April’s monthly musings

28 April, 2023 Gibson Square 2 Comments

🚓 What Cab News

Transport for London has revoked 327 Private Hire Vehicle driver licences in 2022 for non-medical-related reasons. In that total 39 licences were revoked for serious sexual offences and a further 26 for ‘other’ sexual offences. Other reasons for minicab drivers losing their licence in London include drink or drug driving (19), driving disqualification (122), dishonesty (46), non-sexual abuse or behaviour towards passenger (12), being arrested or charged for a serious offence (9), fraudulent identifiers (14) and violence (7).

🎧 What I’m Listening

On Sunday the 23rd my phone exploded with a test for an emergency warning. Apparently, Germany, New Zealand, Singapore, and the Netherlands have a similar system. But we’re British, surely we needed Corporal Jones telling us: “Don’t Panic Mr Mainwaring”.

📖 What I’m Reading

John Grindrod has written the secret history of our green belts, Outskirts is the first book to tell the story of Britain’s green belts, a fascinating social history, a stirring evocation of the natural world, and a poignant tale of growing up in a place. Part autobiography and part history of our green spaces.

📺 What I’m watching

I was contacted by Crich Tramway Museum in Derbyshire, who have recently restored a cabmen’s shelter which stood outside Bradford Exchange railway station from 1879 to 1973. On their site, they have produced a virtual tour of the shelter.

❓ What else

I’m not one to talk about health, but on 6th November 2021, I experienced an event. After my excellent GP had ascertained I wasn’t going to peg out any time soon, I was referred to a consultant. Last week, after nearly 18 months, I received my first and only (telephone) consultation. Having paid NI for 50 years and thankfully hardly ever troubled the NHS, one wonders just what are politicians’ long-term plans for this exemplary institution.

Thinking allowed

A day’s sheep drive

27 April, 2023 Gibson Square 5 Comments

I didn’t know whether to praise my local council or ask of it just why are they spending money on this and not keeping libraries open. A Royal Charter of 1247 (not a typo) could kibosh the plans to move Smithfield and Billingsgate markets to Dagenham Dock because it forbids a market from being set up “within a day’s sheep drive” of the existing Romford Market. In case you need reminding, a day’s sheep drive is the equivalent of the (slightly satanic) 6.66 miles, and The City of London’s proposed new site in Dagenham Dock is about four miles away from Romford market. So if you’re into what you get by giving ‘a drink’ to a medieval king, in this case, King Henry III, here it is

Puppydog tails

Johnson’s London Dictionary: Raymond Revuebar

26 April, 2023 Gibson Square 2 Comments

RAYMOND REVUEBAR (n.) A bawdy-house where traffick is made by wickedness and debauchery.

Dr. Johnson’s London Dictionary for publick consumption in the twenty-first century avail yourself on Twitter @JohnsonsLondon

An urban view

Coronation Streets

25 April, 2023 Gibson Square 2 Comments

It is nearly 70 years since we have had a coronation, so naturally, I started looking up roads named after that ceremony.

My 1936 copy of Phyllis Pearsall’s Geographers’ A-Z Street Atlas only shows two ‘coronations’:
Coronation Road E13
Coronation Road NW10

But hold on a minute, haven’t there been dozens of coronations since the start of roads being named in the 6th century and the 1936 coronation? But here in London, there are only two.

Next turning to a modern road atlas I find the originals plus five new ones:
Coronation Avenue N16
Coronation Close, Bexley DA5
Coronation Close, Ilford IG6
Coronation Road E13
Coronation Road NW10
Coronation Road, Hayes UB3
Coronation Walk, Twickenham TW2

But how many coronations have taken place in the intervening period which would promote the naming or re-naming of a London street?

Precisely two, the late Queen in 1953 and her father King George VI in 1937.

With the increase of Republican support, what national event has taken place in the last 86 years to inspire local authorities to give their thoroughfares a regal connotation?

In a word television.

Since 1960 the world’s longest-running television soap, Coronation Street, has appeared on our television screens, but not one local authority has grasped the nettle and given the moniker Coronation Street, otherwise Bill Roach might turn up.

Featured image: Manchester: Coronation Street Sign. The sign on the corner of the road says we are on Coronation Street by Lewis Clarke (CC BY-SA 2.0).

London in Quotations

London in Quotations: Horace Walpole

Quote 24 April, 2023 Gibson Square 2 Comments

Would you know why I like London so Much? Why if the world must consist of so many fools as it does, I choose to take them in the gross, and not made into separate pills, as they are prepared in the country.