Thames Flood Barrier

Website: http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/floods/38353.aspx

Yesterday I went on an adventure with ABJ to the Thames Flood Barrier. I visited Thames Barrier Park on the north of the river a few years ago and have always wanted to come back and find out more about it. Since I've mainly lived in west London and the barrier is in east London I've never got around to it. Until yesterday...

We got the train from Charing Cross to Charlton station and then, AtoZ in hand, headed for the river. We found the Thames Path and got out first glimpse of the futuristic looking barrier: We approached and arrived at an ominous tunnel that went underneath through the barrier before we found outselves next to a map of the Thames river. The map showed all the towns the river past through as well as all the bridges that cross it:We continued on through a pleasant picnic area/playground to the Information Centre. There was a nice view of the barrier and across the river to the Tate&Lyle sugar factory:
We bought our inexpensive tickets at the cafe and then went downstairs to learn about why the barrier was built and how it works. It turns out that under very specific (fairly rare) circumstances London is at risk of flooding due to a freakishly high water level on the Thames:To ensure that London is safe from flooding the Thames Barrier was built. Its construction lasted 8 years in the 1970s and 80s and we watched a retro documentary about how they built it. It was an impressively epic project that required precision engineering and complicated constructions. Each tower of the barrier is based on a deep foundation of concrete that was dug into man-made holes in the riverbed.

When the barrier is activated a curved barrier is raised from the riverbed and held up against the incoming tide:
This (impressively) keeps the normal tidal level upstream while keeping the unusually high tides "safely downstream". When the barrier is up the nice picnic area and playground outside becomes flooded.We learnt about how floods happen and how bad the flood was in 1953 which spurred people to build good flood defenses. There was a fun "Countdown to Closure" panel where you could listen to the kinds of conversations that go back and forth between the managers of the barrier and the MET office etc during the 48 hours prior to closing the barrier.

Somewhat disconcertingly the final information panels explained how climate change might still put London at risk of flooding over the next 100 years (despite the best efforts of the existing barrier!).

We eventually finished at the information centre and, since it was a nice sunny day, decided to walk to Thames Barrier Park on the north side. This involved following the Thames Path to the free Woolwich ferry and then continuing on the north side to the park. On the way there was lots of opportunity for arty photos:
We passed a Chinese cash'n'carry:
and came close to the imposingly massive Tate&Lyle sugar factory:before finally arriving at the excellent Barrier Park: This well-maintained park offered some more good views of the barrier from the other side and was full of people relaxing in the sun. After our hours of walking, however, we decided to head home on the DLR:
Summary: An interesting day out that finally taught me how the Thames Barrier works!

London Duck Tour

Website: http://www.londonducktours.co.uk

Today I went on the London Duck Tour. Tickets have to be booked weeks in advance so, thanks to VB, we were booked in to go today. We turned up early at the official bus stop near Waterloo station:We were soon seated on the bright yellow duck bus. Although the seating was a bit cramped everyone was in high spirits - they were all excited about the unusual tour that awaited them.

The tour was due to start at 1pm so at the appointed time a man climbed on the bus, walked to the front and introduced himself: "Hello, I am Ivan, being your tour leader today. I from my Ukrainian republic. Thank you, please." We all looked disappointed that the tour guide was unable to speak English properly but then he sat down and said "Hi, I'm Nick!" in a fluent English accent.

After a few introductory "Where is everyone from!?" questions, we were on our way. We first learnt that the Borough of Lambeth was named after "the place where lambs birth". We then set off towards Westminster and passed a big protest: The tour guide cracked a lot of good jokes about Big Ben and Boudicca. I was impressed with his knowledge of the different statues on display in Parliament Square and Whitehall.

We passed up through Trafalgar Square: and then drove along Pall Mall (named, apparently, after an old-fashioned croquet-like game called Palle Maille). We were told about the weird things inside all the grand buildings we passed (e.g. a big swimming pool in one of them where the Queen would go swimming). Up next to Piccadilly we passed the Ritz hotel. Apparently Charlie Chaplin once worked here but was fired after sliding down a bannister...

Past Green Park we learnt it was built on a leper cemetery (which is why it's green - the gardeners didn't want to dig down to make any flower beds!). Past Wellington Arch:We went down past Buckingham Palace and through to the river again. We crossed Vauxhall Bridge and approached the imposing MI6 building. This was the unexpected river-entry point. We pulled into a little road just next to MI6 and our road driver got off and our "waterman" got on. Without further delay we were moving forward, speeding down the ramp to the Thames and SPLASH! we floated down into the water:Luckily the water didn't come in through the windows. We chugged along the Thames towards the Houses of Parliament and kept a pace with two canoers: While on the river our tour guide told us some facts and figures about the river (e.g. how many fish species are there, it's history, it's name (from an old Latin word for "dark" since it's so muddy)). It was fun to see the sights from waterlevel and the river-facing decorations:Unfortunately we didn't go any further down than the Houses of Parliament before turning around and leaving the river where we entered. We were soon back on the road and heading back towards where we started. We learnt that the Kinks song "Waterloo Sunset" was written while Ray Davies was recovering in St Thomas' Hospital.

During the ride we attracted a lot of attention from the general public due to our flamboyant vehicle:There was also a few opportunities for some arty photos:
Summary: It's fun to do a tour of the city you live in - even more so in a duck boat. I enjoyed the trip - especially because of the lively jokes from the tour guide.

The Barbican

Website: http://www.barbican.org.uk

Last weekend I spent Saturday evening and Sunday day at the "Do Something Different..." weekend at the Barbican Centre.

I've been to the Barbican once before to see the play A Disappearing Number (well worth seeing) but it's a place that's intrigued me for a long time. It's a strange maze-like place that I've wanted to explore before but never had a chance to.

On Saturday night VB and LT met up after getting lost a few times in the Barbican surroundings. We were there for an evening of "playing games and other fun social events". Our first stop was the East London Cycling Machine:This involved peddaling on a tandem bike while watching a slide show of the creator's trips round east London. The trip I saw went past the Thames flood barrier to some marshes further east. The trip VB and LT did involved a watching the creators eat a full English breakfast... This machine served as a warm up in both body and mind: after it I was a bit exhausted but interested in what other activities there were.

We then went to make wire sculptures:before getting some pens and paper and settling down to play "Paper Telephone". This was a fun game although I think the 5 hours we spent playing it was a little too much...

We left the Barbican after all the events were over and returned at 10.30am on Sunday. This time we'd booked tickets for some of the events and, while we waited for the first one to start, we explored a little bit. We discovered an indoor jungle:The first event of the day was "Make it and race it" which involve creating a balloon-powered vehicle and trying to drive it the furthest distance possible. It was run by two enthusatic people - an artist and an architect. They mistook us for either architects or design students rather than the hodgepodge collection of people we were really. It was very fun making the cars and although my ambitious design for a trio of frictionless wheels didn't work (at all!) it was entertaining to use the glue guns and watch everyone else's designs take form.

After about 2 hours of this we were all exhausted and in need of some lunch. We went to the tasty but expensive cafe on the ground floor to refuel.

The next stop was a huge butterfly chandelier. Everywhere around the chandelier was a sea of babies, cardboard, glitter, pencils, glue sticks, scissors etc etc:
We found a quiet corner and made three butterflies before queuing for ages to get some string to hang them up. My butterfly had a net which contained a caught human:The next stop was a "Family Film Truck" - a lorry with its interior converted into a cinema:
Here we watched a hit-and-miss collection of 6 short children's films. The first one was the best - a silhouette film by Lotte Reiniger called "The Caliph Stork".

We finished the day by listening to "The Big Ukelele Bash" - a rabble of parents and children who had learnt to play "Singing in the Rain" on ukeleles. This was a little disappointing since almost all the children just held their instruments without playing them...After that we were so exhausted from playing all day that we left.

Things I learnt about the Barbican

• It has cinemas and art galleries.
• It was designed to be "like the future".
• It's got a hidden "indoor jungle".
• They hold events like this where they're very generous with their craft materials...

A selection of the architectureSummary: The weekend of (main free!) events was fun and I'll have to keep an eye on other things the Barbican has to offer.

Dickens House Museum

Website: http://www.dickensmuseum.com

Today I visited the Dickens House Museum near Russell Square. I'd seen the signpost in Russell Square pointing to the mysterious Dickens House Museum for years before but only managed to visit it today.

The museum is at 48 Doughty Street, a house where famed author Charles Dickens lived. His career was just taking off when he lived here and it was here that he wrote Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nichleby before moving house to a bigger place after he'd become rich.

To enter the museum you have to ring a doorbell and be buzzed in. I entered, walked through to the rear of the house and bought my £4 student ticket in the shop. I was told that the exhibition was in no particular order and I should just wander around.

First stop was the dining room at the front of the ground floor: This is apparently where Charles Dickens hosted hundreds of fun dinner parties with famous actors and writers of the day. There were lots of pieces of furniture he owned on display (including, for example, two monogrammed knife holders). I've only read two Dickens stories so I wasn't sure if I was under-prepared for a museum about him. As it turned out, the museum focussed fairly squarely on his life and not so much on his works.

The next room had a lot of portraits and photographs of Dickens and his family. He had 9 children and an affair - quite an eventful family life... There was an interesting sequence of about 20 photos showing Dickens from young to old. There was also an interesting stereographic image of him which I tried to view (unsuccessfully) in 3D:After this room I went to the first floor for a quick look around. Here I learnt that Dickens wrote so quickly that he didn't have time to plan the plots in detail - he just figured it out as he went. I also learnt that his books were first published in monthly instalments:These monthly instalments are prized by collectors and it sounded like the stories were written month-by-month, sometimes having reader's comments incorporated into the plots. Some "desk furniture" that he used was on display and included a china monkey which was one of Dickens's favourite pieces:I had a quick glance at the front study before rushing down to the basement to catch the start of a half hour long film about the life of Charles Dickens. I learnt that when he was about 10 years old his family fell into bad debt and were put in a debtor's prison. He got a job in a factory labelling boot dye and went to visit them in prison. It sounded pretty grim but, or so the film suggested, it was these bad experiences that enabled him to write such great stories.

He was first published under the pseudonym Boz before writing for a newspaper and then publishing the Pickwick Papers. These became a great success and he became famous. He kept up a high output of work and, by the time he died, was hailed as a national hero.

After the film I looked at the top floor but I was getting a little bit tired of the museum. All the information was written in little snippets around the walls - it was quite an effort to put the whole story together. Important pieces of information were just as prominent as dull/unimportant pieces (e.g. "This clock belonged to a friend of Charles Dickens" vs "Dickens campaigned for...").

One highlight I suppose was seeing his Reading Table. This was carefully preserved in a dimly lit room and was designed by Dickens himself. He used it in public readings of his work which he was paid enormous amounts of money for.I took a brief look outside at the nice garden before leaving.Summary: Interesting bits of history about the life and times of Charles Dickens. Could do with some more general introductory material. Makes you realise that people who achieve great success almost always work really really hard to do so.

The list (number six)

Here's an updated list with a few items crossed-out and a few added:

• Tour round Buckingham Palace
• Go up the BT Tower for the view
  
• Cycle around Richmond park
• Sneak into the fancy hotels - Hilton, Savoy etc
• Go to all the museums in London
• Go to all the major art museums in London
  
• Have a drink in the ice-bar off Regent Street
• Do the sing-along sound of music at the Prince Charles cinema
  
• Watch a film at the Electric cinema in Notting Hill
• Watch a film at a Leicester Square cinema
• Watch an IMAX film near Waterloo
• Go to a casino
• Explore the new O2 centre at the Millennium Dome
• Tour round the BBC TV centre and BBC Broadcasting House
• Watch a live, well-attended debate in Parliament (e.g. Prime Ministers questions)
• Go out for an artsy night out in the east-end.
• Shop at Petticoat Lane market
• Go on the rides at the London dungeons
• Sit in on a Sotheby's auction
• Eat at a traditional pie 'n' mash shop
• Tour round Lord's cricket ground
• Tour round Wembley stadium
• Go to the London wetland centre
• Visit Chelsea Physic Garden
• Get into London fashion week
• Tour around City Hall
• Tour around Tower Bridge
• Go to the tennis at Wimbledon
• See some plays
• Ride home in a rickshaw
• Eat at some famous restaurants
• Visit the hidden-away nature reserve behind St. Pancras station
• Visit a big mosque, big synagogue, other big places of worship
  
• Use an "isolation tank" near London Bridge
• Get a free Hare Krishna vegetarian meal
• Go to the the Jazz Cafe in Camden
• Go to some jazz club I've heard about in Soho
• Eat a meal in one of the touristy Leicester square steak houses
• Tour around Battersea power station
• Explore Heathrow Terminal 5
• Tour round Albert Hall and Albert Memorial
• Tour round Chiswick's Fuller's brewery
• Tour round Wandsworth's Young's Brewery
  
• Eat at the restaurant at the top of Tate Modern
• Visit an exhibition at Earls Court and Kensington Olympia
• Visit a city farm
• Tour round Thames barrier
• Visit a talk at the National Geographical Society

Tour round BBC Broadcasting House

Website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/tours/details/details_bh.shtml

Today I went on a tour around BBC Broadcasting House. Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera with me.

To go on a tour you have to book in advance so I already had my £4.40 student ticket with me when I set off. I arrived just before my 2.10pm tour and was told to take a seat with the other people in the group. I sat in the plush waiting area and started to look through the BBC in-house magazine: Ariel. One particularly interesting story was by a novelist trying to encourage the BBC to do more to promote science. He said "I know only a tiny bit of science and nobody holds it against me... Maybe they should". Well... I hold it against you. But anyway...

At the start time for the tour we were welcomed by our two tour guides: Sarah and Adrian. They checked us off a list and then got us to write our names on a sheet of paper "in case there is an evacuation". We were then taken back outside by Adrian and stood on the steps of All Souls Church to face the Broadcasting House building.

He ran through the history of the nice art-deco building from it's official opening in 1932 to the present redevelopment. Above the main entrance stands a prominent statue of Ariel and Prospero from the Shakespeare play the Tempest:This was sculpted by Eric Gill (who also made the typeface for the current BBC logo: Gill Sans) and there were suggestions that it was really depicting God and Son. The sculptor apparently told people that there was a secret in the work that would not be discovered until the building was knocked down. Well, too bad for him but during some restoration work they put a camera behind the statue of Prospero and found a hidden carving of a woman's face. Weird.The building has been likened to a top hat (with the rim being the pavement) or a ship sailing down Regent Street.

We finished looking at the outside and then went back to reception. Here we got to see the original octagonal BBC logo made as a mosaic in the floor. Originally the BBC stood for British Broadcasting Company before it became British Broadcasting Corporation. I'm not too clear on the difference. We then set off through security, to the toilets and then on our way...

First stop was the Radio Theatre. This sits in the centre of the building with offices wrapped around its outside. In the past few years it's been renovated to make it more accessible. This involved raising the floor by about 2 metres. We all sat in theatre-style seats and looked at the stage which had a few plain chairs on it. Everywhere microphones and speakers hung from the ceiling. We were told that most radio shows are pre-recorded now and a lot of them are recorded in the Radio Theatre. We saw a photo of the theatre being used as a bomb shelter during World War II - with men and women separated by a big curtain at night time. The building was actually hit by a bomb in WWII during a news announcement...

The next stop was by the (renovated but original) lifts. Here we saw a huge tapestry that had been given to the BBC by France to honour the BBC for it's help to the French resistance. We then visited the plush Council Chamber where all the BBC's decisions are made.

We then took the stairs up to some recording studios. This was my first time inside a recording studio and I was impressed. Although it wasn't as flashy as I'd imagined (if anything it was a bit cramped when all our group was in there) it looked like it was used by people who know how to do their job well. The walls were designed to avoid reverberating sounds and there were synchronised clocks everywhere you looked so people can announce the correct time-check on air. The studio we were in is where "Woman's Hour" and "You and Yours" are recorded. We visited another recording studio (where "Poetry Please" is recorded) before arriving at a bigger studio that had a piano and "enough space for a small orchestra".

We then went to the top of the building and out onto a little roof terrace. This was really nice and had a fantastic view. We were told about how the BBC was in Phase One of the redevelopment of the area. This included, for example, a Persian and Arabic broadcasting building next door. Unfortunately it began to rain so we went back inside and were told in more detail about the "Breathing Sculpture" on the roof:This was made as a memorial to all the journalists and crew that have been killed in war-reporting. The text that spirals down the cone says:

life turns and turns on the crystal glass
breathing in our body

silence is a voice, our voice
silence is a body, our body

life turns and turns on the crystal glass
breathing in our body

I invite you to breathe
I invite you to listen to the silence

We then went down to the most fun part of the tour. Our group got to record a mini radio drama. Six volunteers were chosen to either read parts of a script or do electronic or physical sound-effects (e.g. corks popping or gongs bonging). The story of the drama was about a couple breaking down on a dark country road and walking to a spooky country house for help. The butler ominously welcomes them in, gives them champagne and then says "It's time for dinner... and the dinner is YOU!".

We watched them perform it and then listened to it again. It sounded impressively professional on the played back version - apart from some mix-ups with the sound effects and some badly delivered lines. The star of the show was the "Annoucer/Butler" played by a deep-voiced German man. He sounded very professional and really delivered his lines well.

We then returned to the reception, returned our customer satisfaction forms and departed.

Summary: Very interesting - would recommend to anyone who's ever listened to the BBC radio stations.

The ice bar off Regent Street

Website: http://www.belowzerolondon.com/icebar

Last night TF and I visited the Absolut Ice Bar on Heddon Street. We both tried to go there a few years ago but were turned away because we hadn't booked in advance. This time we were successful.

Our reserved timeslot was from 9.30pm to 10.10pm. We arrived at the chaotic queue just before 9.30pm and bought two tickets for £12.50 each. We joined a queue/holding area with our fellow drinkers and then - at 9.30 - the bouncers started letting people in.

Before entering you stand in front of a bouncer, they take a fur-lined insulating cape off a hook, raise it above your head and shove it down over you like you're a foot going into a sock. You're then ushered into the Ice Bar...

The "air-lock" is lined with fur and when you emerge into the bar it's like stepping into another world. The air is cold, the light is funky blue, the music throbs and everywhere you look the ice gleams.
Giddy with the novelty of the bar we didn't know what to do. We had a closer look at the ice. All the walls were made from ice, there were "tables" and "seats" made from huge blocks of clear ice (the seats had fur on top) and even the bar was made of ice. Apparently the ice is all transported from the Torne River in Jukkasjarvi, Sweden. It certainly was nice to look at - with natural fissures and air-pockets:Slowly we realised the bar was getting busy. Our tickets entitled us to one drink so we shoved our way to the front and chose some cocktails from the menu:I had a Absolute Red Garnet which was quite nice. The drinks were served in an ice "glass" which became very cold to hold as the 40 minutes went on. Luckily our capes came with a pair of gloves attached on elastic.
As we drank our cocktails we walked around the room and I was a little disappointed that it wasn't as big as I'd imagined. I got the (accurate) impression that the room was just like a big freezer - like a meat locker turned drinking venue.

We took lots of photos of each other posing with the ice and watched everyone else taking lots of photos too. The other 20 or so people were all young and looked like they were out for a big night even though it was a Wednesday.

After a while of trying to look through the walls or chip the drinks glasses into pieces we got a bit bored and cold. We built the finished glasses up into a pyramid:
Extra drinks cost £6 each so we gave them a miss. It turned out that 40 minutes in the ice bar was about the right amount of time - any longer would have been a chore. At 10.10pm we were told to leave and, after having our capes quickly stripped off, we stepped out into the normal world again.

Summary: A magical but expensive experience.