Plus: There's nowhere to bury the dead • London wants to keep its money • When will it stop being so damn hot • Who is to blame for turning off the air conditioning in the tower block?
I’m not surprised people aren’t jumping on the buses, they’re saunas on wheels at the moment. If my choices are central line sauna for 15 minutes vs bus sauna for 30, I’ll take the quicker option even at the higher price.
The prospect of the London mayor being able to fund projects directly is quite exciting. Wonder if it’s the kind of thing that might sway Sadiq Khan’s decision on whether to run again?
Also brilliant photos again — love that Jennifer Forward-Hayter is becoming the official chronicler of “London is too damn hot” here.
People really like her brilliant photos and if there’s an off-beat subject or aspect of London that people would like her to cover as a photo essay let me know and maybe that could become a late August treat.
This month’s Westminster Council’s free magazine has quite an alarming message about the govt’s ‘fairer’ funding arrangements for local councils meaning that central government support will be halved over the next four years. There will be copious surveys over the summer as to how much more council tax we’d be willing to pay or what we’d accept to be cut in services.
Either some of the extra money London (hopefully it isn’t reduced too much contrary to reports that London would get less because apparently it would then get too much money!) gets will have to go to councils which are losing out on this new funding arrangement or some of the councils’ services needs to go up to a mayoral level. I’m very much a fan of the latter but there’s been little talk in London, at least from what I’ve heard, of, at the very least, for example, giving the Mayor responsibility over everything the GLC had pre-abolition!
While definitely not the case for plenty of the buses that aren’t very pleasant in the heatwaves, it would definitely help if for the ones with decent air conditioning more is done to try and discourage window-opening so the aircon actually benefits the bus as a whole. It does feel like it’s an awareness issue of a) actual ok aircon on buses (really not obvious when every other window is open) and b) that having hotter air from outside getting in isn’t going to help the bus stay cool. Could there be some new messaging on these aircon-carrying buses?
Problem is all of the new buses still have air cooling rather than air con and even if they all meet the same (continuously improving) TfL spec there’s large differences between manufacturers, models and even individual vehicles in how well it works. The new TfL spec for vehicles from next year onward iirc has an option for lockable windows (some buses already have them) which should help. But in the meantime it’s hard to convince passengers that it might, just might, not will, be cooler if all windows are closed. And even then sometimes what may be in theory ‘cool’ according to the thermostat regulating the temperature and thus the cooling may not actually be perceived as cool enough — especially when there’s the sun making it a greenhouse thanks to the massive windows — and especially if there’s no air circulation making it just feel stuffy, people might want a bit of a breeze.
Just realised this really should have been headlined the “life, death, taxes” edition.
I’m not surprised people aren’t jumping on the buses, they’re saunas on wheels at the moment. If my choices are central line sauna for 15 minutes vs bus sauna for 30, I’ll take the quicker option even at the higher price.
The prospect of the London mayor being able to fund projects directly is quite exciting. Wonder if it’s the kind of thing that might sway Sadiq Khan’s decision on whether to run again?
Also brilliant photos again — love that Jennifer Forward-Hayter is becoming the official chronicler of “London is too damn hot” here.
People really like her brilliant photos and if there’s an off-beat subject or aspect of London that people would like her to cover as a photo essay let me know and maybe that could become a late August treat.
This month’s Westminster Council’s free magazine has quite an alarming message about the govt’s ‘fairer’ funding arrangements for local councils meaning that central government support will be halved over the next four years. There will be copious surveys over the summer as to how much more council tax we’d be willing to pay or what we’d accept to be cut in services.
Either some of the extra money London (hopefully it isn’t reduced too much contrary to reports that London would get less because apparently it would then get too much money!) gets will have to go to councils which are losing out on this new funding arrangement or some of the councils’ services needs to go up to a mayoral level. I’m very much a fan of the latter but there’s been little talk in London, at least from what I’ve heard, of, at the very least, for example, giving the Mayor responsibility over everything the GLC had pre-abolition!
I don't see London being able to retain a larger share of its tax revenue. Wouldn't it amount to a shortfall elsewhere?
While definitely not the case for plenty of the buses that aren’t very pleasant in the heatwaves, it would definitely help if for the ones with decent air conditioning more is done to try and discourage window-opening so the aircon actually benefits the bus as a whole. It does feel like it’s an awareness issue of a) actual ok aircon on buses (really not obvious when every other window is open) and b) that having hotter air from outside getting in isn’t going to help the bus stay cool. Could there be some new messaging on these aircon-carrying buses?
Problem is all of the new buses still have air cooling rather than air con and even if they all meet the same (continuously improving) TfL spec there’s large differences between manufacturers, models and even individual vehicles in how well it works. The new TfL spec for vehicles from next year onward iirc has an option for lockable windows (some buses already have them) which should help. But in the meantime it’s hard to convince passengers that it might, just might, not will, be cooler if all windows are closed. And even then sometimes what may be in theory ‘cool’ according to the thermostat regulating the temperature and thus the cooling may not actually be perceived as cool enough — especially when there’s the sun making it a greenhouse thanks to the massive windows — and especially if there’s no air circulation making it just feel stuffy, people might want a bit of a breeze.
I'm not sure I've ever heard it called 'The Wodge'!
Nor had I, seems to have not taken enormously, but Polly provided evidence of past use and I quite liked it.
(Really recommend the viewing platform when it reopens.)
Maybe you should run a competition to rename Britannia Point.
How about "The Greenhouse" or "The Oven"?
I wonder whether some of these nicknames are come up with by a marketing agency working for the owners in an attempt to make them "iconic"
I’m a big fan of the “trendy quarter” thing.
Simple formula: [area name]’s trendy [defunct heavy industry] quarter.
Convince journalists to write about it as a real thing. Watch property prices rise.