Tesco: The Supermarket which ate Westminster.

Tesco Truck parked on a corner, on a double yellow and blocking pedestrian ramp at corner of Glentworth and Dorset Street


Tesco stealing the public pavement

Westminster council has been accused of letting central London become "Tescoland" after giving the go-ahead for its 21st branch in the borough. Tesco is the major British supermarket chain which has now got over 32% market share in the United Kingdom. The bald figures on market share hide much detail as Tesco, which saw profits reach £2.25bn in the past year, has increasingly branched out into non-food goods, such as electrical goods, music and clothes and it has moved decisively into new areas including Financial Services, home delivery, internet and catalogue sales and Neighbourhood and Petrol Station stores.

It is notorious for its persistence on planning issues often battering Local authorities in the UK with multiple applications backed by top notch planning consultants and lawyers. On existing stores it has built it often enlarges car parks and selling space and moves to 24 hour opening to greatly increase the traffic, footfall and turnover from the original application approved by the local authorities. John Waite, who investigated the supermarket for Radio 4's Face the Facts, said Tesco "stand accused of dragging out the planning process, challenging enforcement orders, manipulating the planning laws, bending them, if you like, and breaking them on occasion."

One store opened for business in 2004, only for planning officers to discover it was 20% over the planned size. And a pile of waste from the building of a Buckinghamshire store remains in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Tesco accepted it made a mistake in the first case and worked with the council to find a solution and was trying to quickly resolve the second case. The store which was over the planned size opened in 2004 is in Portwood, near Stockport in Greater Manchester. It is still open for business and is said to be turning over £1m a week. The company is currently filing a new planning application.

Last year during the building of a new Tesco superstore in Gerrards Cross in Buckinghamshire, building works collapsed on to a main railway commuter line. At the time Network Rail said Tesco and its contractors removed more than 25,000 tonnes of earth and some 60 metres of tunnel structure. However, 27,000 tonnes of waste from that collapse remains, and it is situated in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It has been there a year, despite an order from the council, because of a continuing challenge from Tesco's contractor.

There are serious issues relating to competition in the UK relating both to its huge unused land bank where it is happy to let expensive sites lie fallow to block competition and the scale of purchases which allows it to squeeze suppliers.

In the town of Slough Tesco been accused of reducing competition and choice by the Competition Commission (CC) through its acquisition of a former Co-op owned site in, which the supermarket giant was ordered to stop developing in October 2007. In a detailed report listing its provisional findings, the Competition Commission says the purchase of the site in 2003, in close proximity to an existing 100,000 sq ft Tesco store, "has resulted in a substantial lessening of competition in the market for grocery retailing in Slough". Tesco bought the Co-op store four years ago as a temporary space to trade from until a redevelopment of an existing site had been completed. After making the transition, Tesco was ordered to sell the site by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) but has failed to do so meaning it has no competitor in the area.

There are persistent complaints from organisations such as the National Farmer’s Union of Tesco abusing its market dominance and suppliers afraid to go public out of fear of losing business. The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has set out findings indicating that Tesco, J Sainsbury, Wm Morrison, Safeway (now part of Wm Morrison) and Asda conspired with the dairy processors Arla, Dairy Crest, Lactalis McLelland, the Cheese Company and Wiseman to fix the prices of milk, butter and cheese. The OFT's provisional findings are that the companies engaged in price-fixing over a two-year period, in 2002 and 2003, and that the practice was harmful to consumers by restricting the competitive process, leading to higher prices.




The Tesco brand first appeared in 1924. The name came about after its founder Jack Cohen bought a shipment of tea from T.E. Stockwell. He made new labels using the first three letters of the supplier's name (TES), and the first two letters of his surname (CO), forming the word "TESCO". In 1973 he handed over the reins to his son-in-law Leslie Porter whose wife, Tesco heiress Dame Shirley Porter was Tory leader of Westminster Council in Central London in the Eighties. She was found guilty of political corruption in the "homes-for-votes" scandal and after a High Court battle she was forced to pay the council £12.3 million, a negotiated settlement less than a quarter of the amount which the Law Lords ruled as due. Westminster Council is still in Tory control and run by Sir Simon Milton, a protege of Dame Shirley Porter.

A plan for a Tesco in Lisson Grove near Marylebone station was cleared by the Conservative council this month (November 2007). There are already 20 Tescos in the borough, including 10 in and around Marylebone. The new store was opposed by the Marylebone Society and many shopkeepers, as well as 1,200 locals who signed a petition. Resident and Liberal Democrat activist Martin Thompson, who helped organise opposition to the store, said: "I am deeply disappointed. So many residents and shopkeepers have serious concerns. Why don't we just rebrand Westminster 'Tescoland' and have done with it?

"Not only has the council ignored so many local people, it has gone against its own officials. Its highways department warns the revised proposals for servicing the shop will cause traffic chaos and be a danger to children from the local primary school.

"This is a stupid decision that will be disastrous for the local economy." The site is only a few hundred yards from Marylebone High Street, praised as one of London's most diverse shopping streets in London - and already home to a Tesco.

However, Robert Davis, Cabinet member for planning on Westminster council, said: "This new store will make the shopping centre in Lisson Grove more attractive to residents and business and will help regenerate the area. We carefully considered all the feedback in relation to the scheme, and while we do recognise there was opposition to the application, the council did receive a number of letters in support. There was no strong evidence to support the claim that the proposed store would affect trade in the existing centre to warrant refusing planning permission."

He said Tesco had agreed to provide £100,000 towards improving local shop fronts, would fund roadwork’s in Hayes Place and CCTV cameras in Lisson Grove and would "work with local organisations to provide employment and training opportunities".

However two examples of these Tesco “Local” stores in Westminster don’t give much hope that they are good neighbours, indeed they seem to be engaging in anti social behaviour. At the corner of Dorset and Glentworth Street in Marylebone a Tesco “Local” opened when they bought over Cullen’s, a chain of neighbourhood stores. Along this footpath between 8 and 9 each morning 4,500 people walk the short distance from Marylebone to Baker Street. At the Tesco store a large delivery truck is always parked on a double yellow line directly on the corner, blocking off the ramp for disabled access at the corner and making it “blind” to turning traffic and adding to the danger by forcing pedestrians onto the roadway. To park in this space by the goods door for the shop these large trucks have to line up across the main road, blocking the traffic and reverse into the space across the pedestrian crossing. This they do without any “pointsman” to ensure the safety of pedestrians and turning traffic. Frequently there are other similarly sized trucks parked on double yellow lines waiting for there turn in the non “Loading Bay” causing further detriment to the area. In addition

In London’s lively Covent Garden there is a Tesco Metro on the corner of Garrick Street and New Row, a pedestrianised precinct. The goods door is at the side of the building on New Row. There is a similar story here with delivery trucks turning into Henrietta Street opposite and then reversing across the road (again without a points man for safety) and into the pedestrian precinct which is normally crowded with shoppers and tourists in this busy area. Once again the pavement is crowded with Tesco trolleys. In both cases we should remember we are not talking about them using Tesco property – We are talking about a Public Road and a Public Footpath. We are talking about clear hazards under the Road Traffic Act, reversing across public roads, not using a point’s man, parking on a corner, Parking in restricted areas, restricting the vision of other traffic and creating a hazard for pedestrians.

And then there is the lack of consideration for others, delivering during peak hours, using large trucks, delivering on 10 / 15 trucks per day because these are on multi-drops from different suppliers and only a few pallets come off each truck. The Tesco staff are “only doing their job”, the drivers are agency drivers from outsourced logistics companies and you’ve guessed it, they are “only doing their job”, and the vulture like parking wardens in Westminster who are anxious to fill their quota with tickets elsewhere come to an arrangement with the Tesco stores. Failing that the drivers leave their first ticket of the day on the windscreen so wardens think they have already been ticketed. Clearly “Green” Tesco could lesson the impact by delivering off peak, using smaller vehicles and doing single drop deliveries but clearly they feel no need to do this and equally clearly they are under no pressure from Westminster Council or the Metropolitan Police to change their ways. No danger then of Westminster Council looking for an ASBO in respect of Tesco’s expropriation of public property to private use.

Contrast this with the situation when I (increasingly rarely) use the car park of my local Tesco branch which has been put on steroids and is now a Tesco Extra open 24 hours a day. A big yellow sign on the way in informs me that by using their car park I agree my car registration can be photographed, machine read and recorded and if I stay longer than 3 hours that they can issue me with that strangest of creatures, a “Civil Penalty Notice” for 70 pounds and I consent to them applying to the DVLA for my details if they need to do this. Consider the arrogance of this proposition, personal data I have provided to the Government out of a legal obligation will be provided to a mega Supermarket chain to charge me a penalty for staying too long in their car park. And I consent to this and much more by using “their” property.

Tesco is a remarkable success story, first under Leslie Porter and Ian McLaurin and now under Terry Leahy, a scouser of Irish extraction. Its business achievements have been remarkable and from its modest headquarters in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, it has built a hugely competent and agile retail organisation which has been successful across all retail spectrums and in an increasing number of countries. However such success breeds hubris and arrogance and it is clear that Tesco is in many ways stifling competition and diversity in British retailing, down the whole length of the supply chain. It is clear that it has sucked business from traditional high streets and retailers and destroyed diversity as we head towards Clone Town Britain.

Nowhere is its hubris, arrogance and distortion more apparent than in Westminster, the borough run by the daughter of its founder for many years and now run by her interns. Its “neighbourhood” stores destroy neighbourhoods and the diversity and retail vitality which gives these neighbourhoods their vitality and attractiveness. It is a bad neighbour which cares not that its delivery patterns maximise disruption to the neighbourhoods it serves nor that it expropriates public roads and paths to its private use as it chases growth, profit and dominance. Tesco is maxed; nowhere more so than in its favourite borough of Westminster covering prime Central London from the houses of Parliament to Regent’s Park. Britain needs to restore the retail balance by rolling back Tesco. So let the roll back begin in the borough it ate first, let the roll back begin in Westminster.

Mind the Gap

For a London Underground commuter there is probably nothing more grating than young visitors on the Tube endlessly repeating “Mind the Gap” in a loud voice to their friends as if it was the funniest expression on the planet. Still in more considered moments it is a sign that this expression has now gained a life of its own and has been the subject (and title) of books, articles, campaigns and even a movie!

“Mind the Gap” is not just an announcement that you'll hear on London's Underground railway system when a train arrives at a station. Much more than just a warning about the “gap” between a carriage and the platform, it's a phrase that has entered popular culture and become synonymous with London. People who have visited England's capital city say “Mind the Gap” to each other - often accompanied by knowing glances and subtle nods - while the rest of the world wonders what they are on about.

“Mind the Gap” is part of the London mindset. The phrase originated on the Northern Line, where the gaps between the curved train platforms at Embankment Station and the train itself were particularly large.

The biggest gaps one needs to mind are at Bank Station on the Central line and at Waterloo Station on the Bakerloo line. Basically, early in the history of Tube-line building the companies had to build their railways beneath public roads, so sharp curves were required at some points. Allegedly, the slightly-off-putting gap at Bank is so large because the tunnel diggers of the time had to swerve a lot to miss the Bank of England's vaults.

Pity then the dolorous tale of one Emma Clarke who has enjoyed many years of anonymous fame as the voice heard by millions of Tube travellers each day, warning them to “Mind the Gap”. But now a gap has opened in the career of Emma Clarke after she criticised the Underground system and spoofed her own announcements on the internet.



TfL bosses have said that they will not provide the voiceover artist with any more work. A Transport for London spokesman said: “London Underground is sorry to have to announce that further contracts for Ms Clarke are experiencing severe delays.”

Ms Clarke, 36, from Altrincham, Cheshire, criticised the system in a newspaper interview after she produced spoof announcements on her website. She apparently said that while living in Highgate, North London, she used to take the Tube every day, but had refused to use it any longer because it was “dreadful”.

Ms Clarke, whose voice is now well known to the estimated billion passengers who use the Tube network each year, put her joke messages on the website she created this month after asking friends what they would most like to hear.

Ms Clarke said she was “very disappointed” and upset at the reaction of TfL, but still harboured hope that the row with the network could be resolved. “The first step is for us to have a conversation,” she said. “I hope they hear my point of view, and take on board that I wasn’t criticising London Underground or the Tube system.”

In a report in The Times, she said that the comments had been taken out of context. “I did not say that the Northern Line was dreadful. I did say it’s a challenging line. What I did say was dreadful was the thought of being in a Tube train listening to my own voice.” Emma, who is also an actress and playwright obviously moved to the country (Cheshire) from London for a lifestyle change and put up a rather good website to showcase her talents; http://www.emmaclarke.com/ It includes a whole page on the Tube with lots of links and background information which shows some affection and admiration for the Tube but even its most ardent admirers do, at times, get fed up when things go wrong but more especially with the sometimes selfish and inconsiderate behaviour of fellow passengers who forget notions of neighbourliness in Tube carriages.


Emma Clarke

These are reflected in some of Emma Clarke's Tube spoofs on her website;

In one spoof announcement she said: “Here we are crammed again into a sweaty Tube carriage . . . If you are female, smile at the bloke next to you and make his day. He’s probably not had sex for months.”

Peeping Toms were singled out in another message when she said: “Would the passenger . . . pretending to read a paper but who is actually staring at that woman’s chest please stop. You’re not fooling anyone, you filthy pervert.”

In another one spoof, Ms Clarke attacked the mindset of some Londoners. She said: “Residents of London are reminded that there are other places in Britain outside your stinking city and, if you remove your heads from your backsides for just a couple of minutes, you may realise the M25 is not the edge of the Earth.”

In another she said: “Passengers should note that the bearded rucksack contains the following items only: some sandwiches, a library card and picture of a bare ankle, and is no cause for concern.”

“Passengers are asked not to drop litter on the train. Please use the tramps provided”

“Passengers are reminded a smile is a friendship signal, not a sign of weakness”

“We would like to remind our American tourist friends that you are almost certainly talking too loudly”

“Would passengers filling in their Su Dokus please accept that they are just crosswords for the unimaginative and are not more impressive because they contain numbers.”

“Would the passenger in the pinstripe suit and £1,000 glasses who obviously works in the media please take one step forward on to the track”

The fame of “Mind the Gap” is widespread. “Mind the Gap” was the name chosen for a pictorial book put together by Simon James. As well as the excellent, often quirky pictures of the London Underground, this book also features a commentary on stations to be found at the end of Tube lines. In the book's foreword, Michael Palin,- campaigner for better public transport (and well known traveller) - writes:

“”Mind the Gap”, perhaps the most famous phrase associated with the London Underground, must surely have the creators of the system spinning in their graves. It's an acknowledgement that the thing doesn't quite work. That however fast and frequent the service, however comprehensive the network, the trains don't always fit the platforms. There's not much in it - but enough to warrant painted signs and recorded warnings.

It is very much a book about gaps, not just gaps between the train and the platform, but between the designer and user, staff and passenger. And between dreams and reality, “Mind the Gap” in capturing the elusive appeal of the stations at the ends of the lines, gives gentle but perceptive insights into the way we live now.”

There was a short-lived TV game show called Mind the Gap. Hosted by Paul Ross, the set mirrored a tube platform.

The set is a side-on Underground platform - very nicely executed, with the proper London Underground symbols and typography. The tunnel contains a massive screen which displays the Underground map, and seems to use a projector rather than a TV wall. Music is a jazz-style affair, with a kind of scratching sound effect of a man going 'M-M-M-Mind the Gap' over the top. Looks like it's destined straight for the Challenge TV channel on cable.1

One of the funniest urban legends about 'Mind the Gap' is as follows:

“Once you are on a train platform, beware! Approaching trains sometimes disturb the large Gappe bats that roost in the tunnels. The Gappes were smuggled into London in the early 19th Century by French saboteurs and have proved impossible to exterminate. The announcement 'Mind the Gappe!' is a signal that you should grab your hair and look towards the ceiling. Very few people have ever been killed by Gappes, though, and they are considered only a minor drawback to an otherwise excellent means of transportation.”



The female voice for the recorded announcement of 'Mind the Gap' is nicknamed 'Sonia' by tube drivers. Why? Because her voice 'gets so on yer nerves', they collectively reply. Apparently 'Sonia' is thought to be a bit too posh in some circles. In recent tests somebody mimicking the voice of Marilyn Monroe proved to be a favourite.

The “Mind the Gap” announcement has been sampled into music tracks by at least two dance bands. Lectrolux's Mind the Gap can be heard on an album called Sounds of the Hoover 2 (CD2). It is also on Pumpin by the musicians Novy Vs Eniac.

And like most minor celebrities “Mind the Gap” has had a bit part in the movies. A 1970s horror film sporting the somewhat off-putting name(s) The Death Line or Raw Meat featured ghoulish man-eating underground troglodytes. These beasts constantly repeated the phrase 'Mind the Doors' (OK, so it's not “Mind the Gap”, but it's close). The film 'stars' Donald Pleasance and Christopher Lee. Its fairly absurd plot revolves around a turn of the century cave-in on the London Underground. Pleasance plays a detective investigating a string of murders who is handicapped by a distinct lack of corpses. Presumably, they were eaten by the cannibal Tube dwellers from days of yore. “Beneath modern London buried alive in its plague-ridden tunnels lives a tribe of once humans” the poster for the film screams. “Neither men nor women, they are less than animals... they are the raw meat of the human race.”


Mind the Gap

Indeed, these are not sentiments Tube commuters would agree with! As for Emma Clarke herself the torrent of publicity can only have clients queuing at her door and she is obviously a “Star” so I hope TfL and she will have the “conversation” she has asked for. I leave the last word to a supportive email she received from the United States published on her website;

“I read with dismay about your ‘sacking’ by Transport for London. I have visited England a few times as a tourist since you began your tenure with TfL. My wife and I always use the Tube to get around London and did admire its service. I want to register a protest with TfL for its lack of a sense of humour! In this day and age we should recognise what is important, and what can add a bit of a smile to our days. Your “spoofs” were separate from the Tube and could not have confused or dismayed any passengers travelling. In the US, Southwest Airlines is known for its flight attendants joking commentary made before, during and after a flight. No one at Southwest has felt it necessary to reprimand or “sack” an employee who has injected some levity into their travel. It’s time for TfL to get a sense of humour, rehire you and maybe even use a few of your “spoofs” either in advertising or in the Tube. Please forward this e-mail to TfL.”

Longford Lecture 2007 - Changing History.

I walked across Dean’s Yard behind Westminster Abbey on a frosty and dark London Friday evening (November 23, 2007) with some anticipation to attend the annual “Longford Lecture” being delivered this year by the President of Ireland, Professor Mary McAleese, on the theme of “Changing History”. As I walked through the splendid surroundings I did have the evil thought that the Commissioners of the Church of England should be done for receiving stolen goods being the main beneficiaries of the abolition of the monasteries by Henry VIII and the confiscation of their property. In Ireland they were represented by the splendidly titled “Board of the First Fruits” to which Catholics had to pay a tithe on their harvest and burial fees. This did not make for happy natives but has endowed Ireland with many splendid, if underused churches!

Banishing such evil thoughts the walk gave me time to reflect on how much times have changed that an Irish President should be hosted in such splendid surroundings as the Assembly Hall of Church House and of the wonderful contribution of the Pakenham Family to Ireland and England. In Dublin they are commemorated in Longford and Aungier Streets and the former Pakenham Hall near Castlepollard in Co. Meath was renamed Tullynally (The Gaelic name) by Tom Pakenham (The current Lord Longford, although he does not use his titles) when he took it over in 1961. Tom Pakenham is himself an author and historian of note as are his sisters, Lady Antonia Fraser and Rachel Billington. Frank Pakenham (Longford) wrote in 1935 “Peace by Ordeal”, the definitive account of the Irish Treaty negotiations and his wife, Elizabeth Longford was also a noted writer and historian. His brother, Edward Longford was the founder and great supporter of the Gate Theatre in Dublin. Francis Aungier Pakenham died, aged 95, in 2001 and this is the sixth Longford Lecture where previous speakers have included Cherie Booth and Desmond Tutu.




Tullynally Hall


Frank Longford said often during his life that he would like his epitaph to be ‘the outcasts' outcast’. It summed up a long career as a politician, writer and campaigner on social and prison policy which was all about standing up for the unpopular, the unloved, the underdog and those on the margins of society. He was first a minister in Clement Attlee’s post Second World War Labour government, where as Deputy Foreign Secretary he played a pivotal role in the reconstruction of West Germany. From 1964 to 1968, he was a member of Harold Wilson’s Cabinet.

He started visiting prisoners in 1930 and continued until his death. He was assistant to Sir William Beveridge on his landmark report of 1942 which laid the basis for the Welfare State. In 1956 he founded New Bridge, one of the first organisations in Britain seeking to create links between prisoners and the community, and in 1963 chaired the committee on crime whose recommendations led to the establishment of the parole system. On leaving the government, he launched New Horizon, a charity for young people in need.

Though he remained sentimentally attached to Ireland, Longford broke every tradition of his Anglo-Irish ascendancy family. He was born into a military, Protestant, Conservative and Unionist clan, and educated at Eton and New College, Oxford. As an adult, he embraced the Roman Catholic Church and Irish nationalism. His failure to follow his soldier father, who was killed at Gallipoli when Longford was nine, remained an open wound. Longford's memory will live on, if not for the scale of his achievements then certainly because of his courage, tenacity and nobility in trying. He was a man of great intelligence and moral strength and the speakers and themes of the “Longford Lectures” reflect his life’s work.

Tonight’s speaker, Mary Patricia McAleese is the eighth, and current, President of Ireland. She is Ireland's second female president and the world's first woman president to succeed another. She was first elected president in 1997 and was re-elected, without contest, to another seven year term in 2004. Born in Belfast in Northern Ireland, prior to becoming president she was a barrister, journalist and academic.

She was born Mary Patricia Leneghan in Ardoyne, Belfast where she grew up. Her family was forced to leave the area by loyalists when the Troubles broke out. This is something in her life I can relate to as I had many friends from Ballysillan on the edge of the Ardoyne who during the “troubles” had to move outside Belfast to keep in touch as they were “mixed”, both catholic and protestant. She was educated at St. Dominic's High School, the Queen's University of Belfast (from which she graduated in 1973), and Trinity College in Dublin. She was called to the Northern Ireland Bar in 1974 and is today also a member of the Bar in the Republic of Ireland. In 1975 she was appointed Reid Professor of Criminal Law, Criminology and Penology in Trinity College, succeeding Mary Robinson (a succession that would repeat itself twenty years later, when McAleese assumed the presidency).

The introductions and the presentation of the Longford Prize to Prisoners Abroad were by the journalists Jon Snow and Peter Stanford, Lord Longford’s biographer. Ivan Fallon, MD of Independent News and Media, spoke to introduce the President as the evening is sponsored by the Independent Newspaper. I took particular satisfaction from this as I have always read and admired the Independent, even before it became an Irish owned newspaper. Also in the redoubtable Bob Fisk the Independent provides a platform for an outstanding journalist who in his dedication and integrity in writing truthfully about the Middle East and the effects of western policy reflects the lonely furrow ploughed in the past by Frank Pakenham.

The President was warmly welcomed by the large attendance, who spontaneously stood to greet her. She outlined how the whole of Ireland faces the "most exciting chapter" in its history following the establishment of a new power-sharing government in Belfast. As someone who grew up in Belfast at the height of the Troubles, she declared the "nightmare is over", with a spirit of reconciliation developing between former enemies. She delivered her upbeat vision of the opportunities ahead for Ireland and spoke of the inspiration she has drawn from Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness taking office together in May as First Minister and deputy First Minister and described it as a "watershed in political developments on our island, a vital step forward in our journey of reconciliation".

The President warned that the Northern Ireland Executive still faces a huge task in eliminating the "embedded culture of sectarianism", but visible progress is under way. She added: "We are in fact right at the very start of the most exciting chapter ever in the history of the island of Ireland." She said the development has helped the country to "look the past in the face" and approach the future with fresh confidence. "For those of us who have grown up through the Troubles, the reduction in negativity and the growing generosity of spirit has been little short of miraculous."

Her address was interspersed with humour mentioning the historian’s assessment about the difference between our nations that “The Irish never forget and the English never remember.” She commented another academic who suggested that the current developments meant the end of Irish History with “we would be so lucky” and recalled the Russian Proverb “The way ahead is clear, it is the past which is in dispute.” She emphasised the positive and continuing changes in an Ireland which has moved on from its long tradition of emigration to embrace immigration with 12% of the population born outside Ireland and members of the Irish Diaspora returning. She also drew lessons from the life of Frank Longford, a man who wrote a book about “Humility” and sought the good in those who were marginalised.

It was a well balanced, thoughtful, personal and inspiring address which drew praise from Jon Snow who mentioned that Frank Longford would have taken particular delight in it being delivered in the Assembly Hall of the Church of England where such much intrigue has taken place. Afterwards there was a reception and an opportunity to meet the president. The company was exalted with the Pakenham Family, including Antonia Fraser and Nobel Laureate, Harold Pinter, Penal campaigners, Jon Snow, Peter Stanford, Ivan Fallon, Peter York and Mary Kenny and a large number of Irish people living in London. Looking around at this assemblage and the highly democratic way we were all brought together to commemorate Frank Longford’s life it occurred to me that this was a room full of people not motivated by greed or ego but by a desire to leave a mark to make the world a better and more humane place. I’m sure Frank Longford would have been pleased that vicariously he had brought such people together to continue his work.


Áras an Uachtaráin, Phoenix Park, Dublin

Some years ago a young journalist wrote to the then President of Ireland asking could she visit Áras an Uachtaráin (The President’s Official Residence) and “be received”. She explained she kept reading in the paper that “so and so” had gone to Áras an Uachtaráin and had “been received” by the President. She explained that she was curious about this, particularly as she had never been asked. The President wrote back and invited her and soon Maeve Binchy (for it was her) and her then partner (now husband) Gordon Snell were on their way to “be received”. Well I and all the other Irish exiles in the hall to hear our President were very proud to be there and one and all we felt we were received. Our President represented us well and stirred the company with a wonderful address, the athmosphere and spirit in the marvellous setting was tangible and wondrous. She left to a standing ovation and the regard and warmth shown to her mirrors the difference in perception of Ireland and Irish people in England over the past decade. Like Frank Longford, an English politician and an Irish patriot, she focussed us on two nations and peoples who have gone from emphasising difference to celebrating what we have in common and building a better future together whilst not ignoring what makes us special. In doing this she has helped us all to move to a better place.

Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire.

Five Arrows Hotel


Garden Front

Travel about six miles out of Aylesbury on the A41and on a hilltop on the left a strange mirage comes into view, a huge 16th Century French Renaissance-style château with flags flying magically on a hilltop to the left. As you come into the picturesque village of Waddesdon some clues to the ownership of this apparition become apparent. The local hotel is called the “Five Arrows” and it and many of the buildings in the village sport a “5 Arrows”, the coat of arms of the fabled Rothschild family. The Rothschild banking dynasty was immensely powerful in 19th century Europe. From roots in the Jewish ghetto in Frankfurt, Mayer Amschel's five sons set up a banking network in the then five major financial centres of Europe - London, Frankfurt, Paris, Naples and Vienna. The Five Arrows, as they became known, created vast wealth and established themselves at the very peak of European society. There is a further clue in the colour of the woodwork on most of the buildings which are painted in a dull dark red. The name “Rothschild” means “red shield” for this was the form and colour of the street signs in the Jewish Ghetto in Frankfurt, elsewhere the street signs were blue shields. So this colour, now known as Rothschild Red, is not a design statement but a reminder of their origins in the ghetto and that being Jewish, they were not considered “blue bloods.”






Entrance Front

Waddesdon Manor was built (1874-89) by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild to display his outstanding collection of art treasures and to entertain the fashionable world. On a hilltop overlooking the Aylesbury Vale, it is the last remaining complete example of 'le goût Rothschild'. The House combines the highest quality French furniture, textiles and decorative arts from the 18th century with magnificent English portraits and Dutch Old Master paintings. Fascinated by the history and culture of France, he commissioned a French architect, Gabriel Hippolyte Destailleur, to build him a Renaissance-style chateau, based on those in the Loire Valley, and employed a French garden designer, Elie Lainé to lay out the grounds. Like other members of his family he wanted a retreat outside London and chose Buckinghamshire because several of his cousins already had houses there (it was known as "Rothschildshire" in the late 19th century).









Parterre

The Manor was only used for weekends in the summer months, for Ferdinand's famous house parties, and was the last word in luxury with electric lights, lifts and under-floor heating. Single or unaccompanied male friends stayed in the Bachelors' Wing, complete with Billiard and Smoking Rooms. Couples stayed in one of the 9 suites in the Main house.

Waddesdon Manor was built (1874-89) by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild to entertain his guests and display his vast collection of 18th-century French decorative arts. The furniture, Savonnerie carpets and Sèvres porcelain rank in importance with those in the Louvre in Paris and the Royal and Wallace Collections in London. There is also a fine collection of portraits by Gainsborough and Reynolds, and works by Dutch and Flemish Masters of the 17th century.



The Victorian gardens are considered one of the finest in Britain and famous for the parterre, seasonal displays, shady walks and views, fountains and statuary. At its heart lies the aviary, stocked with species that were once part of Baron Ferdinand's collection. The Wine Cellars, modelled on the private cellars at Château Lafite-Rothschild, contain thousands of bottles of Rothschild wines dating back to 1868.

Looking at this magnificent French-style chateau standing in acres of lush parkland, it is almost inconceivable to visualise the 18th century Rothschild’s living in a Jewish ghetto in the suburbs of Frankfurt. From this unlikely environment a most powerful financial empire spread throughout Europe, and the family name is now synonymous with extraordinary cultured wealth.



Descended from the Austrian branch of the Rothschild family, Baron Ferdinand came to England in 1859 when he was just 20 years old. Following the tragic death of his new young wife during childbirth, he never remarried, but decided to look around for a suitable place to settle in England. Already living in Buckinghamshire, close to several members of his family, Ferdinand bought 3000 acres of land from the Duke of Marlborough in 1874 with the intention of erecting a property to house his growing collection of art treasures. Never intended as a home, Waddesdon Manor was designed as a pleasurable showpiece where specially invited guests could share in Ferdinand's passion for 18th century French art.



The massive building project took 15 years to complete, but the results were breathtaking both externally and internally. Designed by a French architect, Gabriel-Hippolyte Destailleur, the 19th century brick and stone cladding was used to create a stunning Renaissance style chateau, imaginatively fitted out with authentic French interiors. Wood panelling, screens and fireplaces are just some of the 'second-hand' materials, salvaged from French palaces and old Parisian houses being demolished, that were used to create the beautiful rooms at Waddesdon Manor.



Having installed his priceless collections in their perfect setting, Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild was now able to entertain selected groups of people who would appreciate the finery on display, and could indulge in the luxury of these surroundings. Regular weekend house parties were given during the 1880s and 90s, when his guests included royalty, politicians, writers and society beauties. In the absence of a long-term companion, Ferdinand's spinster sister acted as hostess at these frequent gatherings and, on his death, Waddesdon Manor was left to her. Alice's contributions include several pieces of fine porcelain from the houses of Sevres and Meissen.




Service Entrance

In 1891 Waddesdon had an indoor staff of 24, with a further 24 coming in to work and at least 66 gardeners. The stable is a fine building in its own right being modelled (to a smaller scale) on the Tullieres Palace in Paris, maybe a slightly unwise tribute to the “touts les Louis” whose furnishings and artwork Baron Ferdinand admired so much. At the end of the 19th century, Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild commissioned a local firm of architects to create a Dairy to house his prize-winning herd of cattle. In its day it had wonderfully pampered cows providing, milk, cream, butter, whey and cheese to the house.


Bachelors' Wing


The story is told of the Duke who came to stay and wrote a snorting letter to a friend on how the Roths were getting above themselves showing off their excessive amount of new money.

A butler appeared in the bedroom in the morning.



B. "Tea, your Grace"

D. "Yes"

B. "Would it be Assam, Darjeeling, Gunpowder, Earl Grey, Orange Pekoe or Ceylon your Grace?"

D. "Assam."

B. "Milk, your Grace?"

D. "Yes."

B. "Would it be Hereford, Friesian, Shorthorn or Jersey, your Grace?"



Dairy


This vignette is a reminder that the Rothschild’s were the plutocrats of their day with huge cash piles at their disposal while the traditional aristocracy by contrast were asset rich but cash poor. For Waddesdon and its estate was no family seat built over the centuries but a modern building masquerading as a 16th Century Chateau built in a short space of time to the best quality standards with no expense spared. So it had its own powerhouse, gas works, dairy, railway station and railway line, lift, central heating.


Power House

Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild planned his house on essentially a bare hill, known as Lodge Hill. A letter to his uncle dated 2 February 1875 describes how pleased he was with the progress made in the plantations. Early photographs show young trees already in place while the carriage drive was still being laid out and the foundations for the house were barely dug. In the initial layout of the grounds, Ferdinand was aided by the French landscape gardener Elie Lainé, who was ‘bidden to make designs for the terraces, the principle roads and plantations’. Little is known about Lainé who was probably based in Paris. No doubt he was introduced to Ferdinand by the French architect of the house, Gabriel-Hippolyte Destailleur.

In his ‘Red Book’ (1897), Ferdinand, feeling the need to explain his choice of a foreign landscape gardener, relates how he first asked ‘Mr Thomas’ for his assistance. As Brent Elliott has pointed out in his guidebook to the gardens at Waddesdon, this is most likely Mr William Broderick Thomas, a well-known landscape gardener who was working for the Prince of Wales at Sandringham at the time. Thomas declined however, ‘for reasons he did not deign to indulge’, but probably because of his commitment to other projects. Unfortunately, no designs by Elie Lainé for the layout of the grounds at Waddesdon appear to have survived. His involvement went beyond the mere supply of designs though, as he stayed on site, supervising with Mr George Alexander, an engineer from London, the laying out of the roads. Early account books show payments to Lainé in February of 1876, 1877 and 1878 (Bellaigue). During this period Lainé and Destailleur were also working together at Vaux-le-Vicomte in France. A later design by Destailleur for the lowest terrace at Waddesdon Manor shows indeed some similarities with his work at Vaux-le-Vicomte (Pons). This design was not carried out. In his ‘Red Book’ Ferdinand made it clear, that although Lainé was involved with ‘the chief outlines of the park’, he himself was responsible for much of the ornamental plantings: ‘the pleasure grounds and gardens were laid out by my bailiff [George Sims] and gardener [Arthur Bradshaw] according to my notions and under my superintendence’.



As his father had done at Schillersdorf, and as his relative and friend Lord Rosebery (who was married to Ferdinand’s cousin, Hannah) did at Mentmore, Ferdinand transplanted large trees, using Percheron mares. ‘My trees came – some of them – from Wooburn [sic] Abbey…and some from Claydon House – Sir Harry Verney’s place. Some from Halton; some from Drayton Beauchamp – wherever I could get them. Yes, they turned out as we wished…with the exception of the oak. The oaks have given trouble; but the chestnuts have done remarkably well’. (The Woman at Home)



You name it, Waddesdon had it and everybody visited from Queen Victoria down. It was one of 7 Rothschild mansions surrounding the Vale of Aylesbury, the others being Ascott House (Home of Sir Evelyn de Rothschild), Mentmore Towers (Former home of Lord Roseberry who married into the Rothschild’s and was Prime Minister), Halton House, Aston Clinton House, Tring Manor (Now home to the Walter Rothschild Collection of the Natural History Museum) and Eythrope House which borders Waddesdon and where Jacob (Lord) Rothschild lives.


Stables

After Ferdinand's death in 1898, the pace of entertaining slackened, but his sister and heir, Miss Alice, maintained the house, collection and grounds to impeccable standards. James and Dorothy de Rothschild, who inherited in 1922, did not add to the collection until the death of James' father Baron Edmond, at which point a third of the Barons collection arrived, including over 2000 18th century drawings. James' main interest was horse racing and he built the stud at Waddesdon. The war years brought a different emphasis to the Manor, and following James' death in 1957, it was bequeathed to the National Trust and opened to the public, with Dorothy in charge of management.



Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild


Now, the Manor is run by a family charitable trust chaired by the present Lord Rothschild. The Collection continues to grow, new features and displays are added to both House and Gardens and there is a varied programme of events and activities. The Rothschild’s donated over 12 million pounds to the restoration of the house and this money shows because nowhere in England will you see a house in finer condition or with more splendid and opulent contents. The contents overpower for Ferdinand Rothschild was addicted to the opulence of the French Decorative style and the artworks, furnishings, Sevres china, tapestries, clocks and much else dazzles the eye.



This is a small part of the Waddesdon Collection, more can also be seen in the “Waddesdon Room (Room 46) at the British Museum. There is ample evidence also of the family’s support for Zionism. When the British Foreign Secretary made “The Balfour Declaration” ,it was made in a letter dated November 2nd. 1917, from Arthur James Balfour to Lord Rothschild (Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild), a leader of the British Jewish community, for transmission to the Zionist Federation, a private Zionist organization. The original document is kept at the British Library and there is a copy at Waddesdon along with a model of the Israeli Supreme Court, the building was donated by the Rothschild family.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/01/dead-zoo-at-tring.html





Waddesdon is frequently used as a movie location by directors who take advantage of over 7 miles of quiet roads and lanes only used by estate and farm traffic, unusual estate buildings and stunning views over the Vale of Aylesbury. Scenes from Daniel Deronda, An Ideal Husband, Cambridge Spies and the Bollywood movie Kabhi Khushi Khabie Gham were filmed at Waddesdon Manor. The Wine Cellars, modelled on the private cellars at Château Lafite-Rothschild, contain thousands of bottles of Rothschild wine dating back to the 19th century. Seen “Hyde Park” in “An Ideal Husband” you were actually seen the driveway at Waddesdon, seen Helen Mirren as “The Queen” walk with Tony Blair into the gardens at “Buckingham Palace”, it actually was the Parterre at Waddesdon. This in itself is the last parterre which is still planted each year as it would have been in Victorian times with 58,000 new plants each year. The design changes each year a bit like a Chateau Mouton label and the planting scheme is done on a computer, such is the complexity.




Wine Cellars

Indeed Jacob Rothschild's interest range far beyond those of most financier's and Waddesdon has been a regular venue for visiting heads of state including Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. Margaret Thatcher received French President François Mitterrand there at a summit in 1990. He hosted the European Economic Round Table conference in 2002, attended by such figures as James Wolfensohn, president of the World Bank, Nicky Oppenheimer, Warren Buffett and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Waddesdon has one of the finest Victorian gardens in Britain, famous for its Parterre, seasonal displays, colourful shrubs, mature trees, statues and carpet bedding. At its heart lies the Aviary, stocked with species that were once part of Baron Ferdinand's collection and other birds that are depicted on Waddesdon's famous Sèvres porcelain collection.

One of the most unusual features of the garden is the Aviary. Completed in 1889 by an unknown architect, it was built for Baron Ferdinand as a reminder of one he had grown up with in his childhood home, the Villa Gruneburg outside Frankfurt. It is made of cast-iron in the style of a rococo trelliswork pavilion, such as those erected at Versailles and Chantilly in the early eighteenth-century.




Aviary

Among the species that bred successfully in 2005 were the Pekin Robin, Silver-Eared Mesia, Grosbeak Starling, Snowy-Crowned Robin Chat and Bearded Barbet. In addition the White Bellied Go-Away bird and Sumatran White Crested Laughing Thrush are thought to be the first breedings in the UK. New arrivals in the aviary include White Crested and Fischer's Touraco from Africa, Yellow Throated Laughing Thrush from China (critically endangered), Chestnut Backed Thrush from Indonesia, White Collared Yuhina from China and Fairy Bluebird from South East Asia.


Aviary - Bird Sculpture

Situated at the Dairy the Water Garden was rediscovered in 1989, approximately one hundred years after its making, having been abandoned and fallen into disrepair during the last war. Designed as a series of small lakes interconnected by rock arches, waterfalls, cascades, bridges and paths, the structure of the garden remains the same today, with much of the original planting still surviving; as can be seen in the huge plants of Philadelphus and many broadleaf trees. This collection has been enriched with Ferns, Hellebores and many wild looking herbaceous plants including Gunnera (Giant Rhubarb) and Clematis (C.Cirrhosa, Balaerica and C. Armandii). Behind the Dairy a collection of water fowl can be seen populating the beautiful lake.



No mansion was complete without an extensive range of glasshouses and Waddesdon was no exception. In 1882 a contract was signed between Ferdinand and George William Watkins Berry for ‘the erection of glass houses & other work at Lodge Hill’. From 1885 onwards there are also huge payments to the firm of glasshouse suppliers, R. Halliday & Co, from Middleton near Manchester. Earlier payments (1883-1885), similarly huge, are listed under the name of ‘Holliday’ but this is almost certainly a misspelling of Halliday, as actual designs for the glasshouse range by Halliday date from 1884 and possibly earlier. The 2nd edition OS map of 1898 gives some idea of the glasshouse range, which included a large palm house. Situated between the stables and the dairy, on the lower slope to the north east of the manor, the glasshouse complex, known as ‘Top Glass’, adjoined a layout of formal flowerbeds. It survived until the 1970s when it became structurally unsound and was pulled down.

Waddesdon Manor, Dairy and Estate are in the village of Waddesdon located on the A41 between Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire and Bicester in Oxfordshire. It is 45 miles from London, 20 from Oxford and 70 from Birmingham, and easily accessible by road with the M40 only ten miles away. Aylesbury, Oxford and Birmingham provide frequent train services to London and other destinations.

It is worth visiting all year round and has won many awards including Museum of the Year. Whilst a National Trust property it derives its splendour and uniqueness from the generosity of the Rothschild family and the personal interest of Jacob Rothschild in ensuring it is maintained and presented as the finest example of a Victorian House and garden with incomparable contents.

London's Transport Museum

It is always good when you meet an old friend again and after a two year closure for refurbishment my favourite museum, London’s Transport Museum housed in the listed Floral Hall in London’s lively Covent Garden, has reawakened from its long slumber looking even more attractive than ever.

The first section of the London Underground opened from Paddington to Farringdon on 10 January 1863. A second underground line, the District, began operating five years later. The two were eventually linked to create the Circle line in 1884. The early underground was a huge engineering achievement and very well used, but had one big disadvantage. Its steam locomotives created a permanent sulphurous fug in the stations and tunnels!

The modern story of Covent Garden began in the 1630s when land formerly belonging to Westminster Abbey, 'the Convent Garden' was redeveloped by the 4th Earl of Bedford. Today overlooked by the Royal Opera House the former vegetable & produce market has been restored to a thriving urban hub with numerous shops and street theatre, particularly on the Piazza in front of Inigo Jone’s St. Paul’s Church at the western end. At the other end of the piazza you come to London’s Transport Museum.

This museum is child friendly with the opportunity to “drive” a tube train and speak to the “tunnelers”. It tells the story of how the Tube, trams and Buses made the world’s first mega-city possible – it is a refreshing antidote to the hideously overpriced theme park type attractions which set out to entrap visitors to London. It is £8.00 for a full adult tickets but under 16’s get in free making this a good value family trip to the Museum, The Museum Shop and the Upper Deck Cafe Bar nattily upholstered in the same distinctive moquette fabric used in the buses and trains in London.

The new Museum reopened on 22 November 2007 after a two year, £22 million refurbishment and redesign project. It tells the story of the development of London, the first modern “mega-city”, its transport systems and the people who travelled and worked on them over the last 200 years. As well as exploring the past, the new Museum also looks at future transport developments and how transport has shaped five other world cities - Delhi, New York, Paris, Shanghai and Tokyo.


London Transport Museum's collection originated in the 1920s, when the London General Omnibus Company decided to preserve two Victorian horse buses and an early motorbus for future generations. The Museum of British Transport opened in an old bus garage in Clapham, south London, during the 1960s, before moving to Syon Park in west London in 1973 as the London Transport Collection. In 1980, the public displays moved again, this time to occupy the Flower Market building in Covent Garden as the London Transport Museum. The building that now houses London Transport Museum was designed as the dedicated Flower Market by William Rogers in 1871. For the next hundred years, this was the heart of London's wholesale flower business, famously trading every day except Christmas. The cast iron and glass architecture has an appropriate feel for a transport museum, being similar to a Victorian railway station. The major refurbishment has respected and rejuvenated the listed historic structure.

The museum’s approach to visual identity echoes that taken by Frank Pick in the early 20th century. This was a wonderful period in British Design where the talents of many exiles from Germany and experimental British designers were utilised by companies such as Shell, The Post Office and most notably London Transport. As Chief Executive of London Transport, Pick employed cutting-edge contemporary designers and allowed them to bring the London Transport brand to life with playful and persuasive creativity. Frank Pick’s strategy worked and led to the implementation of one of earliest examples of a clear and consistent corporate design policy that has survived for over a century and still inspires us today.


The Underground roundel is still one of the world’s most recognised brands and the famous schematic map of the London Underground designed by Harry Beck in 1933 has become the template for transport maps worldwide. Beck was an Underground employee who realised that, because the railway ran mostly underground, the physical locations of the stations weren’t relevant to the traveller wanting to know how to get to one station from another — only the topology of the railway mattered. Indeed the design has become so widely known that it is now instantly recognisable as representing London. It has been featured on T-shirts, postcards, and other memorabilia. In 2006 the design came second in a televised search for the most well known British Design Icon. It widely cited by academics and designers as a 'design classic' and it is due to these cultural associations that London Underground does not usually permit the design to be used or altered for any other purpose. Indeed such was the Underground’s obsession with customer centred design they developed their own “machine typeface” – New Johnston, to make their literature, maps and signage clearer.

It is appropriate then that the entrance to the reopened museum is a ramp featuring metro maps from around the world demonstrating that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Video screens embedded inside these maps contain (from Facebook and Flickr) videos of metro systems worldwide shot by users from these countries. At the end you take a lift to the top floor and a journey back in time. In the lift a one-line electronic display of dates comes to rest at 1800 and horses neigh over the sound system as you disembark onto a floor devoted to the transport of that era: including the 1829 omnibus and the horse-drawn tram. You then travel down through the Museum and the ages to the present. New galleries feature original artworks and advertising posters, and explore the extraordinary design heritage of London’s transport system, as well as London transport at war and the expansion of the capital through the development of the London Underground. This is a clever thematic treatment which works well for all ages – the entrance ramp creates visual anticipation and this is maintained throughout the visit by glimpses of the displays on the lower floors which include trains, trams, trolleys and buses from all eras. What is it about these which brings out the kid in all ages?

Actors mingle with the visitors, playing roles such as the capital’s first female bus driver. Among the gleaming metal vehicles there are smaller displays featuring poignant personal stories of some of London’s transport workers, like that of John Cunningham, a bus-station worker who bravely stood on the roof of his depot during the Blitz to sound the bomb alarm only to be blown to pieces in a direct hit. The revamped museum contains a third more exhibits than before, including a regularly changing collection of Underground posters, a whole new floor and an underground 120 seat theatre which resulted which resulted in the discovery during building work of 7th century skeletons in the basement, the legacy of a Saxon trading site.

The new museum is brighter than before and allows the atmospheric architecture of the Floral Hall to shine through. It also sets the standard in terms of step free access, disabled toilets and easy circulation throughout for mobility impaired visitors. A pity therefore that these credentials are not reinforced by high visibility tactile signage and clear offers of assistance at entrance points. The public toilet layout is strange as you pass by 5 identical doors before realising the last one leads to the ladies and gents. As these are separate the circulation is wasteful, far better to have adopted the continental unisex layout where they both lead onto a common entrance and washing area. Inside the best which can be said is they reflect the ambience of their counterparts on Underground stations – they are a lost opportunity. The signage to the toilets doesn’t impress and the directional signage in the museum is not too obvious either – no doubt these are teething issues on reopening which will be addressed.



At the end of the tour you exit into a stylish contemporary shop selling an excellent range of designer gifts, books, toys and even furniture upholstered in London Transport moquette – definitely antiques of the future! Upstairs there is the “Collectors Corner” for the hairy’s which has a wonderful stock of the famous Underground posters as well as books, DVD’s, models and memorabilia, many of which won’t be found elsewhere. The best buy is the beautifully produced Souvenir Guide at £5.00 which charts many aspects of London’s transport and its design icons. The only criticism is a publication of this quality should have an index. Also on this level you will find the Upper Deck Cafe and Bar. Run by Searcy’s, who also do catering at the Royal Opera and Buckingham Palace garden parties, this does rather tasty snacks, soups and meals and you could do far worse for a refuelling stop in this area. In the evening the ambience is softer and it turns into an attractive bar, a have from the hustle and bustle outside.

The refurbished museum hits all the right buttons providing a fascinating and interactive attraction for the kids and a fascinating insight into how transport solutions responded to and made possible the phenomenon which is the great world City of London. As Sam Mullins the Director observes in his introduction to the guide: “Transport is what drives cities worldwide. As London grew to be a world city, its citizens moved from walking to using a complex mix of transport modes: rail, taxi, bus, boat, tram, cycle.”

The story of the development of London and its transport system’s is a fascinating tale. Here, at London’s Transport Museum, it is a story well told to be enjoyed by the enthusiast and casual visitor alike.

Photos on:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=19201&l=85646&id=723587781

Towards the Somme - a personal Journey.

Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme


Beaurevoir British Cemetery

Armistice Day and the wearing of the poppy have always created difficulty for Irish people, a difficulty which echoes the cathartic schism which occurred in Ireland from 1914 to 1918, the years of the “Great War.”

On August 4th, 1914 England declared war on Germany and so began the conflict which became known as the “First World War” or simply the “Great War”. Both expressions speak of the uniqueness of the scale of the conflict in history. On September 20th John Redmond, leader of the Home Rule Parliamentary Party made his infamous 'recruitment speech' extolling Irish people to fight in the British Army at Woodenbridge Co. Wicklow. This speech split the nationalistic para-military force known as the Irish Volunteers into two factions. One faction supported John Redmond and his call to fight to secure Home Rule (a degree of self government within the British Empire) and was named the "National Volunteers", the other supported Eoin McNeill and retained the name the "Irish Volunteers". Few could have prophesised how the two Ireland’s would diverge over the next four years.


Irish Volunteers


John Redmond addressing a recruitment meeting

John Redmond’s call to enlist was heeded by the majority of Irish men who fought for Home Rule and “the defence of small nations” such as Belgium and by extension Ireland, and in the course of the war it is estimated of the 700,000 British military deaths 50,000 were Irish. There are two unique features of the Irish death toll. Firstly, unlike in Britain, there was never conscription in Ireland so every Irish soldier was a volunteer. Secondly, there is no category of “Irish” in the British war records so the number is estimated from the deaths in Irish regiments but also Irish Volunteers, who enrolled in English, Welsh and Scottish regiments. It is notable that proportionately this death toll is as high if not higher than in Britain.

Those who supported Eoin McNeill and the Irish Volunteers formed the nucleus of the 1916 Easter Rising against British Rule, the first major blow by a subject nation against “The Empire on which the sun never sets” and the prelude to Irish Independence being achieved in 1922. This was not independence for all of Ireland as six out of nine counties of the province of Ulster retained the Union with Britain as “Northern Ireland”.


GPO Dublin 1916

The Easter rising was not generally supported in Ireland which witnessed widespread destruction in Dublin as well as 132 dead among the British forces and the police and 318 Irish deaths, mostly civilians. Prisoners were jeered after the surrender, and executions were demanded in motions passed in some Irish local authorities and by many newspapers, including the Irish Independent and The Irish Times. This is not too surprising with thousands of Irish soldiers fighting as volunteers in the British Army and the general view that by striking in time of war the rebels had committed treason. However, the number and swiftness of the executions, combined with the arrests and deportations and the destruction of the centre of Dublin by artillery, led to a surge of support for the rebels.

By 1918 with the end of the Great War and the General Election two Ireland’s had emerged. The general election of 1918 was the first (because of the war) since 1910 and the first (because of the Representation of the People Act) where non property owners and women (albeit, aged 30 or over) could vote and is seen as a key defining moment in modern Irish history. With the electorate increasing from 700,000 to two million in Ireland it saw the overwhelming defeat of the moderate nationalist Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP), which had dominated the Irish political landscape since the 1880’s, and a landslide victory for the radical Sinn Fein party, which had never previously enjoyed such significant electoral success but which now won a decisive majority of 73 out of 105 seats in Ireland. The aftermath of the elections saw the convention of an extra-legal parliament, now known as the First Dail, by the elected Sinn Fein candidates, and the outbreak of the Irish War of Independence.


Fricourt 13th October 1916


Delville Wood

By 1922 the Irish Free State was independent and those who had “fought for England” were lambasted as traitors and their sacrifice was largely ignored by the new Irish nation which saw 500,000 people emigrate in the first 5 years of independence. These were a mixture of “loyalists” who did not identify with the “Free State” but also anti-treaty republicans who were on the losing side in the bitter Civil War which followed independence. In Ulster the unnatural partition was reinforced by a Unionist state which practiced a brutal sectarianism on the unwilling nationalists caught within its borders and where the economy of the border areas was destroyed by “Imperial Custom Posts” and cities such as Derry and Newry being cut off from their natural hinterland and declining. In “Ulster” the undoubted bravery and sacrifice of the Ulster regiments was celebrated as a blood sacrifice which proclaimed their loyalty to Britain and their right to union with the “mainland.” Thus the war and its commemoration afterwards served to reinforce and deepen the partition of Ireland and the divisions between the two Irish identities of Nationalism and Unionism.

It is against this background that I found myself with my wife and her aunt travelling across Picardy towards the Somme and the Aisne for both our families had contributed to the fallen in the Great War. We had researched their lives and deaths, found where they were commemorated or buried and were now the first members of our families to visit where they died. The landscape of the Somme battlefields today is pleasant but unprepossessing; if the Somme wasn’t there nobody would need to invent it.


Private Edward Kenny, S/5932, Argyle & Sutherland Highlanders, fell 27th August 1916


Private Edward Kenny panel 15C Thiepval Memorial

My wife’s great uncle, Private Edward Kenny, originally from Edenderry, Co. Offaly had fallen with the 2nd. Bn. Argyle & Sutherland Highlanders, at the Somme on the 27th August 1916 and he’s commemorated alongside 72,088 others at the dramatic “Monument to the Fallen” memorial designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens at Thiepval on the D73 road between Baupaume and Albert. This monument is for soldiers who fell at the Somme who have no known grave or were not identified and his name is inscribed on panel 15C. The entry in "Ireland's Memorial Record" shows he was 24 when he died.

Edward Kenny - entry in Ireland's Memorial Record Click to see a larger image
To escape from poverty in Ireland they had moved to Bonnybridge near Glasgow and worked in the summer months as “tattie hokers”, the term for agricultural labourer’s who worked on the back breaking potato (tatties in the Scots dialect) harvest for bed and board and low wages. He joined up with the venerable Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders who are based at Scotland’s historic Stirling Castle and is commemorated on the Roll of Honour there and at The Scottish War Memorial at Edinburgh Castle. Disgracefully, to visit the latter you have to pay an expensive admission charge into the tourist theme park which is the modern Edinburgh Castle. We were able to trace his war record from a photo which showed the distinctive hat band of the Argyle and Sutherlands. His brother (my wife’s maternal grandfather) served in the Merchant Navy during the war and survived to live to a ripe old age.




Argyle and Sutherlands


Stretcher bearers Battle of Thiepval

The Battle of the Somme, and especially its calamitous opening day, has come to be regarded by many as symbolic of the wastefulness and tragedy of British First World combat experience. By evening it gradually became apparent that the day had been a disaster for the British Army. The 1st July 1916 witnessed extraordinary gallantry, immeasurable suffering and an unprecedented number of casualties. The British failure to breach the German lines on 1 July 1916 inevitably led to the strategy of attrition. A vital aspect of this change in the nature of waging war the pursuit of victory by means of the deliberate trading of losses. Beginning in the height of summer, Allied offensive operations on the Somme were brought to an end just over four and half months later by adverse weather conditions: the autumn rains and early winter sleet and snow having turned the battlefield into a barely navigable morass. Attempts merely to exist in such conditions became almost intolerable physical ordeals. The fighting had led to no significant breakthrough for the Allied forces: the territorial results of over four months of relentless assaults on German defence lines had yielded a meagre harvest of gains: a strip, approximately twenty miles wide by six miles deep, was wrested from German possession and this at an enormous cost in casualties.


Fallen of the Somme




Ulster Tower, Thiepval

Today travelling along the unremarkable countryside of the Somme on the straight D7 road it takes barely 20 minutes to traverse the 12 miles from the front line on 1st July to where it had moved to by the 18th November when the 12 battles which constitute the Battle of the Somme ended. By that stage British and Commonwealth forces were calculated to have lost 419,654 (dead, wounded and missing); French losses amounted to 204,253. German casualties were estimated to have between 437,000 to 680,000. Edward Kenny died towards the end of August, a month which was characterised by a campaign of attrition of pointless attacks and counter attacks which achieved no strategic or territorial advantage for either side but left thousand of irrecoverable bodies to be churned into the muddy morass of no man’s land. At Thiepval there is a fine and moving visitor centre set trench-like into the ground and not far away there is the Ulster Memorial. This is a replica of “Helen’s Tower” on the Marquis of Clandeboye’s Estate near Bangor in Co. Down where the Ulster regiments did their training. They took particularly brutal casualties in the first week of the Battle of the Somme but were the only forces to actually take their designated objective under General Rawlison’s battle plan. In a bitter blow, because the rest of the army had not advanced, they were forced to retreat from the salient they had created at such cost.

Antiwar writings began appearing in Britain and Germany. In England in 1917, Wilfred Owen, a 24-year-old soldier, wrote "Anthem for Doomed Youth":

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?

Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle

Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries for them; no prayers nor bells,
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,—
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?

Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes

Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.

The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;

Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

Ironically, Owen died in 1918 in the same week that WW I ended.

The war was botched on the German side as well. They were pulled into the war unwillingly, because of a defense treaty with Austria. Then they hoped to overrun France quickly, as they'd done in the 1869 in the Franco-Prussian war, and in August 1914, Germany planned a quick, total victory over France, requiring only six weeks -- too quick for the British troops to be deployed to stop the advance into France. The plan went fantastically well for about two weeks -- but then the Germans sent two corps of soldiers to the eastern front to fight the Russians. Without those soldiers, Germany's rapid sweep was halted by the French long enough to give the British troops time to reinforce the French. Both the German and French sides dug themselves into static trenches.




Thiepval Visitor Centre

For many years all that greeted visitors to Thiepval was the 150-foot marble and brick memorial with the names of 72,000 British, Irish and South African soldiers. Now an educational centre has been built with the support of British charities and the Conseil Général of the Département of the Somme. Over 160,000 people visit the site and the centre has a permanent exhibition explaining the history of the battle, a gift shop and improved parking and restrooms. Almost 90% of those commemorated on the memorial died between July and November 1916. They include the composer George Butterworth whose music is played as a background in the Visitor Centre.



George Butterworth was born in London in 1885 to a privileged family. He went to Eton, then to university at Oxford. Already a talented composer, music became more and more important to him. Like his friend Vaughan-Williams, he loved to collect English folk songs. At the outbreak of the First World War, he joined the Durham Light Infantry as a lieutenant in the 13th Battalion. During his year in the trenches, he was mentioned in despatches for outstanding courage, won the Military Cross for his defence of a trench that was later named after him, and led a raid during the Battle of the Somme. The raid was successful but Butterworth was killed by a sniper's bullet on August 5th 1916. His body was never recovered. His music captured the spirit of the English countryside that he fought for, and died to preserve.


British Battle Plan 1st July 1916

When I mentioned our forthcoming trip to the battlefield’s to my mother, much to my surprise, she told me she too had an uncle who perished in the war. He was Private James Mc Mahon of the 6th. Bn. Royal Dublin Fusiliers and by coincidence my great uncle hailed from Clara, Co. Offaly, the same county as my wife’s great uncle. Unlike my wife’s relative James McMahon had a grave in the Aisne, the Department beyond the Somme whose capital is Cambrai and where the front line had stopped when the hostilities ended with the Armistice at 11 in the morning on the 11th November 1918.

James McMahon was killed on the 8th October 1918 at a village called Beaurevoir, one of roundly 90 young Dublin Fusiliers who were killed from the 8th to 11th October and are buried with him in the cemetery. He was killed, aged 20, just over 4 weeks from the end of the war taking part in the so called “March to Victory” which lasted for 100 days until the Armistice. While not obvious today when viewing the sleepy countryside, in 1918 this was the last part of the fortified Hindenburg Line being attacked by tired and inexperienced British Troops resulting in disproportionate casualties amongst the attackers. There were over 254 separate actions by the British forces in this final phase of the war and at that stage there were not too many seasoned soldiers left so young recruits bore the brunt of the action. Heavy casualties ensued totalling over 80,000 deaths amongst British Forces alone. Indeed, in a telling indication of the attitude among the General Staff to casualties there were more allied deaths on the morning of 11th November 1918 alone than there were on D-Day 1944.





The respected American author Joseph E Persico has calculated a shocking figure that the final day of WWI would produce nearly 11,000 casualties, more than those killed, wounded or missing on D-Day, when Allied forces landed en masse on the shores of occupied France almost 27 years later. What is worse is that hundreds of these soldiers would lose their lives thrown into action by generals who knew that the Armistice had already been signed. The recklessness of General Wright, of the 89th American Division, is a case in point. Seeing his troops were exhausted and dirty, and hearing there were bathing facilities available in the nearby town of Stenay, he decided to take the town so his men could refresh themselves. "That lunatic decision cost something like 300 casualties, many of them battle deaths, for an inconceivable reason," says Mr Persico.


Beaurevoir, Aisne

Like much of the battlefields Beaurevoir is an unprepossessing and sleepy French “village” which actually straggles over two kilometres and has a population of 3,500 well dispersed inhabitants. In this area it contains 4 military cemeteries, Prospect Hill, Beaurevoir Communal Cemetery, Beaurevoir Extension Cemetery, and Beaurevoir British Cemetery where James McMahon is buried.


Beaurevoir British Cemetry


Grave of James McMahon

Like all the Commonwealth cemeteries it is beautifully maintained and lies on the edge of the village with the standard layout of the Cross of Remembrance and a shelter for visitors which also holds the Book of Remembrance. James lies in a row of other Dublin Fusiliers aged from 18 to 21 with his name on the headstone given as “B. J. McMahon”.


James McMahon - entry in "Ireland's Memorial Record" Click for a larger image

I wasn’t expecting to feel a great deal of connection with somebody who died so many years before I was born but being there amongst the graves of so many young Irish soldiers who all died on the 8th October 1918 was surprisingly moving. There is great respect shown to these cemeteries by the way they are maintained by the War Graves Commission and by the local French communities. I wrote in the book in French “Thank you for looking after him so well” and we all laid a wreath entwined with a ribbon in the colours of the Irish tricolour and a Poppy Cross on the grave with the inscription “Remembered with respect by his family in Ireland”. We had laid one the previous day at the Thiepval memorial with the same inscription in memory of Edward Kenny.



Surprisingly, given the history and the pathos of the battlefields and cemeteries this is a fine part of France with great interest in the history and the towns. Arras, where we stayed, is a wonderfully atmospheric Flemish town with two superb squares which have been preserved from the 13th Century. It was on the front line for most of the 1st World War with no less than 3 Battles of Arras and is overlooked by Vimy Ridge where the Canadians took terrible casualties. Underneath the town are impressive Roman catacombs much enlarged over the centuries and which served as a huge underground field hospital during the war. It was also occupied by the Germans in 1870 and 1940.


Hotel de Ville Arras


Arras WW1



We now know that the war to end all wars did nothing of the sort and did little for “small nations” either. It is hard to explain the “Causes of the Great War.” In his weighty book of the same name the historian A.J.P. Taylor cannot come to a definitive conclusion but, as he observes, it was the first truly industrialised war and it was industrialisation which made possible the scale of the awful bloodbath as “Defence was mechanised but attack was not,” The aim of the domino effect of the alliances which clicked robot like into action after the assassinations in Sarajevo was to preserve the established order, “For King and Country” as it was expressed in Britain. But after the dust had settled there were no more Hapsburgs, Romanoff’s, Hohenzollern’s or Ottomans and the Saxe-Coburg Gotha’s had become “Windsor’s”. The war and the humiliating peace left a legacy of instability both in Europe and in the former Ottoman territories only some of which has been resolved today. It removed a whole generation and those left behind bore deep scars. They included a French Captain, Charles De Gaulle, left for dead by his own side at Verdun in no-man’s land for two days before being taken prisoner by the Germans, an Austrian corporal Adolph Hitler who was gassed and wounded and unemployed after the war in a collapsed German economy who concluded his country was not defeated on the battlefield but by its own lack of willpower and subversive elements on the home front who were not “proper Germans” The novelist J.R. Tolkien was a survivor of the Somme and wrote a mythological parable of the horror and inhumanity of mechanised warfare and a plea for the decency of humanity, “The Lord of the Rings.”

An Irish poet Francis Ledwidge, who died in 1917 at the battle of Ypres, wrote movingly;

"And here where that sweet poet sleeps,
I hear the songs he left unsung,
When winds are fluttering the flowers,
And summer-bells are rung.

He shall not hear the bittern cry
In the wild sky, where he is lain,
Nor voices of the sweeter birds,
Above the wailing of the rain.

Nor shall he know when loud March blows
Thro' slanting snows her fanfare shrill,
Blowing to flame the golden cup
Of many an upset daffodil. “


Francis Ledwidge


Thomas McDonagh

Francis Ledwidge, as one of the “War Poets” could have been writing about any of the fallen of the Great War. However, in an illustration of the difficult loyalties of Ireland he was writing in memory of his fellow poet and great friend, Thomas McDonagh. He was one of the leaders of the 1916 rising and a signatory of the Proclamation of Independence of the Irish Republic who was executed by a firing squad of soldiers drawn from the same British Army in which Francis Ledwidge was serving. In our fallen relatives home towns of Edenderry and Clara there are still “British Legion” houses provided for ex-soldiers and their families and in the decades of poverty and economic stagnation many Irish families were quietly grateful for the “War Pensions” they received. Ireland was neutral during the Second World War but many served in the British forces and many also worked in England both to survive and help the war effort including my Grandfather and two uncles who travelled on British Legion travel warrants and worked for the electronics firm Lucas in Birmingham during the war whilst living in a company dormitory. My father at the age of ten and his family on the other hand came in the other direction as refugees from the devastating blitz in Coventry.







As part of the process of reconciliation in Ireland the Irish Dead of the world wars are now commemorated at a service attended by the President and the Government and this issue which has divided in the past has helped make the distance between Belfast and Dublin shorter and contribute to the process of reconciliation on the island of Ireland. On Armistice Day I too will be proud to wear a poppy not in support of British Militarism or to legitimise the wanton waste of life in war. Rather I’ll wear it to remember the great sacrifice of Edward Kenny and James McMahon and all their comrades who made a brave personal choice to fight for the greater freedom of humanity and paid the ultimate price for their beliefs. I will recall the words of the poet John McCrae;

“In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.”

Elizabeth: The Golden Age.

Elizabeth: The Golden Age is finally here and the acclaim for Cate Blanchett's return to her most celebrated role has come thick and fast. While some may find Blanchett astounding as she defies the Spanish Armada, inspires a nation and courts Clive Owen's debonair interpretation of Sir Walter Raleigh, all at the same time, for me it left a hollow and unsatisfied feeling

Problem is, this really doesn't show us what actually happened. All movies play around somewhat with historical fact but here history is turned on its head, the Elizabethan court seems to live in various cathedrals, Mary Queen of Scots who was reared in France has an accent which wouldn’t be out of place in the Gorbals in Glasgow and much more.
The Vatican has also weighed in and described Shekhar Kapur's sequel to 1998's award-winning Elizabeth is a "distorted anti-papal travesty" which represents a "concerted attack on Catholicism, the Holy See and Papism". "Why put out this perverse anti-Catholic propaganda just at the moment when we are trying desperately to revive our western identity in the face of the Islamic threat, presumed or real?" complains Professor Franco Cardini. "A film which so profoundly and perversely falsifies history cannot be judged a good film." What has got this Vatican-backed academic so hot under the dog collar? Why, none other than the movie's depiction of King Philip II of Spain, seen here as an obsessed fundamentalist determined to depose England's Protestant Queen and return her country to what he sees as the one true faith.

Jordi Molla's portrayal of the Spanish monarch does partly bear out Professor Cardini's complaints that he is represented as a "ferocious, fanatical madman". For me the problem is that this influential ruler, who did have many flaws including bankrupting Spain by his death, is presented as a cartoon character with no qualities. He had been married to Elizabeth’s half sister Mary Tudor and knew English politics well but his responses during his reign to the rebellion in the Spanish Netherlands; The Moricos in Spain and the rebellion in Aragon showed he was no fanatic and certainly no fool. The defeat of the Armada was his great failure but this owed far more to storms (“The Protestant Wind”) than to any naval engagement and the defeat of the Armada was no more certain than England’s victory. In fact the Armada was not “defeated” it just failed to achieve its mission and Spain remained a great naval power for another 50 years.

But what was hardest to bear was Walter Raleigh played as a cocky likely lad by Clive Owen not the scholar of Oriel College, Oxford which he was in fact. You can just imagine the scene where this ludicrous script developed as a phalanx of American producers demand changes to increase its kerb appeal in the U.S. So we have Walter Raleigh leading the English Fleet and sending the fire ships amongst the Armada at Gravelines even though he never went to sea against them. No mention here of Sir Francis Drake or indeed of the admiral of the English Fleet, Lord Howard of Effingham. And then Walter Raleigh is presented to the Queen with potatos, tobacco and American Indians and mentions his colony in America. (Today Raleigh, N.C.). Equally unlikely is the film's love triangle between Sir Walter Raleigh, Elizabeth and her assistant Elizabeth Throckmorton (Abbie Cornish). All this is a travesty of reality designed to be “Box Office” in the states. Elizabeth is shown watching the Armada in flames. She must have had excellent eyesight as she only travelled to address her army at Tilbury on the Thames and the Spanish Armada was at Gravelines on the Dutch coast 75 miles away!

This Elizabeth is also presented as a Protestant fanatic when in reality she was largely tolerant and wanted to heal the religious divisions in England after the extremism of Mary Tudor. Elizabeth was largely driven by the realpolitik of England’s survival and maintaining national unity and she largely succeeded in neutralising religion as a divisive force in England. So there is too much of a black and white cartoon quality about the movie. But for me along with the made up history the shallowness of the narrative grated. There is impressive acting talent here but it is not used properly and the movie progresses from one visual sound bite to another with the narrative development discarded at each cameo scene. It is a waste of the impressive acting deployed in favour of shallow art direction.

In the end the difficulty is this, with such an interesting reality why not tell it straight rather than make a cartoon with real actors. There is a great story to be told here but Elizabeth: The Golden Age does not tell that story. In the end it is candy which gives a sugar rush but afterwards still leaves you hungry.

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St. Pancras Reborn.

St. Pancras Chambers


Barlow's Train Shed

When St. Pancras train station opened in 1868 there was no finer railway terminus anywhere in the world. The view down Pentonville Road towards the great gothic facade of the Midland Hotel at St. Pancras was one of the archetypal views of London. Outside it spoke of the confidence of the Victorians and it was designed to make the public accept the new fangled rail travel as the way to go by associating it with images of past greatness. The Train Sheds were the Victorian’s cathedrals, stunning the public with their scale and the beauty of the engineering and frequently suffocating them with their sulphurous interiors!

St. Pancras was a difficult station to design and build. The sloping and irregular form of the site posed certain problems but the Midland Railway directors were determined to impress London with their new station. They could see the ornateness of Euston, with its famous arch; the functional success of Lewis Cubitt's King's Cross; the design innovations in iron, glass and layout by Brunel at Paddington; and, significantly, the single span roof designs of John Hawkshaw being built at Charing Cross and Cannon Street.


St Pancras Train Shed during renovation

St Pancras train station was designed by William Barlow in 1863 with construction commencing in 1866. The famous Barlow train shed arch spans 240 feet and is over 100 feet high at its apex. On its completion in 1868 it became the largest enclosed space in the world. One of the most recognisable features of St Pancras station today, the red brick Grade 1 listed Gothic front facade was created as part of a competition in 1865 and became the Midland Great Hotel designed by Sir Gilbert Scott and built between 1868 and 1876. It features stunning gothic revival interiors similar to the House of Commons.


Train Shed

In 1935 the Midland Grand Hotel was closed and the building became railway offices known as the St Pancras Chambers. The station performed an important role during both world wars, acting as a meeting place for troops, a departure point for soldiers off to war, and to help transport children out of London to the safety of the countryside. During WWII the station was hit during the Blitz on London. Despite the devastation, London Midland and Scottish Railway engineers soon had the platforms working again.

The greatest threat to the station came in 1966 with plans to amalgamate King's Cross and St Pancras. However public opinion had been sharpened by the appalling demolition of Euston in 1962. The great poet laureate, Sir John Betjeman took up the cause to protect the station and in 1967 the Government listed the station and hotel as Grade 1. The St Pancras Chambers were used as BR offices until 1985 before falling vacant in the late eighties. In the early nineties emergency safeguarding works were undertaken to combat roof leakages and general decay.


View of St. Pancras

However by the early 1990’s St. Pancras presented a dispiriting vista with the Midland Hotel unused except by the pigeons who made it London’s largest pigeon loft. Behind it Barlow’s great train shed was a murky and neglected shadow of its former glory housing Midland Mainline train services to Leicester and Sheffield.

Sir John Betjeman

All this is now about to change after an 800 million pound refurbishment which will transform St. Pancras into London’s gateway to Europe hosting direct services through the channel tunnel to Paris, Lille, Brussels, Lyon and many more destinations. When finished the new St. Pancras Station will be part of a new transport hub with 50M passengers a year when it is completed - busier than any airport. The Midland Railway had a bitter rivalry with the LNER which went into Kings Cross next door so Barlow’s brief was to impress. Unlike the lines into Kings Cross which go in a tunnel under the Regents Canal Barlow brought his lines over the canal giving a wider approach and a lighter feel to St Pancras. To achieve this and prevent a steep incline which would have resulted in the Steam Locomotives ending up on the roadway in front of the station, he built his train shed on an undercroft, effectively an underground goods yard under the station. It is one of the great achievements of architect Alastair Lansley’s design for the restoration is that light is shone on this previously hidden subterranean and the undercroft is opened up to provide the check-in and arrival areas and retail units for the development.


Eurostar Platforms

It includes Kings Cross mainline station, St Pancras Eurostar and Midland Mainline, a new Thameslink Station, In 2009 a fast North Kent commuter service to Ebbsfleet, Ashford & Canterbury, the "Olympic Javelin" which will bring you to the 2012 Olympics in 9 minutes and a rebuilt Underground Station with six lines, Metropolitan, Circle, Hammersmith and City, Northern, Piccadilly and Victoria making this the best connected station in London.





When the first Eurostar pulls into St Pancras on 14th November 2007 this will be the culmination of a project some 10 years in the making. Section one of the High Speed 1Line (formerly known as the Channel Tunnel Rail Link) opened in 2003 allowing Eurostar trains to run at European speeds and standards of 186mph from the tunnel to North Kent before diverting westwards to Waterloo. Section two will now deliver the high speed line through new stations at Ebbsfleet in North Kent and Stratford and via tunnel into St Pancras International.


Undercroft

When complete High Speed 1 will significantly cut journey times to Paris and Brussels as Eurostar is finally able to travel city to city at 186mph.

London to Paris - 2 hours 15 mins
London to Brussels - 1hr 51 mins
London to Lille - 1hr 20 mins

The St Pancras Chambers will be restored into a 5 star Marriot hotel with luxury private apartments on the upper levels. Inside the station there will be many restaurant and retail spaces which will allow the European rail services to compete with the airports including Europe’s longest champagne bar. All this and the advantage of traveling city centre to city centre without the attendant hassle and delays associated with air travel Why would anybody keep flying from London to Paris or Brussels? Indeed if the British government did the bleeding obvious, 30 years after the Japanese and 15 years after the French and Germans, and built “High Speed 2” in the U.K. why would anybody fly to Manchester or Glasgow when for 10% of the emissions they could travel in greater comfort by rail?


Midland Mainline Station

St Pancras Station and St Pancras Chambers are popular locations for film and television productions, appearing in Harry Potter, Batman Begins and the Spice Girls' first music video and many other movies over the years.

St Pancras remains one of the greatest Victorian buildings in London, with impressive Victorian Gothic architecture. A replica of the famous St. Pancras station clock is currently being constructed and will hang high above the station platform once more when St Pancras International opens in November 2007. The station will be marketed as “The Meeting Place’ with the slogan “Meet me at St. Pancras”. To reinforce this theme there will be a nine metre high sculpture will son a specially commissioned plinth beneath the new station clock which depicts a couple in a 'brief encounter' moment and is the work of British sculptor, Paul Day.


The Meeting

The great railway stations of London are more than part of the fabric of London, along with the wonderful Underground they are what make this mega city possible. It is wonderful to see the grandest of these Grand Dames reborn and wearing a new party frock for the celebrations on the 14th November 2007.