A couple of weeks ago, the Transport Museum held another of their scavanger hunts where teams are sent off around London to take photos of a subject based on a sheet of clues.

This hunt was themed on the tube roundel – which is 100 years old this year.

It is no longer just a tube roundel now though, and the sign is used for all forms of TfL transport – including as I have now learnt, even street furniture!

Four teams were formed – and we have all uploaded our photos/blog onto a website, and the winners of a public vote wins a prize.

I won’t do a tacky “vote for me please” pleading comment, as I would prefer to leave it up to you to choose which team to pick.

http://www.webjam.com/roundel_scavenger_hunt

We may live in an age where trains are bland tubes with garish colours and an announcement every 30 seconds, but there are still some good old fashioned steam trains in use on the UK’s railways. Not just confined to distant heritage routes, but some actually run right through central London.

It was to see one of these majestic metal beasts that had me up early on a Saturday morning to head over to Kennsington Olympia where I knew The Cathedral Express was due to charge through at 9:30am. The train actually runs from Waterloo station, but I thought it would be better to get photos away from the main station.

Alas, my morning was not a good one as I had forgotten that the Jubilee Line was out of action today, so I made my way over towards Earl’s Court convinced that I would probably miss the train as I hadn’t allowed extra time for the delays. I got to Earl’s Court and decided to take the next train to West Brompton station, which was easier to get to from there, and would still give me a view. The tube train stuck at the station for probably only a few minutes, but when you are up against the clock to get to your destination, it is incredible how it aches as you mentally beg the tube train to get a move on!

Anyhow, got to West Brompton and ran across the footbridge to the overland train side, hoping that I hadn’t missed the steam train. Saw a chap there with camera and tripod, and as he could only be there for one thing - I asked if I had missed the train.

Nope - got about 5 minutes he said, and my heart was able to calm down somewhat.

Alas, the sun was right in our faces so it was tempting to go down onto the opposite platform to get better photos - however I usually find that when I do that, one of those modern carbuncles comes along and gets in the way - ruining the photo.

Today though - I stayed on the footbridge and after a few minutes, you could hear that wonderfully nostalgic sound of a steam train in the distance and shortly afterwards white smoke was seen coming over the trees.

Then it arrived, charging through the station at full speed with the thundering roar of the engines and a massive blast on the whistle - almost as a tribute to the small gang of enthusiasts on the platforms taking photos.

As it past under the footbridge, we were enveloped for a moment in the warm embrace of the smoke from its chimney and we gasped on that memorable burnt flinty smell that can only come from the coal burner flaming away below us.

It took an hour to get there, in some panic - and the event lasted maybe 30 seconds. But what a wonderful 30 seconds it was.

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There are a few steam trains which run from London mainline stations, but you have to be careful as they are often diesel hauled to somewhere outside the city, then hooked up to a steam engine.

There is a website - UK Steam Info, which maintains a list of steam train tours, and where possible also puts up the timetable so you can work out when to be at a spot along the route if you want to see them charge past.

A few more photos, as usual on Flickr.

I have been rather slow in uploading photos etc from London Open House Weekend, so here is another one.

I managed to book tickets for a visit to the Centre Point tower in central London. It had been my second try at a tour as the tickets “sell out” very fast, so it is worth being prepared next year if you want to go up as well.

The building is famous for quite a few reasons, partly for dominating the skyline in the West End of London - but also for the controversial way the builder kept it empty for several years as it was cheaper than letting out part of the building (I blame the government tax system).

As a building, its a bit like Marmite, you either love it or hate it - and I am in the “love it” camp.

The building is named after the fact that is sited directly on the point where several postal code districts meet up - hence the center point. On a more grisly note, it was also once the site of a gallows.

So, on Saturday morning I trotted along and wandered around the building a bit to find the entrance. After a wait, we were introduced to our guide who was going to take our group of 22 people around.

We went up to what is now the mezzanine floor - but was originally the main entrance to the building. When it was constructed, the entrance was on the 1st floor, and the whole ground area was open to the public. This tended to encourage less than desirable types to sleep there at night etc - so the ground floor was recently sealed off and the entrance moved down to the ground. The mezzanine remains though, and during the works the original tiling was restored and repaired, and carried out by the same firm which laid the tiling originally.

We then took a wander along to the original 60s style staircase which leads up to the “overbridge” which runs over a main road - and is now a conference area for the CBI.

The off to the exciting bit - a trip up the very fast lifts to the 25th floor. The floor is unoccupied - and hence has nothing to see inside, but we were there for the views, which are quite stunning.

I think it stands out a bit mainly as it is not surrounded by other tall buildings, so the effect is very different from the tall buildings I have been inside in the City of London (Gherkin and Tower 42).

After spending some time gazing out and snapping away with the camera, we went down part of the way to the 17th (or 16th?) floor where a cafeteria takes up half a floor and we could get a few more photos. Typically, the sunny morning haze was just starting to clear now, but the views were still pretty good.

One thing struck me though is how small the floor space is - it should be obvious when you look at the building, but inside the floors still felt oddly small. I guess maybe 30 people could fit in each floor before it gets too crowded to work comfortably. Modern offices tend to want much larger floor spaces - but as a flagship office, it still takes some beating.

You can also hire out conference rooms there for meetings - and the security guards were keen to hand out leaflets promoting the service. I also picked up an internal newsletter with a nice drawing of the building on the front cover. There was a competition to win the original drawing, but it closed the day before the tour - damn!

Overall, a very interesting hour spent mainly looking outside the building and not at the building itself.

Incidentally, last week I was back at the building as it was being used as a meeting point for a walking tour I was on and as I chatted to the organizer - I mentioned the building and he looked up in some surprise and said he had never really noticed it before. Sigh
Lots of photos in the usual place - on my Flickr account.

On Sunday, as part of the London Open House Weekend - I had a tour of London’s last remaining Gin distillery - which produces Beefeater London Dry Gin. The other so-called London Dry Gins (the ones in distinctive green bottles) are not actually made in London any more.

I had actually written to them about a year ago asking if they ever let the public inside, so when it appeared on the Open House tour guide I was quite excited and told friends about it.

So, four of us turned up - and joined a tour with about about 6 other people for the final tour of the day, and the weekend.

Initially, we were amazed to learn that just 12 people work in the building - including the office staff - and they still manage to produce some 30 million bottles of gin per year, with 98% of it exported. They no longer bottle the gin on site, but ship it to Scotland where the parent company has an existing bottling plant for other drinks, which they share.

We started off with a bit of history of gin and the company behind the Beefeater brand, and then for a view of the huge distilling tanks and condensers where the hot alcohol vapour is cooled down to a fluid again.

The Burroughs family which effectively founded the brand did not actually found the gin distillery - but brought a basic company and built it up themselves - and later moved to the current site, which was originally a factory which supplied pickles to the military! In the 1960s, a modern extension was added and plans exist to add a 21st century style entrance to the building.

We also had a very informative chat about (and sampling of) the botanicals that are added to create the unique flavour - and the company employs a “master distiller ” who has to take samples of herbs each year and mix them to create a consistent flavour year after year. Apparently, he gets some 200 different supplies per year to work through and narrow down to the correct blend, and there only maybe four people in the UK with the necessary skills.

I was also interested to learn that the Juniper berry which underpins Gin is still collected manually and cannot be cultivated - so the distillery always keep two years stock, just in case supplies fail (as they have been known to do).

Every evening, they also weigh out the grains and botanicals to be used the following day - and despite all the automation the place, they still use an old manual set of weighing scales to do this most important of tasks - one tiny mistake and the flavour is ruined.

After the tour, we were taken to the distilleries very own private bar (woo!) and a complimentary gin and tonic was offered while the master distiller turned up and answered our many (if sometimes frivolous) questions.

I also picked up a book published by the firm which goes into the history of gin.

It was a really fascinating visit - and you may be interested to learn that they are planning to build a public museum and education center on the site which will hopefully open sometime next year. This will detail not just the Beefeater Gin, but the whole history of London Gins and the different companies which produced it.

Should prove to be quite a tourist attraction when it opens, especially remembering that most of the gin is exported to overseas markets.

Some of my photos on the usual flickr website.

Many thanks to Beefeater for the tour, the book and free G&T to round it all off.

The morning of my favourite weekend started well - with a quick trip up the tower at St Anne’s in Wardour Street. There is a rather fine clock up there, and on a landing half way up, a rather earnest chap was terribly keen to show us some art-film about a Soho Museum, which was, - well diverting.

I had to rush though - as I had managed to snag a trip inside the iconic CentrePoint building at 11am - which included a trip up to the 25th floor with quite stunning views over London (albeit hazy in the sunny morning) and to the 16th floor for a slightly closer look at the buildings surrounding the place.

Then over to Liverpool St where I had planned to go into an office building - except I got the dates wrong and it wasn’t actually open today. However I did have a wander round a really exciting 14th century Charnal House - which is visible to the public through a glass window, but this was the first time the public could actually go inside the ancient building remains.

It was now that things started to go wrong.

I wandered down to St Botolph in Aldgate for the Belfry and bell ringing. Got there at 1pm and was told that the next tour wouldn’t be until 2:30pm - oh. Frankly, there wasn’t a lot else in the area so I decided to take a chance and go somewhere I have wanted to visit for years, but is a bit of a pain to get to - Severndroog Castle near Blackheath.

Got to London Bridge and brought a ticket - only to be told to “see posters” for my route - except there were no posters to see, so I had to queue up at the helpdesk to be told that I should catch a train to Lewisham and then bus to Kidbrooke, then train again to Eltham.

After more hassles at Lewisham (no posters or staff to help), I finally got a bus to Blackheath and then another to get up to Shooters Hill.

Then Disaster - someone had a road accident and the bus rather than finding an alternative route decided to park itself there while 2 police cars and 3 fire engines arrived to cut the occupant out of the car. With less then 15 minutes until Severndroog Castle closed, I gave up and had to walk back to Blackheath and then decided to wander down to Greenwich.

There, I had a bit of an idea - and had marked down the Limehouse Accumulator Tower as a possible - so wizzed over on the DLR to Limehouse and joined a queue to go up the tower. It’s not very tall, but I was more interested in the history - being a mini Victorian hydraulics fan - and the view was not bad either.

Finally off home - where very weary feet got a soak.

Tomorrow - finally get to go to Trellick Tower, then random wanderings in Whitehall and off to a tour of the Beefeater Gin Distillery to round off the weekend.

Photos, and more detail write ups later.