the problems associated with the Rickshaws and serious concerns over their safety the Rickshaw operators are pushing for a simple licensing system that would allow them to continue working unhindered. London’s taxi drivers along with bus operators and drivers have to contend with the traffic problems and congestion and feel that the only way forward is to ‘Ban! Don’t License’.

Boris should stop worrying about his bike hire scheme and concentrated his attention on why London councils allow three or four children at a time to balance on these death traps and then be driven the wrong way up a one-way street.

I’m going to lay down now, I feel so tired after that rant, but I’ve got a good idea what will confront me when I wake up.

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.

Towering Ambition (22.01.2010)

I could have subtitled this post counting cranes for wherever you look these days in London a large building is being constructed.

Towards the end of the 1920s the Empire State Building was constructed in New York, mostly using cheap immigrant labour from Europe, it was completed in 1929 just as the last severe depression was beginning to be felt. Because of its position the building could not be let and was nicknamed the Empty State Building and it was not until 1950, some 30 years later that it was fully occupied.

Now in London we are seeing some of the largest towers in London’s history being constructed, not to help unemployed British jobs, but to speculate on an upturn in the City’s finances using the abundant labour available at a time of recession hoping against hope to ride the recovery promised by politicians in the next 18 months.

Their height makes life for pedestrians below a misery. The pavement now can be described as “a place where the sun don’t shine” and because of their height cold air is funnelled down the building’s side to fall literally on pedestrians heads. Go to Canary Wharf and you can experience this cooling effect in both summer and winter, you won’t find many people enjoying a Continental cafe culture here on its pavement, in fact nearly all socialising and shopping is conducted underground.

So who can we blame for this deteriorating of London’s environment? Town planners for sure, companies wishing to extract as much value from their buildings’ footprint as possible, certainly, but the main culprits have to be the architects.

Many of these new skyscrapers are aesthetically no better than the buildings they replace and much taller, but worst, much worst is their location which makes them disproportionately tall for their position in the townscape.

The Sterling prize winning Swiss Re: Tower (“The Gherkin”) is, (and it pains me to say this) a triumph of design and engineering, and less obtrusive than its volume would normally dictate, but now being obscured by two new towers, The Heron Tower and The Pinnacle being built in Bishopsgate nearby. Equally intended to enhance its area near London Bridge, The Shard has the potential to be a world class piece of engineering, but Southwark Cathedral will be forever in its shadow.

I remain convinced that all these, in many cases, indifferent additions to our City, are just built to massage the vast egos of the senior partners of the architectural practices and their clients.

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.

Weather we care (15.01.2010)

They must have done something at the recent Copenhagen Conference to prevent global warming for since then it hasn’t stopped snowing and with London temperatures dropping to levels not seen for over 20 years you have to feel sorry for those sleeping rough on the streets of London.

It was when I started the Knowledge of London that first I noticed, with shock, the number of people sleeping rough, it was, I suppose when trying to be more observant to increase my knowledge that I then noticed just how many people were to be found in shop doorways at night.

London has always had a homelessness problem, William the Conqueror forbade anyone to leave the land where they worked, if by so doing they effectively made themselves homeless, and as far back as the 7th Century, laws were passed laws to punish vagrants. In the 13th Century Edward I (he of Braveheart fame) ordered weekly searches to round up vagrants.

The Unilever building at the north end of Blackfriars Bridge stands on the site of Bridewell Palace. First built by Henry VIII and later leased to the French Ambassador at which time the interior was used by Holbein for his painting The Ambassadors. By the time Edward VI took possession the palace was in a state of disrepair and he gave it to the City for the reception of vagrants and homeless children. Later becoming a prison, the name Bridewell became synonymous with an institution providing unsanitary conditions and cruelty for the poor and homeless, but it was here in the 16th Century that the State first tried to house vagrants rather than punish them. It began introducing Bridewells, places meant to take vagrants in and train them for a profession, and in 1788 prisoners were given straw for their beds (other prisons had neither beds nor straw) but in reality Bridewells were dirty and brutal places.

By the 18th Century workhouses had replaced the Bridewells, but these were intended to discourage over-reliance on state help. At best they were spartan places with meagre food and sparse furnishings – at worst they were unsanitary and uncaring. By 1863 the building which started Bridewell prison was demolished, after transferring prisoners to Holloway, and now only the gateway built in 1802 remains (pictured), it can be seen at No. 14 New Bridge Street.

The numbers of vagrants has risen and fallen, and precise figures are hard to come by the 1930s eighty were found sleeping rough during a street count in London, but after the Second World War in 1949 a low of only six people were found sleeping rough in London.

Street counts provide a useful snapshot of the number of people sleeping rough on a single night but are best regarded as indicators of trends, rather than exact numbers of men and women who sleep rough. The annual estimate of the numbers sleeping out in England on any single night is published in September each year. The 2007 annual estimate found there were 248 people sleeping rough in London on a single night, which equates to around 3,000 people sleeping rough in London each year, while the 2008 figure was no better at 4,077.

This year homelessness has jumped by 15 per cent with Eastern Europeans, who have lost jobs and have fewer means of social support, now constitute nearly one in seven of those living without permanent shelter. The annual returns, compiled by the charity Broadway on behalf of the Government, show that 4,672 rough sleepers were counted in the capital and only around 60 per cent were UK nationals.

The Government’s target of ending rough sleeping in the capital by 2012 is unlikely to be achieved unless more is done to break the link between mental health problems and homelessness.

I now return, like any good Englishman, to talk about the weather. Why is it that every year at Christmas we open, to great publicity on television, makeshift shelters for the homeless only to close them after the holiday at a time when London’s temperature starts to fall? Even in 1788 vagrants were given straw to sleep upon?

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.

Not in my name (12.01.2010)

We all like to complain and if really aggrieved, protest to make our point, in fact sometimes it seems that CabbieBlog’s raison d’etre is to whinge on all things in London.

But for having protesters with the greatest tenacity, London would appear to lead the way, we have of course our regular Saturday weekend protesters, who spend their week in comfortable City jobs, or living off the State and who like to spend their weekends walking around London with a banner.

Taking those aside, an entrepreneurial spirit has at times been commendable with some individuals, for example Stanley Green who upon retirement from the civil service decided against taking up golf, but chose to spend 30 years warning of the dangers of protein. “Protein makes passion” his printed leaflets exclaimed, so reduce your consumption of fish, bird, meat, cheese, egg, peas, beans, nuts and well err . . . sitting, and the world will be a happier place.

Or take the charming chap with a loud megaphone who would extol the benefits of Christianity at Oxford Circus greatly improving the ambience of the area until he had an anti social behaviour order served , forcing him to relocate to Piccadilly Circus. Then every evening illuminated by the neon signs revellers could hear him chastising them, until that is, a second ASBO was served preventing him from loudly proclaiming his faith.

A third lone individual can still be found, after over 15 years outside White’s Club in St. James’ Street resplendent dressed in a gold jacket and gold shoes. He divides his time between a certain Lord of the Realm’s club, who he claims has ruined his business and Buckingham Palace around the corner. He blames Her Majesty for not supporting his one man crusade, but boasts proudly that once he saw the Queen watching him from behind her nets.

For a far more spiritual demo, go to Portland Place, there opposite the Chinese Embassy since June 2002, protesting against an oppressive regime, sympathisers of Falun Gong practise Tai Chi, 24 hours a day, commendable but utterly fruitless, since China hardly feels threatened by the slow movements of the protesters. But of course if you want free Tai Chi lessons CabbieBlog recommends the pavement outside RIBA.

But my all time favourite for endurance and cocking a snoop at authority has to be Brian Haw, who on 2 June 2001 decided to begin camping in Parliament Square in a one-man political protest against war and foreign policy. Unfortunately for Brian the second Iraq war overtook events making him a cause célèbre and preventing him from ever giving up his one man protest against the forces of the State. Westminster City Council then failed prosecute Brian for causing an obstruction on the pavement, and his continuous use of a megaphone have led to objections by Members of Parliament. Then in a glorious twist, a House of Commons Procedure Committee recommended that the law be changed to prohibit his protest as his camp could provide an opportunity for terrorists to disguise explosive devices. The Government then passed a provision to the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act banning all unlicensed protests, permanent or otherwise, however, because Brian’s protest was on-going and residing on Parliament Square prior to the enactment of the Act, it was unclear whether the Act applied to him. He now is in the position that he simply cannot give up his camp site as only he is allowed to protest in Britain any more without a licence, it would seem we are now a long way away from the days of Stanley Green and his protein protest.