London

The illegal occupation is not the peace camp outside the Houses of Parliament. Most of the inhabitants of the former are sincerely protesting the evils of idealogically bankrupt foreign policy and of conflict resident in the latter. The illegal occupation is that of our infrastructure. You can not move without coming across roadworks, diversions or disruption to rail services. All of it is done under the guise of 'improvements' with little mitigation to the invariably protracted disruption. In spite of the hollow promises of the authorities this remains under-regulated and unco-ordinated. It would be more bearable if work on these sites were visible and continuous but it is all too common to fight ones way past cones with only abandoned plant to see. London is a patchwork of such disruptions and, currently, it extends underground on account of the much delayed and still somewhat speculative Crossrail.









The development of this post will seem to contradict some of the sentiment above but my report on St Pancras is, I think, an exception. London today was everything I love and and hate about the capital. It was enormously stimulating with more to see than one could ever do in a day. But it was crowded too and some of the shuffling masses were pretty dull. There were, interestingly, as many buses in the Trafalgar Square area as at the east end of Princes Street. The way the Circle Line, the poor relation of the Underground, is run does not get better and I noticed the amended map on Piccadilly Line traines announces that trains might stand at Heathrow T4 for up to 8 minutes before continuing to T123. WTF? If that happens that is piss poor pathing (with T5 trains).

My photographic erogenous zones had already been stimulated by Hindhead Tunnel south portal which I had managed to visit after two previous failed attempts. After parking in Trafalgar Square (car park) we backtracked to Tate Britain to see Fiona Banner's 'Harrier and Jaguar'. I was inwardly delighted to find that photography was not prohibited; indeed, it was prolific. However, it was a nightmare dealing with the open jawed, shuffling dullards who lingered in front of potential shots with no regard for the many camera users. A large number of people were using only mobile phones as cameras. A camera phone should be a contingency, not a primary device. These people needed to be cleared out and sent to take predictable tourist and family shots in the hot spots.

Our next destination was St Pancras. I used to live in Bedford and used this station intensely in the late 70s and early 80s. It was, to say the least, a poor relation to adjacent Kings Cross. The trainshed was famous but grimy and tired. The transformation is beyond belief and takes the station irreversibly into the 21st century. The roof restoration is stunning, the statuary wonderful (in spite of Antony Gormley's reported derision) and the shops and restaurants excellent. Our lunch food in Camden Food Co. was very good. My chicken salsa salad was delicious and my raspberry brulee outstanding. It is in fact very difficult to photograph trains but there was so much else for my lens. It appears in my 'Visions of St Pancras' set at http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnoram/

Our final destination on a busy day was Trafalgar Square where we viewed the ship in a bottle on the fourth plinth and, of all things, a temporary maze. I had to reflect that London's service buses (as opposed to visitors) seem very dull. Visiting London is not cheap. Our core costs for today were Congestion Charge £8, Parking £17 and Travelcards £11.20 quite apart from food, petrol etc, etc. My photographs were (to me) priceless. After all that was good and all that was bad, how could I not love it?