h a l f b a k e r yThe embarrassing drunkard uncle of invention.
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Stagger through the streets of London these days and you will get shoved, bumped, fumigated, lost, mugged, shouted at and thoroughly pissed off. Tarmac is scarred with fresh incisions, the narrow pavements are buckling like something is trying to escape from underneath, and major routes like the Strand,
London's corpus callosum, have become one-lane nightmares. Poky old buildings that were mildly grand in 1870 slouch around like unmarried aunts. Three times the population of New Zealand scratches out an increasingly cramped smoke-stained life here, cooking limp noodles in kitchenettes and wondering why there's still this prohibition on tall buildings in one of the world's most densely populated skidmarks of land.
Well, cheer up! There's plenty of people would just looove some of this old stuff, these Grade II embassies and Haussmanesque ranges clogging up Zone 1. Sell em to Arizona to be with that lonley old bridge, or anywhere wanting instant pedigree! And once London has sold off its less-distinguished impedimenta, there will be scope for skyscrapers, open spaces, broad underground or overground roadways and the modern city we need.
It hasn't fit for a long time, but we're still wearing Daddy's old suit.
Disused tube stations
http://www.pendar.p....uk/Tube/index.html
[General Washington, Oct 05 2004]
London - Before and After
http://www.bbc.co.u...es/fire/index.shtml
This is what happened the last time London needed re-developing. [DrBob, Oct 05 2004]
Move to Arizona
http://www.homeaz.net
Move to Arizona - One of the fastest growing states - with good job growth to boot [mickey, Sep 28 2005]
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Could we chuck in a free limited-edition 100% authentic Victorian underground railway system with all purchases over $100m? |
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Sure thing. Maybe a disused station as well, like King William Street, Down Street, Dover Street, the Bull and Bush, Brompton... [link] |
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//September 11// actually it's some let's all wallow in history idea about not obscuring the view of St Paul's Cathedral. That and London clay, I think. |
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[po]: yes, it's freaky isn't it. I'd been walking past these old Leslie Green stations (glazed oxblood tiles, semicircular windows) and always just... edited them out. |
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It certainly put my mind at rest - I hadn't realised that the old Highbury Station facade had been restored, I assumed I had been using the station for three years and simply not noticed it... |
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Apparently Aldwych is used for films (those involving tube trains, at any rate). |
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shame, steam train flicks and airplane dramas would go down a storm there. |
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Could you explain "$1tr ono" for those of us who don't live in the UK? |
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no blissy, bo is body odour. |
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Okay, I'll start the bidding at, oh, 2USD. That should be worth almost a pound. |
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Sometime in the near future, modern cities are really going to have to learn how to be more timeless in their appearances. In thirty years, those shiny new skyscrapers are going to look as boring as a Cleveland city-scape. |
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Trust me. You don't want to rebuild the city into a modern grid-shape. The local peculiarities give the local economy a boost by encouraging real estate competition for the 'best places to live,' and make the city an interesting place to visit. Here in the Midwest, we have all kinds of cheap space to sprawl over. Convenient, yeah. But basically a dull existence, with the only interesting place to go being Chicago, (and Detroit I guess, but for all the wrong reasons). And real estate prices reflect all of that, since there's no strong preferential side of town in many places. |
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[Rayf:] I'm not proposing a grid shape. Just wider streets, taller buildings, London to reassure itself it isn't a Vienna-style Olde Towne. More urban *bandwidth*. |
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Example: a few weeks ago I went to the Old Bailey (UK Central Criminal Court) to watch a case, but was told I couldn't bring in my mobile phone or my bag, and there was no facility at the Old Bailey for storing them. I could, however, ask the barmaid at the Fergal O'Finnegans pub opposite to look after them..? |
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My point being, this is not the mark of a C21 world-class city. |
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And not that it matters, but I don't think you can pin the midwest's boringness on its street layout. NYC is gridular and doesn't seem too tedious. |
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Martin Amis would be proud of your first paragraph, Gen'l. Bravo! |
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[waugs] because it's in one. 'Bailey' being the killing zone between inner and outer defensive walls. The Old Bailey's site is just outside what used to be New Gate, where for centuries there was Newgate prison. |
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who is old Bill Bailey then, UB? |
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He won't come home because he couldn't make bail. |
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One reason why London has so few tall buildings (and even those aren't *really* tall) is that it's very hard building tall buildings on squishy clay (as opposed to granite, as in New York). |
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well, lets move London then. |
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now you are talking, Rods. lets sort the tube out at the same time. |
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Divert the river to wash out the Houses of Aug-- er, Parliament? |
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"stables"? - you mean they're a bunch of asses? |
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Yes, the Mother of Parliaments: International Home of Horseshit. |
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and for extra brownie points, Alistair Downer is visiting at the moment... |
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Would it sit alongside London Bridge in the desert? - Sorry, missed that link to Az. |
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[po](psst, we'll flog 'im Balham, that's got a railway bridge, and he'll never know till he puts it together again... ) |
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