The Westway: A Portrait of a Community

If you ever do run out of ideas for something different to do in London, IanVisits is always able to provides plenty of food for thought. His whole website is a treasure trove of information - for the latest updates and snippets of news, you could do worse than follow him on Twitter. Plenty do.

So, having heeded my own advice and with a little time to spare, I headed down to The Crypt at St Martin-in-the-Field in Trafalgar Square to take a peek at 'The Westway: A Portrait of a Community' an exhibition by photographer Paul Wenham-Clarke.

First of all - The Crypt

What an outstanding piece of architecture and use of space. Go visit if only to experience the building. The Café in the Crypt underneath the nave of the church must be one of the largest in London and well used. Anywhere slightly hidden away and this well used is worth a try.

The Exhibition

It's about the community underneath The Westway, the A40 flyover in West London. There's a bit about Crossrail too.

At first I was underwhelmed. A few photographs in the foyer area and I thought that was it. To be fair, many of the pictures are really rather good. Photography is, quite literally, painting with light. The quality of the light in some of the photographs is quite mesmeric. However there is more...

I thought I was done, so wandered into the Café to have a look at the vaulted ceilings. There, to the right, I found the bulk of the exhibition, hidden away in what seemed to be the Café's overspill area. There are a small number of pictures about Crossrail but most of the exhibition is about the travellers that live in the area and the local school & it's community.

Don't be rushed. There are plenty of pictures to grab your attention and a number of story boards that really make you think about what really goes on under and around The Westway.

The exhibition is open until 28th February 2013. There is no charge for entry.

Tottenham Court Road - Update

TCR tube station is going through the mother of all upgrades - eventually it will be a mega interchange station between the existing Central and Northern Lines and Crossrail.

Anyhow, tfl have deemed it appropriate to issue a press release giving an update on what is going on. To be honest it's not exactly exiting, but it'll no doubt appear as a full page article in the Metro and will inevitably be regurgitated by lazy journalists in other news outlets as well.

Andrew Borde Street

What? Where?


View Larger Map

Andrew Borde Street is a funny little street that runs south of (and east under) Centre Point. It seems to be part bus station and also takes the traffic heading from the Holborn area up Tottenham Court Road.

At least it did.

As part of the Crossrail redevelopment of Tottenham Court Road tube station, Andrew Borde Street is now blocked at it's junction with Charing Cross Road and will remain closed for the foreseeable future. I have seen mentioned elsewhere that the closure of the road is permanent.

The junction from Sutton Row (leaving Soho Square) is also closed to traffic.

Tottenham Court Road tube station is served by the Central and Northern Lines, and according to Diamond Geezer's number crunching is the 6th busiest underground station that is not also a National Rail station.

One of the four station exits from the ticket barrier area at TCR leads to a long subway (underneath some fountains), which itself has three exits. Two of those exits lead onto Andrew Borde Street.

Those two specific subway exits, and the long subway leading to them will be closed later this month. Given the nature of the development work taking place, I suspect that no member of the public will ever see the subway again in anything like it's current form.

Along the Central Line

Nowadays, it is something that I don't do very often - that is, travel "Along the Central Line".

There are four reasons for this:

1. I no longer live two hundred yards from Northolt Underground Station. Northolt is on the Central Line in Travelcard Zone 5 - it used to be a simple journey to Tottenham Court Road station, the nearest station to where I usually work.
2. Tottenham Court Road is currently in the early stages of a major rebuilding programme, as part of the building of Crossrail. This means that it is a little more difficult for me to enter and leave the station than was previously the case, so I tend to go elsewhere.
3. I walk a lot more now than I used to. As most of my tube journeys are confined to Zone 1, walking is often a realistic option.
4. One of my frequent journeys is from the West End (London's central shopping district) to Canary Wharf, the upstart business district in the East End. Escalator works at Bank station mean that travel via that station is often impractical, so I tend to go via Waterloo which means that I use the Jubilee Line in preference.

So, Saturday saw me traveling from Central London back out to Northolt.

It seemed that half of the Underground system was out of service this weekend due to engineering works. My journey down from Marylebone caused me to see; the closure of the Southern bit of the Metropolitan Line, the closure of the Jubilee Line and the closure of the Southern bit of the Victoria Line.

It was therefore of some relief that my journey out to Northolt was hassle free, quick, quiet and actually pretty enjoyable.

A couple of weeks ago, I'd heard on the radio one evening of serious road congestion in Northolt due to a serious fire.

Spot the difference:

Although the picture I took on my phone (below) is pretty rubbish, you will probably be able to tell that "serious fire" is probably a bit of an understatement.

The Plough in Northolt is currently closed.It was never my favourite pub, but for 18 years it was what I saw when I looked out of my window. For that reason alone it is sad to see it in it's current state. I suppose thatch and modern city life don't really mix.

Hopefully the brewery will rebuild and reopen the pub. Only time will tell whether or not it is improved.

Change of Routine

After almost a decade of the same 'tail end' of my journey to work (except when carrying out tube avoidance manoeuvres), I have been trying a new route to work.

The crossrail construction work at Tottenham Court Road station means that my usual walking routes to the office have been blocked and, as a creature of habit, I find this frustrating.

My fresh alternative involves catching the Bakerloo Line to Piccadilly Circus and then walking up through Soho. The thing is, when the Bakerloo is running well, it is 10 minutes quicker door-to-door than my previous tube route. Duh! Why has it taken me so long to work that one out?

Oh, and it also means that tube avoidance has gone out of the window as walking most of the way from Marylebone now takes 20 minutes longer. I'll have to find an alternative exercise routine.

Bus route changes near Tottenham Court Road Station

The redevelopment of Tottenham Court Road Underground Station will probably become a recurring theme over the coming months. Possibly years (groans to self). Blame Crossrail, not me.

Therer are a number of reasons for this:

1) The planned size and impact of the works are huge.
2) TCR is the closest tube station to where I currently work.

The recent permanent closure of Andrew Borde Street has had the effect of diverting a number of bus routes in the area, closing some bus stops and (I think) adding an additional stop or two on Shaftesbury Avenue.

I tend to use the Central or Northern Lines when in the area, or I walk. I rarely use the buses around Tottenham Court Road, so do not feel suitably qualified to offer a blow by blow account on the changes to the various bus routes in the area.

Details of current and future changes to London bus routes are available here. A spider map is also available here, though personally I find that this style of map is less useful when focused on the target spot.

As some of the changes will either be permanent, or will last seven years, you'll have plenty of time to get used to them!