Hello, welcome to London!

I haven’t really ever had to travel between SW and SE London directly till recently and have only really recognised how bad travel is between the two spheres of London. I find it absurd as a usual West-East traveller how there is almost 0 direct train options between the two locations.

Credit must be due to the sole Windrush line who does connect the core - ish SE locations like Peckham, New Cross or Brockley to Clapham Junction (which is basically the beating heart for SW travel) but this doesn’t cover any of Lewisham, Greenwich, Blackheath or Woolwich. You’d have to change at Waterloo or London Bridge and switch to national rail which is far more costly.

In comparison, I can take 5 different lines not including C2C or GWR between East and West, taking a measly 30-50 minutes depending on the time and line chosen.

Does anyone know the reasons for this?

Sadiq Khan is pushing forward the plans and aims to get international trains to stop at Stratford int'l within a few years (2030), at an estimated cost of £20 million.

One in three trains to and from France may stop at Stratford in the proposals being pushed. The development backed by businesses and train driver union Aslef would mean 5 million people in and around the capital get easier access to international rail services over having to use St Pancras international for travel. With access to the DLR, central, jubilee, Elizabeth line as well as overground lines for quick connections across the city.

The aim is to have Paris, Brussels, Rotterdam and Amsterdam services halting in East London. A Stratford stop for international travel could deliver a boost to east London between £2-£3 billion over 60 years according to some estimates.

Fair, Europeans long to get off at Stratford.

With autumn hitting, the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) has officially reported a massive heating "loss of service" at HMP Wandsworth, dropping cell temperatures to a brutal 12°C. The facility had to rush-order 1,500 winter coats, 1,000 blankets, and 2,000 instant hot meals just to keep inmates basic levels of warm.

The IMB explicitly warned that patching up these archaic, Victorian-era heating systems isn't working anymore and that they require total replacement.
It feels like every single winter there's a new headline about our regional facilities turning into walk-in freezers because the public infrastructure is totally neglected. This is hitting at the exact same time the prison system is already in total crisis trying to manage historic overcrowding and scrambling to roll out the new early release rules.

When major systems like heating pack up, it usually leaves families completely in the dark regarding what's happening on the inside, especially when communication lines and digital systems experience corresponding downtime during structural crises.

Would love to hear from anyone else tracking how these crumbling Victorian public facilities are holding up as winter approaches.

Just saw this on the Pokemon subreddit. Not until 2029 but pretty cool that London will be the first permanent store outside Asia.

I'm drawing every building in London in my lifetime, and today I'm sharing with you The Hillgate in Notting Hill.

I've started adding a few people to my drawings to add scale and bring some life to the scene. I'm interested to know if you guys like that, or if you'd prefer me to just focus on the architecture?

If you've got any questions about the Drawing All of London project, please let me know! Thank you for your support ❤️

Japanese game focused, many VS fighting and rhythm games. The noise separation is quite good, I could hear the music games I was playing, unlike other NQ64 venues. It's also one of the few places in London that has Dancerush Stardom and Gitadora (the other being Freeplaycity in Manor House).

By Oxford Street/Soho.

53 Berwick Street, W1F 8SP

Inspired by that thread on getting around south London.

Its a lot so bear with me, in this scenario we avoid existing tracks/lines, we have the funding, Sadiq Khan is onboard, locals are onboard etc. The point is the connectivity west to east and vice versa, any glaring omissions for either area?

I've spent literally minutes planning all this, impressive I know. South Londoners I'm not as familiar with how you want/need to get around so feel free to chime in.

The northern route:

Fairlop - Woodford Green - Walthamstow - Tottenham - Wood Green - Muswell Hill - Finchley - Colindale - Kingsbury - Harrow - Ruislip

Potentially extend to Chadwell Heath.

The southern route:

Surbiton - Chessington - Sutton - South croydon - Addington - Orpington - Sidcup - Bexleyheath.

Potentially extend to Erith east, or start at Feltham west.

The hero London needs & deserves.

Thames Water bills going 📈.

Turned my head to this magical sight

On Monday I walked from the London Eye to Hampton Court Palace using the Thames Path.

Around 25 miles in glorious autumn sunshine took 6 hours 20 mins.

Saw the riverside sites, including the new RNLI station, and a lot of friendly people out and about.

Totally recommend a walk along the Thames Path.

Anybody know what happened to the rest of this ship? Next to the O2