London

very cool color film footage of London in 1927:

http://vimeo.com/7638752

Yeah that's been doing the rounds a bit, it's fantastic. Shame it's so monumnent-heavy really, as a lot of those places haven't actually changed that much (although the horse and cart going over London Bridge is just weird). Petticoat Lane is totally different but it's the pan over the river that's the best.

Developers strike again in Central London filling our Victorian sewer network with over 100m3 of concrete. Our teams are working hard to locate the perpetrator #ConcreteBerg #thameswater #lanesgroup pic.twitter.com/ruJ8OYsuZv

— andy brierley (@andybrierley0) April 13, 2019

ConcreteBergs might smell as bad as the fat ones but I wouldn't fancy the job of chasing out concrete with a pneumatic drill in the sewers all day long.

That looks like more than 100 cubic metres.

The latest fatberg news from the Sidmouth Herald is that it's now been fully cleared BTW. It seems no-one took the obvious choice of melting it down, putting it in a tanker and pumping it down the drains in Lyme Regis.

This afternoon I will be going to the London Mithræum.

Situated on the site of Bloomberg’s new European headquarters, this anticipated new cultural hub showcases the ancient temple

Hoping this ancient temple... sorry uh [checks notes] *new cultural hub* can invoke full Arthur Machen/Leave the Capitol! vibes ahead of this evening's FAP.

I've been, it's pretty great. Immanentise the eschaton while you're there!

I've been, it's pretty great. Immanentise the eschaton while you're there!

In 2017, Sadiq Khan set up an independent Night Time Commission. Lamé was not involved in producing its landmark report but it is now her job to implement its 10 recommendations. Does she feel she is doing a good job?

“Well, there is a hell of a lot more to do. I guess my question is, what do people expect a night tsar to do? What are their expectations? If you want a night tsar that will be out partying every night, you’ve got the wrong night tsar.”

But that’s not what her critics are asking for – they want her to loudly advocate for night culture, answer their emails and make a stronger impact on local authorities and central government. Lamé is frustrated: “I believe that I’m doing the best job I can to support the businesses to survive the pandemic.”

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2020/aug/02/london-night-tsar-faces-down-calls-to-quit-i-will-be-judged-for-what-i-do

I quite enjoyed the way the article just let her useless platitudes hang there.

'They want her to ... answer their emails'.

my entire neighbourhood has just lost its running water

We're aware customers in E6, E7, E10, E11, E12, E13, E15, E16, E20 are experiencing no water/low pressure.

Our specialist engineers are already on their way to investigate the problem, and they will be doing everything they can to get things up and running as quickly as possible

— Thames Water (@thameswater) October 6, 2020

We lost our running water completely for (iirc) about four days some years back, it was a horror.

Not gonna lie it’s only been about an hour and it already feels pretty fucked up.

Still out. Apparently there’s a burst pipe somewhere in Hackney Marsh. They haven’t even figured out exactly where yet!

I'd imagine water infrastructure is complex as fuck in London (compared to in the north), like thousands of pumps and underground service reservoirs and water treatment filtration works catering for a densely populated metropolis. I've never had zero water supply up here in my life apart from communal standpipes during droughts and the odd time the water goes brown when they are replacing pipes.

it is astonishing to me that a burst pipe - even a very large one - could take out all of Newham!?

I don't what to think until I've heard Angela Smith's unique take on this. But perhaps it would have been much worse if it was communist water.

tbf hackney marshes is a mysterious tarkovskyan zone: https://www.urban75.net/forums/threads/headless-bears-in-the-river-lea-near-hackney-marshes.66632/

When I was over in London we used to go to the local pub alot for beer, as you do. Sometimes there would be a DJ guy, sort of looked like a character from Eastenders, and he'd play 80s music. Like say the Human League, one hit wonders I'd know, the odd dodgy tune, but loads of old electro, and then maybe Simply Red's Holding Back the Years or something. Ian Dury aswell actually. The regulars were all really into it, young and old, and I got thinking is this kind of a London thing?

Still out. Apparently there’s a burst pipe somewhere in Hackney Marsh. They haven’t even figured out exactly where yet!

― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand)

I live just the other side of the river and all fine here. Curious.

My house is fine now but apparently there are still loads of places with no water / no pressure.

Even street fighting in Walthamstow is being gentrified... pic.twitter.com/fibT81waXc

— Curios E17 (@CuriosE17) March 28, 2021

fire / explosion in elephant & castle

There seems to be a fire in the auto repair shop under the Elephant and Castle station. Something just exploded(?). No sound but a massive ball of fire on Elephant Road pic.twitter.com/e2SCjGndpB

— Nicolas Chinardet (@zefrog) June 28, 2021

Elephant and Castle #tfl #explosion pic.twitter.com/PdSttKR80b

— Megan Jearum (@MeganJearum) June 28, 2021

More and more of the Dome is being shredded pic.twitter.com/EUgyH2ryvK

— Ben Hubbard (@BJFHubbard) February 18, 2022

looking a bit windy out there today

the guys doing the soundtrack have an upcoming residency at cafe oto

Amusing myself today by watching this livestream of planes landing awkwardly at Heathrow - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPQh1FrbOc0

I storm prepped the canvas that covers the wooden swing chair in my garden by placing the top of an old broken plastic ikea table on top of it weighed down by a 12 kg medicine ball. Can report it's holding out better than the dome.

Amusing myself today by watching this livestream of planes landing awkwardly at Heathrow

This is great, not recommended if you're a nervous flyer.

Just been up in Scotland for a few days and, as often happens when I've been away from London for a while, I get the London comedown as soon as I step off the train.

First thing is the station is absolutely rammed with people, I mean it's complete bedlam at 8.20pm on a Thursday night. Half the tube lines seem to be down, not that I would ever get the tube if I could possibly avoid it. Having forced my way outside I find all the bus stops are closed outside the station - no explanation why just a poster hastily slapped on the shelters telling people to use other stops. Round the corner to the nearest bus stop but the bus never comes so instead get on another bus which means I have to change in Camden, a place I absolutely loathe. Get off at Camden, immediately aware of a guy with long hair rocking back and forth staring at everyone with a disturbing smile on his face. Also a woman staggering about, eyes popping out of her head, mumbling to herself. Along comes a youngish woman, quite well dressed, who proceeds to tear open a bin bag which is propped up against the bus stop and starts rummaging through it, depositing rubbish all over the pavement before moving on to the nearest bin and doing the same to the dozen or so bin bags that are lying there. On the bus, some guy sitting behind me having an extremely loud and moronic conversation for the entire bus journey, "Shut up, bruv, shut up, whatcha mean you're going cinema? I'm going then. Shut up, bruv. I'm going. Shut up. What you goin' do about it? Shut up, bruv. No you ain't. Shut up, bruv. No, you shut up. Shut up. No, you shut up, bruv. You don't scare me, bruv. Shut up. Nothing scares me. Shut up, bruv. No, you shut up. Just you try it. Shut up. Shut up. Shut up. No, you shut up bruv." When I get off at my stop I notice he's a bald guy in his 30s. Plus the fucking weather's shite.

I was in Scotland so the general decrepitude and squalor of London wasn't quite thrown in the kind of sharp relief you experience when returning from Europe.

Shut up, bruv

iWe get the opposite on our twice or thrice yearly visits from Birmingham. Brum is OK for food but London is on another level. (Of course I'm aware of the hidden price of the gentrification that leads to a Vietnamese restaurant on every corner.) Culturally London is miles ahead, we have one large museum that's been closed all through covid and after, nothing like the Tates or the quality of exhibitions you get at the RA, Nat Gall, BM, etc. Cycling infrastructure in brum is improving but overall poor, as are the buses - less coverage, less frequency, fewer bus lanes. I don't miss commuting obv and kind of glad to be out of the hectic london lifestyle nonetheless.

Obviously London is culturally on a different planet, but then it vampirically sucks the life out of the rest of the country. It also has much better public transport, but then it's subsidized up to the eyeballs in ways that the rest of the country can only dream about, the roads are still fucking terrible though. The area I live is filthy, chaotic, falling apart AND obscenely expensive, which doesn't help my mood tbh.

"Obviously London is culturally on a different planet, but then it vampirically sucks the life out of the rest of the country."

The arts are badly funded in the country as a whole. Budgets for the arts (as for most things) could be much higher elsewhere.

Agreed.

one thing that surprised me riding a lime bike around hackney was how poor the roads are, as bad as or even worse than birmingham's, which I always assumed were terrible due to local council underfunding.

Of course the thing in London is you can literally have one side of a street in better condition than the other side, depending on the council. I know someone who lives on the Islington/Camden border and the Camden half of the street they live on is noticeably cleaner and better maintained.

When I get off at my stop I notice he's a bald guy in his 30s

Wot?

I imagined it was a 16 year old.

... or thereabouts.

Ah ok - got it.

My sinus issues cleared up within a couple of months of moving out of London - or "The Big Smoke" as I believe it's known in the provinces. Not sure if my condition was due to pollution or living in a damp flat (or a combination) but it's been quite nice saving money on the nasal sprays.

Although I am now living in a town in Minnesota where the one musical event occurring this side of Xmas is Joe Bonamassa, so London does have a few things going for it I suppose.

Sounds like you got the blues

Tom D seeming channeling Momus from 2004: Adventures of Momus in Britain

You can take the boy out of Paisley...

i dremt that cafe oto renamed itself GARCERIE DES BEANZ

(the neighborhood had also become much more burroughsian since i fled to the coastal south west: vibrant souk, giant green caterpillars patrolling the streets… )

Too much Plymouth artisan cheese eaten just before bedtime?

you can never eat too much cheese before bedtime

garcerie des beanz is a vast improvement on cafe oto, they need to do this

How do ppl pronouce cafe oto? Ime nobody can keep to the sensible middle ground of "oh toe", and devolves into either "odo" or "otto"

the prosecution rests

this is how i say it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQ_dB8YilQE

then i play that little burst of music

What about 'cafe'?

oto

This is the bus stop I get off at every day.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/jun/12/three-teenage-girls-plead-guilty-killing-fredi-rivero-london

Jesus. I spent six weeks of my life going past that stop through Eburne Road to get to Manor Gardens. What a fucking tragedy. His poor family.

Quite similar to that attack in Leicester, I think.