On passing through Glasgow
June 17th, 2011
Travel has long been a pleasure of mine and it had been many years (nearly 19 years in this case) since work had called me North but the opportunity to catch up after almost two decades of change was irresistible. So much is new, the Foster Armadillo concert hall, BBC Scotland, the new Zaha Hadid Riverside Museum, the Science Museum and several bridges. But better still so much is still there from last time. The Charles Rennie Mackintosh buildings, the wealth of good architecture and the friendly people.
Glasgow is a city that grows on me each time I go. Here are a very few shots of places I passed by, some of which I had time to visit and others not, but there’s always next time for it’s a city that draws you back.
On arriving at Central Station . . . let’s park our bags and . . .
Common sense on Council Housing – BD
June 17th, 2011
What a breath of fresh air has blown through the dusty corridors of Single Aspect House today with the arrival of this week’s BD Online and a letter addressing all the problems of sink estates and other denigrated social housing. I have no idea whether the author is a housing professional or simply a former council tenant but Steven Bee runs Steven Bee Urban Counsel His letter speaks volumes about the approach required to return to the heady days of the 1970s when so many lived in council housing without the scale of the problems apparent today.
Virgin Pendolino
June 16th, 2011
UPDATE: 25/8/16 Following the Corbyn silly season story I’ve had another look at the seating plans five years on. The Virgin East Coast Mallards don’t suffer from what I experienced in 2011, the seating plan shows three first and six standard rather than the four first and five standard on the West Coast in 2011.
The Virgin East Coast HST seating plan shows three first and seven standard class carriages.
The Virgin West Coast updated seating plan may be downloaded here
Original article 16th June 2011
I had my first ride in a Virgin Pendolino recently, standard class (as we kept being told on the tannoy – there’s nothing like being repeatedly reminded you’re a pleb), forward facing and aisle, aircraft seating, quiet carriage. On the plus side the ride was comfortable, quiet and fast. On the minus side it was like sitting inside a small aircraft with 2+2 seating, with the luggage inside the cabin, and insufficient luggage racks at that, and in the wrong place.
Andrew Rawnsley on property
June 5th, 2011
The last couple of years have seen a plethora of articles about the lack of new house building and Andrew Rawnsley tackles the subject in some depth in today’s Observer.
The social housing sold off by Mrs Thatcher was never replaced. House building in the last year of Gordon Brown fell to a postwar low. We are currently building around 100,000 homes a year when new household formation is running at about 250,000.
https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jun/05/andrew-rawnsley-house-prices-construction
This all ties in with my other articles on right to buy and the sink estates but there is no sign of any political party even beginning to tackle this important issue anytime soon and worse now is the pressure on the outer boroughs of London as the housing benefit cuts begin to be felt forcing people in both council and private rented housing from the centre.
Karen Buck spoke eloquently on Thursday evening at the Barking and Dagenham CLP with a talk about the likely effects of the HB cuts, and will do so again on the 11th June at the London Labour Housing Group policy day. There’s still time to book.
Post Modernism
June 4th, 2011
Post Modernism – the gratuitous use of stuck on detailing such as plastic pediments, columns, pilasters and coloured window frames leading to a cheap and tacky appearance that quickly dates.