Tag Archives: Transport

Inside the echo chamber: the nasty side of Facebook’s traffic jam groups

Posted on January 20, 2021 by Alex Grant

In 2019 the New Statesman reported how local history groups on Facebook – normally innocent networks where older people swap yellowing photographs and reminiscence about the good old days – have a darker side, sometimes acting as a magnet for … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Why the new London Bridge station doesn’t deserve to win the Stirling Prize

Posted on July 28, 2019 by Alex Grant

News that the redeveloped London Bridge station has been shortlisted for the 2019 Stirling Prize will be treated with bemusement by many of its commuters. The reconstruction began in 2013 and was all but finished in 2017. It was officially … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Victoria’s secret: how a carbuncle got away with it

Posted on September 8, 2017 by Alex Grant

Building Design magazine’s awarding of its Carbuncle Cup for this year’s worst new building to Nova, a new office and retail development around the corner from London’s Victoria Station, sets off predictable reactions. How could it have been built? Who … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Northampton, a town that needs to grow up and become a city

Posted on July 6, 2017 by Alex Grant

There are few pleasures like exploring an unfamiliar town on foot for the first time. A new series of posts on this website, In Praise of Ordinary Places, looks at Middle England towns that are overlooked by tourists (Oxford, Bath and Stratford-upon-Avon … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Think out-of-town shopping centres are a thing of the past? Take a look at Rushden Lakes and despair

Posted on December 4, 2016 by Alex Grant

The river Nene – the slowest-flowing river in England, and its tenth-longest – meanders through Northamptonshire past water meadows and dozens of former gravel pits, long ago flooded and now a nationally important habitat for wetland birds. Northamptonshire’s an underrated … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

The supporters of new roads across the Thames are stuck in the past. Without rail links they’d be a disaster for east London

Posted on December 4, 2014 by Alex Grant

The new road link would, the experts say, create a “corridor of opportunity”. It would “relieve congestion”, “improve accessibility” and “be of inestimable benefit to the capital”. It will, one supporter argues, “take longer-distance traffic off the existing main roads… … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments