'Danger Mouse' Blue Plaque

"He's the greatest, he's fantastic, wherever there is danger he'll be there. 

He's the ace, he's amazing, he's the strongest, he's the quickest, he's the best."

The home of Danger Mouse.

Friday June 24, 2022.

I had heard rumours that a Blue Plaque had been affixed to a pillar box, in London, showing where Danger Mouse lived. So, off we went.

Danger Mouse's Blue Plaque.

The Metropolitan Line

 

Metropolitan 1 steam locomotive, celebrating 150 years of the Met line, in 2018.

Living in Watford, which is the largest town in Hertfordshire, I have access to excellent transport links to London, as well as other areas of the country. Just 16 miles from Central London I have a choice of National Rail, London Overground services or Transport for London's Metropolitan line service. It is the latter that I invariably use.

Trains at Watford Metropolitan station awaiting the morning rush hour.

The Metropolitan line station is just a 15 minute walk from my home and will get me to central London in just 40 minutes. I can also change to a different line like the Jubilee, while enroute, and end up in east London in a little over an hour.

Watford Metropolitan station decorated in celebration of 150 years.

As this is the line that I most commonly use, and it being the first of its kind in the world, I thought I would do a blog about its history.

Woolwich Foot Tunnel

 

The south entrance to the Woolwich foot tunnel.

Of the roughly 40 tunnels beneath the River Thames, the majority of which carry utilities, railway lines and motor vehicles, only three allow pedestrians to use them: The Greenwich foot tunnel, the Woolwich foot tunnel and the Rotherhithe tunnel, although the latter is not advisable, unless you want to look like a chimney sweep and breathe in noxious fumes.

Friday June 3, 2022

I finally managed to get myself to Woolwich, so that I could walk through the foot tunnel, leaving only the Rotherhithe Tunnel for me to walk through.

It was a beautiful morning as Keilyn and I made our way along the Thames Path from North Greenwich to Woolwich, taking in the sights and atmosphere of the four-day Jubilee weekend.

With lots of building work going on along the River Thames, at Woolwich, the entrance to the foot tunnel was difficult to locate, at first, being sited behind the Waterfront Leisure Centre.

Once we discovered the entrance, which is the oldest remaining building in the riverside area, we made our way down the 94 steps of the spiral staircase to the tunnel itself.

The lift shaft in the south entrance.

Once we reached the tunnel we began the walk towards the north bank. There were few pedestrians using the tunnel, but there were plenty of cyclists, disobeying the rules by cycling through the tunnel. 

Looking back towards the south entrance.

Platinum Jubilee Flypast

Thursday June 2, 2022

Our plan to watch the flypast from Green Park was scuppered by the sheer volume of people that had descended on London, so we headed to Waterloo Bridge. 

This vantage point offered us an unobstructed view of the flypast as it approached Westminster from the east.

Below are some photos of the 70 aircraft that took part.

A Wildcat and two Merlin.

A Wildcat and three Apache.

A Wildcat and three Merlin.

Three Puma and three Chinook.

A Lancaster, two Spitfire and two Hurricane (Battle of Britain Memorial Flight).