I am tempted to give this writing heading, “I am a twit day” but in mitigation I experienced a night with little sleep. I went to see a film and failed: three times
The day got off to a good start deciding to have an English breakfast at the Wetherspoon's part of the Croydon former Alders complex (there are at least three of these pubs in the town), or has it become like Sunderland, a city without a Cathedral. At £2.50 at third of the price of that on offer at the Travel Lodge although not eat as much as you like between the hours of 8 and 11, if you are that way inclined.
On the way to check out the film times (shush) I pretended not to see the £4.50 eat as much as you like oriental buffet restaurant although as the day progressed I was to look at the increasing number of diners,four times. I successfully remedied the early indulgence by only having one round of salmon sandwich for lunch and a round of BLT in the evening but then could not resist eating both of the cream puff pastry Christmas mince turnovers, what a mouthful, one for tea and the other in the evening.
The focus event was not, shush going to the pictures, but the new St Pancras station, and guess what, who forgot to take their camera, although as the visit progressed I decided it was going to be difficult to take photographs which communicated the gothic immensity although you have to look overhead to gain an appreciation or go outside and cross the road. The writing is unusually slow having slept for an hour and then stopped every few words to watch Sportsnight 2007 which at right went head to head with the Royal Variety Performance from Liverpool. At the switch over, after missing the opening number(s) there was the two divas Kathrine Jenkins and Darcy Bussell the former Prima Ballerina. There were to funny perhaps I am seeing funny as I get older, there was Big Howard and Little Howard a projection cartoon character instead of the traditional ventriloquist puppet, trying to remember all those of childhood Archie Andrews Peter Brough and that took me several minutes, now if I was on line I would have typed in British ventriloquists (There was that man with the ostrich). Joe Church was Jose Iglesia and there was a lively number from the show of the year Hairspray but then it was time to switch back for the event of the event a tumultuous ovation for Sir Bobby Robinson recovering from the latest cancer operation and look as if he could barely make it. The only two others who came close were Mark Ramprakash Come Dancing Champion and the second time world super bike champion who played the blues on the piano which I suspect might get him a runners up. In the British public put aside contemporary antipathy and scepticism about boxing although the combination of drug taking in athletics and the failures of British teams and individual to make it this past year as winners when it mattered had their effect and the vote went for Ricky Hatton defeated in the early hours for the first time after being undisputed world champion in third place with the overall winner Paul Calzaggie ( spelling check) with would have won it should have won it Lewis Hamilton second. There was barely time to nip down for the second can of diet coke in the evening between a clever Australian creating pictures with his hands and the fist winner of I've got talent singing an emotional Nessun Dorma. Now as it long before Jimmy Tarbuck did a poem about Father's for Justice at the Crib with a former Home Secretary coming to claim his child while Joan Rivers went down like a bomb with a sick joke about Heather Mills, although a safe one in the city of Sir Paul.
It seems a long time ago since I arrived from East Croydon, with the train only stopping at couple of stations before drawing in at the wide platformed well lit first day of St Pancras cross Thames trains from Bedford to Brighton. You immediately sense not just that the station was new and there was something special about it although nothing like as spectacular as the vaulted Cathedral of Canary Wharf station. This is a functional station with much chrome which at present gives it an over all clinical feeling underground station. I am hopeless at quickly working out geographies but I believe I am correct in saying that as one emerges to the large street level concourse between the original station and it extension immediately above are the four East Midland platforms with trains from and to Nottingham, Derby, Sheffield and Leeds The area upstairs is even more functional than the rest of the station. Back to the emergence from the new cross Thames station and immediately facing are banks of screen showing the departure to all three platform areas. Here there is also an extraordinary long operating -theatre walkway to the left luggage area at £6.50 per item per 24 hour period, securely away from causing any damage to trains and track it my reckoning as well as vast but free toilets. There is also a fair size Marks and Spencer's including a clothing area and the suggestion that there will be other commercial outlets sometime in the future.
The TV programmes were deceptive because one had the impression that the station undercroft which has been turned into a shopping mall was below street level when in fact it is at street level. There are more shops opened than anticipated, a Christmas tree, a giant posting box and father Christmas Grotto and a mixture of business and sight seers, the latter being unusual for what is foremost a station. At the far end of the station before the side street exits across the road to Kings Cross or the British Library there is the second large new lower level concourse which links the four underground lines originally accessible only from Kings Cross, I assume that never having been to the old St Pancras
So where is the icon statue? It is located at the platform level from which it is necessary to take lift or stairs as a visitor. The access to the International Trains is from the undercroft which I would imagine is organised like an airport. You enter with your tickets and luggage but are you moved through into lounges (are there shops duty free out of sight before customs and allowed on to the trains. There is therefore no public access to the trains. It was not clear if those taking trains or arriving have their own access to the Champagne bar with the public having their own and limited access from the upper level. So where is the icon statue well as you approach from the East Midland end of the station it is the middle but you can only see head and his is easily missed because the hotel is hidden behind Christmas hoardings. It is only when you reach the end of the narrow top level concourse that you reach the deserted area behind the hoardings and the back of the hotel front Building that you can take in the statue from the sides and I regret to saw that it is out proportion to the space and presently in area which is only a meeting place in the sense that individuals chose to meet here for there is no other present purpose to going to this area where at one end there is an open a bar café where I was not sure if this was a permanent structure or makeshift temporary.
So far the effect is to communicate that at the undercroft (street) level and the upper platform level everything is professional with style but nothing to deserve the claim great station of Europe or the world and the use of the area between underground and platforms at London Bridge is a more imaginative use of shopping space and Canary wharf underground is where there is wow. But then everything changes when you find a spot, if you are me to sit, and look up and then it is wow wow. It is not the icon statue but the roof which makes this a place to experience as well as use for travel.
It is also the interaction between the outside and the inside which makes the building unique and special but it is still early to start awarding the kind of accolades which others have already given. There should be three test. The departure and arrival experience should be efficient but also provide a sense of adventure and something different for those making the journey for the first time. Individuals will have to use the facility several times before judgement is possible and certainly one trip will not be enough however good or bad the experience. There is the visual experience which cannot be made until everything is functioning and it is possible to measure the interaction of travellers and visitors to the space. Third is its aim to makes this a venue to stay, dine and shop. My financial circumstance are unlikely to change sufficiently for me to out this to the test, where one does not have to ask the price before deciding to partake or purchase.
Having discovered, as I thought that there was a late afternoon 4.30 and a late evening performance of An American Gangster, I decided to have my brunch, visit St Pancras, have a siesta and go to the film and then enjoy BBC Sports Personality 2007 and the Royal Command Performance. But having completed the tour and feeling OK I decided to go to docklands, which I have visited about Christmas time for the past two years and go to the cinema if there was a film which I wanted to experience without having to wait along time. I therefore went to London Bridge for the Jubilee Line and the Northern for Canary Wharf rather than Bank for the Docklands Light Railway and therefore made no effort to remember which was the DLR station for the cinema. I did not linger at Canary wharf and had intended to make my way on foot but it came on to rain heavily so I quickly cross over to the DLR station Heron Quay and instead of checking the list of stations used my sense of direction even thought the next station South Quay did not ring a bell and the one after was Crossharbour with the Dome and then the crossing over to Greenwich and Lewisham. Greenwich where I stayed in the nursing quarters for a 6 weeks when participated in the three month child care inquiry in the early 1980's held at Bexley.
The tour around the building site and existing housing, flats and hotel was instructive and energetic but quickly confirmed the error. There was a route back to Canary but I knew I had gone in the opposite direction once I checked the stations a knew it was West India Quay and that making the journey from Stratford one got off at the station before Canary Wharf. Alas the error meant that I missed the start of both films which I wanted to see, including one said to be the picture of 2007 and which was not yet showing at Croydon. I was not prepared to miss the opening few minutes of one even with a free entry voucher. So I walked back to Canary Wharf which I enjoyed although it was spitting rain and found a toilet and then a cold drink, the first of three this day. I then had difficulty finding the internal escalator from the shopping centre down to the main concourse of the underground, never has so much cost and space been devoted to a single line station. I find this aspect remarkable. By the time I reached London Bridge, East Croydon shopped for tea and lunch tomorrow at the nearby supermarket, had tea, relaxed and then changed clothes, I was a little weary but still looking forward to the film, but alas I had misread the notice and there was no later afternoon as well as early afternoon performance and that was nearly that. There shopping centre was still open Croydon preferring an 11 to 5 Sunday rather than 10-4 on Tyne and Wear side. I nearly bought a TV Times for the BBC Christmas Programme edition and could not find the paper with the headlines about a revolution for the elderly which I later learnt meant the abandonment of Social Service controlling the allocation of funds between residential and non residential care for the elderly except where an individual wished them to do this.
However I remembered that I still required an alarm clock and went from Smiths to Woolworths where they advertised a clock radio alarm for £5 but these had been sold out and then I got my sense fo direction wrong and came out onto the street instead back into the shopping centre. So entered Curry Dixon next door which I knew had one long straight route back to where I wanted to be, stopping to look at a shelf of clocks near the street entrance which I had overlooked when I went to enquire about wireless technology. At first it looked as if the store had sold out except for the display item a radio set alarm at the price of £6.99 with the next at £24 and an assistant appeared to confirm this but I looked at the stacks of boxes on the floor and a little way away I found those for the cheaper set, so my late afternoon mission was not in vain and for the way back I discovered the road underpass taking me close to the Travel Lodge entrance. By then was tired and had a good sleep freeing me for an interesting evening, which included finding that someone had dropped their lift and door entry key card which I returned to reception en route for yet more diet coke.
The train home from Kings Cross is one the same time as my next trip in January. Hopefully I will be better prepared and one gain from Canary Underground station was the availability of a free guide map for visitors around London, information of ticket, on the various tickets and prices, including the oyster card system and on the water bus service. Also at the Canary Wharf centre I picked up a free copy of their December 6th local community visitors newspaper where the Estate agents and letting insert revealed that one can but one and two bedroom flats with views from a quarter to half a million £300 to £500 a week rent or a nice three story six bedroom three bathroom ut of town house for £2.5million. The problem with Kings Cross and St Pancras is that the surrounding area is a dump and under class and underworld dump unless the top of the world environment of Docklands or the mixture that Croydon has become although shifting year by year as each new office or accommodation blocks seeks out the sky. There was also another insight into life in this part of the universe as included in the paper was a full page advertisement for gentleman's club with special offices such a buy four crates of beer and get a fifth free. However the big deal were on champagne where if sufficient quantities were purchased there was a special membership package through in for the table worth around £600. It put into perspective that the cost of each table dance was only £10 but one presumes that the performer was also rewarded with monetary gifts. Oh for shares in such an enterprise.
My evening did not end with the closure of the Royal Variety performance which Her Majesty and the Duke appeared genuinely pleased that their 60 years of marriage was recognised. The finale two acts were Kire Tiki Kanawra a favourite of the Royals for many a year and then Bon Jovi who has still a great song Its my life which I must add to Myspace and the lead singer a great voice, but really for them to lead the finale with a Beatles Anthem where was Sir Paul or others of the Mersey beat, in this year when they stole the city of European culture from Tyneside. Where was Cilla? The main presenters where Philip Schofield and my discovery Kate Thornton who started doing the midweek and other channel shows of the X actor and I write an email saying how good she was and next she was front woman and now looking at east as he co presenter of the RVS. Well talent will out but I still like to believe that my email pointing out how talented she is did the trick. Following the RVS the South Bank show was a documentary on how Katherine and Darcy came to create and perform their show the two Divas. This impressed as both were stretched way outside their previous comfort zones.
The day got off to a good start deciding to have an English breakfast at the Wetherspoon's part of the Croydon former Alders complex (there are at least three of these pubs in the town), or has it become like Sunderland, a city without a Cathedral. At £2.50 at third of the price of that on offer at the Travel Lodge although not eat as much as you like between the hours of 8 and 11, if you are that way inclined.
On the way to check out the film times (shush) I pretended not to see the £4.50 eat as much as you like oriental buffet restaurant although as the day progressed I was to look at the increasing number of diners,four times. I successfully remedied the early indulgence by only having one round of salmon sandwich for lunch and a round of BLT in the evening but then could not resist eating both of the cream puff pastry Christmas mince turnovers, what a mouthful, one for tea and the other in the evening.
The focus event was not, shush going to the pictures, but the new St Pancras station, and guess what, who forgot to take their camera, although as the visit progressed I decided it was going to be difficult to take photographs which communicated the gothic immensity although you have to look overhead to gain an appreciation or go outside and cross the road. The writing is unusually slow having slept for an hour and then stopped every few words to watch Sportsnight 2007 which at right went head to head with the Royal Variety Performance from Liverpool. At the switch over, after missing the opening number(s) there was the two divas Kathrine Jenkins and Darcy Bussell the former Prima Ballerina. There were to funny perhaps I am seeing funny as I get older, there was Big Howard and Little Howard a projection cartoon character instead of the traditional ventriloquist puppet, trying to remember all those of childhood Archie Andrews Peter Brough and that took me several minutes, now if I was on line I would have typed in British ventriloquists (There was that man with the ostrich). Joe Church was Jose Iglesia and there was a lively number from the show of the year Hairspray but then it was time to switch back for the event of the event a tumultuous ovation for Sir Bobby Robinson recovering from the latest cancer operation and look as if he could barely make it. The only two others who came close were Mark Ramprakash Come Dancing Champion and the second time world super bike champion who played the blues on the piano which I suspect might get him a runners up. In the British public put aside contemporary antipathy and scepticism about boxing although the combination of drug taking in athletics and the failures of British teams and individual to make it this past year as winners when it mattered had their effect and the vote went for Ricky Hatton defeated in the early hours for the first time after being undisputed world champion in third place with the overall winner Paul Calzaggie ( spelling check) with would have won it should have won it Lewis Hamilton second. There was barely time to nip down for the second can of diet coke in the evening between a clever Australian creating pictures with his hands and the fist winner of I've got talent singing an emotional Nessun Dorma. Now as it long before Jimmy Tarbuck did a poem about Father's for Justice at the Crib with a former Home Secretary coming to claim his child while Joan Rivers went down like a bomb with a sick joke about Heather Mills, although a safe one in the city of Sir Paul.
It seems a long time ago since I arrived from East Croydon, with the train only stopping at couple of stations before drawing in at the wide platformed well lit first day of St Pancras cross Thames trains from Bedford to Brighton. You immediately sense not just that the station was new and there was something special about it although nothing like as spectacular as the vaulted Cathedral of Canary Wharf station. This is a functional station with much chrome which at present gives it an over all clinical feeling underground station. I am hopeless at quickly working out geographies but I believe I am correct in saying that as one emerges to the large street level concourse between the original station and it extension immediately above are the four East Midland platforms with trains from and to Nottingham, Derby, Sheffield and Leeds The area upstairs is even more functional than the rest of the station. Back to the emergence from the new cross Thames station and immediately facing are banks of screen showing the departure to all three platform areas. Here there is also an extraordinary long operating -theatre walkway to the left luggage area at £6.50 per item per 24 hour period, securely away from causing any damage to trains and track it my reckoning as well as vast but free toilets. There is also a fair size Marks and Spencer's including a clothing area and the suggestion that there will be other commercial outlets sometime in the future.
The TV programmes were deceptive because one had the impression that the station undercroft which has been turned into a shopping mall was below street level when in fact it is at street level. There are more shops opened than anticipated, a Christmas tree, a giant posting box and father Christmas Grotto and a mixture of business and sight seers, the latter being unusual for what is foremost a station. At the far end of the station before the side street exits across the road to Kings Cross or the British Library there is the second large new lower level concourse which links the four underground lines originally accessible only from Kings Cross, I assume that never having been to the old St Pancras
So where is the icon statue? It is located at the platform level from which it is necessary to take lift or stairs as a visitor. The access to the International Trains is from the undercroft which I would imagine is organised like an airport. You enter with your tickets and luggage but are you moved through into lounges (are there shops duty free out of sight before customs and allowed on to the trains. There is therefore no public access to the trains. It was not clear if those taking trains or arriving have their own access to the Champagne bar with the public having their own and limited access from the upper level. So where is the icon statue well as you approach from the East Midland end of the station it is the middle but you can only see head and his is easily missed because the hotel is hidden behind Christmas hoardings. It is only when you reach the end of the narrow top level concourse that you reach the deserted area behind the hoardings and the back of the hotel front Building that you can take in the statue from the sides and I regret to saw that it is out proportion to the space and presently in area which is only a meeting place in the sense that individuals chose to meet here for there is no other present purpose to going to this area where at one end there is an open a bar café where I was not sure if this was a permanent structure or makeshift temporary.
So far the effect is to communicate that at the undercroft (street) level and the upper platform level everything is professional with style but nothing to deserve the claim great station of Europe or the world and the use of the area between underground and platforms at London Bridge is a more imaginative use of shopping space and Canary wharf underground is where there is wow. But then everything changes when you find a spot, if you are me to sit, and look up and then it is wow wow. It is not the icon statue but the roof which makes this a place to experience as well as use for travel.
It is also the interaction between the outside and the inside which makes the building unique and special but it is still early to start awarding the kind of accolades which others have already given. There should be three test. The departure and arrival experience should be efficient but also provide a sense of adventure and something different for those making the journey for the first time. Individuals will have to use the facility several times before judgement is possible and certainly one trip will not be enough however good or bad the experience. There is the visual experience which cannot be made until everything is functioning and it is possible to measure the interaction of travellers and visitors to the space. Third is its aim to makes this a venue to stay, dine and shop. My financial circumstance are unlikely to change sufficiently for me to out this to the test, where one does not have to ask the price before deciding to partake or purchase.
Having discovered, as I thought that there was a late afternoon 4.30 and a late evening performance of An American Gangster, I decided to have my brunch, visit St Pancras, have a siesta and go to the film and then enjoy BBC Sports Personality 2007 and the Royal Command Performance. But having completed the tour and feeling OK I decided to go to docklands, which I have visited about Christmas time for the past two years and go to the cinema if there was a film which I wanted to experience without having to wait along time. I therefore went to London Bridge for the Jubilee Line and the Northern for Canary Wharf rather than Bank for the Docklands Light Railway and therefore made no effort to remember which was the DLR station for the cinema. I did not linger at Canary wharf and had intended to make my way on foot but it came on to rain heavily so I quickly cross over to the DLR station Heron Quay and instead of checking the list of stations used my sense of direction even thought the next station South Quay did not ring a bell and the one after was Crossharbour with the Dome and then the crossing over to Greenwich and Lewisham. Greenwich where I stayed in the nursing quarters for a 6 weeks when participated in the three month child care inquiry in the early 1980's held at Bexley.
The tour around the building site and existing housing, flats and hotel was instructive and energetic but quickly confirmed the error. There was a route back to Canary but I knew I had gone in the opposite direction once I checked the stations a knew it was West India Quay and that making the journey from Stratford one got off at the station before Canary Wharf. Alas the error meant that I missed the start of both films which I wanted to see, including one said to be the picture of 2007 and which was not yet showing at Croydon. I was not prepared to miss the opening few minutes of one even with a free entry voucher. So I walked back to Canary Wharf which I enjoyed although it was spitting rain and found a toilet and then a cold drink, the first of three this day. I then had difficulty finding the internal escalator from the shopping centre down to the main concourse of the underground, never has so much cost and space been devoted to a single line station. I find this aspect remarkable. By the time I reached London Bridge, East Croydon shopped for tea and lunch tomorrow at the nearby supermarket, had tea, relaxed and then changed clothes, I was a little weary but still looking forward to the film, but alas I had misread the notice and there was no later afternoon as well as early afternoon performance and that was nearly that. There shopping centre was still open Croydon preferring an 11 to 5 Sunday rather than 10-4 on Tyne and Wear side. I nearly bought a TV Times for the BBC Christmas Programme edition and could not find the paper with the headlines about a revolution for the elderly which I later learnt meant the abandonment of Social Service controlling the allocation of funds between residential and non residential care for the elderly except where an individual wished them to do this.
However I remembered that I still required an alarm clock and went from Smiths to Woolworths where they advertised a clock radio alarm for £5 but these had been sold out and then I got my sense fo direction wrong and came out onto the street instead back into the shopping centre. So entered Curry Dixon next door which I knew had one long straight route back to where I wanted to be, stopping to look at a shelf of clocks near the street entrance which I had overlooked when I went to enquire about wireless technology. At first it looked as if the store had sold out except for the display item a radio set alarm at the price of £6.99 with the next at £24 and an assistant appeared to confirm this but I looked at the stacks of boxes on the floor and a little way away I found those for the cheaper set, so my late afternoon mission was not in vain and for the way back I discovered the road underpass taking me close to the Travel Lodge entrance. By then was tired and had a good sleep freeing me for an interesting evening, which included finding that someone had dropped their lift and door entry key card which I returned to reception en route for yet more diet coke.
The train home from Kings Cross is one the same time as my next trip in January. Hopefully I will be better prepared and one gain from Canary Underground station was the availability of a free guide map for visitors around London, information of ticket, on the various tickets and prices, including the oyster card system and on the water bus service. Also at the Canary Wharf centre I picked up a free copy of their December 6th local community visitors newspaper where the Estate agents and letting insert revealed that one can but one and two bedroom flats with views from a quarter to half a million £300 to £500 a week rent or a nice three story six bedroom three bathroom ut of town house for £2.5million. The problem with Kings Cross and St Pancras is that the surrounding area is a dump and under class and underworld dump unless the top of the world environment of Docklands or the mixture that Croydon has become although shifting year by year as each new office or accommodation blocks seeks out the sky. There was also another insight into life in this part of the universe as included in the paper was a full page advertisement for gentleman's club with special offices such a buy four crates of beer and get a fifth free. However the big deal were on champagne where if sufficient quantities were purchased there was a special membership package through in for the table worth around £600. It put into perspective that the cost of each table dance was only £10 but one presumes that the performer was also rewarded with monetary gifts. Oh for shares in such an enterprise.
My evening did not end with the closure of the Royal Variety performance which Her Majesty and the Duke appeared genuinely pleased that their 60 years of marriage was recognised. The finale two acts were Kire Tiki Kanawra a favourite of the Royals for many a year and then Bon Jovi who has still a great song Its my life which I must add to Myspace and the lead singer a great voice, but really for them to lead the finale with a Beatles Anthem where was Sir Paul or others of the Mersey beat, in this year when they stole the city of European culture from Tyneside. Where was Cilla? The main presenters where Philip Schofield and my discovery Kate Thornton who started doing the midweek and other channel shows of the X actor and I write an email saying how good she was and next she was front woman and now looking at east as he co presenter of the RVS. Well talent will out but I still like to believe that my email pointing out how talented she is did the trick. Following the RVS the South Bank show was a documentary on how Katherine and Darcy came to create and perform their show the two Divas. This impressed as both were stretched way outside their previous comfort zones.
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