Anti Social Behaviour Odours

One of the few things that's bugged me about Wimbledon over the last couple of years is the mess of kids and bus stops littering the entrance to the Centre Court shopping centre and the railway station. There's not enough space to get past and it's a focal point for trouble... or at least it was.

Two weeks ago something changed. A stepped area to the right of this picture, which once upon a time probably had a water feature, was refurbished with plants. Plants in December?!

The next morning... is that the drains? Returning the following evening... the exact same place? I'm fairly certain now that we have deliberately-stinky plants and only the bunged-up and chav scattering aroma now lingers there. Genius.

End of the road

I've been wearing my metaphorical black armband for a couple of days now, mourning, since the passing of a true London icon. No more squeezing up the stairs, ducking your head, (literally) winding down the window, pulling the rope, leaping off the platform at traffic lights... the last red Routemaster bus has run its course.

No longer will this most famous of the capital's landmarks, recognised around the world, take fare-paying passengers on anything other than 'heritage routes'.

A number of reasons were given for this change:

• they were too old, exceeding their operational life by 100% (they've been more reliable than the flash computers on wheels that have replaced them)
• too expensive and unnecessary to have conductors on board (just as the number of British Transport Police on board buses has had to increase thanks to attacks and assaults)
• no disabled access (a point I take and appreciate... but at the same time this unique design made it fast and easy for the vast majority - surely there could have been a third way?)
• dirty and environmentally unfriendly (okay, you have got me there... but a Hyrdogen fuel cell Routemaster... hmmm... that would have been an impressive fusion of heritage and forward-thinking)

Impressive steps have been taken over the last few years with London buses... the new ones are clean, accessible, pleasant and quick. But couldn't there have been a compromise? Londoners deserve better than for the beloved Routemasters to be restricted to mobile museum duties.

A different kind of London Fog

Even 30-odd miles away the air this evening smells and tastes acrid.

Even at 2pm in South West London the sky darkened as though dusk.

Most of Greater London is now feeling the effect of the largest explosion in Europe since the second world war.

Feeling Customer Incident-al

You can tell it's getting closer to Christmas just thanks to the tube delays. And before you think it's snowflakes or reindeer on the line, today's mind-numbing waits on the Northern Line were due to a 'Customer Incident'. Which I think is this year's code for someone jumped in front of a train.

It's usually someone who can't afford to buy Christmas presents and has therefore shattered their family's end to the year... as well as spreading a little annoyance to a few thousand commuters today.