Buzzed: Only five objections received for Railton Road Phase 2 LTN changes in Brixton
“Lambeth Council claims that the RailtonLTN has undergone significant engagement. Only five objections were received during the consultation.”
Album of the Day: Minutemen – Double Nickels On The Dime
Where has this even come from? It’s completely new to me, although I don’t think any punk album should ever be a double. Apart from the Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle, obvs. Bailed after 14 tracks – the ideal length.
⭐ ⭐
It was the BEST day of the year, aka the start of the new cricket season.
Hurrah!
I say start of the new season – Surrey had a three day friendly against the other lot from across the river. Past form suggests that these knocks are nothing more than glorified practice sessions.
And boy – Surrey Skipper Rory Burns needs some practice right now as he walked back to the hutch shortly after 11am for a duck. Oh Rory. Cheers for coming, etc.
It was good to see Dom Sibley back wearing the 3 feathers of the ‘rrey once again. He was such a promising young talent coming through the Academy. He also had possibly the best use of the word GASH in an official match report after a rather unfortunate injury at the crease.
The old ground was looking a bit of a dump tbh. The outfield and ever impressive stadium looked world class. But a walk around the ground showed it very much still being in pre-season mode. There was an awful lot of clutter clogging up the concourses.
Elsewhere and the Gasometer development continues to rise from the ground. One of the blocks looks almost completed. The iconic gasometer now sits alongside not so majestic company. The London skyline is never finished and never stands still. The city is all the better for this.
I picked up The Oval WiFi without even trying. It was like I had never been away. There wan’t much scrolling taking place on my iPhone however. Out came the gloves as Middlesex took three early wickets.
I made the strategic move from the Pavilion to the Finn stand to catch some sun. There was actually some geezers wearing T-shirts. It was a pleasant way to spend a couple of spare hours on a Thursday morning.
Rain was forecast for most of the afternoon. I decided on a walk into town, rather than sit around in a wet ground waiting for non existent play.
I listened to the latest On and Off the Pitch podcast. The guest was Forest striker Taiwo Awoniyi. That’s quite a backstory from baking bread bread in Nigeria to scoring Forest’s first goal in the Premier League in almost a quarter of a Century.
I was heading towards the West End. My route took me through the backstreets of Kennington and around the Black Prince Road area. I seem to be using this cut through more often recently. There’s some fascinating local history along Vauxhall Street and of course Lambeth Walk.
I ended up around the back of Whitehall, then a cut through along the Mall and into the St James part of town. I always find this WEIRD. Cigar shops, umbrella shops and barbers with the prices starting at £50.
I kept on walking and reached my destination: the Centre for British Photography off Piccadilly. This is a space that has recently opened. It was very welcoming with a fantasticselection of opening exhibitions.
These included some Spitting Image portraits, as well as the original Thatcher puppet. The gallery space was set out across three levels. I particularly enjoyed the English at Home exhibition. This focussed on two extremes: upper class living and extreme poverty.
I had a brief look around the shop. There was a Martin Parr original priced at £9k. It was lovely to look at, but I’m not sure that any snap is worth that amount.
I headed over to Soho. I saw my first CHPT3 Brompton out in the wild. The grey and red livery is LOVELY.
I wanted to find the Soho Faces exhibition along Berwick Street that I missed at the weekend. Photographer Andrew Leo captured Soho faces during the course of the first lockdown.
The outcome is an amazing exhibition showing the beauty of and eccentricity of Soho people. The photos are printed on large canvases. Andrew’s done a great job in finding subject matter to make it interesting, and then technically having the skills to capture the moment.
I wandered through Covent Garden, and then pondered some public transport to get back down to Sunny Stockwell. But I kept on walking.
By the time I reached Waterloo I was pretty whacked. But I reasoned to myself why pair the fare now, when I’m almost home? I kept on plodding away.
Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens provided a decent distraction. There was a board outside the Vauxhall Tea Theatre advertising apple crumble and custard for £11. That’s half my food budget for the week.
I finally made it back to the flat – 23k steps in total.
Early evening saw me playing around a little with some more AI. otter.ai seemed to do a decent job of capturing and transcribing a local gov meeting. Why sit through three hours of boring arse shit when otter.ai can do the heavy lifting for you?
The final task of the day was to book some swimming sessions at Vauxhall for the days ahead. Saturday is significant. This is when Lambeth takes the leisure contract back in house again – but not at Vauxhall.
I wasn’t sure if my membership was still going to work for a Vauxhall swim. It’s set as Brixton as my main base. But it seems to have gone through. I’d suggest this is more to do with Lambeth being piss poor at the handover, rather than a happy outcome.
Links for Thursday 30th March, 2023
Flex culture, punk, blowjobs and… Chris Yates | Caught by the River | Caught by the River