The Story of the Tube

17 November, 2023 Gibson Square 2 Comments

Nowadays we mostly read on our phones or tablets, and it’s easy to forget the pleasurable visceral experience that you feel upon reading a printed book.

London’s Underground: The Story of the Tube by Oliver Green

This large format book certainly doesn’t disappoint, written in collaboration with London Transport, giving the publishers access to the transport authority’s vast photo library to reproduce dozens of historic photographs and retro posters showing the development of the London Underground. Award-winning photographer Benjamin Graham gives this book its magnificent pictures of the modern Underground.

As a research fellow at the London Transport Museum, Oliver Green demonstrates his detailed knowledge of the subject. Unlike many academics, he can engagingly write about tunnel engineering, graphic design, station architecture and rolling stock design in an accessible style which moves you effortlessly through the history of the Underground.

This excellently designed book makes use of the Johnson typeface (the corporate style of the Underground). For the folios and the break-outs, an adaption of Beck’s coloured map lines is a clever device.

Frank Pick, who did more to unify the Underground to the transport system we’ve inherited today described the Tube as “the framework of the town”, this book brilliantly describes this framework.

Featured image: A 1992 stock London Underground train calls at the Central Line platforms of Oxford Circus tube station by J Cornelius under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Thinking allowed

Motoring madness

16 November, 2023 Gibson Square 2 Comments

I have recently received my car insurance renewal and was surprised to find that it’s risen by over 56 per cent. As you might imagine my domestic vehicle covers very few miles a year, and I’ve many years no claim bonus. So, like many, I asked a small South African mongoose to find me a cheaper deal. Curiously the ‘cheapest’ listed of any insurance company I’ve heard of was Churchill, the very one I’m with, but at nearly £18 dearer (that pays for the adverts and cheap cinema tickets). So what are the reasons given by insurers to justify increasing premiums? The excuses are many and varied to fleece you: Increase in vehicle claims; Increase in stolen vehicles; Parts are more expensive to order due to backlog; Parts are taking longer to order due to backlog, subsequently, customers are in courtesy cars for longer which costs insurance companies more; Cars are generally more expensive (both new and used); Insurers paid out more than they took in last year. So there you have it, since covid, when we all didn’t drive and stayed at home, costs have gone up.

Puppydog tails

Johnson’s London Dictionary: Twenty miles per hour

15 November, 2023 Gibson Square 2 Comments

TWENTY MILES PER HOUR (n.) Imposition upon our sedan chairs said to much given advice at saving the populace.

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

Puppydog tails

Royal anniversary

14 November, 2023 Gibson Square 1 Comment

Today marks two significant royal anniversaries, so those of you with a Republican bent, look away now.

First His Majesty was born in Buckingham Palace exactly 75 years ago. Summer that year had been exceptionally warm, at Kew a maximum of 93°F on 28th July was recorded, with a minimum of 70°F on the following night, these were the highest on record for a July in 78 years of observations.

But for our day in question, 14th November 1973, it had a high recorded of only 62°F, with a low of 44°F, but luckily only 0.4 inches of rain fell when nearly 2 inches fell the next day.

So what happened in London 50 years ago today? Charles celebrated his 25th birthday whilst attending the marriage of his sister Anne to Mark Phillips at Westminster Abbey.

This day also saw some other ‘firsts’. Anne was the first of Her Majesty’s children to wed, and to a ‘commoner’, an unusual choice in those days.

The wedding had another first, being the first Royal wedding to be televised.

Five months later on 20th March 1974, on Constitution Hill, Anne was nearly kidnapped when armed unemployed labourer Ian Ball attacked the car in which she was riding, wounding her bodyguard and the chauffeur. This was not a first as the same short stretch of road had seen previous attacks upon royalty.

London in Quotations

London in Quotations: Julia Gregson

Quote 13 November, 2023 Gibson Square 2 Comments

One of the things she most liked about the city -apart from all its obvious attractions, the theatre, the galleries, the exhilarating walks by the river- was that so few people ever asked you personal questions.