Your carriage awaitsFancy a look at the tube carriage of the future? Over the next few years TfL are introducing new trains on the Metropolitan, Circle, and Hammersmith & City and District lines, and this week you're invited to take a look inside. A big marquee containing a prototype carriage has been erected on the grass outside Euston station, and it's there until Thursday. Pop along and you can watch videos, chat to staff and ...

Grid London - Lessons LearnedAfter four days in Grid London's non-existent alternate universe, what have we learned?1) You hate change.I went on a "Change Management" training course at work once, where I was told the bleeding obvious by a smile in a dress. However, this week I've completely ignored the bleeding obvious and imposed change mysteriously, suddenly and without explanation. One minute there was a normal London-based eclectic blog (in grey), and the next I ...

I saw this report in the paper so I've cut and pasted it here.See what you think.Big Bang threatens Doomsday for House PricesEuro scientists will today switch on an untested nuclear gizmo which could destroy the British property market. If plans to recreate the Big Bang are successful, mini black holes could ripple outwards from the Swiss countryside consuming everything in their path. These dangerous atomic experiments are the biggest threat to British house prices ...

Damn, September already. Back to work, back to school, back to routine, back to run of the mill, back to overcoats, back to mist, back to disturbingly early sunsets, back to the preliminary fringes of bloody Christmas. But never fear, because September's a great month for getting out and joining in with events in London. It's like the capital's Chief Scheduler has decreed a last flurry of activities and happenings before the frost rolls in ...

Just another tube journey home, rattling steadily eastwards, and I'm slouching at the end of the carriage reading the paper. The train's not packed - it must be August - but otherwise it's an entirely unremarkable journey. At Bethnal Green the doors swish open and a few people storm off onto the platform, hurrying escalatorward. The train pauses, and those of us still aboard wait for the doors to close so that our journey can ...

High Street 20125) WHITECHAPELVallance Rd to tube stationThe area either side of Whitechapel tube station really ought to be called Whitechapel High Street. It has all the credentials. Busy shops, a thriving street market, fast food, historic pubs and a Crossrail interchange slap bang in the middle [photo]. But no, this is still just the Whitechapel Road, deemed historically less important by its greater distance from the City. Now very much a Bangladeshi-oriented thoroughfare, but ...

High Street 20121) ALDGATE (EAST)Middlesex St to Commercial StAldgate's where London changes. To the west the towering blocks of the City, loaded with hard-won wealth and insurance money. And to the east, well, absolutely nothing like that at all. Aldgate's like a financial fault line across the capital, dividing the cufflinked from the unemployed and the well-heeled from the trainered. It's no accident that London's Olympic marathon will run round the western Aldgate roundabout twice, ...

Service updates Bakerloo BAKERLOO LINE: Minor delays are occurring due to a twat overheating and pressing the alarm button at Lambeth North. Central CENTRAL LINE: Good service (we recommend Holy Communion at St Paul's) Circle CIRCLE LINE: Suspended, under the Trade Descriptions Act, for being squashed and elongated. District DISTRICT LINE: Minor delays are occurring due to a misplaced apostrophe at St Jame's Park. East London EAST LONDON LINE: The line is closed to enable ...

I fear Britain's national meal is changing.Not so long ago, Britain's national meal was probably roast dinner. Roast beef, most likely, sliced thinly and served up with plump roast potatoes and various spoonfuls of veg, all covered in thick brown gravy with a dollop of horseradish on the side. The perfect roast beef dinner would be served up by Lynda Bellingham, or an OXO-crumbling Mum very much like her, and ladled out every Sunday to ...