I deem that it is time for a dose of omphaloskepsis, and to find out which of my miserable scrawlings captured your attention the most during 2010.
After much efforts calculating a myriad of variables (OK, I just asked Google Analytics), here in order of popularity are the top-10 run down of blog posts I wrote during 2010:
London Underground’s “secret” tube station
There lurks on the London Underground network a tube station that wont appear on any tube map, past, present or indeed future. In use on most days, yet no trains ever call there and no passengers ever use it. Fully fitted out with Oyster card readers, signaling and display boards, it isn’t an old abandoned station.
Even More Photos of a Deserted London
Two years ago I cycled around London on Christmas morning taking photos of a city that was, thanks to the lack of public transport and everything being closed – was itself totally deserted of people.
Huge Panorama of London in 1845
Another from my archive of the Illustrated London News – this time a really good one!
Visiting a huge tunnel network under Rochester
Rochester is famous for many things – but most visibly for the modest sized castle in its town centre. Less visible, but of considerable fame to the subterranean community is the huge network of tunnels that runs almost from the castle to the edge of town.
List of London’s Bonfire Night Fireworks for 2010
Time to start planning the annual celebration of the persecution of a Papist plot to kill our Protestant Monarch. Sadly, the burning of effigies seems to be frowned upon now, although a few venues will have bonfires this year.
Spitfire flypast over Central London this Friday
The recital will take place outside the Cabinet War Rooms in Whitehall – and will be followed by a flypast over Whitehall by a Spitfire and a Hurricane at 4pm.
Booking Details for London Open House Weekend 2010
It’s that time of year again as the catalogues are posted out for the London Open House Weekend (18th-19th Sept) and I peer through it for all the juicy properties that need pre-booking when the website goes live on Monday 9th August at 10am.
A room full of ancient scrolls and parchments
Ask most people to draw an outline picture of the Houses of Parliament, and often you will get long oblong with “Big Ben” at one end. Most will not include the huge tower that is at the other end of the Palace – as it is rarely featured in photos, or when it is, perspective makes it look quite insignificant. Despite being taller and much larger than the Clock Tower, it seems to have almost had a cloak of invisibility cast over it.
Coming Soon – Guided Tours of Aldwych Tube Station
The Evening Standard may have leaked this a day or two early as the LT Museum booking office hasn’t had the full details confirmed yet – but there will be guided tours of the disused Aldwych tube station later this month running from 24th-26th September.
Take a trip in a 1938 tube train
Unexpected – as the poor thing has been rather ill recently – but the lovingly restored 1938 era tube train will be taking trips along the tube network in a couple of weeks time, and you can be on it.
Even More Photos of a Deserted London is at number 2 after less than four days? Blimey.
I love how wonderfully eclectic this list is.
The Christmas Day photos got a TON of traffic from Reddit and several other websites almost as soon as they were published, hence the unusually high position in the list.